At RPS, we respect the privacy of our clients and we are committed to keeping your personal information accurate, confidential, secure and private. We have adopted the following Privacy Policy to ensure that RPS continues to meet its commitment to your privacy.

The following sections, read as a whole, comprise the RPS Privacy Policy:

Introduction

RPS provides a variety of products and services to appraisers, mortgage brokers, mortgage lenders, lawyers and the public, including, but not limited to, real property appraisal and property evaluation services, software development, customer relationship management services, desktop software, aggregated data products, web-based technology products and other real estate advisory services.

In the course of providing these products and services, RPS may collect, use and disclose certain Personal Information about its clients and its customers. RPS may also receive Personal Information from RPS’ affiliates and financial institution clients about their customers. This Privacy Policy describes how RPS handles Personal Information that it collects or receives.

“Personal Information” means information about an identifiable individual client. This may include without limitation, the individual’s name, home address, or other financial information, credit card information, personal preferences and other information about his or her family. Personal Information does not include the name, title or business address, or telephone number of an employee of an organization.

The RPS Privacy Policy is based on, and complies with, Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”), which includes the Ten Privacy Principles outlined in the Canadian Standards Association Model Code for the Protection of Personal Privacy. For more information about this legislation, please visit the official web site of the Privacy Commission of Canada at https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/

This Privacy Policy describes the ten principles that RPS follows to ensure that we protect your Personal Information when we collect, use, or disclose it in the course of carrying on commercial activities in Canada. All of our employees who have access to Personal Information must adhere to the RPS Privacy Policy and related procedures. To this end, RPS has appointed a Privacy Officer to ensure compliance by all RPS employees and to address your privacy concerns.

The ten principles of privacy

The following ten principles govern our actions as they relate to the use of Personal Information:

Principle 1 – Accountability
RPS is accountable for all Personal Information in its possession or custody, including Personal Information disclosed to third parties for purposes of providing services requested by our clients, employees, or you.

Principle 2 – Identifying Purposes
RPS receives Personal Information supplied to it by its affiliates and its clients, including financial institutions, brokers, lawyers, among others, that is required to permit RPS to provide the services requested. We are obligated to protect the confidentiality of this Personal Information, and we are prohibited from doing anything with this Personal Information that we have not been authorized to do by you. It is our policy to treat your Personal Information in a manner authorized by you or by your financial institution’s privacy policy under which the information was collected.

Unless PIPEDA provides an exception to the requirement to obtain consent to the collection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, RPS relies upon its affiliates or financial institution clients, all of whom are bound by PIPEDA, to obtain their customers’ consent, before providing RPS with their customers’ Personal Information. RPS informs its clients of the purposes for which it is using or disclosing any Personal Information, before or at the time the information is supplied to RPS by the client.

Principle 3 – Consent
RPS will require that its affiliates or clients obtain consent from you before or when it receives, uses, or discloses your Personal Information. If RPS collects any Personal Information directly from you, RPS will first collect your consent at or before the time of collection.

Consent can be express or implied. In some limited cases, consent may be given by an authorized representative such as an individual who holds a power of attorney or a legal guardian. You can withdraw consent at any time, with certain exceptions. RPS, however, may collect, use or disclose Personal Information without your knowledge or your consent in exceptional circumstances where such collection, use, or disclosure is permitted or required by law.

Principle 4 – Limiting Collection
The information collected by RPS will be limited to those details necessary for the purposes it has identified to the client, to you, or to perform the requested services. Information will be collected by fair and lawful means.

Principle 5 – Limiting Use, Disclosure and Retention
Personal Information will only be collected, used or disclosed for the purposes for which you have consented, or for other uses or disclosures that are required or permitted by law. Personal Information may only be retained for the amount of time needed to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected, subject to our normal records retention practices to comply with applicable laws.

In certain exceptional circumstances set out in PIPEDA, RPS may have a legal duty or right to disclose Personal Information without knowledge or consent from you, including situations where such disclosure is required to comply with a subpoena, warrant or order issued by a body with the power to compel such disclosure or where the disclosure is made to a government institution if we have reasonable grounds to believe that the information relates to a contravention of the laws of Canada or a province or to national security matters.

Principle 6 – Accuracy
RPS will keep Personal Information as accurate, complete, and current as necessary to fulfil the identified purposes for which it was collected. You may have this information amended where it is found to be inaccurate or incomplete.

Principle 7 – Safeguarding Personal Information
All Personal Information that you or our clients provide to us is securely maintained and kept strictly confidential. Personal Information is safeguarded using organizational, physical and technical measures appropriate to the sensitivity of the information.

Principle 8 – Openness
RPS will make information available to its clients and the general public about the policies and procedures RPS uses to manage Personal Information. Clients and the general public have access to this information through our web sites, or through alternate means if requested.

Principle 9 –Access
Upon your written request, you will be informed of the existence, use and disclosure of your Personal Information, and will be given access to it. RPS will respond to such requests as efficiently as possible. If RPS is prohibited from providing such access we will explain the reasons for the lack of access, except where prohibited by law. However, your right of access is not absolute. Where permitted by law, we may deny access in certain situations such as where the requested information is subject to solicitor/client privilege, where the requested information would reveal confidential commercial information or personal information about another individual. Before providing access we will require proof of identification to ensure that you are entitled to receive such access.

Principle 10 – Addressing Complaints and Suggestions
Clients and members of the general public in respect of whom Brookfield RPS has collected, used or disclosed personal information may challenge RPS compliance with this Privacy Policy. RPS has policies and procedures to receive, investigate, and respond to complaints and questions regarding this Privacy Policy and our collection, use, and disclosure of Personal Information. You may contact the RPS Privacy Officer to express any concerns or to request access to your Personal Information. The contact information is provided at the end of this document.

Application of the Ten Privacy Principles – How we treat your personal information:

Clients and members of the general public in respect of whom RPS has collected, received, used or disclosed Personal Information may challenge RPS’ compliance with this Privacy Policy. RPS has policies and procedures to receive, investigate, and respond to complaints and questions regarding this Privacy Policy and our collection, receipt, use, and disclosure of Personal Information. You may contact the RPS Privacy Officer to express any concerns or to request access to your Personal Information. The contact information is provided at the end of this document.

Application of the Ten Privacy Principles – How we treat your Personal Information:

The kind of information we collect or receive:

RPS receives, gathers and uses the following types of Personal Information in order to provide its clients or you with the products and services requested:

• Name
• Address
• Phone number(s)
• Approximate market value of the property being purchased/re-financed/transferred
• Address of the property being purchased/re-financed/transferred
• Specific financing details related to potential loans are sometimes collected
• Documentation created and processed in connection with transactions that are stored as a disaster recovery service for law firms using certain of our software packages RPS may keep a file with your contact history to be used for client inquiry or disaster recovery purposes.

All information that you do provide us with is securely maintained and kept strictly confidential. This Privacy Policy does not apply to aggregated data from which it is not possible to determine the identity of a specific individual. RPS reserves the right to use aggregated data in any way that it determines appropriate.

How Your Information Is Used

At RPS Personal Information is used for three general purposes:

1. To communicate with you in order to provide you or your representative with our products and services.
2. Transactional information to monitor our level of service and report back to our clients to ensure satisfaction with the provision of such services.
3. We will only use Personal Information for the purpose that we have disclosed. If we want to use your information for a different purpose, we will notify you and our clients to obtain consent.

We will only use Personal Information for the purpose that we have disclosed. If we want to use your information for a different purpose, we will notify you and obtain consent.

We may derive aggregated and statistical data from the Personal Information that we collect or that we receive from our clients. These data are anonymized such that it is not possible to determine the identity of a specific individual from such data. RPS reserves the right to use anonymous, aggregated data in any way that it determines appropriate.

When Can We Disclose Your Personal Information?

RPS is obliged to keep your Personal Information confidential except under the following circumstances:

When Authorized by You

1. Many of the services offered by RPS require us to obtain Personal Information about you in order to perform the services we have been engaged to provide. We will require that our clients obtain your consent to disclose this Personal Information to us in order for us to perform the requested services and for us to disclose the results of our services to our clients (where the results contain your personal information)
2. You may withdraw your consent at any time, subject to any legal implications (which we will inform you). If you withdraw your consent for us to use or disclose certain Personal Information for which you have granted consent to us, we may be unable to continue to provide all or part of the requested services.

When Required by Law

1. In some cases, where we are required to disclose Personal Information by law, such as in the case of a subpoena, warrant or court order discussed under Principle 5 above, we may be required to disclose certain information to persons specified in the subpoena, warrant, or court order. We will only provide the specific information requested and only upon being satisfied that the authorities have legitimate grounds to request the information.
2. When Permitted by Law
3. PIPEDA has provided certain situations where RPS is legally permitted to disclose Personal Information without your consent. Examples include, but are not limited to, situations involving the collection of debt owed to us, where disclosure is required because of an emergency that threatens the life, health or security of an individual, or where we have reasonable grounds to believe that the information relates to a contravention of the laws of Canada or a province, or to national security matters.

With Whom We May Share Your Information

• RPS Employees
  In the course of daily operations, access to sensitive Personal Information is limited to those employees with a legitimate reason for accessing it. As a condition of their employment, RPS employees are required to follow all applicable laws and regulations, including this Privacy Policy.

Unauthorized use or disclosure of confidential client information by a RPS employee is prohibited and may result in disciplinary measures.

• RPS Affiliates
  In order to better serve our clients, we may share some of your Personal Information with our affiliates. We will only do this with your express consent and you may withdraw this consent at any time. The procedure for withdrawing consent is outlined below under the section “Opting Out”.

• RPS Third-Party Suppliers
  As you may know, we may engage and coordinate third-party suppliers to provide certain services offered through RPS.

Such suppliers are only given the information that is needed to provide the specific service for which we contract them to provide. Suppliers are obliged to protect the confidentiality of your Personal Information, and they are prohibited from doing anything with this information that we have not authorized them to do. They are required to treat your Personal Information in a manner consistent with the RPS Privacy Policy.

• Sale of business
  We may transfer your personally identifiable information to a third party in connection with a sale, merger, or other disposition (whether of assets, stock, or otherwise) of our business.

How We Safeguard Information

RPS has extensive controls in place to maintain the security of its information and information systems. Client files are stored according to the sensitivity of the information contained therein.

RPS uses network security tools, such as firewalls to safeguard Personal Information. We also use unique identifiers to identify, authenticate and authorize any employees, who can access, view or handle your Personal Information. We use encryption technology when storing information and we encrypt data when we transport or communicate information on open communication channels to another party.

Physical access to areas where Personal Information is gathered, processed or stored is limited to authorized employees.

When you telephone an RPS employee to speak about your file, you may be asked for some Personal Information to identify you. This type of safeguard is designed to ensure that only you, or someone authorized by you, has access to your file.

Website Security

In order to serve you better, RPS offers clients access to certain information through its websites.

www.rpsrealsolutions.com provides general information about RPS and the products and services it offers.

The RPS web site contains links to other web sites, including those of its business partners. RPS is in no way responsible and cannot guarantee the content or privacy of other sites linked to www.rpsrealsolutions.com.

Accessing and Amending Your Information

As a client, you have the right to access the Personal Information we keep in your file and you have the right to verify or amend the information if it is shown to be inaccurate. If you would like to view the personal information held in your file or to make a change to that information, please make a written request by sending an e-mail to privacy.officer@rpsrealsolutions.com.

To make a change, please make a similar request in writing to the Privacy Officer.

Opting – Out

In order to provide you with our services and products, RPS will, with your consent, share your Personal Information with other RPS affiliates. Should you not want to receive promotional materials from or have your personal information shared with these companies please contact RPS at privacy.officer@rpsrealsolutions.com.

Anonymous Information and “Cookies”

RPS may collect anonymous information about you. This means that the information collected cannot be traced back to a specific person. For example, our web servers may record certain information automatically when you visit RPS web sites. This information is collected using “cookies” and might include the pages you visited, your IP (Internet Protocol) address and other site usage statistics. This anonymous information is used for research and analytical purposes only (like evaluating how many visitors our web sites receive or which pages they visit most often). It does not reveal any Personal Information about you, the user. This aggregate data may be disclosed to third parties, but never with personally identifying information.

“Cookies”

“Cookies” are small text files that contain a unique identification number that allows our computers to identify your web browser (but not you) each time you visit one of our web sites that uses cookies. The information helps RPS improve the functionality of the site and enhance the navigation and security of your session.

Most major web sites use this technology and most browsers are set up to accept them.

You may configure your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie, and you may refuse to accept them entirely. However, if you refuse to accept cookies, you may limit the functionality that we can provide to you when you visit our site.

Storage and Processing Locations

RPS may use service providers located outside of Canada to process Personal Information. Law in the countries in which these processing services are performed may provide for a different level of protection for your Personal Information than is the case under PIPEDA. If you would like to receive more information about our policies and practices regarding the use of service providers outside of Canada, please contact our Privacy Officer:

Robert Maughan
Senior Vice President, Technology & Solution Delivery

RPS Real Property Solutions Inc.
39 Wynford Drive, Suite 100, Toronto, ON, M3C-3K5

Email: privacy.officer@rpsrealsolutions.com

Please allow up to 30 days for a response.

Last updated December 1, 2023