Privacy policy

Who is responsible

TaxCertificates.ca operates this website and the certificate ordering service. We are responsible for the personal information we hold and have named a Privacy Officer who is accountable for our compliance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and, for residents of Quebec, the Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector (Law 25).

You can reach the Privacy Officer at , by phone at 705-808-2255, or by mail at 541 Weller Street, Peterborough, ON K9H 2N9.

What we collect

We collect only what we need to fulfil a certificate request:

• Order details: your name, email address, and optionally your phone number, firm, file reference, and notes.
• Property details: the property address, municipality, province, roll number, and legal description you provide. Public property information may relate to an owner who is not you.
• Delivery address: where a municipality mails paper certificates, the address you choose for delivery.
• Payment records: the amount, date, and status of your payment. Card details go directly to our payment processor, Stripe. We never see or store your full card number.
• Certificates: the documents the municipality issues for your order.
• Account details: if you sign in, your email address and the sign-in records needed to keep your account secure.
• Messages: what you send through our contact form or a request to add your municipality.
• Municipal staff: for municipalities that use our service, the name and work email address of staff who receive requests and upload certificates.
• Technical records: server logs such as IP address, browser type, and request times, kept for security and troubleshooting.

How we use it

We use your information to:

• Confirm the property and the municipality that issues its certificate
• Send your request to that municipality and take your payment
• Deliver your certificate and let you retrieve it again later
• Send you receipts and messages about the status of your order
• Answer your questions and requests
• Prevent fraud, secure the service, and meet our legal obligations

We do not sell personal information, use it for advertising, or build marketing profiles. We do not use automated decision-making that has a legal or similarly significant effect on you.

Consent

By placing an order or sending us a message, you consent to the collection and use described here for that purpose. If you order on behalf of someone else, such as a client, you confirm you are authorized to share their information with us for that purpose.

You may withdraw consent at any time, subject to legal or contractual limits. Withdrawing consent may mean we cannot complete an order that is already with a municipality.

Who we share it with

We share personal information only as needed to provide the service:

• The municipality that issues your certificate receives your request details. For participating municipalities, your payment is processed through Stripe directly to the municipality's account.
• Stripe processes payments. See the Stripe privacy policy.
• Google receives the address text you type, through our servers, to suggest and verify addresses. Address suggestions are powered by Google Maps Platform and subject to the Google privacy policy.
• Amazon Web Services hosts our website, stores certificates and order records, and sends our email.
• Authorities, when the law requires it.

Our service providers may only use your information to provide services to us and must protect it under written agreements.

Storage outside your province or Canada

We store order records and certificates in Canada, in the AWS Canada (Central) region. Some of our service providers, including Stripe and Google, may process information in the United States or other countries, where it may be accessible to courts and authorities under local law. Before transferring information outside Quebec, we assess whether it will receive adequate protection.

How long we keep it

• Orders, payments, and certificates: six years after the end of the tax year the order was placed in, as Canadian tax law requires for business records. This is also what lets you retrieve a certificate later with your order number and email.
• Messages and municipality requests: up to two years after we last respond.
• Server logs: up to one year.

When we no longer need information, we delete it or make it anonymous.

Cookies and browser storage

We do not use advertising or analytics cookies, and we do not track you across other websites. The site stores a small amount of information in your browser only to make it work:

• Your sign-in session, so you stay signed in
• A short-lived record of an order in progress, so a payment redirect does not lose it

You can clear this at any time in your browser settings. Doing so signs you out.

Email

We send email about orders you place: receipts, status updates, and certificate delivery. We do not send promotional email unless you have agreed to receive it, in line with Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL). Every promotional message includes a way to unsubscribe.

How we protect it

We use encryption in transit and at rest, access controls that limit staff access to what their role requires, private storage for certificates, download links that expire, and logging of administrative actions.

If a breach of security safeguards creates a real risk of significant harm to you, we will notify you and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (and, for Quebec residents, the Commission d'accès à l'information) as soon as feasible, and keep a record of every breach as the law requires.

Your rights

You have the right to:

• Ask what personal information we hold about you and how we use it
• Get a copy of it, including in a structured, commonly used format
• Ask us to correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete
• Withdraw consent, or ask us to delete information we no longer need
• Know who we have shared it with

Send requests to . We may need to confirm your identity first. We respond within 30 days and tell you if we need more time or cannot fulfil part of a request, with the reason. Access requests are free.

Children

This service is meant for adults handling property transactions. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18.

Questions and complaints

Contact our Privacy Officer at tim.kennaley@legallocker.ca with any question or concern. We will investigate every complaint and tell you the outcome.

If you are not satisfied, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or, in Quebec, the Commission d'accès à l'information.

Changes to this policy

We will update the date at the top when this policy changes. If a change affects how we use information you have already given us, we will tell you by email before it takes effect.