Privacy Policy2018-01-30T17:09:24+00:00

Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to www.accordsmallbusinessfinance.ca (“Website”), which is owned and operated by Accord Small Business Finance Corp. (“ACCORD,” “Us,” or We”).  The Website facilitates our business loan and lease products and related services (collectively the “Services”).  This Privacy Policy describes how ACCORD collects and uses the personal information you provide (directly or through third parties), or which is automatically generated, when you interact with the Website.

This Privacy Policy also describes the choices available to you regarding our use of your personal information and how you can access and update such information.  For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, “Personal Information” means information that personally identifies you, including your contact information, IP address, and loan application information.  A large portion of the Personal Information we collect, use, share, and store is sensitive in nature, including your social insurance number and financial account information (“Sensitive Personal Information”).

If you have an unresolved privacy or data use concern that we have not addressed satisfactorily in this Privacy Policy or otherwise, please contact our legal department at legal@accordfinancial.net

INFORMATION WE COLLECT

We will ask you to provide information that enables us to complete your requests, to provide better service or to offer you products and services we believe you might be interested in.   We may collect information that you provide through the Website, by email, or when you complete an online form.  Such information may include:

  • Information establishing your identity, such as your name, business name, title, email address, mailing address, fax number, phone number, date of birth, and social insurance number;
  • Information to authenticate your identity, such as knowledge-based information (i.e. username, password and account information);
  • Information related to transactions arising from an established relationship with and through us, as well as, information from other financial institutions, such as bank account information and statements, credit card statements, your average bank balances, personal and business credit history, payment behavior and credit worthiness, and financial liabilities;
  • Employment or business information including company size, and business type;
  • Statistical information about how users interact with the Website, such as the average time spent on a specific mobile or web page.

In addition to collecting information via the Website, we may also conduct a site visit to collect information, and obtain information and external data used by lenders to process applications and complete and manage transactions.  We also collect financial and other information about you from a variety of sources including from: references you have provided to us, transactions you have made with or through us, credit reporting agencies, and other financial institutions.  Once you are an ACCORD customer, we may reach out to you for, or otherwise obtain, information as needed to provide the Services.

USE OF INFORMATION

We may use your information to deliver Services, to display targeted and relevant advertising, offer you special promotions, and learn how we can better meet your needs.  In particular, we use the information we collect to:

  • Compile, save, use and analyze your Personal Information in both a personally-identifiable form and an aggregated, non-personally identifiable form;
  • Operate, maintain, improve, and provide Services to you and to conduct our business;
  • Improve the design, content and navigation of our Website.
  • Verify your identity and conduct appropriate diligence;
  • Register you as a user and identify you when you sign in to your account;
  • Post and review your comments on our blog;
  • Process your application and determine whether or not your business qualifies for one of our loan or lease products;
  • Process your business loan or lease product account, including deducting automatic payments;
  • Communicate with you to send order confirmations, respond to customer service requests, send marketing communications, and send account update notifications;
  • Conduct research and analyses to better understand our customers; and
  • Produce data analytics and reports containing anonymized summaries of Personal Information and other information that is not Personal Information (such information, “General Information”) that we share with business partners.  General Information may include Personal Information that has been aggregated, anonymized and will not identify you.

PRIVACY AND SHARING OF INFORMATION

ACCORD may share Personal Information with employees, agents and service providers, who are required to maintain the confidentiality of the Personal Information.  ACCORD may share your Personal Information with third parties only in the ways that are described in this Privacy Policy and as required by law.  We do not sell your Personal Information to third parties.

We will provide your Personal Information to our trusted business partners, service providers and subsidiaries and affiliates to provide services to help us with our business activities, such as offering customer service, processing credit checks or secure data storage, and other similar services.  These companies are authorized to use your Personal Information only as necessary to provide these types of services to us.  In addition, we may share your basic information (name, company name, phone number, email address and requested loan amount) with one of our business partners to market their services to you, provided, however, if you do not want us to share your Personal Information in these circumstances with these business partners, please contact us to opt out by email at sales@accsordsmallbusinessfinance.ca or by regular mail at the contact information listed below.
In addition, we may also share General Information for the same reasons as we provide Personal Information and for business partners and others to conduct analyses and research and track marketing performance or as otherwise provided in the Tracking Technologies part herein.

Some of our pages utilize framing or white-labeling techniques to serve content from our partners while preserving the look and feel of our Website.  Please be aware that in these instances you are providing your Personal Information to these third parties and not to ACCORD.

We may also disclose your Personal Information:

  • As required or permitted by law, such as with government agencies, public bodies, and regulators, or to comply with a subpoena, or similar legal process, including in a bankruptcy proceeding;
  • When we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, protect your safety or the safety of others, investigate fraud, or respond to a request from a government agency;
  • If ACCORD is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or substantially all of its assets or equity, in which case, you will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice on the Website of any change in ownership or uses of your Personal Information, as well as any choices you may have regarding your Personal Information; and
  • To any other third party with your prior consent to do so.

USER ACCESS AND CHOICE

If your Personal Information changes, or if you no longer desire our Services, you may correct, update, amend, delete/remove, ask to have it removed from a public forum or testimonial on our Website or deactivate it by emailing our Customer Support at sales@accsordsmallbusinessfinance.ca or by contacting us by regular mail at the contact information listed below.  We will respond to your request within 30 days.

We will retain your information for as long as your account is active or as long as reasonably useful for commercial purposes.  We will retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

OPT-OUT POLICY

ACCORD may contact you to offer you products and services that may be of interest to you.  Out of respect for your privacy, you may choose to stop receiving our newsletter or marketing emails, telephone solicitations or other forms of contact from ACCORD by following the unsubscribe instructions included in these emails, accessing the email preferences in your account settings page or by contacting us by email at sales@accsordsmallbusinessfinance.ca  or by regular mail at the contact information listed below.

TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES

Technologies such as cookies, beacons, tags and scripts are used by ACCORD and our partners, affiliates, or analytics or service providers, including our live chat. These technologies are used in analyzing trends, administering the Website, tracking users’ movements around the Website and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole.  We may receive reports based on the use of these technologies by these companies on an individual as well as aggregated basis.

Cookies

A cookie is a small text file containing a unique identification number that is stored on a user’s computer for record-keeping purposes.  Cookies cannot view or retrieve data from other cookies, or capture files or information stored on your computer.  We use cookies for user authentication and analytics, to help block unauthorized attempts to access your account, as well as, to provide the best possible experience when using the Website.

If you want to disable cookies, please refer to the documentation for your web browser or device regarding how to allow or block cookies. Your choice not to accept cookies will not prohibit your use of our Website, but your ability to use some features or areas may be limited.

LOG FILES

As is true of most websites, we gather certain information automatically and store it in log files. This information may include internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and/or clickstream data.  We may combine this automatically collected log information with other information we collect about you.  We do this to improve services we offer you and to improve marketing, analytics, and Website functionality.

SECURITY OF INFORMATION

ACCORD takes the security of your information very seriously. ACCORD protects your information using bank-level data security: 128 bit-encryption and a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol.  This creates an encrypted connection between your browser and our servers. When you enter Sensitive Personal Information (such as a credit card number) on our order forms, we encrypt the transmission of that information.

If you allow ACCORD to see your banking information online rather than in paper form, it is on a read-only basis.  We do not have access to change, edit, or modify bank account information in any way. ACCORD employees cannot view your banking username and passwords, and we securely store them in separate encrypted areas with our financial services providers.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Links to 3rd Party Sites

Our Website includes links to other websites whose privacy practices may differ from those of ACCORD.  If you submit personal information to any of those sites, your information is governed by their privacy policies.  We encourage you to carefully read the privacy policy of any website you visit.  ACCORD does not manage, and is not responsible for, the digital marketing and cookie practices of third parties.

Social Media Widgets

Our Website includes social media features, such as the Facebook “Like” button.  These features may collect your IP address, which pages you are visiting on our Website, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Social media features and widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our Website. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it.

Changes To This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy, at anytime and without notice to you, in order to reflect changes to our information practices.  We encourage you to regularly review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices.  Continuing to access or use the Website will mean that you agree to this policy and any changes to it.

Emails

ACCORD may scan the email messages that you send to ACCORD as permitted or required by law, or in order to detect viruses, malware or other computer threats that may be included.  Email messages identified as potentially containing a threat may undergo further analysis and any personal or financial information contained in the email message may be incidentally accessed by individuals investigating and addressing the threat.

Blog

Our Website offers publicly accessible blogs. You should be aware that any information you provide in these areas may be read, collected, and used by others who access them.  To request removal of your Personal Information from our blog, contact us by email at sales@accsordsmallbusinessfinance.ca or by regular mail at the contact information listed below.  In some cases, we may not be able to remove your Personal Information, in which case we will let you know if we are unable to do so and why.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this Website, or your dealings with this Website, please contact us by email at sales@accsordsmallbusinessfinance.ca, or with a letter by regular mail to: Accord Small Business Finance, 889 Harbourside Dr #305, North Vancouver, BC V7P 3S1

If you are contacting us to opt-out of marketing communications, you must include your full name and business mailing email addresses and account number.  Once we locate your contact information based on the information you provide us, it will be removed from our databases and mailings lists.