Affinity Credit Union Privacy Policy

Effective March 24, 2025

Your privacy is our priority

At Affinity Credit Union ("Affinity," "we," "us," "our"), we're committed to protecting your privacy and safeguarding your personal and financial information. This Privacy Policy applies to all personal information in Affinity’s possession and control and explains why we collect your information, what we collect, how we use and protect it, and your options when it comes to controlling your data.

Our Privacy Policy applies to Affinity members and non-members whose personal information we collect through our operations, products and services. We may offer products and services to you in conjunction with affiliates, subsidiaries and partners, whose privacy policies will also apply. In those scenarios, you'll be notified and provided with all applicable privacy policies and terms and conditions for those products or services. We'll update our Privacy Policy as necessary and provide notice of significant amendments via our website and other digital channels.

Our privacy program

We maintain a privacy program that’s overseen by our Privacy Officer, featuring policies, practices and processes, all intended to protect your information. The program is based on the 10 Fair Information Principles outlined in the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), one of Canada's federal privacy laws. Visit www.priv.gc.ca for more details.

Our Privacy Officer, supported by the Affinity Privacy Office, reports to our Executive Leadership and Board of Directors on the program's effectiveness and our organization’s compliance with applicable privacy laws.

The key focuses of our program, described in more detail below, include:

For more details on how you can challenge our compliance with our Privacy Policy and exercise other rights related to your information, see the Contact the Affinity Privacy Office section below.

Your consent

We collect, use and disclose your personal information with your express or implied consent, except where the law permits or requires otherwise. We collect information directly from you when you use our products and services and may also receive it from other sources, such as credit agencies, referral programs, or other members (e.g. to establish an alternate contact). If we process your information without consent it is only in accordance with legal requirements, and we always protect it as outlined in this policy.

Why we collect your information

We'll only collect your data when needed for a valid business purpose or if otherwise required by law. Our Privacy Policy is updated when we identify a new purpose for collecting, using or disclosing your information.

Most often, we collect, use and disclose your information to:

  • verify your identity, assess your creditworthiness and provide you with products and services
  • respond to your inquiries, including those inquiries you submit to us through social media
  • allow our third-party service providers to provide products and services you request or to perform functions on Affinity’s behalf
  • send you newsletters and other information, solicit your feedback and offer you different products and services of ours and our partners and affiliates
  • service our accounts and manage our business relationships
  • identify ways to improve our products and services
  • develop and conduct our business and operations and for other internal business purposes
  • make credit-related and other regulatory reports
  • oversee and assess security and risk related to our operations
  • assist in dispute resolution
  • obtain your consent to include your name and feedback in our marketing materials
  • diagnose problems with Affinity’s servers, improve the operation and content of our products and services and compile aggregate and statistical information
  • comply with legal and regulatory requirements or to protect our legal rights and property

(Collectively, the “Authorized Purposes”). Affinity does not collect personal information for any other purposes unless it has the consent of the individual to whom it relates.

What we collect

We may collect a variety of personal data about you, depending on the purpose for collection, including:

  • Government-issued identification
  • Contact details, including but not limited to, your name, email, phone number, address, alternate contacts, etc.
  • Background details, including but not limited to, prior and current employment, marital status, products and services at other financial institutions, etc.
  • Credit reports
  • Transactional data
  • Information gathered during communications with employees (e.g. recorded phone calls) or through on-premises video surveillance
  • Information that is publicly available, such as information you make available on our social media pages
  • Biometric information or biometric identifiers (e.g. for identity verification if you choose to provide it)
  • Device information when you access our online services (e.g. IP address, browser type, operating system and access times)

Storage and processing

Affinity will store personal information on its internal servers and/or with our service providers. Our service providers may store and/or process personal information outside of Canada (including in the United States). When information is stored or processed outside of Canada, it may be subject to the laws of and be accessible by legal authorities in such other jurisdictions. We've taken appropriate technical, organizational and legal steps to secure this information. Affinity retains personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfill the Authorized Purposes and to comply with applicable law.

Sharing information with third parties

Affinity only uses or discloses personal information as reasonably required to facilitate the Authorized Purposes or as otherwise required or permitted by applicable law. We may share your information with third parties. Any time your information is shared with a third party, we only share as much information as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it's shared. Information may also be shared with joint account holders or authorized representatives, such as a power of attorney or an executor of an estate.

We offer some of our products and services in partnership with other organizations, which results in your information being shared between us. You consent to this sharing by agreeing to the terms of our contracts and using the products and services. We utilize third-party service providers for various purposes, including:

  • Provision of specific products and services (e.g. Affinity credit cards)
  • Cloud-based services
  • Identity verification and authentication (e.g. processing biometric information when digitally onboarding)
  • Obtaining credit reports (from Equifax and/or TransUnion)
  • Payment processing and settlement
  • Data processing and analysis
  • Statement issuance and cheque printing
  • Promoting products and soliciting feedback
  • Storage and destruction of records

There are situations where we're legally required or permitted to share your information without your consent, including to:

  • comply with legal requirements to disclose your information (e.g. a production order from law enforcement)
  • collect a debt you owe to us
  • investigate breaches of agreements, violations of laws, or to detect, prevent and suppress fraud
  • protect you from financial abuse or to protect you and others from threats to life, health or security

We may also share your information in connection with a corporate re-organization, a merger, or amalgamation with another entity, a sale of all or a substantial portion of our assets, including any due diligence exercise or integration activities carried out in relation to the same, subject to appropriate contractual safeguards.

When you can refuse to provide information

You can refuse to provide information or withdraw your consent to our use of your data at any time, subject to legal and contractual restrictions. Depending on the circumstances, your refusal or withdrawal of consent might result in us being unable to provide you with the products and services you request.

Please note various laws oblige us to keep your information for defined timeframes once we have it, including after our business relationship ends.

One example of information you may refuse to provide in some instances is your social insurance number (SIN). Providing your SIN isn't mandatory unless you have an interest-bearing product. You can opt-out from us using your SIN for credit matching purposes. Alternatively, you may elect to provide your SIN regardless to help ensure any credit-related information we obtain about you is accurate.

See the Your rights and choices section below for more details.

Cookies and targeted advertising

Affinity may use “cookies” in its products or services that are accessible online. “Cookies” are small text files placed on computers that can collect and store a variety of information. Permanent cookies are stored indefinitely on a user’s hard drive unless manually deleted, while temporary cookies are automatically deleted from the user’s browser upon logging out of a website. Web browsers typically allow users to disable permanent and/or temporary cookies. Refer to your browser’s help settings for more information.

Please note that we utilize Google Analytics. For more information about how Google collects, uses and processes data, please see https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

We may also use certain third-party ad delivery services, including targeted advertising service providers, to tailor advertisements to your preferences. These advertisements may appear on third-party websites, such as YouTube, Reddit, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook or through Google Ads. In some circumstances, we direct our service providers to display advertisements to individuals who fall within a set of general parameters (such as an age range or geographic location) or at specific times of the day. When we engage in this type of advertising, we do not disclose your personal information. In other circumstances, we provide our service providers with limited hashed personal information about you (such as your phone number and email address) and direct them to advertise certain products and services to you on their platforms. We may exclude certain individuals from targeted advertising using the same method. Your information will not be used for this purpose if you have opted-out from receiving promotional communications. Note that these third-party advertising service providers may independently collect, use and disclose your information in accordance with their own privacy policies (and not this Privacy Policy) and may use their own cookies and other data collection technologies. Additionally, based on the limited information we provide, third-party targeted advertising service providers may be able to infer things about you, such as your interests or preferences. By using any of our products or services, you consent to the use of your personal information in this manner. You may withdraw your consent to the use of your personal information for this purpose. Please see the Your rights and choices section below for more details.

Protecting your information

We take physical, technical and administrative measures to keep your information safe, including:

  • keeping physical documents locked in secure storage
  • limiting employee access to systems and areas on our premises on an "as needed" basis
  • implementing security measures to prevent third-party access to our systems
  • implementing corporate training programs, policies, procedures and practices for our employees so they understand their responsibilities related to keeping your information safe and confidential
  • maintaining record retention and destruction processes that ensure we only keep your information as long as necessary before it's destroyed or anonymized
  • developing incident response protocols that enable us to respond quickly and efficiently to issues involving personal information

The protection of personal information is of paramount concern to Affinity. We’re prepared to take appropriate and timely steps in the event of any incidents involving personal information in accordance with applicable privacy laws. We will notify you if your personal information is subject to a breach that creates a real risk of significant harm to you. Visit https://www.affinitycu.ca/banking/ways-to-bank/security for more information.

Third-party protection

Affinity works with third parties to help provide you with the highest standard of financial service. We contractually require those third parties to protect your information through physical, technical and administrative measures. Any third party that receives your information from us is only allowed to use it for the purposes we have shared it. We do not sell your information. We may share your data with third parties outside your province of residence or Canada, such as the United States, in which case the handling of your information will also be subject to the laws of that foreign jurisdiction.

Please note that Affinity’s products and services may contain links to other websites, whose privacy policies we are not responsible for. We encourage you to refer to the privacy policies of those third parties to help understand how your information may be used.

Your rights and choices

We give you simple ways to control how we use your information.

Updating information and communication preferences

Affinity makes every reasonable effort to ensure that personal information is accurate and complete. This may involve requesting further information or updates from you. However, we rely on you to notify us if there’s a change to your personal information that may affect your relationship with us. You can always contact us to access and update your personal information. We’ll provide you with access to the personal information we hold about you in accordance with applicable law. We reserve the right to require that any request for access to personal information be made in writing. Generally, there is no cost for such access. However, we reserve the right to charge such costs on a case-by-case basis in accordance with applicable law. You’ll be notified in advance if charges apply. We’ll correct or amend the personal information in our records where it can be shown that the information is incorrect or incomplete.

Additionally, you can personalize your communication preferences to suit your needs. This includes telling us the time of day and manner you prefer to be contacted (whether by phone, text, or email) or telling us that you prefer not to be contacted by opting out in the manner outlined below. If you opt-out, you can always change your mind by letting us know you want to opt back in.

We’ll identify you before making any changes to your information or communication preferences. We’ll also attempt to communicate with you according to your preferences, unless it's inappropriate given the circumstances (e.g. in an emergency, we may call you even if you prefer email).

Promotional communication and feedback

Affinity processes your information to identify opportunities to offer products and services that suit you and to solicit your feedback from time to time. We use third parties occasionally for these purposes. You may receive promotions, alerts or other notifications from us, as well as our affiliates or third-party partners that are not managed or controlled by Affinity directly (e.g. from our Wealth partners). Such communications may be made by way of telephone, text message, direct messaging, email or regular mail. Where relevant, please refer to the applicable third-party partner’s privacy policies and additional information provided to you with the related products and services to determine how you can update those preferences. You consent to being contacted in this manner when you use the associated products and services. You may opt-out of receiving such communications from Affinity by following the steps below. If you receive optional communications after opting out, please contact our Privacy Office. We’ll investigate and ensure you don't receive any further communications. You may also opt-out of the disclosure of your personal information to our third-party targeted advertising service providers, who use it to help deliver ads for our products and services online and through social media by following the steps below.

Please note you can only opt-out of optional communications, such as product promotions and feedback surveys. You can’t opt-out of Affinity contacting you with information relevant to our business relationship with you or your existing products and services.

Credit bureau and SIN consent

You may provide your SIN for identity verification (e.g. if you use our digital channels to onboard) and to help us accurately identify you with credit bureaus. By providing us with your SIN, you consent to our use of your SIN to obtain your credit report directly from credit bureaus to help assess your suitability for certain products and services. Providing your SIN for those purposes is not a condition of service and you can opt-out of our use of your SIN to pull credit information. However, please note that depending on what products and services you obtain, your SIN may be required (e.g. if you have interest-bearing products). If you don't consent to Affinity pulling your credit report, the products and services we provide you will have limitations, including but not limited to imposing holds and other restrictions on your accounts. We do not accept credit reports that aren’t obtained directly from credit bureaus.

Affinity alerts and credit card alerts

Affinity alerts are email notifications that tell you when specific actions or scenarios occur on your profile. They can be used to help you manage your finances and to keep an eye out for unauthorized activity. Two types of alerts are available through your online banking: general and account alerts. General alerts inform you of profile-based activity (e.g. changes to your password). The account alerts focus on activity within specific accounts (e.g. point-of-sale purchase notifications). Similar notifications are available for Affinity credit card holders that you can adjust yourself through the credit card platform.

If you’d like to update your information or communication preferences, opt-out of promotional communications, feedback surveys or the use of your SIN for credit matching, opt-out of us sharing your personal information for the purposes of targeted advertising, or adjust your Affinity or credit card alerts, you can do one of the following as applicable:

  • Click 'Unsubscribe' or 'Manage Preferences' at the bottom of the emails you receive
  • Reply “STOP” to any text messages you receive
  • Make changes through your online banking (in the case of Affinity and credit card alerts)
  • Visit an advice centre
  • Give us a call at 1.866.863.6237

Contact the Affinity Privacy Office

The Affinity Privacy Office, led by our Privacy Officer, oversees our organization's compliance with this Privacy Policy and the laws and regulations that apply to us. You can contact the Privacy Office for any of the following reasons:

  • If you have questions or concerns about our information handling practices or compliance with our Privacy Policy;
  • If you want to amend your information and you were unable to do so at an advice centre, through our Contact Centre or otherwise; or
  • If you want to submit an access request related to your information in our records.

The Privacy Office responds to all inquiries and complaints as soon as possible, but in any event, no later than 30 days after you’ve submitted it. If you submit a request or complaint, please ensure it's as detailed as possible to help us respond promptly. A member of our team can help you prepare your submission if needed.

We usually don't charge a fee to respond to requests, but it may be occasionally necessary. We'll contact you before completing any work with a cost associated or if we need to clarify any details about your request/complaint. If we cannot comply with your request, we'll explain why.

You can contact the Affinity Credit Union Privacy Office at:

Affinity Credit Union Privacy Office
PO Box 1330
Saskatoon, SK S7K 3P4
PrivacyOffice@affinitycu.ca

If you reach out to the Privacy Office and you're not satisfied with how we respond to a request or complaint, you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at 1.800.282.1376 or online at www.priv.gc.ca.