GERMAN FONG ALBUS
Privacy Principles
The Personal Information Protection Act ("the Act") regulates the way private sector organizations within Alberta collect, use and disclose personal information.
Personal information is any information that identifies you. In Alberta business contact information such as your office address, job title, business phone number, email address, fax number or other related business contact information is not considered personal information.
We, at GERMAN FONG ALBUS , recognize the importance of client privacy and the sensitivity of the personal information that we may have concerning any individual. As practicing lawyers we have a professional and ethical obligation to keep confidential all information we receive within a lawyer‑client relationship subject to the client's instructions to provide legal services. Further, we are committed to safeguarding the personal information we have or control concerning any individual.
In compliance with reasonable and prudent business practice, GERMAN FONG ALBUS has developed policies and procedures regarding its collection use, retention and disclosure of personal information in respect of its clients, its employees and others.
Why We Collect Personal Information
We collect personal information for the purposes of serving the legal and related needs of our clients. We require information to:
- Understand, access and assist you, our client, with your ongoing legal needs.
- Ensure information is accurate and up‑to‑date.
- Collect information through legal means on you and other individuals for the purposes of providing legal services to clients.
How do we collect your personal information?
We collect personal information only by lawful and fair means and only that which is reasonably necessary for the purposes identified. When we make directed individual requests for your relevant sensitive personal information from a particular organization or business, such as medical professionals or financial institutions, we will obtain your written consent. Wherever possible we collect your personal information directly from you. We may ask you for your consent, at the start of a retainer and during the course of our representation. Your consent may be in writing, verbal or implied as necessary to further your legal needs.
The Act provides that an individual is deemed to consent to the collection, use or disclosure of personal information about that individual for a particular purpose if the individual voluntarily provides the information for that purpose, and it is reasonable that a person would voluntarily provide that information.
By retaining this firm for legal advice or representation, we consider that an individual consents to our collection, use or disclosure of the individual's personal information as necessary to properly advise and represent the individual.
Sometimes we may obtain information about you from other sources including:
- Accountants or other professional advisors
- Medical professionals
- Government agencies or registries
- Financial institutions
- Your employer
- Insurance companies
- Motor vehicle and driver licensing authorities
- Law enforcement, if relevant
- Credit bureaus or investigators
- Other third parties that represent they have the right to disclose such personal information
Consent
- Our practice is to request either your written or express oral consent, which may be given in person or over the telephone if your identity is authenticated;
- If you volunteer to provide relevant personal information verbally or in writing, we assume that you are consenting to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information as described in our Privacy Policy, or
- When you initiate contact with us, we may determine that consent has been implied for us to collect, use and disclose personal information in a reasonable manner.
- In some situations, we will require express consent in writing, by the provision of a letter, application form, electronic signature, or other document authorizing certain activities.
The Act also permits us to collect, use or disclose personal information about an individual in some circumstances without the individual's consent. Such circumstances include (but are not limited) to where:
- the collection, use or disclosure is clearly in the interests of the individual and consent cannot be obtained in a timely way;
- collection, use, or disclosure is reasonable for the purposes of an investigation or proceeding;
- the personal information is available to the public from a prescribed source; or
- the collection, use, or disclosure is required or authorized by a statute or regulation of Alberta or Canada.
When we collect, use or disclose personal information, we will make reasonable efforts to ensure that it is accurate and complete. The Act also allows us, for legal or business purposes, to retain personal information for as long as is reasonable.
Use of Your Information
We use your personal information to provide legal advice and services to you and to administer our legal business incidental to providing legal services, such as client billing. With your permission, we may send you information about our other legal services, or about new developments in the law. You may at any time withdraw your consent by notifying us, and we will not send you any such material.
We do not disclose or sell your personal information or business contact information to any third party to enable them to market their products and services.
Who do we release information to?
When we release information about you, it is done to serve specific needs, in the course of providing legal services. With your consent, we may provide information to:
- Our staff and agents who use the information for the reasonable business purpose of providing you with legal services
- When the legal services we are providing to you require us to give your information to third parties (for example a lendor in a real estate/mortgage transaction)
- If a Court issues a subpoena
- Professionals working with us such as investigators, paralegals and experts
- If we retain other law firms in other jurisdictions on your behalf.
Accuracy of Your Information
You have the right to request a correction of the personal information that we hold about you. We rely on you to provide us with accurate and up‑to‑date personal and business contact information for the purposes of providing you with legal services and to maintain contact with you. If during the course of our professional relationship, any of your information changes, please inform us so that we can make any necessary changes.
Security of Personal Information
We recognize our professional and legal obligations to protect the confidential information of our clients. We recognize as well our legal obligations to protect the personal information we have gathered about our clients and about other individuals during the course of our practice of law.
We have therefore made arrangements to secure against the loss, theft, unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification, disposal or destruction of personal information.
Such measures vary depending on the sensitivity, amount, format, nature and storage of personal information and involves, as applicable, physical, organizational and electronic security measures.
Access to your personal information
You may request access to the personal information we have about you. The request must be in writing and directed to the law firm's privacy officer identified below. We will charge a reasonable fee for retrieval and copying of your personal information. If the retrieval or copying or your request is extensive, we will notify you of the fee prior to retrieval and copying.
An individual's ability to access his or her personal information under our control is not absolute. The law provides that we must not disclose personal information where:
- the disclosure could reasonably be expected to threaten the safety or physical or mental health of an individual other than the individual who made the request;
- your file contains personal information on a third party and the information cannot be severed to maintain the privacy of the third party information;
- required or authorized by law (for example, when a record containing personal information about you is subject to a claim of legal professional privilege by one of our clients);
The law further provides that we may choose not to disclose personal information where:
- the personal information is protected by any legal privilege;
- the disclosure of the information would reveal confidential commercial information and it is not unreasonable to withhold that information;
- the personal information was collected by us for an investigation or legal proceeding;
- your information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings against you, including unpaid bills to the law firm;
If we deny your request for access to, or refuse a request to correct information, we shall explain why. In all cases we will attempt to mediate a resolution if possible.
Communications by Email
E‑mail is not a secure, confidential method of communicating your confidential and personal information with us. We will not use e‑mail to send personal or confidential information unless you expressly authorize this form of communication and accept all the inherent risks associated with this type of communication.
Requests for Correction of Personal Information
The law permits individuals to submit written requests to us to correct errors or omissions in their personal information that is in our custody or control. We will:
- correct the personal information and, if reasonable to do so, send correction notifications to any other organizations to whom we disclosed the incorrect information; or
- decide not to correct the personal information but annotate the personal information that a correction was requested but not made.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may review and change our Privacy Policy from time to time in order to update our privacy commitment to you in keeping with current privacy laws.Contacting or Communicating with Us
If you have any questions with respect to our policies concerning the handling of your personal information, or if you wish to request access to, or correction of, your personal information under our care and control, please contact us:
Privacy Officer
German Fong Albus
Barristers and Solicitors
418, 715 - 5 Avenue S.W.
Calgary, Alberta. T2P 2X6Telephone (403) 263-7880
Facsimile (403) 237-7075
E-mail www.gfal-law.com
If you are dissatisfied with our handling of your personal information, we invite you to contact our Privacy Officer in writing, setting out the reasons for your concern. If you remain dissatisfied after our Privacy Officer has reviewed and responded to your concern, you may wish to contact the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner at:
410, 9925-8209; 109 Street
Edmonton, Alberta. T5K 2J8
Telephone (780) 422-6860 or 1-888-878-4044
Facsimile (780) 422-5682
E-mail www.oipc.ab.ca