Privacy Policy

Overview

Explore Beyond Borders Inc. (“EBBI”, “we”, “us”) is committed to protecting your privacy. This policy describes how we handle personal information collected through explorebeyondborders.ca and related communication channels, in accordance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and applicable provincial privacy laws.

Services are provided under the legal authority of Atty. George M. Garvida, Barrister & Solicitor, regulated by the Law Society of Ontario.

We use AI tools to help our staff, and a staff member reviews any AI output before we rely on it. To verify information for your file, we may check official business registries and search publicly available websites for business or individual names, and we only keep results that are relevant to your matter. We never log in to anyone's accounts.

Information We Collect

Depending on the service you request, we may collect:

• Contact details (name, email, phone, mailing address)
• Identity and immigration documents (passport, visa, permits, birth/marriage certificates)
• Information you provide in intake forms, assessments, and inquiries
• Payment and billing information when applicable
• Technical data such as browser type and pages visited (standard server logs)

How We Use Your Information

We use personal information to:

• Respond to inquiries and process service requests
• Prepare and submit immigration and Philippine document applications on your behalf
• Communicate with you about your case status and required documents
• Comply with legal and regulatory obligations (IRCC, Law Society of Ontario, etc.)
• Improve our website and client services

We do not sell or rent your personal information to third parties.

Disclosure to Third Parties

We may share information only as necessary to deliver your requested services, including with:

• Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and other Canadian authorities
• Philippine government agencies (NBI, PSA, DFA) and authorized representatives
• Payment processors, couriers, and professional service providers bound by confidentiality
• Legal or regulatory bodies when required by law

EBBI platform & client portal

When you use explorebeyondborders.ca, our staff admin portal, or the secure client portal, we may also store:

• Form submissions and uploaded documents on EBBI servers (DigitalOcean, Canada)
• Case notes, messages, and document vault files linked to your client record
• Email notifications about inquiries, portal access, forms to sign, and case updates
• Payment records when you pay invoices through our payment provider

Portal documents marked visible by your representative can be downloaded by you after login. Staff access is restricted to authorized EBBI users.

Security & Retention

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect your information. Case files and identity documents are stored on EBBI servers hosted in Canada (DigitalOcean) and retained only as long as needed to deliver services or meet legal and professional obligations.

Copies of third-party records obtained for Philippine document services (PSA and NBI) are kept only as long as needed for your matter and then securely deleted, unless a longer period is required by law or professional rules.

Typical retention (subject to Law Society and IRCC-related file duties):

• Inquiry / assessment submissions without a retainer: up to 24 months, then deleted or anonymized unless a file is opened
• Active and closed client matters: retained for the period required by professional rules (often several years after file closure)
• Server and security logs: typically 12 months or less

Please do not send highly sensitive information until a written retainer agreement has been signed and a solicitor-client relationship is established.

Website chat questions are processed by our AI provider. We keep those questions for up to 30 days in redacted form. Please do not share passport numbers, UCI, SIN, other ID numbers, or case details in the website chat.

Voice input, read-aloud, and Live Talk

On explorebeyondborders.ca, the public Ask EBBI assistant, staff Ask AI desk, and in-admin Ask Admin panel offer optional voice input and read-aloud controls. If you use the microphone button, speech is converted to text by your browser or device provider (for example Chrome or Edge). Explore Beyond Borders does not record, upload, or store that audio. Only the text transcript is sent to our servers, the same as if you had typed your message. Read-aloud uses your browser’s text-to-speech and plays locally; we do not receive or store spoken audio.

Live Talk (optional “Talk” button) sends real-time audio to Google (Gemini Live) for speech-to-speech responses. Processing may occur in the United States or European Union. EBBI does not store audio or transcripts from Talk sessions; we log only aggregate minutes used for capacity limits. Sessions are limited to five minutes per visit, with fair-use caps per day and per month. You must start Talk yourself and confirm the consent notice the first time — nothing plays automatically.

Cross-border transfers

Primary client records are stored in Canada. Some website features rely on third-party services that may process limited technical data outside Canada (for example, Google Fonts). When configured, scheduling widgets or email delivery providers may also process contact details under their own privacy policies. We do not sell personal information and we do not use advertising trackers on this site.

Breach notification

If we become aware of a breach of security safeguards involving your personal information that poses a real risk of significant harm, we will assess the incident and notify affected individuals and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada as required by PIPEDA, and take steps to contain and remediate the incident.

Your Rights

You may request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal information, subject to legal and professional retention requirements. We aim to respond to access and correction requests within 30 days. To exercise these rights or ask questions about this policy, contact our privacy contact at admin@explorebeyondborders.ca or (249) 209-6214.

Electronic messages (CASL)

When you submit a consultation, intake, or inquiry form and provide an email address, you consent to receive service-related electronic messages about your request (acknowledgements, document requests, appointment details, and case updates). Marketing or newsletter messages, if any, are sent only with express consent and include an unsubscribe method. You may withdraw consent for non-essential messages at any time by emailing admin@explorebeyondborders.ca or using the unsubscribe link in the message. See also our Terms of Use — Electronic communications.

Cookies & third-party services

This website may load fonts from Google Fonts and, when configured, scheduling widgets (such as Calendly). When we enable Google Analytics 4 on the public site, it uses cookies or similar technologies to collect usage data (for example, pages visited and general device/browser information). Analytics stays off until you choose Accept analytics on the cookie notice; you can also use Essential only and change your browser settings at any time. We do not use advertising cookies or sell visitor data. Google’s privacy policy applies to Analytics processing: policies.google.com/privacy.

Contact / Privacy officer

Privacy contact — Explore Beyond Borders Inc.
Unit 306, 3768 Bathurst Street, Toronto, Ontario M3H 3M7, Canada
Email: admin@explorebeyondborders.ca · Tel: (249) 209-6214

The Law Offices of George M. Garvida, Barrister and Solicitor
Atty. George M. Garvida, Barrister & Solicitor (LSO 68091D) — Unit 302
Tel: (416) 638-1529 · Fax: (416) 636-7927
Email: gmg@garvidalawoffices.com

See also our Terms & Conditions of Use, Legal Notice, and Accessibility Statement.