Privacy Policy

Privacy Considerations

VIREB is bound by the provisions of the provincial Personal Information Protection Act and the Society and its employees must comply with the requirements of the Act. In addition VIREB is a member of The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) and adheres to and abides by the principles set out in the CREA Privacy Code.

VIREB and its employees only collect information necessary to effectively carry out the mission of the society and to provide professional and competent services to its members. Employees should be aware that their personal contact lists and email messages stored electronically are owned by VIREB and subject to review at any time.

Person in Charge

The Executive Officer is responsible for privacy compliance. The Executive Officer's name will be made available to members of the public on request. The Privacy Compliance Officer ensures that:

information protection policies are established and updated;
sensitive information is protected and accessibility properly controlled;
employees are educated as to the importance of information protection;
privacy complaints are resolved efficiently with the goal of satisfying all individuals involved.
All information requests will be directed to the Executive Officer, who will:
meet informal requests with an invitation to view the relevant records in the VIREB office;
meet formal requests with an offer of printouts and photocopies of the appropriate VIREB records;
charge an administration fee to supply the information;
direct the individual to the appropriate authorities if their concerns or complaint cannot be resolved internally. Collection, Use and Disclosure of Personal Information

General rules:

no personal information will be collected from an individual without first obtaining the consent of the individual to the collection, use and dissemination of that information;
express consent (whether oral or written) will be obtained unless the information is not sensitive and where the individual can be reasonably assumed to have expected the information to be used or disclosed in this fashion;
once information is collected, it will be used or disclosed only for the purposes for which the individual has given express or implied consent;
to use personal information for some new purpose that extends beyond the consent already provided requires the express consent of the person.

Administration

With respect to personnel files:

active and former employee files must be kept in a locked filing cabinet;
files on former employees are only kept for up to five years, after which time they are shredded;
resumes, applications and interview notes with respect to candidates who are not hired are kept for up to 12 months from receipt, after which time they are shredded;
only department heads provide references for former employees, and only upon request by the former employee when a reference is given, a notation is made in the former employee's personnel file;
VIREB references are not provided for former employees after five years have elapsed from the time of their employment;
all personnel information, performance reviews and disciplinary notes are stored in the employee's file;
email messages containing personal information about employees or former employees will be filed in the employee's personnel file and then deleted from the computer system.

With respect to member REALTOR®’s and Contract Subscribers information:

All VIREB volunteers are advised that their contact information may be sent to the VIREB Directors, members of the same or other committee(s), VIREB members or contract subscribers, and retained by the VIREB in an archive.

Education

With respect to education programs:

Applied Real Estate Course students are advised that the information contained in their application form will be provided to and used by BCREA to report to the Real Estate Council of British Columbia and that a transcript will be permanently retained by the BCREA;

Continuing Professional Education students are advised that a class list will be supplied to BCREA;

the files for instructors, course and seminar writers and consultants are centralized and kept in a locked filing cabinet;

employment agreements for instructors, course and seminar writers and consultants contain a statement noting that their files are retained for five years following the expiration of the agreement, after which time they are shredded, and that evaluations are completed by students, and are retained by VIREB for up to five years.

Member Services

Affinity program contracts contain a statement noting that the VIREB is subject to the provisions of the Personal Information Protection Act and, as suppliers, these companies must also comply with the Act.

Communications

With respect to Communications Department actions:
VIREB does not sell its subscription lists;
personal information from conference registration is used for administration and marketing purposes, but attendees are given the opportunity to opt out of inclusion on a delegate list distributed to attendees, exhibitors and sponsors;
VIREB assumes the implicit consent of individuals in photographs taken at VIREB events to use the photographs in Association communications.

Web Site

You can access our web site home page and browse our site without disclosing your personal data.
Our web site does not enable visitors to communicate with other visitors or to post information to be accessed by others. We encourage all "Links" from our web site to adopt their own privacy policies; however VIREB is not responsible or liable for their actions.
We do not use cookies on our web site.
We do not automatically log personal data nor do we link information automatically logged by other means with personal data about specific individuals.
We do not collect any personal data from our visitors when they use our web site.
We strive to ensure our privacy policies remain compliant with the provincial Personal Information Protection Act ("PIPA").

If you have an inquiry about our privacy policy, please contact:

Privacy Officer

Bill Benoit, CAE, Executive Officer
The Vancouver Island Real Estate Board
6374 Metral drive
Nanaimo, BC, V9T 2L8
Phone: 250-390-4212
E-mail: bbenoit@vireb.com