Macleod Savings & Credit Union

Privacy

Our philosophy on privacy

On January 1, 2004 new privacy laws governing credit unions and other businesses came into force. Credit unions in Canada have a long history of respecting the privacy of their customers. As a member owned financial institution, we are committed to maintaining policies, procedures and service offerings that protect your privacy.

Our commitment means we will protect your privacy and respect your right to have a say in how we use and disclose your personal information. We have procedures in place that guide our employees in maintaining confidentiality. What has been our ongoing business practice has become our documented commitment to you.

In order to comply with new privacy laws, your credit union Board of Directors has adopted the Credit Union Code for the Protection of Personal Information, established related Policies and Procedures and appointed a Privacy Officer. Our employees understand the importance of the policies and procedures and follow them carefully.

To find out more, read our Privacy Code, or contact our Privacy Officer.

Your Personal Information

What is personal information?

Personal information is information about an identifiable individual. This includes, for example: an individual's race, ethnic origin, colour, age, marital status, religion, education, medical information, employment history, financial records, address, telephone number, e-mail address, and Social Insurance Number.

Why do we collect it?

We hold personal information about members to help us meet and maintain the highest standards of financial service. This information can include your name, address, age, income, use of accounts and credit history.

We obtain this information from you directly, and from the product and service arrangements you have made with or through us. Information is also obtained with your permission from credit bureaus, other financial institutions and from the references you provide us.

Your personal information may be collected, used or disclosed for one or more of the following purposes:

To meet regulatory and legal requirements;
To establish your identification;
To protect you from illegal activity;
To determine the suitability of products and services to you, and your eligibility for products and services (including determining your eligibility for credit on an ongoing basis with other credit suppliers and credit reporting agencies);
To operate and administer products and services which you have requested, including providing information to related service providers involved in the operation and administration of those services on behalf of us;
To provide you with information or advice on products and services that may be of interest to you (whether you currently have a product or service with us);
To conduct research to assist us in designing products and services, and determining products and services that may be of interest to you, and to obtain your feedback on current products and services;
To disclose information to third parties in connection with the ongoing management of our assets (including the assignment or sale of loans), and the further subsequent collection, use or disclosure of that information by those third parties and any of their agents or assignees for the purpose of managing those assets.
To provide ombudsman or mediation services to address concerns with credit union products or services raised by you.

(A related service supplier is a third party supplier of financial services available through your credit union. We only deal with suppliers that have agreed to meet our standards of privacy protection).

Your SIN

The law requires us to ask for your Social Insurance Number (SIN) when you open an interest bearing account. We may also ask for your SIN to identify you with credit bureaus and other financial institutions for credit matching purposes. Using the SIN is the best way to ensure the credit information actually refers to you, but you may withdraw your consent to this use of your SIN and still obtain loans from us.

Who do we share your personal information with?

We use trusted and reputable suppliers to provide cheque and statement printing, data processing, research and payment clearing services. We provide them with only that information which is necessary to perform the required services. They are not allowed to use this information for any other purpose than what we contract them for. Our suppliers and their employees are required to protect your information in a manner that is consistent with our Privacy Code.

How can you access and verify your personal information?

You have the right to review your personal information held by Macleod Savings & Credit Union Ltd and to verify its accuracy. To gain access to this information, contact us at 1 403 625 2179. You can expect that it will take 10 days for us to gather the information. You will be charged a fee of $25.00 to cover the expense of providing you with the information.

Should you discover upon review of your personal information that changes are required, please inform us.

The 10 Principles

The following is a summary of the 10 Principles of the Credit Union Code for the Protection of Personal Information.

Accountability We have designated a Privacy Officer who is accountable for our compliance with the principles of the Code.
Identifying Purposes When we ask you for personal information, we will identify the purposes for which it will be used or disclosed.
Consent We require your knowledge and express or complied consent for the collection, use or disclosure of personal information.
Limiting Collection The collection of personal information is limited to the purposes we have identified for you.
Limiting Use, Disclosure, and Retention We will use or disclose your personal information only with your express or implied consent, or as required by law. We will retain your information for only as long as is necessary to fulfill identified purposes.
Accuracy We will keep your information accurate, complete and up-to-date as is necessary for the purposes for which it is to be used.
Safeguards We will protect your personal information with appropriate security safeguards.
Openness We will make specific, understandable information readily available to you about our personal information policies and practices.
Individual Access When you request it, we will give you access to your personal information, how we use it and who we disclose it to. You are entitled to question its accuracy, its completeness and its uses.
Challenging Compliance You are entitled to question the Privacy Officer about our compliance with any of these principles.

Privacy Code

Click here for the Privacy Code

The Privacy Officer

The Privacy Officer is your point of contact if you wish to raise any matters regarding the use of your personal information.

The Privacy Officer is responsible for monitoring information collection and data security, and ensures that other credit union employees receive appropriate training on privacy issues and their responsibilities under the Code.

The Privacy Officer also handles all privacy inquiries and personal information access requests under the Code.

Your consent

Before we collect, use, or disclose your personal information we will obtain your consent to the purposes that we ordinarily use this information for to provide you service.

We will obtain your consent in writing when you become a credit union member, or if we need information for a new purpose.

If you are currently a member we may possess personal information about you that we collected prior to implementation of our Privacy Code, for which we do not have your express consent to use. We will continue to use that information for the purposes listed, unless you ask us to stop using information for a specified purpose.

From time to time we may also rely on your implied consent to collect, use or disclose personal information, but we will only do this is in cases where it is reasonable to assume your consent in connection with a service you are using.

We do not sell your personal information to third parties, or use it in any way we have not disclosed to you.

The attached Restriction of Consent Form provides you with an opportunity to limit the uses and disclosures of your personal information should you choose to do so. You may limit or withdraw your consent at any time, subject to legal or contractual obligations. For example, your credit union is required by law to provide a record of your interest income on accounts to the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, so you may not withdraw consent to the use of your Social Insurance Number for that purpose.

To withdraw your consent, print and fill out the attached Restriction of Consent Form and send it to the Macleod Savings & Credit Union’s Privacy Officer at:

Macleod Savings & Credit Union Ltd
Box 1659
Claresholm AB T0L 0T0

Attention: Privacy Officer

Website privacy policy

On our website, we collect only personal information that is required to improve the services we offer, to improve our site content and, with your permission, to contact you with information about our services. We will not share any personal information obtained on this web site with any other organization without your express knowledge and consent.

You can visit all public areas of our site without providing any personal information. Our site collects only non-personal information based on a visitor’s Internet Protocol (IP) address (this is not personally identifiable). Information collected includes the date and time of visit, the type of Internet browser used to access the site, the referring address (the link a visitor uses to access the site). This data is used to create statistics on site usage and improve online services.

If you send us an e-mail, any information provided by you will be used only for the purposes of responding to your inquiry or acting on your request. We will not use your name or e-mail address for any other purposes without additional consent.

Links to other Web sites

Our web site contains links to other web sites that are part of, affiliated with, or have a business relationship with Macleod Savings & Credit Union Ltd. When you leave our site to visit one of these other sites, the only information transferred to the new site is the fact that you came from the Macleod Savings & Credit Union web site (the referring address). Transmission of this referring address allows other sites to monitor their own web traffic, but does not disclose any personal information about you.

Challenging compliance

If you have any concerns about how your personal information is handled or distributed, please contact us. Our Privacy Officer will be pleased to discuss your concerns with you.

If, for any reason, you feel your concerns were not appropriately addressed, you may then take the matter to the Alberta Privacy Commissioner.