Last modified: June 26, 2024

Introduction

Hippoc (as defined herein) respects privacy and is committed to protecting the personal information of all visitors of its website and users of its products and services. 

This Privacy Policy is incorporated by reference, is part of and subject our Terms and Conditions. This Privacy Policy is provided in a layered format so you can click through to the specific areas set out below.

  1. Important Information and Who We Are
  2. The Personal Information We Collect About You
  3. Collection: How We Collect Your Personal Information
  4. Use: How We Use Your Personal Information
  5. Protection and Retention of Personal Information
  6. International Transfers
  7. Retention
  8. Your Rights; Deletion
  1. Important Information and Who We Are

Purpose of this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy will inform you as to how we collect, use and shares personal information of individuals when they visit our website (regardless of where they visit it from) or when you use our services.

In this Privacy Policy, “personal information” means any information that can identify or is capable of being associated with a particular identifiable individual.

Hippoc does not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from children under the age of 18, nor allow them to use or request information through the website without the consent of their parent or guardian. If you believe we have collected information from your child in error or have questions or concerns about our practices relating to children, please notify us and we will promptly respond.

Accountability

Hippoc Inc. (“Hippoc”, “we”, “us” or “our” in this Privacy Policy) is accountable for personal information that is under its control.

We have appointed a person in charge of the protection of personal information (“Privacy Manager”) who is overseeing compliance, questions, requests and complaints in relation to this Privacy Policy as well as ensuring that the data protection laws applicable to Hippoc are implemented and complied with.

Privacy Manager

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, including any requests to exercise your legal rights (including a request for the deletion of any of your personal information we may collect and process), please contact our Privacy Manager in one of the following ways:

Full name of legal entity: HIPPOC INC.

Title: Privacy Manager

Email address: contact@hippoc.ai

Postal address: 2485, chemin du Sault, Lévis (Québec) G6W 2J1, Canada

Examination of a Disagreement

You have the right to make an application at any time to the Commission d’accès à l’information (“CAI”), the regulator for personal information protection issues in the Canadian province of Québec, for the examination of a disagreement relating to the application of a legislative provision concerning access to or the rectification of personal information. We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the CAI, so please contact us in the first instance.

Updates to the Privacy Policy

We keep our Privacy Policy under regular review. This version was last updated on the date mentioned above in the introductory paragraph.

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes during your relationship with us. If we change the way we handle your personal information, we will update this Privacy Policy and notify you or seek your consent as and when appropriate.

Third-party links

We also use third-party analytics services to help us to better understand and improve the functionality of our website on your computer or other device. Analytics may record data such as the frequency of use of our Website, which features are used and not used, aggregated usage and performance data. This data is generally unidentifiable and cannot connect to you.

This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. When clicking on those links, these third-parties may collect your personal information. If any part of the website links to other websites, this Privacy Policy does not apply, and you are solely responsible for understanding the privacy policies related to such other websites.  Please refer to the third-party’s privacy notice for information on the type of personal information it collects, and how it uses or discloses it and for information on its privacy practices. Any links to third party sites are for informational purposes only, and Hippoc does not endorse and is not responsible for any linked website.

  1. The Personal Information We Collect About You

In the provision of our services, we collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal information about you which we have grouped together as follows:

  • Identity information, including first name, last name, username or similar identifier, title.
  • Contact information, including billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone numbers.
  • Financial information, including bank account and payment card details.
  • Transaction information, including details about payments to and from you and other details of products and services you have purchased from us.
  • Technical information, including internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access this site.
  • Profile information, including your username and password, purchases or orders made by you, your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses.  
  • Usage information, including information about how you use our site, products and services, including information related to your use of third party platforms as described in Section 3 below .
  • Marketing and communications information, including your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.

We do not collect any special categories of personal information about you (this includes details about your ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health, and genetic and biometric data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences. 

If you fail to provide personal information

Where we need to collect personal information by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you, and you fail to provide that personal information when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with goods or services). In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

  1. Collection: How We Collect Your Personal Information

We use different methods to collect personal information from and about you, including through:

  • Direct interactions. You may provide us with personal information by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal information you provide when you:some text
    • apply for our products or services;
    • create an account on our site;
    • subscribe to our service or publications;
    • request marketing to be sent to you; or
    • give us feedback or contact us.
  • Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our site, we will automatically collect Technical Information about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal information by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies. We may also receive Technical Information about you if you visit other websites employing our cookies.
  • Third parties or publicly available sources. We will receive personal information, as well as general data (i.e. historical campaign data) about you from various third parties and public sources as set out below :some text
    • Technical Information from the following parties:
  1. analytics providers based outside Québec: Google, Hotjar, Segment, Zoho
  2. advertising networks based inside or outside Québec: Meta, Linkedin, X.com, Google Ads
  • Contact, Financial and Transaction Information from providers of technical, payment and delivery services based inside or outside Québec: Stripe
  • Identity and Contact Information from publicly available sources.
  1. Use: How We Use Your Personal Information

Hippoc may collect, use and disclose personal information for purposes of:

  • improving the usability, performance and effectiveness of the the website and our services;
  • establishing your identity and protecting you and Hippoc from error and fraud;
  • managing customer accounts and billings;
  • troubleshooting and resolving problems;
  • understanding and measuring your needs and eligibility for products and services for improvement of marketing and services;
  • sending marketing communications, informing you about offers, products, services, events and updates;
  • monitoring your use of our services and enforcing our Terms and Conditions;
  • detecting, preventing or investigating security breaches or fraud
  • complying with legal and regulatory requirements, including audits; and
  • as otherwise may be described to you at the time of collection;

Hippoc may collect, process, store, analyze and use aggregate data for purposes of:

  • monitoring and analyzing use of services generally, and for the improvement, enhancement and  technical administration of the Services;
  • increasing functionality and user-friendliness of the website to provide a more relevant and useful website experience, and better tailoring the services to needs of customers; and
  • performing statistical analyses and generating useful data and information concerning the interests, characteristics and use behaviour and characteristics, in order to measure interest in and use of various sections of the website and areas of services.

Disclosure and Sharing of Personal Information

We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Hippoc will not disclose your personal information to third parties without prior consent, except: i) in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy, or ii) to comply with legal requirements such as a law, regulation, warrant, subpoena or court order, and/or iii) if you are reporting an adverse event/side effect, in which case Hippoc may be required to disclose such information to bodies such as, but not limited to, Canadian and/or international regulatory authorities.

Hippoc may share personal information:

  • within Hippoc and its affiliates, third party service providers and business partners to provide and support services. Service providers include those:some text
    • that help us operate our website;
    • that offer services such as payment processing and fraud prevention providers;
    • that assist us with data processing, document management or storage;
    • that assist us with marketing campaigns, data analytics and digital and other marketing; and
    • that help us with hosting events.
  • to competent government, law enforcement or other authorities (i) if required as a matter of applicable law or regulation, or as a result of legislative, judicial or administrative requirements or changes; or (ii) if Hippoc determines in good faith that disclosure is necessary to exercise or defend its legal rights or those of its users or customers;
  • to a potential buyer (and its agents and advisers) in connection with any proposed purchase, merger, restructuring, consolidation, change in control, liquidation, reorganization, transfer or acquisition of any part of Hippoc’s business, provided that the buyer agrees to use such personal information only for purposes outlined in this Privacy Notice.

Where we share your personal information with third-parties, these parties are under legal and contractual obligations to comply with applicable privacy and data protection legislation, to protect your personal information, to only use the personal information for the purposes in which it was transferred.

Cookies

Like many other websites, we use technologies to automatically collect technical data from visitors to our website. In particular, we may send a small text file to your computer called a “cookie” that identifies your browser to our server when you visit various pages of the website. Cookies are used to better serve you when you return to our website, and in some cases, these allow our website to function. Many web browsers automatically accept cookies, but as part of the privacy settings of your browser, you can usually choose to decline to accept certain cookies as well as prevent third-party websites from accessing our Cookies. Any cookie sent to your computer by us in connection with your use of the website does not give us access to your computer or to any personal information. Please be aware that disabling your browser’s ability to collect cookies from us may limit your ability to use all of the features provided on the website.

  1. Protection and Retention of Personal Information

While Hippoc cannot guarantee absolute security of all personal information, it has implemented various physical, technical and administrative security procedures to protect your personal information and prevent unauthorized access. Access to personal information is restricted to select authorized employees and representatives of Hippoc on a need-to-know basis, and who are trained to handle personal information, and third party suppliers who are contractually bound to protect personal information and use only for purposes related to the website or services, according to applicable legislation.

We take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information in our custody is accurate and up-to-date for the purposes for which the information was collected. While we rely on you to provide us with accurate personal information, we will make every reasonable effort to keep your personal information accurate and up to date, for the purposes for which the information was collected.

  1. Cross-Border Transfers

Many of our service providers are based outside Québec so their processing of your personal information will involve a communication or transfer of personal information outside Québec.

Whenever we transfer your personal information outside Québec, we first take all reasonable steps so that the information will not be used for purposes not relevant nor communicated to third persons without the consent of the persons concerned, (except in cases similar to those allowed by applicable laws) and the degree of protection afforded to it is equivalent to that which we are required to provide, by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:

  • We will communicate or transfer your personal information only to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal information; or
  • We may entrust in writing and use specific mandates or contracts of enterprise or for services pursuant to which the third parties provide a level of protection of the personal information equivalent to that which the organization is required to provide in Québec, and specifying the measures third party must take to protect the confidentiality of the personal information communicated or transferred, to ensure that the personal information is used only for carrying out the mandate or performing the contract and to ensure that the third party does not keep the personal information after the expiry of the mandate or contract.

Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal information outside Québec.

7. Retention

We will only retain your personal information for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal information for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal information, the purposes for which we process your personal information and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements.

In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your personal information. In some circumstances and at our discretion, we will anonymize your personal information (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes, in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you. 

8.Your Rights; Deletion

You may at any time contact Hippoc for further information regarding this Privacy Policy and our practices regarding the handling of personal information, or request that we delete any of your personal information that we process and collect as described hereunder.

You also have the opportunity to request information on the types of personal information we hold about you, what it is being used for, and with whom it has been shared. You may also request access to your personal information currently held by Hippoc. We will provide you with access to your personal information, subject to certain exceptions such as: any personal information about another individual that cannot be separated from yours , any information subject to solicitor-client privilege, commercially confidential information, information that may threaten life or security of an individual, or information collected for purposes related to an investigation of a breach of an agreement or contravention of law.

If you notice any inaccuracies or wish to update or complete any part of your personal information, you may request the correction or update of that information. When appropriate, the amended information will be transmitted to any third-parties having access to the personal information in question.

The way in which we will give you access to your personal information may vary, depending on the format in which we hold it and the amount of information. We may provide your information in physical or electronic format. In the case of an exceptionally large file, we may provide you a summary of the information.

At any time, you may withdraw your consent to the collection, use, of your personal information, or ask us to delete any personal information about you that we have collected and retain, subject to contractual or legal restrictions. You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you commercial electronic messages at any time by logging into the site and checking or unchecking relevant boxes to adjust your marketing preferences or by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you or by contacting us at any time.

Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal information provided to us as a result of service order, warranty registration, service experience or other transactions.

Hippoc does not sell personal information, and does not discriminate against anyone who chooses to opt-out of data collection. 

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact our Privacy Manager at the information provided above in Section 1. We may require you to verify your identity and provide such other details before responding to such requests, as may be required by law. In the event that Hippoc is unable to provide certain personal information (for example where the information contains references to other’s personal information which is not easily severable, or which cannot be disclosed for legal, security or other commercial proprietary reasons), Hippoc will provide a justification.

We try to respond to all legitimate requests not later than 30 days after the day on which the request was received. Occasionally, it could take us longer than that if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

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