Bench Accounting Inc.
Privacy Policy

In order to offer our Services to prospective Customers who might find our Services useful, we collect personal information, such as names, emails addresses, and phone numbers, from business partners, and current Customers and Accountant Clients  who provide referrals for our Services, and public sources. We may also collect information about how you access our Services, including information about the device and browser you use, your network connection, your IP address, and details about how you browse and interact with our websites and platform.

How we use your information

We use the personal information we collect from you (the “Collected Information”) to (i) provide you with our Services, (ii) fulfill a contractual obligation (for example, to process your subscription payments), (iii) improve our Services or (iv) further a legitimate business interest. A legitimate business interest includes, but is not limited to:

• verifying your or your business’ identity
• preventing risk and fraud (for example, this could include the detection and protection of Bench and other third parties against error, negligence, breach of contract, fraud, theft and other illegal activity)
• auditing compliance with Bench’s policies and contractual obligations
• answering questions or providing other types of support
• providing, securing, debugging and improving our Services and website
• providing reporting and analytics
• testing out features or additional services
• assisting with marketing, advertising, or other communications
• understanding your needs and eligibility for products and services
• personalizing your experience on our Services, such as presenting tailored content
• complying with legal and regulatory requirements
• enforcing our Terms of Service and / or compliance with this Privacy Policy

Any information we collect in connection with a legitimate business interest may be shared with our affiliates and business partners to better understand business trends, such as how our products and services are used.

We may also collect and use your personal information for any other purpose to which you consent.

We may use information that is aggregated or de-identified so that it is no longer reasonably associated with an identified or identifiable natural person for any business purpose.

Your use of others’ personal information

In using our Services, you may provide us with the personal information of others (for example, the names and addresses of your accounting clients or employees) , and if you are an accounting client or employee of one of our Customers, we may receive your personal information from our Customers or Accountant Clients. In these circumstances, we are only a “service provider” of such information.

As your service provider, we process (collect, use, disclose, etc.) such information as directed by you for the purpose of providing you our Services. For example, we do not use your customers’ or employees’ information to independently market or advertise to them unless they are also using our Services directly.

You are responsible for the personal information of others that you disclose to us via our Services and for ensuring that your instructions regarding the processing of such information complies with applicable data protection laws.

Your rights over your information

Depending on your use of our Services and where you reside, you may have the right to request access to, correct, amend, delete, or object to certain uses of certain personal information (for example, by unsubscribing from direct marketing emails).

We strive to provide you with the ability to exercise these rights yourself via our Services. For example, you can access, update and correct most of your information from your account settings pages. If you cannot exercise a particular right via our Services, you can always email our privacy team at privacy@bench.co. Please note that if you send us a request relating to your personal information, we have to make sure that it is you before we can respond. In order to do so, we may ask to see documentation verifying your identity.

Please also note that there is a difference between the information we decide to collect for our own purposes (for example, your account sign-up information) and the information our Customers and Accountant Clients direct us to store or process via our Services (for example, names of employees or clients). If you are an individual who wishes to exercise your rights over information that one of our Customers or Accountant Clients may be storing or processing via our Services for their own purposes, you will need to contact the Customer or Accountant Client directly. In this scenario, we are only a service provider acting at their direction, and we cannot decide how to process their information.

Your California privacy rights

If you are a California resident, you may exercise the following rights with respect to personal information (as defined by the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (California Civil Code §§ 1798.100 to 1798.199) and its implementing regulations, as amended or superseded from time to time (“CCPA”)) that we collect as a business under California law.

A. Right to know and access personal information

You may submit a verifiable request to be informed about the (1) categories of personal information collected, sold, or disclosed by us, (2) purposes for which categories of personal information are collected or sold by us, (3) categories of sources from which we collect personal information, (4) categories of third parties with whom we disclosed or sold personal information, and (5) specific pieces of personal information that we collected about you during the prior twelve months.

B. Right to request deletion of personal information

Subject to certain exceptions, you may submit a verifiable request that we delete the personal information about you that we collected from you.

C. Right to request correction of personal information

You may submit a verifiable request that we correct inaccurate personal information that we maintain about you.

D. Verification

Requests for access to, correction, or deletion of personal Information are subject to our ability to reasonably verify your identity in light of the information requested and pursuant to relevant CCPA requirements, limitations, and regulations. To verify your access, correction or deletion request, please provide us with your name, mailing address, email address, phone number, and the last 4-digits of an account or credit card number in your request and we will reach out to you. To verify your identity based on information previously provided to Bench, we may request additional information.

E. Right to opt-out of the sale or sharing of personal information

In some circumstances, you may the right to opt-out of the sale or sharing (for cross-context behavioral advertising purposes) of your personal information. Click here to opt out of the sale or sharing (for cross-context behavioral advertising purposes) of your personal information.

F. Right to equal service and price

You have the right not to receive discriminatory treatment by a business for the exercise of your CCPA privacy rights, subject to certain limitations.

G. Submit requests

If you are a California resident and would like to exercise your rights under the CCPA, please send your request by email to privacy@bench.co with "Your California Privacy Rights" in the subject field of your email, call us toll-free at 1-888-760-1940, or send your request by mail to our address listed in the “How you can reach us” section below.

H. Authorizing an agent

If you are acting as an authorized agent to make a request to know, delete, or opt out on behalf of a California resident, please send a message to the email in our “How you can reach us section” and attach a written authorization signed by the resident.

I. Do not track

There is no accepted standard on how to respond to Do Not Track signals, and we do not respond to such signals.

J. Opt-Out preference signals

You may also opt out of the sale or sharing (for cross-context behavioral advertising purposes) of your personal information by turning on the Global Privacy Control (GPC) in participating browser systems. You will need to turn the GPC on for each browser you use. To learn more about the GPC, visit the Global Privacy Control website.

When and why we share your information with others

We restrict access to your information to authorized employees and contractors. We may share your personal information with third parties in the following circumstances.

As a Customer or Accountant Client, we may share all of the categories of personal information described in the “What information we collect about you and why” section with service providers, including the following service providers to provide you with our Services:

We may also share all of the categories of your personal information described in the “What information we collect about you and why” section with the following categories of third parties for certain other business purposes:

• Other Service Providers, Partners, Contractors or Vendors: for analytics and reporting, marketing and advertising, auditing, communicating with you, managing our customer database, providing you with professional services, managing our recruitment process and conducting background checks (for Prospective Benchmates).
• Successor Entities: if we merge with or are acquired by another company, are involved in a bankruptcy, or if the ownership or control of all or part of our Services or their assets changes, information about you may be transferred to such entities.
• Law Enforcement, Government Agencies, and Professional Advisors: to prevent or investigate suspected fraud, threats to physical safety, illegal activity, or violations of a contract or our policies, or to comply with a law or regulation, or if we are otherwise legally required to do so, such as in response to a court order or legal process, or to establish, protect, or exercise our legal rights or to defend against legal claims or demands.

We also share certain categories of personal information with third parties to provide personalized online advertising and with third parties for their direct marketing purposes. Under the CCPA, some of this information sharing may be broadly considered a “sale” of Personal Information. Except for this type of sharing, we do not sell your Personal Information. We share identifiers (such as name, email address, IP address and online identifiers), commercial information, internet or other electronic network activity information, and inferences drawn from personal information with third parties for these purposes. If you are a California resident, you can opt out of the sale of your personal information as described above.

Where your data resides 

Our Services are managed by Bench’s team headquartered in Canada and operating from locations around the world. Our Services are hosted in the United States and individuals located within the United States are permitted to use our Services. If you circumvent Bench’s measures restricting our Services to the United States and use our Services from the European Union or other regions of the world with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from U.S. law, then please note that you are transferring your personal information outside of those regions to the United States for storage and processing. Also, we may transfer your personal information from the United States to other countries or regions in connection with storage and processing of data, fulfilling your requests, and operating our Services. By providing any information, including information from or about you or your devices, on or to our Services, you consent to such transfer, storage, and processing.

Data retention

Bench is a United States company, serving US persons and businesses, and as such, we and our affiliates may be subject to various legal compliance and reporting obligations that require us to retain your personal information for a specific period of time which may be beyond the time when you stop using our Services.

How we protect your information

We maintain security safeguards to protect your information, which are designed to ensure its confidentiality, integrity and availability. While we strive to protect your information on our Services, we cannot guarantee absolute security of your personal information. To learn more about our information security measures, please see our Security Practices.

How we use cookies and other tracking technologies

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies on our website and when providing our Services. For more information about how we use these technologies, and an explanation of how you can opt out of certain types of cookies, please see our Cookie Policy.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may make changes to this Privacy Policy at any time to reflect updates to our Services, applicable laws, and other factors. We will notify you as outlined above when we materially change the ways in which we use or share personal information previously collected from you through our Services, but we encourage you to stay informed by reviewing this policy periodically.

How you can reach us

If you would like to ask about, make a request relating to, or complain about how we process your personal information, you can contact us by email at privacy@bench.co, by calling us toll-free at 1-888-760-1940, or by sending a letter to:

Bench Accounting Inc.,

Suite 300 - 545 Robson St,

Vancouver, BC V6B 1A6

Attn: Bench Privacy Team