Privacy Policy

Introduction

Prairie IT Services Ltd. ("we", "our" or "us") respects your privacy. This policy explains what personal information we collect, why, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and how you can see it or ask us to delete it. It covers our website and every service we provide.

Information We Collect

Information You Give Us

• Contact information: name, email, phone number and company name
• What you tell us in a quote request, contact form or free assessment request
• Messages you send us, and voicemail messages you leave us, including your name, number and a written transcript of the message
• Sign-ups for Insights, our email updates, with the date and internet address used, as a record that you agreed to receive them
• Answers and email addresses you enter in our free tools, such as the IT Report Card and our calculators
• Job applications, including your resume and any cover note, if you apply through our Careers page

Information Collected When You Visit Our Website

• Internet address and general location
• Browser type and version
• Pages visited and time spent
• The website that sent you to us

If you reach our website through an ad or a link that carries campaign details, your browser keeps a note of where you came from (the website, ad campaign and search keyword), and we save that note with any form you send us so we can tell which of our advertising works.

Information We Handle for Our Clients

When a business uses our services, we handle personal information that belongs to that business, its staff and sometimes its customers. We handle it on the client's behalf, only to provide the services they asked for, and we don't use it for anything else. Our agreement with each client sets out the details.

What may be involved depends on the service:

• IT support (managed or our Flex plan), support requests and correspondence: contact details, anything included in a request, the emails, calls and voicemail that come with it, and our notes.
• Remote monitoring and management: a list of devices, the names of people signed in to them, and what we can see when we connect remotely to help.
• Microsoft 365 licensing and administration: user names and email addresses, and access to mailboxes and files when an administration task or a support request needs it.
• Endpoint protection, privilege management, and managed detection and response: device and user activity, security alerts and file locations.
• Email security, security awareness training and phishing tests: messages held for review, and training and phishing test results.
• Dark web monitoring: checks of work email addresses against known data breaches.
• Network equipment and firewall management: device names, network addresses and network logs.
• Server and cloud backups: full copies of the client's data, which may include anything the client stores.
• Website design and hosting: site content and any information the client's website collects.
• Domain registration and DNS: the registrant's contact details.
• Phone service and SIP trunks: phone numbers, and the call records and voicemail kept by our phone carrier, which we can see to support the client.
• Equipment purchasing: delivery contacts and the serial numbers of what we supply.
• IT assessments: answers to our questions, what we find, and photos taken on site.
• Emergency incident response: whatever information the incident affects.
• On-site work for other IT providers: information belonging to that provider's client. We act for the provider, under its instructions.
• Documentation and records: client contacts, lists of equipment, configuration notes and passwords. Passwords are encrypted, and are shared outside the client only as the client directs.
• Billing and accounts: business contact details, invoices and payment records.
• Agreements, quotes, approvals and authorizations signed online: the name typed, the signature, the date and the internet address used.

How We Use Your Information

• To respond to you and provide the services you ask for
• To send quotes and proposals
• To tell you about our services, where you have agreed to hear from us
• To improve our website and services
• To meet legal obligations

Who We Share Information With

We do not sell, trade or rent personal information. We share it only with:

• Service providers that run parts of our website and business for us. These include web hosting, email delivery, spam protection and website analytics, and the tools we use to deliver our services: remote monitoring and management, backup, email and office software, security tools, phone service, and accounting and billing. Each provider handles information under terms that require it to protect it and to use it only to provide its service to us.
• Legal authorities, when the law, a subpoena or a court order requires it.
• Professional advisors, such as our accountant or insurer, as needed.
• A client's new IT provider or anyone else, only when that client authorizes it.

Some providers process information outside Canada, mostly in the United States. While it is there, it is subject to the laws of that country, and authorities there may be able to access it.

How We Use AI

We use AI tools to help our team with its work. A person on our team checks the results and makes the decisions. Where we can, we remove personal details such as names, email addresses and phone numbers before information goes to these tools. They may process information in the United States, don't use it to train their AI, and normally delete it within 30 days.

Where Information Is Kept

Our website and our client records system run on servers in Canada. Our email, files and the tools listed above keep information mostly in Canada and the United States.

How We Protect It

• Passwords we keep for clients are encrypted.
• Staff see only the client information their role needs, and every time someone looks at a stored password, it is recorded.
• Staff sign in with their company Microsoft accounts, which require multi-factor sign-in and work only from company devices.
• No way of sending or storing information over the Internet is completely secure. If a breach creates a real risk of significant harm, we will tell the people affected and the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, as the law requires.

How Long We Keep Information

We keep personal information only while it serves the purpose it was collected for, and as long as we need it to meet legal or accounting obligations. When it's no longer needed, we delete it securely.

• Job applications and resumes: kept for 12 months so we can consider you for roles that open up later, and then deleted. Ask us through our contact form and we will delete yours sooner, including the resume file.
• Insights sign-ups: until you unsubscribe.
• Client data: see "When a Client's Services End" below.
• Our own business records (agreements, invoices and accounting records): as long as we need them for legal, tax and business reasons.

When a Client's Services End

• Before your services end, you can ask for a copy of your data and the documentation we keep for you. Getting everything you need before the end date is your responsibility: after it, we have no obligation to keep any of your data.
• We remove our access to your systems, and may remove our management and security tools from your devices.
• We may delete the data we hold for you, including backups, as soon as your services end, and we delete it within 30 days at the latest, unless we have agreed in writing to keep something longer. We keep the records we need for legal, tax and business reasons, for as long as we need them for those reasons. If you ask, we will tell you what kinds of records we kept and why.
• We confirm the deletion in writing when you ask.
• Backup appliances we own are wiped and reset to factory settings when we take them back.
• We never give your information to your new IT provider or anyone else unless you authorize it.

Your Rights

You can ask to see the personal information we hold about you, to correct it, or to delete it, and you can opt out of marketing at any time. You can also withdraw your consent, subject to legal or contractual limits and reasonable notice.

Privacy Law, Accountability and How to Reach Us

We follow the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), Canada's private-sector privacy law.

Our Privacy Officer is responsible for our privacy practices. Send requests to see or correct your information, withdrawals of consent, and any privacy question or complaint to:

• Privacy Officer, Prairie IT Services Ltd.
• Online: our contact form
• Phone: 204-650-0704
• Mail: 8-223 18th St N, Brandon, MB R7A 2V8, Canada

We reply to requests within 30 days, as the law requires. We look into every complaint and tell you what we found and what we did about it.

If you're not satisfied, you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (priv.gc.ca, 1-800-282-1376).

Cookies

Our website uses a few small files called cookies:

• To make the site work. One keeps our forms secure while you fill them in, and one remembers what you chose on our privacy notice. When you open an agreement or report we sent you, another keeps you signed in to it. We don't use these for anything else.
• Google Analytics. It counts visits, which pages are read and which of our ads bring people here, so we know what's useful. We see totals, not who you are. To opt out, choose Opt out on the notice at the bottom of the page, or Privacy Choices at the foot of any page. You can also use Google's opt-out add-on or block cookies in your browser.
• Google reCAPTCHA. It's on our forms, to stop spam. Google's Privacy Policy and Terms apply.

Google may handle this information in the United States.

Third-Party Links

Our website may contain links to third-party websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these external sites.

Children's Privacy

Our services are not directed to individuals under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Changes are posted on this page with a new "Last updated" date.