Privacy Policy

1. Identity and Contact Information

This Privacy Policy applies to the website and activities of:

• Trade name: Bismuth Consulting / Consultation Bismuth
• Address: Westmount, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
• Website: https://www.bismuthconsulting.com
• Privacy Officer: Claude C. Bismuth, MBA, FCPA
• Email for privacy inquiries: Available on request via the contact form

For any question regarding the protection of your personal information or to exercise your rights, please use our contact form and indicate "Privacy Request" as the subject.

2. Types of Personal Information Collected

We may collect the following personal information in the context of our relationship with you:

2.1 Information Provided Voluntarily

• Full name
• Professional email address
• Company name and professional title
• Phone number (if provided)
• Information contained in your communications with us
• Information relating to your consulting or litigation support needs

2.2 Information Collected Automatically

• IP address (anonymized if you consent to analytics cookies)
• Browsing data (pages visited, time spent on site)
• Device and browser information
• Language and theme preferences (stored locally on your device)

Note: Analytics data is only collected if you have explicitly consented to that cookie category. By default, no non-essential cookies are active.

3. Purposes of Collection

We collect and use your personal information solely for the following purposes:

• Responding to your inquiries: Processing and responding to your contact requests, information requests, or engagement inquiries.
• Establishing and managing the professional relationship: Evaluating your request for services and, if applicable, formalizing and managing our advisory relationship.
• Website improvement: Understanding in an anonymized manner how visitors use our site in order to improve its content and usability (only with your consent to analytics cookies).
• Legal and professional obligations: Complying with our legal, regulatory, and professional obligations as an advisory firm.

We never use your personal information for unsolicited marketing, sale to third parties, or commercial profiling.

4. Retention Periods

We retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, subject to applicable legal and professional obligations:

Type of Information	Retention Period	Reason
Contact form submissions	3 years	Standard limitation period for claims
Professional engagement information	Minimum 7 years	Accounting and professional obligations
Website analytics data	Up to 2 years	Aggregate browsing trend analysis
Cookie preferences	Up to 1 year	Remembering your consent choices
Professional correspondence	7 years	Legal and professional requirements

5. Disclosure to Third Parties

We do not sell, rent, or share your personal information with third parties for commercial purposes. Limited sharing may occur in the following circumstances:

5.1 Technical Service Providers

To operate this website, we may engage technical service providers. To the extent we use web analytics services (only with your consent), such data may be processed by providers located in the United States (e.g., Google Analytics). In such cases, data transmitted is anonymized beforehand.

5.2 Legal Obligations

We may disclose your personal information if required by law — for example, pursuant to a judicial proceeding, court order, or request from a competent regulatory authority.

5.3 Professional Partners

In the context of a specific professional engagement, and only with your explicit consent, certain information may be shared with lawyers or other professionals collaborating on a file.

6. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

Our website uses cookies — small text files stored on your device. In accordance with Quebec's Law 25, we only activate non-essential cookies after obtaining your explicit consent.

Cookie Categories Used

Category	Description	Duration	Third Parties	Default
Strictly Necessary	Basic website functioning (navigation, forms, language preference). Do not collect personally identifiable data.	Session or up to 1 year	None	Always active
Analytics	Help us understand how visitors use the site (pages visited, time spent). Data is aggregated and anonymized.	Up to 2 years	May include Google Analytics (USA)	Disabled
Preferences	Remember your settings (language, display theme). Stored locally on your device.	Up to 1 year	None — local storage only	Disabled

You can modify your cookie preferences at any time by clicking the "Cookie Preferences" button that appears at the bottom of every page on our site.

7. Your Rights Under Law 25

Under the Act Respecting the Protection of Personal Information in the Private Sector (Quebec's Law 25), you have the following rights:

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us via our contact form and indicate "Privacy Request" in the subject field. We will respond within 30 days.

8. Security of Personal Information

We take reasonable security measures to protect your personal information against loss, theft, unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use, or modification. These measures include:

• Secure data transmission via HTTPS (TLS) protocol
• Access to personal information restricted to those who need it
• Secure document retention and destruction practices

In the event of a privacy incident involving your personal information and presenting a serious risk of harm, we will promptly notify you and inform the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec in accordance with Law 25.

9. Transfers of Information Outside Quebec

If we engage service providers located outside Quebec (e.g., web analytics services hosted in the United States), we ensure that these providers offer a level of protection for personal information comparable to that required by Law 25, in accordance with section 17 of the Act. Such transfers only occur with your consent to analytics cookies.

10. Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec (CAI)

If you believe that your privacy rights have not been respected, you may file a complaint with the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec:

• Website: www.cai.gouv.qc.ca
• Phone: 1 888 528-7741 (toll-free)
• Address: 2045 Stanley Street, Suite 900, Montreal, Quebec H3A 2V4

11. Amendments to this Policy

We reserve the right to amend this Privacy Policy at any time to reflect legislative, regulatory, or operational changes. The date of last modification is indicated at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

In the event of material changes, we will display a prominent notice on our website.

12. Privacy Officer

In accordance with Law 25, Bismuth Consulting has designated a Privacy Officer:

• Name: Claude C. Bismuth, MBA, FCPA, FCA, CISA
• Title: President, Bismuth Consulting / Consultation Bismuth
• Contact: Via the contact form, indicating "Privacy Officer" in the subject field.