Privacy Notice

The nature and scope of the personal information you will be asked to provide to us depends on the program, product or service that you have requested or that is of interest to you. It is our policy to collect only the personal information needed to administer our programs and services. The purposes for which will collect and use personal information are explained below.

To improve your experience on our website and to tailor information, content, products and services to your interests and business needs.

For a detailed explanation, refer to the section 'What are cookies and how does EDC use them?' below.

To promote our programs, products and services to you.

When you specify your consent on any online EDC publication, subscription or registration form, EDC may, from time to time, use your email or regular mailing address to send you information on EDC's programs, products and services, trade information, business opportunities, or other topics and events of current interest.

In order to do so, EDC may also collect the information that you provided on the subscription or registration form, such as your name, address, telephone and fax numbers, and your language of preference.

To determine your eligibility for programs, products or services.

We use financial information such as your assets, liabilities, financial transactions, annual sales, and business history to evaluate your credit worthiness, assess your eligibility and to make decisions in the context of an application for financing or insurance services.

To manage your relationship with us and to make it easy to do business with us.

We use identifying and contact information about you and your business to allow us to communicate with you and respond to your enquiries about financing, insurance and bonding solutions and other programs or services you may be interested in.

To introduce you to Government and Industry Partners.

There's a lot you can do to take your exporting business to the next level and a lot of organizations that are willing to help you get there. With your consent, EDC will facilitate introductions to its federal, and provincial and industry partners to help you grow your business.

To process payments and financial transactions.

We collect banking information to process payments and other transactions. In some circumstances, information is shared with counterparties and their respective banks in relation to fund transfers, payments, drawing of cheques, and other transactions.

When paying online for any of our services or products offered online, you will be using the credit card facilities of Moneris Solutions or another online payment provider with whom we have entered into a contract. Information you provide during the payment process is held in a temporary or session cookie as described in the “What are cookies and how does EDC use them?” section. Once you have clicked the appropriate button to submit payment, the information you supplied during the payment session will be received on the Moneris Solutions server and is governed by the privacy policy of Moneris Solutions.

To comply with legal, security, processing, and regulatory requirements.

To ensure that we do not, directly or indirectly, unknowingly transact business with, procure goods or services from companies and/or individuals who present legal, regulatory and reputational risks to EDC, we use information to detect and assess potential legal, regulatory and reputational risks in transactions involving EDC and various counterparties.

Reducing fraud, software piracy, and protecting our customers.

We may monitor any part of our website at any time and may take appropriate measures to curtail inappropriate use. EDC uses software to monitor site traffic and to detect unauthorized attempts to upload, change information, or otherwise cause damage.

To verify the identity or authority of relevant Individuals, or representatives who contact EDC or may be contacted by EDC and to carry out or respond to requests, questions or instructions from verified representatives or other parties pursuant to security procedures.

To allow you to apply for jobs and to assess your suitability for a career at EDC.

To conduct market research about our customers, their interests, and the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns if you’ve given us permission to do so.

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer, when you visit a website. We use cookies to collect and save information about your browsing activities in order to understand your preferences while you are visiting our site and to recognize you when you return. You may adjust your browser settings to manage and/or delete cookies as you wish. Please consult your browser's Help Menu for instructions.

The use of cookies allows us to provide you with a tailored experience that is relevant to you based on 1) Web Analytics; and 2) Marketing Automation.

Web analytics is the collection, analysis, measurement, and reporting of data about website traffic for purposes of understanding and optimizing internet usage. We collect the following types of personal information for Web analytics under the authority of the Export Development Act: your IP address, the type of browser you use, the page(s) you visited and the date and time of any requests you make. After this period, the information is disposed of in accordance with the Standard on Privacy and Web Analytics and as authorized by the Librarian and Archivist of Canada.

Cookies support web analytics by creating aggregated statistics on visitors to websites and their browsing behaviour. We use the information collected by cookies to understand what portions of our website are visited the most and to identify areas for improvement. The data is aggregated, which means the information is not used to identify you as an individual. Two types of cookies are used for this purpose:

1. Temporary or session cookies which are only stored on your browser for the duration of your visit. These session cookies follow and track your movements between screens to provide an improved browsing experience
2. Persistent cookies are stored on your browser for the purposes of evaluating site usage and compiling reports on website activity. We use the third party services of Adobe Analytics for this purpose.

Marketing Automation is the collection and analysis of browser activity and other engagements you may have with EDC, such as, by phone, email, webinars, and events. To gather your online activity on EDC websites, a persistent cookie is stored on your browser when you first visit our web pages. We use the services of Oracle Eloqua for gathering and analyzing this information.

The analysis of this data allows us to provide you with information, content, products and services tailored to your interests and needs. Information about your interests and preferences will be linked to information you provide us when you choose to complete a form, for example: to submit a question, or register for a white paper or newsletter. On each form, you will be reminded that the provision of personal information is optional. If you chose not to provide us with this information we may not be able to provide you with the content you requested; respond to inquiries; or tailor the information we send you based on your preferences.

Remember, you may adjust your browser settings to manage and/or delete cookies as you wish. Please consult your browser's Help Menu for instructions.

Your information will only be viewed by those persons at EDC who need that information for the purpose for which it was given. We also engage third parties for the purposes of providing services to us such as: IT services, web analytics, secure online payments, live chat services, legal and accounting services.

We need to share your information with these third parties in order for them to provide you with the services you have requested. These companies are only provided with the information necessary to provide the services. They are not authorized by us to use your information for any purpose other than delivering the services that have been requested by EDC in accordance with EDC's instructions and authorization.

In some circumstances, information is shared with counterparties and their respective banks in relation to fund transfers, payments, drawing of cheques, and other transactions.

We may also share your information as required or permitted by law. We may share your information to regulatory authorities, statutory bodies or public agencies for the purposes of complying with their respective requirements, policies, directives and contracts.

We may also transfer your information to any location outside of the jurisdiction or country where we are located. If we so transfer your information, we will take measures to ensure that the recipient provides a standard of protection required under applicable law.

We do not sell your personal information to third parties.

We take the safeguarding of your personal information seriously. We have implemented security policies & practices in the interest of protecting user and customer information from unauthorized access, improper use, alteration, unlawful or accidental destruction and accidental loss. Our security infrastructure is designed to block unauthorized access while permitting authorized communications. We leverage security measures to protect information at rest and in communication, such as Secure Socket Layer (SSL) to encrypt information rendering it unreadable to unauthorized parties. You are advised that we may monitor any part of our website at any time and may take appropriate measures to curtail inappropriate use.

To help protect our customers, EDC personnel have been instructed to only use official EDC domain e-mail (person@edc.ca) to communicate for business purposes. Email not originating from the "@edc.ca" domain could be fraudulent and should therefore be treated with suspicion. Do not respond to e-mails, open attachments, or click on suspicious links originating from other sources (examples: Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo).

While we have taken reasonable efforts to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of electronic systems or email and cannot be held responsible for unauthorized or unintended access that is beyond our control. We also cannot guarantee, warrant, or represent in any way that the personal information you provide will be transmitted securely or protected completely against interception, loss, misuse or alteration and we strongly recommend that you use appropriate discretion before transmitting sensitive personal information electronically.

Hyperlinks to other websites are provided for convenience only and do not constitute our endorsement of such websites or the accuracy or reliability of material, content or services provided therein. Such websites are independent from, and not within the control of, EDC. Before using such websites, you should review their terms of use and privacy policies which may be different from EDC’s.

We cannot accept responsibility or liability for any damages that may result where personal information submitted by you has not been securely transmitted, or has been intercepted, lost, misused or altered.

If you have provided your consent or are a current or former customer of EDC, EDC may provide you with trade information and promotional messages. We give you choices regarding our marketing practices.

If you have provided your consent to receive information from EDC, EDC may, from time to time, use your e-mail or regular mailing address to send you information on EDC's products and services. EDC may also collect the information that you provided on the subscription or registration form such as your name and name of your company (if applicable), your address, telephone and fax numbers and your language of preference. Where applicable, EDC may also collect any industry- and export related information you provide.

At any time by e-mailing info@edc.ca or otherwise contacting EDC, you may withdraw your consent to receive electronic messages from EDC and EDC will remove your name from EDC’s mailing list. To access your personal information, you may send an e-mail to EDC's ATIP Team.

Third-Party Social Media

EDC’s use of social media serves as an extension of its presence on the Web and is intended to facilitate interactions between users and EDC. EDC offers: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Google+. Social media account(s) are public and are not hosted on our servers. Users who choose to interact with us via social media should read the user agreements and privacy policies of these third-party service providers and those of any applications you use to access them. EDC does not endorse views or comments posted by users and in no way verifies or confirms either the accuracy of user comments or their compliance with our Terms of Use. EDC employees are held to the highest standards of professionalism in support of business related social networking.

Personal information that you provide to EDC via social media account(s) is collected in accordance with this Privacy Notice and applicable laws. Information is collected to capture conversations (e.g. questions and answers, comments, “likes” and retweets) between you and EDC. It may be used by EDC to respond to inquiries, or for statistical, evaluation and reporting purposes. Comments posted that violate any applicable law will be deleted and disclosed to law enforcement authorities. Comments that violate our Terms of Use may be deleted by EDC.

Retention

We will retain your personal information only for such periods of time as required for business purposes and as prescribed by applicable laws and regulations. In accordance with legal requirements, expired business purpose and/or contract obligations, we will destroy, erase, render anonymous, or otherwise dispose of personal information after such period of time. For questions about the retention of personal information email Privacy@edc.ca.

Accuracy

We rely on you for the accuracy of our information about you, except for obtaining independent verification of credit card information. To ensure that you are kept up-to-date on the products and services we offer, and that there is no interruption in our communications with you, please contact us to advise of any changes in your information.

For questions or comments regarding this Privacy Notice or to access, update or correct your own personal information held by EDC, email Privacy@edc.ca. Please include sufficient details to enable us to search for relevant records.

Contact Us

We reserve the right to change any part or all of this Privacy Notice at any time, without notice or liability to you or any other person by posting a new or amended Privacy Notice on our website at www.edc.ca. The updated Privacy Notice will supersede earlier versions and will also apply to personal information provided to us previously.