Privacy

To ensure you are the only person accessing your personal financial information, we restrict access to the online account services section of the site by requiring that you enter your my card Debit Card and PAC to login. Only you know your PAC. Our employees do not have access to your PAC, and they will not ask you to reveal it. If someone does ask you to provide your PAC to them, we ask that you refuse to do so and contact us immediately.

Our online account services features many transactional functions such as transfers between accounts and bill payments. These transactions are all logged to ensure your accounts are debited or credited appropriately, and a history of each transaction is available to verify your account information. We store and use your transactional information in the same fashion as if you performed the transaction at a branch or through any other service channel.

We may also use transactional information for servicing your account—for example, billing you for the particular transactions that you perform, or for the services you use.

We create a secure channel between your browser and our server to protect your information when you use the site. To learn more about how we do this, please review our information on Internet Security.

To provide you with a convenient method for applying for loans and mortgages, or for purchasing other financial services products such as Registered Savings Plans, we may provide secure online application forms. These forms capture personal information that we use to provide you with the products and services you request. This information is processed in a similar way to application forms received through our other channels.

To continually improve our site, we often collect statistics about how our members are using it. These statistics are only viewed in the aggregate and are not associated with you as an individual. We use this information for purposes such as improving the pages where our members are having difficulties.

The information collected may include your IP address, your browser type and your operating system, as well as data such as the number and types of pages visited and the length of time spent per page and on the site overall.

We also use a key web technology called cookies. A cookie is a small information token that sits on your computer. As you use this site, cookies are passed back and forth between our server and your browser.

Specifically, we use two kinds of cookies — session cookies and persistent cookies. A session cookie exists only for the length of your browsing session and is deleted when you close your browser. A persistent cookie stays on your computer after you close your browser. A persistent cookie may or may not expire on a given date.

We use a session cookie to maintain the integrity of your online account session. With each page you visit, the cookie is passed back and forth between our server and your browser. We use the cookie to distinguish your session from the many others that may be happening at the same time. Our session cookies never store any personal information, such as your name, or date of birth, or financial information, such as your accounts and balances.

Most recent browser versions allow you to set some level of control over which cookies are accepted and how your browser uses them. For example, it may be set to notify you when it is receiving a cookie so that you accept cookies from only known, reliable sites such as this one. If you are concerned about cookies, we encourage you to upgrade your browser to a recent version and review the Help section of your browser to learn more about its specific control features.

In the event that you leave your computer without logging out, the online account services feature of this site has been designed to end your session automatically if our system detects you haven't provided any instructions or used the browser buttons to navigate for several minutes. To restart the session, you will need to provide your PAC again.

To communicate with us electronically, we strongly recommend that you use our Contact Us feature. This feature provides a secure channel for sending us comments, questions or instructions.

General email is not secure since it passes through many points on its route from you to us. If you are using general email to communicate with us, we strongly recommend that you do not include personal financial information (such as account numbers) within the email as we cannot guarantee its confidentiality en route to us.

When you email us your comments, questions or instructions, you provide us your email address and we use it to correspond with you. We then store your email and our replies to you in case we correspond further.

Our site may also contain links to other websites or Internet resources. As an example, from time-to-time we may provide links to Microsoft or Netscape to assist you in upgrading your Internet browser. However, we have no control over these other websites or Internet resources and do not control their collection, use and disclosure of your personal information. Always review the Privacy Statements of the sites that you are viewing.

We welcome any questions or concerns about your privacy relating to the use of our website. Please use the Contact Us form to submit your questions or comments. You can also contact our Corporate Ombudsman at Ombudsman@FirstOntario.com with questions or concerns.

As we continue to expand our online account services to serve you better, and as new internet technologies become available, we may update the information on this page at any time, to reflect changes.

We use a persistent cookie to store information to help you personalize the site and to make it easier to use. For example, we allow you to make the login easier by remembering your login information within our Memorized Accounts feature. Since the Memorized Accounts feature is optional, this cookie only contains information you have entered into it. We never store your Personal Access Code (PAC) in a cookie.

To ensure no-one else can access your personal information, always use the logout button to end an online session. It is located at the top of every page. When you exit using the logout button, we delete your session cookie so that your session cannot be resumed unless your Member ID and PAC are re-entered.

In consideration of Creative Arts Financial admitting the member into membership and agreeing to continue to provide financial services to the member, the member hereby agrees to the following:

1. From time to time,

   Creative Arts Financial may also use my social insurance number for income tax reporting purposes if the member has provided that number to Creative Arts Financial; and

   Creative Arts Financial may also use the member’s social insurance number as an aid to identify the member with credit reporting agencies and other financial institutions for credit history file matching purposes. The member acknowledges that the member may not require to provide that number to Creative Arts Financial for these purposes.

   1. Creative Arts Financial may collect credit and other financially related information (including information related to the member’s transactions) about the member ("Personal Information") from the member, from service arrangements the member has made with Creative Arts Financial or through Creative Arts Financial’s Networking Affiliates, from credit reporting agencies, and other financial institutions, and from references the member has provided;
   2. Creative Arts Financial may use this Personal Information as follows:
      1. to give it to credit reporting agencies and other financial institutions and, with my consent, to other parties;
      2. to determine the member’s financial situation;
      3. to determine the member’s suitability for initial and/or continued membership in Creative Arts Financial;
      4. to provide the member with the services the member’s requested from Creative Arts Financial, and
      5. to give it to anyone who works with or for Creative Arts Financial, but only as needed for providing the services the member requests from Creative Arts Financial.
   3. Creative Arts Financial may also use this Personal Information for the following purposes:
      1. to promote Creative Arts Financial services to the member and to add it to the member lists prepared and used for this purpose;
      2. to measure and assess the level of the member’s patronage with Creative Arts Financial and the member’s relative contribution to its financial performance;
      3. to share it with Creative Arts Financial’s Networking Affiliates (where this is not prohibited by law) so that Creative Arts Financial may promote their services to the member; and
      4. to transfer it to another financial institution that has proposed to purchase the member’s loan(s) and/or mortgage(s) fromCreative Arts Financial, for thepurpose of allowing that financial institution to evaluate the proposal, and to the purchaser if the sale is concluded, for all of the purposes of a financial institution in administering the said loan(s) and/or mortgage(s).
2. The member may tell Creative Arts Financial to stop using the member’s Personal Information in the ways described in subsection1(c) at any time by contacting the member’s branch or FirstOntario Credit Union’s Privacy Officer.
   
   Privacy Officer
   FirstOntario Credit Union Limited
   970 South Service Rd Suite 301
   Stoney Creek, ON L8E 6A2
   905-388-7991
   Privacy.Officer@FirstOntario.com
   
   Creative Arts Financial acknowledges that the use of Personal Information in the ways described in subsection 1(c) is at the member’s option and that the member will not be refused credit or other services just because the member has told Creative Arts Financial to stop using it in those ways.
   
   In this Agreement/Application, Creative Arts Financial’s "Networking Affiliates" include any company or business with which Creative Arts Financial has a business relationship and which is engaged in the business of providing any one or more of the following services to the public in Canada: deposits, loans, and other financial services; credit, charge and payment card services; trust and custodial services; securities and brokerage services; insurance services.
3. If the member ceases to be a member of Creative Arts Financial or any Account Agreement the member may have with Creative Arts Financial terminate, Creative Arts Financial may keep the Personal Information in its records so long as it is needed for the purposes described in subsection 1(b) above.
4. The member consents to Creative Arts Financial obtaining, and accept this document as prior written notice to the member of Creative Arts Financial’s intention to obtain, an initial credit report or other Personal Information about the member for the purposes outlined above, and subsequent credit reports and other Personal Information obtained earlier, to monitor the member’s compliance with on-going conditions for credit granted to the member, and for collection purposes.
5. The member understands that if the member submits a credit application to Creative Arts Financial, a Personal Information file containing credit and other personal information will be created to evaluate the member’s credit application and to continue monitoring the member’s credit status, and for the purposes the member’s has consented to on the previous page, will have access to the member’s file. If the member wishes to consult the member’s file or make corrections to it, the member may do so by written request to the Privacy Officer at the address listed in subsection 2 above.
6. The member consents to and authorizes Creative Arts Financial, its Networking Affiliates, service providers and others it may designate, to monitor and/or record the member’s telephone conversations with any representatives, but only for the purpose of helping to ensure quality service to members of Creative Arts Financial.
7. The member consents that personal information may be transferred to service providers located in other countries, and that in such case my personal information may be accessible by law enforcement and national security agents in those countries.