Privacy statement

We protect your personal information

Protecting you is serious business. So is protecting your personal information. Here at L’Unique¹, we are committed to protecting the confidentiality of your personal information and handling it in a manner that respects the law as well as your privacy.

Here’s how.

4 principles guide us:

• We limit ourselves to the essential. We collect, use and communicate only what is necessary.
• We are transparent. With you, throughout our relationship.
• We obtain your consent. Before we collect, use or communicate your personal information.
• We protect the confidentiality of your information. With robust security measures.

1. Who is covered by our privacy statement

The rules described here apply to any individual whose personal information we process in the course of our activities. We continue to apply them even when the objectives for collecting, using or communicating personal information are achieved.

Here are some examples of situations where this statement applies to you.

You do business with us:

• You are a client
• You are insured, co-insured, member, beneficiary, dependent or payer of a contract with L’Unique

You are not a client of L’Unique, but:

• You contact us
• You browse our website
• You participate in a contest or survey
• You have applied or previously applied for a job at L’Unique
• You asked for a quote or application, but did not do business with us
• You are a former client
• You are a trustee, agent or liquidator of someone who does business with us

2. How we collect your personal information

2.1 From whom

We can collect personal information from a variety of sources:

• You, when you interact with us
• Other individuals or organizations. For example: your employer, credit reporting agencies, health care professionals, government agencies as well as public and private databases that may have information about you.
• Individuals who hold a product or service, such as the primary insured of an insurance policy. Before providing us with your personal information, these individuals must obtain your consent to the collection, use and communication of your personal information.

2.2 In what ways

We can collect your personal information in a number of ways. For example:

• By telephone
• In person
• Through our forms and digital interfaces
• By using technologies that can identify you, locate you or establish your profile, such as cookies (for more details, consult our page on the use of cookies). For example, our electronic applications and online quote tools have features that help us decide if we can insure you, determine the best coverage for you, and determine the cost of your insurance. These features are necessary to evaluate your request and offer you a fair price. They are activated when you initiate a process that uses this type of technology.
• By using statistical models that can create or infer new information from your personal information. For example, we can create a unique identifier or a consumer profile.

3. What personal information we collect

We limit ourselves to the essential. We collect the personal information necessary for the objectives listed in this statement.

We consider "personal information" to be any information about you that identifies you, directly or indirectly (for example, by linking it to other information).

Here are some examples of what we can collect, use or communicate.

Information to identify you:

• First and last name
• Date of birth
• Mailing address or email address
• Telephone number
• Age

Information to authenticate you:

• Passwords
• Answers to authentication questions
• Government identifiers and other information on your identity documents (for example: social insurance number, driver’s licence number, health insurance number, passport number)

Information about your health:

• Health history
• Health status
• Lifestyle habits

Information about your insurance record:

• Insurance quotes and applications
• Information on insured persons and property, premiums, coverages, conditions and other guarantees
• Information on claims you submitted
• Claims history
• Driving record

Financial information:

• Income, salary, balance and receivables
• Products and investments and their terms
• Credit reports and credit history
• Balance sheet
• Investment profile
• Tax identification number
• Payment information

Information about your financial products or services:

• Ownership and overview of your situation, including your profile, needs and goals
• History of transactions and interactions
• Client, financial product or service, policy or contract number
• Identification number, group number and employer number

Digital information (websites, apps, social media, portals, etc.):

• IP address
• Location data
• Information about your device, operating system or browser
• Browsing preferences and habits

Information about your interactions and communications with us:

• Reasons you do business with us
• Telephone recordings and communications to enhance your customer experience
• Written communications (for example: your letters or emails)
• Notes, records and history of your communications with us
• Information about your inquiries, dissatisfactions or complaints
• Language or communication preferences
• Responses to surveys, contests and consultations

Information related to our verifications and safety:

• Information in public records (for example: municipal records, land registers, court records)
• Video recordings from security cameras at our points of service and electronic access card activation logs
• Information on our verifications related to misrepresentation, frauds, cyber threats and other legal violations
• Criminal history

Other information:

• Information about people other than you (for example: agent, guardian, temporary representative, assistant, beneficiary, spouse, dependent or other insured person)
• Information about your professional status (for example: your education, occupation, professional association or order)

4. Why we collect, use and communicate your personal information

Your personal information allows us to provide you with our products and services, and to meet our legal obligations. We can also use it to provide you with a personalized experience, if you consent.

We do our best to make sure your personal information is accurate, complete and up-to-date when we use it. We count on your cooperation to inform us when this information changes.

The objectives for which we collect, use, keep and communicate your personal information are as follows.

Provide you with our products and services

Establish our relationship with you:

• Identify you
• Understand your situation, profile, needs and goals
• Evaluate your requests and determine if we can provide you with our products and services

Manage and administer your products and services:

• Evaluate risks and determine which ones we insure
• Determine our prices and the terms for our products and services
• Process claims and payments
• Offer recommendations and advice related to your situation to reduce the likelihood and impact of a claim

Interact with you:

• Update your file
• Handle your inquiries, dissatisfactions and complaints

Improve our products and services

• Obtain your opinion on your interactions with us and on our products and services
• Conduct studies and research, including designing and applying statistical models².

Meet our legal obligations

Protect your security and ours:

• Detect and prevent misrepresentation, fraud, cyber threats and other violations of law
• Investigate as required

Meet our other legal obligations:

• Fulfill our tax obligations
• Fulfill our retention obligations
• Respond to requests and orders from courts, as well as government and regulatory agencies

5. We always obtain your consent, unless the law allows us to do otherwise

5.1 When we obtain your consent

We ask for your consent before we collect, use or communicate your personal information.

In some cases, we can assume that we have your consent, or the law allows us not to obtain it. (See section 5.4.)

5.2 How we obtain your consent

We can ask for your consent in a number of ways:

• In writing
• Verbally
• By telephone, including by automated message
• Electronically or digitally

5.3 What is the duration and scope of your consent

Your consent is valid for the time necessary to achieve the objectives we requested it for. It then remains valid to fulfill our retention obligations described in the law and in our retention schedules.

If we wish to collect, use or communicate your personal information for any other objective, we will ask for your consent again, except as described in the following section.

5.4 When we do not obtain your consent

We can use your personal information without your consent if the law allows us to do so, for example if the use is to your advantage or if it is consistent with the objective for which we collected your personal information.

We can also use or communicate your personal information without your consent if the law allows us to do so, such as to meet our legal obligations. For example:

• To comply with an order of a court or other body
• To prevent or detect fraud
• As part of an investigation

6. We can communicate your personal information to other individuals and organizations

6.1 To whom we can communicate your personal information

We can communicate your personal information to our affiliates and other individuals or organizations, if necessary to achieve the objectives listed in this statement.

Here are some examples:

• Other financial institutions, such as insurers and reinsurers
• Employers
• Service providers related to a claim, such as health care facilities and professionals or auto repair shops
• Government agencies or regulatory authorities
• Websites and applications owned by other individuals and organizations
• Companies that provide technology, reprography or document shipping services
• Organizations that hold information about insurance, fraud or compensation, such as credit reporting agencies, the Groupement des assureurs automobiles, the Société d’assurance automobile du Québec, the Fichier central des sinistres automobiles or other municipal or land registers.

6.2 We can communicate personal information outside Quebec or Canada

We usually keep your personal information in Quebec or Canada.

However, we sometimes use suppliers based elsewhere. We may therefore communicate your personal information to another country or province. It is then subject to the laws of that country or province. We require suppliers to have adequate security measures in place before communicating personal information to them.

Microsoft, Google and Amazon Web Services are three of our IT service providers. They are subject to the same security and privacy requirements as Beneva. It is possible they may use some of your personal information in the course of their activities to make their products more effective, efficient, reliable and safe. They may also transfer it to the United States or other countries where they (or their subcontractors) are able to process and store such information. These suppliers commit to destroying your personal information as required by the law.

7. How we protect your personal information

7.1 We limit access to your personal information

Only those who need to access your personal information in order to perform their duties can do so. They only have access to the information necessary to achieve the objectives listed in this statement. This is true both for our team members at L’Unique and for our external suppliers and partners.

7.2 We put in place robust security measures

We have put in place several types of measures to protect your personal information from loss, theft and unauthorized access, use or communication.

Organizational measures:

• Require security clearances for certain job categories
• Limit access to personal information to what is strictly necessary
• Record (log) all copying and exporting of personal information in the course of our day-to-day operations

Physical measures:

• Access cards to our offices
• Register visitors and verify their identity
• Save and archive personal information in an emergency backup system

Technological measures:

• Encrypt personal information when necessary for its keeping or communication outside of L’Unique
• Set up passwords, firewalls and other security measures

7.3 We destroy your personal information after fulfilling our obligations

We keep your personal information for as long as necessary to achieve the objectives listed in this statement. Even if you no longer do business with us, we generally have to keep it for a certain period of time to respect our business rules and legal obligations. We have put in place retention schedules to clearly set those limits.

Once the retention period has passed, we permanently destroy your personal information.

8. Your rights

8.1 Withdrawing your consent

You can withdraw your consent to the collection, use, communication and keeping of your personal information to all objectives listed in this statement, but we may no longer be able to offer you our products and services. We may also need to keep certain personal information to meet our legal and contractual obligations.

8.2 Accessing and correcting your personal information

You have rights related to your personal information. You may ask us to:

• access it
• correct it
• receive a copy of it in a commonly used, structured technological format
• if information is publicly shared, to stop sharing it (for example, to remove a post related to a contest from our social media channels)

Here are the steps for processing a request:

• You must send a detailed written request to our Chief Privacy Officer. Their contact information is at the end of this statement.
• We will process your request within 30 days of receiving it. We will inform you if you have to pay a transcription, reproduction or transmission fee.
• You will receive our response in writing.

Please note that you also have the right to request to de-index or re-index a hyperlink attached to your name (make it accessible or inaccessible via a search engine) under certain conditions.

8.3 Being informed if an automated decision is made

We will inform you if we make an automated decision about you. In some cases, we use your personal information to make a decision without anyone on our team intervening. For example, we process certain group insurance claims and individual insurance applications in this way. We can also determine if we can insure you and set a price in this way.

You have rights, for example, to ask for the main reasons for an automated decision or to present your observations to a member of our team.

9. You have applied or previously applied for a job at L’Unique

9.1 Additional information about the protection of your personal information

At L’Unique, we collect, use, keep and disclose only the personal information we truly need.1 It could be your identifying information, such as your name, mailing address, email or phone number. During the application process, we may also collect other information, for example, your employment information and skills, such as your diplomas or certifications and psychometric test results.

This information allows us to:

• Identify you
• Evaluate and update your application
• Verify the accuracy of your information
• Comply with legal requirements
• Communicate with you regarding your application
• Send you information about career opportunities that may match your profile (refer to your right to withdraw consent)
• Conduct studies and research, including the design and application of statistical models
• Install your workstation, when required

9.2 Who does Beneva share your personal information with?

For the purposes described above, and only in connection to the evaluation of your application, or required under the recruitment process to hire you, we may disclose your personal information to other organizations. We carefully choose them, whether they be located in Quebec, Canada or elsewhere.

Before doing so, we require these organizations to take appropriate security measures to ensure that your personal information is secure.

These organizations can include:

• Credit assessment agencies and firms that conduct criminal background checks (with your consent)
• Companies offering solutions or services in the management of human capital, e.g. partner psychometric assessment firms
• Other agents and service providers (technology services, mailing services, firms specializing in immigration, etc.)

9.3 How do we collect your personal information?

We collect your personal information by using digital interfaces, technical, behavioural and psychometric evaluations, by telephone, email or in person.

9.4 Consent to receive information about potential career opportunities at Beneva

You can modify your preferences in Workday to withdraw employment alerts you previously set.

You can also write to us at acquisition.talents@lunique.qc.ca to withdraw your consent allowing our talent acquisition team to contact you by email or telephone regarding potential career opportunities that match your profile.

10. Contact the Chief Privacy Officer

Our Chief Privacy Officer is on guard. This person ensures that we follow the rules outlined in this statement and in the law. Have questions, comments or a request regarding your personal information? Contact our Privacy Officer by writing to us at responsableprp@lunique.qc.ca or at:

Chief Privacy Officer
L’Unique assurances générales
2525 boulevard Laurier
Québec QC  G1V 2L2