Introduction
At Kingsdale Advisors (“Kingsdale”), we are committed to protecting your privacy rights. The nature of our business involves obtaining certain personal details and financial information related to the securityholders of public companies. Keeping your information confidential is vital to our primary objective of providing the best service possible to our clients
This Privacy Policy represents our commitment to safeguard your personal information, and provides you with the details of how your privacy and your personal information are protected. At Kingsdale, we are accountable for compliance with the principles set out herein with respect to any personal information under our control. Our employees are informed in the use and safeguarding of personal information in accordance with this Policy and receive training on our privacy procedures.
What is Personal Information?
Personal information is any information, either factual or subjective, about an identifiable individual. However, personal information does not include the name, title, business address or business telephone number of an employee of an organization.
Kingsdale may receive personal information about individuals when we are retained by one of our clients to conduct proxy solicitation or securityholder outreach on their behalf. This personal information may include information regarding how individuals hold their securities, i.e. in registered form or through a company or nominee, and if there are any conditions on the holdings.
How does Kingsdale use Personal Information?
Kingsdale uses personal information primarily for verifying that the securityholder lists provided to us by a company’s transfer agent or obtained through public source data, to assist you with proxy voting, for proxy solicitation and advisory purposes, and in relation to our depository services. The information we obtain is used in connection with current, publicly announced transactions, or, in certain cases, completed transactions where securityholders have yet to exchange their securities for the consideration that was offered.
We use this personal information with utmost respect and appropriate safeguards. Personal information is not used or transmitted to anyone else for any other purpose but those listed above. Personal information will only be used or disclosed for purposes that a reasonable person would consider appropriate in our business.
We have internal policies and procedures regarding the use, disclosure and retention of personal information. These policies and procedures provide guidelines for how we archive and ultimately destroy records which contain personal information. In discharging our role on behalf of our clients, we are also required to comply with statutory and regulatory record-keeping requirements. As such, in order to be able to respond to issues which may arise at a future date, we may be required to keep certain records for extended lengths of time. However, these records are kept in accordance with our privacy procedures, remain confidential and are held in a secure location.
How does Kingsdale Collect Personal Information?
Typically personal information will come either from individuals directly or from third parties authorized by individuals, such as from the company in which they hold securities, that company’s transfer agent, their legal counsel or financial intermediaries acting on their behalf.
Kingsdale does not collect your information for any purpose other than those identified in this Policy. Personal information may be collected to service your account, to act on your transaction instructions or to contact you on behalf of an issuer.
Ordinarily we will not use or disclose your personal information other than for the purposes outlined above. However, in the course of conducting our business and in order to carry out certain lawful purposes, other parties, such as affiliated companies, mailing agents and other suppliers or agents who facilitate our services may require access to your personal information. In addition, if you are a securityholder of an issuer, your information is made available to the issuer or the issuer's agents.
Why do we Collect Personal Information?
We collect, use and disclose personal information about you so that we can:
It is important that you are made aware of the purpose behind our use of personal information. Depending on the service provided, this purpose is communicated to you verbally or in writing. Often, the reasons are obvious; as when you provide your personal information to us in order to obtain our assistance in voting your securities. In performing our depository services or in asset reclamations, we may also use information about you to locate you, correct our records for tax reporting and contact you with respect to your unclaimed assets.
Kingsdale will not use your information for any purpose other than what you would reasonably expect us to. We never sell personal information to third parties and only use or share personal information as necessary in providing our services to you and our clients in accordance with applicable privacy laws.
Kingsdale’s Actions to Protect Your Personal Information
Kingsdale safeguards your personal information through physical, organizational and technological processes and systems designed to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, disclosure, use or modification, and against loss or theft. We review and audit our security policies and procedures on a periodic basis to ensure that our systems are secure and protected.
Kingsdale stores personal information in both electronic and paper form. All of our computer systems are available only through password access to ensure that only certain individuals can access records containing personal information. Paper records are stored in locked filing cabinets in areas where physical access is restricted.
In instances where we provide personal information to affiliates or other service providers who will be acting on our behalf, we ensure that they are required to follow privacy procedures which are similar to ours and we ensure that we provide only as much personal information as is reasonably required to allow them to perform the services for which they are engaged.
Obtaining your Consent?
Canada’s privacy laws provide that, with certain limited exceptions, we are required to obtain your consent before we collect, use or disclose your personal information. Consent can be implied or express and may be provided in writing, orally or electronically. Consent may also be provided by someone acting on your behalf, such as an agent or legal counsel.
Express consent generally is obtained when we speak with you on the telephone or in person and we request your permission to use your personal information. Express consent may also be obtained when you sign a document giving us the authority to use your personal information for an express purpose, such as to provide you with a payment owed to you by one of our clients in exchange for a share certificate you have sent in.
Implied consent is provided in situations where one can reasonably assume that you have given consent for your personal information to be used for a specific purpose. For example, by virtue of being the securityholder of an issuer, implied consent is given to use your personal information solely to confirm and update your personal information, such as your mailing address on file with the issuer so to ensure that they maintain accurate and up-to date records to contact their securityholders.
In deciding what form of consent is appropriate for us to obtain, Kingsdale will consider the following factors:
(i) the type of personal information involved;
(ii) how the personal information will be used; and
(iii) the type of contact we will have with you.
In the event that we have no direct contact with you, we will consider whether we can infer that you have provided consent for use of your personal information.
You are free to determine whether or not you will provide us with consent to use your personal Information. In asking for your consent, we will explain in plain language any implications which may arise should you refuse or withdraw consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information. Please note that should you decide to withhold or withdraw consent, it may limit the services we are able to offer to you. You may contact our General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer at any time to withdraw your consent.
Maintaining Accurate Records
Kingsdale takes a number of actions to ensure that your personal information is accurate and up-to- date. However, should your personal information change, we also rely on you to inform us of the change. Circumstances may arise where, due to incorrect personal information on file, we are unable to perform certain services. For example, we may have difficulty mailing you cheques or other documents if you have changed your address and this information has not been updated in our records.
Responding to Requests for Information
Under ordinary circumstances, we are able to provide you with access to personal information we have on file for you. We will provide you with this information within a reasonable time. Please note that before we can provide this information to you we are required to verify your identity. Therefore, if you would like to receive access to the personal information on file for you, please provide us with a written request for such information at privacy@kingsdaleadvisors.com and include confirmation of your identification and proof that you are entitled to this information. Once we have confirmed your identity, we will provide you with access to this information and will let you know how this information has been used and who it may have been disclosed to. Should you find an error in your personal information, we encourage you to contact us so that we can correct the information.
In certain cases we may be unable to provide you with access to personal information which we have on file. This may occur if:
If we are unable to provide you with access to your Personal Information, we will let you know why we were unable to grant your request, unless we are prohibited by law from disclosing such information. Should we refuse your request to provide you with access to your Personal Information you have the legal right to challenge our decision.
Privacy at Kingsdale
Kingsdale has created this Privacy Policy to outline our privacy process and procedures and to inform you of our commitment to managing and protecting your personal information in accordance with best practices and applicable privacy legislation. This Policy is available on our website at www.kingsdaleadvisors.com and may be requested in paper form by contacting the General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer at the address set out below.
If you have any questions or concerns about this Policy or about privacy at Kingsdale please contact our General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer by phone, fax, mail or email, and we will address your concerns to the best of our ability.
Please note that privacy laws provide for certain limited exceptions to matters included in this Policy. At times, these exceptions will affect our privacy practices. For example, at times, Kingsdale may collect, use or disclose your personal information if one of the following situations arises:
From time to time we may change our internal privacy policies and procedures to update them in accordance with changes in relevant privacy legislation and industry practice. Any changes to Kingsdale’s privacy policies and procedures will be reflected in this Policy.
Responding to your Privacy Concerns
We encourage you to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have with respect to this Policy or our internal privacy policies and procedures. All questions will be investigated and responded to promptly.
For any inquiries and requests regarding your Privacy, please feel free to contact our General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer by phone, fax, mail or email.
Contact Details:
G 416.644.4031
TF. 1.888.683.6007
F. 416.867.2271
TF F: 1.866.545.5580
E. privacy@kingsdaleadvisors.com
You may also visit our website at www.kingsdaleadvisors.com to obtain additional contact information.
If you are contacting us regarding a privacy concern, please provide your name, address, preferred method of communication, the nature of your question and any relevant details, including previous communications you may have had with us regarding your concerns. Any personal information you provide to us when you contact us will help us to better research and respond to your inquiry. Any personal information you provide to us when you contact us with your concern will be used only for that purpose.
