Sensors Quality Management Inc. (SQM) - Driver Training Accreditation Program - Privacy Policy

Sensors Quality Management Inc. (SQM) Privacy Statement:

At Sensors Quality Management Inc. (also known as SQM), the privacy and protection of your personal information is of paramount importance. We do not share, sell, provide, lend or otherwise transmit personal data to anyone or any group outside of our organization, except for the City of Toronto or other organizations directly involved in the Vehicle for Hire Driver Training Program.

All pages on the Driver Training Accreditation Program public website are free to navigate without the requirement to provide any personal information. The web hosting systems used by SQM do collect and retain a log of the domains that visited our website, however, this information is only used for security purposes. Logs are never used for any marketing, advertising, or purposes other than the maintenance of a secure system.

Use of Cookies:

A cookie is a small file that a website or service provider transfers to your computer when you access that system using a web browser. This file then permits the site or service provider to recognize you and even capture and/or retain certain attribute type information.

On the public non password protected side of our website, we do not use cookies.

On our password protected, private side of our websites, we do use cookies. These are used to enhance the user experience or as a convenience (i.e. the setting of language preferences. Once the language has been set, the cookie helps by recognizing that setting on subsequent visits.).

Personal Data:

The personal data that we collect is done so for the sole purposes of being able to provide the best relationship possible between SQM and our registered users. This information is only collected through the process of registering for our Driver Training Accreditation Program. Some of the information we collect will be identified as required fields and is part of our contractual relationship, while other personal details can be provided on a voluntary basis. The collected information helps us to:

• send emails, place phone calls, or otherwise communicate with our registered users
• send passing scores to the City of Toronto
• avoid the need to unnecessarily reach out to registered users
•  improve on the website experience
• continuously improve on our customer support.
• create a personalized experience tailored to our customers

When signing up, each individual is required to review and sign the legal agreement, which in part, includes that registered users accept that email messages (to inform or follow up) are an expectation of the relationship. As such, there is no opt out option which allows individuals to remain an active customer of the organization, yet not receive email, phone or other communication from SQM. Should an individual require that email, phone or other attempts to communicate be suspended by SQM, then the customer account will be deleted.

Why is it necessary for us to collect information?

Your information is used for the sole purposes of being able to fulfill the relationship established with you. Our role is to provide an online Vehicle for Hire Driver Training Program / Course and communicate the results to the City of Toronto and their partner organizations. Through the customized SQM system, only authorized SQM individuals have access to your personal information. Your personal information is used to:

• Contact you concerning the training program or your results
• Administer the agreement we have entered into with each of our customers
• To maintain records of performance
• To provide feedback and possible corrective action
• Manage the process on your behalf when personal data is required to be shared with the City of Toronto or other authorized third parties on their behalf
• Prevent fraud
• Ensure that each customer is adhering to company rules, policies and procedures.
• Enable SQM to handle any possible legal matters associated with the relationship.

Who owns and controls these systems?

From the very start of this organization, SQM has retained 100% ownership and control over all hardware, operating systems, software, databases and data. We do not use third party organizations for any of our data systems.

Links to the Third Party:

From time to time, SQM will link our customers to third party systems. These links will appear on both our public pages and the password protected area of the website, customers use to access their training program. These third party websites could include government, security, support, social media, client, or otherwise. We provide these links only for support purposes.

While SQM makes every effort to ensure that any link setup is in the best interest of both SQM and the user, SQM takes no responsibility for the content, security, data collection processes, or activities of these linked sites.

As the integrity of the SQM systems and the experiences of any of our authorized users is important to us, we encourage users to report any concerns to our Chief Data Officer.

Where personal data information is concerned, SQM does NOT share personal information with any third-party individuals or organizations. There is one exception to this which relates to the sending passing scores to the City of Toronto or their partner organizations, as part of the Vehicle for Hire licensing process.

Secure Data:

SQM uses a variety of software, hardware, and procedures to protect data from unauthorized use.

All data of a personal nature is collected first during the registration process, then further updated upon the first website visit during the sign up process. This personal data which is stored within our system is built on a highly respected, password protected, encrypted software system which is owned and managed by SQM. This data is cloned across a family of identical servers which reside behind a firewall and housed in a secure setting. A replication process between the servers ensures that all systems are fully updated, allowing for limited downtime even for unexpected maintenance, with no loss of data.
SQM staff, including managers, customer support, and our technical team access the data using password protected computers and unique user IDs. Any data which is added, removed, modified or accessed by staff is logged. All desktops are consistently reviewed by SQM technical staff, updated, and equipped with anti-virus protection, desktop passwords, as well as software user passwords which are access level controlled.
SQM has in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach.

No third party individuals, technicians, or organizations are ever provided with access to personal data unless required by the City of Toronto as part of the Vehicle for Hire Training Program.

No personal data is stored in paper form.

In the rare occasion that any personal data be printed, it is shredded before disposal.

Exceptions:

In life we start to realize that for every rule or guideline, that there are often exceptions to the rule and that holds true with our SQM's Privacy Policy.

SQM will continue to uphold the privacy policy as outlined, however, there are circumstances with which SQM may be required to disclose your personal information without your personal consent. As an SQM policy, the release of this personal information will only occur under the following conditions:

The party requesting the information does so in writing.

The request is carefully reviewed by the Chief Data Officer and that it meets with one or more of the following criteria:

• SQM has reasonable grounds to believe that the information could be useful in the prevention or apprehension of an individual involved in a federal, provincial or foreign investigation or breaking of law.
• Regarding an event of an emergency nature which presents the threat of an individual's life, health or security
• When it involves a witness statement and the use is necessary to access, process or settle an insurance claim.
• When it involves the protection of the rights or property belonging to SQM
• When the circumstances involve the protection, health, or security of any SQM staff, managers, employees, independent contractors, or users of the services provided by SQM, clients, or the public in general.
• When it involves any tax authorities and their investigation regarding any monies paid by SQM.
• When required to comply with a warrant, court order, subpoena, or other body with appropriate jurisdiction to enforce.
• When the legal council for SQM is consulted in a mattered related to your personal data.

How long does SQM hold onto your personal information?

SQM will hold your personal information and update as necessary, indefinitely.

Should your account be deactivated or the relationship be terminated, SQM will generally hold onto your personal data for seven (7) years from date of inactivation. This allows us to maintain history on previous test results, user performance, records of payments, and be available for possible legal challenges.

Personal information which is no longer required will be permanently erased from our technical systems or destroyed in an effective but secure process. It may be necessary to involve a third party in the process of destroying or erasing personal data.

In some circumstances, it may become necessary to retain data, reports or other information beyond the period identified above. Should this be required, under these circumstances, SQM may anonymise any personal information contained within so that it no longer permits identification.

Rights Associated with Your Personal Information:

It is important that any personal information held by SQM is accurate and up-to-date. As we provide options to do this, we ask that individuals keep their Driver Training Accreditation Program accounts updated by checking the account periodically or when details on your personal account should change

Subject to certain conditions or circumstances, field force team members do have the following statutory rights. The right to:

• Request access to your personal information.
• Request that the user account holding your personal information be inactivated
• Request that the user account holding your personal information be reactivated
• Request that the user account holding your personal information be updated or modified
• Request the erasure of your personal information
• Restrict the processing of your personal information.

Accessing Your Information:

Each user of our Driver Training Accreditation Program is required to setup a personalized account. Customers can access their own account and see what information is currently on file. Should there be any concerns with person information that we have on file, or you wish to receive a copy, you can either address a letter to our head office or email our Chief Data Officer.

Requests for Your Information:

We will follow up with all requests in a timely fashion, and within the required 30 day period.

Initial requests will not be charged, however, should there be two (2) or more requests, each subsequent request(s) will be charged $35.00 CDN per request. Should a subsequent request be filed, no actions will be taken until the fee has been paid.

As part of the requirement to protect all personal data, all requests will be challenged to determine your right to access the personal information or to exercise any of your associated rights. This is a security measure to ensue that your personal information is not disclosed to unauthorized individuals or organizations.

All information will be provided by email and as an attachment in the format of a PDF document.

Should you not receive acknowledgement or you feel that the matter was not addressed to your satisfaction, we encourage you to contact the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, 30 Victoria Street, 1st floor, Gatineau, QC or via the Privacy Commissioner website www.priv.gc.ca

Online Privacy Policy Only:

This online privacy policy applies only to the information collected through the use of the SQM's website only and not to information collected via other methodology.

Privacy Concerns:

If you should have any concerns regarding this statement and/or the privacy, security or use of any personal data that SQM holds on file, we encourage you to reach out and first contact the SQM Chief Data Officer by mail:

Chief Data Officer
Sensors Quality Management Inc.
568 Oakwood Drive
Pickering, ON L1W 2M7

Changes to the SQM Privacy Policy:

SQM reserves the right to update or amend our privacy policy at any time. A notice will be issued should we make any significant updates or amendments. If the any changes or updates are made to this policy, posted changes will appear on this page and the last modified date will be updated. This policy was last modified in April 2022.