Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

This policy explains what personal information Profit First Professionals Canada Inc. ("PFCA", "we", "us") collects, why we collect it, who we share it with, and what you can ask us to do about it.

We are a Canadian company based in Ontario. Our handling of personal information is governed by the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), and our commercial email by Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL).

This policy covers profitfirstprofessionals.ca and the services we run from it, including our public directory of certified professionals.

If anything here is unclear, write to support@profitfirstprofessionals.ca and ask. We would rather explain it than have you guess.

2. Information we collect

2.1 Information you give us directly

• When you contact a member through our directory. Your email address, first and last name, country and province, and — only if you choose to provide it — a phone number and a short description of what you are hoping to accomplish. You also tell us whether it is acceptable for that member to phone you.
• When you apply to become a certified professional. The information on the application form, including your business details and professional background.
• When you are a member. Your name, business name, contact details, the location you practise in, your areas of expertise, a biography and a photograph, together with membership and billing records.
• When you email us or fill in any other form on our site. Whatever you choose to put in it.

2.2 Information we collect automatically

When you visit our website we collect standard technical information: IP address, approximate location derived from it (country and region, not a precise location), browser and device type, the pages you visit, and the referring website or campaign that brought you. See our Cookie Policy for how this works and how to limit it.

2.3 Information from third parties

We receive information from the services we use to run the business — our email platform, our payment processor and our scheduling tools — such as whether an email was delivered or opened, and whether a payment succeeded.

3. How we use that information

• To pass your enquiry to the member you asked to hear from, and to confirm to you that we did.
• To follow up with that member if they have not responded, so that an enquiry you made does not simply go unanswered.
• To operate and maintain our public directory of certified professionals.
• To administer membership, certification and billing.
• To send you information you have asked for, and — where you have given express consent, or where CASL permits it on the basis of your enquiry — occasional news about Profit First Canada resources and events. Every such message has an unsubscribe link.
• To understand which parts of our site are useful, in aggregate.
• To meet our legal and accounting obligations.

4. Our legal basis under PIPEDA

We rely on your consent. That consent is express where you have ticked a box asking to hear from us, and implied where you have contacted us or made an enquiry and it is reasonable to expect a reply — implied consent of that kind expires six months after your enquiry unless you give us express consent in the meantime.

You may withdraw consent at any time. Section 8 explains how.

5. Who we share information with

5.1 Directory enquiries — please read this one

When you use "Get in Touch" on a member's listing, we pass your details to that member. That is the entire purpose of the form, and it is the most significant disclosure in this policy, so we want it to be unmissable.

Specifically, the member receives your name, your email address, the province and country you gave, your message if you wrote one, and your phone number only if you told us it was acceptable for them to call you. If you did not tick that box, we tell the member you asked not to be phoned and we do not give them the number.

Certified professionals are independent businesses, not employees or agents of PFCA. Once your details reach a member, that member becomes responsible for how they handle your information, under their own privacy practices. We ask them to contact you only about the enquiry you made.

5.2 Our public directory

If you are a certified professional, your listing — your name, the province you practise in, your areas of expertise, your biography and your photograph — is published on a public web page and is readable by anyone, including search engines.

Your email address is not published unless you have separately asked us to publish it. We hold an address so that we can route enquiries to you; holding it and publishing it are two different things and we treat them that way.

If you want your listing changed or removed, write to support@profitfirstprofessionals.ca and we will do it.

5.3 Service providers

We use third parties to run the business, and they process personal information on our behalf under contract:

We do not sell personal information, and we do not trade or rent it.

5.4 Other disclosures

We may disclose information where the law requires it, where it is necessary to establish or defend a legal claim, or to protect the safety of a person.

6. Where your information is held

Our service providers operate in Canada, the United States and elsewhere. Information processed outside Canada is subject to the laws of the country it is in, and may be accessible to courts and authorities there. We choose providers that offer contractual protections for personal information.

7. How long we keep it

• Directory enquiries: three years from the date of the enquiry, so that we can answer questions about what was sent to whom.
• Membership and billing records: seven years, to meet Canadian tax and corporate record-keeping requirements.
• Marketing contact records: until you unsubscribe, and then only what we need to keep honouring that unsubscribe.
• Website analytics: in aggregate, indefinitely; in a form that identifies you, no longer than 26 months.

8. Your rights

Under PIPEDA you may:

• Ask what we hold about you, and get a copy.
• Ask us to correct it if it is wrong or incomplete.
• Withdraw consent, including unsubscribing from email — every commercial message we send carries an unsubscribe link, and it works.
• Ask us to delete it, subject to records we are legally required to keep.
• Complain, to us first and then to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Write to support@profitfirstprofessionals.ca. We will respond within 30 days, which is the period PIPEDA allows. If we need longer we will tell you why before that period is up.

There is no charge for a reasonable request.

9. Children

Our services are for businesses and the people who run them. They are not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you believe we have, tell us and we will delete it.

10. Changes to this policy

We will post any changes on this page and update the date at the top. If a change materially affects how we handle information we already hold about you, we will tell you directly.

11. Contact us

Profit First Professionals Canada Inc. 120 East Beaver Creek Road, Suite 200 Richmond Hill, ON L4B 4V1 Canada

support@profitfirstprofessionals.ca