Our Privacy Commitment to You
Directwest places a high priority on the loyalty of our customers, and that loyalty is built on a foundation of good products, competitive prices, and above all, excellent customer service.
Respecting your right to privacy is an important part of our service excellence commitment. It is our goal to treat your personal information with the utmost respect. To us, this includes keeping you up-to-date on your rights as our customers and providing you with information on how we use your personal information. Our Privacy Statement outlines our commitment to protect the privacy and confidentiality of your personal information.
Directwest may update this statement from time to time, so please review it periodically. You are also encouraged to review the Legal Notices and User Agreement provided on this website. They too, are provided for your information and protection.
Why We Collect Personal Information
Personal information is defined as information about an identifiable individual. Publicly available information, such as a public telephone book listing of your name, address and telephone number, is not considered personal information.
As a Directwest customer, we have some basic information about you in order to provide you with products and services. We understand that some of this information is private, which is why we only collect personal information for the following purposes:
- To establish and maintain a responsible commercial relationship with you and to provide you with ongoing service.
- To understand your needs and develop and recommend suitable products and services.
- To develop, enhance, market or provide products and services.
- To manage and develop our business and operations, including personnel and employment matters.
- To meet legal and regulatory requirements.
Sharing Your Personal Information
Personal information that is not publicly available is not sold or rented to any parties outside of Directwest without your consent.
We do share this information with the companies we select as our business partners, and who supply services to us. However, we require them by contract to honour our privacy principles in the handling of personal information they obtain from us while providing services to us. The information provided to our business partners is used only for that purpose.
In certain circumstances in which it is necessary to do so, or where permitted by law, we may disclose your personal information without your consent to the following parties:
- The customer or an agent acting on the customer’s behalf, such as Power of Attorney;
- A company that publishes a directory or directory-related services;
- A collection agency or party used to determine creditworthiness;
- Courts, law enforcement agencies or otherwise legally empowered entities;
Directwest Personal Information Handling Principles
Directwest has always been, and will continue to be, committed to the privacy of your personal information. In addition to our existing procedures and our adherence to The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP) which governs our approach to handling personal information, we have adopted the following privacy principles from the Canadian Standards Association’s Model Code for the Protection of Personal Information:
Principle 1 – Accountability
Directwest is responsible for the personal information under our control and has designated a Chief Privacy Officer (CPO) as being accountable for our compliance with the privacy principles.
Principle 2 – Identifying Purposes for the collection of personal information
Directwest will identify the purpose for collecting personal information at or before the time the information is collected.
Principle 3 – Obtaining Consent for the Collection, Use and Disclosure of Personal Information
Directwest requires the knowledge and consent of the customer for the collection, use or disclosure of personal information except where it is impractical or inappropriate to do such as in emergency situations.
Principle 4 – Limiting Collection of Personal Information
Directwest will limit the collection of personal information to that which is necessary for the purposes identified by the company. We will collect personal information by fair and lawful means.
Principle 5 – Limiting Use, Disclosure and Retention of Personal Information
Directwest will not use or disclose personal information for purposes other than those for which it was collected, except with the consent of the individual or as required by law. We retain personal information only as long as necessary for the fulfillment of those purposes.
Principle 6 – Accuracy of Personal Information
Personal information will be as accurate, complete and up-to-date as is necessary for the purposes for which it is to be used.
Principle 7 – Security Safeguards
Directwest will protect personal information by security safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information.
Principle 8 – Openness
Directwest will make readily available to customers and employees, specific information about its policies and procedures relating to the management of personal information.
Principle 9 – Customer and Employee Access to Personal Information
Upon request, customers and employees shall be informed of the existence, use and disclosure of his or her personal information and shall be given access to that information. An individual shall be able to challenge the accuracy and completeness of the information and have it amended as appropriate.
Principle 10 – Challenging Compliance
A customer may address a challenge concerning compliance with the above principles to the Chief Privacy Officer.
What Are Your Choices?
We would like to have your consent to continue to collect, use and disclose your personal information for the purposes that we have outlined. However, you do have choices.
- You can have your name removed from our telephone, mail or e-mail marketing lists. By doing so, you may not be made aware of certain products, services, and promotions offered by Directwest. However, you will continue to be contacted as necessary to service your account, and you will receive marketing information included with your regular account mailings. Please allow us 30 days to complete your request. Some of our promotions may already be in progress when you submit your request, therefore you may be contacted during this time. If at any time you wish to reverse your decision, you may contact us at 1-800-667-8201.
- Directwest makes lists of published names, addresses and phone numbers available to selected organizations for a fee. You may choose to be excluded from these lists (non-published names, addresses and phone numbers are automatically excluded). Please note that removal of your name from our lists will not necessarily eliminate unsolicited mail or telephone calls, as there are many other list sources available.
- You may refuse to provide personal information to us. You may also withdraw your consent at any time, subject to legal, contractual or practical restrictions and reasonable notice.
Please know that withdrawing your consent may prevent us from providing you with service and products in certain circumstances.
Your Online Privacy on our Website
Directwest collects some information about the ways you use our website in order to make our site more interesting and useful to you. You are welcome to browse our website anonymously at any time, without revealing any personal information.
There are a few activities where the collection of personally identifiable information may be necessary. When personally identifiable information is collected, you will know because you will have chosen to provide your information.
IP Address
When you visit our website, your IP address is collected so that we know where to send the information you are requesting. This IP address does not personally identify you.
Anonymous Information
This is information that cannot be associated with a specific individual. Our web servers collect some anonymous information automatically when you visit our site. This information may include the pages you visited, what content you downloaded, the type of web browser you were using and the level of encryption your browser supports.
This information is collected on an aggregated basis. No personal information is associated with these statistics. We use this information to determine what type of information is most useful to you so that we can improve our websites to make it easier for you to access information.
Cookies
Our site collects aggregated site-visitation statistics using cookies, small text files containing a unique identification number that identifies your browser to our computers. This small file of information allows the website to remember important information that will make your use of the site more enjoyable.
Cookies tell us which pages are visited, by how many people, the average time spent, and other useful statistics relating to the use of the site. This helps us to enhance the online experience of visitors to our site. We use the statistics to understand how customers use our site, to make it easier for you and other visitors to use, to monitor the site’s performance and to improve our website.
To assist you, cookies help us remember who you are through your browser settings, while saving your passwords and preferences so you don’t have to enter them each time; essentially, cookies save you time.
We never combine information gathered by a cookie with personally identifiable information. The use of cookies is an industry standard and you will find that most major websites use cookies and most major browsers are set up to accept them. If you wish, you can configure your browser to accept all cookies, reject all cookies, or notify you when a cookie is sent.
You do not need to accept cookies to visit our site. However, should you choose not to accept these cookies, your experience on our site (and other websites) may be diminished and some features may not work properly.
How We Safeguard Your Information
The information you provide to us on our website is securely maintained and kept confidential. Information is retained in secure facilities, and protected from unauthorized access. We provide technical, administrative, and physical security measures to protect your information against loss, misuse, and unauthorized access or disclosure.
Children
The privacy of children is important to us. We encourage parents to review our Privacy Statement, Legal Notices and User Agreement documents.
We ask that children do not submit any personal information to us. Our services are intended for individuals who can form legally binding contracts. We do not use our website to intentionally collect or use a child’s personal data.
As an added protection for children, on any of our commercial websites or online services directed to children under 13 years of age, we will obtain the permission of a parent or legal guardian before collecting, using or disclosing any personally-identifiable information about a child, e.g., for participation in contests or promotions.
Links to Other Websites
This website may contain links to other sites that are not governed by this Privacy Statement. Please be aware that Directwest is not responsible for the privacy practices of other such sites. This policy applies solely to information collected by this website.
Please note that when you click on one of these links, you are moving to another website. It is important for you to read the privacy statement and terms of use for each site you visit to ensure you are comfortable with how they might use your personal information. We provide links to you only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement, investigation, verification or approval of such websites, products, services, or publications by Directwest.
Questions or Concerns
We welcome your comments regarding this Privacy Statement.
Please contact us at 1-800-667-8201 if you have questions about privacy and usage that were not answered here. You may also address these concerns to us in writing:
Chief Privacy Officer, Directwest
355 Longman Crescent
Regina, Saskatchewan, S4N 6G3
e-mail: dw@directwest.com
If this does not resolve your concern to your satisfaction, you may contact the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner by writing to:
Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner
100 – 1230 Blackfoot Drive
Regina, Saskatchewan S4S 7G4
Last Modified: March 15th, 2021
