Privacy Policy

Your Privacy is Important to us

Homewise Solutions Inc.(“Homewise”) sets the goal of helping our users (also referred to as "users", "customer" and "you)find the mortgage that best meets their unique needs as well as home loanand/or other related services/productsfor their unique needs.

Protection of your privacy is very important to you and it is just as important to us. That is why we have taken many steps and precautions to ensure that that any personal information that you provide to Homewise is protected by many business procedures, technology safeguards and other security measures to ensure that your information is kept save, confidential and is only used for the purposes that are outlined in this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy is intended to establish transparent practices and responsibilities for the management of personal information as well as to satisfy the various requirements of rules that are established by the PIPEDA (Personal Protection and Electronic Documents Act).

Homewise Disclaimer

We are a licensed mortgage brokerage under the name Homewise Solutions Inc. in Ontario, Canada. All rates and features shown are based on the presumption of approved credit. FSCO Number 12984.

We Ensure that we Limit Access to our Clients' Personal Information

When a usersubmits a mortgage application to Homewise, the userwill be required to provide use with your personal information. When this information is submitted, it is the user's responsibility to provide information that is fully accurate. If the information provided is not accurate, the user risks that the mortgage will not be approved or submitted as well as the users credit history. In accordance with this Privacy Policy, when we refer to personal information, that means "any information about an identifiable individual". The type of information that this includes, for example is: your contact information, name, identity, credit, banking information, billing records as well as other key information and documents associated with a mortgage file. This may also include more technical data that is pulled in through your interaction with the website. Personal information that is pulled and cannot be associated with an identifiable individual/user is not considered to be personal information.

Data/Analytics Information and Collection

Most of the information that we collect will come directly from you and with your consent.When collecting this information, we usually collect your name, address, phone number, email address, employment information, date of birth, annual income, personal net worth, liabilities, assets, credit history, banking information, co-signer or co-applicant information, as well as any account and payment information. We will also collect other information such as your Social Insurance Number, identification (driver's license or passport number), when it is required and or authorized by law. An example of this would be to fulfill regulatory and other governmental obligations.

Information about you may also be obtained from third parties. But this will only come with your consent. An example of this would be pulling your credit history to ensure your creditworthiness. This comes through an independent credit reporting agency or another source. Homewise will use this information to determine which mortgage product is most suitable for our users. This third party collection of data may also come from someone such as your spouse, if you are applying for a product or service with them.

Homewise usually collects this personal information about our users/customers and other individuals with which Homewise deals with for these purposes:

• For quality assurance as well as any internal training. This would also be to meet legal requirements with the services that Homewise provides.
• to authenticate or to confirm a user/customers' identity as well as credit, so that we can determine their eligibility for Homewise's suite of products and services.
• in the processing of a user/customers' application or requests for Homewise's corresponding products and services or offerings.
• to manage all business and monitor and preserve all business relationships with the users/customers that Homewise deals with.
• To generate, develop and administrate all customer's mortgage financing, profiles or accounts as well as to respond to any supplier or customer inquiries.
• to improve the products and services that are provided by Homewise by assessing the wants and changing interests of our users/customers

Homewise will not collet or use personal information of our users/customers for any other purpose, unless it is required or authorized by law, without obtaining further consent.

There is also data that will be collected at times using third-party data and analytics tools. These will be used to get a better understanding of our site visitors. This is done to measure key performance indicators such as traffic, behaviour and site use. All of this information is gathered anonymously.

How is this Information Used?

Homewise collects consent from users/customers through the online application as well as consent forms, where applicable. Consent may also be obtained through written documentation or electronic communication (such as email, messenger or text).

When a user requests Homewise products and services and/or when they are submitting their information in connection with using Homewise, in general, the user is providing their consent to the use, collection and disclosure of their personal information as laid out in all contractual documents as well as this privacy policy. Further, when a user visits and interacts/uses the Homewise website or application, they are agreeing to benefit from and be bound by the term and conditions of this Privacy Policy.

There will be some exceptionalcircumstances where personal information might be collected, disclosed or used without consent. This may include:

• when information is collected to detect and prevent fraud, illegal activities,breach of an agreement. The collection of consent corresponding to this might defeat the purpose of collecting such information.
• to collect any debts; and
• in compliance with a warrant, subpoena as well as any other court order, or as may be required or authorized by any regulatory bodies that have jurisdiction as well as any laws.

Submitting an application for a mortgage with Homewise means that you are authorizing Homewise to share this information with financial service providers, such as banks, lenders and credit unions as well as any partners such as a partner Mortgage Brokerage or Insurance Brokerage. We give access and authorize these service providers to use your non-public personal information only as permitted by law or to act on our behalf.

Sharing of Personal Information

The information that you provide may be made available by Homewise to Authorized Agents, partners or service providers in order to fulfil the purposes of which it is collected or as it is laid out in this Privacy Policy. Homewise will not rent, sell or trade your personal information with any third party without your consent. However, there will be times we may share your personal information when it is required by laws or because of the following:

• As permitted or required by law.
• Financial institutions and Credit.This information would be shared with them in connection with the management and administration of products and services that have been requested by the user. It may also be used to convey your credit file to a credit assessment and reporting agency, insurers or other lenders that may be applicable.
• Service Providers and Authorized Agents.In some cases we work with partners to provide all of our products and services. For example there are times when we work with real estate appraisers, financial institutions, insurance agents and brokers and other affiliated companies as well as third parties to provide you with all of the services that you would like. All of these parties are prohibited from using your information for any purposes other than to facilitate and carry out the services that they have been engaged to provide to you. The agents, third parties and service providers are not permitted to disclose this information with others.
• Business transaction. It is possible that we may disclosure personal information with a third party that is in connection with a sale or transfer of business assets. This would take place in a reorganization, amalgamation or financing of parts of the Homewise business. In the event that a transaction is completed, your personal information will always remain protected in accordance with all of the applicable privacy laws. In the event where the transaction does not end up being completed, we will require that the other party does not use or disclose your information in any way and to delete all of the information.
• Othersharing (such as power of attorney). Information may also be disclosed to an individual who, in the reasonable judgement of Homewise is acting on the behalf of the user/individual that is in question.
• We share your personal data with third parties who process your data on our behalf when they provide services to us, for example data analytics, ad networks, research, marketing and financial services.
• We may share your personal data with third parties who are our partners who use it for their own purposes if you have provided consent.

Business Analytics

Aggregated customer and/or website users' information may be shared with our partners, financial institutions, investment partners, and insurance partners that may be used to provide/offer you with a product or service. This information is anonymous and does not allow the identification of individual customers or users. It is used, rather, to provide our partners with a general profile of our customers.

Website Privacy

When Homewise collects and uses the personal information from our about its users it is generally used as follows:

• The information that you provide as a user or when you complete your online profile
  • This includes, your contact information. This may be collected when you signup, make an inquiry or contact us through our website. We will only use this information to contact you or to answer any questions that you may have requested.
  • For electronic communications or our email newsletter. Your name and email address will be used to send communications. Users will always be able to easily unsubscribe.
  • Application Forms. This is all information provided by the user when the online profile is completed or when a user requests to sendit to Homewise for a product or service. We will only use this information to process or to manage your request or to manage everyday tasks in conjunction with your request. We will ask you to provide a series of personal information along with this as part of your online profile, such as your address, phone number and name. We do not requires your Social Insurance Number to accept your application, a user may choose to include the information to speed up or expedite the servicing and management of your application.
  • Survey. If the user voluntarily fills out an online survey or rating tool within the Homewise website.
  • Technical information. When a user visits our website, we may use electronic means such as cookies, to collect technical information, which could include the user’s computer IP address, location, language and other information that is pulled in through cookies to improve the site performance. Further, online tools are used to better service or locate our users such as Google Analytics, Google Adwords and other third party advertising tools. The information gathered will be in compliance with privacy laws.http://youradchoices.ca/ is a site that users can visit for more information.

Quality and Access Rights

Homewise sets the goal of ensuring that all customers' personal information is complete and accurate as well as up to date as it is necessary for the purposes that it is being used. Homewise provide its customers with access to their personal information and customers can update or change this information if anything is inaccurate. If the features on the website do not provide for all of the customer’s needs, the customer can also contact Homewise through the information provided in the contact section of this Privacy Policy. For information that is protected by any legal privilege, or if granting access would reveal confidential information, or if the information that was collected was for the purposes of detecting and preventing fraud, or if the information was generated in the formal dispute resolution process, if the information would reveal personal and private information about another individual, if the request is frivolous for any other reason, or as it is authorized by applicable laws, Homewise has the right to refuse access to personal information.

Personal Information Storage Outside of Canada

It is possible that in some cases personal information that we manage may be transferred, processed and stored outside of Canada. This would be for very specific purposes, but it means that it may be available to government authorities under lawful orders and laws applicable in the respected country.

Security of Personal Information

Your security is very important to us. We have implemented a series of online and offline security measures to ensure that your information is secure. These measures include administrative, technical and physical controls that are designed to protect and safeguard your personal information. It is important to note that no, however, that no transmission over the internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. That is why we implement bank-level security as well as secure socket layer technology to keep your information safe.

Opt-Outs and information

Cookie Opt-Outs:If you do not wish to be tracked via cookies, you may disable the usage of cookies through your browser settings.
Email Opt-Outs:Our site provides users the opportunity to opt-out of receiving email or other forms of communications from BuzzBuzzHome. To opt-out of receiving emails, click on the notifications tab while editing your user profile to change your settings.
Cookies and Similar Technologies: Homewise and Third Party Partners use cookies and other similar technologies, such as pixels. These cookies are used for targeted advertising on and off the Homewise site, to deliver specific content for your interests, to save your password so you don’t have to re-enter it each time you visit our site, to estimate our audience size through demographic information, to monitor and analyze the performance, operation and effectiveness of our site.Third Party Services:If you link, connect or login to Homewise through a third party service (e.g. Facebook), the third party service may send us information such as your profile information. This information may vary and is controlled by that service.

Retention of Information

Personal information that is collected will be retained for a time period that is only as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected and for which consent was received by the user or if it were to satisfy any legal requirements.

Removing Your Personal Information

At any time, by request to us through our "How to Contact Us" contact information, you can request that we remove all of your personal information that you have submitted to Homewise. This will be removed from our databased and files. The request that you send to our contact information should have detailed instructions. It is important to note that the removal of these files and database information only applies to Homewise, it does not apply to the systems and files of the financial institutions or partners that received your information during the application process.

How to Contact Us

Homewise is here for you. If you have questions, concerns or any complaints with regards to this Privacy Policy or if you would like to discuss the personal information that Homewise has about you, or if you would like to withdraw consent (when it is applicable) please contact us at:

Attn: Compliance
Homewise Solutions Inc.
383 Spadina Rd., Unit B,
Toronto, ON,
M5P 2W1
Canada
By phone: 1 (866) 846-9473
By e-mail: hello@thinkhomewise.com

Change to the Privacy Policy

To keep up with current rules and regulations, standards, customer concerns, new technologies and any other factor that may cause an update, Homewise will review and update its policies and procedures. This means that that at times our Privacy Policy may change. Any changes to the Privacy Policy will be posted to our website. If any changes are material, we will ensure that a more prominent notice is sent. This Privacy Policy was last updated on February 2018.

Cookies

Like many other websites, Homewise uses cookies to store your session information.