Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

The MutualONE Insurance Company privacy code protecting the confidentiality of your personal information has always been an essential part of how we do business. To ensure that we protect your privacy, MutualONE Insurance Company has adopted a Privacy Code. This Code sets out how and why we collect and use personal information about our customers. It also explains limited circumstances under which we may need or be required to disclose it.

“Personal Information” means information that identifies you as a specific individual. It may include an individual’s date of birth, family status, marital status, occupation, medical and health records, assets, liabilities, income, credit and payment record, an individual’s previous insurance experience, claims history, and driving record. It does not include the general information that could be found in a business directory or a telephone book.

Effective January 1, 2004, the Government of Canada will implement the last phase of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Act (PIPEDA). The federal statute applies to insurance companies and many other industry sectors.

This legislation establishes rules and principles for using and disclosing personal information based on the ten privacy principles developed by the Canadian Standards Association. These principles recognize that we live in an era where commercial information is exchanged and circulated electronically. It balances the individual’s right to privacy in their personal information with the reasonable need of organizations to collect, use or disclose personal information.

Under the legislation, an organization may collect, use or disclose personal information only for limited purposes that a reasonable person would consider appropriate in the circumstances.

PIPEDA requires us to provide the same safeguards for your privacy that we have always offered voluntarily. Our Privacy Code sets out these principles in simple terms. It explains how we protect your privacy and the confidentiality of your personal information.

Our Privacy Code

The MutualONE Insurance Company based its Privacy Code on the following ten principles adopted by the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Act (PIPEDA).

Principle #1: Our Accountability for the Collection, Use or Disclosure of Personal Information

As a customer of MutualONE Insurance Company, you have a right to expect we are accountable for the personal information we collect and use. “Customer” means a current policyholder, a former insured, an applicant for insurance, a claimant under one of our policies, and an individual insured as part of a group or corporate policy.

We are responsible for maintaining and protecting your personal information while it is under our control – this includes any personal information that may need to be disclosed to third parties for processing or other administrative functions.

To help ensure the confidentiality of your personal information, we have established policies and procedures to ensure that we comply with the PIPEDA. We have designated a privacy officer responsible for our company’s compliance with the ten privacy principles the Canadian Standards Association developed.

If you have any questions or inquiries about how your personal information is stored or when it may need to be disclosed to others, our privacy officer will assist you and explain our policies.

Principle #2: Identifying Our Purpose for the Collection, Use or Disclosure of Personal Information

Before or when we collect information about you, we will explain how we intend to use it. MutualONE Insurance Company collects personal information only for the following purposes.

1. To provide ongoing service to our customers;
2. To help us understand our customer’s needs better;
3. To develop, enhance, market or provide insurance products and services;
4. To enable us to underwrite your policy of insurance and set a fair premium;
5. To provide us with the information that we need to adjust a claim fairly and expeditiously;
6. To detect or prevent fraudulent claims;
7. To comply with statistical requirements;
8. To meet our legal and regulatory requirements under third-party agreements, the Insurance Act and other relevant statutes.

Unless the law requires us, MutualONE Insurance Company will not use or disclose any personal information collected without documenting the new purpose and obtaining your consent. If you have any questions about these purposes, our privacy officer will be pleased to explain them to you.

Principle #3: Obtaining Your Consent for the Collection, Use or Disclosure of Personal Information

MutualONE Insurance Company will make a reasonable effort to ensure that our customers understand and consent to how the company will use their personal information. By providing this information to us, we assume your consent to use this information appropriately.

We will have obtained your consent by written or verbal means or by virtue of a signed application before collecting information from third parties such as other insurers and insurance service companies.

In certain circumstances, however, personal information may need to be collected, used or disclosed without the knowledge and consent of the individual. For example, legal, medical, or security reasons may make it impossible or impractical to seek consent.

PIPEDA recognizes that when information is being collected for the detection and prevention of fraud or law enforcement, seeking an individual’s consent may defeat the purpose of collecting the information. Seeking consent may also be impossible or inappropriate when the individual is a minor, seriously ill, or mentally incapacitated.

In obtaining your consent, we will always make reasonable efforts to ensure that you are advised of the identified purposes for which any personal information collected will be used or disclosed.

Principle #4: Limiting Our Collection of Personal Information

We will always limit personal information collection to what is necessary for the identified purposes. Typically, this information is required to enable us to underwrite your insurance policy and charge a fair premium. We may need to collect personal information from other sources.

Under certain circumstances, we need to collect information to assist us in adjusting or investigating a claim – this may involve the use of licensed and regulated independent insurance adjusters or investigators. We will always collect personal information by fair and lawful means.

Principle #5: Limiting the Use, Disclosure and Retention of Personal Information

Personal information will not be used or disclosed for purposes other than for which it was collected, except with your consent or as permitted or required by law. Your personal information will be retained only as long as necessary to fulfill those purposes.

MutualONE Insurance Company may disclose a customer’s personal information to the following organizations.

1. Another insurance company for the reasonable provision of insurance services. This may include another insurance company that is subscribing to the risk insured under our policy.
2. Another person or corporation as part of conducting business. This may include reinsurance company, subject to that corporation agreeing to manage personal information in accordance with these privacy principles;
3. A person or corporation that is involved in supplying us with claims support services. This may include a licensed independent insurance claims adjuster, investigator, fire or forensic expert, or engineer.
4. A medical or rehabilitation specialist or assessment clinic that is providing an opinion to us pursuant to our rights and obligations under the Insurance Act.
5. A company or an individual employed by MutualONE Insurance Company to perform data processing, accounting, actuarial or statistical functions on our behalf.
6. A person or corporation involved in developing, enhancing, marketing, or providing our insurance products and services. This may include an insurance agent or insurance broker.
7. An agent used by MutualONE Insurance Company to evaluate your creditworthiness or to collect an outstanding account. This may include collection agencies, credit grantors and reporting agencies.
8. A public authority or agent of a public authority if the information is required to comply with a provincial or federal statute or regulation.
9. A law enforcement agency where our customer consents to such disclosure or disclosure is required by law or emergency.

MutualONE Insurance Company does not provide or sell its customer lists to any outside company for use in marketing or solicitation. Only employees with a business “need to know,” or those whose duties require it, are granted access to personal information about our customers.

We keep personal information only as long as it remains necessary or relevant for the identified purposes or as required by law. Personal information no longer necessary or applicable for the identified purposes or required to be retained by law is destroyed, erased or made anonymous.

Principle #6: Keeping Your Personal Information Accurate

MutualONE Insurance Company makes every effort to ensure that personal information about its customers is as accurate, complete, and up-to-date as is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected.

This may require contact with your insurance agent or broker to confirm or update personal information required for underwriting purposes. In addition, the Insurance Act and the terms and conditions of your insurance policy may require you to notify us of material changes to your personal information.

If you have any questions about the accuracy and completeness of the personal information we have collected or retained, please speak with our privacy officer. If you need to update some aspect of your personal information, please contact your insurance agent or broker directly.

Principle #7: Safeguarding Your Personal Information

MutualONE Insurance Company takes steps to protect personal information with security safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information.

Specifically, we have stringent security measures to protect personal information against such risks as loss or theft, computer hackers, unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use, modification or destruction.

MutualONE Insurance Company protects your personal information regardless of the format in which it is held. We also protect the personal information we disclose to third parties by contractual agreements stipulating the confidentiality of the information and in which it is held.

Our employees with access to confidential information must respect its confidentiality as a condition of their employment.

Principle #8: Openness Concerning Our Privacy Practices

MutualONE Insurance Company pursues a policy of openness about its procedures to manage personal information. We will make specific information about our policies and practices for managing their personal information available to customers upon request.

We ensure transparency by providing you with the following information:

1. the title and address of the privacy officer accountable for our compliance with the policy;
2. the name of the individual to whom inquiries or complaints can be forwarded;
3. the means of gaining access to personal information held by our company;
4. a description of the type of personal information held by MutualONE Insurance Company, including a general account of its use.

MutualONE Insurance Company makes information available to help our policyholders exercise informed choices regarding the use of their personal information.

Principle #9: Customer Access to personal Information

MutualONE Insurance Company informs its customers of the existence, use, and disclosure of their personal information upon request and provides access to that information. Our customers can challenge or correct the accuracy and completeness of their personal information and have it amended when appropriate.

When requested in writing, we will inform you, in a timely fashion, of the existence, use, and disclosure of your personal information and give you access to that information. To safeguard your personal information, we may require you to provide sufficient identification information to permit us to authorize access to your file.

In certain exceptional situations, we may not be able to provide you with access to all of the personal information we hold. Exceptions may include information that is prohibitively costly to provide, information that contains references to other individuals, information we cannot disclose for legal, security or commercial proprietary reasons, information that is subject to solicitor-client or litigation privilege, or, in certain circumstances, information of a medical nature. If this is the case, MutualONE Insurance Company will provide the reasons for denying access upon request.

Customers can obtain information or seek access to their files by contacting our designated privacy officer.

Principle #10: Challenging Compliance

A customer has the right to challenge MutualONE Insurance Company’s compliance with the above principles by contacting the privacy officer accountable for our compliance with the policy.

MutualONE Insurance Company maintains strict procedures for addressing and responding to all inquiries or complaints from its customers about its handling of personal information. We inform our customers about our privacy practices and the availability of complaint procedures, if necessary.

Our privacy officer will investigate all complaints concerning compliance with the privacy policy. If a complaint is found to be justified, we will take appropriate measures to resolve the complaint, including the amendment of our policies and procedures.

In exceptional circumstances, the privacy officer accountable for compliance with our privacy policy may seek external legal advice where appropriate before providing a final response to individual complaints.

For Further Information

For more information, please contact our privacy officer directly through email or by calling toll-free 1-800-851-4045.