This privacy statement is meant to describe what types of identifiable information about you (“Personal Information”) we collect and use, why we do so and whether and to whom we disclose it.  This privacy statement applies to the customers (current, former and prospective) of iCare Home Comfort Inc. 

We respect the rights to personal privacy of those we deal with. It has always been our priority to safeguard any Personal Information we obtain, and we are committed to full compliance with the privacy laws that relate to our businesses. These privacy laws currently include of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (Canada), the Personal Information Protection Act (Alberta), the Personal Information Protection Act (British Columbia) and the Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector (Quebec).

This privacy statement sets out how we collect, handle, store and protect information about you when:

• we provide or discuss our products or services with customers or potential customers;
• you use our website; or
• we perform any other activities that form part of the operation of our business.

This privacy statement also contains information about when we share your Personal Information with third parties (for example, our service providers).

What Types of Personal Information Do We Collect, and Why?

In the course of providing products or services to you, or discussing possible products or services we might provide, we will collect or obtain Personal Information about you. We may also collect Personal Information from you when you use our website or through other digital interactions with you.

We may collect or obtain such Personal Information because you give it to us (for example in a form on our website or in a customer agreement), because other people give that Personal Information to us (for example a third party dealer that independently offers our products or services) or because it is publicly available.

We may also collect or obtain personal data from you because we observe or infer that data about you from the way you interact with us or others (see “Use of Cookies” below).

We may collect or obtain the following Personal Information:

• your name;
• address;
• telephone number;
• e-mail address;
• your IP address;
• your browser type and language;
• your access times; complaint details;
• details of how you use our products and services;
• details of how you like to interact with us and other similar information.

We also collect banking and/or credit card information from customers who purchase, rent, subscribe or otherwise receive our products and services if payments are to be debited directly from such customer’s bank account or applied to their credit card. If we are proposing to extend credit to a customer, we may obtain and refer to a consumer report from a credit or consumer reporting agency containing credit information and other Personal Information. We also keep records of the customer’s use of our products and services, and the handling of any customer inquiries, complaints or praise.

Our primary purposes in collecting and using Personal Information are to provide you with our products and services, to administer your accounts (including billing and collection), and to provide you with support services (including information about maintenance and safety). Personal Information may also be used to compile marketing and operational analysis and other statistics for use by iCare Home Comfort.

During our interactions with you (on the telephone or online), we may monitor and/or record your conversations with our representatives for our mutual protection & to enhance the overall customer experience. We may also use your Personal Information collected via our website to manage and improve our websites, to tailor the content of our website to provide you with a more personalised experience and draw your attention to information about our products and services that may be of interest to you and to manage and respond to any request you submit through our websites.

We may also use Personal Information to inform our customers of new products and services we feel may be of interest to them, or to ask their opinions. However, we will stop doing so at the customers’ request. Customers wishing to withdraw their consent should call (905 399-9888) and request to be added to iCare Home Comfort’s do not contact list.

Use of Cookies

When browsing our websites, we may monitor and/or record your browsing habits, at times using tracking software in the form of “cookies” (text files containing unique identification numbers identifying your Internet browser, but not necessarily your identity). These cookies allow us to collect and store information (i.e., type of Internet browser and operating system; date, time and duration of the visit to our website; recognize returning customers; collect and store geographic data determined by the IP address of your computer; the website from which you linked to our website; and the pages you visited while on our website and how long you stayed). We may also get information about your browsing history from our trusted business partners and vendors. All this information is used to enhance the overall user browsing experience.

We also work with third parties that use their own tracking technologies (including cookies and tags) in order to provide you with tailored ads on our behalf across the Internet. These companies may collect information about your activity on our websites and use this information to deliver ads that are more relevant to you. Unless you actively submit your Personal Information while on our website however, we would not normally be able to determine the actual identity of visitors to our website.

If you are uncomfortable with the use of cookies, you can manage and control them through your browser, including removing cookies by deleting them from your ‘browser history’ (cache) when you leave the site.

Please note that even if you opt-out of interest-based advertising by a third party, these tracking technologies may still collect data for other purposes including analytics and you may still see ads from us, but the ads will not be targeted based on behavioural information.

The Legal Grounds for Collecting, Storing and Using Your Personal Information

We generally collect, use and disclose your Personal Information with your consent, except as otherwise permitted or required by law. Consent may be given explicitly (for example, by signing a consent form) or implied (for example, when you provide information necessary for a service you have requested). You may provide your consent in some circumstances where notice has been provided to you about our intentions with respect to your personal information and you have not withdrawn your consent for an identified purpose, such as by using an “opt out” option provided, if any.

To Whom Do We Disclose Personal Information?

Except as otherwise described in this statement, unless you authorize us to release it, or release is required or permitted by law, we will not disclose Personal Information to third parties.

In order to better provide potential customers with our products and services, we share Personal Information among the iCare Home Comfort Businesses and with suppliers who perform services on our behalf and with whom contracts have been signed that obligate that third party to adhere to our privacy policies and practices. 

We also share information with our dealers in order to handle any complaints or problems. We provide information on our dealings with customers to credit reporting agencies, credit bureaus and financial institutions for the purposes of maintaining a customer’s credit history. There may, of course, be situations in which applicable laws (including foreign laws applicable to our suppliers) permit or require us to disclose Personal Information without consent, such as compliance with a warrant, subpoena or court order.

Protection of Your Personal Information

We use a range of physical, electronic and managerial measures designed to keep your Personal Information secure.

These measures include:

• education and training to relevant staff to ensure they are aware of our privacy obligations when handling Personal Information;
• administrative and technical controls to restrict access to Personal Information to those who require it in order to fulfil the purposes above;
• technological security measures, including firewalls, multi-factor authentication, encryption and anti-virus software; and
• physical security measures, such as staff security passes to access our premises.

Although we use appropriate security measures to protect your Personal Information, no security measures can ensure absolute security. We endeavor to protect Personal Information, but we cannot guarantee the security of Personal Information in our custody or control.

How Long Is Your Personal Information Kept?

The file containing your Personal Information will be maintained on our servers or those of our service providers and will be accessible to authorized Team Members or service providers who require access for the purposes described above. We will keep you Personal Information for the longest of the following periods:

(a) as long as is necessary for us to provide products and services to you;
(b) any retention period that is required by law or professional standards;
(c) the end of the period in which litigation or investigations might arise in respect of the products or services; or
(d) as directed by any iCare Home Comfort  internal retention policies or practices, the length of which may vary depending on the nature of the information that is held.
Further, any copies of Personal Information stored in our electronic backups will be destroyed in accordance with that backup’s ordinary lifecycle.

Getting in Touch with Us

You may have the right to:

• obtain information about how we have collected, used and disclosed your Personal Information and request a copy of the Personal Information we hold about you;
• ask that we update the Personal Information we hold about you, or correct such Personal Information that you think is incorrect or incomplete; and
• withdraw your consent to our collection, use or disclosure of your Personal Information.

To exercise any of your rights, or if you have any other questions about our use of your Personal Information, please contact our Privacy Officer using the contact details below:

Privacy Officer
iCare Home Comfort Inc.
1001 Denison St Unit 1-3,

Markham, ON 

L3R 2Z6

Tel: (905) 399-9888

Email: info@icarehomecomfort.com

We will respond to requests from individuals for access to Personal Information as quickly as possible and, in any event, within 30 days of receiving the request in most cases. In some instances (for example, where additional time is required for consultations or to convert personal information to an accessible format), an additional 30 days may be required to satisfy individual requests for access to Personal Information. Personal Information of individuals requesting it is provided in a form understandable and at minimal or no cost.

Concerns?

If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your Personal Information or any privacy query or request that you have raised with us, you have a right to express concerns to the applicable privacy regulator in your jurisdiction. If you would like to be directed to the appropriate privacy regulator, please contact the Privacy Officer using the details above.

Changes to This Privacy Statement

This privacy statement is subject to change from time to time, and should be reviewed periodically for changes. To let you know when we make changes to this privacy statement, we will amend the revision date at the bottom of this page. The new modified or amended privacy statement will apply from that revision date. Therefore, we encourage you to periodically review this statement to be informed about how we are processing your information.

Last update: August 2022.