Data we collect
We only collect information you give us directly when you contact us or commission a piece. Specifically:
- Name, phone number and email — you give these when you call or email us
- Property address — you give this so we can come do a site measure or deliver a piece
- Photos you send by text or email of the room, piece, or commission brief
- Payment card details — handled by Stripe; we never see or store the card number
- Anonymous page-view analytics — only if you accept analytics cookies (see cookies policy)
We don't run any kind of automated tracking, marketing-pixel installation, or third-party advertising on this website beyond the analytics cookie, which is opt-in.
How we use it
- To schedule and complete the work you've asked us to do
- To send you the quote, invoice and receipt
- To follow up under the five-year structural warranty if there's an issue
- To send a reminder email in year one of furniture / built-in delivery that annual maintenance oiling might be due (you can opt out of this at any time)
- To improve the website — anonymous analytics show us which pages help people find the right service
We don't sell your personal information, we don't share it with advertisers, and we don't send marketing emails to people who haven't commissioned a piece from us.
Who we share with
A short list. We share data only with the third-party services we genuinely use to run the business.
- Stripe Payments Canada — handles card payments; receives card details, name, amount, and the commission description
- Google Workspace — hosts our email; receives anything you email us at hello@northvanwoodworker.com
- QuickBooks Canada — accounting; receives invoice details (name, address, amount, GST/PST line)
- Plausible Analytics — anonymous page-view stats (opt-in cookie, no personal identifier captured)
We don't share with anyone else, and we don't allow these processors to use your data for their own purposes. Where these processors are based outside Canada (Stripe, Google, Plausible — all US-based with Canadian-hosting options), your personal information may be transferred outside Canada subject to that jurisdiction's data-protection laws.
How long we keep it
- Commission records (address, scope, invoice, photos of the finished piece) — seven years (Canada Revenue Agency tax-record retention requirement)
- Quote requests where you didn't commission — twelve months, then deleted
- Photos you sent of brief / inspiration — until the piece is delivered and the five-year warranty has expired, then deleted on request
- Email exchanges — twenty-four months, then archived to a closed folder
Your rights under BC PIPA
Under the BC Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), which is the primary privacy statute that applies to a private-sector business operating in British Columbia, you have the right to:
- Ask us what personal information we hold about you, and how we use it
- Ask us to correct anything inaccurate in your file
- Ask us to delete anything we no longer have a legitimate reason to retain (subject to the CRA seven-year tax-record retention rule above)
- Withdraw consent for any non-essential processing (for example, the year-one maintenance reminder)
- Make a complaint to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia if you believe we have not handled your personal information appropriately (oipc.bc.ca)
To exercise any of these rights, email hello@northvanwoodworker.com with the word "PRIVACY" in the subject line. We respond inside seven days, and inside thirty days as required by PIPA s.29(2).
PIPEDA & the federal context
Where our work crosses provincial boundaries (for example, sourcing timber from a Mainland sawyer in another province, or selling to a client outside BC), the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) applies in addition to BC PIPA. The rights under PIPEDA are broadly equivalent to those under BC PIPA — access, correction, withdrawal of consent, and complaint to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (priv.gc.ca).
For practical purposes, exercising your rights with us is the same process regardless of which Act applies: email us with "PRIVACY" in the subject line.
Security
We use industry-standard practices: TLS for the website, two-factor authentication on our Google Workspace and QuickBooks accounts, encrypted backups of the commission-records database. None of these are absolute guarantees against a sophisticated breach, but they cover the realistic threat profile of a small woodworking studio.
Contact us about privacy
Email hello@northvanwoodworker.com with "PRIVACY" in the subject line. Or call (604) 988-4173 and ask for Greg. We respond inside seven days for written requests, and inside thirty days for formal PIPA access requests as required by the statute.