LAST UPDATED: NOVEMBER 2026
1. Our commitment to confidentiality
As Chartered Professional Accountants, we follow the rules of professional conduct of CPA Ontario (Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario). These rules require our partners and staff to keep client information confidential and not to use it for personal advantage, for the advantage of a third party, or to the disadvantage of a client, a former client or our firm, unless the client, former client or firm has given consent.
2. What personal information means
Personal information is any factual or subjective information, recorded or not, about an identifiable individual. It can be in any form, for example:
- Name, age, Social Insurance Number and income;
- Surveys, evaluations, comments and disciplinary actions; and
- Employee files, credit and loan records, medical information, the existence of a dispute with a client, and intentions (for example, to buy goods or services or to change jobs).
Personal information does not include the name, title, business address or business telephone number of an employee of an organization.
3. Why we collect personal information
We tell you why we are collecting personal information before or when we collect it. We collect it only to:
- Prepare your financial statements;
- Prepare your tax and other returns required by governments and for other regulatory purposes;
- Advise you on personal tax planning, business and succession planning, valuations and other business and personal advisory services;
- Understand your needs and recommend services that suit them; and
- Meet our legal and regulatory requirements.
4. Your consent
We collect, use and share your personal information with your consent, except where the law allows or requires otherwise. You can withdraw your consent at any time, subject to legal or contractual limits. If you do, we may not be able to continue providing some services.
5. How we use and share your information
We use your personal information only for the purposes above, and we never sell it. We share it only when we need to in order to serve you, for example when we file returns with the Canada Revenue Agency or another tax authority; with service providers who work for us under confidentiality obligations, such as accounting and tax software providers; or when the law requires it.
6. How long we keep it
We keep personal information only as long as we need it for the purposes above or as the law requires. Tax records, for example, generally must be kept for at least six years. When we no longer need information, we securely destroy, delete or anonymize it.
7. How we protect it
We protect personal information with safeguards suited to how sensitive it is, including physical, organizational and technological measures, and we limit access to the people who need it to do their work.
8. Sending us documents by email
Email is not a fully secure way to send sensitive information such as your Social Insurance Number. If you would rather not email it, call us and we'll arrange another way to receive it.
9. Seeing and correcting your information
You can ask to see the personal information we hold about you and ask us to correct anything that is inaccurate or incomplete. We will respond within the time required by law.
10. Our website
This website does not ask for personal information unless you choose to contact us. Like most websites, it may use cookies, and it loads fonts and images from third-party services (such as Google Fonts and Unsplash), which may receive basic technical information such as your IP address. Links to social media and other websites are covered by those sites' own privacy policies.
11. Clients of our U.S. office
Personal information of clients served by our St. Petersburg, Florida office is handled under this policy and the laws that apply in the United States.
12. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The current version is always posted on this page.
13. Questions or concerns
Please contact our Privacy Officer, [Name], at: Blue Ocean Professional Corporation, 401-250 Dundas Street West, Mississauga, ON L5B 1J2 · info@blueocean.tax · 416-828-7462.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.