Privacy Policy

I: Privacy Policy

Introduction

Samos Insurance and its subsidiaries/affiliates maintain the privacy and security of individuals’ personal information while collecting, using and disclosing personal information. We support the rights of individuals or their authorized representatives to access, correct or delete their personal information in our control, as required by applicable laws. We will not collect, use or disclose personal information except as described to you in this privacy policy, where you provide your consent, or where we are otherwise permitted by law to do so. Personal information is information about or that relates to you and that can identify you, as set out in Canadian privacy laws. This Privacy Policy applies to all of our operations in Canada, unless we have provided you with a separate privacy statement for a particular service or activity.

Information we collect

We generally collect your personal information when you activate a policy, provide it to an insurance advisor, or provide it through other electronic or paper means, and from your transactions and other interactions with us. This information may include the following personal information:

Name, address, email address, telephone number, date of birth, beneficiary information
Health information related to your medical conditions and elective surgery / procedure
Payment details such as credit card numbers and expiration dates
About your interactions with us, such as when you visit our websites, applications, social media sites or when you call our service centers

How we collect information

Directly from you: We collect personal information from applications and other forms that you submit to us, such as when you apply for insurance or file a claim. We also collect personal information from our telephone conversations with you and information you provide us online
Automatically or indirectly from you: We collect personal information when you use our products/services, from your transactions with us or others, and when you use or interact with our websites or social media sites. For example, we may collect information such as online identifiers including location data, your Internet Protocol (IP) Address, device or browser type, or information about how long you used the website and pages visited.
From third parties and other sources: We collect information from third parties such as your insurance advisor, consumer reporting agencies, other service providers who process or administer products/services requested by you, and from health care providers, clinics, and other insurance companies. We may also collect information from the Medical Information Bureau or other persons that have records about you or your health. These third parties from whom we obtain information collect information and disclose it to other persons pursuant to their own privacy policies and practices.

How we use your information

We primarily collect your information so that we may offer and deliver the products/services that you request and that are suited to your needs

We use your personal information to help us to:

Assess your eligibility for our products/services
Market & administer our products/services
Develop & improve our products/services
Administer, manage & communicate with you about our products/services -Investigate, pay claims & process transactions
Identify & mitigate losses (e.g.: verify your identity, detect / prevent / investigate fraud or security breaches)
Inform you of events & activities
Conduct industry/market research while de-identifying your personal information
Support & optimize the user experience on our sites
Fulfill our legal & regulatory obligations

We may also use & disclose your information as permitted or required by law.

Your consent

We collect, use and share your personal information only for disclosed purposes related to the products/services we offer, and only with your consent or as permitted or required by law. Your consent may be expressed in writing, or it may be given verbally, electronically, or through an authorized representative(s). Depending on the circumstances and the sensitivity of the personal information, where it is appropriate to do so, your consent may also be implied or inferred. You may withhold or withdraw your consent for us to collect, use and disclose your Personal Information, subject to legal or contractual reasons preventing you from doing so. Depending on the circumstances, however, withdrawal of your consent may impact our ability to continue to provide you with the products/services you have requested

If you provide personal information about another individual to us, it is your responsibility to obtain the consent of that individual to enable us to collect, use and disclose his or her information as described in this Privacy Policy.

Limiting use & sharing

The disclosure of and access to your personal information will be restricted to those who have a need or legal right to the information.

Some of our business areas, subsidiaries or affiliates may, from time to time, offer or promote other products/services, or those of select third parties, that we believe may be of interest to you. We may also have joint marketing or distribution agreements with other financial institutions that may offer or promote products that we believe may be of interest to you. We will not disclose your personal information, without your consent, with any third parties for the purpose of that organization marketing their own products/services directly to you. We may disclose your personal information to insurance agents and agencies for the purposes of those agents to process or administer products/services requested by you.

We may also share your personal information with service providers (including our subsidiaries and affiliates) or insurance agents and agencies, including to process or administer products/services requested by you and for marketing purposes, and to other service providers such as email and other internal service providers, payment card processors, telephone and technical support providers, hosting, data storage and processing service providers, and research and analytics providers. We will not share your personal information, without your consent, with any non-Samos organization for the purpose of that organization marketing their own products/services directly to you.

Additionally, we may use and disclose your personal information when we believe such use or disclosure is permitted, necessary or appropriate:

Under applicable law, including laws outside your country of residence
To comply with legal process
To respond to requests from public and government authorities, including public and government authorities outside of Canada -to enforce the terms of the agreements for our services
To protect our rights, operations or property
To allow us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain

In addition, we may transfer your personal information and other information to a third party in the event of any reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer or other disposition of all or any portion of our business, brands, affiliates, subsidiaries or other assets, or other business transaction.

How do we protect your information?

We strive to protect your personal information in our possession or control - including information transferred to a third-party service provider or representative - from the risk of loss, unauthorized access, disclosure, modification, or misuse. We comply with applicable laws and regulations and have implemented reasonable physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to protect your information that are appropriate for its sensitivity. For example, we encrypt your personal information and we use advanced firewall technology and layered security tools to protect our environment.

In some instances, our employees, advisors, service providers, representatives, reinsurers and any of their service providers may be located in provinces or other jurisdictions outside Canada. Your personal information may then be subject to the laws of those other jurisdictions and these other jurisdictions may have different privacy and data protection laws than your jurisdiction. All such persons, whether or not they are located in Canada or outside Canada, are required to protect the confidentiality of your personal information in a manner that is consistent with our privacy policies and practices. We regularly train employees to keep your information safe. Despite the measures outlined above, however, no method of information transmission or information storage is completely secure or error-free, so we unfortunately cannot guarantee absolute security.

Your rights and choices

You have the right to request in writing, to access and verify your personal information maintained in our files, and to be informed of the use and disclosure of your personal information. If you believe any of the information we have collected about you is incorrect or incomplete, you have the right to ask us to change it, or you may contact us to update your personal information in our records. We will address any such request as required by applicable law.

Complaints

If you have a concern regarding our collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information you may contact us and we will explain our complaint procedure to you and investigate all complaints. If a complaint is justified, we will take all appropriate steps to address your complaint as required by law, including by changing our policies and practices if necessary. We will also let you know what other complaint procedures may be available to you.

II: Online Privacy Policy

Introduction

This online privacy policy applies to visitors of Samos’ sites and supplements our privacy policies. It outlines the types of personal information we collect through our sites, how we use it, with whom we share it, and some of the choices you can make about our use of the information. This online privacy policy should be read in conjunction with our Privacy Policy.

Information we collect online

Using various technologies, Samos may collect various personal information about visitors to our sites. Personal information is information about or that relates to you and that can identify you, as set out in Canadian privacy laws.

Personal information we collect in connection with our sites may include:

Information about your browser, IP address, device type or how long you have used the site and the pages you have visited
Anonymous data about visitors to our sites, such as browsing history or location data.

Analytics

We use Google Analytics, Web Trends and similar analytics service providers (“analytics services”) to collect various types of data about use of our sites. We use this data to monitor and improve our sites, measure the effectiveness of our marketing and engagement campaigns and to offer you content, products/services that may be of interest to you.

Advertising

Samos may contract with advertising and marketing service providers to promote our brand, products/services, across different media, including on third party websites that are not affiliated with us. Third parties, including Facebook and LinkedIn, may use cookies, web beacons and similar tracking technologies to gather information about your online activities, including your interactions with our Sites and the pages you visit. You have a variety of tools to control the data collected by cookies, web beacons, and similar tracking technologies. For example, you can use controls in your internet browser to limit how the websites you visit are able to use cookies and to withdraw your consent by clearing or blocking cookies.

We may use this information to deliver advertisements to you, both online and offline, that are customized to meet your specific interests. For example, we may send a marketing email based on a consumer’s interaction with a specific Site. We may use aggregated and de-identified data, along with other personal information we have about you and your relationship with Samos to determine which advertisements, products/services may be of interest to you, display them to you, monitor responses, and help us measure customer engagement.

Social media & third-party websites/services

We use social networking platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn & Twitter (“social platforms”) to provide product/service information, articles, news, community events and career opportunities. These social platforms facilitate online sharing and collaboration among users who have registered to use them. Any content you post on social platforms, such as pictures, videos, information, “Likes”, or any personal information you choose to make available on these platforms is subject to the terms of use and privacy policies of those platforms. We may receive personal information about you when you use such social platforms, for example your profile picture.

Some of our websites may include social media buttons or icons (“plug-ins”) that enable users to easily share information on a social platform. These plug-ins may log certain information such as your IP address, browser type and language, and the web pages you have viewed. If you are logged into a social platform while using our websites, they may also link information collected with your profile on that social platform. Samos does not control these third-party tracking technologies. We encourage you to review the privacy policies on social platforms where you have an account to better understand how they collect and treat such information. Samos is not responsible for the privacy or security practices of the social platforms we use.

Neither this Online Privacy Policy or our Privacy Policy extend to any websites or products/services provided by third parties. We do not assume responsibility for the privacy practices of such third parties, and we encourage you to review all third party privacy policies prior to using third party websites, products/services.

III: Cookie policy

Introduction

This Cookie Policy describes how and why Samos Insurance uses cookies on our websites.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small files, often containing a unique identifier, that websites store on your browser or device when you visit the website or app in order to remember information about you. Cookies are important to ensure that websites and web services can function properly, they help to personalize and improve your website experience, and can provide information about how you use the website. Those cookies are set by us and are called first party cookies.

We also allow third party cookies – these are cookies set by a domain other than the website or application you are visiting, such as for analytics or advertising purposes.

We may also use web beacons and pixel tags which are small pieces of code placed on a webpage to monitor the behavior and collect data about website visitors (for example, to count the number of visitors to a webpage, to deliver a cookie or to confirm if you have opened an email from us).

What are cookies?

We also allow third party cookies – these are cookies set by a domain other than the website or application you are visiting, such as for analytics or advertising purposes.

What are the types of cookies we use?

Our websites use 3 main groups of cookies:

Required cookies: Enable our websites to function properly, including to allow you to navigate & access secure areas of the websites
Functional cookies: Allow us to analyze & measure website usage and improve performance & functionality
Advertising cookies: Permit Samos or advertising companies to serve ads that are relevant to your interests

Our websites use 2 types of cookie durations:

Persistent cookies: Remain on your device for a specified duration of time or until you manually delete or object to them
Session cookies: Temporary cookies that expire at the end of the browser session (when you leave our website / close your browser)

Setting your cookie preferences

When you first visit our website, and periodically thereafter, we will inform you of why we use cookies, and you will have the opportunity to control the non-essential cookies you choose to accept by either clicking on “Agree and proceed” or on “More information” to select which cookies to accept or reject.

You may set or change your cookie preferences at any time by clicking “Cookie Preferences” in the footer of any page

If you choose to reject or delete cookies, some or all of the functions on our website may not be available to you. If you use multiple devices to access our website you should ensure that the browser on each device is adjusted to suit your cookie preferences.

It is important that your browser is set to accept required cookies otherwise you will not be able to enjoy the website fully and your ability to use certain features and functionalities may be impacted.

Do not track signals

Samos does not track its customers or members over time in order to provide targeted advertising or for other purposes. Some browsers offer the capability to activate a “Do Not Track” signal. We do not currently process or respond to “Do Not Track” signals from your browser. We and our third-party service providers may collect personal information about our customers and members' online activities.

Links to other third-party sites

If you follow a link from our website to a third-party website, please be aware that the owner of the third-party website will have their own privacy and cookie policies for their site. We recommend you read their policies as we are not responsible or liable for what happens at their website. When viewing videos on this website they are being viewed through a third-party video player, these video players will place cookies on your device. These cookies are required to play the video on our website and may also be required to support website accessibility for people with disabilities.