OpenCircle Benefit Services (formerly known as Mercon Benefit Services) takes your privacy seriously. We comply with provincial and federal privacy laws where applicable, and we have implemented this Privacy Policy to demonstrate our commitment to you and your privacy. This Privacy Policy applies to all our customers and users of our website.
1. Personal Information
Personal Information is information about you that identifies you as an individual: for example, your name, address, email address, telephone number, or information concerning your benefits and entitlement to benefits.
We do not automatically gather any Personal Information from you. This information is only obtained if you supply it voluntarily, by contacting us via e-mail, an online form, or through a portal on this website. We do not collect any Personal Information that is not expressly provided to us.
Personal Information you share with us will be stored on cloud-based servers, through our hosting service provider, Microsoft Azure, California.
We will retain your Personal Information only for so long as is necessary to provide our services or comply with applicable provincial or federal laws.
2. Information Use & Sharing
OpenCircle Benefit Services will not disclose your Personal Information to any third party without your consent, except when necessary to deliver a requested service or where required or authorized by this Policy, or applicable provincial or federal law. If it becomes necessary to use or disclose your Personal Information for purposes not contemplated at the time it is collected by us, or not authorized by applicable provincial or federal privacy laws, we will seek your ongoing consent at the relevant time.
Your personal information may be used by OpenCircle Benefit Services for the purposes identified at the time of collection, for the purpose of managing and administering benefits, if you are a customer of our services, and for the purpose of providing services to you.
We may share contact information within our corporate group, including with our parent company, as may be necessary for the purpose of providing or coordinating services or benefits for you. Your personal information is not accessed or used except as strictly required by our personnel for the identified purposes.
3. Security
The security of your Personal Information is of central importance to us. We have put into place reasonable and commercially acceptable technological and administrative procedures to safeguard and help prevent unauthorized access or disclosure, maintain data security, and correctly use the information we collect from you. While no technological system is completely secure in today’s digital environment, we believe the measures we have implemented reduce the likelihood of security problems to a level appropriate to the type of information involved. Any third parties involved in the storage and retention of your data will be required to implement security measures at least as stringent as those identified in this Privacy Policy.
4. Cookies
To improve your experience on our site, we use cookies. A cookie is a small file that our site places on your computer as a tool to remember your preferences.
If you wish, you may change the settings on your browser to deny or disable cookies, or to warn you when a site is about to deposit cookies on your computer. Information on the website and functionality may be limited or incorrect if cookies are disabled.
5. Analytics
Our website uses Google Analytics to collect information about how you use the website. We do this to help make sure the site is meeting the needs of our users and to make improvements. Analytics does not identify individual users or associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.
For more information, you can view the Google Analytics privacy policy here: https://policies.google.com/?hl=en&gl=ca
Our other IT service providers may collect and share aggregate information (excluding any Personal Information) for the provision of technical support, maintenance and statistical information, analytic consulting services, reports and statistics to the research community and the health care community’s stakeholders (which includes insurers and governments).
Because this is aggregated non-identifiable information that is not linked to you, we do not consider this to be Personal Information, and we do not correlate or cross-reference to other personal information that we collect about you.
6. Linked Sites
Although OpenCircle Benefit Services may provide links to third party sites or social media platforms, we are not responsible for the content that appears on those sites or their individual privacy policies. Social media accounts are public and not hosted on our servers. If you choose to interact with us via social media, please read the terms of service and privacy policies of these third-party service providers.
7. Access to Personal Information
Upon request, we will provide you with the information that we maintain about you, subject to any exemptions in applicable provincial or federal privacy legislation.
8. Amendments to our Privacy Policy
If we alter our Privacy Policy, any changes will be posted on this page so that you are always informed of any changes concerning the Personal Information we might collect about you, how we use it, and the circumstances under which we may disclose it.
9. Acceptance of our Privacy Policy
By becoming a customer of OpenCircle Benefit Services, or using this website, you signify your acceptance of our Privacy Policy, and you agree to adhere to the terms and conditions found in this Privacy Policy. By submitting your Personal Information to OpenCircle Benefit Services, you agree that it will be governed by this Privacy Policy.