The Canadian federal government’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Document Act (PIPEDA), a privacy law, became applicable to DHL Express (Canada) Ltd.’s (“DHL Canada”, “us”, “we” or “our”) Canadian operations on January 1, 2001. The provinces of Québec, British Columbia and Alberta have enacted or intend to soon enact a private sector privacy law. These acts regulate the collection, use and disclosure of personal information.
DHL Canada respects that you care how information about you is used and shared. Our commitment to safeguarding your right to privacy is one of the many reasons we are a trusted provider of courier and logistics solutions. This privacy policy discloses how DHL Canada collects, uses, shares and protects personally identifiable information (“PII”) about you, in conformance with applicable Canadian privacy laws. This policy includes information on the protection and use of PII within our organization, its systems and the websites listed in this policy. The policy also explains what you may do in the event you want to find out more about what information we have about you.
PII is defined as any information concerning an identified or identifiable individual, but does not include the name, title or business address or telephone number of an employee of an organization or, where applicable, certain other business contact information. We value our customers, and strive to comply with all applicable laws in order to protect your privacy.
Collection of Personal Information
PII is only collected when the information is necessary for the reasonable and legitimate business purposes of DHL Canada. All personal information is collected in a fair and non-intrusive manner. DHL Canada collects personal information when you voluntarily provide it directly to DHL Canada or its agents, or when you are the recipient of a shipment delivered by DHL Canada or its agents.
The type of PII typically collected includes:
- Name
- Address
- Phone number
- e-mail address
- Credit card information
- Contents of the shipment
- Preferred pick-up time
- Your signature, which may be collected electronically
- Value of your shipment
- Your recipient’s/sender’s name and address
- If you have chosen our return cheque delivery service, we will also collect information about the payment to be collected.
- If you have chosen our dangerous goods delivery service, we will collect information about the contents of the shipment, shipper and receiver information, the proper shipping name, hazard class, UN Number and packing group.
Also, we will assign to you a customer reference number, which will be linked to the above information. For each delivery you make with us, the shipment will be assigned a waybill reference number. This will also be linked to your personal information.
In certain circumstances, consent may be sought after the information has been collected but before use (for example, when we want to use information for a purpose not previously identified). We do not require that you provide consent to any purposes beyond those required to fulfill the explicitly specified and legitimate purposes for which the information is being provided. You may withdraw consent at any time, subject to legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice. You may not withdraw consent to the use of your PII if we still require the use of the PII for legitimate purposes (such as billing and accounting information). If you wish to withdraw your consent at any time, please contact our Privacy Officer in the manner described below. We will advise you of the implications of withdrawing consent.
How We Collect Your PII
At the request of DHL Canada or on your own, you may complete a form (electronic or other formats) that includes personal information. Examples of these forms include a waybill, a registration form for an event, a feedback survey or a subscription to an electronic newsletter. Please note that electronic forms may not be encrypted. Some PII is collected automatically: DHL Canada may automatically collect certain personal information when you interact with our websites in a web browser. For example, log files record basic system information, and we may collect specific information using “cookies”. There are tools available that will allow you to visit web sites anonymously; however, we take care to use cookies only for specific functions and without them, you may not be able to receive all of our services or to request specific information or feedback from us.
How we collect PII will depend on how you use our services and how you communicate with us. We may collect PII directly from you by telephone, fax, e-mail, in person, upon your completion of a waybill or other agreement, or through your use of our web site and our tracking services. We may also collect information about you though one of our business associates as part of the delivery process.
What are cookies and how are they used?
Cookies are unique identifiers or tokens of agreement from a web server that are saved in a small text file on your computer when you access a DHL Canada web site through a browser. We can use this information to track visits to web pages (which ones, how many times) or to personalize web page content. Most major web sites use cookies and most browsers are set up to accept them. If you wish, you can reset your browser to refuse to accept cookies or to notify you when a cookie is being sent, see “Help” in your browser. You do not need cookies to visit our web sites. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some of the features on the websites such as our shipment trading or functions which require the user to login.
Further, when you visit the DHL Canada website, DHL Canada may electronically collect some personal information, such as your Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, type of Internet browser software, time of your visit to our site and duration of your visit to our site. If you request our tracking services on our DHL.ca website, then we log the particulars about the request you made.
However, DHL Canada does not link the foregoing information to any other information in a way that would enable the identification of visitors to the DHL.ca website. Logged information is analysed by DHL Canada in order to improve the website and to customize the website for users. In addition, from time to time, server logs may be reviewed for security purposes; for example, to detect unauthorized activity on the website. In such cases, logged data, containing IP addresses, would be shared with law enforcement bodies in order that they may identify users in connection with their investigation of the unauthorized activities.
For some requests from you or from direct or indirect communications from DHL Canada, we contact you through email. To ensure that we are providing appropriate service, we sometimes receive confirmation when you open an email.
Use of Customer Personal Information
Generally speaking, DHL Canada uses your PII for the following purposes:
- To provide you with the goods and services you have requested, or if you are the recipient of a delivery, that someone has requested you receive;
- To facilitate the provision of the goods and services to you;
- To administer your account with us;
- To respond to inquiries from you about your file;
- To report on the tracking requests we receive about your package;
- To conduct customer satisfaction surveys; and
To market our goods and/or services which we believe may be of interest to you.
If you have not opted out of receiving marketing materials, DHL Canada may use your personal information to promote and market additional goods, services and special offers from us.
You can choose not to allow DHL Canada to use your personal information for direct marketing purposes by indicating your preference at the time of collection, by responding to the promotional email in the manner provided for or by contacting our Privacy Officer in the manner described below.
Disclosure and Sharing of Personal Information
Except as described in this privacy policy, DHL Canada will not disclose your personal information to a third party, unless you request or otherwise consent to such disclosure or disclosure is required or authorized by law. For example, we must disclose information about your delivery, which may contain PII, to customs officials or other authorized investigators if requested
We may share personal information with third parties engaged to assist us in providing services to you or to carry out one or more of the purposes described in this privacy policy. These service providers are prohibited from using your personal information for any purpose other than to provide this assistance and are required to protect personal information disclosed by us and to comply with the general privacy principles describes in this Privacy Statement.
We also reserve the right to disclose and/or transfer personal information to a third party in the event of a proposed or actual purchase, sale, lease, merger, amalgamation or any other type of acquisition, disposal or financing of all or any portion of DHL Canada or of any of the business or assets or shares of DHL Canada or a division thereof in order for you to continue to receive the same products and services from the third party.
Protection and Storage of Personal Information
We take all of the necessary precautions to ensure your PII is safeguarded against loss, access, use, modification, disclosure, or other misuse, whether it is stored electronically or in paper format. In all cases, information is retained in secure facilities, protected from unauthorized access and kept only as long as is reasonably required. For example, our electronic files are backed up for redundancy, password protected and accessible only by authorized employees, on a need-to-know basis.
While DHL Canada endeavours to protect your personal information at all times, we cannot be held responsible for any individuals viewing PII contained on a waybill when your shipment is physically in public view. This may occur, for example, when your shipment is being transported by our employees to and from our vehicles, in elevators or other public places. Our electronic tracking service requires users to enter the correct waybill number for access, and identifying information is masked on this service to prevent downloading.
You may access some content via passwords and logins. To ensure that these areas and your personal information used in these areas remain secure, it is important that you protect yourself against other parties accessing your password and your computer. We encourage you to log off each time you complete a secure session and each time that you complete a session on a shared computer.
Retention of Personal Information
Personal information is retained only as long as necessary for the fulfillment of the above-specified purposes.
Accuracy of Personal Information
We take all reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is as accurate, up-to-date and complete as is necessary for the purposes for which it is to be used. PII used on an ongoing basis will be kept current. Additionally, if you notify us of incorrect or outdated information, we will update that information promptly.
Access of Information
You may contact our Privacy Officer in the manner described below in order to access, correct or update your personal information.
Accuracy of Personal Information
We take all reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is as accurate, up-to-date and complete as is necessary for the purposes for which it is to be used. PII used on an ongoing basis will be kept current. Additionally, if you notify us of incorrect or outdated information, we will update that information promptly.
Access of Information
You may contact our Privacy Officer in the manner described below in order to access, correct or update your personal information.
Contact Information
If you have any questions or complaints, or wish to opt out of direct marketing by telephone, please contact our Privacy Officer, who can be reached by telephone at: Country General Counsel, DHL Express (Canada), Ltd, 90 Matheson Blvd. West, Suite 111, Mississauga, Ontario, L5R 3R3, by telephone (905) 507-3130 or by facsimile (905) 507-3337; by email at: privacy.officer@dhl.com.
To opt out of direct marketing please contact DHL by mail at c/o Direct Marketing Opt-out, DHL Express (Canada), Ltd, 90 Matheson Blvd. West, Suite 111, Mississauga, Ontario, L5R 3R3. Or by email to: marketing.optout@dhl.com.
