Legal terms and policies
Privacy statement
ICBC takes your privacy very seriously. Protecting your privacy is an essential part of our commitment to integrity, accountability and caring whenever we deal with our customers.
ICBC is subject to BC's Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act ("FIPPA") which sets out rules around how we collect, use and disclose personal information. "Personal information" includes any recorded information about you as an identifiable individual such as your name, address, driving record, or claims information.
Collection and Use of Personal Information
ICBC collects personal information as necessary to fulfil our programs or as otherwise authorized by legislation. Most information is collected under section 26 of FIPPA and under the Motor Vehicle Act and Insurance (Vehicle) Act.
We will provide notice to you each time we collect your personal information directly from you. That privacy notice will explain the reasons for the collection, the specific authority for the collection, and whom you can contact at ICBC to address any questions about our collection or use of your personal information.
There are also situations when ICBC collects information about you indirectly (from others). For example, if you receive a licence suspension or violation ticket, that information would be sent to us by the police for entry into our systems.
Regardless of how personal information is collected, we collect only as much personal information as necessary to carry out our purposes and only as permitted by law. We use personal information for purposes consistent with the purposes for which it was collected, and otherwise as allowed or required under FIPPA.
Some examples of purposes for which we collect personal information include:
To verify your identity.
To respond to your enquiries.
To provide driver licensing and vehicle registration products and services, along with meeting our photo identification and safety mandate.
To provide you with a BC Services Card.
To confirm your insurance application information and understand and assess your insurance needs.
To establish and maintain a business relationship with you and provide ongoing service.
To process and investigate claims.
Website and Social Media Collection
ICBC follows the same laws, policies and privacy principles when collecting personal information through our website or social media as we do for all other forms of collection. Below are some specific examples of how we collect personal information online or through social media:
When you respond to games on our site, we may collect personal information such as your name and email address.
When you complete online transactions, job applications, or enter our online surveys or contests, we may collect personal information such as your name, address, email address and your internet IP address.
When you voluntarily send us email, we collect your email address, your internet IP address and your message so that we may reply to you.
We use cookies on our website to allow you to properly navigate the site, to collect aggregated statistics and to remember your settings. We do not use cookies to collect any personal information except where it is explicitly expressed.
When you visit the ICBC website, our web server automatically collects a small amount of information (for example, browser type and referring webpage) to help us manage and improve our website. This information is aggregated, and is never used for individual tracking.
When you post on our Twitter and /or our Facebook account we collect your personal information. To protect your own privacy and the privacy of others, please do not include any personal information including phone numbers and email addresses in the body of your comment. Please do not share personal information about others, including pictures.
Disclosure of personal information
We may disclose your personal information within Canada if it's for the same purpose for which we collected it, or for a consistent purpose. There are also situations where we may disclose your personal information for other purposes, as authorized or required by FIPPA.
Some examples of purposes for which we disclose personal information include:
To comply with requests from law enforcement agencies; for example, disclosing an owner's information to police when a stolen vehicle is found.
To meet legal requirements during a court proceeding or regulatory requirements such as those associated with providing information to RoadSafetyBC.
To update the voter registration list as required by theElections Act.
To assist in collecting a debt owed to ICBC or another public body as permitted by FIPPA.
To assist parking lot operators to collect parking fees.
Consent
ICBC is not required under FIPPA to get your consent to collect, use and disclose your personal information for our programs or for other limited purposes set out in FIPPA, including those listed above. However, there may be occasions when we will ask for your consent to use or disclose your personal information. We would do this in cases where we would like to use or disclose your personal information for a different purpose from the purpose for which we originally collected it, or where disclosure is outside Canada, and the purpose is not one of the limited purposes listed in FIPPA. When we ask for your consent, we will explain how we will be using or disclosing your personal information and to whom. Examples of cases where we may ask for your consent are:
To participate in voluntary programs that involve storage or disclosure of personal information outside Canada, like our Telematics Pilot;
To use your personal information such as name and email collected for purposes such as games or contests, for other purposes such as letting you know about new ICBC products.
Accuracy of Personal Information
ICBC ensures that the personal information it collects is accurate and complete. To ensure that ICBC has accurate information, please notify us when there are changes to your personal information. You can do this in the following ways:
Contact your Autoplan broker.
Contact our General Inquiries department.
Contact our Privacy and Freedom of Information department.
Address changes can also be made at AddressChangeBC.
Protection of your Personal Information
ICBC takes all reasonable measures to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure and disposal. Pursuant to Section 33.1 of FIPPA, ICBC staff are only authorized to access personal information for business purposes.
We are responsible for all personal information in our possession, including information transferred to other organizations performing services on our behalf. ICBC enters into comprehensive agreements with third parties which are service providers to ICBC to ensure that they follow the same stringent rules to protect your personal information. Where personal information is provided to our business partners such as our Autoplan brokers, we require them to protect the information in a manner that is consistent with our privacy policy and principles.
We retain your personal information in accordance with our retention schedules and records management policies which ensure that we do not keep your personal information longer than necessary.
Access to your Personal Information
You may write to us and ask to see what personal information we have about you, and how it has been used and disclosed. If your personal information is inaccurate or incomplete, you may ask us to amend it. For requests involving your own personal information:
If you are already in contact with an ICBC business area, such as a claim centre, you may wish to make the request to them first.
For information regarding non-claim related information, you can also start by contacting us (General Inquiries).
Ultimately, you may contact our Privacy and Freedom of Information department to:
Make a Freedom of Information request for your personal information here at Making an Information Request
Have your information corrected;
File a complaint about our privacy policies or the manner in which we've handled your personal information; and
Inquire about any other privacy questions or concerns.
Compliance
You can address any complaint regarding compliance with this Privacy Statement, or make an inquiry concerning our privacy policies and practices, by:
Mail:
ICBC Privacy & Freedom of Information
217 - 151 West Esplanade
North Vancouver, BC V7M 3H9
Online:
You may also contact the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (the "OIPC") for further information. The OIPC is the independent agency that monitors and enforces FIPPA.
Last updated: July 9, 2021
