Privacy Statement

Collection and use of Personal Information

Economical is committed to protecting your Personal Information by complying with the laws and regulations under applicable privacy laws of Canada, including the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. "Personal Information" generally means information about an identifiable individual.

We may collect your Personal Information from:

You
Third parties, such as your insurance broker, insurance industry databases, consumer credit reporting agencies, governmental authorities, investigation organizations, and regulatory organizations
From such other parties for whom you have provided your consent
Such other sources as may be permitted or required by law

We may use your Personal Information for the following purposes (the "Purposes"):

To help us better understand your insurance and service needs
To enable us to process your applications for insurance
To enable us to process, investigate, and administer claims, and assess and settle losses in the event of a claim
To allow us to operate our site in accordance with its terms of use
To respond to your questions or inquiries
To ensure proper billing, and to service your policies and accounts
To allow us, in conjunction with other factors, to establish the risk and premium associated with your insurance policy
To assist your insurance broker to provide services to you
To verify the information you provide when you buy your insurance, or at the time of the claim
To analyze your activities to help us serve you as a customer and to help us improve our business and/or our site, including using group codes and postal codes provided to us
To protect our interests, including to detect, prevent and prosecute fraud
For such other purposes for which you have provided your consent
As otherwise permitted or required by law

The Economical site may request your group code or postal code, which we may use to show you customized information based on your group and location. You may visit the site without providing us with this information; however if you do not provide us with this information, we will not be able to provide you with customized information based on your group and location.

We may provide your Personal Information to:

Operators of insurance industry databases and credit and consumer reporting agencies for the purpose of verifying the application information you submit
Your insurance broker for the purpose of your broker providing services to you
Independent insurance adjusters and brokers for the purpose of obtaining assistance in processing and administering your claims
Governmental authorities, claims investigation service providers, medical organizations, other vendors, other insurance carriers, reinsurers and regulatory organizations for the purpose of assisting in the investigation and processing of claims
Other persons for whom you have provided your consent, for the Purposes
To third party service providers that assist us with carrying out the Purposes
To any third party that we merge with or that acquires all or a portion of our business, including for due diligence should any such transaction be proposed
As otherwise permitted or required by law

If you are a commercial automobile policyholder, whether acting as sole proprietor, partnership or corporate entity, we collect additional information related to the risks associated with your business operation. This includes driver information on the owners and/or any employees operating vehicles on behalf of the company. Rating and/or acceptance relates to driver experience only and does not include information from credit reporting agencies. However, we may collect consumer credit reports on business owners where the insured vehicles are of a private passenger type.

Cookies and how Economical Collects information through technological means

When you visit our site, Economical may collect information that is automatically sent to us by your web browser or your internet service provider. This information may include your numerical IP address. We may also collect other general information (such as the type of browser you use, which pages you view, and the files you request). We use this information to better understand how visitors use our site, and to improve our site to better meet your needs, and to aid us with customer support and fraud investigations. We use this information in the aggregate, and do not link it to your Personal Information.

We may use a feature on your Internet browser called a "cookie" and/or other similar devices including web beacons and conversion pixels. Cookies are small files that your web browser places on your computer's hard drive. They are used for a variety of reasons, such as tracking click streams, remembering information you have previously provided so you do not have to reenter it, and for load balancing. Information tracked through these mechanisms may include, but is not limited to: (i) your IP address; (ii) the type of web browser and operating system being used; and (iii) the pages of the site a user visits. We may analyze this information with reference to your postal code and/or group code where you choose to provide us with that information. We may use conversion pixels to track traffic to our site from advertising. By using cookies, we can deliver faster service, consistent, updated results, and a better experience on our site. Your browser gives you the option to reject cookies. However, setting your browser to reject cookies generally hinders the browser's performance and will adversely affect your experience while using our site.

Limited access and Protecting Personal Information

The security of your Personal Information is important to us. We protect your Personal Information by maintaining physical, organizational and technological safeguards intended to help protect against unauthorized use, disclosure or access.

Your Personal Information will be made available to the authorized employees, representatives, contractors or agents of Economical, or its service providers, or of your broker, who need to access the information in connection with the Purposes. The Personal Information will be held primarily in an electronic form. All third parties that obtain Personal Information from us (e.g. service providers that perform functions on our behalf) are required to protect your confidentiality and Personal Information in a manner consistent with this Privacy Statement, and/or as required by law.

Your Personal Information may be stored or disclosed outside of Canada for the Purposes, and while such information is out of the country, it is subject to the laws of the country in which it is held, and may be subject to access by the governments, courts or law enforcement or regulatory agencies of such other country, pursuant to the laws of such country.

Accessing and correcting your Personal Information

You have a right to request access to your Personal Information and to request a correction to it if you believe it is inaccurate. If you have submitted Personal Information to Economical and would like to have access to it, or if you would like to have it removed or corrected, please contact us using the contact information provided below. We may require you to confirm your identity before permitting you to access your Personal Information. We will use reasonable efforts to comply with your request; however, in some cases we may not be able to allow you to access certain Personal Information (for example if it contains Personal Information of other persons, or for legal reasons). In such cases, we will provide you with a reasonable explanation in writing of why it is not possible to grant access to your Personal Information.

Providing your consent

By applying for insurance, continuing your business relationship with Economical through your broker, or by providing Economical with Personal Information, you provide your consent for the ongoing collection, use and disclosure of your Personal Information as described in this Privacy Statement. In most cases, you may withdraw your consent with reasonable notice to Economical and your broker; however, by doing so, Economical may no longer be able to meet your insurance needs. Your withdrawal of consent is also subject to your legal and contractual obligations.

More on consumer credit reporting agencies

Consumer credit reporting agencies collect and provide information on consumer behaviour and credit use. Research indicates this type of information is valuable for helping to determine the risk associated with an insurance request. Numerous insurance companies throughout Canada use similar information to determine premium or product eligibility.

Economical also uses information derived from these agencies, as one of many underwriting factors to determine your personal property insurance or automobile insurance eligibility and/or premium in certain provinces. Economical uses credit information for property insurance in the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. Economical uses credit information for automobile insurance in the province of Quebec. This information is not used as the only factor.

Questions?

You have certain rights to access and rectify the information contained in the file held about you and in order to exercise these rights, or if you have any questions, comments or concerns about the collection, use and/or disclosure of your Personal Information, please contact your broker or our Privacy Officer.

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