This privacy policy explains, in plain English, what personal information Snow Blowers Canada collects when you browse or buy, why we collect it, who else ever sees it, how long we keep it, and exactly how to make us delete it. It is written to meet our obligations under Canadian federal privacy law, and it is deliberately short of the phrase “we may share your data with selected partners”, because we do not.
On this page
- Who we are and what this privacy policy covers
- What personal information we actually collect
- Card numbers, and why we never see yours
- Why we collect it, purpose by purpose
- Consent, and how to take it back
- Who else sees your information
- Where your information lives, and cross border transfers
- How long we keep things, and what deletion means
- Your rights, and how to use them
- Marketing email and Canadian anti spam rules
- How we protect it
- Children and this website
- Changes to this privacy policy, and how to complain
- Common questions
Who we are and what this privacy policy covers
Snow Blowers Canada is an online retailer of gas, electric and battery snow blowers, attachments and replacement parts, selling to customers across Canada. This privacy policy covers the website at snowblowerscanada.com, every order placed through it, and any email or message you send us through the contact page. It does not cover other websites we link to, including the manufacturer sites and the government resources cited throughout our buying guides.
We are the organisation that decides what personal information is collected and why, which under Canadian law makes us accountable for it. That accountability is not something we can contract away to a plugin vendor or a payment processor. If something goes wrong with your data on this site, it is our problem to fix, and the escalation route is set out at the bottom of this page.
The governing statute is the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, usually shortened to PIPEDA. It applies to commercial activity across provincial and national borders, which is exactly what a Canada wide online store does. Where a provincial privacy law gives you stronger rights than PIPEDA does, the provincial law applies and we follow it.
We review this privacy policy at the start of every snow season and whenever we change a system that touches customer data. The version of this privacy policy you are reading is the one in force. There is no archive of superseded versions hidden behind a login.
What personal information we actually collect
This privacy policy separates what we collect into three buckets. Keeping them apart matters, because each one has different retention rules and a different legal basis.
Order information. When you buy a machine or a part we collect your name, shipping address, billing address, email address and phone number. The phone number is not optional on freight shipments, because a 34 inch two stage machine moves on a pallet and the carrier needs to call you to arrange a delivery window. We also record what you bought, when, and for how much.
Account information. If you create an account we store your email, a hashed password, your saved addresses and your order history. A hashed password cannot be read by us or by anyone who steals the database. If you forget it we cannot tell you what it was, only reset it.
Technical information. Our server logs record IP address, browser type, the pages you viewed and the time. This is ordinary web server behaviour and it is how we notice that someone is trying twelve thousand password combinations against the login page at three in the morning.
| Category | Examples | Do we need it to sell you a machine? | Typical retention |
|---|---|---|---|
| Order | Name, addresses, phone, email, items | Yes | 7 years, tax law |
| Account | Email, hashed password, saved addresses | No, optional | Until you delete it |
| Payment | Card token only, never the number | Yes | Held by the processor |
| Technical | IP, browser, pages viewed | No | 30 to 90 days |
| Marketing | Email address, consent record | No, opt in | Until you unsubscribe |
What we do not collect is worth stating too. We do not ask for your date of birth, your income, your social insurance number, or anything about your household beyond the address a snow blower is going to. If a form on this site ever asks for one of those, it is broken and we would like to hear about it.
Card numbers, and why we never see yours
The single most common question about any retail privacy policy is about cards. We do not store credit card numbers. We never see a full card number at any point. When you pay, the card details go directly from your browser to a payment processor over an encrypted connection, and what comes back to us is a token: a meaningless string that lets us charge that one transaction and refund it later.
This is not a courtesy, it is the architecture the card industry requires. The rules are set by the PCI Security Standards Council, and the practical effect for you is that a breach of our website cannot expose your card, because your card is not in it.
Our payment and security page explains the accepted methods, how Interac transactions differ from card ones, and what happens to a token when you ask for a refund. If you ever see a charge you do not recognise, contact your bank first and us second. Your bank can stop the money moving. We can only explain it afterwards.
Why we collect it, purpose by purpose
This privacy policy has to identify each purpose before or at the time of collection, and to limit collection to what those purposes actually need. Here are ours, stated individually rather than as one vague paragraph about improving your experience.
To fulfil the order. Your address goes to the carrier because otherwise the machine arrives nowhere. Your phone number goes with it on freight shipments for the same reason.
To support the product afterwards. Knowing which machine you bought is how we identify the correct belt or shear pin when you call in February. Our snow blower parts catalogue is organised by stock number, and matching your order to a part number saves you sending back a belt that never fitted.
To honour the warranty. A manufacturer warranty claim needs proof of purchase date and the serial number. We hold both, which means you do not have to find a receipt from three winters ago. See the warranty policy for how a claim runs.
To meet legal obligations. Sales records are retained for tax purposes. That obligation outlives your relationship with us and it is the one reason we may keep some data after you ask for deletion.
To send marketing, only if you asked. Covered separately below, because the rules are different and stricter.
Consent, and how to take it back
Consent is the backbone of this privacy policy. For the information required to complete a purchase, your consent is implied by placing the order. You cannot reasonably expect a snow blower to arrive if you decline to give an address, and the law recognises that.
For everything else, consent is express and it is opt in. The newsletter box is unticked by default. Non essential cookies are off until you turn them on. We do not treat a scroll, a continued visit, or a closed banner as agreement to anything, which is a practice the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has criticised repeatedly and which we think is dishonest.
Withdrawing consent is a single step in every case. Marketing email: the unsubscribe link at the foot of every message, which works within ten business days and usually within minutes. Cookies: the controls described in our cookie policy. Account: delete it from your account page, or ask us. Withdrawing consent never affects the price you pay or the warranty you hold.
Who else sees your information
A short and complete list, not a vague category. A privacy policy that says “selected partners” is hiding something. We share the minimum with the following, and with nobody else.
- The carrier handling your shipment, which receives your name, address and phone number and nothing about what is in the box beyond weight and dimensions. For most parcels that is Canada Post or a national courier. Freight machines move by pallet carrier.
- The payment processor, which receives the amount and your card details directly from your browser. We receive a token back.
- The manufacturer, but only when you make a warranty claim, and only the fields that claim needs: name, serial number, purchase date and fault.
- Our hosting provider, which necessarily stores the database the website runs on.
We do not sell personal information. We do not rent mailing lists. We do not trade customer data with other retailers, and we do not participate in any co operative marketing database. If we are ever required to disclose information by a court order or a lawful demand, we will comply, and where the law permits us to tell you, we will.
Where your information lives, and cross border transfers
People ask where the data physically sits, and a privacy policy should answer that. Our website and its database are hosted on servers located in Canada. Backups are held in the same jurisdiction. This matters because information stored in another country is subject to that country’s laws, including lawful access by its authorities, regardless of what our contract says.
Two of our service providers may process limited data outside Canada: payment authorisation, which is routed through international card networks by design, and email delivery. In both cases the data involved is minimal, the transfer is necessary to perform the service you asked for, and the provider is contractually bound to a comparable standard of protection.
Canadian privacy guidance treats a transfer for processing as a use, not a disclosure, provided the information is used only for the original purpose. That is the case here. It does not remove our accountability, and we remain the party you complain to if something goes wrong.
How long we keep things, and what deletion means
Retention is the least glamorous part of any privacy policy. Sales records are kept for seven years because Canadian tax law requires it. That is the longest retention on this site and it is not negotiable, including by us.
Account data lives until you delete the account. Server logs are rotated out within thirty to ninety days depending on the log. Marketing consent records are kept for as long as the consent stands, plus a short period afterwards so we can prove you unsubscribed if a complaint is ever made.
When you ask us to delete your data we remove everything we are not legally required to keep, and we suppress the rest so it cannot be used for anything other than the legal obligation. Suppression rather than erasure is also how we make an unsubscribe stick. Deleting your email address entirely would let a future import add you back.
Your rights, and how to use them
A privacy policy is worth nothing without enforceable rights behind it. Under Canadian federal law you have the right to know whether we hold information about you, to see it, to correct it if it is wrong, to withdraw consent for uses that are not necessary to a purchase, and to complain if you are not satisfied.
To exercise any of them, write to us through the contact page and say which right you are using. We will confirm receipt, verify that you are who you say you are, and respond within thirty days. Verification exists to protect you: the worst possible outcome of a subject access process is handing your order history to somebody who guessed your email address.
Access and correction are free. If a request is genuinely repetitive or would take an unreasonable amount of work we will tell you before doing anything, and we will explain why rather than simply refusing.
| Right | What it gets you | How to ask | Our deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access | A copy of what we hold | Email through the contact page | 30 days |
| Correction | An error fixed | Email, tell us the correct value | 30 days |
| Withdraw consent | Marketing and optional cookies stop | Unsubscribe link or cookie controls | Immediate to 10 days |
| Deletion | Everything not legally required removed | Email through the contact page | 30 days |
| Complain | An investigation, then escalation | Email us first, then the OPC | 30 days |
Marketing email and Canadian anti spam rules
The marketing section of a privacy policy matters more in Canada than almost anywhere. Canada has one of the strictest commercial electronic message regimes in the world. Under Canada’s Anti Spam Legislation we need your consent before sending marketing email, we must identify ourselves clearly in every message, and we must give you a working unsubscribe that takes effect within ten business days.
We do all three. The newsletter is opt in, every message says who sent it and how to reach us, and unsubscribing takes one click with no confirmation page designed to make you give up.
Transactional messages are different and they are not marketing. An order confirmation, a shipping notice, a delivery window from the freight carrier and a warranty update are all messages you need in order to receive the thing you bought. Unsubscribing from the newsletter does not stop those, and it should not.
We send a seasonal email volume, not a daily one. In practice that means a note when the new model year lands, a note when clearance pricing starts, and occasionally a maintenance reminder before the first freeze. If that is more than you want, the link is at the bottom of each one.
How we protect it
Security is where a privacy policy either means something or does not. The whole site runs over HTTPS, including pages that are not forms, so a network observer cannot see which product pages you looked at. Administrative access requires a separate strong credential and is limited to the small number of people who need it to run the store.
Passwords are stored as salted hashes. Database backups are encrypted. Software and plugins are patched on a schedule rather than when something breaks, because the overwhelming majority of real world compromises of stores like this one exploit a vulnerability that was fixed months earlier.
No system is perfect and anybody who tells you otherwise is selling something. If a breach ever creates a real risk of significant harm to you, we are required to report it to the federal privacy regulator and to notify you, and we will do both promptly rather than waiting to see whether anyone noticed.
Children and this website
This privacy policy is written for adults buying machinery. This is a shop for powered outdoor equipment with an exposed auger and an impeller that turns fast enough to remove fingers. It is not directed at children, we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under the age of majority in their province, and we do not market to them.
If you believe a child has given us personal information, tell us through the contact page and we will delete it. Separately, and more importantly than any privacy question: the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety guidance on powered snow removal equipment is worth reading before letting anyone young operate a machine. Our snow blower repair guide covers safe clearing of a jammed chute, which is where most serious injuries happen.
Changes to this privacy policy, and how to complain
If we change this privacy policy in a way that materially affects how your information is handled, we will say so on the site rather than quietly editing the page. Continuing to use the site after a change means the current version applies to future collection. It does not retroactively change the basis on which we collected something last year.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, tell us first. Most problems are a misunderstanding or a mistake and we would rather fix it than argue about it. Write through the contact page and mark it as a privacy complaint so it is routed correctly.
If our answer does not satisfy you, you can escalate to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, which is the independent federal regulator and which accepts complaints from anyone, free of charge. You do not need our permission to go to them and you do not need a lawyer. Related policies you may want alongside this one are the terms and conditions, the returns and refunds policy, the shipping and delivery policy and the accessibility statement.
Common questions
Do you sell my personal information to anyone?
No. We do not sell, rent or trade personal information. The only parties who ever receive it are the carrier delivering your order, the payment processor, the manufacturer during a warranty claim, and our hosting provider.
Do you store my credit card number?
No. Card details go from your browser straight to the payment processor. We receive only a token that lets us charge and refund that one transaction. A breach of this website cannot expose your card because your card is not stored in it.
How do I get a copy of everything you hold about me?
Write to us through the contact page and say you are making an access request. We will verify your identity and respond within thirty days, free of charge.
Can you delete my data completely?
Almost. We delete everything we are not legally required to keep. Sales records must be retained for seven years under Canadian tax law, so those are suppressed rather than erased, meaning they cannot be used for anything except the legal obligation.
Is my data stored in Canada?
The website, its database and its backups are hosted in Canada. Payment authorisation and email delivery may route through providers outside Canada, which is necessary to perform those services, and we remain accountable for the data.
How do I stop the marketing emails?
Use the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any marketing message. It takes effect within ten business days and usually within minutes. Order confirmations, shipping notices and warranty updates are not marketing and will continue.
Who do I complain to if I am not happy with your answer?
Tell us first through the contact page. If our response does not satisfy you, you can complain free of charge to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, which is independent of us and does not need our permission.
Do you use tracking cookies?
Only with your consent. Cookies needed to keep a cart working are set automatically because the site cannot function without them. Everything else is off until you turn it on, and the detail is in our cookie policy.