Desjardins Group's
Privacy Policy

By giving your consent, you authorize Desjardins Group to collect, use and disclose your personal information to serve you on a daily basis and meet its legal obligations.

We collect, use and disclose only the personal information that is necessary, unless the law authorizes us to process it otherwise.

This consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information takes precedence over any previous consent. It remains valid as long as you have a business relationship with a Desjardins Group component.

If you decide to withdraw your consent to the collection, use and disclosure of the personal information required to serve you on a daily basis and to meet our legal obligations, we'll provide you with all the information required to explain the impact of such a decision on our provision of products and services.

In some cases, withdrawing your consent is not an option because of legal or contractual requirements. Moreover, if you have authorized us to disclose your loan repayment habits to credit reporting agencies as part of a loan you have requested, you won't be able to withdraw this consent until you have fully repaid your loan.

You can change your preferences to receive personalized offers and recommendations or to participate in consultations at any time directly on AccèsD or by contacting your caisse or the component you deal with at Desjardins Group.

If you refuse to allow us to collect certain personal information, we may not be able to provide you with the product or service requested and with certain benefits and discounts associated with that product or service.

For example, if you don't want us to consult your credit report when you apply for a credit product, such as a card, line of credit or loan, we may not be able to provide you with the requested product.

Also, if you wish to take advantage of a potential discount on your insurance premium, we'll ask for your consent to consult your credit report, if applicable. If you refuse, you may not be able to benefit from the discount.

Your information can also help us to serve you better. With your consent, we may use and disclose your information, within Desjardins Group only, to provide you with personalized offers and recommendations and to invite you to consultations to better understand your needs.

Personalized offers and recommendations

With your consent, we'll send you personalized offers and recommendations based on your personal information and financial situation. This will allow us to offer you different products, services and advice that may be of interest to you and meet your needs.

Consultations

Agreeing to participate in consultations gives you an opportunity to discuss topics that are relevant to your personal and financial situation. Your answers will contribute significantly to improving your Desjardins experience.

We may contact you with personalized offers and recommendations or invite you to participate in consultations, directly on AccèsD, on the Desjardins mobile services app, or by email, mail or phone.

Have you changed your mind? You can change your preferences at any time directly on AccèsD or by contacting your caisse or the component you deal with at Desjardins Group. Please note that it may take up to 30 days to update your preferences.

We've compiled a table detailing all the personal information we may collect from our members and clients.

Some categories are only collected when we provide particular products and services. If you don't own, use or acquire these products and services, we won't collect any related personal information. For example, we would only ask for information about your health for life and disability insurance products. Also, some kinds of personal information (like biometrics) have additional consent requirements.

We've organized the personal information we collect into 9 categories, as you'll see in the table below, and we've provided examples for each category. We only collect the information we need to meet your day-to-day needs and our legal obligations.

Learn more about how we use your personal information

We collect your personal information from 3 sources:

Directly from you

When you want to obtain a Desjardins Group product or service, or when you communicate with us, regardless of the method used—in person at one of our locations, by telephone, email or online chat—or when you complete a survey, we ask you to provide information about yourself.

The same goes if you contact us about our products and services; we need to identify you by asking you to answer authentication questions, for example.

This may include information required to open an account and become a Desjardins member, such as your first and last name and address, or more specific information like your medical results for a life insurance quote or your claims history for a property and casualty insurance quote.

We may also ask you to provide information about a third party, such as a driver for an auto insurance claim.

When using Desjardins Group products and services

We collect information about you when you browse our websites or use our online and mobile applications and services.

This information may be collected through cookies^[ 3 ] or directly on our websites or applications. It may include information about your bank transfers, insurance claims and online investments.

Learn more about how we collect, use and disclose information on Desjardins websites - This link will open in a new window

From other sources

Depending on the situation, we may need to collect information about you from other individuals, organizations or entities, such as:

• A person that you have a joint product or service with, for whom you're the guarantor (surety), or who is a guarantor (surety) for you
• Credit reporting agencies and other financial institutions
• Insurance databases
• Vehicle and claims history
• Service providers
• Public bodies
• Personal referrals
• Public sources such as registries, official documents and websites
• Other relevant sources to provide you with the requested product or service

We use your personal information to serve you every day and to meet our legal obligations.

We'll inform you if we plan to use your personal information for any other purpose, unless we are legally authorized to use it otherwise.

As such, before we can serve you and provide you with our products and services, we must:

Identify you

• Confirm that we're providing products and services to the right person by verifying that you are who you say you are (identify you and validate your identity)
• Ensure that your personal information is still accurate, complete and up to date before we use it; however, it is your responsibility to inform us of any changes
• Respect your choices regarding your personal information, namely, provide you with personalized offers and recommendations and invite you to consultations if you have given us your consent to do so

Assess your eligibility for requested products and services

• Review your financial situation
• Reassess your financial obligations to us
• Review your insurance quotes and applications
• Evaluate whether the product or service requested meets your needs and goals, if necessary
• Review and update your file or credit rating to assess our risks

Offer products and services that meet your expectations

• Provide you with the product or service you requested
• Guide, advise and help you make the best decisions based on your expressed need, situation and goals
• Design statistical models to deliver products, services and advice that meet your needs^[ 4 ]
• Manage your current products and services
• Process your insurance claims
• Contact you^[ 5 ]
• Get your opinion after an interaction with Desjardins Group or about a product or service
• Provide you with guidance and support, respond to your requests for information and refer you to the right person based on your request
• Handle complaints and dissatisfaction

Help you take advantage of the benefits of being a member or client of Desjardins Group

• Offer you discounts, cashback and special rates or fees, depending on the products and services you have with us
• Calculate and pay out your member dividend as a Desjardins caisse member based on the products and services you have with us

Manage the risks associated with our activities

• Assess and monitor the performance of our products and services, price them, improve them and create new ones
• Develop, maintain and improve internal audit systems, processes, methods, practices and procedures
• Design and build dashboards, indicators and other types of reports
• Find, identify and assess risks to continuously improve our products and services
• Design statistical models to monitor operations and ensure the security of your information^[ 4 ]

We must also use your personal information to meet our legal obligations to:

Prevent cyber threats, fraud and other financial crimes

The term "other financial crimes" includes money laundering, terrorist financing and tax evasion, among others.

• Protect your assets
• Rapidly detect and prevent cyber threats, fraud and other financial crimes
• Design statistical models to facilitate detection and prevention^[ 4 ]
• Take corrective actions as required
• Keep relevant regulatory documents
• Report or flag specific transactions
• Investigate or facilitate investigations when required
• Cooperate with and inform the proper authorities when required
• Confirm the identity of members and clients using our products or services, for example, to:
  • Identify you
  • Validate the information you provided about yourself, your citizenship and nationality, your job title or function and your employer
  • Confirm your source of income
  • Confirm the use of some of your products

Respond to information requests, warrants and orders from courts and other organizations

• Protect your rights and interests as well as our own
• Cooperate with legal proceedings or administrative investigations
• Work with any organization with the authority to prevent, detect or punish crime and violations of the law
• Respond to requests, warrants and orders from organizations with the authority to compel us to disclose your information

Comply with tax requirements

• Produce your tax statements when you hold a Desjardins Group product or service that pays interest or investment income or requires tax treatment, such as for high-interest accounts, mutual funds or registered retirement savings plans (RRSPs)
• Comply with the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), which requires us to report accounts held by individuals, non-resident entities or certain entities controlled by non-resident individuals
• Comply with the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which requires us to report accounts held by US citizens to the US government

Access to your information is limited to Desjardins Group employees and consultants as well as Desjardins agents and representatives who need to access it to perform their duties.

Our employees and consultants commit annually to protect the confidentiality of the personal information they need while performing their duties and must regularly take security and privacy training.

Our commitment is clear: We will never sell your personal information to anyone.

However, we may need to disclose your personal information to third parties in the normal course of business.

Desjardins Group components

Desjardins Group components disclose the personal information they need to serve you on a daily basis and to meet their legal obligations. For example, caisses disclose information about you to be able to offer products and services that meet your expectations.

Desjardins Group components also disclose certain personal information to identify you more quickly, to disclose information to provide you with personalized offers and recommendations or to ask you to participate in consultations about our products and services, but only if you gave your consent.

At Desjardins Insurance, in order to provide you with products and services that meet your expectations, additional information about your communications, products and services is disclosed to the components offering insurance and doing business under the "Desjardins Insurance" brand—with the exception of Certas, a home and auto insurance company—or among subsidiaries doing business under "The Personal" brand.

Lastly, in accordance with Ontario's legal requirements, Desjardins Ontario Credit Union does not disclose any of your personal information to Desjardins General Insurance Group and its subsidiaries, or to Desjardins Financial Security and Desjardins Trust Inc.

Courts, authorities and other agencies

Certain situations require us to disclose your personal information to courts, law enforcement authorities and other agencies.

This may be necessary to prevent cyber threats, fraud and other financial crimes, to respond to requests, warrants and orders or to meet our insurance obligations.

Other entities

From time to time, we may need to disclose some of your personal information with third parties, such as other financial institutions, credit reporting agencies, public and private fraud and claims databases and lending institutions.

Similarly, we may need to disclose some of your personal information to other people or ask them for information about you, for example, if you have a joint product or service with another person, if a third party is a guarantor (surety) for one of your obligations to us or if you're a guarantor (surety) for another person.

Suppliers and partners

We may disclose information about you to suppliers and partners.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of examples of suppliers and partners:

• Insurance providers, claims advisors and health consultants
• Bank card printing or manufacturing companies
• Information technology services and products companies
• Client consulting firms mandated by Desjardins
• Cloud, web-hosting and data-processing services
• Creative and promotional agencies
• Legal services
• Credit reporting or collection agencies
• Human resources management and training companies

These partners and suppliers must contractually agree to comply with and abide by our strict standards for the protection and confidentiality of your personal information as set forth in this Privacy Policy.

We entrust only our suppliers and partners with the personal information they need to perform their duties, functions and contractual obligations with Desjardins Group.

In addition to being subject to confidentiality obligations, the employees of suppliers who have access to personal information must also fully comply with our contractual requirements. Lastly, Desjardins Group suppliers and partners must apply adequate physical, information technology and administrative security measures.

We'll inform you if a new need arises, unless we're authorized by law to disclose it without your consent. In any case, we ensure the protection and confidentiality of the information we disclose.

We apply the necessary security measures rigorously to ensure the protection of your personal information.

These measures may consist of:

Physical security measures

• Surveillance cameras
• Security guards
• Office access cards
• Locking filing cabinets
• Any other security measures required to limit access to authorized persons

Technological security measures

• Password
• Data encryption
• Access management system
• Monitoring and control to detect suspicious activity
• Any other security measures required to limit access to authorized persons

Administrative security measures

• Access to your personal information limited to employees, consultants, Desjardins agents and representatives who need it to perform their duties
• Adherence to the Code of Professional Conduct and annual certification required of all our employees and consultants, with strict rules governing the protection of personal information
• Regular training and education of employees, consultants, agents and representatives on the Code of Professional Conduct, policies, practices and procedures on security and privacy
• Policies and procedures for monitoring, investigating and updating security systems and measures
• Ongoing monitoring and control to detect suspicious activity and potential deviations from organizational directives and policies

Learn more about these security measures - This link will open in a new window

Your information is usually stored in Canada, but we may use suppliers or partners located outside of the country.

If we need to disclose personal information with these suppliers and partners, Desjardins Group will ensure the protection and confidentiality of this information meets its own requirements and will ask these suppliers and partners to contractually agree to comply with and respect these requirements.

In all cases, we'll ensure the protection and confidentiality of your information.

We store your personal information in a secure and confidential manner for as long as it's required for us to meet our legal obligations.

For example, in Canada, we're subject to laws and regulations that stipulate minimum retention periods. The retention periods must take into account the exhaustion of potential remedies and limitation periods applicable in Canada. These retention periods vary depending on the situation. Therefore, we may retain your personal information after your relationship with us has ended.

Once the retention period has expired, we ensure that your personal information is safely disposed of or de-identified. While deletion is a final and irreversible disposal process, de-identification means that your personal information is altered so that it can no longer directly or indirectly identify you.

Deletion and de-identification are carried out in a safe and secure manner, in accordance with applicable best practices.

Any member or client of Desjardins Group, any person who communicates with us, regardless of the means used, and any individual whose personal information we collect in the course of our operations.

The Privacy Policy applies to the personal information we collect and hold about you, which includes any information about you or your business relationship with Desjardins Group that allows us to identify you. It also includes information collected from you on our behalf by a Desjardins agent or representative.

In addition, it applies to all products and services offered by any component^[ 6 ] of Desjardins Group across Canada for which we collect personal information.

We collect, use, disclose and protect your personal information in accordance with Canada's privacy laws.

From time to time, we may make certain changes to our Privacy Policy. If we do, we'll post a notice on our website.

Be sure to check the Privacy Policy periodically for any updates. Changes are effective as of the date indicated on the Privacy Policy.