Privacy Notice

The nature and scope of the personal information we collect depend on the program, product or service that you have requested or that is of interest to you. It is our policy to collect only the personal information needed to administer our programs and services.

We collect personal information directly from you whenever possible and feasible, for example, when you complete a form or subscribe to a newsletter. However, the nature of the services we provide and the context in which we handle personal information can result in us collecting your personal information from sources other than you.

Sources from which we may obtain your personal information could be those who have referred you to us, employees working for the corporation you own or control who are providing your information to onboard your company, and operators of business risk services, such as financial crime and sanctions list databases. When making decisions that directly affect you using personal information collected from sources other than you, we will seek your consent unless otherwise required or authorized by law.

The purposes for which we collect and use personal information are explained below.

To improve your experience on our website and to tailor information, content, products and services to your interests and business needs.

For a detailed explanation, refer to the section “What are cookies and how does FinDev Canada use them?” below.

To promote our programs, products and services to you.

When you specify your consent on any online FinDev Canada publication, subscription or registration form, FinDev Canada may, from time to time, use your email or regular mailing address to send you information on 
FinDev Canada programs, products and services, trade information, business opportunities, or other topics and events of interest.

In order to do so, FinDev Canada may also collect the information that you provided on the subscription or registration form, such as your name, address, telephone and fax numbers, and preferred language.

To determine your eligibility for programs, products or services.

We use financial information such as your assets, liabilities, financial transactions, annual sales, and business history to evaluate your credit worthiness, assess your eligibility, and make decisions in the context of an application for financing/investment services.

To manage your relationship with us and to make it easy to do business with us.

We use identifying and contact information about you and your business to allow us to communicate with you and respond to your inquiries about programs or services you may be interested in.

To introduce you to Government and Industry Partners.

There’s a lot you can do to take your business to the next level and a lot of organizations that are willing to help you get there. With your consent, FinDev Canada will facilitate introductions to its federal, provincial and industry partners to help you grow your business.

To process payments and financial transactions.

We collect banking information to process payments and other transactions. In some circumstances, information is shared with counterparties and their respective banks in relation to payments and other transactions.

To comply with legal, security, processing, and regulatory requirements.

We collect personal information to conduct due diligence to ensure that we do not, directly or indirectly, unknowingly engage in business or procure goods or services from companies that present legal, regulatory and reputational risks to FinDev Canada. This due diligence is performed in a preliminary, simplified manner at the prospecting stage when selecting businesses we intend to support, as well as in a more detailed manner before establishing and during a business relationship. This includes assessing whether businesses we are considering for a potential relationship, clients and their associates, appear on official lists, such as terrorism or sanctions lists, are identified as politically exposed persons (PEPs), or have garnered adverse media attention (e.g., investigations, indictments, convictions, or other allegations of wrongdoing).

To reduce fraud and software piracy and protect our customers.

We may monitor any part of our website at any time and may take appropriate measures to curtail inappropriate use. FinDev Canada uses software to monitor site traffic and to detect unauthorized attempts to upload, change information, or otherwise cause damage.

To verify the identity or authority of relevant individuals or representatives who contact FinDev Canada or may be contacted by FinDev Canada and to carry out or respond to requests, questions or instructions from verified representatives or other parties pursuant to security procedures.

To allow you to apply for jobs and to assess your suitability for a career at FinDev Canada.

To conduct market research about our customers, their interests, and the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns if you’ve given us permission to do so.
 

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer when you visit a website. We use cookies to collect and save information about your browsing activities in order to understand your preferences while you are visiting our site and to recognize you when you return. You may adjust your browser settings to manage and/or delete cookies as you wish. Please consult your browser’s Help Menu for instructions.

The use of cookies allows us to provide you with a tailored experience that is relevant to you based on web analytics and marketing automation.

Web analytics is the collection, analysis, measurement, and reporting of data about website traffic for purposes of understanding and optimizing Internet usage. We collect the following types of personal information for web analytics: your IP address, the type of browser you use, the page(s) you visited, and the date and time of any requests you make. After this period, the information is disposed of in accordance with the Standard on Privacy and Web Analytics and as authorized by the Librarian and Archivist of Canada.

Cookies support web analytics by creating aggregated statistics on visitors to websites and their browsing behaviour. We use the information collected by cookies to understand what portions of our website are visited the most and to identify areas for improvement. The data is aggregated, which means the information is not used to identify you as an individual. Two types of cookies are used for this purpose:

1. Temporary or session cookies are only stored on your browser for the duration of your visit. These session cookies follow and track your movements between screens to provide an improved browsing experience.
2. Persistent cookies are stored on your browser for the purposes of evaluating site usage and compiling reports on website activity. We use the third-party services of Google Analytics.
    

Marketing automation is the collection and analysis of browser activity and other interactions you may have with FinDev Canada, such as by phone, email, webinars, or events. To gather your online activity on FinDev Canada websites, a persistent cookie is stored on your browser when you first visit our web pages. We use the services of Oracle Eloqua for gathering and analyzing this information.

The analysis of this data allows us to provide you with information, content, products and services tailored to your interests and needs. Information about your interests and preferences will be linked to information you provide when you complete a form, for example, to submit a question. On each form, you will be reminded that the provision of personal information is optional. If you choose not to divulge this information, we may not be able to provide you with the content you requested, respond to inquiries, or tailor the information we send you based on your preferences.

Remember, you may adjust your browser settings to manage and/or delete cookies as you wish. Please consult your browser’s Help Menu for instructions.

Your current status is: Opt In / Opt Out
 

Your information will only be viewed by those persons at FinDev Canada who need that information for the purpose for which it was given. We also engage third parties for the purposes of providing services such as IT, web analytics, legal and accounting.

We need to share your information with these third parties in order for them to provide you with the services you have requested. These companies are only provided with the information necessary to provide the services. 

They are not authorized by us to use your information for any purpose other than delivering the services that have been requested by FinDev Canada in accordance with FinDev Canada’s instructions and authorization.

We may also share your information as required or permitted by law. We may share your information with regulatory authorities, statutory bodies or public agencies for the purposes of complying with their respective requirements, policies, directives and contracts.

We do not sell your personal information to third parties.
 

We take the safeguarding of your personal information seriously. We have implemented a broad range of security measures in the interest of protecting user and customer information from unauthorized access, improper use, alteration, unlawful or accidental destruction and accidental loss. These safeguards include administrative controls, including policies and procedures, staff training and awareness, technical measures, such as strong authentication mechanisms, firewalls, encryption, and antimalware protection, as well as other physical access controls in the form of identification cards, employee and visitor access badges and video surveillance.

To help protect our customers, individuals working the FinDev Canada have been instructed to only use the official FinDev Canada domain to communicate for business purposes. Email not originating from the “@findevcanada.ca” domain could be fraudulent and should therefore be treated with suspicion. Do not respond to emails, open attachments, or click on suspicious links originating from other sources (e.g. Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo). 

Hyperlinks to other websites are provided for convenience only and do not constitute our endorsement of such websites or the accuracy or reliability of material, content or services provided therein. Such websites are independent from, and not within the control of, FinDev Canada. Before using such websites, you should review their terms of use and privacy policies which may be different from FinDev Canada’s.
 

As Canada’s development finance institution, personal information that you supply to us will typically be stored in Canada and accessed from Canada or the jurisdictions in which our representations are located. Further, your personal information may be accessed by staff or suppliers in, transferred to, and/or stored at, a destination outside the country in which you are located, whose data protection laws may be of a lower standard than those 
in your country. We will, in all circumstances, safeguard personal information as set out in this Privacy Notice.

Where we transfer your personal information to a country other than your home country, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it. If you’re based in the European Economic Area (the EEA), this will mean that your personal information may be transferred to, accessible from, and/or stored at, a destination outside the EEA in which data protection laws may not be as comprehensive as in the EEA.

Certain countries outside the EEA have been approved by the European Commission as providing essentially equivalent protections to EEA data protection laws, and therefore no additional safeguards are required to export personal information to these jurisdictions. In countries which have not had these approvals, we will establish legal bases justifying such transfer, such as EU Commission-approved model contractual clauses, or other legal bases permitted by applicable legal requirements.

Please contact us if you would like to see a copy of the specific safeguards applied to the export of your personal information.

 

If you have given your consent or are a current or former customer of FinDev Canada, FinDev Canada may provide you with trade information and promotional messages. We give you choices regarding our marketing practices.

FinDev Canada Opt-in Mailing List

If you have given your consent to receive information from FinDev Canada, FinDev Canada may, from time to time, use your email or regular mailing address to send you information on FinDev Canada’s products and services. FinDev Canada may also collect the information that you provided on the subscription or registration form such as your name and the name of your company (if applicable), your address, telephone and fax numbers, and your preferred language. Where applicable, FinDev Canada may also collect any industry- and export-related information you provide.

Withdraw Consent

At any time, you may withdraw your consent to receive electronic messages from FinDev Canada by contacting FinDev Canada. FinDev Canada will remove your name from FinDev Canada’s mailing list. 

Third-Party Social Media

FinDev Canada’s use of social media serves as an extension of its presence on the Web and is intended to facilitate interactions between users and FinDev Canada. FinDev Canada offers: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Google+. Social media account(s) are public and are not hosted on our servers. Users who choose to interact with us via social media should read the user agreements and privacy policies of these third-party service providers and those of any applications used to access them. FinDev Canada does not endorse views or comments posted by users, and in no way verifies or confirms the accuracy of user comments. Individuals working for FinDev Canada are held to the highest standards of professionalism in support of business-related social networking.

Personal information provided to FinDev Canada via social media is collected in accordance with this Privacy Notice and applicable laws. Information is collected to capture conversations (e.g. questions and answers, comments, “likes,” and retweets) between you and FinDev Canada. It may be used by FinDev Canada to respond to inquiries, or for statistical, evaluation and reporting purposes. Comments posted that violate any applicable law will be deleted and disclosed to law enforcement authorities. Comments that violate our Terms of Use may be deleted by FinDev Canada.
 

Retention

We will retain your personal information only as long as required for business purposes and as prescribed by applicable laws and regulations. In accordance with legal requirements, fulfilled business purpose and/or expired contract obligations, we will destroy, erase, render anonymous, or otherwise dispose of personal information after such time.

Accuracy

We will use reasonable endeavours to ensure that your personal information is accurate. In order to assist us with this, you should notify us of any changes to the personal information you have provided

What are my rights and how can I contact you?

To access, update or correct your own personal information held by FinDev Canada, please contact us and include sufficient details to enable us to search for relevant records.
Under certain conditions, and where applicable in your jurisdiction, in addition to the above, you may have the right to require us to:

• delete any personal information we no longer have a lawful ground to use;
• where processing is based on consent, to withdraw your consent so that we stop that particular processing;
• object to any processing based on the legitimate interests ground unless our reasons for undertaking that
• processing outweigh any prejudice to your data protection rights; and
• restrict how we use your information whilst a complaint is being investigated.

Your exercise of these rights is subject to certain exemptions to safeguard the public interest (e.g. the prevention or detection of crime) and our interests (e.g. the maintenance of legal privilege). If you exercise any of these rights, we will check your entitlement and respond in most cases within a month.

If you have any concerns or questions about the way we handle your personal information, please contact us at:
 

We’ll make sure we address all your concerns and questions about how we process your personal information. If you are not satisfied with our use of your personal information or our response to any exercise of the above rights, you have the right to make a complaint with the data protection authority in your jurisdiction. Please refer to the website of your local regulatory and or data protection authority for instructions on how to contact them.

Because legal and business requirements are constantly evolving, we may change any part or all of this Privacy Notice. We will provide notice of substantial changes to this notice by posting a notice on our website or by emailing you. If this notice changes, the updated version will apply to your information.