- NORTH AMERICA
- ASIA MIDDLE EAST
- AUSTRALASIA
CANADA
PRIVACY NOTICE
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National Liability & Fire Insurance Company, Canada Branch, operating under the trade name Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance (“BHSI, “we”, “our”, and “us”) is committed to safeguarding your privacy and the confidentiality of your personal information. References to “you” or “your” refers to the individual whose personal data is being processed by BHSI (you may be the applicant, insured, beneficiary, claimant or other person involved in a claim or relevant to the insurance policy).
1. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS PRIVACY NOTICE
In order to provide certain insurance products and services (including providing insurance quotes, insurance policies, and/or dealing with any claims or complaints), BHSI may collect information about you which constitutes personal information under applicable data privacy laws. This Privacy Notice explains how we collect, use, share and protect your personal information. Please read this Privacy Notice carefully to understand what we do with your personal information. This Privacy Notice is available at https://www.bhspecialty.com/privacy-policy/privacy-policy-canada/ and may be changed and updated from time to time as required.
2. WHAT IS PERSONAL INFORMATION?
This notice only applies to personal information as defined in applicable statute or regulation. In general, personal information is information about an identified or identifiable individual. Personal information does not include information that has been anonymized such that re-identification is not possible. Business contact information, when used to contact an individual about business, is not considered personal information.
3. PERSONAL INFORMATION WE MAY COLLECT ABOUT YOU
We collect and hold a range of personal information from and about individuals who are insured, or have submitted a claim, under our insurance policies, and applicants for insurance products. We also collect personal information from visitors to our websites and job applicants. Depending on the products or services we are providing to you, we may collect and hold the following information about you:
| Types of Personal Information | Details and Examples |
| Individual details:
|
Name, address (including proof of address), other contact details (e.g. email and telephone numbers), gender, marital status, date and place of birth, nationality, employer, job title and employment history, academic and professional information, family details, including their relationship to you. |
| Identification details: | Identification numbers issued by government bodies or agencies, including your national insurance number or, passport number, tax identification number and driving licence number. |
| Financial information: | Bank account or payment card details, income or other financial information. |
| Information about commercial insureds’ employees | We collect this as necessary for insurance underwriting, policy administration, and claims handling purposes. This type of information may include employment, health, and/or motor vehicle records |
| Medical or health information
|
We collect this as necessary for insurance underwriting, policy administration, and claims handling purposes. This type of information may include prior health conditions, illnesses, injuries, diagnoses, and treatment. |
| Telephone records: | Recordings of telephone calls to our representatives and call centres. |
| Photographs and video recordings: | Images or video recordings created in connection with our insurance or other business activities, including for claims assessment, administration, and settlement, claim disputes, or for other relevant purposes as permitted by law. |
| Policy information: | Information about the quotes you receive and policies you take out. |
| Risk information: | Information about you which we need to collect in order to assess the risk to be insured and provide a quote. This may include data relating to your health or criminal convictions. |
| Credit and anti-fraud information: | Credit history, credit score, sanctions and criminal offences, and other information received from various anti-fraud databases relating to you. |
| Previous and current claims: | Information about previous and current claims, (including other unrelated insurance), which may include data relating to your health, criminal convictions, and in some cases, surveillance reports. |
| Job applicant information: | If you apply for a job with us, we may collect your name, address, employment history, education, qualifications and licences, and any information in your resume resumes or cover letter. |
4. WHERE WE MIGHT COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL DATA FROM
We might collect your personal data from various sources, including:
- you;
- your family members, employer or representative;
- other insurance market partners;
- credit reference agencies;
- anti-fraud databases, sanctions lists, court judgements and other databases; or
- in the event of a claim, third parties including the other party to the claim (claimant / defendant), witnesses, experts (including medical experts), loss adjustors, solicitors, and claims handlers.
Which of the above sources apply will depend on your particular circumstances.
If you are a job applicant, we will collect information directly from you, but may also collect it from your references, social media networks (such as LinkedIn), educational institutions, and if appropriate and permitted by applicable law, credit reporting agencies or criminal record reporting organizations.
5. PURPOSE FOR COLLECTING, USING, AND DISCLOSING PERSONAL INFORMATION
Generally speaking, we collect, use and disclose personal information so that we can provide you with products and services including:
- Arranging and administering insurance products and related services
- Risk analysis and underwriting
- Management of claims, including investigation and settlement
- Accounting and auditing
- Complaints and disputes management
- Legal, regulatory and compliance purposes
- Marketing
Without your personal information, we may not be able to issue insurance coverage, administer your insurance, answer your questions or concerns, or process your claim.
We set out below the purposes for which we may process your personal information during the lifecycle of providing insurance products and services to you.
| Purpose | Data Types |
| Quotation /Policy Inception | |
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| Policy Administration | |
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| Claims Processing | |
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| Renewals | |
|
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| Throughout the insurance lifecycle | |
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| Maintain quality of processes and security | |
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We will only collect information for the purposes outlined above. If we need to use your personal information for a purpose not identified above, we will seek your consent where required to do so by law.
6. WHO WE MAY SHARE YOUR PERSONAL DATA WITH
In order to undertake the activities listed above it may be necessary to share your data with third parties.
Who we share this data with may depend on the insurance products and services we provide to you but may include:
| Type of third party | Details |
| Affiliate entities in the Berkshire Hathaway group
|
BHSI is part of the Berkshire Hathaway group of insurance companies. We may share your personal information with affiliated underwriting and services companies for administrative, reporting and accounting purposes including Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance Company, and National Indemnity Company. |
| Other insurance and insurance distribution parties | Where permitted by applicable law, we may share personal data with other third parties, for example, other insurers, reinsurers, insurance and reinsurance brokers, other intermediaries, and agents, appointed representatives, distributors, affinity marketing partners and financial institutions, securities firms and other business partners. |
| Our service providers | We share your personal information with these external service providers, such as commercial and credit information companies, claims management, loss adjusters, accountants, actuaries, auditors, experts, lawyers and other professional advisors or experts.
We also share your personal information with our support teams and IT services providers and other third-party vendors and outsourced service providers that assist us in carrying out business activities. |
| Government authorities and public authorities or bodies | We may disclose personal data to government or other public authorities (including, but not limited to, workers’ compensation boards, courts, regulatory bodies, law enforcement agencies, tax authorities and criminal investigations agencies), and to bodies which we have a legal obligation to disclose information. |
In certain exceptional circumstances, the law permits us to share information with certain third parties without your consent.
For instance, we may disclose your personal information without your consent, including to:
- respond to a subpoena, warrant or a court order or the rules of court;
- prevent, detect or suppress financial abuse, fraud, and criminal activity;
- protect our assets and interests;
- investigate potentially illegal or suspicious activity;
- manage, defend or settle any actual or potential loss;
- where there is an emergency that threatens life or health, in cases of national security, and in other similar situations; and
- as otherwise permitted or required by law.
We may also disclose your information without your consent if we enter into a business transaction. Examples include when we:
- buy or sell all or part of our business or assets;
- securitize assets;
- assign or grant a participation in all or part of a credit facility, lease, or other asset;
- consider any of the above transactions.
If we sell assets involving your information, the purchaser may be permitted or required by law to retain your information. We require parties entering into a business transaction with us to keep your information confidential.
We do not sell any personal information to marketing companies.
7. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS
We may need to transfer your data to insurance market participants or their affiliates or sub-contractors and BHSI group affiliates which are located outside of your home jurisdiction. Where such a transfer is performed, it will be done in compliance with this Privacy Notice and the applicable law.
8. YOUR RIGHTS
As set forth by the applicable data privacy legislation, you have the right to:
- Be informed of what personal data (if any) we hold about you;
- Be informed about how we use your personal data;
- Exercise the rights below under certain conditions:
| Type of Right | Details |
| Right of access | You have the right to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and information about how we use it |
| Right to correction | You have the right to ask us to correct personal information we hold about you where it is incorrect or incomplete |
| Right to withdraw consent | Where we have relied upon your consent to process your personal information, you have the right to withdraw that consent |
| Right to challenge compliance | You are welcome to contact us with any enquiries and complaints that you may have regarding your personal information. You also have the right to lodge complaints pertaining to the handling of your personal information with the applicable privacy commissioner. |
In Quebec, you have the right to obtain the personal information that we have collected directly from you in a structured, commonly used technological format. Quebeckers also have the right to request information about any decisions we make about them where we solely use automated decision-making technology.
If you have any questions in relation to our use of your personal information, you may contact the BHSI privacy team via email ([email protected]) or in writing at the address provided at the end of this notice.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) of Canada (https://www.priv.gc.ca/en) or your local privacy commissioner.
9. HOW WE PROTECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We hold your personal information in various internal systems and databases including shared drives, email, document management systems and in hard copy. We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect the security of personal information from misuse and loss, as well as unauthorized access, modification or disclosure. After it is no longer needed or required for applicable legal or regulatory purposes, we securely dispose of or anonymize the information such that you can no longer be identified.
10. RETENTION OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We will keep your personal information only for so long as is necessary and for the purpose for which it was originally collected complying with legal requirements.
11. COOKIES
Our websites utilize technology such as tracking pixels and cookies, which may collect data such as your IP address, referring websites, and unique or returning visitors. This data may be linked with personal information we have collected, such as your name or contact information. Our websites are not intended for children under the age of 16.
12. CONTACT US
For further information about this Notice or how we handle your personal information, please contact the BHSI privacy team at:
-or-
Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance
18 York Street, Suite 1700
PO Box 6
Toronto, ON M5J 2T8
Attention: Privacy Compliance
July 2026