PRIVACY POICLY MANUAL

 

Personal Information Protection

Private Sector Privacy Legislation

Personal Information Protection Policy

Surge Business Productions

Personal Information Protection Policy 2025

At Surge Business Productions, on behalf of the Cheese and Meat Festival and the Victoria Wine Festival, we are committed to providing exceptional service to our attendees and partners in both Canada and the United States. Providing this service involves the collection, use, and disclosure of some personal information. Protecting this information is one of our highest priorities.

While we have always respected our customers’ privacy and safeguarded their information, we continue to strengthen our commitment to privacy as a result of Canadian federal and provincial privacy laws including the Personal Information Protection Act of British Columbia, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act of Canada, and applicable United States privacy laws. These laws set out the ground rules for how organizations may collect, use, and disclose personal information.

We will inform our customers why and how we collect, use, and disclose personal information, obtain consent where required, and only handle this information in a manner that a reasonable person would consider appropriate in the circumstances.

This Personal Information Protection Policy outlines the principles and practices we will follow in protecting customer information. Our privacy commitment includes ensuring the accuracy, confidentiality, and security of this information and allowing our customers to request access to and correction of their information.

Scope of this Policy

This Personal Information Protection Policy applies to Surge Business Productions Inc. and its events and subsidiaries in both Canada and the United States. It also applies to any service providers collecting, using, or disclosing personal information on behalf of Surge Business Productions Inc.

Definitions

Personal Information means information about an identifiable individual. For example personal email or personal phone number. Personal information does not include contact information described below.

Contact Information means information that enables an individual to be contacted at a place of business and includes name, position title, business telephone number, business address, business email or business fax number. Contact information is not covered by this policy.

Privacy Officer means the individual designated with responsibility for ensuring that Surge Business Productions Inc. complies with this policy and all applicable privacy laws.

Policy 1 Collecting Personal Information

1.1 Unless the purposes for collecting personal information are obvious and the customer voluntarily provides personal information for those purposes, we will communicate the purposes for which it is being collected, either orally or in writing, before or at the time of collection.

1.2 We will only collect customer information necessary to fulfill the following purposes:

  • To contact our customers to distribute newsletters and event information
  • To process ticket registrations and event participation

To establish contact we may collect personal or business email addresses as well as first and last names.

Policy 2 Consent

2.1 We will obtain customer consent to collect, use, or disclose personal information except where authorized by law to do so without consent.

2.2 Consent can be provided orally or in writing or it can be implied where the purpose for collecting, using, or disclosing personal information would be considered obvious and the customer voluntarily provides personal information for that purpose.

2.3 Consent may also be implied where a customer is given notice and a reasonable opportunity to opt out of their personal information being used for newsletters and the customer does not opt out.

2.4 Subject to certain exceptions customers can withhold or withdraw their consent for Surge Business Productions Inc. to use their personal information in certain ways. Withholding or withdrawing consent may restrict our ability to provide a particular service. We will explain the situation to assist the customer in making the decision.

2.5 We may collect, use, or disclose personal information without the customer’s knowledge or consent in the following circumstances:

  • When required or permitted by law
  • When legal advice from a lawyer is required
  • To protect ourselves from fraud
  • To investigate a potential breach of an agreement or contravention of law

Policy 3 Using and Disclosing Personal Information

3.1 Surge Business Productions Inc. retains the right to share contact information among our subsidiaries.

3.2 We will only use or disclose a customer’s personal information where necessary to fulfill the purposes identified at the time of collection.

3.3 We will not use or disclose a customer’s personal information for any additional purpose unless we obtain consent to do so.

3.4 We will not sell customer lists or personal information to other parties.

Policy 4 Retaining Personal Information

4.1 If we use personal information to make a decision that directly affects the customer we will retain that information for at least one year so that the customer has a reasonable opportunity to request access to it.

4.2 We will retain customer personal information only as long as necessary to fulfill the identified purposes or as required by legal or business needs.

Policy 5 Ensuring Accuracy of Personal Information

5.1 We will make reasonable efforts to ensure that personal information is accurate and complete where it may be used to make a decision about the customer or disclosed to another organization.

5.2 Customers may request correction to their personal information to ensure its accuracy and completeness. A request must be made in writing with sufficient detail to identify the personal information and the correction being sought.

5.3 If the information is demonstrated to be inaccurate or incomplete we will correct the information as required and send the corrected information to any organization to which it was disclosed in the previous year. If the correction is not made we will note the customers’ correction request in the file.

Policy 6 Securing Personal Information

6.1 We are committed to ensuring the security of personal information in order to protect it from unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification, disposal or similar risks.

6.2 The following security measures will be followed to ensure that personal information is appropriately protected:

  • Proper use of user IDs
  • Passwords
  • Restricting employee access to personal information as appropriate
  • Contractually requiring any service providers to provide comparable security measures

6.3 We will use appropriate security measures when destroying personal information such as deleting electronically stored files.

6.4 We will continually review and update our security policies and controls as technology changes to ensure ongoing personal information security.

Policy 7 Providing Customers Access to Personal Information

Customers have a right to access their personal information, subject to limited exceptions, by submitting a written request. We will respond within 30 business days or notify if additional time is required. A minimal fee may apply. If a request is refused in full or in part, reasons will be provided in writing.

Policy 8 Questions and Complaints

The Privacy Officer is responsible for ensuring compliance with this policy. Customers should direct complaints, concerns, or questions in writing to the Privacy Officer. If the concern is not resolved, customers may also write to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia.

Contact information for the Privacy Officer

Phone: (206) 395 3673