Privacy Statement

Privacy Statement

The OSC is committed to respecting your privacy and protecting your personal information when you visit any of our websites in order to browse for information, make an inquiry, or conduct business with us.

The OSC will only collect, use, or disclose your personal information in accordance with the provisions of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) and the Securities Act. We will only collect personal information from you if it is needed to provide you with online services or products that you have requested. This will only be done with your consent and you will be informed of the purpose and authority for the collection at the time of collection.

Collection. Personal information about you that the OSC collects may include the following:

  • information that you provide when you contact us about one of our products or services or enroll in one of our activities, contests or courses, including age, school and teacher’s name and contact particulars when students enter our competitions;
  • name, address, telephone number, email addresses and other contact information;
  • demographic data such as age and investment experience;
  • preferences such as how individuals use the websites and what they would like to see on the websites; and
  • other information that we collect with your consent or as permitted or required by law.

Use. The OSC may use your personal information for the following purposes:

  • to contact you to send information you have requested;
  • to send you newsletters and other electronic communications that you have subscribed to;
  • to respond to your questions and requests;
  • to conduct and administer surveys, promotions, competitions, games and contests; and
  • otherwise with your consent or as permitted or required by law.

Disclosure. The OSC may disclose your personal information in the following circumstances:

  • to enforce or apply our Terms of Use and other agreements;
  • as necessary to meet legal, regulatory, insurance, audit, processing and security requirements; and
  • otherwise with your consent or as permitted or required by law.

Service Providers. We may also transfer personal information to third party agents or service providers which provide services such as data processing, mailing, administrative, website or other online analytics or other services on our behalf. We take reasonable measures to ensure that your personal information that is processed by these service providers is protected and not used or disclosed for purposes other than as directed by us. Some of our service providers may be located in foreign jurisdictions and will be subject to the laws of such jurisdictions, which may permit foreign government and national security authorities access to your personal information in certain circumstances.

Our Website. Certain browsing information may be collected to help the OSC evaluate our websites and determine how they are used. For example, we may collect your IP address, browser type, operating system, domain name, access times, pages viewed, and referring website addresses. This information may be combined with that of other visitors to the websites and used for the management and improvement of same; for example, we may use such information to assess which areas of the websites are most commonly accessed. The OSC may use service providers to help us collect and analyze this information, and we may share this information and other information of this type with service providers retained by the OSC to assist in the development and administration of the websites.

Your Consent. Your consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information may be given in various ways. Generally, by providing us with personal information, we will assume that you consent to our collection, use and disclosure of such information for the purposes identified or described in this Privacy Statement, if applicable, or otherwise at the time of collection.

You may withdraw your consent to our collection, use and disclosure of personal information at any time, subject to contractual and legal restrictions and reasonable notice, by contacting us as explained below. Note, however, that if you withdraw your consent to certain uses of your personal information, we may no longer be able to provide related products or services to you.

Security. We protect your personal information in our custody or control using physical, electronic or procedural security measures appropriate to the sensitivity of the information, which may include safeguards to protect against loss or theft, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification. We retain and dispose of your personal information in accordance with Regulations under FIPPA. 

When you visit our websites, we collect a limited amount of statistical information which does not personally identify you. We may use both session and persistent cookies which are small files that are created by a web site, sent to your browser, and stored on the hard drive of your computer. A session cookie expires after you leave the website whereas a persistent cookie remains until it expires.

Cookies are used to make it more convenient for you to move around the site when you visit that site; for example, they can remember your web viewing preferences such as choice of language or accessibility options. They can also assist us in monitoring traffic patterns so that website content and design can be improved for visitors.

Cookies do not personally identify you but, if you prefer, you are able to visit our sites with cookies disabled.

If you prefer not to use our websites because of concerns about the disclosure of your information via the Internet, you may still contact us by telephone, fax, or regular mail.

Some of our websites link to other sites or include content that is created and maintained by other public and private sector organizations. Although these links and content are provided for your information and convenience, you should be aware that the privacy practices and the manner in which these organizations use personal information may differ from the OSC. These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with the site and/or its content. Therefore, you should refer to the privacy policy or statement that may be contained on such a site.