PIPEDA Compliance

PIPEDA compliance means adhering to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, which is the federal privacy law governing how businesses must handle personal information in much of Canada. For a dealership, this includes responsibly collecting, using, and storing customer data such as contact information, driver’s licence details, and financial info from credit applications. Compliance involves obtaining consent from customers for collecting their data, using it only for legitimate purposes (for example, completing a vehicle sale or arranging financing), and protecting it with appropriate security measures (physical files in locked cabinets, digital data encrypted and password-protected). Dealerships also must allow customers to request access to their own personal information and correct inaccuracies. If a dealership operates in Quebec, BC, or Alberta, they have provincial privacy laws similar to PIPEDA to follow as well. Overall, being PIPEDA-compliant builds customer trust and helps avoid penalties or legal issues arising from privacy complaints or data breaches.