Privacy Policy

Norton McMullen LLP’s Privacy Policy

Effective - March 10, 2023

1. General

At Norton McMullen LLP (“NMLLP”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) we take the privacy of our users very seriously. This privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) is a part of our Terms of Use and it describes our policies on the collection, use, and disclosure of information that applies to your access and use of the website located at Norton McMullen (nmcpa.ca) (the “Website”) and our products and services (the “Services”) on behalf of yourself or your organization.

The Website includes, but is not limited to, all other sites owned and operated by NMLLP that redirect to the Website, all subdomains provided through such other site or the Website, and all downloadable applications, features, functionality, content, or information that is made available or provided on the Website. The Website is made available to you for the purpose of providing you with access to information about NMLLP and our Services. “Users” and “you” refer to anyone who visits our Website, uses our Services, or communicates with us.

For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, “personal information” is any information about an identifiable individual, which includes information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person. Personal information excludes business contact information.

This Privacy Policy applies to information collected by the Website and the Services. It will notify you of the following:

(a) What personal information is collected from you through the Website and the Services, how it is used, and with whom it may be shared.

(b) What choices are available to you regarding the use of your personal information.

(d) How you can correct any inaccuracies in your personal information.

2. Agreeing to The Terms of Our Privacy Policy

Before using the Website or Services, or submitting any personal information to NMLLP, please review this Privacy Policy carefully and contact us if you have any questions. By visiting and making use of the Services and the Website, you agree with this Privacy Policy, meaning you expressly consent to the personal information handling practices in accordance with this Privacy Policy. You acknowledge and agree that such personal information may be transferred from your current location to the offices and servers of NMLLP and authorized third parties referred to herein located in Canada. If you do not agree to this Privacy Policy, please do not access the Website or use the Services.

Providing personal information or authorizing a third party to disclose personal information to us signifies your consent to NMLLP’s collection, use, and disclosure of personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

3. What Personal Information Do We Collect?

The information we may collect or obtain includes, but is not limited to:

(a) Communication Information: We may collect information when you contact us with questions or concerns (such as for support purposes) and when you voluntarily respond to questionnaires, surveys, or requests for market research seeking your opinion and feedback. Providing communication information is optional to you. We collect the information you provide to us, including your name, email address, and phone number.

(b) Social Media Information: We have pages on social media sites like LinkedIn (“Social Media Pages”). When you interact with our Social Media Pages, we will collect personal information that you elect to provide to us, such as your contact details. In addition, the companies that host our Social Media Pages may provide us with aggregate information and analytics regarding the use of our Social Media Pages.

Information will be collected by fair and lawful means. We will not take more information than we need, and you decide how and what you want to share.

4. Information Collection and Use

We are the sole owners of the information collected on our Website or via our Services. We only have access to/collect information that you voluntarily give us via email or other direct contact from you. We will not sell or rent this information to anyone.

We use your Personal Information for the following purposes:

(i) We use the information we collect from you to respond to your requests, communicate with you, and customize your use of our Website or Services. This includes sending you marketing communications, including notifying you of special promotions, offers, and events via email and other means. We will not share your information with any third party outside of our organization without your knowledge and consent, other than as described in this Privacy Policy or as necessary to fulfill your request.

(ii) To the extent permitted by applicable law, we may use, process, transfer, and store any data about individuals and customers in an anonymous (or pseudonymous) and aggregated manner. We may combine personal information with other information collected online and offline, including information from third party sources. We may share anonymized data with third parties for business development purposes.

(iii) We may also use your personal information in other ways with consent or as permitted by applicable law.

By using the Website and/or the Services, you agree that we are hereby licensed to collect, use, share, and store data collected through the Website or your use of the Services for benchmarking, analytics, metrics, research, reporting, machine learning, and other business purposes.

Unless you ask us not to, we may contact you via email to specifically answer your requests or notify you of changes to this Privacy Policy.

5. When Do We Share Your Personal Information?

There are some circumstances where we may share your personal information with a third party. For example:

(a) Legal Matters: We reserve the right to disclose personal information if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is reasonably necessary to comply with legal process, enforce our Terms of Use, respond to claims, or to protect the rights, property or safety of NMLLP, our affiliates, our customers, service providers, or the public.

(b) Professional Advisors: We may share personal information with our affiliates or any business partners or agents acting on our behalf or with our financial, insurance, legal, or other advisors that provide professional services to us.

(c) Maintenance: Your personal information may be disclosed to a company or individual employed or engaged by us to perform functions on our behalf such as data processing or document retention. Any such disclosure of your personal information is made on a strictly confidential basis, and the information is to be used only for the purpose for which it was shared. We ensure that the company or individual adheres to this Privacy Policy.

(d) Business Matters: We may share, disclose or transfer personal information to a buyer, investor, new affiliate, or other successor in the event NMLLP or any affiliate, portion, group or business unit thereof, undergoes a business transition, such as a merger, acquisition, consolidation, reorganization, divestiture, liquidation or dissolution (including bankruptcy), or a sale or other transfer of all or a portion of any assets of NMLLP or any affiliates or during steps in contemplation of such activities (e.g., negotiations and due diligence).

(e) Regulatory Requirements: Subject to applicable regulations, we may disclose your personal information to a government agency, court, or law enforcement personnel.

In the instances described above, we may be required to share your Personal Information with or without your consent. In limited circumstances, we may be legally prohibited from advising you that your information was shared in this way.

6. Accuracy, and Your Access to and Control Over Information

We encourage you to review and confirm the accuracy of all personal information provided to us. You can do the following at any time by contacting us:

(a) See what data we have about you, if any.

(b) Change/correct any data we have about you.

(d) Express any concern you have about our use of your data.

If you want to exercise any such right, kindly contact our Privacy Officer, David Austring, at daustring@nmcpa.ca.

If you refuse to provide us with the information we require or later contact us to withdraw your consent for us to use and disclose your personal information, we may no longer be able to provide you with our Services.

7. Security

We take precautions and implement safeguards designed to protect your personal information. You use the Website and Services at your own risk. We implement commercially reasonable technical, administrative, and organizational measures to protect personal information both online and offline from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. In addition, our employees and contractors understand the importance of keeping your information private. All employees and contractors are expected to maintain the confidentiality of personal information. Some of our measures include:

(a) physical measures, such as, locking filing cabinets and restricting access to offices;

(b) organizational measures, such as, security passes and limiting access to personal information on a “need-to-know” basis;

(d) procedural measures, such as, the shredding of sensitive personal information.

Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet or data storage system can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. In particular, email sent to or from us may not be secure. Therefore, despite our efforts, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. Consequently, you should take special care in deciding what information you send to us via the Website, Services, or email. Please keep this in mind when disclosing any personal information to NMLLP through the Internet. In addition, we are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Website or Services, or third-party websites. We encourage all individuals to provide only the information they are comfortable with providing a third party, keep watch for communications that are suspicious, and report any suspicious activity to us as soon as possible.

NMLLP also maintains a secure Client Portal which you should use to upload sensitive financial information that may be required by NMLLP in the provision of accounting services.

WE DO NOT WARRANT OR REPRESENT THAT PERSONAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU WILL BE PROTECTED AGAINST, LOSS, MISUSE, OR ALTERATION BY THIRD PARTIES.

8. Personal Information used by Third Party Websites

From time to time, we may include links to third party websites which are not controlled or maintained by us. We are not responsible for personal information submitted by you to third party websites or the personal information collected by third party websites. The information that you share with third party websites will be governed by their specific privacy policies and terms of service and not by this Privacy Policy. By providing these links, we do not imply that we endorse or have reviewed these websites. You should review the privacy policies of third party websites or contact the third-party website’s operator if you have questions or concerns.

9. Tracking

Here are some of the ways you can limit online tracking:

(a) Do Not Track: We will not respond to web browser “do not track” or similar signals. If you would like additional information about online tracking and various opt-out mechanisms, please see https://youradchoices.com/.

(b) Block Cookies: Most browsers let you remove or reject cookies, including cookies used for interest-based advertising. To do this, follow the instructions in your browser settings. Many browsers accept cookies by default until you change your settings. Use the following links to learn more about how to control cookies and online tracking through your browser: Firefox; Chrome; Microsoft Edge; Safari

(c) Use Privacy Plug-Ins or Browsers: You can block our Services from setting cookies used for interest-based ads by using a browser with privacy features, like Brave, or installing browser plugins like Privacy Badger, DuckDuckGo, Ghostery or uBlock Origin, and configuring them to block third party cookies/trackers.

Because we link to social media sites, and from time to time may include third-party advertisements, other parties may collect your personally identifiable information about your online activities over time and across different websites when you visit this Website.

Please note that not all tracking will stop even if you delete cookies.

10. Age of Majority

NMLLP does not knowingly collect personal information from individuals under the age of 18 without verification of parental consent, and the Website and Services are not intended for them. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from an individual under the age of 18 without verification of parental consent, we will delete such personal information. If you believe we might have any information from or about any such individual, please contact us as set forth below.

11. Personal Information Retention and Data Deletion

We keep personal information until:

(a) We no longer need it to satisfy the purposes described in this Privacy Policy; and

(b) We have no legal obligation to keep it.

If you wish to have us delete your data held on our servers, please contact us at the support contact information listed in this Privacy Policy.

12. Changes to the Privacy Policy

We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time in our sole discretion, so please be sure to check back periodically. You can tell if this Privacy Policy has changed by checking the last updated date that appears at the beginning of this Privacy Policy. We may, but are not obligated to, provide you with notice in case of any material changes made to this Privacy Policy. You should not continue using the Services if you do not agree with the version of this Privacy Policy in effect at that time. By continuing to use the Services, you agree and accept the version of this Privacy Policy in effect at that time. Any changes will be effective only after the effective date of the change and will not affect any dispute arising prior to the effective date of the change.

13. Limitation of Liability

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL NMLLP BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT OR INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES THAT MAY ARISE FROM A CLAIM OF BREACH OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages. In such jurisdictions, our liability is limited to the greatest extent permitted by law, or $5, whichever is less.

14. Job Applicants

When you apply for a job with NMLLP, we collect the information that you provide in connection with your job application. This includes name, contact information, professional credentials and skills, educational and work history, and other information that may be included in a resume or provided during interviews (which may be recorded). This may also include demographic or diversity information that you voluntarily provide. We may also conduct background checks and receive related information.

We use applicants’ information to facilitate our recruitment activities and process employment applications, including evaluating candidates and monitoring recruitment statistics. We use successful applicants’ information to administer the employment relationship. We may also use and disclose applicants’ information (a) to improve our Website; (b) as otherwise necessary to comply with relevant laws; (c) to respond to subpoenas or warrants served on NMLLP; and (d) to protect and defend the rights or property of NMLLP or others.

15. Governing law

This Privacy Policy and all related matters shall be interpreted and construed in accordance with the laws of the Province of Ontario and the applicable federal laws of Canada.

16. Contact

If you have any requests, questions or comments about your personal information or this Privacy Policy, you may contact our Privacy Officer, David Austring:

(a) By email: daustring@nmcpa.ca

(b) By Phone: 905-479-7001