Privacy statement

Our Commitment

This Privacy Statement is based on the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act ("PIPEDA"). It governs the relationship between Enbridge Inc., Enbridge Gas Distribution Inc., other Canadian subsidiaries ("Enbridge", "we", "us" etc.) and individuals with whom we interact, such as our customers or potential customers, landowners, website users, contractors and other stakeholders ("you").

At Enbridge we are committed to providing excellent service and to ensuring that our relationship with you is conducted with integrity and in a responsible, fair, honest and ethical manner. Consistent with these objectives we maintain high standards of confidentiality with respect to your personal information in our possession.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Statement or wish to access the personal information in our possession about you, please contact our Privacy Officer. Contact information can be found in section 3.0 of this Privacy Statement.

1.0 Collection, Use and Disclosure of Personal Information

1.1 What personal information do we collect?

Personal information is information that may be used to identify a specific individual. Examples of personal information include your name, address, age and other personal identification numbers such as driver’s license and social insurance number. In the course of carrying on our business, it is necessary for Enbridge to collect, use, and disclose information about individuals. Enbridge limits its collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information to the purposes that we have identified to you.

1.2 Purposes: Why do we collect personal information?

Enbridge collects and uses personal information for purposes reasonably required to carry on our business. These purposes include:

  • Collection from customers, landowners, contractors and other individuals to confirm identity and related contact information
  • To meet legal, regulatory and contractual obligations to you, and to others
  • To manage, develop and improve our operations to ensure the safe and efficient operation of our business
  • To provide information about using energy safely, efficiently and to understand energy needs and preferences
  • To understand your needs from time to time, we may ask you to participate in surveys that provide us with important information about the effectiveness of our safety information materials, or other communications

If we identify a new purpose for the personal information that we have collected from you, we will obtain your consent before using your personal information for the new purpose.

1.3 What personal information does Enbridge disclose?

Enbridge may be required to disclose personal information about individuals in certain situations, including the following:

  • To an affiliated company or a third party service provider where the third party has agreed to handle the information in accordance with our policies and applicable legislation
  • To a person whom Enbridge reasonably believes to be acting as the individual's agent
  • To a public authority, or its agent, to the extent required to comply with legal or regulatory requirements
  • For the purpose of a proposed sale of a part of our business, in which case, Enbridge will obtain the agreement of third parties to protect the confidentiality of information disclosed

1.4 Consent

Enbridge will only collect, use or disclose your personal information with your consent, except in limited circumstances. By your receipt of this Privacy Statement, Enbridge will assume, unless we hear from you otherwise, that you consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information by Enbridge in accordance with this Statement. Should you wish to change your information please contact privacy.office@enbridge.com.

You may withdraw or limit your consent to our collection, use or disclosure of your personal information at any time, subject to any legal or contractual restriction and reasonable notice. Please note that the withdrawal of your consent may change the way in which Enbridge is able to interact with you. We will not use or disclose your personal information without your consent except in the following circumstances:

  • When required by law or law enforcement purposes
  • For an emergency that threatens life, health or security
  • For the purpose of collecting on a debt owed to Enbridge
  • If the information is publicly available

1.5 Storing of Information and Restricting Access

We may store your information in electronic databases or e-mail systems, hosted by us or our service providers, for periods of time and with safeguards that we believe are reasonable depending on the nature and sensitivity of the information. Access to the information is restricted to a select group of individuals whose job function requires them to have access to your information. Access to the information is done in accordance with our security protocols.

Some information will be stored with service providers. Storage of this information is governed by our agreements with the service providers.  We expect these services providers at a minimum to have the same security and storage protocols as Enbridge in accordance with our Records Management Policy and Records Retention Schedule. Please note that Enbridge uses cloud based solutions and the data collected may reside in data centres outside of Canada. Should you have any questions or concerns please contact privacy.office@enbridge.com.

1.6 Protecting Your Personal Information

Keeping your personal information confidential and secure is a priority for us. In order to ensure protection of your personal information, we have developed security procedures to safeguard and protect your personal information against loss, theft, unauthorized disclosure, copying, and unauthorized use or modification, including:

  • Limiting the collection, use and disclosure of personal information to that reasonably required to carry on our business
  • Ensuring that areas and documents are only accessible by authorized personnel on a need-to-know basis
  • Protecting the confidential nature of personal information when dealing with other organizations and requiring them to meet the same standard as we do in handling personal information

1.7 Third-Party Service Providers

From time to time Enbridge may use third party vendors to process information on its behalf, including for information storage, payment processing, human resource administration and similar purposes. In those cases, your data may be made available to these third parties solely for the purpose of assisting Enbridge in the development or maintenance of our relationship with you. In all cases where third parties may be able to access your information we will continue to protect it through confidentiality arrangements and not allow your data to be removed from Enbridge’s control. We only share your personal information with others in the ways explained in this Privacy Statement. We do not sell or trade this information to other organizations or companies.

2.0 Accessing, updating or correcting your personal information

You have the right to ask whether we hold any personal information about you, and if so, to make reasonable requests to review, update or correct any of your personal information that is held by Enbridge Inc. or any of its Canadian subsidiaries. We will respond to your request for access within 30 days of the request being made.

You could refuse to allow us to obtain, use or share your personal information or you could also withdraw a previously given consent at any time. However, by doing so, depending on the situation, you may be limiting or even preventing our ability to provide you with the service or product you desire.

In the event of any conflict or other concern regarding access to, or the accuracy or our use of, your personal information, you may register a question or complaint with our Privacy Officer.

3.0 Contact Information and Resources

If you wish to access your personal information, change your consent to the ways in which we may use your personal information, have a complaint about our Privacy Statement or the manner in which we may have handled your personal information, or if you have any questions about our Privacy Statement, please contact the Privacy Officer as follows:

Enbridge
Chief Privacy Officer
330, 10180 - 101 Street
Edmonton, Alberta, T5J 3S4
privacy.office@enbridge.com

4.0 Visiting the Enbridge Website

A visitor to an Enbridge website is not required to reveal any personal information, such as name, address, or telephone number. Nor is such information collected passively by electronic means, except as outlined below.

Your personal information is collected when you voluntarily complete an online application, request form, or survey and is used in the same manner as any other personal information we collect in the course of providing services to you or responding to requests. We will not send you any unsolicited electronic communication.

In some cases, our website may collect visitor information that is not personally-identifiable. Examples of this type of information include: Internet protocol (IP) address, type of Internet browser and domain name. This information is used internally, only in aggregate form, to better serve you by helping us manage and improve the content of our website and to diagnose technical problems.

By connecting your social profile from a social network to the Enbridge website, interactions will exist and posts to your profile at such third party websites may occur. These instances are optional and are at your discretion by managing your cookie preferences.

4.1 Use of Cookies

Cookies contain data collected from websites that you visit and are stored in a small text file on your web browser. We use different types of cookies to enhance your experience on our website. To respect your privacy, by default, we have deactivated cookies with the exception of essential cookies. These cookies are required for the proper functioning of our website, allowing you to browse in an optimal and secure manner. Essential cookies do not collect your personal information. You may choose which types of cookies to allow and can change your preferences at any time by clicking “Manage cookies” on the bottom of our website. Learn more about what cookies are, how we use them and what your choices are by understanding our Cookies Policy.

5.0 Enbridge's Commitment to the Ten Privacy Principles

1. Accountability: Enbridge is responsible for personal information under its control and has designated a Privacy Officer who is accountable for Enbridge compliance with the ten privacy principles.

2. Identifying Purposes:  Enbridge shall identify the purposes for which personal information is collected at or before the time of collection.

3. Obtaining Consent: The knowledge and consent of an individual is required for the collection, use, or disclosure of personal information, except where inappropriate.

4. Limiting Collection: The collection of personal information shall be limited to that which is necessary for the purposes identified by Enbridge. Personal information shall be collected by fair and lawful means.

5. Limiting Use, Disclosure and Retention: Enbridge shall 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. Enbridge shall retain personal information only for as long as necessary to achieve fulfillment of the identified purposes.

6. Keeping Personal Information Accurate: Enbridge shall keep personal information as accurate, complete, and up–to–date as is necessary for the purposes for which it is to be used.

7. Safeguarding Personal Information: Enbridge shall protect personal information by security safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information.

8. Openness Concerning our Privacy Practices: Enbridge shall ensure that specific information about its policies and practices relating to the management of personal information is made readily available to individuals with whom it interacts.

9. Access to Information: Enbridge shall, upon request, inform an individual of the existence, use, and disclosure of his or her personal information and shall give such individual access to that information.

10. Challenging Compliance: An individual shall be able to address a challenge concerning Enbridge's compliance with PIPEDA to the Privacy Officer.

6.0 Changes to this Privacy Statement

In order to ensure that our Privacy Statement is kept up to date, we reserve the right to change it from time to time. Any changes will be effective when posted to an Enbridge website. Please periodically review the Privacy Statement to ensure you are informed of current practices.