Last updated: September 1, 2023.

Farber (“Farber”, “we”, or “us”) includes entities operating as Farber Debt Solutions, A. Farber & Partners Inc., A. Farber & Partners Ltd, and Farber Tax Solutions Inc..

The trust of all those with whom we do business is Farber’s most valuable asset. Farber safeguards that trust by collecting, using, and keeping non-public personal information about those with whom it does business, be they clients, debtors, creditors, suppliers, or strategic partners, in a secure environment and in accordance with this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, use, disclose, and protect your personal information when providing services to our clients, performing any other activities that form part of the operation of our business, and via or in association with our website located at www.afarber.com and/or our services (collectively, the “Website”).

Why do we collect personal information?

We may ask for your personal information to establish and serve you as our client or on behalf of our client(s) or others whose interests we may represent. The types of personal information we collect depend on the nature of our engagement and relationship with you. Generally, we collect personal information to provide our services to clients, to administer client accounts, to establish and manage client relationships and other commercial relationships, to determine a client’s right to participate in an engagement that we have undertaken, to fulfill certain statutory obligations, and to assist clients in fulfilling their own statutory obligations. We will only collect the information we need for the purposes of which we have advised you.

What personal information do we collect?

We may obtain information about you from many sources, including the following:

Information we receive from you, or which is provided to us on your behalf, such as, but not limited to, Proofs of Claim, job applications, payment and billing information and related documents, your name, address, social insurance number, driver’s license and number, email address, date of birth, telephone number, employer name, job title, marital status, number and type of dependents, family member names, assets and documentary support of same, liabilities including statements and account numbers, historical transactional information, expenses, bank statements, tax assessments, tax returns, and proof of income and related documents.
Information from third parties about your transactions with them or others, such as your name, address, telephone number, age, credit card usage, insurance coverage, transaction history, account number(s), claims history, level of indebtedness, and asset ownership and usage. Where we are provided with personal information about you, we take steps to ensure that the entity providing such information has complied with privacy laws and regulations relevant to your data.
Information from consumer reporting agencies, public records, and data collection agencies, such as your obligations with others and your creditworthiness.
Information from credit counselors or other advisors including name, address, telephone number, age, marital status, credit usage, employment history, addictions, social history, and other information relating to your solvency, or the solvency of others.
Information gathered from visitors to Farber’s website, such as your user preferences and website analytics information (for more information about cookies and how we use them, see our Cookie Notice).

We do not collect personal information about children

We understand the importance of protecting the privacy of children. This Website is not designed or intended for use by children under 16 years old, nor do we knowingly collect or store personal information about children under 16 years old. If you believe that we have collected personal information about a child under 16 years old, please contact our Privacy Officer at the coordinates below so that we may delete the information.

How do we collect your personal information?

We collect your personal information only by lawful and fair means and only with your consent or as required or permitted by law. Whenever possible and appropriate, we collect your personal information from you directly or from persons whom you have requested to provide us with information. Sometimes we may collect information about you from other sources such as financial institutions, insurance companies, consumer reporting agencies, credit counselors, other parties involved in your transaction or file, government agencies or registries, employers (if we are acting for you at your employer’s request), and accountants or other professional advisors.

How do we use your personal information?

Compliance with this Privacy Policy

Unless otherwise specified in another agreement with you, we use the personal information we collect from or about you only in compliance with this Privacy Policy.

We do not sell personal information

Unless expressly authorized by you or in conjunction with a transfer of ownership of all or part of our business, we will never sell your personal information to any third party.

Use of personal information

In addition to uses identified elsewhere in this Privacy Policy, we may use your personal information for the following purposes:

to provide you our services, including pursuant to an engagement with you or on your behalf
to assess client eligibility for credit
to manage our business, including fulfilling contractual obligations and auditing our operations
to administer client accounts
to detect and prevent negligence, fraud, and theft
to evaluate client satisfaction
to provide you with information about our services
to provide you with newsletters and email alerts
to fulfill our statutory or legislative obligations
in connection with services we receive from our professional advisers, such as lawyers and accountants

Should we wish to use your personal information for any purposes other than as described in this Privacy Policy, we will tell you how we intend to use it and we will use it only for those purposes.

The following are some of the purposes for which we may also use your personal information:

Online services

Our websites are for general information use and we do not collect any personal information from website visitors other than cookies, the use of which is outlined in our Cookie Notice. There are circumstances where you may choose to register for our events or subscribe to our services. In these cases, Farber may contact you in the context of your registration or subscription.

How do we protect your personal information?

Farber employs industry-accepted physical, technological, and organizational safeguards to protect your personal information. We have policies and procedures in place to protect your personal information from loss, unauthorized access, modification, or disclosure. We operate out of secure premises and have implemented technological safeguards, including security software, passwords (including multi-factor authentication), encryption in laptops, databases and servers, and firewalls to prevent unauthorized computer access. Access to your personal information is restricted to employees of our member companies and our agents whom we determine have a legitimate business interest in accessing such information for the purposes of carrying out our engagements or providing authorized services to you. These employees are also subject to confidentiality terms, and we provide training and communications programs designed to educate employees about the importance and need to observe the safeguarding and confidentiality of your personal information.

All of our suppliers and agents, as part of their agreements with us, are bound to maintain your confidentiality and may not use your personal information for any unauthorized purpose.
When your personal information is no longer needed for the purposes explained to you, we will destroy or erase it, or convert it to an anonymous form.

Please note that no method of transmitting or storing information is completely secure. While we take appropriate measures to protect your personal information, there is always a risk that it may be lost, intercepted, or misused. We may exchange electronic versions of documents and e-mails with you using commercially available software that is vulnerable to attack by viruses and other destructive electronic programs. We cannot guarantee that all communications and documents sent via e-mail will always be received, or that such communications and documents will always be virus-free. We make no warranty with respect to the integrity of any electronic communications between us and you or with respect to the security of any such communication and you consent to our exchange of electronic communications, including confidential documents, unencrypted.

Disclosures of your personal information

We may release your information to third parties in the following instances:

With your consent. You may consent to Farber sharing your information with a third party, including other member companies of Farber. The information may be in the form of non-personal, de-identified or aggregated information for purposes such as data analytics or research.
For servicing purposes to our suppliers and agents. We disclose limited information, on an as-needed basis, to our suppliers and agents who provide goods and services to you or to us so that we may carry out our engagement with you. For instance, where we need to process a payment from you for services to which you have subscribed, we may disclose your personal information to a third-party payment processor.
When required or permitted by law. We may disclose personal information when necessary to comply with court orders and regulatory rules. We may disclose personal information to help us collect a debt owed to us by you. We are also obligated to complete certain statutorily mandated forms in the course of carrying out engagements where we are the “Trustee in Bankruptcy” or the “Trustee” or “Administrator” under a proposal, which may require the disclosure of personal information.
For administrative purposes. We may disclose your personal information to satisfy our administrative and insurance requirements.
Business transactions. We may transfer your personal information in connection with the merger, reorganization, sale, or transfer of all or part of our business. We may disclose your personal information before and after the transaction. However, if the transaction is completed, we will require the third-party acquirer to provide a comparable level of protection for your personal information. If the transaction is not completed, we will require the third party to destroy securely, or to return to us, any records containing your personal information.

Information transferred to service providers

When we transfer your personal information to a third party to provide administrative and other services, we use appropriate measures to ensure that the third party will only use your personal information to perform the services we have specified. The global nature of our business sometimes requires us to use administrative service providers who may be located in the United States or elsewhere outside of Canada. Accordingly, your personal information may be transferred outside of Canada and if so, will be subject to the legal requirements of the applicable foreign jurisdictions, including local requirements to disclose information to courts, law enforcement, and national security authorities. We will ensure that there are adequate safeguards in place to protect your personal information that comply with our legal obligations. If you wish to obtain more information about our policies and procedures relating to our transferring and processing information outside of Canada, please contact our Privacy Officer at the coordinates below.

Your right to access your personal information

You may ask for access to any personal information that we hold about you. You also may ask how we collected the information, how we are using it, and to whom we have disclosed it. Your request for access must be in writing and should be addressed to our Privacy Officer at the coordinates below. We will acknowledge your request in writing. We may request that you provide us with information to allow us to confirm your identity before providing you with the information that you have requested. Access will generally be provided free of charge; however, if you request that information be copied or transmitted, we may charge a reasonable fee. We will notify you of the amount of the charge in advance and provide you with an opportunity to withdraw your request. We will provide you with access to your personal information within 30 days of our receipt of your request or provide written notice that additional time will be required to comply with your request, in accordance with applicable laws.

In certain circumstances, we may be unable to provide access to some or all of the information that we hold about you, including instances where those records contain the personal information of other persons, contain confidential information proprietary to Farber or its partners, or cannot be disclosed for other legal reasons. If we are unable or not permitted by law to provide you with access, we will provide you with an explanation and indicate further options available to you.

Where we are provided with personal information about you from a third party, we encourage you to contact that third party directly if you have questions about how they manage your personal information.

Keeping your information accurate

We will make every reasonable effort to keep your personal information accurate and up to date. You can help by keeping us informed of any changes to your personal information, such as a change in email, mailing addresses, or telephone number(s). If you find any errors in our information about you, please tell us and we will correct the information. We will also convey the corrected information to other relevant parties, as needed. For information that remains in dispute, we will note the dispute in your file.

Commercial electronic mailing lists

Farber makes every effort to remain compliant with anti-spam legislation, including Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL). We will only send commercial electronic messages (“CEMs”) to you with your consent. Should you no longer wish to receive CEMs from Farber, please follow the unsubscribe instructions included toward the bottom of a CEM or email us at privacy@afarber.com with “Unsubscribe” in the subject line and your email address in the body. Please note that we may still send you certain essential CEMs relating to a current Farber engagement or that we are legally required to send to you.

Withdrawing your consent

You may refuse or withdraw consent for us to collect, use, process, or disclose your information at any time and we will record and respect your choice. Certain consequences may flow from such refusal or withdrawal, and we will advise you of those, if applicable, at that time. Such a decision must be communicated by you, in writing, to our Chief Privacy Officer at the coordinates below.

General

Changes to this Privacy Policy

Farber reserves the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time and will take reasonable steps to advise affected individuals of any material changes to this Privacy Policy. However, as privacy laws are rapidly evolving, we encourage you to review this Privacy Policy regularly. Our processing of your personal information will be governed by the version of this Privacy Policy in effect at the time. The amended Privacy Policy will apply from the revision date at the top of this page.

Addressing your concerns

If you have questions or concerns or wish to obtain further information about our personal information policies and procedures, or if you wish to access your personal information or change any consent regarding our use or disclosure of your personal information, please contact us in writing at the address set out below. For “access to information” requests, any such access provided will be free of charge, unless otherwise stated beforehand, and we will respond to your request as promptly as possible. We treat all privacy concerns seriously and will investigate any reasonable concern and seek to resolve it within a reasonable amount of time.

If you are unhappy with the way we have processed your personal information or any privacy issue you have raised with us, you have a right to complain to the data protection authority in your jurisdiction.

A. Farber & Partners Inc.
1220 Sheppard Ave. East Ste 300
Toronto, ON, Canada M2K 2S5

Email: privacy@afarber.com
Fax: 416.496.9651
Attention: Privacy Officer