Privacy and the Protection of Personal Information – Dated January 1, 2004 Our Commitment to Privacy At I.A. Michael Investment Counsel Ltd. we respect your privacy and the confidentiality of your personal information. We are committed to keeping the personal information you share with us, whether over the Internet, on the telephone or through our office and backoffice, confidential. The use of such information will only be for the purpose for which it was collected. This Privacy Policy explains how I.A. Michael Investment Counsel Ltd. and its affiliated companies collect, use, disclose and protect the personal information we obtain. References to “IAMICL” are to the corporate entity I.A. Michael Investment Counsel Ltd. and include its affiliates, depending upon the context. What is Personal Information? Personal information is any information about you as an identifiable individual and includes information with respect to your name, address, age, gender, income, marital status, finances, employment, trading history and web site use information, together with your personal references and identification numbers (such as a social insurance number). Important Principles For Your Protection Our Privacy Policy applies to individuals, including individuals carrying on business alone or in partnership with other individuals. It consists of the following key principles: Collecting and Using Personal Information – Either before or when we collect personal information about you, we will explain how we intend to use it. We will limit the personal information we collect to what we need for those purposes, and we will use it only for those purposes. We will obtain your consent if we wish to use your personal information for any other purpose or before collecting personal information from, or providing personal information to, parties not affiliated with IAMICL. Disclosing Personal Information – We may provide your personal information to other persons, but only where we have your consent or where we are required or permitted to do so by law. Protecting Personal Information – We will protect the personal information we obtain about you with appropriate safeguards and security measures. We will retain your personal information only for the time it is required for the purposes we explain or as otherwise required by law. Access to and Accuracy of Your Personal Information – We will give you access to the personal information we retain about you. We will make every reasonable effort to keep your personal information accurate and up-to-date. Accountability and Openness to Your Privacy Concerns – We will explain your options of refusing or withdrawing consent to the collection, use and release of your personal information, and we will record and respect your choices. We will investigate and respond to your concerns about any aspect of our handling of your personal information. The following sections will answer most of the important questions that you may have about how we fulfil each of these important principles, and how we will hold ourselves accessible and accountable to you. Why We Ask for Your Personal Information We ask you for information to establish and serve you as our client. Personal information obtained from you will be used by IAMICL to protect and administer your accounts, records and funds; to comply with certain laws, regulations and regulatory policies; to help IAMICL improve products and services offered to you; and to understand your financial needs. The information we ask for depends on the products or services you request and in most cases are required by law or the policies of the regulatory organizations to which we are subject. Your social insurance number, for example, is required for products that earn investment income, in order to comply with the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency’s income reporting requirements. How We Collect Personal Information About You We obtain most of our information about you directly from you. With your consent, we may obtain personal information about you from third parties. Obtaining additional personal information about you from parties related to accounts you are transferring into or out of IAMICL is part of the transfer process. Privacy on the Internet We recognise that you may have special privacy concerns regarding our services provided on the Internet. In particular, we will want to ensure that your personal information is secure and that you are aware of and can control our use of your personal information in the Internet environment. You can contribute to the confidentiality of your personally identifiable information when using our Web site by not disclosing your designated username and password to anyone (when this feature is available). Remember e-mail over the Internet is generally unencrypted. We recommend that you do not send us sensitive or confidential information by ordinary email, as unencrypted email is generally not secure. We are equally concerned about your privacy on the Internet and this Privacy Policy applies in its entirety to anything you might do while visiting our Web site. IAMICL also uses “cookies”, a standard technology that installs information on a visitor’s computer to permit our Web site to recognise future visits by that computer. Cookies enhance the convenience and use of the Web site. For example, IAMICL uses the information provided through cookies to recognise you as a previous user of the site, offer customised Web pages for your use, track your activity at our Web site to respond to your needs, and otherwise facilitate your Web experience. The cookie is not used to retrieve any information from your computer that you have not already provided. You may choose to disable the “cookies” option on your browser; however doing so may affect your use of our Web site and your ability to access certain parts of our Web site. When We Release Your Personal Information Under no circumstances do we sell client lists or personal information to others. We release your personal information to parties outside IAMICL only under the following circumstances. With Your Consent – We will disclose your personal information with your prior consent. To Facilitate Trading in Securities – We give a limited amount of information, only as necessary, to our service providers and agents such as our data processing agent or securities clearing agent, for the purposes of facilitating transactions in your account. When Required or Permitted by Law – In certain circumstances, the law may require or permit IAMICL to disclose your personal information without your knowledge or specific consent. For example, such information may be disclosed if required to comply with a subpoena, warrant, or court order, or if requested by a government institution which has the lawful authority to obtain the information. For Regulatory Purposes – From time to time we may disclose your personal information to securities regulatory and oversight organizations to which IAMICL is subject, for the purposes of an audit or investigation relating to your relationship with IAMICL or IAMICL’s business generally. Protection of Public Interest – We may disclose information to the authorities to serve a clear public interest and fulfil our public duty – such as to protect against fraud, money laundering or other criminal activity. In exceptional circumstances it may be necessary that we disclose your personally identifiable information if we believe, in good faith, that disclosure is otherwise necessary or advisable to protect IAMICL’s interests. We will seek to ensure that any proposed disclosure is required in the circumstances and then ensure that we disclose only the information that is required. Understanding Your Options We will explain your options of refusing or withdrawing consent to the collection, use or release of your personal information, and we will record and respect your choices. In many cases you are free to refuse or withdraw your consent at any time. You may do so by contacting our office at 416-365-9696, or toll free at 1-888-673-6222. Our staff will be pleased to explain your options and any consequences of refusing or withdrawing your consent, and record your options. With few exceptions, you can change your options at any time. Please remember that if you do not give your consent to pass on your information to our service providers, we may not be able to provide the particular product or service you have requested. How We Protect Your Information IAMICL stores and processes your personal information in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. We will protect your personal information with appropriate safeguards and security measures. We have security standards to protect our systems and your personal information against unauthorised access and use. We use our best efforts to ensure our suppliers and agents, as part of their contracts with IAMICL, are bound to maintain your confidentiality and may not use the information they obtain for any unauthorised purpose. When we provide information in response to a legal inquiry or order, we ensure that the order is valid and we disclose only the information that is legally required. All employees of IAMICL are familiar with the procedures that must be taken to safeguard customer information. And to us, protecting the confidentiality of your personal information is part of our jobs. We audit our procedures and security measures regularly to ensure that they are being properly administered and that they remain effective and appropriate. We retain your personal information only as long as it is required for the reasons it was collected or as required by law. The length of time we retain information varies depending on the product or service and the nature of the information. This period may extend beyond the end of your relationship with us but only for so long as it is legally necessary for us to have sufficient information to respond to any issue that may arise at a later date. When your personal information is no longer needed or required, we have procedures to destroy, delete, erase or convert it to an anonymous form. Your Right to Access Your Information We will give you access to the information we have about you. Most of this information is in the form of your transaction records which can be obtained by contacting IAMCIL in writing at our mailing address – PO Box 47599, Toronto, Ontario M3C 3S7. If you require other information, simply contact our office. We will ask you for specific details such as account number. We will advise you in advance if a minimal charge will be required for conducting the search, and we will respond to your request promptly but in any case within 30 days. Please note that we may not be able to provide information about you from our records if it contains references to other persons, is subject to legal privilege, contains information proprietary to IAMICL or cannot be disclosed for other legal reasons. If you have any questions regarding decisions made, we will tell you the reasons for those decisions. Also, we do not ordinarily maintain disclosure records for regular or routine actions, updating of credit information, if required, or account balance deficiencies. Keeping Your Information Accurate We will make every reasonable effort to keep your personal information accurate and up-to-date. Having accurate information about you enables us to give you the best possible service. You can help by keeping us informed of any changes such as if you move or change telephone numbers. If you find any errors in our information about you, let us know and we will make the corrections as soon as reasonably possible and make sure they are conveyed to anyone we may have misinformed. For information that remains in dispute, we will note your opinion in the file. Your Concerns Matter to Us Your comments and concerns are important to IAMICL. If you have any concerns or questions about privacy and confidentiality, or any concerns about the way a request for information was handled, contact IAMICL directly in writing at PO Box 47599, Toronto, Ontario M3C 3S7, by telephone at 416-365-9696 or toll free at 1-888-673-6222, or by facsimile at 416-365-9705.
