Privacy
Draft for owner and legal review. Effective date to be set when the service opens.
Who is responsible
Goldstream Payroll is operated by Prolite Accounting, a subsidiary of Magnet Financial Services (www.magnetacc.com). We follow the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). When a business uses Goldstream Payroll to pay its employees, that business decides what employee information is entered and remains responsible for it; we hold and process it on the business's behalf, only to provide the service.
Privacy contact: Placeholder Privacy contact to be confirmed.
What the application holds
To run payroll, the application stores the information its users enter: company details, employee and contractor details (including Social Insurance Numbers, which are encrypted in the database), pay and deduction records, filings, and sign-in accounts (email address and a hashed password). Payroll changes are recorded in an audit trail.
Access requests
If you send an access request from the public page, we keep the name, email address, organization and message you enter, the time, and the network address it came from, and we email them to the Goldstream Payroll team. We use them only to respond to your request.
Who can see it
Only signed-in users who have been given access to a company, by role. A user sees the companies they were granted, and nothing else. Our staff look at a company's records only when the company asks for support or when needed to keep the service secure.
How long we keep it
- Payroll records stay available for as long as the company uses the service.
- The Canada Revenue Agency requires employers to keep payroll records for six years after the end of the tax year they relate to. After a company stops using the service, it can still sign in to view and export its records for 90 days. We then keep the records, unchanged, until the six years have passed, and give them back to the company on request; after that we delete them.
- Database backups are kept for 35 days. Application logs are kept for up to 90 days.
- Access requests are kept while we respond and are deleted on request.
Where it is stored
In Canada: Microsoft Azure, Canada Central region (Toronto). Database backups are copied to the Canada East region (Quebec City). Email the service sends (invitations, pay stubs, T4 slips) goes through Azure Communication Services with its data kept in Canada.
How it is protected
Connections use HTTPS. Social Insurance Numbers are encrypted. Two-factor sign-in is required. The database is not reachable from the internet. Access is by company and role, changes to bank details are flagged and recorded, and payroll changes are kept in an audit trail.
Service providers
Microsoft Corporation hosts the service and delivers its email (Microsoft Azure, in Canada). We do not sell personal information and do not share it for advertising.
Seeing or correcting your information
Users can see and correct their company's information in the application. Employees and contractors should first ask the business that pays them, since that business controls their records; we help the business answer. You can also write to the privacy contact above. We answer within 30 days.
If there is a breach
If personal information is lost or accessed without permission, we tell the affected companies without delay. Where PIPEDA requires it (a real risk of significant harm), we report to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and notify the people affected, and we keep a record of every breach.
Cookies
We use only the cookies needed to keep you signed in and to protect forms. There are no advertising or analytics cookies and no third-party trackers.
Questions and complaints
Write to the privacy contact above. If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (www.priv.gc.ca).