Use: Treatment, handling and management of personal information by and within KDM.
Subject: Use of Personal Information Policy
Effective Date: January 1, 2004
Purpose: To define the use of personal information in the course of dailybusiness.
General Policy
Personal Information shall only be used where necessary to the smooth functioning of KDM's business, and always with an eye to the rights of the individual to have such information maintained in privacy, and shall not beused by or sold to other parties without the express approval of the affected employee, business partner or customer of KDM. People within KDM who become aware of Personal Information in the course of their duties for KDM are required to maintain such information in confidentiality and restrict its useto Kelman's use and then only as set out in more detail below.
Interpretationof Policy
1. Personal Information
Shall be any form of Information about an individual employee or customer,which allows identification of such employee or customer, that deals with age,sex, marital status, race, religion, colour, creed, ethnicity or sexual orientation. It shall also include:
i. financial information including social insurance number, rates of pay,salary history, credit card numbers, financial history, garnishees and payment history;
ii. benefits information including number, age and sex of dependents, medical history, number and duration of medical absences from work;
iii. employment information including previous employment history, education and information related to the current or past work performance of an individual;
iv. address, phone number, disabilities, deformities, personal interests and habits.
2.Information about Customers
In the course of our daily business we will get to know customers on a personal basis including contact information, the amount and type of work they do with us and how they pay their bills to us. Depending on the circumstances, we may also come to know banking and credit information and occasionally credit card numbers. All of the above cited information is private and shall only be usedby the corporation for the granting of credit for services and for focusing our marketing activities. Individuals within KDM who come to know some or all ofthe above information shall maintain it in confidentiality sharing it only with people within KDM who have a need to know such information for credit or marketing purposes. It shall not be shared with or sold to other parties forany purpose without the express prior agreement of the customer affected.
3.Information About Employees
To function as an employer, certain individuals within the organization need to know Personal Information about employees. Such officials are required tomaintain confidentiality about the Personal Information they know or becomeaware of in the course of daily business. Equally, such information must be maintained in secure storage ( separate and private file which is locked after hours). The company officials dealing with Personal Information have an obligation to maintain accurate information and are required to correct records where errorsor omissions become known. Employees have the right to request reason ableaccess to their Personal Information as retained by KDM and may request that erroneous or incomplete information be changed.
The timeliness of information is vital to its usefulness for KDM purposes.Therefore performance information older than 7 years should be removed from an employee's file except where there have been subsequent instances that are substantially similar or related. For clarity this means that a performance review or a documented performance issue will be removed from company records 7years after such incident unless there have been other performance relate dissues that have occurred after such performance issue.
4.Information on Company Systems
Authorized company officials have the right to access all electronic information stored on company computers and any documents stored on company premises at any time. Therefore, persons should refrain from storing personal information at the office that they do not wish the company to access. For clarity, this means that personal records including emails stored on company machines are the property of the company. Persons storing or receiving such information are cautioned that it is available to the company and should govern their practices accordingly.
5. Personal Information Officer
The company has appointed the Secretary of the corporation as its Personal Information Officer. The responsibility of such officer is to oversee the company's use, retention and destruction of Personal Information and to ensure that such use, retention and destruction is in keeping with the intention of this policy, and in all respects in compliance with the requirements ofapplicable legislation dealing with such matters.
6. Reference Checking by Prospective Employers
Information about a past or current employees' work performance and work attendance or habits is Personal Information and therefore, except as set out below, should not be discussed with third parties from outside of the organization. This applies to what you consider to be both positive and negative comments about such performance.
All requests for information about current or former employees should be addressed to the Corporate Secretary or the company's HR representative. In the absence of these persons requests should be directed to Vice President responsible for the department in which the request was received.
The responsible official will confirm dates of employment only in the absenceof authorization from the employee to release information. No other information will be released unless the employee has authorized such release through theuse of the form attached to this policy.
7. ConsentNot Required
In certain circumstances, KDM may collect and use personal information without the knowledge or consent of the individual. For example:
It is clearly in the interests of the individual and consent cannot be obtainedin a timely manner (e.g. when the individual is seriously ill).
Obtaining prior consent would defeat the purpose of collecting the information(e.g. in the investigation of a breach of an agreement or policy, or a contravention of law).
In the case of an emergency where the life, health or security of the individual is threatened.
When determining the form of consent, KDM considers the sensitivity of the information and the reasonable expectation of the individual. For example, KDMwill obtain express consent when the information is considered to be sensitive;implied consent may be appropriate when information is less sensitive.
8. Withdrawalof Consent
Consent may be withdrawn at any time, subject to legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice. KDM informs individuals of the implications for withdrawing consent. Contact the KDM Personal Information Officer for more information regarding the implications of withdrawing consent.