Your Data, Your Trust: Our Privacy Policy in Plain English

Who We Are

VAN Online Business Plus Ltd. is located at 1078 Howe Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V6E 3Y6. We operate the website vanonlinebusinessplus.com.

We're a business banking advisory firm — not a bank — and we handle sensitive financial information for our clients. That responsibility shapes every decision we make about data.

Our firm is registered with the British Columbia Financial Services Authority (BCFSA), Registration No. BCFSA-ADV-2011-04872, and is a member of the Canadian Financial Advisory Standards Association (CFASA), Member Reference No. CFASA-7741.

What We Collect and Why

Through our contact form, we collect your name, business email, company name, annual revenue range, the service you're interested in, and a description of your situation.

We collect this because we need to understand your business before we can help. Revenue range tells us which of our services are likely relevant. The service selection helps us route your inquiry to the right team member — whether that's Nikhil for working capital questions or Sarah for payment processing.

We don't sell it, share it with marketing partners, or use it for anything beyond responding to your inquiry and — if you become a client — serving your account.

During active engagements, we also collect financial data including bank statements, account analysis statements, transaction records, cash flow data, and other documents necessary to perform our diagnostic and advisory services. This data is collected only with your explicit consent and is used solely for the purpose of delivering the services outlined in your engagement letter.

Cookies and Tracking

We use a small number of cookies to understand how visitors use our site — which pages get read, where people click, how long they stay. This helps us improve the site.

We also use cookies to remember your preferences (like whether you've already seen our cookie notice).

We don't run retargeting ads based on your browsing. We don't build behavioral profiles. We don't sell cookie data to third parties.

You can manage your cookie preferences at any time using the "Cookie Preferences" link in our footer. Most browsers also allow you to block or delete cookies through their settings — though doing so may affect site functionality.

How We Protect Your Data

Financial data is encrypted in transit (TLS 1.3) and at rest (AES-256 encryption). Our document portal uses end-to-end encryption for all client file transfers.

Our team undergoes annual privacy and data handling training. Every team member — all 28 of us — completes a mandatory refresher each January.

We limit access to client data to team members who need it for your engagement — not the entire company. If Sarah is handling your payment processing audit, she has access to your payment data. Your treasury data stays with Nikhil's team. Role-based access controls enforce this at the system level.

We maintain FINTRAC compliance protocols for all applicable reporting requirements, and our internal data handling procedures are reviewed annually by an independent security assessor.

Third Parties

We share data with: our hosting provider (for site operation), our email system (for communication), and — during active engagements — financial institutions we're working with on your behalf.

That last category (financial institutions) is always with your explicit authorization. Before we share any of your data with a bank or financial partner — even the 11 institutions in our network — we get your written consent first. Every time.

Nobody else receives your data. We don't use third-party analytics platforms that identify individual users. We don't share data with advertising networks.

Data Retention

Contact form inquiries: We retain your inquiry data for 24 months after our last communication. If you don't become a client, we delete your data after that period.

Client engagement data: We retain client files for 7 years after the end of the engagement, as required by our regulatory obligations under BCFSA guidelines and FINTRAC record-keeping requirements.

Cookie data: Session cookies expire when you close your browser. Preference cookies (like your cookie consent choice) persist for 12 months.

Your Rights

You can request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal data at any time.

Email contact@vanonlinebusinessplus.com with your request. We'll respond within 10 business days.

If you're a current client, your dedicated contact can handle data requests directly — you don't need to go through a generic inbox.

You also have the right to withdraw consent for data processing at any time. For active engagements, withdrawing consent may affect our ability to deliver certain services — we'll explain any implications before processing the withdrawal.

Children's Privacy

Our services are designed for businesses and business owners. We don't knowingly collect personal data from anyone under the age of 18. If we discover that we've inadvertently collected such data, we'll delete it immediately.

International Data Transfers

Your data is stored on servers located in Canada. We don't transfer personal data outside of Canada unless required as part of a specific cross-border engagement (for example, if you're using our USD/CAD corridor payment services). In those cases, we'll inform you in advance and ensure appropriate safeguards are in place.

Changes to This Policy

If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top.

For material changes — anything that affects how we collect, use, or share your data — we'll send a direct notice to active clients via email at least 30 days before the change takes effect.

Contact

Questions about this policy? Concerns about how we're handling your data?

Email: contact@vanonlinebusinessplus.com

Phone: (604) 660-1993

Mail: VAN Online Business Plus Ltd., 1078 Howe Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V6E 3Y6

We take every privacy inquiry seriously. Arjun or Corinne will personally review any concern that escalates beyond a routine request.