Equifax Canada Privacy Statement
Last Updated: September 2024
Equifax prides itself on being a trusted steward of personal data and we are committed to protecting the personal data that we collect, use, disclose, and store.
This privacy statement describes how Equifax Canada Co. (“Equifax Canada”) and its affiliates (collectively, “Equifax”, “we”, “us”, “our”) collect, use, disclose, and store personal data about Canadians in the course of doing business in Canada. Individuals outside of Canada should refer to the privacy statements for the applicable country on our country-specific websites.
By accessing or using this website or any services provided by Equifax that are directed to Canadians, you agree to the collection, use, disclosure, and storage of your personal data as set out in this privacy statement.
Consumer Reporting Activity
Equifax Canada is a registered Canadian consumer reporting agency and complies with the applicable provincial legislation regarding the collection, use, and sharing of personal data used in consumer credit reports. Equifax Canada’s consumer credit database is located in Canada.
Employment Data
Please note that Equifax Canada restricts the use of personal data collected through our employment-related products, such as employment and income verification. Please read the Canada Workforce Solutions section for more information.
Consumer Services
You can access the online credit report, score or purchase monitoring products described within the “Personal” section of this website from Equifax Canada.
When you order an Equifax personal product online, your personal data is processed and stored in the United states by Equifax Consumer Services LLC (ECS LLC), an affiliate of Equifax Canada who provides the platform you access to receive your personal products. Please read the Consumer Services section for more information.
Personal Data Collected
Equifax collects the following categories of personal data:
Name and contact information. Your first and last name, email address, postal address (current and former), phone number, and other similar contact information.
Identifiers. Government-issued identifiers, for example, social insurance number.
Demographic information. Information about you such as your date of birth and gender.
Account information. Information regarding your online Equifax account, including account credentials, information related to the devices used to access your account, the IP Addresses used to access your account, and other personal data you have added to your account
Commercial information. Information regarding products or services you have purchased or considered purchasing, or other purchasing or spending histories or tendencies.
Payment information. Information required to process payments directly to Equifax, such as your payment card information including its account number and associated security code.
Financial information. Information about your financial accounts, such as outstanding balances, loan history, and bill payment history. In some cases this includes corresponding account numbers.
Professional or employment-related information. Information regarding your employment status, history, and compensation.
Support information. Information you provide when you contact Equifax for support, such as the content of your communications with Equifax, and the products or services related to your inquiry. When you contact us, such as for customer support, phone conversations, video conferences, or chat sessions with our representatives may be monitored and recorded.
Education information. Information regarding your education history, including degrees earned and student loan financial information.
Public records information. Information about you lawfully made available by federal, provincial, or local governments. This includes information about legal proceedings in court records, bankruptcies, and lien registrations.
Other Data Collected
Equifax collects other information when you interact with our websites. We use cookies and pixels to collect information about your browsing history, search history, and how you interact with our websites, applications, advertisements, or emails, including information about the devices that you use to access that content (e.g., browser, user agent, operating system information, device type, and IP Address). Information collected during website interactions is not used to identify a particular individual.
Please read the Cookies, Pixel Tags and Other Technology section for more information on how Equifax collects, uses, discloses, and stores the data we collect through cookies and pixels.
Sources of Personal Data
We collect personal data, with consent or as permitted by law, from the following sources:
Directly from you. Equifax Canada collects personal data through our interactions with you, such as when you create an account on one of our websites, contact customer support to update your information, receive a copy of your credit report, or apply to Equifax Canada for employment.
Financial institutions. Equifax Canada collects personal data from companies that offer financial products or services to consumers, like loans, financial or investment advice, or insurance, and have obtained your consent to share your data with Equifax Canada. This includes banks, mortgage lenders, loan brokers, some financial or investment advisors, insurance companies, and debt collectors.
Other lending institutions. Equifax Canada collects personal data from businesses you permit to access your consumer credit report information in connection with a transaction between you and the business. For example, this includes retail businesses that offer branded credit cards, automobile dealerships that arrange or facilitate financing for your automobile purchase or lease, property managers that evaluate your lease application, utility and telecommunications providers, and third-party businesses that offer you access to the information in your Equifax consumer credit report as part of a product or service.
Third-party data providers. Equifax Canada purchases personal data from third-party companies that collect and aggregate personal data. These data providers collect personal data from a variety of sources, including directly from consumers, through devices and browsers, public records, news sources, and from other businesses and data brokers.
Public records. Equifax Canada collects personal data which is sourced from public records made available by government entities (e.g., administrators of child and spousal support payments) and legal suppliers (e.g., courthouse reporters). This includes information on real property ownership and sales history, court filings, child and spousal support payments, and federally provided sanctions lists.
While Equifax obtains personal data about you from financial institutions, other lending institutions, third-party data providers, and public records, Equifax does not collect, process, or store the following information, nor are we required to under applicable legislation:
- Copies of consumer credit applications;
- Copies of consumer consents and/or authorizations;
- Copies of disclosure statements; or
- Copies of terms, conditions, and privacy statements related to all credit sources and applications.
Should you require a copy of one or more of the above items, please contact the entity with whom you have a credit relationship.
How We Use and Disclose Personal Data
We may use or disclose the personal data we collect for one or more of the following business purposes.
Business purposes. We use and disclose personal data to manage our business, including:
- To offer and provide you with products and services;
- To advertise, promote and market products and services provided by Equifax, its strategic partners and alliances;
- To monitor, review, and improve customer service and internal business processes;
- To audit or investigate the use of our products and services by our customers;
- For testing, research, analysis, and product development;
- To improve our websites and present their contents to website visitors;
- To detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity; and
- To comply with all applicable laws.
We sometimes disclose personal data to third parties to carry out the business purposes described above, including with our service providers, strategic partners and alliances. Prior to disclosing personal data to such third parties, we enter into a contract that describes the purpose and requires the third party to both keep that personal data confidential and secure and not use it for any purpose except performing the contract.
Our affiliates, service providers , strategic partners and alliances may perform activities outside of Canada. As a result, your personal data may be securely used, stored, or accessed in other countries and be subject to the laws of those countries.
We also disclose personal data for the following purposes:
Consumer Credit Reporting. As a consumer reporting agency, Equifax Canada uses personal data to prepare, maintain, update, and share your credit report, credit scores and related services with you upon written request. Equifax Canada also discloses personal data to our customers who have obtained your consent, where required, and in situations where the law permits such disclosure. Equifax Canada uses personal data to investigate and resolve inaccuracies in your credit report.
Equifax Canada also shares this information with ECS LLC with your consent so that ECS LLC can provide you with the online products that you have ordered.
Commercial Credit Reporting. Equifax Canada uses and discloses personal data as part of our commercial credit reporting services. These services permit our customers to make informed decisions regarding providing credit to or investing in businesses. Commercial credit reports may contain the names and other personal data of owners, principals, directors, officers, guarantors, or agents of the businesses.
Fraud Detection and Identity Management. Equifax Canada uses and discloses personal data as a part of our fraud detection, identity verification, and identity resolution services. These services help us and our customers prevent security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, as well as more accurately manage consumer account information.
Regulatory Compliance. Equifax Canada uses and discloses personal data as part of our regulatory compliance products, which help customers comply with laws and regulations.
Debt Recovery. Equifax Canada uses and discloses personal data as part of our debt recovery products. These products help our customers locate debtors for the purposes of collecting debts owed by the debtor.
Disclosure for legal reasons or as necessary to protect Equifax and others. We may disclose personal data to third parties: (1) to comply with valid legal requirements such as a law, regulation, search warrant, subpoena, court order, or other legal process; (2) in special cases, such as a physical threat to you or others, a threat to national security, a threat to our system or network; or (3) cases in which we believe it is reasonably necessary to detect, suppress or prevent harm, fraud, abuse, or illegal conduct.
Changes in our corporate structure. If all or part of our company is sold or merged, if we make a sale or transfer of assets, or in the unlikely event of a bankruptcy, we may transfer your information, including your personal data, to one or more third parties as part of that transaction.
If Equifax is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, we’ll continue to ensure the confidentiality of your personal data and give affected users notice before personal data is transferred or becomes subject to a different privacy policy.
Storage of Personal Data
Equifax has implemented a Global Records Management Program which defines appropriate retention periods for personal data based on regulatory, legal, contractual obligations, company policy or for a legitimate business purpose. Personal data is securely stored for the defined retention period and disposed of in accordance with Equifax’s Global Records Retention Policy.
Cookies, Pixel Tags and Other Technology
Cookies are small text files that collect information when you access our websites, applications, or advertisements to help us provide you with a customized experience.
First Party Cookies
First party cookies are cookies that we have published on our website to understand how visitors navigate our website and improve the performance of our website. We utilize third-party analytics providers to help us gather information about a visitor’s experience which may include browser type, time spent on the website, pages clicked, operating system type, device type and ID, and information related to products you ordered. We utilize the information collected through first party cookies to perform website analytics and to update the layout and content of our website. Third party analytics providers are able to read their own cookies on your device and are contractually restricted in how they can use the information collected.
First Party Cookie Opt Out
If you do not wish to have your information collected through first party cookies on our website, most browsers allow you to adjust the browser settings to decline particular cookies or cookies from a specific website. Opting out of first party cookies may impact your website experience.
To learn more about controlling information provided to third party analytics providers, click on the following links: Adobe Opt-Out Site, Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.
Third Party Cookies
Third party cookies are cookies that our partners place on your browser to provide you with customized offers and advertising. We have agreements with companies, sometimes called "Ad Networks," that serve advertising on behalf of other companies. Ad Networks use cookies to understand web usage patterns of people who see advertisements, to control the sequence of advertisements they see, to provide them with the most relevant advertising, and to make sure they do not see the same ad too many times. Ad Networks may connect information about pages visited on our site with information about pages visited on other sites. Ad Networks display advertising based on this combined information, including advertising for our products.
While we do not control Ad Networks or what they do with the information they collect, we only work with companies that have agreed to participate in the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI), the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA), and/or the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), and abide by the associated principles. Your IP address may be used to identify the general geographical location of your device.
Third Party Cookie Opt Out
You can opt out of receiving ads based on your online behavior either by visiting the DAA opt-out page at https://www.aboutads.info/choices/, the NAI opt-out page at https://optout.networkadvertising.org/?c=1, or by clicking on the Ad-Choices icon in or near the ad. If you elect to opt out of online behavioral advertising, you will still see ads, but they may not be as relevant to you. Please keep in mind that opting out is cookie-based and will only affect the specific computer and browser on which the opt out cookie is applied. If you delete your browser cookies or if you use a different computer or different browser and want to continue to be opted out of interest-based advertising, you will need to opt out again.
Pixel Tags
Pixel tags, also known as “web beacons”, are used to support the collection of information through cookies and are generally not visible to a website visitor. Cookies placed on your browser, via our website or other websites you visit, communicate with the pixel tag to collect information about your interactions with our website. Pixel tags are also used in email advertising to understand the effectiveness of a particular advertising campaign.
Security Tools
Security tools are used on our website to support our authentication processes and detect and prevent fraud. Account information, including Device ID and IP Address, is collected when a visitor registers for an Equifax account or logs in to their existing Equifax account. Data captured by security tools is segregated from other data captured through our website and is only used to support our authentication processes or support a fraud investigation.
Do Not Track
Some browsers transmit “do not track” signals to the websites and other online services with which a user communicates. We currently do not take action in response to these signals.
Security
Safeguarding your personal data
Equifax maintains industry accepted security safeguards when storing or destroying your personal data in order to prevent unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification, disposal, or similar risks. We regularly review, test, and enhance our systems to ensure they meet accepted industry standards. We also limit the number of employees who may access your personal data on a need-to-know basis. We conduct due diligence on, and impose appropriate security standards for, our members who are permitted to access your information through products or services we offer.
In the event that we transfer your personal data to a third party in Canada or across borders for processing, we contractually require such third party to protect your personal data in a manner consistent with our privacy safeguarding measures, subject to the law in the third party jurisdiction.
Choices and Control over your Information
Your right to dispute information on your credit report
You may dispute information you believe to be inaccurate or incomplete on your Equifax credit report by following the processes published on our website, https://www.consumer.equifax.ca/personal/dispute-credit-report.
Your rights to access and correct your personal data
You are entitled to receive your credit report from Equifax Canada at no charge upon request. We encourage all consumers to request and review their credit report on a regular basis. By doing this, you can ensure that your report contains information that accurately reflects your credit history. You have the right to dispute any discrepancies by notifying us in writing and we will investigate to ensure the items reported are factual. Where a piece of information cannot be verified by the reporting source, we will remove it from your credit file.
You also have a right to access the other personal data belonging to you that is under our control subject to any legal restrictions or rights of refusal. Such a request for access must be made in writing stating the details of the personal data you are requesting to Equifax Canada’s Chief Privacy Officer, Equifax Canada Co., 5700 Yonge St., Suite 1600, Toronto, ON M2M 4K2. To ensure we disclose information to you only, with your request please include photocopies (front and back) of two (2) pieces of government issued identification so that we may verify your identity.
Your consent and how you may withdraw it
Where your consent is required for credit information to be reported to Equifax Canada or received from Equifax, such consent is obtained from you by the source (e.g., financial institution, other lending institution, third-party data providers, public records) and Equifax does not store copies of such consent.
You may request a free copy of your credit file from Equifax Canada, which will include information regarding third parties that have accessed your credit file or reported information about you to Equifax Canada. Please note that withdrawing your consent from the source may affect your ability to continue to receive certain products and services from these companies.
In respect to consent directly obtained from you by us (e.g., to receive promotions and marketing communications), if you are a current customer you may withdraw your consent at any time. In the event that you wish to withdraw your consent and unsubscribe from Equifax Canada e-mail communications, please visit the “manage preferences” or “unsubscribe” link included at the bottom of any Equifax Canada email that you have received. You are not able to opt out of certain communications, including those relating to functions or features of our services, or technical or security notices.
Consumer Services
Equifax Canada collects personal data from you through its online personal products, such as when you register to create an online account. When you order a personal product online, you are providing your personal data and consent to Equifax Canada to provide you with the personal products that you have ordered. Equifax Canada delivers this product in coordination with its affiliate, ECS LLC, and your data will be stored in the United States. Equifax Canada also collects personal data when you interact with its social media accounts. Some of this information is collected about your interactions, use, and experience with its products and communications.
When you order a personal product online, Equifax Canada may also use or disclose personal data for one or more of the following business purposes:
- To personalize products and services and make recommendations to you;
- To advertise, promote and market products and services to you from both affiliated and non-affiliated entities (such as strategic partners and alliances), which includes sending promotional communications, target advertising, and presenting you with relevant offers by email or through your account;
- To provide you with email or SMS alerts and other notices concerning products or services, or events or news, that may be of interest to you;
- To carry out its obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and Equifax Canada, including for billing and collections; and
- For authentication purposes when you access products or services and to help you recover forgotten passwords.
Equifax Canada will seek your consent or notify you as required by applicable privacy law if there is any other use or disclosure of your personal data outside of the business purposes described herein. Equifax Canada may use de-identified data to perform analytics, modeling and/or demographic studies. This de-identified data does not include any information that individually, or collectively, could be used to identify a consumer.
Canada Workforce Solutions
Canada Workforce Solutions collects employee personal data from employers and their payroll providers to provide income and employment verification services, which automate the process of employers responding to employment and income verification requests from third party verifiers, such as lenders and government agencies. Canada Workforce Solutions also collects personal data about you when you interact with our products and from third party verifiers in order to provide income and employment verification services. The collection, use, disclosure, and storage of personal data for these purposes is regulated by applicable privacy legislation.
Personal data collected by Canada Workforce Solutions is only used for the purpose of providing the Canada Workforce Solutions services, and not for other purposes such as marketing or updating consumer credit reports. This applies to (i) employee personal data provided to Canada Workforce Solutions by an employer or payroll provider; (ii) personal data you provide to Canada Workforce Solutions when interacting with a Canada Workforce Solutions product; and (iii) personal data provided by a third party verifier to request employment and income verifications. Personal data provided to Canada Workforce Solutions is stored in Canada and is separate from the database used to generate consumer credit reports.
In some instances, when permitted by its clients, Canada Workforce Solutions uses de-identified employee data to perform analytics, modeling and/or demographic studies. This deidentified employee data does not include any information that individually, or collectively, could be used to identify either the employer or individual employees.
Changes to this Privacy Statement
We may change this privacy statement in the future. If we make changes to this privacy statement, we will post the revised privacy statement and its effective date on this website, so please review it from time to time.
Contact Us
For more information related to this Privacy Statement or our personal data handling practices, please visit our Privacy Contact Form or write to the Canada Chief Privacy Officer by mail. Our Canada Chief Privacy Officer, Adam Higgins, may be contacted by email at chief.privacy.officer@equifax.com, or by mail at:
Canada Chief Privacy Officer
Equifax Canada Co.
5700 Yonge St., Suite 1600
Toronto, ON M2M 4K2
If you have any concerns about this Privacy Statement or personal data handling practices, and we are not able to resolve your concern you may contact the appropriate privacy regulator. The Canada Privacy Office will provide you with this contact information upon request.