Privacy Policy

Last updated on December 20, 2024.

Your privacy is very important to us.

We, CFT Clear Finance Technology Corp., its affiliates, subsidiaries, assigns and successors (collectively, “Clearco”, “we”, “us” or “our”) are committed to protecting your privacy and your personal data. This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) will provide you transparency on the personal data we collect, how we secure it and your rights available under law.

Personal data means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (“Personal Data”). If your information is aggregated, de-identified or anonymized, and it is no longer reasonably associated with an identified or identifiable natural person, we may use such information for any business, research, or statistical purposes.

This Policy applies to all websites, devices, and applications that we operate (including mobile applications), pages within or associated with each such websites, devices, and applications, and any equivalent, mirror, replacement, substitute or backup to such websites, devices, and applications, and pages that are associated with each such website, device and application (“Sites”). This Policy further applies when you access or use our Sites, or our products, services, tools, and functions offered or made available by us, whether online (including via the Sites or a mobile application) or in-person, when you sign up to our newsletters, or when you otherwise interact with us (“Services”).

If you have any additional business agreements with us, to the extent there is a conflict between this Policy and such business agreement, then the terms of such business agreement will prevail over this Policy with respect to such specific Services.

It is important you read and understand this Policy along with our Terms of Service. If you do not agree to or do not have the authority to agree to this Policy or Terms of Service, you may not access or use our Sites or our Services.

To enable you to better understand how we handle your Personal Data, this Policy details:

• What information we collect
• Why we collect your information
• How we use your information
• Who do we share your information with
• How do we transfer information collected internationally
• How long do we keep your information
• How we secure the information
• What are your rights under law
• What are your rights as a California Resident
• Other important information about this Policy

What information we collect

When you access or use our Services, we collect information including Personal Data from you, through automatic methods or from third parties. We only collect the minimum necessary Personal Data to provide our Services.

Information you provide

• Your identity and contact information include full name, email address, mailing address, phone number, password, date of birth, social security/social insurance number/national identification/ taxpayer identification number, citizenship, job title and if you are an authorized signatory to enable us to identify and register you for our Services.

• Your business Information such as type of business, registered and business addresses, financial statements, organizational documents, organizational information, beneficial ownership information, director and employee information, credit history, sales volumes, to better understand your business and your business needs.

• Your banking Information such as bank statements, banking and payment history, credit card information to evaluate your revenue and financial position.

• Your preferred third-party vendors, websites, or internet services (“Third Party Sites”) to enable us to register, set up vendor accounts or provide specific Services.

• Your profile Information and user preferences such as preferred Services, your interests, feedback, survey responses to customize your preferences.

• Your marketing and communication preferences such as subscription to our newsletters and blogs to provide you information about Clearco and our Services.

• Your discussion records with our teams such as records of video conferences, telephone calls and text messages, your comments, your testimonials, opinions and feedback.

• Your employment application records including your application, resume, contact details, employment history, and education to evaluate your job application.

Information we automatically collect

• We use cookies, web beacons and other similar technology to collect information to support the integrity of our registration process, retain your preferences and account settings, count visits, and help evaluate and compile aggregated statistics about user activity.

• We may collect your computer browser type, geolocation, Internet protocol address, pages visited, and average time spent on our Sites. This information may be used, for example, to alert you to software compatibility issues, or it may be analyzed to improve our web and mobile application design and functionality.

• When you use the mobile versions of our Sites, we may collect the unique device identifier assigned to that device by phone makers, carriers, or makers of the operating system (the “Device ID”) to uniquely identify your device for purposes of storing application preferences, user activities and other data.

• We may collect the origin or source or referral event of your entry to our Sites.

Information we receive from third parties

• We may collect, on your behalf, your account and other Personal Data from Third Party Sites that you register under your account via the Services including providers of payment and delivery services.
• We may use third parties to gather your Personal Data, Business Information and Banking Information from financial institutions or registered agents to provide Services.
• We may collect information from our business partners, referral service providers, analytics providers and search information providers about your interests and preferences.
• We may also collect information about you from mailing list providers, publicly available sources, and other third parties, including to process and manage your application and transactions.
• We may allow third party service providers to use cookies (as noted above) or other tracking technologies to collect information about your browsing activities over time and across different websites following your use of our Sites.
• We may obtain Personal Data from recruiters or other entities as part of background checks for an employment opportunity with Clearco.
• We may obtain Personal Data containing all client information as well as primary marketing data from the user's initial session with your site.

Why we collect your information

Our legal basis to process your Personal Data are:

• Contract: to enable us to enter into a contract with you or to perform and fulfill our contractual obligations,
• Legitimate Interest: as detailed in “How we use your information”,
• Legal or regulatory obligations: to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations,

Except in relation to your marketing or cookie preferences, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your Personal Data.

How we use your information

We use your Personal Data for specific and legitimate purposes to enable us to customize our Services to meet and exceed your business needs. We use your Personal Data to:

• communicate and respond to your inquiries about our Services
• review and process your requests and applications for our products, programs, and Services
• provide, perform or enforce our Services including advancing and collecting funds
• verify your identity (“Know Your Customer” and fraud protection)
• provide customer support
• develop and offer you other products, programs, or services that we believe may be of interest to you
• verify the existence and condition of your accounts and conduct due diligence
• notify any changes to Site and our Services
• perform quality assurance, data analytics of aggregated data, and train our employees
• fulfil legal requirements and to protect against potentially prohibited or illegal activities
• improve (including through data analytics), monitor, and personalize Services
• provide newsletters, targeted marketing, and advertising, and conduct surveys, events and collect feedback to evaluate effectiveness of marketing and customer experiences
• measure the performance of and improve the functionality of our Sites
• assess your job application to postings in our Careers section
• meet our corporate and social responsibility objectives
• manage, administer, and protect our information technology infrastructure and its security generally; and/or
• otherwise assist with your business needs.

We will not reuse your Personal Data for a new purpose other than the aforesaid original ones for which it was collected, unless one or more of the following apply:

• the new use is compatible with the original use such that you would reasonably expect such a similar use.
• we have notified you of the new use and given you an opportunity to authorize it; or
• the new use is otherwise permitted or required by law.

Who do we share your information with

We may share your Personal Data with the parties set out below:

• Internal Third Parties: These third parties include our subsidiaries and affiliates
• External Third Parties: These third parties include our service providers, agents, subcontractors, consultants, insurance providers, financial institutions, funders, payment processors, business partners, referral partners, recruiters, governmental entities (to respond to a request, subpoenas, registrations, or legal processes) or other third parties (as required by law, to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, or to protect and secure our interests, rights, and our assets)
• Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer or merge parts of our business or our assets.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your Personal Data and to treat it in accordance with the law in your jurisdiction. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your Personal Data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your Personal Data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

How do we transfer information collected internationally

We may transfer your Personal Data from your current location to the offices and servers of Clearco and to our authorized third parties located in the United States and Canada.

Whenever we transfer your Personal Data internationally, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:

• We will only transfer your Personal Data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal information.
• Where we use certain service providers internationally, we may use specific contracts which gives personal information the same protection it has in the respective countries.

Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your Personal Data internationally.

How long do we store your information?

We will only retain your Personal Data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, administrative, security, compliance, contractual, tax, accounting, or reporting requirements. We may retain your Personal Data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.

To determine the appropriate retention period for Personal Data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the Personal Data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your Personal Data, the purposes for which we process your Personal Data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting, or other requirements.

We will continue to retain certain information about our customers for seven (7) years after they cease being customers in accordance with applicable laws. In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your Personal Data: see Request to erase your Personal Data below for further information.

How do we secure your information

We take reasonable measures, including firewall barriers, SSL/TLS encryption techniques, and authentication procedures, to help protect your Personal Data from accidental loss, theft, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. In addition, we limit access to your Personal Data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your Personal Data on our instructions, and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected Personal Data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

As the internet or email transmission is not fully secure or error free, email sent to or from the Services may not be secure. Therefore, you should take special care in deciding what information you send us via email. Please keep this in mind when disclosing your Personal Data to Clearco via the internet. We encourage you to disclose any suspected security vulnerabilities or bugs to our security team at security@clearco.com.

What are your rights under law

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your Personal Data. Your rights may provide:

• Request access to your Personal data This enables you to receive a copy of your Personal Data we hold.

• Request correction of your Personal Data This enables you to correct any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.

• Request erasure of your Personal Data This enables you to ask us to delete or remove Personal Data where we are no longer required to hold it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your Personal Data where you have successfully exercised your right to Object to Processing. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.

• Object to processing your Personal Data This enables you to object to processing of your Personal Data when it is based on our legitimate interest or those of a third party. You also have the right to object where we are processing your Personal Data for direct marketing purposes.

• Request restrictions of processing your Personal Data This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your Personal Data in certain circumstances such as establishing the accuracy of your Personal Data, but you do not want to erase it, where you require us to hold the Personal Data to establish, exercise or defend legal claims etc.

• Request transfer of your Personal Data This enables you to request transfer of your Personal Data to you or (if technically feasible) any third party in a commonly used machine-readable format. Note that these rights only apply to Personal Data which you initially provided us. Certain Personal Data will need to be retained for administrative, legal, security or other legitimate business purposes.

• Right to withdraw consent This enables you to withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your Personal Data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain Services to you.

What we may need from you

We will handle your requests and rights in accordance with applicable law. This means there may be legal reasons why we cannot fulfil all requests. We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your Personal Data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that Personal Data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

No fee required

You will not have to pay a fee to access your Personal Data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive, or excessive. Alternatively, we could refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

Time limit to respond

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it could take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

What are your rights as a California Resident

This Policy applies to disclosures required by certain state privacy laws including as a Notice of Collection under the California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”). The below provides the categories as established by the CPRA and other state privacy laws, including for the purpose of cross-context behavioural advertising as defined under CPRA (or referred as targeted advertising under certain state privacy laws) and whether Clearco disclosed your Personal Data for business purposes in the preceding twelve (12) months:

CATEGORIES OF PERSONAL DATA COLLECTED

• Your Identity and Contact Information
• Your Profile Information and User Preferences
• Your Marketing and Communication Preferences
• Business and Banking Information
• Your discussion records, internet activity or other electronic network activity information
• Geolocation data
• Employment or recruiting related information

CATEGORIES OF THIRD PARTIES THAT PERSONAL DATA IS DISCLOSED TO FOR A BUSINESS PURPOSE

• Internal and External Third parties

The categories of sources from which we collect Personal Data, our purposes for using your Personal Data as well as your rights to access, rectify and erase your Personal Data are set forth above in this Policy. Additionally, you have the right to opt out of processing of your Personal Data for cross-context behavioural advertising (or referred as targeted advertising under certain state privacy laws) as provided in our Opting Out section.

Clearco does not “sell” your Personal Data, nor do we have actual knowledge of any sale of personal information of minors under 18 years of age. Clearco will not discriminate against any individual for exercising their rights under the CRPA nor engage in profiling its customers or prospective employees in furtherance of automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects as defined under the Colorado Privacy Act. Clearco does not use or disclose sensitive personal information for any purpose not expressly permitted by the CPRA and retain Personal Data only as required in order to fulfill the purposes as identified herein, or as required by law or otherwise communicated to you. Clearco also processes Your Personal Data for the purpose of targeted advertising as defined under certain state privacy laws. In the event you require an authorized agent to act on your behalf to make a verifiable request related to your Personal Data, please contact us at privacy@clearco.com. We request that sufficient detail be provided to reasonably verify you or your authorized agent. If you would like to exercise any of your rights under the CPRA or under other state privacy laws, please contact us at privacy@clearco.com.

Other important information about this Policy

Marketing, Communications & Cookies
We may provide our registered customers with summaries of their account information, SMS/text messages and email alerts. We may also allow you to subscribe to email newsletters and from time to time may transmit SMS/text messages and emails promoting Clearco or third-party goods or services. You will receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us or received Services from us and you have not opted out of receiving that marketing communication.

You can also set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when our Sites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of our Sites may become inaccessible or not function properly. Learn more about our Cookie Policy.

Opting Out
You can opt out of receiving our newsletters and marketing SMS/text messages and emails and to terminate our newsletter subscriptions by following the instructions in the emails or by contacting us by email at privacy@clearco.com. Opting out in this manner will not end transmission of service-related SMS/text messages or emails, such as email alerts. You can also change your cookie preferences on our Sites.

DNT Signals
Our Site currently does not respond to “Do Not Track” (DNT) signals and operates as described in this Policy whether or not a DNT signal is received. If we do so in the future, we will describe how we do so in this Policy.

Unsolicited Information
This Policy shall not apply to any unsolicited information you provide to Clearco through the Services or through any other means. This includes, but is not limited to, information posted to any public areas of the Services, such as forums, any ideas for new products or modifications to existing products, and other unsolicited submissions (collectively, “Unsolicited Information”). All Unsolicited Information shall be deemed to be non-confidential and not Personal Data and Clearco shall be free to reproduce, use, disclose, and distribute such Unsolicited Information to others without limitation or attribution.

Third Party Sites
The Services may contain links to other web sites and services not operated or controlled by Clearco (the “Linked Sites”). This Policy does not apply to Third Party Sites or Linked Sites. The links from the Services do not imply that the Clearco endorses or has reviewed the Third-Party Sites or Linked Sites, we are not responsible for actions of these Third-Party Sites or Linked Sites. We suggest contacting those sites directly for information on their privacy policies.

By using our Services, you grant our third-party providers, including Third Party Sites or Linked Sites, the right, power, and authority to act on your behalf to access and transmit your personal and financial information from the relevant financial institution.

We may use LexisNexis to verify identity and for other fraud prevention measures. Consult LexisNexis processing notice at https://risk.lexisnexis.com/corporate/processing-notices for additional information how LexisNexis processes personal information when providing its services. Further, you authorize your wireless carrier to use or disclose information about your account and your wireless device, if available, to us or to LexisNexis to enable verification of you and your wireless device and to prevent fraud.

We may use GoCardless to process your Direct Debit payments. More information on how GoCardless processes your Personal Data, and your data protection rights, including your right to object, is available at gocardless.com/legal/privacy/

Some of our pages utilize framing or private-labelling techniques to serve content from our partners while preserving the look and feel of our Sites. Please be aware that in these instances you may be providing your Personal Data to these third parties and not to Clearco.

Children and Consumers
Clearco does not knowingly collect Personal Data from persons under the age of 18. If you are under the age of 18, please do not submit any Personal Data through the Services. Our Sites and our Services are not intended for consumers.

Controller
CFT Clear Finance Technology Corp. is the controller and responsible for your Personal Data and is located at 33 Yonge Street, Suite 1302, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5E 1G4.

Complaints
You have the right to make a complaint at any time to your applicable data privacy supervisory authority or however we appreciate the chance to address your concerns before you approach the supervisory authority and therefore request you to contact us in the first instance.

COUNTRY

DATA PRIVACY SUPERVISORY AUTHORITY

Canada
The Office of Privacy Commissioner of Canada ( www.priv.gc.ca) or your applicable provincial Privacy Commissioner
United States
Federal Trade Commission or your applicable state government agency

Changes to this Policy
We reserve the right, at our discretion, to make changes to this Policy from time to time without notice, so please review it frequently. Changes take effect immediately upon posting. Your continued use of the Services after any changes or revisions to this Policy shall indicate your agreement with the terms of such revised Policy.

Contact us
If you have any questions about this Policy or our privacy practices including any request to exercise your rights available under law, please contact privacy@clearco.com or by mail addressed to “Clearco”, Attention: Privacy & Compliance Department, 33 Yonge Street, Suite 1302, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5E 1G4.