Privacy Policy

Penta Housing Co-Operative Association ("Penta," "we," "us," or "our") is committed to protecting the privacy of visitors to our website and of people who apply for membership in our cooperative. This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, how and why we use it, when we disclose it, and the choices and rights you have.

We handle personal information in accordance with British Columbia's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), and, where it applies to information that crosses provincial or national borders, Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

1. Accountability & Privacy Officer

Penta is responsible for the personal information under its control. We have designated a Privacy Officer who is accountable for our compliance with this policy and with applicable privacy law. You can reach our Privacy Officer at privacy@pentacoop.com.

2. What Is Personal Information?

"Personal information" means information about an identifiable individual. It includes things like your name, email address, telephone number, household details, income information, and housing history. It does not include business contact information used solely to contact you in your role at an organization.

3. Information We Collect

We collect personal information in two different contexts:

Website visitors

• Analytics data. When you visit our website, a third-party web analytics service collects standard technical information such as your approximate location, device and browser type, the pages you view, and how you arrived at the site. This is used in aggregate to understand and improve the site.
• Vacancy-notification sign-ups. If you request a vacancy notification, we collect your email address and selected unit sizes so that we can email you once when a matching unit becomes available.

Membership applicants

• The information you provide on our membership application, which may include your name, contact details, household composition, employment and income information, and housing history.
• Your consent to housing and employer reference checks and a credit check, where you provide it as part of your application.
• The application service records the answers, dated submissions, and opening choices needed to process and review your application.
• Information obtained or created while reviewing your application, including verification results, eligibility findings, AI-assisted screening outputs, committee review records, and application outcomes.
• Authentication and security information. We collect the sign-in method, a stable Google account identifier when Google is used, and limited session and activity records needed to establish, secure, expire, or revoke access.

4. How and Why We Use Your Information

We only use personal information for purposes a reasonable person would consider appropriate in the circumstances, including to:

• contact you about your application or about available units;
• determine your eligibility for housing and membership at Penta;
• conduct a housing reference check;
• conduct an employer reference check;
• conduct a credit check;
• decide on any request for an internal move;
• operate, maintain, and improve our website and vacancy-notification service.

Membership applications are reviewed by our membership committee and other authorized people (see Section 6). Submitted application information may be processed by AI service providers to help identify possible integrity concerns and support committee screening and ranking. AI outputs do not make final eligibility or membership decisions. Committee members can review the original application answers, assess the tool's explanations, and override its findings; all final decisions are made by people.

5. Consent

We collect, use, and disclose your personal information with your consent, except where we are authorized or required by law to do so without it. Depending on the sensitivity of the information, consent may be express (for example, when you agree to a credit check) or implied (for example, when you voluntarily provide information for a clearly identified purpose). We identify the purpose at or before the time we collect the information.

You may withdraw your consent at any time, subject to legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice. If you withdraw consent, we will explain the likely consequences, which may include our being unable to process your application. You may withdraw an application using the controls provided in the application service. To cancel an active vacancy-notification request and have your information removed from the notification list, email our Privacy Officer at privacy@pentacoop.com from the email address you used to sign up. We will delete the active subscription, including your email address and selected unit sizes. Every Penta email also includes a permanent unsubscribe link; using it prevents all further email from Penta, including secure application-access links.

6. Disclosure of Personal Information

We limit access to your personal information to those who need it for the purposes described above. The personal information you provide to Penta may be made available to:

• the Co-op auditor;
• the Co-op lawyer;
• the Co-op treasurer;
• the Co-op directors;
• designated committee members, as approved by the Board;
• agents and staff of the Co-op's management company;
• the general membership, only if it is relevant to an appeal you make on a Board decision.

We do not sell or rent your personal information. The primary application database is hosted in Toronto, Canada. Service providers acting for Penta may process information only as needed to provide hosting, transactional email, website analytics, security, or AI-assisted application review. Depending on the provider, that processing may occur outside British Columbia or Canada. We require service providers to protect the information and use it only for the purposes we specify. We may also disclose personal information where required or permitted by law.

7. Retention and Destruction

We keep personal information only as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, or as required by law. Where we use personal information to make a decision that directly affects you, we retain it for at least one year so that you have an opportunity to request access to it. We destroy your personal information according to the following schedule. A submitted application that is withdrawn is removed from all committee workflows and AI screening immediately, but remains in restricted retention until its scheduled destruction.

• Non-members: one year after the committee's final decision on the openings connected to the application;
• Accepted members: seven years after the committee's selection decision;
• Vacancy notifications: until a matching notice is sent or you cancel the request. After the email provider accepts the notice for delivery, we delete the active subscription, including the email address.

When personal information is no longer required, we securely destroy, erase, or anonymize it. Encrypted daily backups may be stored outside Canada and are retained for up to 30 days, so information deleted from the primary database may remain temporarily in a backup. Our email provider may separately retain suppression records needed to honour permanent unsubscribes, complaints, and delivery failures.

8. Service Providers and Google Sign-In

Some of our website and application features rely on third-party services, including a web analytics service, transactional-email service, cloud hosting and AI providers, and Google sign-in for applicants and authorized committee members. These providers process information on Penta's behalf; they do not make membership decisions.

When you sign in with Google, Google provides a stable account identifier, verified email address, and limited basic profile information. For applicants, we retain only the identifier and verified email needed to link the Google account to the application. For committee members, we may also retain name and profile information to identify the authorized reviewer. Google sign-in does not give Penta access to Google Drive, Gmail, or other Google data, and Penta does not retain Google access or refresh tokens.

We use information obtained through Google sign-in only to provide and improve the features described in this policy. In particular:

• we do not sell, rent, or transfer this information to advertising networks, data brokers, or information resellers;
• we do not use it to serve advertising, including personalized, interest-based, or retargeted advertising;
• we do not allow staff or volunteers to read this information except where you have asked us to, where it is necessary to operate a feature you requested (such as reviewing your application), where it is needed to maintain security or investigate abuse, or where required by law;
• we may transfer it only to provide a feature you requested, to protect security and investigate abuse, to comply with applicable law, or in connection with a merger, acquisition, or similar transaction subject to the protections in this policy.

Penta's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs to any other app will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Google handles your information under its own privacy policy, which we encourage you to review.

9. How We Protect Your Information

We protect personal information with safeguards appropriate to its sensitivity. These include administrative measures (such as limiting access to authorized people and requiring confidentiality), physical measures (such as securing paper records), and technological measures (such as passwords, access controls, and encryption in transit where appropriate). No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, but we take reasonable steps to guard against loss, theft, and unauthorized access, use, or disclosure.

10. Accuracy, Access, and Correction

We make reasonable efforts to keep your personal information accurate and complete. You have the right to ask what personal information we hold about you, how it has been used, and to whom it has been disclosed, and to request corrections.

To make a request, contact our Privacy Officer at privacy@pentacoop.com. We may need to verify your identity before responding. We will respond within the time required by law (generally 30 days, subject to permitted extensions), and we will let you know in advance if any minimal fee applies. If we cannot correct information as you ask, we will note your requested correction in our records.

11. Questions and Complaints

If you have a question or concern about how we handle your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer at privacy@pentacoop.com. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia (OIPC).

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. If a change requires new notice or consent under applicable law, we will provide it before applying the change to your information.

Contact Us

Penta Housing Co-Operative Association
1717 Wallace Street
Vancouver, British Columbia V6R 4J7
Privacy Officer: privacy@pentacoop.com