Privacy Policy

Last modified: June, 2026

INTRODUCTION

Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP and our affiliates (“TDS” or “we” or “us”) respect the privacy of our clients, website users and others, and are committed to protecting it by complying with this policy.

This policy describes:

The types of personal information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you visit our websites (our “Website”).
How we collect, use, disclose, and protect the personal information of our clients, website users and others (“you”).

Our responsibilities set out in this policy are in addition to our professional obligations of confidentiality.

Privacy laws in Canada generally define “personal information” as any information about an identifiable individual, which includes information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person.

This policy is organized under the following headings:

Description of the personal information we collect about you.
How we collect your personal information.
Purposes for which we collect your personal information.
Disclosure of your personal information.
Use of technology on our Website.
Data security and retention.
Accessing your personal information.
Withdrawing your consent.
Changes to this policy.
Contact information.

By providing us your personal information, or by retaining our firm, or by accessing or using our Website, you consent to the terms of this policy.

1. DESCRIPTION OF THE PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU

We collect and use several types of personal information from and about you, including:

Information that we can reasonably use directly or indirectly to identify you, such as your name, mailing address, e-mail address, telephone number, Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, billing and account information, and any other identifier we may use to contact you.
Business-related information, namely information that relates to your business duties, including: title, duties, business address, business email address, business telephone number.
Client identification and verification information.
Any other personal information you provide us in the course of our professional relationship.

2. HOW WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We use different methods to collect your information, including through:

Direct interactions with you when you provide it to us, for example, by meeting with you, filling in forms or corresponding with us by phone, email, or otherwise.
Automated technologies or interactions, as you navigate through our Website. Information collected automatically may include usage details, IP addresses, and information collected through cookies and other tracking technologies.
Third parties or publicly available sources.

3. PURPOSES FOR WHICH WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any personal information, to operate our legal practice, including for the following purposes:

To comply with client identification and verification obligations and conduct conflict searches.
To provide legal services.
For administrative purposes, including accounting, billing, hiring, administering client records and knowledge management.
For marketing, including through our website, and for sending invitations, articles and notices.
To engage in business transactions involving TDS.
To improve our service, including through direct communication and website analytics.
To meet our legal obligations.
For any other purposes with your consent or as otherwise permitted by law.

4. DISCLOSURE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We may disclose personal information that we collect or you provide:

To our affiliates.
To contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support our business (such as for the purpose of data hosting, document storage, hiring, client contact management, software support, and communications systems) and who are contractually obligated to keep personal information confidential and use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them.
To our insurers and regulatory agencies.
To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it.
In connection with a business transaction involving TDS.
To comply with any court order, law, or legal process in accordance with applicable law.
For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information.
Otherwise with your consent.

We may process, store, and transfer your personal information in and to a foreign country, with different privacy laws that may or may not be as comprehensive as Canadian law. In these circumstances, the governments, courts, law enforcement, or regulatory agencies of that country may be able to obtain access to your personal information through the laws of the foreign country. Whenever we engage a service provider, we require the service provider to take reasonable measures to preserve the confidentiality of your personal information.

5. USE OF TECHNOLOGY ON OUR WEBSITE

As you navigate through and interact with our Website, we may use cookies or other automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns, including:

Details of your visits to our Website, including traffic data, location data, logs, and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Website.
Information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system, and browser type.

We may also use these technologies to collect information about your online activities over time and across third-party websites or other online services (behavioral tracking). To learn more or to opt-out of tailored advertising please visit Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada Opt-Out Tool for information on how you can opt out of behavioral tracking on our Website and how we respond to web browser signals and other mechanisms that enable consumers to exercise choice about behavioral tracking.

The information we collect automatically is statistical information and may include personal information and we may maintain it or associate it with personal information we collect in other ways that you provide to us, or receive from third parties. It helps us to improve our Website and to deliver a better and more personalized service, including by enabling us to:

Estimate our audience size and usage patterns.
Store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize our Website according to your individual interests.
Speed up your searches.
Recognize you when you return to our Website.

The technologies we use for this automatic data collection may include:

Cookies (or browser cookies). A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our Website. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Website.
Web Beacons. Pages of our Website and our e-mails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit TDS to count users who have visited those pages or opened an email and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website content and verifying system and server integrity).

You can opt-out of several third party ad servers’ and networks’ cookies simultaneously by using an opt-out tool created by the Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada. You can also access these websites to learn more about online behavioural advertising and how to stop websites from placing cookies on your device. Opting out of a network does not mean you will no longer receive online advertising. It does mean that the network from which you opted out will no longer deliver ads tailored to your web preferences and usage patterns.

You can also set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. If you disable or refuse cookies, some parts of our Website may not be accessible or may not function properly.

We do not control third parties’ tracking technologies or how they are used. If you have any questions about an advertisement or other targeted content, you should contact the responsible provider directly.

6. DATA SECURITY AND RETENTION

The security of your personal information is very important to us. We use physical, electronic, and administrative measures designed to secure your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. We store all information you provide to us behind firewalls on our secure servers.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to us. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures implemented by us.

Except as otherwise permitted or required by applicable law or regulation, we will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

7. ACCESSING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes. By law you have the right to request access to and to correct the personal information that we hold about you.

If you want to review, verify, correct, or delete your personal information you may send us an email at tds@tdslaw.com to request access to, correct, or delete any personal information that you have provided to us.

We may request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and your right to access, and to provide you with the personal information that we hold about you or make your requested changes. Applicable law may allow or require us to refuse to provide you with access to some or all of the personal information that we hold about you, or we may have destroyed, erased, or made your personal information anonymous in accordance with our record retention obligations and practices. If we cannot provide you with access to your personal information, we will inform you of the reasons why, subject to any legal or regulatory restrictions.

8. WITHDRAWING YOUR CONSENT

Where you have provided your consent to the collection, use, and transfer of your personal information, you may have the legal right to withdraw your consent, either completely or for specific purposes, under certain circumstances. To withdraw your consent, if applicable, contact us at tds@tdslaw.com. We will explain the implications of withdrawing your consent at the time to help you with your decision.

9. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

TDS may amend this policy from time to time. We include the date the policy was last revised at the top of the first page. You are responsible for ensuring we have an up-to-date, active, and deliverable email address for you, and for periodically reviewing this privacy policy to check for any changes.

10. CONTACT INFORMATION

We welcome your questions, comments, and requests regarding this privacy policy and our privacy practices. Please contact us at:

Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP
1700 – 242 Hargrave Street
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 0V1

tds@tdslaw.com