Starward Homes Privacy Policy

Privacy of personal information is an important principle to Starward Homes. We are committed to collecting, using and disclosing personal information responsibly and only to the extent necessary for the goods and services we provide. We also try to be open and transparent as to how we handle personal information. This document describes our privacy policies.

WHAT IS PERSONAL INFORMATION?

Personal information is information about an identifiable individual. Personal information includes information that relates to their personal characteristics (e.g. gender, age, income, home address or phone number, family status).

WHO WE ARE

Starward Homes Limited uses a number of professional consultants, agencies, banks and trades that may in the course of their duties, have limited access to personal information we hold. We restrict their access to any personal information we hold as much as is reasonably possible. We also have their assurance that they follow appropriate privacy principles.

WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION: PRIMARY PURPOSE

Like all homebuilders, we collect, use and disclose personal information in order to serve our clients.

For our clients, the primary purposes for collecting personal information are as follows: Starward Homes Limited collects personal information for the purpose of marketing research, for the sending of newsletters and other promotional offers, and to complete the building of our homes right through contracts, appraisals to closings.

Examples of the type of personal information we collect for those purposes include the following: name, address, telephone (home & work), cell phone, fax, email, purchaser’s lawyer, and in the case of condominium purchases, social insurance numbers and date of birth.

For members of the general public, our primary purposes for collecting personal information as follows: Starward Homes Limited collects personal information for the purpose of marketing research, for the sending of newsletters and other promotional offers.

For contract staff, our primary purposes for collecting personal information are as follows: reimbursement for services. Examples of the type of personal information we collect for those purposes include the following: Name, address, telephone numbers, social insurance number.

WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION: RELATED AND SECONDARY PURPOSES

Like most home builders, we also collect, use and disclose information for purposes related to or secondary to our primary purposes. The most common examples of our related and secondary purposes are as follows:

To invoice clients for goods/services.
To advise clients that their New Home Warranty will be expiring.
To advise clients and others or special offers and promotions that we have available.
Our organization reviews client and other files for the purpose of ensuring that we provide high quality services, including assessing the performance of our staff.
Our organization is regulated by ONHWP who may inspect our records and interview our stall as a part of their regulatory activities in the public interest.
Clients or other individuals we deal with may have questions about our good/services after they have been received. We also provide ongoing services for many of our clients over a period of months or years for which previous records are helpful. We retain our client information for a minimum of ten years after the last contact to enable us to respond to those questions and provide these services. We destroy our information ten years after the last entry.

PROTECTING PERSONAL INFORMATION

We understand the importance of protecting personal information. For that reason, we have taken the following steps:

Paper information is either under supervision or secured in a locked or restricted area.
Electronic hardware is either under supervision or secured in a locked or restricted area at all times. In addition, passwords are used on computers.
Paper information is transmitted through sealed, addressed envelopes by reputable companies.
Staff is trained to collect, use and disclose personal information only as necessary to fulfill their duties and in accordance with our privacy policy.
External consultants and agencies with access to personal information must enter into privacy agreements with us.

RETENTION AND DESTRUCTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We need to retain personal information for some time to ensure that we can answer any questions you might have about the services provided and for our own accountability to external regulatory bodies. However, we do not want to keep personal information too long in order to protect your privacy.

We keep our client files for about ten years. Our client and contact directories are much more difficult to systematically destroy, so we remove such information when we can if it does not appear that we will be contacting you again. However, if you ask, we will remove such contact information right away.

We destroy paper files containing personal information by shredding. We destroy electronic information by deleting it.

YOU CAN LOOK AT YOUR INFORMATION

With only a few exceptions, you have the right to see what personal information we hold about you. Often all you have to do is ask. We will need to confirm your identity, if we do not know you, before providing you with this access. We reserve the right to charge a nominal fee for such requests.

If there is a problem, we may ask you to put your request in writing. If we cannot give you access, we will tell you within 30 days if at all possible and tell you the reason, as best we can, as to why we cannot give you access.

If you believe there is a mistake in the information, you have the right to ask for it to be corrected. This applies to factual information and not to any professional opinions we may have formed. We may ask you to provide documentation that our files are wrong. Where we agree that we made a mistake, we will make the correction and notify anyone to whom we sent this information. If we do not agree that we have made a mistake, we will still agree to include in our file a brief statement from you on the point and we will forward that statement to anyone else who received the earlier information.

DO YOU HAVE A CONCERN?

Our Information Officer, Maxine Borsellino, can be reached at: maxine@starwardhomes.com or 905-648-7000, to address any questions or concerns you might have.

If you wish to make a formal complaint about our privacy practices, you may make it in writing to our Information Officer. She will acknowledge receipt of your complaint; ensure that it is investigated promptly and that you are provided with a formal decision and reasons in writing.

For more general inquiries, the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Canada oversees the administration of the privacy legislation in the private sector. The Commissioner also acts as a kind of ombudsman for privacy disputes. The Information and Privacy Commissioner can be reached at:

112 Kent Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 1H3
Phone 613-995-8210 – toll free 1-800-282-1376 – Fax 613-947-6850 –
TTY 613-992-9190
www.pricom.gc.ca

Home