CPA Ontario Privacy Policy

Changes to this Privacy Policy

Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario (“CPA Ontario”) reserves the right to change this Privacy Policy (“Policy”) from time to time. We recommend that you review this Policy located on our website regularly so that you are aware of any changes. Your continued use of our website following the posting of any changes to this Policy constitutes your acceptance of these changes. The date on which this Policy was last modified appears at the top. You should review this Policy in conjunction with the Legal terms and conditions that govern your use of our website.

Purpose of this Policy

CPA Ontario is the qualifying and regulatory body of Ontario’s Chartered Professional Accountants (“CPAs”) and accounting firms, and students in the CPA professional education program. This Policy describes the personal information management practices of CPA Ontario relating to its members, students, prospects and other individual public stakeholders and contacts, as applicable.

Personal information

In this Policy, “personal information” refers to information about an identifiable individual, but does not include information about individuals in their professional capacity, including an individual’s name, business title, business address (including email address), business telephone number, CPA Ontario membership status, right to use the Chartered Professional Accountant designation or a legacy designation, or whether the individual holds a current public accounting licence. This Policy explains the reasons why we collect your personal information, as well as how we handle that information.

It should be noted that most of CPA Ontario’s activities are not subject to privacy law. The federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”), being the privacy law applicable to the private sector in Ontario, applies to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information in the course of commercial activities. Since the core activities of CPA Ontario are not commercial in nature, PIPEDA does not apply to most of our activities. PIPEDA only applies to the limited forms of commercial activity that CPA Ontario may engage in outside of our core activities.

Types of personal information we collect

We collect personal information from individuals in person, over the phone, by correspondence via mail or email, or through our website (e.g. profile updates, downloadable and fillable forms or applications). The types of personal information we collect depends on whether or not an individual is a member or a student of CPA Ontario. The personal information we may collect includes name and contact information (where not business information), and financial information required to purchase our goods and services, including credit card information.

The public areas of CPA Ontario's website can be visited without providing any personal information. Personal information is only collected if visitors voluntarily choose to provide it. 

We may collect personal information such as date of birth, gender, languages spoken, language preference, place of residence, course enrolment information, status or progression in the CPA professional education program including fulfilment of program requirements and results of examinations, record of academic results, record of academic and professional accomplishments outside the CPA professional education program, particulars of current and previous employment, education, professional development and volunteer activities, licensing information, and customer service interactions.

For members engaged in public practice or public accounting as a sole proprietor, partner or shareholder of a firm or professional corporation, we may collect further information such as names of business partners, shareholder information, preferred areas of practice, position codes, practice review results, and professional liability insurance information.

How we use personal information

CPA Ontario uses the personal information we collect to confirm an individual’s identity, to respond to inquiries or comments, to send important notices about the profession, to fulfil legal and regulatory requirements, to administer the member or student relationship, to protect the public from unauthorized use of the Chartered Professional Accountant designation or a legacy designation, to carry out our business activities, and generally to provide individuals with the products and services they request.

CPA Ontario uses the personal information you provide to process financial transactions (including student and membership dues and fees, and purchases of products or services), to process program transactions (including applications, event registrations, continuing professional development reporting, practice registration, practice inspection, course/event  enrolment, academic results processing, advanced standing requests, transcript distribution, and transactions relating to our job board service), to communicate information or materials we are required to communicate by law or regulation (including notices related to annual general meetings), and to maintain the register of members and the roll of licensed public accountants.

We may conduct surveys. If you choose to participate in such surveys, we will use the information you provide to better understand your professional profile, your needs, and the needs of users of accounting services.

Subject to obtaining your consent, we may use your personal information to provide you with tailored communications (including information about products or services available for purchase, notices of professional development, career and volunteer opportunities, speaking engagements or participation in special interest groups).

If you do not wish to receive commercial or promotional emails from CPA Ontario, you may withdraw your consent to receive these communications at any time by contacting CPA Ontario at [email protected].

Sharing personal information

CPA Ontario may disclose the personal information of members and students to other regulators and affiliated organizations, including CPA Canada, provincial, territorial and international CPA or other professional accounting bodies, CPA Ontario regional associations, and the CPA Ontario Foundation. Such disclosure is made: to permit these entities to certify members and conduct regulatory audits; to facilitate inter-provincial and international mobility of members and students; for the operation of academic programs, the provision of products or services, and to administer the member or student relationship; to manage the use of the Chartered Professional Accountant and legacy designations; and to communicate information or materials required by law or regulation.

CPA Ontario may provide your personal information to third-party service providers engaged to conduct activities on our behalf, including analyzing data, administering our marketing and promotional activities, conducting surveys, soliciting feedback on your experience with CPA Ontario, or providing the products and services you have requested. CPA Ontario may also provide your personal information to our affinity program partners so that you are eligible to receive their products and services at favourable rates. We require these organizations to have privacy policies or to abide by our privacy requirements in relation to the personal information we share with them, including a requirement to use the information only for the purposes for which it was provided.

For members, CPA Ontario may also disclose your personal information to government entities to advocate on your behalf or as otherwise may be required or requested by them. CPA Ontario is required by its governing documents to maintain a register of members which is open to examination by the public at CPA Ontario’s head office during normal office hours free of charge, and to maintain a roll of licensed public accountants on its website in a publicly accessible and freely available manner that is open for public inspection. CPA Ontario also maintains a member directory which may contain each member’s name, designations and initials, employer information, discipline information and other information described in the General By-law, which is available to the public on our website. CPA Ontario may, subject to approval by the Registrar, exempt a member or licensee from having their contact information made available to the public in the member directory or roll of licensed public accountants, respectively, where CPA Ontario is of the opinion that there are legitimate concerns surrounding the individual’s personal security.  If you wish to request an exemption from disclosing your contact information in the member directory or the roll of licensed public accountants, you may contact our Customer Service Centre by email at [email protected].

From time to time, CPA Ontario or our third-party service providers or affinity partners may store or process your personal information outside of Canada.  While outside of Canada your personal information may be subject to disclosure in accordance with the laws of the foreign jurisdiction.

Your consent

By providing CPA Ontario with your personal information and/or by using our website, you are consenting to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information in accordance with the terms of this Policy. If CPA Ontario requests additional personal information or intends to use or disclose your personal information differently than described in this Policy, we will advise you when we collect it or before we use it.

There are circumstances established at law under which CPA Ontario may collect, use or disclose your personal information without obtaining your consent, including: (i) to collect a debt owed to us, (ii) to establish and maintain the member register and the roll of licensed public accountants, (iii) to meet government tax reporting requirements, (iv) to carry out and satisfy our regulatory responsibilities and obligations (including those relating to member and student discipline), (v) to comply with an order made by a court, and (vi) as otherwise may be required by applicable law.

Refusal and withdrawal of consent

Where your consent is required, you may refuse or withdraw your consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information. You should be aware that your choice to refuse or withdraw consent may negatively affect your ability to meet CPA Ontario’s requirements, or CPA Ontario’s ability to provide you with certain products or services.

Personal information of others you provide to us

You represent and warrant that you are lawfully authorized to consent to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information that you provide to CPA Ontario about an individual third party. You will indemnify and save harmless CPA Ontario and its council members, officers, employees, representatives and agents from and against any and all liabilities, claims, actions, causes of action, demands, losses, damages, costs or expenses (including reasonable legal fees and expenses) that any of them may suffer or incur as a result of or arising out of CPA Ontario’s collection, use and disclosure of personal information about an individual third party that you provide to CPA Ontario.

Retention and disposal of personal information

CPA Ontario keeps personal information for as long as it is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected. Accordingly, we may retain personal information for different lengths of time, depending on the nature of the personal information and the purposes for which it was provided to us. We dispose of personal information in a manner that ensures the continued security of the information. We may retain archived records of your personal information to comply with legal requirements

Security safeguards

CPA Ontario takes steps to protect your personal information against unauthorized access, disclosure, loss, inappropriate alteration and misuse. CPA Ontario deploys controls that follow cybersecurity standard frameworks including encrypting data at rest and in transit. Given that electronically transmitted data is not 100% secure, we make no warranties as to the security of any information you submit electronically, which you do at your own risk.

Access and correction of personal information

If you wish to access, correct or update your personal information in CPA Ontario's records, you may contact our Privacy Officer at the email address indicated below. You may also access, correct or update some of your personal information online by following the links on our website. Some information may not be accessed, such as information that contains personal information of others, or is otherwise protected under the law.

Members and students have a responsibility to maintain current contact information with CPA Ontario.

Cookies, IP addresses, and links to other websites

A cookie is an element of data that a website can send to your browser, for storing on your hard drive, so we can more easily recognize you when you return to our website.

We may use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with tailored information. Cookies allow us to know that you are logged in (as applicable) and help us to administer our marketing activities and perform analytics. You may set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie and you may choose to decline, delete or disable cookies. You should be aware that if you do so you may not be able to access or run certain applications that are on our website.

CPA Ontario uses Google Analytics. This tool uses cookies to collect and generate information about your visits to our website (including your IP address) that is transmitted to Google’s servers in an anonymous form for processing. We study patterns of website activity so we can improve the experience of visitors to our website. Google currently offers a free Google Analytics opt-out tool. Click here for the opt-out tool. CPA Ontario may also use marketing software to enable personalization services.

CPA Ontario's website logs IP addresses, but not the email addresses, of visitors. This real time information is aggregated, logged, and used to measure statistical information about usage of our website, including the total number of visits, page errors, average time spent on the website, and pages viewed, both in real-time, and within a certain historical time frame. CPA Ontario uses this aggregated information to measure the use of our website and to improve its content and usage.

CPA Ontario’s website may contain links to other internet websites owned and operated by third parties. While we try to provide a link only to websites that share our high standards and respect for privacy, we are not responsible for the content or the privacy practices of those websites. Since you are solely responsible for deciding whether to visit any particular website, we strongly recommend that you review the privacy policies applicable to those other websites before you proceed to visit the website or provide any personal information there.

Questions or concerns

If you have any questions or concerns about this Policy or CPA Ontario's privacy and information practices, contact our Privacy Officer.

Email Privacy Officer