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General Policy Information

These privacy policies always apply when using any of CREA products and services. Therefore, regardless of whether you are a REALTOR.ca user, REALTOR®, global affiliate or someone else, you should be mindful of these policies.

Revisions

The world is a fast-moving place. That means we need to periodically update our privacy policy to reflect new initiatives, products and services.

Any changes to our privacy policy will be promptly reflected on this page, which will take effect upon posting. CREA encourages you to revisit our privacy policy from time to time to review the most current version. Your continued use of our Online Services, products and services following the posting of any changes constitutes acceptance by you of such modifications.

For your information, the last time CREA’s privacy policy was updated was: 2024-12-19.

Consent and Disclosure

Consent

By providing Personal Information to CREA, you consent to its collection, use and disclosure in accordance with CREA’s privacy policies. Consent to the collection and certain uses of the information may be refused or withdrawn by you subject to legal or contractual restrictions. In the event you withdraw consent, please note CREA may not be able to offer certain information or services to you.

Use and Disclosure Without Consent

In certain circumstances, CREA may be permitted or required by law to disclose Personal Information without consent. Those circumstances may include:

  • Where the information was public;
  • Where required by law;
  • Where it is necessary to protect the rights of an identifiable person or group;
  • Other circumstances recognized by privacy legislation as permitting disclosure without consent.

Disclosure to Law Enforcement

CREA reserves the right to report to law enforcement agencies any uses of CREA's Online Services including but not limited to REALTOR.ca, that it, in good faith, believes to be unlawful. You agree that CREA may release your Personal Information to law enforcement agencies where CREA has reasonable grounds to believe that such release is reasonably necessary to protect the rights, property and safety of CREA or any person.

Protecting Personal Information

Safeguards

  • CREA takes reasonable steps to protect information from unauthorized access or disclosure in a manner commensurate with its sensitivity, value and criticality. This applies regardless of the media on which the information is stored, the location where the information is stored, the systems used to process the information or the processes by which information is handled.
  • The safeguards used to protect Personal Information include physical safeguards (e.g. locked filing cabinets), administrative safeguards (e.g. information is available to other persons only on a need-to-know-basis) and technological safeguards (e.g. computer passwords).
  • While CREA puts in place reasonable precautions, we cannot guarantee at all times the security of the information. No method of transmitting or storing data is completely secure, particularly with regard to internet applications.

Accuracy and Retention

Accuracy

CREA attempts to ensure the Personal Information under its control is as accurate, complete, current and relevant as is necessary for its identified purpose.

Retention

CREA retains Personal Information as long as is necessary to fulfill the purpose for which it was collected. CREA has in place a Retention of Personal Information policy consistent with the nature and need for the Personal Information and legislative requirements.

Destruction of Personal Information

Once Personal Information has fulfilled the purpose for which it was collected, CREA shall destroy that Personal Information to prevent unauthorized access. CREA has in place a Destruction of Personal Information policy which establishes guidelines relating to the methods and procedures of destroying Personal Information.

Access to Personal Information

Individuals may request access to any Personal Information about themselves retained in CREA records. All access requests must be in writing and must be directed to CREA's Chief Privacy Officer. Access requests must be accompanied by appropriate identification satisfactory to CREA. CREA has the right prior to responding to any access requests, to take whatever steps it deems necessary to confirm the identity of the person making the request. CREA will endeavour to provide any applicable information within 30 days of the date of the request.

CREA may charge a nominal amount for costs incurred in providing the information, where reasonable and allowed by law.

Where an individual believes that the Personal Information in the CREA file is inaccurate, they may have appended to the record any alternative information, where CREA is of the view that the appended information is, in fact, correct.

CREA has the right to decline to provide access to Personal Information in a number of circumstances, including where the information:

  • Is subject to solicitor-client privilege;
  • Could interfere with law enforcement, investigative or regulatory functions;
  • Would disclose of Personal Information of another individual;
  • Would cause serious harm to another individual;
  • Is confidential business information that may harm CREA or the competitive position of a third party;
  • Any other circumstances recognized by the privacy legislation. Where the information cannot be disclosed, the individual making the request will be provided with the reasons for non-disclosure..

Withdrawal of Consent

Individuals may, subject to legal and contractual restrictions, withdraw their consent for the collection, use, and disclosure of their Personal Information. In the event you withdraw consent, please note CREA may not be able to offer certain information or services to you. All requests should be directed to:

The Chief Privacy Officer (CPO),
The Canadian Real Estate Association
200 Catherine Street, 6th Floor Ottawa, ON K2P 2K9
Phone: (613) 237-7111
Email: privacy@crea.ca

CREA has the right prior to responding to any withdrawal of consent requests, to take whatever steps it deems necessary to confirm the identity of the person making the request.

Complaint Procedure

Should an individual have a complaint with respect to the processing of their Personal Information, they may direct their complaint to:

The Chief Privacy Officer (CPO),
The Canadian Real Estate Association
200 Catherine Street, 6th Floor Ottawa, ON K2P 2K9
Phone: (613) 237-7111
Email: privacy@crea.ca

The individual may also contact the appropriate federal or provincial privacy regulator for more information or to report a concern.

Third Parties

CREA doesn’t operate in a vacuum. We work with other companies (known as “third parties”) to bring you information and services. While we always strive to work with third parties operating using high privacy standards, working with third parties could have an impact on how your Personal Information is handled.

Third Party Links and Sources of Information

Many CREA products, including REALTOR.ca, may include links to third party websites. Before using those third party websites, you should carefully examine their privacy policies because any Personal Information that you choose to provide to them will be subject to their privacy policies.

Storage

Many CREA products, including REALTOR.ca, use third party service providers, for example, to store information in the Cloud. Some of these service providers, and the databases where they store Personal Information, are located outside of Canada. You should note that where Personal Information is located outside of Canada, it is subject to the laws of that jurisdiction in which it is located, and could be subject to lawful demands for access by law enforcement agencies.

Potential Risks When Providing Personal Information to CREA

We have an obligation to tell you if there are any risks to you that could result if someone (not us!) misuses the Personal Information you provide us. Honestly, we’ve struggled what to say here as most of the information we collect is not particularly sensitive.

One thing we wanted to flag, however, is that whenever you share your email with another person using our websites, there is a risk that other person could misuse that email. We’ve taken legal (e.g. terms of use), technological (e.g. anti-spam filters and CAPTCHA technology) and design (e.g. designing our systems to reduce the likelihood of your email being misused) measures to try to limit such abuse, but no system is perfect. Please feel free to report any potential abuse to us.

Also, keep in mind that when you provide your Personal Information to a REALTOR® (for example to, advertise your listing), the REALTOR® may use a variety of CREA, Board/Association and third party systems and software solutions to promote that property and conduct the transaction. So your Personal Information may end up in more places than you originally anticipated. Talk to your REALTOR® to find out just what exactly they do with your Personal Information, so you aren’t surprised.

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