Personal Information Protection

Private Sector Privacy Legislation

Personal Information Protection Policy
Jan Klimas, PhD, Psychologist

Personal Information Protection Policy

At Jan Klimas Psychology, we are committed to providing our clients with exceptional service.  As providing this service involves the collection, use and disclosure of some personal information about our clients, protecting their personal information is one of our highest priorities.

While we have always respected our clients’ privacy and safeguarded their personal information, we have strengthened our commitment to protecting personal information as a result of British Columbia’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA).  PIPA, which came into effect on January 1, 2004, sets out the ground rules for how B.C. businesses and not-for-profit organizations may collect, use and disclose personal information.

We will inform our clients of why and how we collect, use and disclose their personal information, obtain their consent where required, and only handle their personal information in a manner that a reasonable person would consider appropriate in the circumstances.

This Personal Information Protection Policy, in compliance with PIPA, outlines the principles and practices we will follow in protecting clients’ personal information.  Our privacy commitment includes ensuring the accuracy, confidentiality, and security of our clients’ personal information and allowing our clients to request access to, and correction of, their personal information.

Definitions

Personal Information – means information about an identifiable individual and/or information that is reasonably capable of identifying a particular individual either alone or when combined with information from other available sources. Personal information includes employee personal information.

Some examples of personal information are: name, address, gender, education, date of birth, employment information, and health information. Personal information does not include contact information (described below).

Contact information – means information that would enable an individual to be contacted at a place of business and includes name, position name or title, business telephone number, business address, business email or business fax number.  Contact information is not covered by this policy or PIPA.

Client – means any individual that accesses services administered by Jan Klimas Psychology.

Staff – means employees, contractors and volunteers of Jan Klimas Psychology.

Privacy Officer – means the individual designated responsibility for ensuring that Jan Klimas Psychology complies with this policy and PIPA. 

Policy 1 – Collecting Personal Information

1.1  Unless the purposes for collecting personal information are obvious and the client voluntarily provides his or her personal information for those purposes, we will communicate the purposes for which personal information is being collected, either orally or in writing, before or at the time of collection. 

1.2  We will only collect client information that is necessary to fulfill the following purposes: 

• To verify identity, we may collect name, home address, email address, telephone number and birth date;
• To identify client preferences;
• To respond to requests for services, we may collect name, email address, and phone number, as well as relevant health information;
• To provide appointment reminders;
• To provide counselling services, we may collect relevant health information, including current and historical health information;
• To ensure a high standard of service to our clients, we may collect feedback about our services or progress of an individual; 
• To meet regulatory requirements and ensure the safety and security of our clients, we may collect information about emergency contacts, possible risk to oneself or others, and current location during virtual counselling appointments;
• To collect and process payments, we may collect credit card information; 
• Responding to client complaints and concerns;
• For hiring purposes, we may collect information about an individual’s employment history, education and qualifications; background check information, including criminal or citizenship information;
• For employment and payroll, we may collect a staff member’s financial and banking information, emergency contact, and SIN;
• For employment purposes, we may collect information about a staff member’s workplace performance and conduct;

Policy 2 – Consent

2.1  We will obtain client consent to collect, use or disclose personal information (except where, as noted below, we are authorized to do so without consent). 

2.2  Consent can be provided orally, in writing, or electronically, or it can be implied where the purpose for collecting, using or disclosing the personal information would be considered obvious and the client voluntarily provides personal information for that purpose. 

2.3  Consent may also be implied where a client is given notice and a reasonable opportunity to opt-out of his or her personal information being used for the marketing of new services or products and the client does not opt-out. 

2.4  Subject to certain exceptions (e.g.,the personal information is necessary to provide the service or product, or the withdrawal of consent would frustrate the performance of a legal obligation), clients can withhold or withdraw their consent for Jan Klimas Psychology to use their personal information in certain ways.  A client’s decision to withhold or withdraw their consent to certain uses of personal information may restrict our ability to provide a particular service or product.  If so, we will explain the situation to assist the client in making the decision. 

2.5  We may collect, use or disclose personal information without the client’s knowledge or consent in the following limited circumstances: 

• When the collection, use or disclosure of personal information is permitted or required by law;
• In an emergency that threatens an individual’s life, health, or personal security;
• When the personal information is available from a public source (e.g., a telephone directory);
• When the collection, use or disclosure of information  is clearly in the interests of the individual and consent cannot be obtained in a timely way;
• The personal information is collected for the purposes of the organization providing services to a third party and the information is necessary for the purposes of providing those services;
• When we require legal advice from a lawyer;
• For the purposes of collecting a debt;
• To protect ourselves from fraud;
• To investigate an anticipated breach of an agreement or a contravention of law 

Policy 3 – Using and Disclosing Personal Information

3.1  We will only use or disclose client personal information where necessary to fulfill the purposes identified at the time of collection [or for a purpose reasonably related to those purposes such as: 

• To conduct client surveys in order to enhance the provision of our services;
• To contact our clients directly about products and services that may be of interest;

3.2  We will not use or disclose client personal information for any additional purpose unless we obtain consent to do so, or as required by law.

3.3  We will not sell client lists or personal information to other parties (unless we have consent to do so). 

Policy 4 – Retaining Personal Information

4.1  If we use client personal information to make a decision that directly affects the client we will retain that personal information for at least one year so that the client has a reasonable opportunity to request access to it. 

4.2  Subject to policy 4.1, we will retain client personal information only as long as necessary to fulfill the identified purposes or a legal or business purpose. Clinical records are retained for a minimum of seven years after the last date that professional services were rendered to the client, or in the case of clinical records of minors, records are retained for not less than seven years following the date the minor reached age of majority.

Policy 5 – Ensuring Accuracy of Personal Information

5.1  We will make reasonable efforts to ensure that client personal information is accurate and complete where it may be used to make a decision about the client or disclosed to another organization. 

5.2  Clients may request correction to their personal information in order to ensure its accuracy and completeness.  A request to correct personal information must be made in writing and provide sufficient detail to identify the personal information and the correction being sought. 

A request to correct personal information should be forwarded to the Privacy Officer.

5.3  If the personal information is demonstrated to be inaccurate or incomplete, we will correct the information as required and send the corrected information to any organization to which we disclosed the personal information in the previous year.  If the correction is not made, we will note the clients’ correction request in the file. 

Policy 6 – Securing Personal Information

6.1  We are committed to ensuring the security of client personal information in order to protect it from unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification or disposal or similar risks. 

6.2  The following security measures will be followed to ensure that client personal information is appropriately protected: the use of locked filing cabinets for any information kept in paper format; physically securing offices where personal information is held; shredding printed documents containing personal information that do not need to be maintained;  the use of user IDs, passwords, encryption, firewalls, two-factor authentication; restricting employee access to personal information as appropriate (i.e., only those that need to know will have access; requiring employees and contractors to sign confidentiality agreements; contractually requiring any service providers to provide comparable security measures].

6.3  We will use appropriate security measures when destroying client’s personal information such as shredding documents and deleting electronically stored information. 

6.4  We will continually review and update our security policies and controls as technology changes to ensure ongoing personal information security. 

Policy 7 – Privacy Breaches

7.1 Jan Klimas views any security breach involving personal information as a serious matter. In the event of a privacy breach or unauthorized access, use or disclosure of personal information, Jan Klimas Psychology’ response will include the following steps:

1. Jan Klimas will endeavor to contain the breach as soon as possible and/or stop the unauthorized activities, as applicable;
2. Jan Klimas will designate an appropriate individual to lead an initial investigation into the breach and/or unauthorized activities;
3. Jan Klimas will notify individuals of any breach of security safeguards involving their Personal Information under the BCPA’s control if such notification is required by PIPA; and
4. Jan Klimas will keep a record of any breach of security safeguards involving Personal Information under its control.

7.2  All Staff are expected to provide their full cooperation with any investigation into unauthorized collection, access, use or disclosure or response to a privacy breach incident.

7.3  Staff must immediately report actual or suspected privacy breach incidents to the BCPA’s Privacy Officer. If there is any question about whether a privacy breach has occurred or may occur, individuals are directed to immediately consult with the BCPA’s Privacy Officer.

Policy 8 – Providing Clients Access to Personal Information

 8.1  Clients have a right to access their personal information, subject to limited exceptions. 

Some examples include:  solicitor-client privilege, disclosure would reveal personal information about another individual, health and safety concerns.

8.2  A request to access personal information must be made in writing and provide sufficient detail to identify the personal information being sought.  A request to access personal information should be forwarded to the Privacy Officer.

8.3  Upon request, we will also tell clients how we use their personal information and to whom it has been disclosed if applicable. 

8.4  We will make the requested information available within 30 business days, or provide written notice of an extension where additional time is required to fulfill the request. 

8.5  A minimal fee may be charged for providing access to personal information.  Where a fee may apply, we will inform the client of the cost and request further direction from the client on whether or not we should proceed with the request. 

8.6  If a request is refused in full or in part, we will notify the client in writing, providing the reasons for refusal and the recourse available to the client. 

Policy 9 – Questions and Complaints:  The Role of the Privacy Officer

9.1  The Privacy Officer is responsible for ensuring Jan Klimas Psychology’ compliance with this policy and the Personal Information Protection Act. 

9.2  Clients should direct any complaints, concerns or questions regarding Jan Klimas Psychology’ compliance in writing to the Privacy Officer. If the Privacy Officer is unable to resolve the concern, the client may also write to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia. 

Contact information for Privacy Officer, Jan Klimas:

Dr. Jan Klimas, PhD, Psychologist

Vancouver, BC

info@janklimas.com 

Contact information for the Information and Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia:

Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia

PO Box 9038 Stn. Prov. Govt. Victoria B.C. V8W 9A4  

250-387-5629

info@oipc.bc.ca

www.oipc.bc.ca