Effective date: February 10, 2023
1. Introduction
Forge First Asset Management Inc. (“Forge First”, “we” or “us”) is committed to protecting the privacy and security of any of your personal information obtained by reason of your interaction with Forge First, including through or in connection with our website, by phone or by email. This policy applies to current and prospective clients as well as website visitors, job applicants, beneficiaries and other individuals whose information was provided by current or prospective clients with their consent.
This privacy policy (the “Privacy Policy”) explains:
the types of personal information we collect;
when such collection occurs;
how we use and share the personal information we collect;
the steps we take to ensure your personal information is safeguarded appropriately; and
how you can contact us regarding your personal information and this Privacy Policy.
The terms of use of our website refer to and incorporate this Privacy Policy and by using said website, you consent to this Privacy Policy. From time to time, we may make changes to this Privacy Policy. The Privacy Policy is current as of the date which appears at the top of this page. We encourage you to look for updates and changes to this Privacy Policy by checking its effective date from time to time. If the changes we make are significant, we will provide a more prominent notice and obtain consent when required by applicable laws. Continued use of the website after an update is posted will constitute consent to the new version of the Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the changes in our Privacy Policy, it is your responsibility to stop using our services or products. It is your obligation to ensure that you read, understand and agree to the latest version of the Privacy Policy.
Our website may contain links to websites, which are owned and operated by third parties. Please note that this Privacy Policy does not apply to such other websites and services and we have no responsibility over their content or Privacy Policy.
2. Definition of Personal Information
This Privacy Policy applies to any personal information we collect or receive about you, from you or any other source. “Personal information” as used in this Privacy Policy refers to any information that identifies, relates to, describes, or is reasonably capable of being associated with you and that is recorded in any form (such as your name, your phone number, your postal and email address and your payment information). It may also include technical information such as your IP address, browser settings and device ID, but only when this information can identify you as an individual. Please note that personal information excludes information that is anonymized and cannot be associated with an identifiable individual and aggregate information which represents compiled data from a group of individuals who can no longer be individually identified.
Please note that we do not intend to collect information from a minor. If you believe we may have collected information from your child, please contact us as indicated in the “Contact Us” section so that we can endeavour to delete it.
3. Categories of Personal Information Collected
We limit the collection of personal information to what is reasonably required to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected. Depending on your interaction with us, we may collect:
Personal identifiers, such as name, date of birth, citizenship, postal address, phone number, fax number, email address, social insurance number, account number, username or Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, signatures and government identification;
Financial information, such as tax identification number, bank account, payment method details, contribution amounts, net assets and investment choices and needs;
Employment details, which may include annual salary and employer information;
Professional or employment-related information and other information you submit to us when applying for an employment opportunity, which may include some of the information described above, as well as letters of motivation, your resume, references and any additional information provided by you in an application;
Internet or other electronic network activity information (i.e., technical information when you visit our website or use our mobile applications), including when you log in to use our products and services. This information is collected via automated means, such as cookies, authorized token, web beacons and similar technologies, and may include your IP address, device ID, browser type, data about the web pages you visited on our website, time and duration of a visit, information about your location, your language preferences.
4. Collection of Personal Information
We will generally collect personal information directly from you when you become a client, sign an agreement, navigate on our website or interact with us directly, as deemed necessary for the purposes defined in Section 5 below.
a. Directly from you
We may collect your personal information directly from you such as:
when you subscribe to our services, buy our products and become a client or make inquiries regarding our services or products, we may collect information about your profile (such as your name, date of birth, citizenship, postal address, phone number, fax number, email address, social insurance number, account number, and government identification), your financial information (such as tax identifiers, bank account, payment method details, contribution amounts, net assets, investment choices and needs), employment details (such as employer information and salary details) and any other information required to identify you;
when you contact us or send us questions, comments, suggestions or complaints, we may collect contact information and information about your inquiry that is necessary in order to address it or to respond to you;
when you apply for a position, we may collect contact information and other information to process your application for employment;
when you subscribe to our monthly newsletter, we may collect your contact information;
we may collect any other personal information you voluntarily provide to us in connection with any other matter.
b. From Clients
In certain circumstances, we may collect personal information about you from current or prospective clients when you are designated as a beneficiary, trusted contact, director, beneficial owner or trustee of a corporate entity or trust, or in other similar circumstances. In such case, clients must ensure that they obtain your consent prior to providing us your personal information for these specific purposes.
c. Through our website or other technologies
We or our service providers that help us maintain and operate our website may also automatically collect the following information relating to your access to and use of our website through cookies (small data files stored on your device used to access and use our website), web beacons (small transparent images used to track website visits and effectiveness of advertising) and other similar technologies: your domain name; your browser type and operating system; your type of computer or mobile device; pages you view; links you click; your IP address; and the length of time of your visit. However, please note that cookies and beacons might be necessary to access or use certain features of our website.
5. Usage of Personal Information
We will generally use your personal information as part of our normal business operations in order to provide you with our products and services through our website and to support our business, for research and development purposes, for marketing purposes or otherwise, with your consent or as permitted or required by law:
a. General business purpose
More specifically, we may use your personal information for the following business purposes:
to establish and administer accounts and your relationship with us, which includes assessing the eligibility to invest with us or open an account, or to otherwise provide you with Forge First products and services;
to establish your identity as required by statutory and regulatory requirements;
to provide customer service and to respond to your inquiries or requests;
to finance or facilitate transactions in relation to our funds;
to elaborate and improve our product offerings and our services;
to manage and improve our customers’ experiences and our website;
to monitor, analyze and assess the access and use of our website;
to customize the content of our website and advertising;
to protect our rights, property and safety and those of our employees, customers and the public;
to detect and prevent errors and fraud;
to maintain appropriate records for internal administrative purposes, including for staffing and management of personnel; and
to comply with legal requirements, including but not limited to record-keeping, reporting and tax obligations.
b. Research and development Purpose
We may use personal information to understand and assess your interests and changing needs with a view to improving our products and services and developing new ones, as well as to evaluate potential improvements or other modifications to the functionality of our website. For instance, we may use third-party web analytics services, such as Google Analytics, to help us analyze how visitors use our website. When required by law, we will use anonymized information for these purposes.
c. Marketing purposes
We may use your personal information to provide you with personalized content and services, such as tailoring our products, services, digital experience and offerings.
We may also use your personal information to communicate with you in a variety of ways (for example, by email, telephone, text message, direct mail or through our online support services) about our programs, products, services or events that may be of interest to you. If you no longer wish to receive our commercial electronic messages, please follow the unsubscribe procedure included in each of these messages. For more information on this topic, see Your Privacy Rights.
6. Retention of Personal Information
Please note that we will only retain your personal information for as long as reasonably necessary for the above purposes or as required by law. Once no longer required, your personal information will be securely destroyed or anonymized, in compliance with applicable laws.
7. Sharing of Personal Information
We shall not disclose or share your personal information without your consent to any company or person other than as authorized by law or as follows:
with service providers who are assisting us with respect to any of the purposes stated in Section 5 above (including payment solution providers, accounting, legal tax preparation and like services and financial service providers) who require such information to perform their services for us, it being understood that they will only be permitted to use the information as part of the performance of their work;
if we believe that the disclosure of personal information is required by law;
if we believe that the disclosure of personal information will help us protect our rights, our property and our safety and those of our employees, customers and the public;
if we believe that the disclosure of personal information is necessary in the investigation of suspected or actual illegal activity or in response to a request by law enforcement authorities;
when your information is anonymized or aggregated, so that it does not identify you directly or indirectly, as mentioned in Section 2 above; and
when required in the context of a prospective or completed business transaction, such as a transfer of assets or shares or merger, in accordance with applicable legal requirements, but only to the extent that your personal information is necessary for such transactions, in which case we will comply with applicable legal requirements. For example, we may make your personal information available to advisors or (potential) buyers of our business if necessary for concluding the transaction and continuing operations of the business.
8. Your Privacy Rights
You have choices about the way Forge First handles your personal information.
a. Changing your communication preferences
You can always choose not to receive marketing or promotional messages from Forge First by email by clicking on “unsubscribe” in such email.
Please note that even if you have indicated your choice not to receive commercial messages from us, we may still communicate with you in connection with a service, in accordance with applicable law (for example, to send you important product information or service notification). In addition, it may take up to ten (10) business days to register a change of preference across all our records.
b. Changing your Browser Settings on your Device
We use technology to enhance your experience. Through technologies such as cookies, our website recognizes you when you use or return to them and can provide you with a seamless experience. You can remove or disable some of these technologies at any time through your browser. However, if you do so, you may not be able to use some of the features of our website.
Please refer to your browser instructions or help screen to learn how to block, delete and manage cookies on your computer or mobile device.
c. Withdrawal of consent
You may withdraw your consent to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy at any time upon reasonable notice to Forge First in writing, subject to legal or contractual restrictions. To do so, you may communicate with us by calling us at 416-687-6772 or by contacting our Privacy Officer in the “Contact Us” section below.
The withdrawal of your consent may affect our ability to continue to provide you with the products and services that you have or would like to receive because the continued use and disclosure of your personal information is a necessary part of making the product or service available to you. In some circumstances, legal requirements may prevent you from withdrawing consent and/or we may be required to retain some of your personal information as detailed in section 6.
9. Safeguards and Data Governance
We have implemented physical, organizational, contractual and technological security measures in an effort to protect your personal information and reduce the risk of loss or theft, unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, misuse or modification of your personal information. These measures include restricting physical access to our offices and records, security clearance requirements and restricting access to your personal information to only those employees or agents who require access to fulfill their responsibilities.
We maintain policies and practices which ensure the protection of your personal information. Depending on the volume and sensitivity of the information, the purposes for which it is used and the format in which it is stored, we implement a combination of measures to protect your personal information, including:
Internal policies and procedures that define the roles and responsibilities of our employees throughout the information life cycle and limit their access to such information on a “need-to-know” basis;
If information is collected or stored in electronic format, technical safeguards such as encryption, firewalls, antivirus software and similar measures;
A designated Privacy Officer to monitor Forge First compliance with applicable data protection laws;
Employee privacy and data security training;
Procedures for receiving, investigating and responding to complaints or inquiries regarding Forge First information handling practices, including any security incidents involving personal information;
Framework governing the retention and destruction of personal information, as more fully described above in the “Retention of Personal Information” section of this Privacy Policy;
Contractual protections and other measures to ensure that service providers with whom we share personal information maintain adequate privacy protections and standards. For example, we generally require our service providers to limit their use and retention of personal information to what is necessary to provide their services and to notify us in case of any actual or suspected security incident. We also try to monitor and audit their compliance with these requirements in various ways (e.g., on-site inspections (if feasible), surveys and interviews, proof of certification).
10. Cross-Border Transfers of Personal Information
Your personal information may be transferred, stored, accessed, or used in a jurisdiction outside your jurisdiction of residence (for example, outside your province) in connection with our use of third-party service providers engaged by us. We engage these third-party service providers to assist us in providing our services to you; for example, in order to process payment, obtain funds, etc.
We use our best efforts to ensure that all of our third-party service providers take reasonable security measures to protect your personal information (this includes technical, administrative, and physical safeguards to protect your personal information) and only use your personal information for authorized purposes we have made known to you or which are otherwise permitted by applicable law.
Where personal information is located outside of your province of residence, it is subject to the laws of that jurisdiction which may differ from those in your jurisdiction and any personal information transferred to another jurisdiction will be subject to law enforcement, regulatory, and national security authorities in that jurisdiction. Subject to these laws, we will to the best of our abilities use contractual measures to maintain protections that are at least equivalent to those that apply in Canada.
11. Accessing and Correcting your Personal Information
You may be entitled to access your personal information and request the rectification of information that is inaccurate, incomplete or no longer up to date, subject to limited exceptions set out in applicable laws.
Depending on the law applicable in the jurisdiction where you reside and subject to legal or contractual restrictions, you may also be entitled to:
request that we stop or restrict processing your personal information or to have it erased;
obtain a copy of the personal information we collected from you;
access the dispute resolution service offered by the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments to resolve a complaint; and
obtain additional information about data processing, including the personal information collected and how it is processed by Forge First.
To submit a request, please contact us by calling us at 416-687-6772 or by contacting our Privacy Officer in the “Contact Us” section below.
12. Contact Us
You can contact our Privacy Officer at the address and email found below if you wish to ask questions, express concerns or submit a complaint regarding this Privacy Policy.
To ensure that your personal information is accurate, complete and up-to-date, you may contact us if any changes or modifications are required. You may also send us a written request if you wish to access the personal information we have collected about you. Please be advised that in order for you to modify, access or review your personal information, we may ask you to provide us with sufficient identification.
In all cases, we will generally attempt to answer your request within thirty (30) days or we will advise you if we require a longer response time.
Forge First Asset Management Inc.
Attn: Privacy Officer
36 Toronto Street, Suite 1170
Toronto, Ontario M5C 2C5
Email: privacy@forgefirst.com