The Credit Union is committed to ensuring the confidentiality and privacy and protecting the personal information of all members and other individuals whose personal information is held or controlled by the Credit Union.

The Credit Union will designate a Privacy Officer and an alternate to oversee the protection of personal information in compliance with the BC Financial Institutions Act, the BC Personal Information Protection Act, and the Credit Union’s privacy policies and practices.

The Credit Union will develop policies and practices necessary for compliance with the Personal Information Protection Act and a process to respond to complaints that may arise, and make information available on request about the policies and practices and the complaint process.

The Credit Union will obtain consent for the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information, except in circumstances permitted by the Personal Information Protection Act or other law.

The Credit Union will not, as a condition of providing a product or service, require an individual to consent to the collection, use, or disclosure of personal information beyond what is necessary to provide the product or service.

The Credit Union will obtain express written or oral consent to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information, except in circumstances when the Personal Information Protection Act authorizes the collection, use, or disclosure without consent or deems the collection, use, or disclosure to be consented to.

Implied consent may be relied on when the purpose would be considered obvious to a reasonable person and the individual voluntarily provides the personal information for that purpose.

The Credit Union may obtain consent to collect, use, or disclose personal information for specified purposes, if the Credit Union sends notice to the individual that it intends to collect, use, or disclose personal information for those specified purposes and gives the individual a reasonable opportunity to decline to have the personal information collected, used, or disclosed for those purposes, the individual does not decline the collection, use, or disclosure for those purposes, and the collection, use or disclosure is reasonable having regard to the sensitivity of the personal information in the circumstances.

An individual may withdraw consent at any time, subject to legal or contractual restrictions, provided that reasonable notice of withdrawal of consent is given to the Credit Union. On receipt of notice of withdrawal of consent, the Credit Union will inform the individual of the likely consequences of the withdrawal of consent, which may include the inability of the Credit Union to provide certain products or services, if the information is necessary to provide the products and services.

When collecting information, the Credit Union will state the purpose of collection and provide on request the position or title and contact information for an officer who can answer the individual’s questions about the collection.

The Credit Union will limit the collection of information to information that is necessary to provide a product or service or that is necessary for the purpose consented to by the individual or to information otherwise permitted to be collected by the Personal Information Protection Act or other law.

The Credit Union will not use personal information for purposes other than those for which it was collected, except with the consent of the member or as required or authorized by law.

The Credit Union will not disclose personal information for purposes other than those for which it was collected, except with the consent of the member, the account holder, or other individual or as required or authorized by law. When disclosing personal information the Credit Union will take all reasonable steps to protect the interests of its members and other individuals.

The Credit Union may share personal information with its subsidiaries and other carefully selected organizations with the consent of the member or as required or authorized by law.

Member and account holder information, such as copies of statements, transaction slips, and account agreements, will be provided upon request. The Credit Union may charge a fee for doing so. For other information, upon written request, the Credit Union will provide the individual with the personal information under the control of the Credit Union, information about the ways in which the personal information requested has been and is being used, and the names of individuals and organizations to whom the personal information requested has been disclosed. The Credit Union may charge a minimal, fee for providing information. The Credit Union will provide an estimate of the fee upon receiving the access to information request. The Credit Union may require a deposit for all or part of the fee.

The Credit Union will assist individuals to complete an access to information request to ensure that the information wanted or needed is provided accurately, completely, and promptly. An applicant may be required to provide sufficient information to permit the Credit Union to provide an account of the existence, use, and disclosure of personal information it holds. The additional information provided will only be used for this purpose.

The Credit Union may not provide information that it is not required to disclose and will not disclose information that it is required not to disclose by law, such as information that would reveal the identity of another individual without his or her consent.

The Credit Union will endeavour to respond to an access to information request within 30 days. If additional time is required because sufficient detail has not been provided by the applicant, a large amount of material is requested or must be retrieved, or more time is needed to consult with other organizations, the Credit Union may apply to the BC Privacy Commissioner for an extension under the Personal Information Protection Act.

If the Credit Union refuses access to personal information, the Credit Union’s response to the access to information request will provide the reasons for refusal and provide the name, position/title, address, and telephone number of an officer of the Credit Union who can answer the applicant’s questions about the refusal. The Credit Union may refuse to confirm or deny the existence of personal information collected as part of an investigation. 

The Credit Union will make a reasonable effort to ensure that personal information it is using or disclosing is accurate and complete.

If an individual demonstrates the inaccuracy or incompleteness of personal information, the Credit Union will amend the information as required. If appropriate, the Credit Union will send the amended information to third parties to whom the information has been disclosed. When a challenge regarding the accuracy of personal information is not resolved to the satisfaction of the individual, the Credit Union will annotate the personal information under its control with a note that the correction was requested but not made. 

The Credit Union will protect the personal information in its custody or control by making reasonable security arrangements to prevent unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification, disposal, or similar risks. The Credit Union will take reasonable steps, through contractual or other reasonable means, to ensure that a comparable level of personal information protection is implemented by the suppliers and agents who assist in providing services to members, account holders, and other individuals.

The Credit Union will keep personal information used to make a decision that affects the individual for at least one year after using it to make the decision. The Credit Union will, in accordance with its retention schedule, destroy, erase, or make anonymous documents containing personal information as soon as it is reasonable to assume that the original purpose is no longer being served by retention of the information and retention is no longer necessary for legal or business purposes. The Credit Union may retain personal information about members and account holders with their consent in order to assist in the provision of future products and services and for marketing purposes, such as sending information about products and services that may be of interest, and may update the information as necessary to provide products and services applied for. The Credit Union will take due care with the destruction of personal information so as to prevent unauthorized parties from gaining access to the information

The Credit Union will employ electronic and physical security safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity level of personal information, including: 

• physical measures such as locked fire resistant filing cabinets and restricted access to offices
• organizational measures such as restricting employee access to files and databases
• electronic measures such as passwords and encryption
• investigative measures if the Credit Union has reasonable grounds to believe that personal information is being inappropriately collected, used, or disclosed
  

Members and other individuals may direct any inquiries or complaints regarding their personal information to the Credit Union’s Privacy Officer. Contact information will be available by inquiring at any office or call centre of the Credit Union.

The Credit Union will, upon request, inform members and other individuals of its complaint procedures, which will be accessible and simple to use. The Credit Union will ensure that inquiries, concerns, and complaints regarding personal information receive prompt attention and are resolved in a timely manner. Where appropriate, members and other individuals will be informed of their right to file a complaint with the BC Privacy Commissioner and will be provided a contact information.

To ensure that you are the only person accessing your personal financial information, we restrict access to the online banking section of the site by requiring that you enter your Member ID and PAC to login. Only you know your PAC. Our employees do not have access to your PAC, and they will not ask you to reveal it. If someone does ask you to provide your PAC to them, we ask that you refuse to do so and contact us immediately.

By nature, our Internet banking site has many transactional functions such as transfers between accounts and bill payment functions. These transactions are all logged to ensure that your accounts are debited or credited appropriately, and a history of each transaction is available to verify your account information. We store and use your transactional information in the same fashion as if you performed the transaction at a branch or through any other service channel.We may also use transactional information for servicing your account — for example, billing you for the particular transactions that you perform, or for the services that you use.

We create a secure channel between your browser and our server to protect your information when you use the site. To learn more about how we do this, please review our information on Internet Security.

To provide you with a convenient method for applying for loans and mortgages, or for purchasing other financial services products such as Registered Savings Plans, we may provide secure online application forms. These forms capture personal information that we use to provide you with the products and services you request. This information is processed in a similar way to application forms received through our other channels .

To continually improve our site, we often collect statistics about how our members are using it. These usage statistics are only viewed in the aggregate and are not associated with you as an individual. We use this information for purposes such as improving the pages where our members are having difficulties.The information collected may include your IP address, your browser type and your operating system, as well as data such as the number and types of pages visited, and the length of time spent per page and on the site overall.

We also use a key web technology called cookies. A cookie is a small information token that sits on your computer. As you use this site, cookies are passed back and forth between our server and your browser.

Specifically, we use two kinds of cookies — session cookies and persistent cookies. A session cookie exists only for the length of your browsing session and is deleted when you close your browser. A persistent cookie is a cookie that stays on your computer after you close your browser. A persistent cookie may or may not expire on a given date.

We use a session cookie to maintain the integrity of your online banking session. With each page that you visit, the cookie is passed back and forth between our server and your browser. We use the cookie to distinguish your session from the many others that may be happening at the same time. Our session cookies never store any personal information, such as your name, or date of birth, or financial information, such as your accounts and balances.

We may use persistent cookies to (i) provide you with a customized experience by recording your preferences; (ii) gather statistical information such as average time spent on a page; and (iii) to show you targeted marketing information about us when you visit other websites. The data gathered provides us with information on how we can improve the design, content and navigation of our website.

Most recent browser versions allow you to set some level of control over which cookies are accepted and how your browser uses them. For example, it may be set to notify you when it is receiving a cookie so that you accept cookies from only known, reliable sites such as this one. If you are concerned about cookies, we encourage you to upgrade your browser to a recent version and review the Help section of your browser to learn more about its specific control features.

We use a persistent cookie to store information to help you personalize the site and to make it easier to use. For example, we allow you to make the login easier by remembering your login information within our Memorized Accounts feature. Since the Memorized Accounts feature is optional, this cookie only contains information that you have entered into it. We never store your Personal Access Code (PAC) in a cookie.

To ensure that no-one else can access your personal information, always use the logout button to end an online banking session. It is located at the top of every page. When you exit using the logout button, we delete your session cookie so that your session cannot be resumed unless your Member ID and PAC are re-entered.

In the event that you leave your computer without logging out, the online banking feature of this site has been designed to end your session automatically if our system detects that you haven't provided any instructions or used the browser buttons to navigate for several minutes. To restart the session, you will need to provide your PAC again.

To communicate with us electronically, we strongly recommend that you use our Contact Us feature. This feature provides a secure channel for sending us comments, questions or instructions.

General email is not secure since it passes through many points on its route from you to us. If you are using general email to communicate with us, we strongly recommend that you do not include personal financial information (such as account numbers) within the email as we cannot guarantee its confidentiality en route to us.When you email us your comments, questions or instructions, you provide us your email address and we use it to correspond with you. We then store your email and our replies to you in case we correspond further.

Our site may also contain links to other websites or Internet resources. As an example, from time-to-time we may provide links to Microsoft or Netscape to assist you in upgrading your Internet browser. However, we have no control over these other websites or Internet resources and do not control their collection, use and disclosure of your personal information. Always review the Privacy Statements of the sites that you are viewing.

As we continue to expand our online banking service to serve you better, and as new Internet technologies become available, we may update the information on this page at any time, to reflect changes.

The Credit Union collects personal information from you directly when you open an account and/or apply for additional products or services. Some personal information we collect is required by law to ascertain your identity. With your consent, the Credit Union also collects information from credit reporting agencies, references provided by you, your employer, and others, when you apply for credit and other products and services. Your consent can be expressed or implied.

Yes, you can decline to have your personal information collected, used, or disclosed for certain purposes. For example, you can opt out of the use of your personal information for marketing purposes, such as:

• receiving information from the Credit Union about products and services or special promotions
• sharing your information with organizations for the purpose of providing you with information about products and services.

To choose these options, please contact us and ask for an opt-out request form.

You can also decline to have your personal information collected, used, or disclosed for other purposes. This may mean that the Credit Union will not be able to provide you with products and services.

The Credit Union is required by law to obtain your SIN or BN from you to report interest on your deposits and dividends on your shares and other investment income to Canada Customs and Revenue Agency.

When the Credit Union deals with the credit bureau, using your SIN or BN is the best way to make sure the credit information is about you, not someone else with a similar name. However, use of your SIN or BN for this purpose is voluntary. You will not be denied credit or other services solely because you choose not to authorize us to use your SIN or BN for this purpose.

If you opt out of receiving marketing information from the Credit Union, you may no longer receive information about new products or special promotions, financial information, member newsletters, or Credit Union activities and events. The Credit Union will continue to send you account statements, including statement inserts, and information required by law such as notices of membership meetings. Your request to opt out of receiving marketing information will not affect your eligibility for any products and services.

The Credit Union's staff are required to treat all personal and financial information confidentially. The Credit Union has many policies, practices and physical and electronic systems in place to safeguard personal information under the Credit Union's control, and to prevent unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification, or disposal of your personal information.

If you use the Credit Union's online banking, automated telephone banking, or telephone call services, or you have a Member Card® (debit card), you must select personal security codes and numbers (e.g. PAC, PIN). It is your personal responsibility to protect this information from misuse. You should safeguard your account and credit card statements, blank cheques, and your personal codes and numbers at all times. You should not send confidential information to your Credit Union or anyone else by using Internet email that is not encrypted. You should review your account statements carefully and let us know immediately if your address changes or you find any errors in your information.

The Credit Union has always provided members and account holders with copies of account statements, cheques, transaction slips, or other documents upon request, if we still have them. The Credit Union may charge a fee for providing copies of documents.

For more extensive information, you can complete an access to information request. You will be provided with an estimate of the fee for obtaining the information. For information and assistance, please contact the Credit Union's Privacy Officer. We'll respond within 30 days or, if we need an extension of time, we'll notify you of the new deadline and the reason for the extension.

If you ask, we will assist you to contact other organizations to whom we have disclosed your information.

By law, the Credit Union must not provide or may withhold some types of information. For example, the Credit Union will not provide information that reveals the identity of another individual or that individual's personal information without that individual's consent, information that cannot be disclosed for legal or security reasons, or information that is confidential commercial information.

If there are any errors in your information, we will correct the information wherever possible.If you wish to verify your credit history, please contact the credit bureau directly. We will help you to contact the credit bureau.

The Credit Union keeps your personal information as long as it is needed to provide you with products and services you have applied for and to meet legal and business requirements, after which the information is destroyed or erased, or we remove your name from the information.The Credit Union may use personal information collected in the past when you apply for new products and services, in which case, the Credit Union confirms or updates your information, and for marketing purposes, such as sending you information about products and services that may be of interest to you, unless you have opted out of receiving marketing information.