| LCBO

LCBO Customer Privacy

INTRODUCTION

The LCBO is committed to protecting the privacy of its customers and the confidentiality of their personal information.

This Customer Privacy Policy describes the LCBO’s protections of the privacy and confidentiality of the personal information it collects from you, as a customer. It also describes some of the ways the LCBO collects personal information about you and how it uses, shares, and manages the personal information it collects.  This page is not intended to describe every situation in which the LCBO collects personal information.  Other than as permitted or required by law, the purposes for the collection of personal information will be set out at the time of collection.

OVERVIEW

 

WHAT IS “PERSONAL INFORMATION”?

The term “personal information” means recorded information about an identifiable individual. To qualify as personal information, the information must be about the individual in a personal capacity. As a general rule, information about an individual in a professional, business or official capacity is not considered to be personal information. Examples of information that could be personal information include your name, address, gender, date of birth, email address, telephone number, credit card information, purchases, personal opinions, and social media user names. It may also, in certain situations, include information about your device, such as Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and browser information or browsing data such as the LCBO Website pages you have visited.

WHAT IS THE LCBO’S STATUTORY AUTHORITY FOR COLLECTING PERSONAL INFORMATION?

In most situations, personal information collected on or through interaction with LCBO Websites (including but not limited to lcbo.com, vintagesshoponline.com, hellolcbo.com, cws.givex.com, and foodanddrink.com), LCBO mobile applications,  when you purchase or return products or otherwise attend LCBO premises or interact with LCBO personnel, is collected under the authority of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario Act, 2019, SO 2019, c 15, Sch 21, s 3.

WHEN DOES THE LCBO COLLECT, USE, AND SHARE PERSONAL INFORMATION?

The LCBO, and its service providers (third parties that we have engaged to help us conduct our business), may collect personal information from customers or visitors in person, over the telephone, by mail, by fax, or electronically when they interact with LCBO Websites, LCBO mobile applications, email, or through the use of our own or a third party’s technologies.

The LCBO, and its service providers on behalf of the LCBO, use personal information about you including your use of LCBO Websites and mobile applications for various purposes, including to:

  • process, assist with, verify, and deliver your orders;
  • better understand your product preferences;
  • improve the customer experience including by sending and displaying content, products, search results, and offers based on your browsing and purchase history as well as your profile if you are signed in;
  • track and analyze trends and patterns;
  • display product reviews;
  • conduct and administer surveys, contests, and draws;
  • deliver events including information and education programs such as tutored tastings and wine appreciation series;
  • comply with legal and regulatory requirements;
  • create Aggregate Data (as defined below) that does not allow you to be personally identified or contacted;
  • send you email communications and updates regarding your orders or your account;
  • send communications, including promotional campaigns informing you about products and/or services if you have consented to receiving email from the LCBO;
  • tailor our online content or in-store offerings to you based on your interactions with us, LCBO Websites, and your preferences;
  • assist with the issuance of Aeroplan points; and
  • protect our customers and the LCBO from fraud.

Some examples of situations where we may collect and use your personal information are set out below.

The LCBO may share personal information with its service providers as permitted by law, with your consent, or with other third parties as permitted or required by law.

SHOPPING AT THE LCBO AND ATTENDANCE AT LCBO PREMISES

Product Purchase:

You do not have to provide us with any personal information when you purchase products in person at one of our stores. You may be asked for identification to verify your age, although this information is not recorded.

You may be required to provide personal information when you order products from the LCBO including, for example, where products are ordered on-line, through our
catalogues or through our Specialty Services Department. In these situations,
we collect personal information in order to process these transactions, to
verify your identity, and to protect against error or fraud.

If you use a credit or debit card for your purchase, your credit/debit card-related information and your signature are required to process your payment. 

Online Fraud Protection:

LCBO shares personal information with its third-party service provider that specialises in fraud prevention for online retailers.  The LCBO requires your consent in this circumstance as the company uses the information to improve its ability to detect fraud for the LCBO and its other online retail clients.  Similarly, the company uses (but does not send) information it has collected from its other clients to report potentially suspicious online transactions to LCBO before the LCBO processes the transaction. This “indirect collection” of personal information also requires your consent.

The information the LCBO shares with the fraud prevention company when you attempt to place an order includes information regarding your LCBO account (if applicable), order details, payment information (not credit card information), billing information, and shipping postal code. Device data is also collected from your browser.

If you do not want the fraud prevention company to continue to use your information beyond the LCBO transaction, you may request that the company destroy the information that it collected from the LCBO.  After confirming your identity, LCBO will forward your request and will provide confirmation to you when your information has been securely destroyed.

To make such a request, please contact LCBO Customer Care:
1-800-668-5226
416-365-5900
TTY: 1-800-361-3291

Loyalty

If you provide your Aeroplan number in the course of an LCBO transaction to collect points, LCBO discloses information to, and collects information from, Aeroplan to validate
the points issued.

Product Return

LCBO collects personal information (name, address, and telephone number) to process returns and for fraud prevention purposes. Returns will not be processed without this
information.  Government issued photo identification will be required only to confirm the information provided verbally or in writing on a return slip. Personal Information will not be recorded directly from photo identification. Where a defective or recalled product is returned, the LCBO will use this information so that we may communicate with you regarding possible health and safety matters, if necessary.

Video Cameras:

The LCBO operates video cameras in our stores and other facilities and premises for safety, security and protection purposes of all LCBO premises, staff, visitors and
customers as well as for the prevention and detection of criminal activity and
for claims management.

EMAIL AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS:

From time to time, we may obtain your consent to send you email and other communications about products, services, promotions, surveys, customer feedback, events or administrative functions. The LCBO obtains consent for promotional email communications.

You can opt-out of receiving promotional email from us at any time by doing one of the following:

  • If you originally signed up for email on one of our Websites please return to the email sign-up page on the Website, and click on the “unsubscribe” link, then enter your email address and click the “Submit” button. Please be sure to use the same email address as that which you used to sign-up, otherwise it may not be possible to comply with your request.
  • If you have received an email, you can follow the opt-out or “unsubscribe” instructions provided in your email.
  • Contact HelloLCBO - our Customer Service Department at 1-800-668-5226 or416-365-5900 or by clicking on our “Contact Us” page on the Website.

When you request that your name be removed from our databases, it may not be possible to completely delete all your personal information due to technical and legal constraints. However, you will not continue to receive mail from the LCBO once you request removal of your name.

ONLINE REGISTRATION:

You do not have to register to visit LCBO Websites or to make an online purchase. However, you may need to register and provide your personal information to be able to use or benefit from some of the features offered through our online services including
personalized content, search results or offers. Your registration information
is used and disclosed to provide and administer the service you requested as
well as for fraud prevention.

CONTESTS, COMPETITIONS, CO-BRANDED PARTICIPATION, AND PROMOTIONS:

When you enter a contest, competition or participate in a promotion, we may collect your personal information. We use this information to administer the contest, competition or promotion including contacting, announcing and promoting prize winners. At the time you enter the contest, competition or promotion, we may obtain your consent: (i) to send you future promotional communications, and/or (ii) to disclose your personal information to a third party sponsor of the contest, competition or promotion, as specified at the time of collection of your personal information. We do not control the use, disclosure or security of your personal information by third party sponsors, and recommend that you review their privacy notices or statements.

MARKET RESEARCH:

We collect personal information for market research to enable customer-centric decision making. For example, we may ask you to provide postal code information or to participate in surveys or other customer research so that we can look at differences between geographic locations. Participation is voluntary. The information obtained through market research is used to create Aggregate Data that are in a non-personally identifiable form. We use this information to help us understand our customers, to enhance our product and service offerings, promotions and events, and/or to assist in the selection of store locations.

CUSTOMER SERVICE AND CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

When you contact the LCBO with a comment, question or complaint you may be asked for your name and contact information (such as address, email address and/or phone number), and details we need to help us answer your question or respond to your comment or complaint.  If you submit this information online, your IP address and other device information is also automatically collected.  We may also aggregate your comments, questions or complaints with those of other customers in order to look for trends to help us improve our service.

CALL RECORDING:

We may monitor and/or record telephone discussions when you call the LCBO to enhance customer service, for training purposes, and to confirm our discussions with you.

SOCIAL MEDIA:

LCBO uses social media accounts, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (LCBO Social Media Accounts) to share information and promote our products and services.

LCBO Social Media Accounts are publicly accessible, and your posts, comments, and replies to, and mentions of, LCBO may be publicly visible, depending on your privacy settings. Your privacy and the retention of information on social media accounts are governed by the privacy policies of the parties that operate these social networks. Some social media providers may allow you to control the information you make available to the LCBO and others. Users should review and agree to privacy agreements and terms and conditions of the parties that operate these networks prior to participating. We do not have any control over such platforms, and therefore we have no responsibility or liability for the manner in which the organizations that operate such linked platforms collect, use, disclose, secure and otherwise treat your personal information.

In accordance with terms of use of the respective social media platforms, the LCBO may collect and measure information available to us about activity on LCBO Social Media Accounts in order to provide content that is relevant and interesting to users of these social media platforms.

THIRD PARTIES ACTING ON LCBO'S BEHALF

We will only share personal information with third parties or allow third parties to collect personal information in order to perform services for the LCBO (e.g., delivery, email deployment, direct mail, research and surveys, credit card processing, customer feedback etc.) if they meet LCBO privacy and security standards and agree to appropriate privacy and security standards. The LCBO does not sell or rent our customer lists to outside agencies and/or our trade partners. Personal information that the LCBO collects will not be used to place you on any mailing lists without your knowledge and agreement, or as otherwise permitted by law.

AGGREGATE DATA ABOUT INDIVIDUALS

The LCBO, and service providers acting on the LCBO’s behalf, may use personal information that you provide to the LCBO, or that is collected electronically by automatic means when you interact with LCBO Websites and LCBO mobile applications for the purposes of research, to inform operations, and for communications planning. This data may be aggregated by combining it with data pertaining to other individuals and “Aggregate Data” refers to personal information compiled and expressed in a summary format where no personal identifiers are included.

DATA COLLECTED BY COOKIES AND OTHER TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES

In order to provide a modern, personalized electronic commerce experience that supports the sale of liquor online and in stores, the LCBO and its service providers use cookies and web beacons (sometimes referred to as tags or pixels) to enable functionality and to collect information about use of LCBO Websites.

Cookies are small data files that are sent to, and stored on, your browser to enable website functionality. “Session cookies” are cleared when you close your browser or your session ends, while “persistent cookies” continue to be stored on your device until you take steps to delete them. Cookies facilitate your use and navigation of our sites, and some may collect information that in certain cases can be considered personal information but do not collect information such as your name, address or credit card data. LCBO Websites use both “first party” and “third party” cookies.  First party cookies are created by the LCBO directly, and third party cookies are created by LCBO service providers.

Web beacons are small image or script files that are downloaded when you visit a website or open an email.  They capture activity and interactions on websites and mobile applications.

Cookies are used to improve the content and usability of LCBO Websites and in combination with web beacons help us understand what actions you take on LCBO Websites and mobile applications and ensure they work correctly.  Information captured through the use of cookies is not used for marketing or advertising purposes.

You can set your Internet browser to refuse to accept cookies from LCBO Websites. Some browsers can be set to accept all cookies, reject all cookies, or notify you when you receive cookies. If you choose to modify your browser, some pages or features of the Website may not function properly.

LCBO uses third party web analytics tools to analyze the information generated through the use of third party cookies to look at Aggregate Data that is used for operational purposes.

THIRD-PARTY LINKS

LCBO Websites may contain links to other sites that LCBO does not own or operate. We will not provide any of your personal information to these third parties without your consent. We provide links to third party websites as a convenience to the user. These links are not intended as an endorsement of or referral to the linked website. The linked websites have separate and independent privacy statements, notices and terms of use, which we recommend you read carefully. We do not have any control over such websites, and therefore we have no responsibility or liability for the manner in which the organizations may use your personal information.

HOW IS PERSONAL INFORMATION SECURED AND PROTECTED?

The LCBO and its service providers maintain your personal information in a combination of paper and electronic files. LCBO and its service providers employ reasonable technical, physical and administrative security measures to protect your personal information. However, it is impossible to guarantee security since "perfect security" does not exist. Consequently, the LCBO does not represent, warrant, covenant or guarantee the complete security of the personal information it or its service providers collect.  As well, in some cases, information is stored outside of Canada and in exceptional circumstances may be available to government authorities under lawful orders and laws applicable in the relevant jurisdictions.

ACCURACY AND RETENTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

The LCBO will make reasonable efforts to ensure the accuracy of your personal information when you request it as long as it does not compromise LCBO’s privacy or security interests. Please contact LCBO Customer Care to update your personal information and account preferences.

The LCBO will keep your personal information for as long as it remains necessary for the identified purposes or as required by law, or in accordance with our retention schedules, which may extend beyond the termination of our relationship with you. The LCBO reserves the right to maintain personal information records for both active and inactive (i.e. unsubscribed) customers.

CHANGES

The LCBO reserves the right to change this Customer Privacy Policy by posting an updated Customer Privacy Policy on its www.lcbo.com Website, and you are advised to review the www.lcbo.com Website regularly for any changes. This Customer Privacy Policy was last updated on April 4, 2022.

CONTACTING US

If you have any questions concerning the LCBO Customer Privacy Page or wish to file an access or correction request, please contact:

Freedom of Information and Privacy Office
100 Queens Quay East, 9th Floor
Toronto, Ontario M5E 0C7
Telephone: 416 864-2462 
E-mail: foi.privacy@lcbo.com

®Aeroplan is a registered trademark of Aeroplan Inc., used under license.