Protection of your personal information

Privacy statement

Last update : 2024-10-28

Protecting you is serious business. So is protecting your personal information. Here at Beneva, we are committed to protecting the confidentiality of your personal information and handling it in a manner that respects the law as well as your privacy.

To do this, 4 principles guide us:

We limit ourselves to the essential

By collecting, using and disclosing only what is necessary.

We are transparent

With you, throughout our relationship.

We get your consent

Before we collect, use or disclose your personal information. 

We protect the confidentiality of your information

With robust security measures. 

1. Who is covered by our privacy statement

The rules described here apply to any individual whose personal information we process in the course of our activities. We continue to apply them even when the objectives for collecting, using or communicating personal information are achieved. 

Here are some examples of situations where this statement applies to you. 

You do business with us:  You are not a Beneva client, but: 
  • You are a client
  • You are an insured person, co-insured person, beneficiary, dependent or payer of a contract with Beneva
  • You contact us 
  • You browse our website 
  • You participate in a contest or survey 
  • You have applied or previously applied for a job at Beneva 
  • You asked for a quote or application, but did not do business with us 
  • You are a former client 
  • You are a trustee, agent or liquidator of someone who does business with us 

2. How we collect your personal information

From whom

We may collect personal information from various sources: 

  • You, when you interact with us 
  • Other individuals or organizations. For example: your employer, credit reporting agencies, health care professionals, government agencies as well as public and private databases that may have information about you. 
  • Individuals who hold a product or service, such as the primary insured of an insurance policy. Before providing us with your personal information, these individuals must obtain your consent to the collection, use and communication of your personal information. 

In what ways

We may collect your personal information in a number of ways. For example: 

  • In person 
  • Through our forms and digital interfaces  
  • By using technologies that can identify you, locate you or establish your profile, such as cookies (for more details, consult our page on the use of cookies). For example, our electronic applications and online quote tools have features that help us decide if we can insure you, determine the best coverage for you, and determine the cost of your insurance. These features are necessary to evaluate your request and offer you a fair price. They are activated when you initiate a process that uses this type of technology.  
  • By using statistical models that can create or infer new information from your personal information. For example, we can create a unique Beneva identifier or a consumer profile.  

3. What personal information we collect?

We limit ourselves to the essential. We collect the personal information necessary for the objectives listed in this section. 

We consider "personal information" to be any information about you that identifies you, directly or indirectly (for example, by linking it to other information). 

Here are some examples of what we can collect, use or disclose. 

  • First and last name 
  • Date of birth 
  • Mailing or email address 
  • Telephone number 
  • Age 

  • Passwords 
  • Answers to authentication questions 
  • Government identifiers and other information on your identity documents (for example: social insurance number, driver’s licence number, health insurance number, passport number) 

  • Health history 
  • Health status 
  • Lifestyle habits 

  • Insurance quotes and applications 
  • Information on insured persons and property, premiums, coverage, conditions and other guarantees 
  • Information on claims you submitted 
  • Claims history 
  • Driving record 

  • Income, salary, balance and receivables 
  • Products and investments and their terms 
  • Credit reports and credit history 
  • Balance sheet 
  • Investor profile 
  • Tax identification number 
  • Payment information  

  • Ownership and overview of your situation, including your profile, needs and goals 
  • History of transactions and interactions 
  • Client, financial product or service, policy or contract number 
  • Identification number, group number and employer number 

  • IP address 
  • Location data 
  • Information about your device, operating system or browser 
  • Browsing preferences and habits 

  • Reasons you do business with us 
  • Telephone recordings and communications to enhance your customer experience 
  • Written communications (for example: your letters or emails) 
  • Notes, records and history of your communications with us 
  • Information about your inquiries, dissatisfactions or complaints 
  • Language or communication preferences 
  • Responses to surveys, contests and consultations

  • Information in public records (for example: municipal records, land registers, court records) 
  • Video recordings from security cameras at our points of service and electronic access card activation logs 
  • Information on our verifications related to misrepresentation, frauds, cyber threats and other legal violations 
  • Criminal history 

  • Information about people other than you (for example: agent, guardian, temporary representative, assistant, beneficiary, spouse, dependent or other insured person) 
  • Information about your professional status (for example: your education, occupation, professional association or order) 

4. Why we collect, use and disclose your personal information

Your personal information allows us to provide you with our products and services, and to meet our legal obligations. We can also use it to provide you with a personalized experience, if you consent.   

We do our best to make sure your personal information is accurate, complete and up to date when we use it. We count on your cooperation to inform us when this information changes. 

The objectives for which we collect, use, retain, and disclose your personal information are as follows. 

Establish our relationship with you 

  • Identify you 
  • Understand your situation, profile, needs and goals 
  • Evaluate your requests and determine if we can provide you with our products and services 

Manage and administer your products and services 

  • Assess risks and determine which ones we insure 
  • Determine our prices and the terms for our products and services 
  • Process claims and payments 
  • Make recommendations and provide advice based on  your situation to reduce the likelihood and impact of a claim 

Interact with you 

  • Update your file 
  • Handle your information requests, dissatisfactions and complaints 

  • Get your feedback on your interactions with us and on our products and services  
  • Conduct studies and research, including designing and applying statistical models.

Protect your security and ours 

  • Detect and prevent misrepresentation, fraud, cyber threats and other violations of the law 
  • Investigate as required 

Meet our other legal obligations 

  • Fulfill our tax obligations 
  • Fulfill our retention obligations 
  • Respond to requests and orders from courts, government and regulatory agencies 

Provide you with personalized offers on our products and services, as well as advice tailored to your situation, according to your communication preferences (for example: by mail, email, text message, telephone, via our applications and websites, or those of other organizations) 

5. We always obtain your consent, unless the law allows us to do otherwise

5.1 When we obtain your consent  

We ask for your consent before we collect, use or disclose your personal information. 

In some cases, we can assume that we have your consent, or the law allows us not to obtain it. (See section 5.4.)

5.2 How we obtain your consent

We may ask for your consent in a number of ways: 

  • In writing
  • Verbally
  • By telephone, including by an automated message
  • Electronically or digitally

5.3 The duration and scope of your consent

Your consent is valid for the time necessary to achieve the objectives we requested it for. It then remains valid to fulfill our retention obligations described in the law and in our retention schedules.

If we wish to collect, use or disclose your personal information for any other purpose, we will ask for your consent again, except as described in the following section.

5.4 Situations when we won’t ask for your consent

We can use your personal information without your consent if the law allows us to do so, for example if the use is to your advantage or if it is consistent with the purpose for which we collected your personal information. 

We may also use or disclose your personal information without your consent to meet our legal obligations. For example: 

  • To comply with an order of a court or other body 
  • To prevent or detect fraud 
  • As part of an investigation 

6. We may disclose your personal information to other individuals and organizations

6.1 To whom we can disclose your personal information

We may disclose your personal information to our affiliates and other individuals or organizations, if necessary to achieve the objectives listed in this section. 

Here are some examples: 

  • Other financial institutions, such as insurers and reinsurers
  • Employers
  • Service providers related to a claim, such as health care facilities and professionals or auto repair shops
  • Government agencies or regulatory authorities
  • Websites and applications owned by other individuals and organizations
  • Companies that provide technology, reprography or document shipping services
  • Organizations that hold information about insurance, fraud or compensation, such as credit reporting agencies, the Groupement des assureurs automobiles, the Société d’assurance automobile du Québec, the Fichier central des sinistres automobiles or other municipal or land registers.

6.2 We can disclose personal information outside Quebec or Canada

We usually keep your personal information in Quebec or Canada.

However, we sometimes use suppliers based elsewhere. We may therefore disclose your personal information to another country or province. It is then subject to the laws of that country or province. We require suppliers to have adequate security measures in place before communicating personal information to them.

Microsoft, Google and Amazon Web Services are three of our IT service providers. They are subject to the same security and privacy requirements as Beneva. It is possible they may use some of your personal information in the course of their activities to make their products more effective, efficient, reliable and safe. They may also transfer it to the United States or other countries where they (or their subcontractors) are able to process and store such information. These suppliers commit to destroying your personal information as required by the law.

7. How we protect your personal information

7.1 We limit access to your personal information 

Only those who need to access your personal information in order to perform their duties can do so. They only have access to the information necessary to achieve the objectives listed in this section. This is true both for our team members and for our external suppliers and partners. 

7.2 We implement place robust security measures

We have implemented several measures to protect your personal information from loss, theft and unauthorized access, use or disclosure. 

  • Require security clearances for certain job categories 
  • Limit access to personal information to what is strictly necessary 
  • Record (log) all copying and exporting of personal information in the course of our day-to-day operations 

  • Access cards to our offices  
  • Register visitors and verify their identity  
  • Save and archive personal information in an emergency backup system  

  • Encrypt personal information when necessary for its keeping or disclosure outside our company  
  • Set up passwords, firewalls and other security measures 

7.3 We destroy your personal information after fulfilling our obligations

We keep your personal information for as long as necessary to achieve the objectives listed in this section. Even if you no longer do business with us, we generally have to keep it for a certain period of time to comply with our business rules and legal obligations. We have put in place retention schedules to clearly define those limits.  

Once the retention period has passed, we permanently destroy your personal information. 

8. Your rights

8.1 Modify your consent

You can modify your consent to the collection, use, disclosure and retention of your personal information, subject to certain conditions. 

Consent to do business with us  Consent to receive personalized offers and advice 

This consent allows us to offer you our products and services and to give you access to the best price. 

If you withdraw your consent, we may no longer be able to offer you our products and services. We may also have retain certain personal information in order to meet our legal and contractual obligations.

You may withdraw your consent at any time by calling 1 844 781-0860 or by filling out our Withdraw your consent form.

8.2 Accessing and correcting your personal information 

You have rights related to your personal information. You may ask us to: 

  • access it 
  • correct it
  • receive a copy of it in a commonly used, structured technological format
  • if information is publicly shared, to stop sharing it (for example, to remove a post related to a contest from our social media channels) 

Here are the steps for processing a request: 

  • Fill out our Protection of Personal Information form.
  • We will process your request within 30 days of receiving it. We will inform you if you have to pay a transcription, reproduction or transmission fee. 
  • You will receive our response in writing. 

Please note that you also have the right to request to de-index or re-index a hyperlink attached to your name (make it accessible or inaccessible via a search engine) under certain conditions.    

8.3 Being informed if an automated decision is made

We will inform you if we make an automated decision about you. In some cases, we use your personal information to make a decision without anyone on our team intervening. For example, we process certain group insurance claims and individual insurance applications in this way. We can also determine if we can insure you and set a price in this way. 

You have the right, for instance, to ask for the main reasons for an automated decision or to present your observations to a member of our team. 

9. You have applied or previously applied for a job at Beneva.

9.1 Additional information about the protection of your personal information

At Beneva, we collect, use, keep and disclose only the personal information we truly need.1 It could be your identifying information, such as your name, mailing address, email or phone number. During the application process, we may also collect other information, for example, your employment information and skills, such as your diplomas or certifications and psychometric test results.

This information allows us to:

  • Identify you
  • Evaluate and update your application
  • Verify the accuracy of your information
  • Comply with legal requirements
  • Communicate with you regarding your application
  • Send you information about career opportunities that may match your profile (see your right to withdraw consent)
  • Conduct studies and research, including the design and application of statistical models
  • Install your workstation, when required

9.2 Who does Beneva share your personal information with?

For the purposes described above, and only in connection to the evaluation of your application, or required under the recruitment process to hire you, we may disclose your personal information to other organizations. We carefully choose them, whether they be located in Quebec, Canada or elsewhere.

Before doing so, we require these organizations to take appropriate security measures to ensure that your personal information is secure.

These organizations can include:

  • Credit assessment agencies and firms that conduct criminal background checks (with your consent)
  • Companies offering solutions or services in the management of human capital, e.g. partner psychometric assessment firms
  • Other agents and service providers (technology services, mailing services, firms specializing in immigration, etc.)

9.3 How do we collect your personal information?

We collect your personal information by using digital interfaces, technical, behavioural and psychometric evaluations, by telephone, email or in person.

9.4 Consent to receive information about potential career opportunities at Beneva

You can modify your preferences in Workday to withdraw employment alerts you previously set.

You can also write to us at [email protected] to withdraw your consent allowing our talent acquisition team to contact you by email or telephone regarding potential career opportunities that match your profile.

10. Contact the Chief Privacy Officer

Our Chief Privacy Officer stands on guard. This person ensures that we follow the rules outlined in this section and in the law. Have questions, comments or a request regarding your personal information? Contact our Chief Privacy Officer by filling out our form or write to us at: 

Chief Privacy Officer 
Beneva 
2525 boulevard Laurier
Québec QC  G1V 2L2