Privacy Policy

1. Scope and accountability

This Privacy Policy explains how Vital Shield Risk Advisory collects, uses, discloses, safeguards and retains personal information, in accordance with Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), Alberta's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), British Columbia's PIPA where applicable, and Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL).

It applies to this website, our forms, our email, telephone, SMS and WhatsApp communications, our client and applicant records, and the Vital Shield Referral (Affiliate) Partner Program. We are accountable for personal information under our control, including information handled on our behalf by service providers.

2. Information we collect

Directly from you: name, email address, telephone number, city and province, occupation or business type, the content of any message you write, and your consent choices. For consultations we may also collect information needed for a needs analysis and application — date of birth, income, occupation class, existing coverage, beneficiaries and, where an insurer requires it, health and lifestyle information.

From referral partners: the name and contact details of a person they introduce, provided with that person's permission, and the partner's own contact, business and payment-administration details.

Automatically: page addresses, referring links, UTM campaign parameters, approximate location derived from IP address, device and browser type, and interaction events such as form submissions and call, email or messaging clicks. Administrative accounts additionally have sign-in time, IP address and security events recorded in an audit log.

3. Sensitive information

Health, financial and other sensitive information is collected only where it is needed to arrange coverage, only with your knowledge and consent, and normally directly with a licensed agent rather than through website forms. Please do not send medical details, government identifiers or financial account numbers through the website.

4. How and why we use it

To respond to enquiries and arrange consultations with a licensed agent; to prepare a needs analysis and, where you choose to proceed, to submit applications to insurers; to service policies and assist at claim time; to administer the referral partner program, including verifying consent, attributing introductions and paying fees; to operate, secure and improve this website; and to meet legal, regulatory, tax and record-keeping obligations.

We do not sell personal information. We do not use personal information for automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects, and we do not profile individuals for third-party advertising.

5. Consent

We collect, use and disclose personal information with your consent, except where the law permits or requires otherwise. Consent may be express (for example, ticking a checkbox or signing an application) or implied by your providing information for an obvious purpose, such as asking us to contact you.

Consent to receive commercial electronic messages is always separate, never pre-ticked, and never a condition of submitting a form or being considered for the partner program. You may withdraw consent at any time, subject to legal or contractual restrictions; withdrawing consent may mean we can no longer provide a service.

6. Referrals and third-party consent

If you introduce someone to us, you must have that person's express permission before sharing their name or contact details. Every referral partner confirms this at application and with each introduction.

We confirm consent directly with the person before proceeding, and we tell them who introduced them and that a referral fee is payable to that person. If we receive contact details for someone who has not consented, we will not use them and will delete them.

7. Electronic messages (CASL)

We send commercial electronic messages only where we have express or implied consent under CASL. Every commercial message identifies us, gives our mailing address, telephone number and email address, and includes a working unsubscribe mechanism that we action within ten business days and normally far sooner.

Transactional and service messages — such as replying to your enquiry, confirming an appointment, or communicating about an application or policy — are not marketing and are sent regardless of marketing preferences.

8. Who we share it with

Insurers and their underwriting, medical and reinsurance service providers, where you have applied for coverage; managing general agencies and distribution partners involved in placing the policy; our customer-relationship, hosting, database, email delivery, analytics and security providers; professional advisors such as accountants and lawyers; and regulators, law enforcement or courts where required or permitted by law.

Service providers act on our instructions under contractual confidentiality and security obligations and may not use personal information for their own purposes.

9. Storage, transfers outside Canada, and safeguards

Personal information is stored on access-controlled, encrypted infrastructure. Some service providers process or store data outside Canada, including in the United States and the European Union, where it may be accessible to courts, law enforcement and national security authorities of that jurisdiction under applicable local law. We use contractual and technical protections comparable to those we apply in Canada.

Our safeguards include encryption in transit and at rest, role-based access limited to people who need it, multi-factor authentication and lockout controls on administrative accounts, audit logging of administrative and security events, rate limiting and abuse detection on forms, and regular review of access.

No system is perfectly secure. If a breach creates a real risk of significant harm, we will notify affected individuals and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada as required by law, and keep records of breaches as required.

10. Cookies, analytics and tracking

This website uses strictly necessary cookies and similar technologies to operate securely, and analytics (including Google Analytics 4) to understand how people find and use the site and which calls to action they use. Analytics data is used in aggregate; we ask our analytics provider to anonymise IP addresses and we do not use it to identify you personally.

We record UTM campaign parameters and referring links so we can attribute enquiries to the channel they came from. Referral partner attribution is recorded only after a consented, named introduction; we do not use public tracked links.

You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, and you can opt out of Google Analytics using Google's browser add-on. Blocking cookies may affect how parts of the website work.

11. Retention

We keep personal information only as long as needed for the purposes described here or as required by law and insurance-industry record-keeping obligations. Enquiries that do not proceed are generally retained for up to twenty-four months; client and application records are retained for the life of the policy and for the period required afterwards by law, insurer requirements and limitation periods; partner records are retained for the duration of participation and for the applicable tax and limitation period afterwards. Information is then securely deleted or anonymised.

12. Your rights

You may ask to access the personal information we hold about you and information about how it has been used and disclosed; ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information; withdraw consent; ask us to delete information where we are not required to keep it; and ask questions about this policy.

We respond to written requests within thirty days, or tell you if we need an extension permitted by law. We may need to verify your identity, and in limited cases the law requires or permits us to withhold information — for example where it would reveal another person's personal information or is subject to legal privilege. We will explain the reason.

13. Children

This website is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under the age of majority in their province except as part of an application made by a parent or guardian for a child's coverage. If you believe a child has given us information, contact us and we will delete it.

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as our practices, technology or the law change. The current version is always published on this page with its last-updated date. Where changes are material, we will take reasonable steps to bring them to your attention.

15. Complaints

If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your personal information, contact our Privacy Officer using the details below. We will acknowledge your complaint, investigate and respond in writing. If you remain unsatisfied, you may complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, or to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta or of British Columbia where applicable.