Privacy Policy
Effective on: March 28, 2023In accordance with applicable Canadian privacy laws, this privacy policy aims to provide explanations to those whose personal information is collected, used, and disclosed by Equans Services Inc. and its affiliates located in Canada, namely Contrôles AC Inc. and Equans Tranport CM Canada Inc. (collectively, “Equans”, “we”, “our” or “us”).
Equans relies on your consent to collect, use, and disclose, your personal information, unless otherwise permitted under applicable laws. When applicable law requires your express consent, you will be asked to grant Equans the right to access, use, or disclose your personal information in accordance with the identified purposes. In some cases, your consent may be “implied”, meaning that your agreement is assumed based on your action or inaction at the point of processing your personal information. For example, by continuing to use our website, you consent to this privacy policy. If you do not consent to this privacy policy, you may not use our website.
Scope of this privacy policy
This privacy policy applies to all of our (current, former and future) customers or natural persons who work for or on behalf of our professional customers and/or suppliers, to all visitors to the Equans website (https://www.equansservices.com/), to all job applicants who access the Equans career section (https://jobs.equans.com/en), and to all other persons who contact us.
Insofar as your personal information has been provided to Equans by our professional customers and/or suppliers, they bear some of the responsibilities imposed by law (such as informing you that we collect, use, or disclose your personal information).
Equans may also collect, use, or disclose your personal information as a subcontractor / service provider for one of its partners, who in that case is responsible for the processing. In such a case, we refer to the privacy policy of the partner in question.
If you do not wish to provide your personal information, yet this is necessary for us to provide you with information or to enter into a contractual relationship with you, we will not be able to (i) provide you with more information about our services and products, (ii) to you our services or products, or (iii) to enter into a contractual relationship with you.
What is personal information?
Personal information is defined as information about an identifiable individual. You can identify a person directly (for example, with an identifier such as name or identification number) or indirectly (for example, with one or more specific physical, physiological, genetic, psychological, economic, cultural or social factors that characterise the identity of the person).
Examples of personal information include your name, address, email address, IP address and bank account number.
Which personal information about you does Equans collect?
Categories of personal information we collect:
- Identification information: first name, surname, address, telephone number, email address, date of birth;
- Electronic identifiers: IP address (from PC, tablet or smartphone), and other electronic identifiers collected through automatic collection technologies, such as cookies. Please also refer to our dedicated Cookie Notice (available at: https://www.equansservices.com/en/cookie-notice) for more information on how we use cookies and similar automatic collection technologies when providing our products and services;
- Contract information, such as which contracts you have concluded with Equans, their start and end dates, the price and any indexation parameters, and purchase and contact history;
- Information about your use of our products and services, such as how you use our online services;
- Financial information, such as bank account number and payment history;
- Traffic and location information;
- Consumption information, measurement information, (technical) information relating to your connection(s), installations, technical infrastructure and other information relevant to the provision of installation and maintenance services insofar as these make you identifiable;
- Other information provided to Equans (as part of dealing with complaints, faults or other contact requests);
- Details of other products and/or services;
- Education background;
- Employment history;
- References and results of assessments administered by recruitment agencies;
- Your resume (CV); and
- Information obtained from your cover letter and in the context of your job application.
Categories of individuals whose personal information Equans collects:
- Visitors of the website;
- Current, former and future (professional) customers as well as their employees and representatives;
- Current, former and future suppliers and their employees and representatives;
- Job applicants that access the Equans career section (https://jobs.equans.com/en)
How does Equans collect personal information?
A. Information you provide
We collect information that you submit to us directly when you interact with our services. For example, when you contact us through our website’s Contact Form https://www.equansservices.com/en/contact, you may be asked to enter your name and e-mail address. Furthermore, when you contact us with a question or business proposal, we’ll also collect whatever information you volunteer or that we need to resolve your question or to enter an agreement with you. Finally, when you contact us through our Careers website to apply for a job with Equans, we will collect the information you submit as part of your job application.
B. Automated collection
Like most online services, we may use cookies and other technologies, such as web beacons, web storage, and unique advertising identifiers, to collect information about your activity, browser, and device. These technologies are small information files that we transfer to your browser or device that allows us to provide and enhance our products and services. You may be able to change the preferences on your browser or device to prevent or limit your device’s acceptance of these technologies, but this may prevent you from taking advantage of some of our features. We and our service providers may automatically collect certain technical information from your computer or mobile device over time and across different websites when you use our website, such as your IP address, your general geographic location, your browser type, your operating system, the pages you view on our website, the pages you view immediately before and after you access the website, and the search terms you enter on our website. This information allows us to recognize you and personalize your experience if you return to our website, and to improve the website. Please also refer to our dedicated Cookie Notice (https://www.equansservices.com/en/cookie-notice) for more information on how we use cookies and similar automatic collection technologies when providing our products and services.
C. Information from other sources
Equans may collect personal information from various third party sources (including, from our current and prospective suppliers and customers, and from employment or recruitment agencies), from publicly available sources (including Google and LinkedIn), and from references you provide as part of your job application.
Purposes of the processing of your personal information
We may use your personal information for the following purposes or otherwise, with your consent or as permitted or required by law:
Providing or delivering our products and services. We use your personal information for activities that are necessary to provide or deliver our products and services, for instance:
- Coordinating procurement and personnel and planning and project management;
- Managing information relating to maintenance, faults and repairs to installations or technical infrastructure for the provision of services;
- Concluding and/or executing a contract for installation or maintenance services, and the provision of Software as a Service solutions; and
- Enforcing or applying the Terms and Conditions of Use (available here: https://www.equansservices.com/en/terms-use)of the website or to investigate potential breaches.
Managing our website. When you visit our website, we may use your personal information to manage and facilitate the use of our website, which may include using cookies and similar technologies (as further detailed in our Cookie Notice https://www.equansservices.com/en/cookie-notice).
Managing our business operations. We use your personal information for several reasons in connection with our business operations, which include:
- Ensuring the security of our information, system or network;
- Complying with legal or regulatory obligations, requirements and guidance;
- Facilitating the sale of one or more parts of our businesses, reorganizing our business; and
- Satisfying regulatory audits, assessments, requests or requirements.
To communicate with you, including for marketing purposes. We may use your personal information to communicate with you in a variety of ways and for multiple purposes, for instance:
- Improving our products and services;
- Informing you about our relevant products and services; and
- Responding to the inquiries you submit to us via our contact form on the website or one of our contact centres.
Processing your job application. When you submit a job application, we may use your personal information for the following purposes:
- Considering your application and assess your suitability for the position applied for or for other suitable positions that might match your profile;
- Obtaining and verify information or references about you from third parties;
- Informing you of job opportunities, forums, actions or publications that might be of interest to you, as requested.
- For other purposes permitted or required by law. We will not use personal information for any other reasons without your consent, unless permitted or required to do so by law, for instance in order to comply with a legal obligation or as necessary to protect the rights, including proprietary rights, and interests of Equans.
- We may also anonymize or aggregate personal information so that the information can no longer identify you, directly or indirectly. We keep and use such anonymized information in anonymized form, except as permitted by applicable law. We may use anonymized or aggregated data for any legitimate purposes unless prohibited by law in accordance with applicable law, including to understand our customers and to evaluate, improve and develop our products and services.
Who can we share your personal information with?
Your personal information may be communicated to the following third parties in order to achieve the purposes stated in the section “Purposes of the processing of your personal information”:
- With our affiliates: We may share your personal information to companies that are affiliated to Equans, including to intra-group departments relevant in assessing your job application (e.g., human resources).
- With our service providers and vendors: Third party service providers such as our IT vendors, advertising agency, recruitment agencies and contact centres.
- With business partners: We may share your personal information with companies that market or provide products and services related to our products and services (for example, installers of products related to energy and energy efficiency). We will obtain your consent before sharing your personal information with these companies, where required by law.
- For legal and safety purposes: We may use or disclose personal information as we believe necessary: (1) if we determine a policy violation has occurred, to enforce our rights, or to enforce our Terms of Use https://www.equansservices.com/en/terms-use; (2) if we believe such disclosure is necessary to identify, contact, or bring legal action regarding the rights and property of Equans or its affiliates; (3) to enforce our rights or protect against unauthorized access to our systems or other inappropriate use of our services or products; (4) to comply with laws, regulations, court orders and subpoenas or similar requests for information by authorities; (5) to protect your safety and the safety of others; and (6) to assist us in fraud prevention or investigation.
- Business transactions: We may disclose and transfer personal information in connection with a reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer or other disposition of all or any portion of our business, assets, or stock (including in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings), but only to the extent that your Personal Information is necessary for such transactions, in which case we will comply with applicable legal requirements.
- Other situations: We may share Personal Information in other situations where we provide you with notice with your prior consent (in which case we will provide you with notice) or as required or permitted by applicable law. We may share anonymized (including aggregated) information with other parties, provided that the information can no longer be directly or indirectly associated with a specific individual.
Transfer of your personal information to countries outside of Canada
Many of our external third party service providers are based outside Canada, including in the European Union, and so their processing of your personal information will involve a transfer of information outside of Canada. Organizations that are based outside of Canada may not be subject to information protection laws which offer the same rights and protections to you as is the case within Canada. As a result, personal information may be subject to the laws of a foreign jurisdiction, including any laws permitting or requiring the disclosure of information to law enforcement or national security authorities upon request.
For how long do we retain your personal information?
Your personal information will not be retained for any period longer than is necessary for us to achieve the purposes for which it was collected. The retention period may therefore differ depending on the objective.
The information we retain will be handled in accordance with this privacy policy.
Security of your personal information
Equans makes every effort to protect its network as much as possible against unauthorised access and to guarantee the confidentiality of its customers’ personal and company information.
Equans maintains policies and practices which ensure the protection of your personal information. Depending on the volume and sensitivity of such information, the purposes for which it is used and the format in which it is stored, we implement a combination of measures to protect your personal information, including:
- Internal policies and procedures that define the roles and responsibilities of our employees throughout the information life cycle and limits their access to such information on a “need-to-know” basis;
- If information is collected or stored in electronic format, technical safeguards such as encryption, firewalls, passwords, antivirus software and similar measures;
- A designated Data Protection Officer to monitor Equans’ compliance with applicable privacy laws;
- Employee privacy and information security training;
- Procedures for receiving, investigating and responding to complaints or inquiries regarding Equans’ information handling practices;
- Contractual protections and other measures to ensure that processors with whom we share personal information maintain adequate privacy protections and standards. For example, we generally require our processors to limit their use and retention of personal information to what is necessary to provide their services and to notify us in case of any actual or suspected security incident. We also try to monitor and audit their compliance with these requirements in various ways (e.g. on-site inspections (if feasible), surveys and interviews, proof of certification).
What are your privacy rights?
Depending on where you reside and the laws applicable to you, you may have certain privacy rights such as the right to access your personal information and request the correction of inaccurate information, subject to limited exceptions set out in applicable laws. To access and correct your personal information, please contact us in writing using the relevant contact information listed in the Contact Us section below.
Your right to withdraw your consent
Insofar as processing is based on your consent, you also have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. However, the withdrawal only has consequences for the future and does not affect the validity of any processing operations carried out with your consent before the date of withdrawal.
In the event of withdrawing your consent, we can only continue the processing insofar as another legal basis applies.
Emails
Email communications are aimed at keeping you informed about Equans’ news, products, and events, and for other specific purposes that may arise. You can always choose not to receive promotional messages from us by email by clicking on “unsubscribe” in any email you receive. Please note that even if you have indicated your choice not to receive commercial messages from us, we may still communicate with you in connection with our website, in accordance with applicable law (for example, to send you a customer service message or a service notification). In addition, it may take up to ten (10) business days to register a change of preference across all our records.
Minors
We do not intentionally collect personal information from children under the age of fourteen (14) and you may not register or transact on the website if you are under 14. If we learn that a child under 14 has provided personal information to us without verification of parental consent, we will take commercially reasonable steps to delete that information.
How do I exercise my privacy rights?
If you have any questions about our processing of your personal information to which this privacy policy applies, you can contact us at privacy.esc@equans.com.
In order to exercise your right of access, and to prevent any unauthorised disclosure of your personal information, we may ask you to provide proof of identity. In the event of doubt or uncertainty, we will first ask you for additional information. If it is not possible to verify your identity in any other way, we may also ask you to provide us with a copy of the front of your identity card.
The rights described above may be exercised in accordance with the requirements and restrictions provided for in law. The text of applicable information protection laws therefore takes precedence over what is stated in the description of the rights described above.
Contact us
Equans has a designated Jean-Marc Therrien (Vice President Legal Affairs) as Information Protection Officer (“DPO”). If you believe your privacy question or request has not been handled properly, or if you would like to receive more information about this privacy policy, you can submit a written request to the DPO. The DPO can be contacted via the contact form: https://www.equansservices.com/en/contact.
Updates
We may occasionally update this Privacy Policy. Please review the “Effective Date” at the top of this page to see when this Privacy Policy was last revised. If we make any material changes we will notify you as required by law, which may include by email (sent to the email address specified in your account) or by means of a notice on this website prior to the change becoming effective. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices.
Your use of the website following these changes means that you acknowledge the revised Privacy Policy.