The Niagara Association of REALTORS®
(“NAR” or “Association”) is committed
to advancing the interest of real estate sales people and brokers
who comprise NAR’s membership. Members of NAR are also members
of the Ontario Real Estate Association (“OREA”) as
well as The Canadian Real Estate Association “CREA”).
CREA approved a Privacy Code as a national standard at its annual
meeting held in Montreal in October 2001. Consistent with the
adoption of the CREA Privacy Code and with applicable law, NAR
is dedicated to maintaining high standards of confidentiality
with respect to information provided to it. This Policy Statement
has been prepared to inform you of our Policy and Practices concerning
the collection, use and disclosure of Personal Information provided
to the Association.
This Policy Statement governs
Personal Information collected from and about individuals who
are Members; non-Members and individuals who are or may become
Clients of our Association and individuals or organizations with
whom our Association works that is provided to NAR for the purposes
described below.
It does not govern Personal Information
the Association collects from and about its employees, the protection
of which is governed by other applicable laws and internal NAR
policies. NAR retains the right to use aggregated data –
data from which the identity of an individual cannot be determined
– in any way that it determines appropriate.
This Policy Statement applies
to all NAR employees as a condition of their employment as well
as to Members of NAR’s Board of Directors, Committee Chairpersons
and Committee Members. Using contractual or other arrangements,
the Association shall ensure that agents, contractors or third
party service providers, who may receive Personal Information
in the course of providing services to NAR as part of our delivery
of services, protect that Personal Information in a manner consistent
with the principles articulated in this Policy Statement.
In the event of questions about
access to Personal Information, the collection, use, management
or disclosure of Personal Information, or this Policy Statement
or whether NAR is acting in a manner consistent with it, please
contact:
Executive Officer
Niagara Association of REALTORS® E-mail: admin@mls-niagara.com
116 Niagara Street Tel. No. 905-684-9459, Ext. #11
St. Catharines, Ontario L2R 4L4 Fax. No. 905-687-7010
2.
The Collection, Use & Disclosure of Personal Information
For the purposes of this Policy,
"Personal Information"
means any information, recorded in any form, about an identified
individual, or an individual whose identity may be inferred or
determined from the information.
“External Associate”
means an individual who is not a Member or an employee of NAR.
An External Associate may be an individual or an employee of an
organization with which NAR has dealings in the normal course
of fulfilling its mandate. Examples of external associates include
independent contractors or service providers; employees of CREA,
OREA or the Real Estate Council of Ontario; legal counsel and
consultants.
“Member”
means a Salesperson or Broker registered under the Real Estate
and Business Brokers Act by the Real Estate Council of Ontario,
who has been accepted for membership in the Niagara Association
of REALTORS®, while that individual is a member of the Niagara
Association of REALTORS®, and any individual who has been accepted
for membership as an Affiliate Member or Honorary member of the
Niagara Association of REALTORS®, while that individual is a member
of the Niagara Association of REALTORS®.
Personal Information about Members
will be collected, to the extent possible, directly from the individual
concerned.
Information within the Multiple
Listing Service® (MLS®) system is considered to be Personal
Information to the extent that it is or can be associated with
an individual. To the extent possible, such information will be
collected directly from the listing broker/salesperson.
NAR uses the personal information
provided verbally or in writing by Members upon application for
membership (and which may be provided during the course of membership);
and others, for different purposes to fulfill its mandate. These
purposes include:
Acting as a professional association
in support of Members as REALTORS® in the municipality, including
the administration of its by-laws and policies and ensuring
compliance with same;
Providing products and services to Members;
Providing continuing education to Members
and education courses to those seeking to become Members, and
others;
Administering and operating the MLS®
system, including ensuring compliance with the Rules and Regulations
governing the MLS® system;
Administering and facilitating membership
in OREA and CREA, including ensuring compliance with the By-laws,
Rules and Regulations of those Associations;
Meeting any legal or regulatory requirement;
and
Such other purposes consistent with
the foregoing purposes.
NAR’s use of Personal Information
is limited to the purpose of fulfilling the mandate of NAR or a
purpose consistent with that purpose and the Association does not
sell, trade, barter or exchange for consideration any Personal Information
it has obtained. Unless permitted by law or provided for in the
application of Membership, the Association By-law or rules, no personal
information is collected about a Member without first obtaining
the consent of the individual to the collection, use and dissemination
of that information.
NAR may disclose Personal Information
of Members to CREA and OREA and RECO for membership purposes and
to organizations that assist the Association in the course of fulfilling
its mandate, including organizations that perform services on its
behalf. Personal Information will only be provided to organizations
providing services to NAR if they agree to use such information
solely for the purposes of providing services to NAR and under the
instruction of NAR and with respect to that information, to act
in a manner consistent with the relevant principles articulated
in this Policy Statement.
There are circumstances where the
use and/or disclosure of Personal Information may be justified or
permitted or where NAR is obliged to disclose information without
consent. Such circumstances may include:
Where required by law or by order of a tribunal;
Where NAR believes, upon reasonable grounds,
that it is necessary to protect the rights, privacy, safety or
property of an identifiable person or group;
Where it is necessary to establish or collect
fees;
Where it is necessary to permit NAR to pursue
available remedies or limit any damages that the Association may
sustain; or
Where the information is public.
Where obliged or permitted to disclose
information without consent, NAR will not disclose more information
than is required.
CONSENT AGREEMENT Your provision of Personal Information to
NAR means that you agree and consent that we may collect, use and
disclose your Personal Information in accordance with this Privacy
Policy. If you do not agree, you are requested not to provide any
Personal Information to NAR.
In most cases, you are free to refuse or withdraw
your consent at any time. You may wish to note that, in most instances,
information or services can only be offered if you provide Personal
Information to NAR. If you choose not to provide us with any required
Personal Information, NAR may not be able to offer you those products,
services or information. However, the withdrawal of consent to NAR’s
use of Personal Information for the purpose of providing you with
information about one or more of its services will not affect the
ability of NAR to provide other services to you.
In addition to your consent when submitting
information, NAR may also, from time to time, collect more specific,
written consents or authorizations.
3. Accuracy
NAR endeavours to ensure that any Personal
Information provided by its Members and in its possession is as
accurate, current and complete as necessary for the purposes for
which NAR uses that data. Information contained in files that have
been closed is not actively updated or maintained. Information on
listings is the responsibility of Members who provide it to the
MLS® system.
4. Retention
NAR retains Personal Information as long as NAR
believes it is necessary to fulfill the purpose for which it was
collected. Currently, the principal place in which NAR holds Personal
Information is in the City of St. Catharines. NAR has in place a
Records Retention Policy that outlines the procedures for the retention
and subsequent disposition of NAR records including those records
that contain Personal Information.
5. Security
NAR endeavours to maintain adequate physical,
procedural and technical security with respect to its offices and
information storage facilities so as to prevent any loss, misuse,
unauthorized access, disclosure, or modification of Personal Information.
NAR further protects Personal Information by restricting
access to Personal Information to those employees and External Associates
that the management of NAR has determined need to know that information
in order that NAR may provide its services. NAR has a policy under
which employee misuse of Personal Information is treated as a serious
offence for which disciplinary action may be taken.
In terms of communicating Personal Information,
you may wish to note that there is no method of transmitting or
storing data that is completely secure. While the physical characteristics
of each are different, mail, telephone calls, faxes and transmissions
over the Internet are all susceptible to possible loss, misrouting,
interception and misuse of the information being communicated or
transmitted.
As do many organizations, NAR attempts to
strike a reasonable balance between security and convenience. In
communicating with Members and others, NAR reserves the right to
use a method of communication that is less secure than some of its
less convenient alternatives. An example of this is e-mail. At this
time, when we use e-mail, it is sent as unencrypted plain text.
We do this because the Association believes that many of our Members
and External Associates cannot readily process encrypted e-mail.
This is done for their convenience but has the security concern
that, if misrouted or intercepted, it could be read more easily
than encrypted e-mail.
Please note that for security purposes and to
ensure that our website and networks remain available for use, NAR’s
service providers employ software programs to monitor network traffic,
to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information,
and to prevent denial of service or other attacks intended to cause
damage. Evidence of such acts may also be disclosed to law enforcement
authorities and result in criminal prosecution under the laws of
Canada or such other jurisdictions as may apply.
NAR audits its procedures and security measures
from time to time to ensure that they remain effective and appropriate.
6. Visiting
the NAR or MLS® web site It is the policy of The Niagara Association
of REALTORS® (NAR) that personal information, such as your name,
postal code and e-mail address or telephone number is private and
confidential. Because your privacy is important to us, NAR maintains
an Internet privacy policy to protect your personal information
on its mls-niagara.com website.
www.mls-Niagara.com is made up of and includes
links to many websites including board home pages, REALTOR®home
pages, advertisers and, in some cases, board listing information
sites. This Privacy Policy applies to only those websites that display
the NAR Privacy Policy statement. While NAR encourages the site
operators to comply with these principles, users should carefully
examine the privacy statements of sites appearing on or linking
to or from mls-niagara.com that do not display the statement. Personal
Information that you choose to provide to other websites will be
subject to the privacy policies of those sites.
NAR has no control over the content of third party
websites that individuals may access through hyperlinks at our web
site.
Certain Member information (name, picture, company
name and company address, company phone number, Member e-mail address)
is presented on the www.mls-niagara.com.
Each time a visitor comes to the mls-niagara.com
site, our Web server collects only the visitor’s domain name
/IP address but not the e-mail address. NAR tracks repeat visits
by the same visitor and measures basic usage data such as the number
of visits, the average time spent on the website, pages reviewed,
etc. This information may be consolidated into group data, which
may be shared with Members. The shared data will not disclose your
identity or personal data and will not enable the recipients to
contact you.
The data collected is used to help NAR analyze
the browsing patterns of its visitors in order to improve the content
and design of mls-niagara.com.
Personal information will not be sold to any third parties, nor
will such information be added to bulk e-mailing lists.
Personal information, such as your name, postal
and e-mail address or telephone number is collected only when you
voluntarily provide it. Such information is received by NAR only
when you send an e-mail through the website or make some other specific
contact such as a response to an on-line survey. The personal information
you provide to NAR is forwarded only to the person or department
that is equipped to handle your request and is used only to respond
to your inquiry.
7.
Access to Personal information NAR permits access to and review of Personal
Information held by NAR about an individual by the individual concerned.
NAR reserves the right to decline to provide
access to Personal Information where the information requested:
Would disclose the Personal Information of
another individual or of a deceased individual; or business confidential
information that may harm NAR or the competitive position of a
third party;
Is subject to solicitor-client or litigation
privilege;
Could reasonably result in serious harm to
the treatment or recovery of the individual concerned, serious
emotional harm to the individual or another individual, or serious
bodily harm to another individual; or
May harm or interfere with law enforcement
activities and other investigative or regulatory functions of
a body authorized by statute to perform such functions;
Is not readily retrievable and the burden or
cost of providing would be disproportionate to the nature or value
of the information;
Does not exist, is not held, or cannot be
found by NAR; or
Any other grounds under applicable legislation.
Since confidentiality is integral in NAR’s
procedures, including such procedures as the Arbitration of commission
disputes and the investigation, prosecution and determination of
complaints made against Members, access to personal information
will also be declined where the person requesting same has consented,
by virtue of membership in NAR and by being subject to NAR’s
By-laws and Rules, to NAR’s jurisdiction over such procedures
as provided for in the By-laws and Rules of NAR.
Where information will not or cannot be disclosed,
the individual making the request will be provided with the reasons
for non-disclosure.
Where information will be disclosed, NAR will
endeavour to provide the information in question within a reasonable
time and no later than 30 days following the request. NAR may charge
a minimal or nominal cost (e.g. photocopying, mail charges) to the
individual making the request.
NAR will not respond to repetitious or vexatious
requests for access. In determining whether a request is repetitious
or vexatious, it will consider such factors as the frequency with
which information is updated, the purpose for which the information
is used, and the nature of the information.
To guard against fraudulent requests for access,
NAR will require sufficient information to allow it to confirm the
identity of the person making the request before granting access
or making corrections.
If an individual believes any Personal Information
concerning that individual is not correct, that person may request
an update of that information by sending a request to the person
indicated in the section ”Resolving Your Concerns”.
NAR reserves the right not to change any
Personal Information it believes is accurate but will append any
alternative text the individual concerned believes appropriate.
An individual may also request that NAR delete an individual’s
Personal Information from the Association’s system and records,
except if such Personal Information is required to fulfill the Association’s
mandate or to meet legislative requirements. However, due to technical
constraints and the fact that NAR backs up its systems, Personal
Information may continue to reside in the Association’s systems
after deletion. For the same reason, Personal Information may also
continue to reside in the MLS® system after deletion. Individuals
therefore should not expect that their Personal Information would
be completely removed from NAR or the MLS® systems in response
to a request for deletion.
8. Amendment
of NAR Practice and This Policy This statement is in effect as of January
1, 2004. NAR will from time to time review and revise its privacy
practices and this Policy Statement. In the event of any amendment,
an appropriate notice will be posted on www.mls-niagara.com and
on www.realtorlink.ca and communicated to Members and others in
an appropriate manner. Policy changes will apply to the information
collected from the date of posting of the revised Policy Statement
to NAR’s web sites as well as to existing information held
by NAR.
9. Information
Regarding Former Members
NAR will only disclose Personal Information about former Members
in accordance with this Policy Statement.
10. What You Consent
and Agree To
When you provide NAR with Personal Information,
you consent and agree to the following, as described in this Policy:
The collection, use and disclosure of Personal
Information from or about you as described in Section 2;
Your right to access and correct data as described
in Section 7;
Your acceptance of the risks concerning the
transmission of information to NAR as described in Section 5;
The amendment of this Policy Statement as described
in Section 8.
11.
Resolving Your Concerns
In the event you have questions about (a) access to Personal Information;
(b) the collection, use, management or disclosure of Personal Information
by NAR; or (c) this Privacy Policy, you may contact our Chief Privacy
Officer:
Executive Officer
Niagara Association of REALTORS®
116 Niagara Street
St. Catharines, Ontario L2R 4L4
Information located on this site
is from sources believed to be reliable but should not be relied upon
without verification. The Association and the Publisher assume no
responsibility for its accuracy.
