Privacy Policy

Scope

SaskTel is made up of multiple lines of business, products, and digital channels. This privacy policy applies to SaskTel, our wholly-owned brands (Directwest, SecurTek), and our lines of businesses (both residential and business), and all digital channels. Throughout this policy, SaskTel will be referred to as 'SaskTel', 'ours', 'us', or 'we' in this document.

This privacy policy governs our collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information for certain products and partnerships that SaskTel offers. We will ask you separately for your consent when there is a specific use or different privacy policy for products, applications, or services than what is described in this policy. Your purchase and/or continued use of our products and services is your implied consent for SaskTel to use your personal information as described in this policy. If you choose to change your consent, please refer to the end of this policy for choices available to you.

When and where we collect information

We collect information from you in person, over the phone, by mail, in writing, or verbally. We will also collect information from you when you use our products, and digital channels such as our website, mobile applications, emails, texts, chat, and when you communicate with us through social media.

We collect information about you during the application process to confirm your identity and credit history, when communicating or transacting business with you, and when providing service to you.

Telephone calls and online chat sessions to or from our service representatives will be monitored and recorded. Your telephone and chat discussions with our representatives are used for our mutual protection, to enhance customer service, improve interactions with our representatives and to confirm our discussions with you. Customers who prefer not to have their calls and voice recorded when calling us can transact business at a store, an authorized dealer, or through our digital channels.

SaskTel stores and buildings may also use video monitoring to ensure the safety of our staff, our customers, and for fraud prevention.

We may also collect information about you from third parties that have the right to share it with us. Before collecting this information, we will ask for your consent unless doing so is impractical or inappropriate. We may combine this information with what we already have to help us provide product recommendations and offers that we think will interest you.

The information we collect

Types of information that SaskTel collects are as follows:

• Account and Contact Information

  Account and Contact Information includes details such as your name, mailing address, phone number, account number, date of birth, email address, or the name of your company. We maintain a record of your account along with products and services you receive from us, and we may ask you for additional account and contact information so we can serve you better, such as additional account or device users and delegates you authorize to act on your behalf.

• Identity Authentication and Verification Information

  Identity Authentication and Verification Information including Government-issued identification, student identification, date of birth, user ID, and/or account passwords are collected to confirm and authenticate your identity to prevent fraud and prove you are entitled to products and services. We may also use this information to run credit checks in situations where you are entering into a post-paid service with us. Once you have established an account with us, you may contact us to remove your government-issued ID from our systems and establish a password to conduct future verification steps instead of continuing to use your government-issued ID.

  Note: Social Insurance Number (SIN) and Health Services Card (HSC) are optional but may be requested to perform a credit check. Customers may provide 2 other forms of identification, such as date of birth, driver's license number, or passport where they do not wish to provide their SIN or HSC and are still able to obtain service in accordance with our current credit policies.

  We may request SIN or HSC; however, customers are not obligated to provide them and the provision of service will not be denied should the SIN or HSC be withheld and acceptable alternative other forms of identification are provided.

  Regardless of whether or not a SIN or HSC is provided by the customer, the credit check result may require a condition of service to be met such as providing a deposit or alternate form of security, pre-authorized payment, a prepaid service may be offered instead of a post-paid service, or a reduction in the services or services may be applied with restrictions such as toll restrictions. Can SaskTel ask for my SIN and HSC information?

• Financial Information

  Financial information may be collected during the application process for a credit check, or when transacting business with you. Bank account or credit card information may be collected during a purchase transaction, or when using preauthorized payments for our services.

• Location Information

  Location information, such as the information about your device's physical location, may be used to provide you with enhanced services or information you have requested. Depending on the service you have with us, this may include the location where our services are installed or where you use our services (for example, when you place a long-distance call or when using data in a different province). You may be presented with additional choices to allow us to use your device's location depending on the service you have purchased or, for example, to validate your postal code if you are making a purchase or to determine what services are available in your area.

• Data Analytics

  Data analytics, which is a combination of our network diagnostics, device connectivity, duration of connectivity and activity, your service and product usage, the times and ways you have contacted us, the times, durations and ways we have provided you assistance, your historical purchases, and your time spent as a customer. This also includes other information you have provided us in your account, such as age and service location. We look for patterns in this data to understand you, to understand how our services and products are performing in the market, and for opportunities to improve our existing -or develop new- processes and solutions for you.

• Transactional Information

  Transactional information about your purchases and use of our products and services may be collected and analyzed to provide products and services, help us market to customers, or to conduct market and consumer experience research.

• Prospective Employee Information

  If you are applying for a job at SaskTel, you may choose to provide us with information along with your application. This may include your resume, cover letter, documents to prove your eligibility to work, testing results, diversity declarations, certifications, language capabilities, references, and other information for us to process your application for a position. This information may be kept in our systems to determine your eligibility for future work opportunities and to help us with career planning, development, policy compliance, recruitment, and retention. You may request changes or removal of the information you provided within your application through the job application online portal or by contacting the privacy office in writing using the contact information provided in this policy.

• Other Information

  Other information--such as any feedback, compliments, complaints, other information you may provide to us, or information on web forms that you may choose to fill in--may also be used to better understand you and other customers, identify areas for business improvements, address concerns, and understand our website visitors and mobile app users, along with the other purposes listed in this policy.

• Digital Channel Usage Information

  Digital channel usage information, which is made up of our mobile applications (such as the mySASKTEL app), websites, and self-management portals. Digital channel usage information helps us monitor performance and improve our digital channels. Through these we may collect information about how you interact with our digital channels, which includes your use of our website, chat and chat bots, online store, mobile applications, and your interaction with the electronic messages we send to you. The types of information collected include your browsing behaviour, pages visited, if you opened or read emails we sent you, links clicked, content viewed or loaded, your IP address, popular links, time spent on pages of our website, cookies, and other online identifiers.

  Online identifiers can include cookies, flash cookies, pixels, tags, other forms of web beacons, information about software development kits and application program interfaces. Often these include small data packets that allow our systems to identify your browser or device and remember important information that will make your use of our site more enjoyable. For example, some cookies save your passwords and preferences, so you do not have to enter them each time you visit a site.

  Cookies and other online identifiers can be analyzed by us or our partners to tell us what type of device you are using, which pages are visited, if our messages are viewed, by how many people, the average time spent on pages, and other useful statistics related to the use of our site. We use the statistics from these online identifiers to understand how customers use our digital channels, to make it easier for you and other visitors to use our digital channels, to monitor our digital channel's performance, and to improve our digital channels.

  If you wish, you can configure your browser to accept all cookies, reject all cookies, or notify you when a cookie is sent. You do not need to accept cookies to visit our site; however, if you choose not to accept these cookies, your experience on our sites may be diminished and some features may not work properly.

  When using our digital channels, we may also collect information such as your email address or username and password to authenticate you and provide the service or information you requested. When logged in to your account or when you identify yourself through a digital channel, we will collect information about the changes you requested or made related to your account, inquiries, additional users on your account, purchase history and payments, spending limits, billing and transaction information and profile updates within your account.

  Our digital channels may enable convenient login features such as Face ID, Touch ID, or Remember Me by using biometric data that is stored in and controlled by your device settings. Our apps may utilize these features to authenticate you, but we never have access to the biometric data.

  Note about other digital channel privacy policies: SaskTel may promote, partner with, or guide you to websites, digital channels, or applications that are not owned or operated by SaskTel. These may have their own privacy policies that are separate from this one. These websites, digital channels, or applications will have their own privacy policy and require your separate consent for collection of information related to those products and services. We encourage you to read those privacy policies prior to using those products and services.

  mySASKTEL App: During the first launch or reinstallation of SaskTel applications, you will be asked to agree with this policy for permission to collect your user name, user ID, address, phone number, account information, IP address, browser used and device information such as model, manufacturer and version of software, and application interaction analytics. While using our mySASKTEL app to find nearby selectWI-FI hotspots you may provide permission to use location information that is obtained by your device. You will also be asked if you would like to opt in to app usage sharing.

  • App usage sharing: Upon first launch of the App, you will be asked if you would like to share application performance usage details, which we will use to further enhance or address problems with the app. The details collected include information such as application usage, the number of individuals accessing their eBILL, what pages within the app are visited, what transactions are performed, and any error messages that are encountered. You may opt out of the analytics we collect for the mySASKTEL app at any time. In iOS and Android devices, the option to stop sending analytics data is located in the mySASKTEL app settings "About the App".

  You may delete the app from your device at any time, though your mySASKTEL profile will still exist for you to access online through our web portal. If you would like your mySASKTEL profile deleted or the data loaded to the portal from the app deleted, you must contact SaskTel to discuss the removal or deletion of the information collected within the app.

  Social Network Data such as aggregated statistics may be shared with SaskTel by third party social media platforms when interacting with our brand through those platforms. Any content you post on official SaskTel-managed social media pages, such as pictures, information or opinions, is subject to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policies of those respective platforms. Please refer to them to better understand your rights and obligations regarding such content.

How we use your information

SaskTel uses the personal information it collects for the following purposes (unless otherwise stated at the time of collection):

• To provide you with the information, products, or services that you request from us, to provide you with ongoing service and support, and to properly manage your account.

• To provide you with notices about your account, including roaming notices.

• To understand your needs and preferences, to develop and recommend suitable products and services to you, and to offer you better products and special offers.

• To communicate with you, as part of our responsible, ongoing commercial relationship with you, which may include informing you of changes that will affect your service and providing you with emergency alerts.

• To offer you better products, special offers, and send you information, advertising, recommendations, and content that we think may be of interest to you. These may not all be products and services we sell, but instead, those we think you might be interested in. You may choose to receive some of these messages in different ways or not at all. Please see the Your choices section of this policy for ways to adjust your preferences.

• To develop new products and services and to adjust our existing products and services

• To manage and develop our business and operations, including networks, new products and services, personnel, and employment matters.

• To measure performance, perform aggregated reporting and demographic analysis, determine service usage and business usage, and to understand how services are used and be improved.

• To meet legal and regulatory requirements.For example, we may collect information to respond to a court order.

Note regarding SaskTel's use of AI technology: SaskTel may use your personal information in artificial intelligence (AI) tools developed by SaskTel or by SaskTel's partners to help us accomplish the purposes disclosed above, or if different than above, as explained to you at the time your information is collected. We may use your personal information to train our internal AI models. De-identified, aggregated data may be used to train AI models used by our business' strategic partners as discussed in this policy.

Sharing your personal information

Personal information is not sold or rented to any parties outside of SaskTel holding companies without your consent or as permitted by SaskTel's Tariff.

We do share this information with the companies we select as our business' strategic partners that work with us, who provide SaskTel products and services, help us market to customers, or conduct market and consumer experience research on our behalf. We require these partners, by contract, to honor our privacy principles in the handling of the personal information they obtain from us. The information provided to our business partners is used only for the service they are providing us and any disclosure outside of SaskTel is made on a confidential basis.

Should we sell a part of our business, merge, or amalgamate part or all of our business with another entity, we may need to disclose customer information as part of the transaction. Any such disclosure would be subject to appropriate privacy and security safeguards.

In certain circumstances, when necessary or where permitted by law, we may disclose your personal information without your consent to the following parties:

• The customer or an agent acting on the customer's behalf, such as Power of Attorney;

• Companies we select as our business partners;

• A company that publishes a directory or directory-related services for wireline customers (wireless numbers are automatically excluded and only included upon request)

• A collection agency or party used to determine creditworthiness, or for collecting unpaid balances;

• A credit bureau reporting agency;

• Courts, law enforcement agencies, or otherwise legally empowered entities; 

  • If you purchase wireless and home phone services, this includes Statistics Canada. For details, see the Product-specific information section of this policy.

• We may disclose personal information to meet legal or regulatory requirements, such as under a court order or, to a government institution if required or authorized by law;

• To public authorities or their agents in cases of emergency (for example, a 911 call);

• Ombudsman

Product-specific information

In addition to the general terms of this policy, we may collect a specific subset of personal information and use it differently for specific products or services inquired about or purchased.

The following section provides additional information types that are collected based on our major products and services, where the information collected is applicable to the products or services inquired about or purchased.

• SaskTel Home Phone

  In addition to the types of information collected mentioned in this policy, additional information collected includes: your call duration, long-distance calling locations, call dates, times, and numbers involved with the call.

  Information disclosure: Please note that we will share your home phone number with directory services unless you choose otherwise, please see the Your choices section of this policy. We are also required to share your phone number, name, and address with Statistics Canada.

• SaskTel Wireless

  SaskTel Wireless products and services include wireless phones, watches and other devices that connect wirelessly to the cellular or wifi network, with or without voice calling capabilities. Information collected in addition to what is already mentioned in this policy includes:

  • Wireless device information, such as the number, the type of device, capabilities, the SIM, eSIM, and IMEI numbers.

  • Wireless call, SMS, and MMS usage information, such as the amount of usage, your call duration, locations, dates, times, and numbers involved.

  • Wireless data usage information, such as your location, time of day/sessions and length, volume used, throttled speeds, incurred overage data, IP addresses and aggregated types of traffic usage (streaming data, tethered data, video data), and network-level cyber security detection and blocking known of known malicious sites (learn more at sasktel.com/cybersecurityblocking).

  • Account information, including the following details about additional unit owners if you provide the details and/or authorize them to make changes on your account: name, age, and verification details.

  Sharing considerations: Please note we are required to share your wireless phone number, name, and address with Statistics Canada. We do NOT share wireless phone numbers with directory services unless otherwise specified by you.

• Internet and infiNET

  Information collected in addition to what is already mentioned in this policy includes IP addresses, site usage information, upload and download amounts, time of day usage, devices connected to SaskTel's gateway (such as your Apple TV, Amazon Firestick, or other non-SaskTel connected devices), home Wi-Fi usage and types of traffic (such as streaming video vs non-vide and cyber security detection and blocking of known malicious sites (learn more at sasktel.com/cybersecurityblocking).

• SaskTel maxTV and maxTV Stream

  Information collected in addition to what is already mentioned in this policy includes channel subscriptions, viewing and recording usage (channels viewed, time of day usage, concurrent viewing, programs recorded), and set-top box information (named location, device type and capabilities, outage and network connectivity analytics, including times, locations and other services you have connected/running through your set-top box.

• SecurTek

  In addition to the types of collected information described in this policy, and depending on the monitoring solutions you subscribe to, SecurTek may collect the logs, audio recordings, visual recordings (if video cameras are part of your service), and activity of the premise information captured by the monitoring devices installed. This may include geolocation data, information from the premise, such as named locations and placement, information detected by the monitoring devices, your activity and interaction with the security system and online interfaces, inferences regarding the safety and security status of your property based on the other information collected, and amount of service calls, including both false and legitimate alarm calls.

  Sharing considerations: Please note that if you subscribe to our emergency dispatch services, we will disclose your information with the relevant service providers when an emergency alarm event has been triggered (for example: fire, ambulatory or police services).

How we safeguard your information

Information is retained in secure facilities and protected from unauthorized access. We provide technical, administrative, and physical security measures to protect your information against loss, misuse, and unauthorized access or disclosure.

The safety and security of your information also depends on you. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password for access to certain parts of our website or services, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.

For some services, we use service providers located in another country to process and store information related to that service and as a result foreign governments, courts, law enforcement or regulatory agencies may be able to obtain disclosure of your information through the laws of that country.

Data retention

Except as otherwise permitted or required by applicable law or regulation, we will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to 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 you. We reserve the right to use such anonymous and de-identified data for any legitimate business purpose without further notice to you or your consent.

Your choices

You have the following choices about your personal information:

• Customers who prefer not to have their calls and voice recorded when calling us can instead transact business at a store, an authorized dealer, or through our digital channels.

• You can have your name removed from our telephone, SMS (texting), mail, or email marketing lists. By doing so, you may not be made aware of certain products, services, and promotions we offer. However, you'll continue to be contacted as necessary to service your account, and you'll receive marketing information included with your regular account mailings. Please allow us 10 days to complete your request. Some of our promotions may already be in progress when you submit your request, therefore you may be contacted during this time. If at any time you wish to reverse your decision, you may contact us at 1.800.SASKTEL (1.800.727.5835) or update your preferences on the mySASKTEL portal.

• Our directory publisher, Directwest, makes lists of SaskTel home phone customers, and will publish names, addresses, and phone numbers available to selected organizations for a fee. You may choose to be excluded from these Directwest lists. Please note that non-published names, addresses, and phone numbers are automatically excluded and wireless numbers are only included upon request.

• You may refuse to provide personal information to us. You may also withdraw your consent at any time, subject to legal, contractual, or practical restrictions and reasonable notice. However, in either case, this may limit our ability to serve you. When you contact us, we will confirm that you are the registered customer. Please know that withdrawing your consent may prevent us from providing you with service and products in certain circumstances.

  • Government-issued identification and date of birth: We use this information to confirm your identity and prevent fraud. We may also use this information to run credit checks is situations where you are entering into a post-paid service with us. You may choose to establish a password to conduct future verification steps instead of using your government-issued ID.

• When you use wireless devices, our wireless network will process your usage based on your location and your connecting technology. However, your device's location settings may prevent other apps from accessing your location. Please refer to the documentation for your device regarding how to allow or block the collection of location information. If you choose not to provide location information, some services may not operate effectively.

Protecting the privacy of children

The privacy of children is important to us. We encourage parents to review our Privacy Policy, Legal Notices, and User Agreement documents. We do not knowingly collect data from or about children under 18 without the permission of their parent or legal guardian. When we do collect that data, it will be done in accordance with this policy. The information collected may include age, unique identifiers for the device, and geolocation data, among the other information types collected, depending on the product or service purchased that is used by your child. See the Product-specific information section in this policy for more information.

Services and devices may be purchased for family use and therefore used by children without our knowledge. While the users may be children, we require the account owners of our services to be individuals who can form legally binding contracts. When this happens, information collected may appear to us to be associated with the adult customer who subscribes to our services and will be treated as the adult's information under this policy. If you are purchasing services or products that you share with or give to your child, you are consenting to SaskTel's collection, use and disclosure of your child's information, as described in this policy.

As an added protection for children, on any of our commercial websites or online services directed to children under 13 years of age, we will obtain the permission of a parent or legal guardian before collecting, using or disclosing any personally identifiable information about a child (for example, for participation in contests or promotions).

Other services, websites, and applications

SaskTel may resell services or products that have their own privacy policy. As well, SaskTel's websites, social media platforms, blogs may contain links to other sites or have the ability to download applications that SaskTel does not own and or operate. Please be aware that SaskTel is not responsible for the privacy practices of other such sites or applications. The products and services of other companies and links to third parties are provided as a convenience to you. When you click on one of these links, you are moving to another website or application and should read the Privacy Policy and terms of use for each site you visit or application you use to ensure you are comfortable with how they may use your personal information.

Questions or concerns

We welcome your comments about this Privacy Policy. Please contact us if you have questions about privacy and usage that were not answered here. You may address these concerns, in writing, to:

Chief Privacy Officer

MAIL

13TH Floor, 2121 Saskatchewan Drive Regina, SK S4P 3Y2

EMAIL

privacy.matters@sasktel.com

If this does not resolve your concern to your satisfaction, you may contact the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner by writing to:

Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner

MAIL

Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner
503 –1801 Hamilton Street Regina SK S4P 4B4

EMAIL

intake@oipc.sk.ca

PHONE

306-787-8350
1-877-748-2298 (Toll Free)

FAX

306-798-1603

X (TWITTER)

@SaskIPC

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We will update this policy from time to time as reflected in the effective date of this document, so please review it periodically. Your continued use of our products after our updates go into effect will be your implied consent to the changes in the policy. You can view the previous privacy policy here: Privacy Policy - April 1, 2019 (PDF)

Personal information handling principles

We have always been, and will continue to be, committed to the privacy of your personal information. In addition to our existing procedures and our adherence to The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act of Saskatchewan (FOIP), which governs our approach to handling personal information, we have adopted the following privacy principles from the Canadian Standards Association's Model Code for the Protection of Personal Information:

Principle 1

• Accountability

  SaskTel is responsible for the personal information under our control and we have designated a Chief Privacy Officer (CPO) to be accountable for our compliance with the privacy principles.

Principle 2

• Identifying purposes for the collection of personal information

  We will identify the purpose for collecting personal information at or before the time the information is collected.

Principle 3

• Obtaining consent for the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information

  We require the knowledge and consent of the customer for the collection, use, or disclosure of personal information except where it is impractical or inappropriate to do so, such as in emergency situations.

Principle 4

• Limiting collection of personal information

  We will limit the collection of personal information to that which is necessary for the purposes identified by the company. We will collect personal information by fair and lawful means.

Principle 5

• Limiting use, disclosure, and retention of personal information

  We will not use or disclose personal information for purposes other than those for which it was collected, except with the consent of the individual or as required by law. We retain personal information only as long as necessary for the fulfillment of those purposes.

Principle 6

• Accuracy of personal information

  Personal information will be as accurate, complete, and up-to-date as is necessary for the purposes for which it is to be used.

Principle 7

• Security safeguards

  We will protect personal information by security safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information.

Principle 8

• Openness

  We will make readily available, to customers and employees, specific information about our policies and procedures relating to the management of personal information.

Principle 9

• Customer and employee access to personal information

  Upon request, customers and employees shall be informed of the existence, use, and disclosure of his or her personal information and shall be given access to that information. An individual shall be able to challenge the accuracy and completeness of the information and have it amended as appropriate.

Principle 10

• Challenging compliance

  A customer may address a challenge concerning compliance with the above principles to the CPO.

Our personnel are required to complete mandatory privacy training courses, as well as general staff education and training, to enhance awareness of responsibilities and commitments towards the proper handling of customers' personal information in accordance with our policies and procedures.