The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) regulates how private sector organizations collect, use, and disclose the personal information of its clients, employees and other sources when necessary.
Personal information is defined as information that can identify an individual and information about an identifiable individual.
Barnsworth CPA & Tax Services Inc. protects the personal information received throughout the course of providing services to our clients and we have formalized our policies as a commitment to maintaining your privacy.
We need our clients to provide us with all the relevant facts and information related to our engagement. This information will include personal information about our clients and about other individuals with whom our clients conduct commercial transactions.
We will always try to collect personal information directly from the person to whom the information pertains where practical and we will collect personal information from other sources when necessary. If we need to collect information about individuals other than our clients, we shall do so in accordance with the provisions of PIPEDA. We will make reasonable efforts to ensure that the personal information we collect, use, and distribute is accurate and complete.
By engaging our firm to provide services, we consider an individual to have given our firm consent to the collection, use, and distribution of the individual’s personal information. Once this consent has been obtained by our firm, we will continue to collect, use, and disclose personal information for the purpose of providing the agreed upon services without obtaining further written or verbal consent to do so. We may also collect, use, or disclose personal information about an individual without that individual’s consent as permitted under PIPEDA.
Our firm will maintain the strictest confidence with respect to any client's or former client's information. Accordingly, confidential client information will not, without client consent, be disclosed to any individuals in our firm beyond those who are engaged on providing services to the client. This policy applies to anyone outside the firm, except as required by law or under the Chartered Professional Accountants of Nova Scotia’s Code of Professional Conduct.
In accordance with professional regulations, our client files must periodically be reviewed by provincial practice inspectors and by other firm personnel to ensure that we have adhered to professional and firm standards. File reviewers are required to maintain confidentiality of client information.
In recognition of our professional and legal obligations to protect our confidential client information, we have made arrangements to protect against unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification, disposal, or destruction of personal information.
We will retain client personal information for a reasonable time period as required by our Code of Professional Conduct and the terms of our professional liability insurance policy. When no longer required, client personal information will be disposed of in a secured manner.
Individuals have the right to ask, in writing, for access to their own personal information in the custody or under the controls of our firm as permitted under PIPEDA. We will respond to requests as accurately and completely as reasonably possible in the time allowed by PIPEDA. We are entitled to refuse access in certain situation such as when:
PIPEDA also allows individuals to request in writing for our firm to correct errors or omissions. We will correct any factual error or omissions and inform other organizations to whom we have disclosed the incorrect information. If we determine there is no factual error or omission, we will annotate the record with the record that a correction was requested but not made.
If you have any questions or concerns about our privacy policy, or how we have handled your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer in writing at 16 James Boyle Drive, Unit 2, Mount Uniacke NS B0N 1Z0 or send us an email.