Updated on June 6 2024
DS Lawyers Canada LLP (“DS” ,“we” or “firm”) is committed to maintaining the confidentiality of personal information collected from our clients and third parties (“you”) in the course of providing legal services and conducting our business.
This Privacy Policy (hereinafter the “Policy”) has been implemented to help you understand our collection, use, disclosure, and retention practices in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements, including privacy laws, as well as the professional obligations of the Members of this firm.
This Policy applies to all DS partners, professionals, employees, and staff (the “ Members of this Firm ”) as well as to the Firm's suppliers, consultants and business partners.
Consent
By providing personal information to DS or its service providers and agents, you authorize us to collect, use and disclose such personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and as authorized or required by law.
Subject to legal and contractual requirements, you may decline or withdraw your consent for certain purposes at any time by contacting the DS Privacy Representative. If you refuse or withdraw your consent, this may affect our ability to provide or continue to provide you with certain services or information that may be useful to you. All service inquiries must be accompanied by personal information in order to process your requests.
Consequently, the individual grants DS permission to collect, use and share this information with third parties. In addition, they grant permission to use and retain the personal data for as long as necessary (see paragraph Data retention period). This authorization remains valid even after termination of the relationship with the firm unless the individual formally withdraws it in writing.
Furthermore, if you provide DS or its service providers and agents with personal information about another individual, you declare that you have the necessary authority to do so and/or have obtained all necessary consents from that individual to enable us to collect, use, and disclose this personal information for the purposes outlined in this Privacy policy.
The firm does not use nor disclose personal information without the consent of the individual concerned, except when authorized or required by law.
Type of personal information collected by DS
Canadian privacy legislation generally defines “personal information” as any information about an identifiable individual, whether directly or indirectly. In the context of this policy, “personal information” includes information relating to an identifiable individual, as periodically defined by applicable privacy legislation.
In the course of our business and the provision of our services, we may collect and process various types of personal information, including:
- identity information ( last name, first name, marital status, date of birth, copies of driver's license, copies of health insurance card, passport data, etc.)
- contact details ( mailing address, e-mail address and telephone number);
- financial and billing information (credit information, bank account information, billing address and sources of financing collected in compliance with anti-money laundering laws and integrated into our customer acceptance procedures);
- commercial information, including information provided as part of the contractual or client relationship between you or your company and DS, or otherwise voluntarily provided by your company;
- information relevant to the provision of our services, including personal information relating to a dispute, complaint, investigation, arbitration or other legal advice required;
- marketing information and communication preferences;
- information on the usage of our website and other technical information (details of visits on our website, interaction with our online content, information collected by means of cookies or other tracking technologies). For more information on this subject, please consult our Cookies Policy;
- recruitment information (curriculum vitae, academic background, work history, job title, name of employer, criminal record check and any other information relevant to potential recruitment by our firm);
- personal information provided by or on behalf of our clients or information generated by DS in the course of rendering our services, which may, where relevant, include certain sensitive personal information (in particular, racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical views, trade union membership, genetic or biometric data, state of mental or physical health, sex life or sexual orientation);
- personal information about a client, supplier, consultant or subcontractor, as well as about their directors, officers, shareholders, opposing parties, potential or actual witnesses, other lawyers, mediators and arbitrators.
Collection methods
The majority of the personal information DS collects about you is collected directly from you, for example, when you interact with us by visiting our offices or communicating with us by telephone, e-mail, fax, videoconference, text message or through our website or social networks. In addition, we collect your personal information when you register for our training courses, seminars, newsletter, and recruitment activities.
DS may also collect certain information about you through publicly available platforms or from third parties, including but not limited to financial institutions, witnesses in litigation, other parties involved in your transaction or file, accountants or other professional advisors and credit bureaus.
In addition, we automatically collect certain non-identifiable information when you browse our Web site or when you click on, or open e-mail messages sent to you by DS.
In collecting personal information, the firm may use technologies incorporating identification, location, and profiling functionalities. Profiling involves the collection and use of a person's characteristics to assess specific traits about them.
Limitations
We do not knowingly collect information from a minor under the age of 14. If you are under the age of 14, please do not provide us with any personal information unless you specifically provide us with proof of your parent's or guardian's express consent. If you are a parent or guardian and become aware that your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a minor under the age of 14 without the prior consent of a parent or guardian, we will take reasonable steps to destroy such information.
Any personal information provided to us before we have confirmed in writing that we undertake to represent you, your company or organization, or to act on your company's or organization's behalf, is not subject to attorney-client privilege, since a client-attorney relationship has not yet been established. Consequently, this personal information may be disclosed to third parties.
Purposes of collecting, using or disclosing personal information
DS collects, uses, and discloses personal information only for the purposes identified herein and to which you have consented at the time of collection, in accordance with applicable law.
In general, we collect personal information from our clients and other individuals:
- to establish, maintain and manage our client and business relationships;
- to render legal services and advice to our clients and to carry out our professional activities;
- to examine the presence of conflicts of interest in order to determine whether we may engage in a professional relationship with a client, or in a commercial relationship with a supplier or third party;
- to comply with our legal and professional obligations, including client identification and verification rules, as well as other requirements of the provincial law societies to which our lawyers are members of;
- to comply with legal requirements and court rulings;
- to communicate with and/or provide services to a client, supplier or third party and to manage their file;
- for billing, accounting, and collection purposes;
- for staff recruitment purposes;
- to ensure the security of our employees, clients, facilities, Web site, equipment and computer network, and to detect and prevent fraud and theft;
- for the purpose of communicating promotional material to our clients, in particular our newsletter;
- internal, external, and regulatory audits;
- any other purpose authorized or required by applicable law or regulation;
- any other use to which you have consented.
Recipients of personal data
Your personal information may be shared with various recipients, including :
Our suppliers : We collaborate with third-party service providers who help us manage a range of technologies, such as the website, application development, maintenance and data processing, as well as with suppliers who provide administrative and document management services.
We limit the transmission of information to our service suppliers to that which is necessary for the performance of their functions. Contracts signed with these suppliers commit them to maintaining the confidentiality of this information. The selection of these providers is based on rigorous criteria, and all are required to scrupulously respect the confidentiality standards defined in our contractual agreements.
Legal obligation: where required by applicable laws, we may disclose personal information and other information to government authorities and law enforcement agencies. It is important to note that such disclosure may be made in accordance with our legal obligations.
Others: We may disclose personal information to third parties such as opposing parties, interested parties, opposing counsel and advisors, witnesses, decision-makers and experts.
Safety measures
We comply with widely recognized legal standards to secure the personal information we receive, both when it is transmitted and when it is received. We have established physical, technological, and organizational security measures. These include establishing policies and procedures for handling personal information, training our employees, setting up systems to control restricted access to our facilities, and restricting access to our servers and the files stored on them.
Despite all our resources, no method of electronic transmission or storage is completely risk-free. Consequently, we cannot guarantee the absolute security of your personal information. By using our services and sending us your personal information, you acknowledge and agree that you do so at your own risk. We also cannot ensure that such information will not be accessed, obtained, disclosed, altered, or destroyed as a result of a breach of our physical, technological and organizational security measures. If you have reason to believe that your personal information has been compromised, please immediately notify the Privacy Officer listed in the “Contact Us” section.
Storage of your personal information
Your personal data is stored securely, either on our premises or on servers under DS's control, located either in our own offices or in those of our service providers.
DS has implemented administrative and technological security measures appropriate to the sensitivity of your personal information to ensure its confidentiality. We use secure data networks protected by industry-standard firewalls. We ensure the security of client personal information communicated to third parties for processing.
Data retention period
The duration of personal information retention varies according to the services offered and the type of information. In accordance with the firm's policy on file retention, client files are kept for the periods set by the relevant bar associations. These periods generally vary between seven (7) and fifteen (15) years (depending on the jurisdiction) after the file has been closed. In addition, the policy provides for an extended retention period for certain types of files, due to their specific nature. When personal information is no longer required, the firm will destroy or delete it in accordance with its policies and procedures, whether at the firm's request or in compliance with the law.
Transfer of personal data
DS may store and process your personal information at its offices in Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa, Gatineau, Calgary, and Vancouver. Our servers are located in Canada. In addition, some of your personal information may be stored by some of our third-party service providers located in Canada and France.
Furthermore, the firm is part of the “DS Lawyers” worldwide network of law firms and, to the extent that it may be required for the execution of a mandate, it is possible that your personal information may be transferred to a country where DS Lawyers is established (i.e., Argentina, Belgium, Chile, China, France, Germany, Italy, Morocco, Peru, Senegal, Singapore, Spain, and Vietnam). Should such a situation arise, you will be notified of the transfer.
Your rights and how to exercise them
Request for access: Upon your written request, DS will inform you, with specific exceptions, of the existence, use and disclosure to third parties of your personal information, as well as provide you with the opportunity to access it. Please send your requests for access to our Privacy Officer, whose contact information is provided in the “Contact Us” section below.
Right of rectification: You have the right to request the rectification of any inaccurate information concerning you, as well as the completion of missing data (for example, adding an apartment number to an address) in relation to the purpose of the processing.
Right to deletion of data: You have the right to request DS to delete your personal data, under certain conditions and subject to the exceptions provided for by applicable law.
Right to restrict processing: If you dispute the accuracy of your data or object to its processing, you have the right to request that DS restrict processing. In this situation, DS will examine your request, and you will have the possibility of requesting the suspension of the use of your data during this period. Similarly, if DS intends to delete certain data, you may request that DS restrict the processing of that data, allowing you to retain the data, for example, in order to exercise a particular right.
Right to data transfer: If the processing of your data is based on your consent or on a contract, you have the right to receive the personal data you have provided to DS in a structured and widely used format. This enables you to transfer this data to another data controller. Where technically feasible, you may also request DS to transfer this data directly to the other designated data controller.
Right to object to processing: You have the right to object to the use of your data by DS Lawyers for specific purposes, providing reasons related to your particular situation (except in the case of commercial prospecting).
Right to file a complaint: If you feel that your rights to the protection of your personal information or data may have been violated, you have the right to file a complaint with the relevant regulatory authority or to have recourse to the courts.
Contact us
If you have any questions, comments or concerns about this Policy, or if you would like to make a complaint, exercise your rights or obtain more information about our policies and practices relating to the processing of personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer by e-mail at privacy@dsavocats.ca or by mail at the following address:
DS Avocats Canada LLP
Attention: Privacy Officer
400-580 Grande Allée East
Quebec City, Quebec G1R 2K2
Canada
We are committed to responding to your concerns as promptly as possible and to treating all confidentiality issues with the utmost care.
Unsubscribe from our communications
To discontinue receiving promotional communications, including our newsletter, you may unsubscribe by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link located at the bottom of each promotional e-mail you receive from us.
Please allow us a reasonable time to process your unsubscribe request, which will be processed as soon as possible in accordance with our internal procedures.
Changes to this privacy policy
DS may occasionally modify this policy, in particular in order to comply with any regulatory, legal, editorial or technical developments. Where applicable, we will change the “last updated” date and indicate the date on which the changes were made. Any personal information we hold about you will be treated in accordance with the version of the Policy then in effect.
