Privacy Policy
Last updated February 25, 2025.
1. Introduction
Ownwell Technologies Inc. and its related affiliates and subsidiaries (collectively, “Ownwell”, "us”, "we", or "our") understand the importance of privacy and the sensitivity of personal information. We are committed to protecting the personal data of all users interacting with our website and services, prioritizing security, transparency, and trust in how we handle and safeguard information.
This Privacy Policy (the “Policy”) outlines how we collect, use, disclose, and protect your personal information when using our digital platforms, including but not limited to our website, www.ownwell.ca, its associated applications, client portals, and any other websites or services operated by Ownwell (collectively the “Website”) in accordance with the Personal Information Protection Act (“PIPA”) and, where applicable, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”).
This Policy should be read in conjunction with our Terms and Conditions of Use (“Terms & Conditions”), which govern the use of our Website and services. By accessing or using our Website, you indicate that you understand, accept, and consent to the practices described in this Policy, as well as the terms outlined in our Terms & Conditions. If you do not agree with our policies or practices, you should not use our Website or associated services.
2. Who This Policy Applies To
This Policy applies to all individuals interacting with Ownwell, including:
Mortgage Professionals: For the purpose of this Policy, “Mortgage Professionals” means individuals or businesses, such as mortgage brokers, who subscribe to our Website or Services to generate homeownership reports and manage client relationships. In some cases, third-party marketing consultants or agencies may facilitate client engagement on behalf of Mortgage Professionals but do not replace the Mortgage Professional as the primary relationship holder.
Referral Partners: For the purpose of this Policy, “Referral Partners” means real estate agents, financial advisors, lawyers, and other professionals who collaborate with Mortgage Professionals or act as intermediaries in marketing, outreach, or client engagement efforts, introducing Homeowners to Ownwell’s Services.
Homeowners: For the purpose of this Policy, “Homeowners” mean individuals who engage with Ownwell’s platform by receiving homeownership reports and insights, either directly or through a Mortgage Professional or Referral Partner or a third-party consultant acting on their behalf. In contexts where a Mortgage Professional, Referral Partner, or consultant has an established business relationship with the individual, the term "Homeowner" may also be referred to as "client.".
When we use “user”, "you", “your”, or “them” in this Policy, it may refer to any of the above user types. Where necessary, we will specify if a provision applies only to a particular category of user.
3. Personal Information We Collect About You
In order to provide our Website’s services, including but not limited to, homeownership report generation, mortgage professional and referral partner collaboration, real estate and mortgage data insights, and related analytics (collectively, the "Services"), we may access and collect various types of personal information, including but not limited to:
Contact and Account Information: Details such as your mailing address, phone number, email address, and, where applicable, business contact details and login credentials.
Identification Information: Your government-issued identification documents as necessary to verify your identity.
Mortgage, Property & Financial Information: Homeowners, either directly or through a Mortgage Professional or Referral Partner, may provide mortgage, financial, and property details, including mortgage amount, lender, interest rate, income, credit score, assets, liabilities, home address, purchase price, and home type. Mortgage Professionals may submit historical mortgage application data related to the Homeowners they work with, which can include previous mortgage details, financial disclosures, and property information collected during the mortgage application process. Mortgage Professionals and Referral Partners who use third-party consultants to manage client engagement are responsible for ensuring proper consent has been obtained before sharing Homeowner information with Ownwell
Third-Party Sources: We may supplement user-provided information with real estate and mortgage data from third-party sources to improve the accuracy of homeownership reports and related insights. This may include property valuations, mortgage rate comparisons, and other market-related data. If this third-party data is linked to identifiable individuals, it will be treated as Personal Information and handled in accordance with this Policy.
Payment Information: For Mortgage Professionals and Referral Partners subscribing to the Services, we may collect payment details, including subscription plan type and billing history. All payments are processed securely through Stripe, and we do not store payment card details.
Technical and Interaction Information: When users interact with our Website, we may collect technical and usage data, including IP addresses, device identifiers, browser types, geolocation data, and session activity.
Feedback and Communication Information: We may collect communications and feedback data when users contact us, submit inquiries, or participate in surveys. Providing this information is voluntary, but it helps us enhance our Services and improve the overall user experience.
(collectively, “Personal Information”)
4. How We Collect Your Personal Information
We collect Personal Information through various channels, depending on how you engage with our Services. We may collect Personal Information in the following ways:
Directly from you when you voluntarily engage with our Website, sign up for an account, or subscribe to use our Services;
From Mortgage Professionals and Referral Partners who input Homeowner information to generate homeownership reports and manage client relationships. If you were referred to Ownwell by a Mortgage Professional or Referral Partner, we may contact you based on the referral. In such cases, the referring party must confirm that they have obtained your consent or have an existing business relationship with you.
From Homeowners who voluntarily provide their information through opt-in forms or referral partner invitations.
Through third-party integrations, such as mortgage application platforms (e.g., Finmo), real estate data providers, and mortgage rate comparison tools.
Automatically through our Website, using cookies and analytics tools (e.g., Mixpanel, Fullstory) to track Website interactions.
During the provision of our Services.
When you make payments for our Services using credit cards.
In collaboration with our payment processing partners, such as Stripe.
When you submit an inquiry or request via our contact form;
When you communicate with us via email, phone, or otherwise;
When you participate in a survey or feedback request we send;
When you apply for job positions within our organization;
When you provide reviews, testimonials, or feedback about our Services; and,
Through cookies and similar technologies (see Section 11);
We do not engage in data scraping. Our commitment is to collect only the Personal Information necessary to provide our Services efficiently, enhance your experience with us, and meet our operational and legal requirements.
5. How We Use Your Personal Information
We use the Personal Information we collect to operate, improve, and deliver our Services. Depending on your role as a Mortgage Professional, Referral Partner, or Homeowner, we may use your information for the following purposes:
To present our Website and its contents to you;
To provide and maintain our Services, including generating homeownership reports, facilitating communication between Mortgage Professionals and Referral Partners, and delivering insights to Homeowners. When sending homeownership reports and related insights, Ownwell complies with Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (“CASL”) by ensuring that such communications are sent only when express consent has been obtained from the user or when implied consent exists under CASL, such as in cases of an existing business relationship, an inquiry, or a referral from a Mortgage Professional or Referral Partner. Mortgage Professionals and Referral Partners must confirm that they have obtained the necessary consent when enrolling a user in an Ownwell report. Users may unsubscribe from these emails at any time by following the opt-out instructions in any email or by contacting our Privacy Officer in accordance with Section 17.
To process and manage accounts, including user registration, account settings, and authentication for Mortgage Professionals and Referral Partners.
To enhance the accuracy of homeownership reports by supplementing user-provided data with third-party real estate and mortgage data.
To process payments for those subscribing to our Services through our secure third-party processors;
To communicate with you, including responding to inquiries, providing Service updates, sending transactional emails (e.g., homeownership reports), and delivering customer support.
To conduct quality control and assess the effectiveness of our Services, ensuring that our offerings meet high standards and align with user needs; to monitor user interaction with our Website to maintain a secure and reliable user experience.
For marketing purposes, such as personalizing our marketing efforts, and notifying you about changes to our Website or any services we offer or provide through it.
To ensure security and fraud prevention, including monitoring access to our Website and enforcing compliance with our Terms & Conditions.
To fulfill the purposes for which you provided the information or that were described when it was collected, or any other purpose for which you provide it; and,
In accordance with applicable law.
Please note that we do not sell Personal Information, and we will only use your data as described in this Policy or as otherwise required by law.
6. Disclosure of Personal Information
We may disclose Personal Information that we collect or you provide as described in this Policy:
To our subsidiaries and affiliates as necessary to facilitate and coordinate our Services;
In accordance with applicable law, to a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which Personal Information held by us may be among the assets transferred;
To contractors, service providers, and other third parties who assist in Website operations, such as website hosting, security monitoring, analytics, and real estate/mortgage data providers that supplement homeownership reports. This includes the sharing of property-related details (e.g., address, purchase price, and property type) with real estate data providers solely for the purpose of generating home price estimates. These parties are contractually obligated to keep Personal Information confidential, use it solely for the purposes for which we disclose it to them, and process it according to the same standards outlined in this Policy;
To third-party payment processors for subscription management;
To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it, including sharing Homeowner data with Mortgage Professionals and Referral Partners when generating homeownership reports. When a Homeowner is introduced through a Referral Partner, the Mortgage Professional associated with the referral will have access to the Homeowner’s data through the platform. Homeowners should be aware that their information may be accessible to both the Mortgage Professional and Referral Partner as part of the collaboration.
To offer integrations with third-party platforms, such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools or mortgage application software, to enhance workflow efficiency for Mortgage Professionals and Referral Partners;
For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information; and,
With your consent.
We may also disclose your Personal Information:
To comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including responding to any government or regulatory request, in accordance with applicable law;
To enforce or apply our Terms & Conditions and other agreements, including for billing and collection purposes; and,
If we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect our rights, property, and safety as well as the rights, property, and safety of our customers or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.
7. Transferring your Personal Information
To operate effectively, we may transfer Personal Information to our subsidiaries or affiliates, contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support our business. These entities are contractually obligated to handle Personal Information securely and in compliance with the standards set forth in this Policy.
Personal Information may be processed, stored, or transferred outside of Canada, including in jurisdictions with privacy laws that may differ from those in Canada. For example, certain technology services supporting our Website, including cloud storage providers, analytics services, and payment processors may be hosted in the United States. In these circumstances, the governments, courts, law enforcement, or regulatory agencies of that country may be able to obtain access to your Personal Information through the laws of the foreign country. We take appropriate steps to ensure that all third-party entities handling Personal Information outside of Canada adhere to strict security and privacy safeguards in accordance with this Policy and applicable Canadian privacy legislation.
You are welcome to contact us to obtain further information about our policies regarding service providers outside of Canada. See Section 17 for contact details.
By submitting your Personal Information or engaging with the Website, you consent to this transfer, storage, or processing.
8. Security of Personal Information
The security of your Personal Information is very important to us. We use physical, electronic, and administrative measures designed to secure your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. We employ industry-standard data protection measures and tools, including:
Data Protection & Encryption: Personal Information is securely managed within the Ownwell’s cloud-based infrastructure, which is hosted on PlanetScale (AWS infrastructure). All data is encrypted in transit and at rest, with restricted access and continuous security monitoring to prevent unauthorized access or breaches.
Access Controls & Authentication: We apply strict access controls, following the principle of least privilege. Multi-Factor Authentication is required for internal system access, including administrative tools and email communications via Google Workspace.
Network and System Security: We use firewalls, web application firewalls, and automated monitoring tools to detect and mitigate security threats. Our Website, hosted on Vercel, benefits from DDoS protection and real-time threat detection to enhance resilience against cyber threats.
Security Monitoring & Incident Response: We actively monitor system activity for anomalies and unauthorized access attempts. In the event of a security incident, we follow an incident response plan, which includes credential revocation, additional security measures, and a post-incident security review. Our security measures are regularly reviewed and updated to align with evolving best practices. As we scale, we remain committed to enhancing our security measures to align with industry best practices.
While we employ robust security measures to safeguard your Personal Information, no system is entirely immune to risks. The safety and security of your information also depend on you. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password for access to certain parts of our Website, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone. We urge you to be careful about giving out information in public areas of the Website like message boards, which any Website visitor can view.
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to our Website. Any transmission of Personal Information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for the circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Website. Notwithstanding the foregoing, in the event of a data breach that poses a significant risk of harm, Ownwell will notify affected users as required by applicable laws.
9. Retention of Personal Information
Except as otherwise permitted or required by applicable law or regulation, we will only retain your Personal Information for as long as necessary to provide our Services and fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
Under some circumstances, we may anonymize your Personal Information so that it can no longer be associated with or identify you. We reserve the right to use such anonymous and de-identified data for any legitimate business purpose, including without limitation business intelligence and research, without further notice to you or your consent.
10. Links to Other Websites
The Website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins, services, social networks, or applications. Engaging with these third-party services may allow them to collect, process, or share your Personal Information in ways that are beyond our control. If you follow a link to a third-party website or engage a third-party plugin, please note that these third-parties have their own privacy policies and we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. We do not control these third-party websites, and as such, we strongly recommend reviewing the privacy policies of any external sites you visit to understand how they handle your Personal Information.
11. Information We May Collect Through Cookies
As you navigate through and interact with our Website, we may use cookies or other automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns, including:
Details of your visits to our Website, including traffic data, location data, logs, and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Website; and,
Information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system, and browser type.
We may also use such technologies to gather:
Information regarding your consent for the use of cookies through cookie consent logs, potentially including your IP address and browser information.
Details about your online activities over time and across third-party websites or other online services (behavioral tracking).
The information we collect automatically is primarily statistical data but may also include Personal Information. This data collection helps us to improve our Website and to deliver a better and more personalized service by enabling us to:
Estimate our audience size and usage patterns;
Store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize our Website according to your individual interests;
Speed up your searches; and,
Recognize you when you return to our Website.
The technologies we use for this automatic data collection may include:
Cookies (or browser cookies). A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our Website. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Website.
Flash Cookies. Certain features of our Website may use local stored objects (or Flash cookies) to collect and store information about your preferences and navigation to, from, and on our Website. Flash cookies are not managed by the same browser settings that are used for browser cookies.
Web Beacons. Pages of our Website (and our emails) may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit us, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an email and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website content and verifying system and server integrity).
You can manage cookie preferences through your browser settings. However, some features of the Website may not function properly if cookies are disabled.
12. Third-Party Use of Cookies
Some content or applications on the Website are served by third-parties, including advertisers, ad networks and servers, content providers, and application providers. These third-parties may use cookies to collect information about you when you use our Website. The information they collect may be associated with your Personal Information or they may collect information, including Personal Information, about your online activities over time and across different websites and other online services. They may use this information to provide you with interest-based (behavioural) advertising or other targeted content. We do not control these third-parties’ tracking technologies or how they are used. If you have any questions about an advertisement or other targeted content, you should contact the responsible provider directly.
You can opt-out of several third-party ad servers and networks’ cookies simultaneously by using an opt-out tool created by the Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada and/or an opt-out tool created by the Network Advertising Initiative. You can also access these websites to learn more about online behavioural advertising and how to stop websites from placing cookies on your device. Opting out of a network does not mean you will no longer receive online advertising. It does mean that the network from which you opted out will no longer deliver ads tailored to your web preferences and usage patterns.
13. Minors
Our Website is not available for users under the age of 18 (or the age of legal consent for the jurisdiction the user is located in) (a “Minor”). Minors may not provide any information to or on the Website. We do not knowingly collect Personal Information from Minors.
If you are a Minor, do not use or provide any information on this Website or on or through any of its features/register on the Website, or provide any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, email address, or any screen name or user name you may use.
If we learn we have collected or received Personal Information from a Minor without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information.
If you believe we might have any information from or about a Minor, please contact our privacy officer in accordance with Section 16 of this Policy.
14. Access and Correction
We strive to ensure that the Personal Information we hold is accurate and up to date. If your information changes, please notify us so we can maintain accurate records.
You have the right to review, verify, update, or withdraw consent for the use of your Personal Information by contacting our Privacy Officer, whose details are provided in Section 17 of this Policy. However, withdrawing consent may affect your ability to use certain features of our Services, including receiving homeownership reports, maintaining an active account, or accessing historical data. We will inform you of the specific consequences before processing your request.
To protect your privacy and security, we may require you to verify your identity before processing any requests. In some cases, we may be unable to accommodate a request if it would conflict with legal requirements, regulatory obligations, or data integrity policies.
Additionally, certain requests may be denied if the information has been anonymized, erased, or is no longer retained in accordance with our data retention practices. If we cannot grant your request, we will inform you of the reason, subject to applicable legal and regulatory limitations.
15. Withdrawing Your Consent
Where you have provided your consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of your Personal Information, you have the legal right to withdraw your consent under certain circumstances. To withdraw your consent, please contact our Privacy Officer, whose contact details are outlined in Section 16 of this Policy. Please note that if you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide you with a particular product or service. We will explain the impact to you at the time to help you with your decision.
16. Changes to Our Policy
This Policy may change from time to time. It is our policy to post any changes we make to our Policy on this page with a notice that the Policy has been updated.
We will notify you in advance of any material changes to this Policy and obtain your consent to any new ways that we collect, use, disclose, and store your Personal Information. Please check the Policy periodically for updates, as your continued use of this Website after we make changes indicates that you accept and consent to those changes.
17. Privacy Officer
We welcome your questions, comments, and requests regarding this Policy and our privacy practices. Please contact our Privacy Officer at:
Privacy Officer, Dan MacDonald
Ownwell Technologies Inc.
Email: dan@ownwell.ca
We are committed to addressing any concerns you may have and will respond to your inquiry within a reasonable time.
18. Complaints
If you are not satisfied with our response to your privacy-related inquiry, you have the right to file a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, as applicable.
Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
30 Victoria Street
Gatineau, Quebec K1A 1H3
Toll-free: 1-800-282-1376
Website: www.priv.gc.ca
Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario
2 Bloor Street East, Suite 1400
Toronto, Ontario M4W 1A8
Toll-free: 1-800-387-0073
Website: www.ipc.on.ca
By using our Services, you acknowledge and agree to the terms of this Policy.
We appreciate your trust in us and will continue to work diligently to protect your Personal Information and provide you with the best possible service.