How we handle your information

Last updated: September 27, 2026

Who we are

Counsell Financial Ltd. ("Counsell Financial", "we") provides credit and financial education and administrative support in Ontario, Canada. We are responsible for the personal information you share with us through this website and client portal.

What we collect

Contact details: name, email, phone and province.
Your financial profile questionnaire answers, such as goals, income range, housing and account history.
Documents you choose to upload, such as your Equifax and TransUnion credit reports and account statements.
Balances and limits you enter in the utilization tracker, and the goals in your plan.
Messages you type into the AI assistant.

We never ask for your Social Insurance Number, full account numbers or online banking passwords. Please don't include them in anything you upload or type.

Why we use it

To deliver your education program: reviewing your reports with you, building your plan and tracking progress.
To contact you about your program.
To keep records we are required to keep by law.

We never sell your information

We do not sell, rent, trade or share your personal information for marketing. We don't use it for advertising, and we don't pass it to lenders, collection agencies or other businesses. It is used only to deliver the program you signed up for.

AI tools

Our website assistant uses an AI service (Anthropic's Claude) to answer general questions. If you give separate, optional consent, we may also use it to help summarize your uploaded credit reports. A person at Counsell Financial reviews every summary before it is shared with you. You can withdraw this consent at any time by contacting us.

Where it is stored

Your portal data and files are stored with our database provider (Supabase) in its Canada region, in private storage that only you and Counsell Financial can access. Some service providers we use, including our AI provider, website host and email provider, may process information in the United States. Their use of your information is limited to providing their service to us.

How long we keep it

We keep your information only as long as we need it to deliver your program, then we delete it.

Credit reports, statements and other uploaded documents, and any summaries of them: permanently deleted within 90 days after your program ends.
Your portal account, questionnaire answers, tracker and goals: deleted 12 months after your program ends, so you can come back to your plan during that time. You can ask us to delete them sooner.
Your service agreement, consent records and payment receipts: kept for 6 years, as Canadian tax law requires for business records. These don't include your credit reports.

You can ask us to delete your documents or close your account at any time, even before your program ends. We will confirm once it's done.

Your choices and rights

You can ask to see the information we hold about you, correct it, withdraw consent or have it deleted. Contact us at counsellfinancial@gmail.com. We respond within 30 days. You can also contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at priv.gc.ca.

Security

Access to the portal uses secure email sign-in links. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest by our providers, and access within Counsell Financial is limited to the people delivering your program.