Policy
On the Collection, Use and Disclosure Of Personal Information "Privacy
Policy" for Members
1.
OBJECTIVE & SCOPE OF POLICY............................................................................................. 1
2. THE
COLLECTION, USE & DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION..................................... 2
3. ACCURACY................................................................................................................................ 3
4.
RETENTION............................................................................................................................... 3
5.
SECURITY…………………………………………………....................................................................................................... 4
6. VISITING
THE BREB OR MLS WEB SITE.................................................................................... 4
7. ACCES'S
TO PERSONAL INFORMATION.................................................................................... 4
8.
AMENDMENT OF BREB PRACTICE AND THIS POLICY............................................................... 6
9.
INFORMATION REGARDING FORMER MEMBERS...................................................................... 6
10. WHAT
You CONSENT AND AGREE To...................................................................................... 6
1. Objective &
Scope of Policy
The Brampton Real Estate Board ("BREB" or
"Board") is committed to advancing the interests of real estate sales
people and brokers who comprise of BREB's membership. Members of BREB are also
members of the Ontario Real Estate Association ("OREA") as well as
the Canadian Real Estate Association ("CREA"). CREA approved a
Privacy Code as a national standard at its annual meeting held in Montreal in
October of 2001. Consistent with the adoption of the CREA Privacy Code and with
applicable law, BREB is dedicated to maintaining high standards of
confidentiality with respect to information provided to it. This Policy
Statement has been prepared to inform you of our policy and practices
concerning the collection, use and disclosure of Personal Information provided
to the Board.
This Policy Statement governs Personal Information collected from
and about individuals who are Members and information regarding non-members
that is provided to BREB for the purposes described below. It does not govern
Personal Information the Board collects from and about our employees, the
protection of which is governed by other applicable laws and internal BREB
policies. This policy also does not cover aggregated data from which the
identity of an individual cannot be determined. BREB retains the right to use
aggregated data in any way that it determines appropriate.
This Policy Statement applies to all BREB employees as a condition
of their employment as well as to Members of BREB's Board of Directors. Using
contractual or other arrangements, the Board shall ensure that agents,
contractors or third party service providers, who may receive Personal
Information in the course of providing services to BREB as part of our delivery
of services, protect that Personal Information in a manner consistent with the
principles articulated in this Policy Statement.
In the event of questions about access to Personal Information;
the collection, use, management or disclosure of Personal Information, or this
Policy Statement or whether BREB is acting in a manner consistent with it,
Please
contact:
Lynn
M. Martin E-mail:
lynn@breb.org
Executive
Director Phone: (905)
791-9913
Brampton Real Estate Board Fax:
(905) 791-9430
10
– 35 Van Kirk Drive
Brampton,
Ontario
L7A
1A5
2. The Collection, Use & Disclosure of
Personal Information
For
the purposes of this Policy,
"Personal Information" means any information, recorded
in any form, about an identified individual, or an individual whose identity
may be inferred or determined from the information.
"External
Associate" means an individual who is not a Member. An External
Associate may be an individual or an employee of an organization with
which BREB has dealings in the normal course of fulfilling its mandate.
Examples of external associates include independent contractors or
service providers; employees of CREA, OREA or the Real Estate Council of
Ontario; legal counsel and consultants;
"Member"
means a salesperson,
broker or firm who has been accepted for membership in BREB.
Personal information about Members will be collected, to the
extent possible, directly from the individual concerned.
Information
within the Multiple Listing Service ("BramptonMLS") system is
considered to be Personal Information to the extent that it is or can be
associated with an individual. Such information can be collected directly from
the listing broker/salesperson or directly from the system.
BREB uses the personal information provided verbally or in writing
by Members upon application for membership (and which may be provided during
the course of membership) and others, for different purposes to fulfill its
mandate. These purposes include:
. Acting as a trade association in support of the real estate
industry in Brampton;
. Providing
services to Members;
. Providing continuing education to Members and educational courses
to those seeking to
become
Members and others;
. Support in operating the MLS system;
. Facilitating membership in CREA and CREA;
. Meeting any legal or regulatory requirement; and
. Such
other purposes consistent with the foregoing purposes.
BREB's use of Persona/Information is limited to the purpose of
fulfilling the mandate of BREB or a purpose consistent with that purpose and
the Board does not sell, trade, barter or exchange for consideration any
Personal Information it has obtained. Unless permitted by law or provided for
in the application for membership, Board By-Law or rules, no personal
information is collected about a Member without first obtaining the consent of
the individual to the collection, use and dissemination of that
information. Consent can be obtained as
written consent or implied consent.
"BREB
may disclose Personal Information of Members to CREA and CREA and RECO for
membership purposes and to organizations that assist the Board in the course of
fulfilling its mandate, including organizations that perform services on its
behalf. Personal Information will only be provided to organizations providing
services to BREB if they agree to use such information solely for the purposes
of providing services to BREB and under the instruction of BREB and, with
respect to that information, to act in a manner consistent with the relevant
principles articulated in this Policy Statement.
There are circumstances where the use and/or disclosure of
Personal Information may be justified or permitted or where BREB is obliged to
disclose information without consent. Such circumstances may include:
. Where required by law or by order of a tribunal;
.Where BREB believes, upon reasonable grounds, that it is
necessary to protect the rights, privacy, safety or property of an identifiable
person or group;
. Where it is necessary to establish or collect fees;
. Where it is necessary to permit BREB to pursue available remedies
or limit any damages that the Board may sustain; or
. Where the information is public.
Where obliged or permitted to disclose information without
consent, BREB will not disclose more information than is required.
3. Accuracy
BREB endeavors to ensure that any Personal Information provided by
its Members and in its possession is as accurate, current and complete as
necessary for the purposes for which BREB uses that data. Information contained
in files that have been closed is not actively updated or maintained.
Information on listings is the responsibility of Members who provide it to the
MLS system.
4. Retention
BREB retains Personal Information as long as BREB believes it is
necessary to fulfill the purpose for which it was collected. Currently, the
principal place in which BREB holds Personal Information is in the City of
Brampton. BREB has in place a Records Retention Policy, which outlines the
procedures for the retention and subsequent disposition of BREB records
including those records that contain Personal Information.
5. Security
BREB endeavors to maintain adequate physical, procedural and
technical security with respect to its offices and information storage
facilities so as to prevent any loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure,
or modification of Personal Information.
BREB further protects Personal Information by restricting access
to Personal Information to those employees and External Associates that the
management of BREB has determined need to know that information in order that
BREB may provide its services. BREB has a policy under which employee misuse of
Personal Information is treated as a serious offence for which disciplinary
action may be taken.
In terms of communicating Personal Information, you may wish to
note that there is no method of transmitting or storing data that is completely
secure. While the physical characteristics of each are different, mail,
telephone calls, faxes and transmissions over the Internet are all susceptible
to possible loss, misrouting, interception and misuse of the information being
communicated or transmitted.
As do many organizations, BREB attempts to strike a reasonable
balance between security and convenience. In communicating with Members and
others, BREB reserves the right to use a method of communication that is less
secure than some of its less convenient alternatives. An example of this is
e-mail. At this time, when we use e-mail, it is sent as unencrypted plain text.
We do this because the Board believes that many of our Members and External
Associates cannot readily process encrypted e-mail. This is done for their
convenience but has the security concern that, if misrouted or intercepted, it
could be read more easily than encrypted e-mail.
6. Visiting the BREB or
BramptonMLS Web Site
With
respect to its web site, BREB does not collect any information from site
visitors. Cookies are not used although anonymous hit count statistics are
generated monthly. Certain Member information (name, picture, company name
& company address, company phone number) is
presented
on the public website.
BREB
has no control over the content of third party websites that individuals may
access through hyperlinks at our website.
7. Access to Personal information
BREB
permits access to and review of Personal Information held by BREB about an
individual by the individual concerned.
BREB reserves the right to decline to provide access to Personal
Information where the information requested:
a) Would disclose the Personal Information of another individual
or of a deceased
individual; or
business confidential information that may harm BREB or the competitive
position of a third party;
b) Is subject to solicitor-client or litigation privilege;
c) Could reasonably result in serious harm to the treatment or
recovery of the individual
concerned, serious emotional harm to the individual or another
individual, or serious bodily harm to another individual; or
d) May harm or interfere with law enforcement activities and other
investigative or regulatory functions
of a body authorized by statute to perform such functions;
e) Is not readily retrievable and the burden or cost of providing
would be disproportionate to the nature or value of the information; or
f) Does not exist, is not held, or cannot be found by BREB.
Where information will not or cannot be disclosed, the individual
making the request will be provided with the reasons for non-disclosure.
Where information will be disclosed, BREB will endeavor to provide
the information in question within a reasonable time and no later than 60 days
following the request. BREB may charge a minimal or nominal cost (e.g.
photocopying, mail charges) to the individual making the request.
BREB will not respond to repetitious or vexatious requests for
access. In determining whether a request is repetitious or vexatious, it will
consider such factors as the frequency with which information is updated, the
purpose for which the information is used, and the nature of the information.
To guard against fraudulent requests for access, BREB will require
sufficient information to allow it to confirm the identity of the person making
the request before granting access or making corrections.
If an individual believes any Personal Information concerning that
individual is not correct, that person may request an update of that
information by sending a request to the person indicated in Section 1. BREB
reserves the right not to change any Personal Information but will append any
alternative text the individual concerned believes appropriate. An individual
may also request that BREB delete an individual's Personal Information from the
Board's system and records. However, due to technical constraints and the fact
that BREB backs up its systems, Personal Information may continue to reside in
the Board's systems after deletion. For the same reason, Personal Information
may also continue to reside on the BramptonMLS system after deletion.
Individuals, therefore, should not expect that their Personal Information would
be completely removed from BREB or the BramptonMLS systems in response to a
request for deletion.
8. Amendment of BREB
Practice and This Policy
This
statement is in effect as of October 29, 2003. BREB will review and revise (if necessary) its privacy
practices and this Policy Statement annually, at the time such other Board
Policies are reviewed and approved by the Board of Directors. In the event of
any amendment, an appropriate notice will be posted on
http://www.realtorlink.ca and communicated to Members and others in an
appropriate manner. Policy changes will apply to the information collected from
the date of posting of the revised Policy Statement to BREB's web site as well
as to existing information held by BREB.
9. Information Regarding Former
Members
BREB
will only disclose Personal Information about former Members in accordance with
this Policy Statement.
10. What You Consent And Agree To
When you provide BREB with Personal Information, you consent and
agree to the following:
1 The
collection, use and disclosure of Personal Information from or about you
as described in Section 2. and to your right to
access and correct data as described in Section 7.
1 Your
acceptance of the risks concerning the transmission of information
to BREB as described in Section 5.
1 The
amendment of this Policy Statement as described in Section 8.