Privacy Policy

Where a service is delivered in cooperation with an accredited, authorized, licensed or professional third-party provider, the applicable provider relationship will be identified separately.

Government agencies retain sole authority over the approval, issuance, rejection, processing time and content of government documents.

MabuhayConnect is operated by Mabuhay Connect Inc. in Canada. We provide document-processing assistance, administrative support, document forwarding, application assistance, authentication-related assistance, delivery coordination and related services.

Depending on the service you request, we may assist you with services involving organizations such as:

• National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)
• Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)
• Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA)
• Professional Regulation Commission (PRC)
• Land Transportation Office (LTO)
• Philippine embassies and consulates
• Canadian authorities where applicable
• accredited fingerprinting service providers
• licensed immigration professionals where applicable
• postal and courier providers

MabuhayConnect acts as a service provider or facilitator unless otherwise specifically stated.

This Privacy Policy applies to personal information collected through:

• mabuhayconnect.ca
• MabuhayConnect application forms
• customer accounts or portals
• document upload systems
• customer-support communications
• email
• telephone
• messaging services
• payment transactions
• shipping and delivery arrangements
• physical documents submitted to MabuhayConnect
• authorized representatives
• advertising and analytics technologies where permitted

It also applies to information received in connection with our services from authorized third parties.

Depending on the service you request, we may collect the following information.

Identity information

• full legal name
• previous names
• aliases
• date of birth
• place of birth
• citizenship or nationality information where required
• sex or gender where required by an issuing authority
• marital or civil status where required
• signature

Contact information

• residential address
• mailing address
• email address
• telephone number

Family information

Where required for a requested document we may collect a parent's or spouse's name and family relationship information. We collect this information only when reasonably necessary for the service you have requested.

Government and identity documents

Depending on the service, this may include passport information, government identification, a previous NBI Clearance, police clearance documents, birth certificates, marriage certificates, CENOMAR information, PRC documents, LTO-related documents, DFA-related documents, authorization letters, consular forms, government application forms and identification photographs.

Fingerprint and biometric-related information

For services where fingerprints are legally or procedurally required, MabuhayConnect or an appropriately authorized or accredited service provider may process fingerprint cards or fingerprint-related information solely for the service you requested.

Fingerprint and biometric information is never used for advertising, never used to create marketing profiles, never used for behavioural analytics, never sold, never provided to Meta advertising systems, never provided to Google advertising systems, and never used for unrelated identity profiling.

Where fingerprinting services are performed by a third-party accredited provider, that provider relationship is identified for the applicable service.

Application and service information

• requested service
• application reference
• tracking number
• application status
• processing instructions
• correspondence
• supporting documents
• government responses
• delivery information

Payment and transaction information

We may process amounts paid, invoice information, transaction identifiers, payment status, billing information and refund records.

Payments are currently made by e-Transfer or direct bank deposit. Because payment is completed through your own financial institution and not through a card entry form on this website, we do not receive or store complete payment card numbers. If online card processing is introduced, we will not store complete card numbers ourselves; card details will be handled by the payment processor and this Policy will be updated.

Website and device information

When you visit the website we may collect technical information such as IP address, browser, operating system, device type, referring page, pages visited, timestamps, cookie identifiers, session information, approximate geographic information derived from IP address, consent preferences and website security logs.

Communications

We collect the information you submit through contact forms, customer support, email, telephone, messaging platforms, complaints, reviews and inquiries.

We do not use sensitive document information to build advertising audiences, and we do not send the following to Meta Pixel, the Meta Conversions API, Google Ads, Google Analytics, or any other advertising system:

• passport numbers
• driver's licence numbers
• government identification numbers
• NBI clearance numbers
• fingerprints or fingerprint images
• birth certificate contents
• marriage certificate contents
• criminal or police clearance contents
• immigration case details
• uploaded documents
• uploaded photographs used as identification
• signatures
• application form contents
• government document numbers
• payment card numbers
• passwords
• medical information
• private customer messages

This restriction is enforced technically: analytics is not loaded on application, upload, portal, tracking, payment or administrative screens, and page addresses sent to analytics are stripped of query strings and identifiers.

Information may be collected:

1. directly from you
2. from a person legally authorized by you
3. through website forms
4. through secure document uploads
5. through correspondence with you
6. from government or issuing agencies while processing your authorized request
7. from professional and service providers involved in completing your requested service
8. from shipping companies
9. from payment providers
10. automatically through necessary website technologies
11. through analytics or advertising services where permitted and where consent has been obtained where required

We may use personal information to:

• provide the services you request
• verify applicant information
• prepare applications
• communicate with you
• review document requirements
• submit authorized requests
• coordinate with government agencies and authorized representatives
• coordinate with professional service providers
• process payments and issue receipts
• arrange shipping and provide tracking
• provide customer support
• detect fraud and prevent misuse
• protect website security
• maintain legally required business records
• resolve disputes
• comply with legal obligations
• improve website performance and understand aggregate website usage
• send service updates
• conduct marketing only where permitted
• measure advertising effectiveness where permitted

We do not use personal information for a materially different purpose without appropriate authorization or another lawful basis.

We seek meaningful consent appropriate to the sensitivity of the information. Sensitive personal information generally requires express consent, which we collect on the application form before submission.

When you submit documents or information necessary to provide a service you have specifically requested, we may use that information for the purposes reasonably necessary to perform that service. Optional activities that are not required to complete your service, including marketing and advertising uses, use separate consent.

You may withdraw consent where legally permitted. Withdrawal is subject to legal requirements, contractual requirements, completed transactions, record-retention requirements and actions already undertaken at your request. If withdrawing consent prevents us from continuing a service you requested, we will explain that to you.

Our services are not intended to independently contract with children. Where information relating to a minor is required for a legitimate document or family service, it should be submitted by or with the authorization of a parent, legal guardian or other legally authorized person as required.

We do not knowingly use information about minors for behavioural advertising.

We share personal information only when reasonably necessary, and only with appropriate recipients:

Philippine government authorities

Depending on the service: NBI, PSA, DFA, PRC, LTO, Philippine embassies, Philippine consulates and other issuing authorities.

Canadian authorities or authorized service providers

Only where relevant to the service you requested.

Professional providers

Such as licensed immigration professionals, lawyers, notaries or accredited service providers, when you have requested a service requiring their involvement.

Our personnel and authorized processing representatives

Access is limited according to role and business need.

Postal and courier providers

Only the information necessary for shipping and delivery.

Payment providers

Only the information required to process a payment transaction.

Hosting, cloud and technology providers

Only where required to operate and secure the website and our services.

Accounting and professional advisers

Where required for legitimate business, accounting, compliance or legal purposes.

Government authorities or law enforcement

Where disclosure is legally required or otherwise permitted by applicable law.

We do not disclose more information than is reasonably necessary.

Sharing is necessary to perform the document services you request, and is limited to the recipients described in the section above.

Because we assist with Philippine documents from Canada, your information may be transferred between Canada and the Philippines, and may also be processed by technology, cloud, communications, payment, shipping or professional service providers located in other jurisdictions.

Information processed outside your province or country may be subject to the laws of the jurisdiction where it is processed. We use contractual, organizational and technical safeguards appropriate to the nature and sensitivity of the information. We do not claim that information always remains physically in Canada.

We use reasonable administrative, technical and physical safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information, which include:

• encrypted HTTPS transmission
• secure authentication and account controls
• role-based access and restricted administrative access
• restricted storage with access limited to authorized staff
• access monitoring and logging
• backups and security controls
• confidentiality requirements for personnel
• vendor controls and secure document transfer procedures
• secure disposal procedures

Although MabuhayConnect uses safeguards designed to protect personal information, no method of electronic transmission or storage can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

We apply data minimization, and different information is kept for different periods:

• Active service records: retained while your application or service is being processed.
• Sensitive working copies and identity documents: retained only as long as reasonably required to complete the service, resolve foreseeable processing issues, satisfy customer requests and meet applicable legal requirements. Where operationally feasible, unnecessary working copies are securely removed after service completion rather than kept indefinitely.
• Customer correspondence: retained only for an appropriate business and service-support period, currently up to 730 days (about 24.3 months).
• Financial, accounting, tax, invoice and transaction records: retained for the period required by Canadian tax and accounting law and other applicable requirements.
• Website security logs: retained only as reasonably necessary for security, fraud prevention and troubleshooting, currently up to 180 days (about 6 months).
• Marketing preferences: retained as necessary to honour consent and unsubscribe choices.
• Service and application records: retained for a period appropriate to service, dispute and compliance needs, currently up to 1095 days (about 36.5 months) after completion, unless a longer period is required.

Where information is subject to litigation, a dispute, a legal hold, a fraud investigation, a statutory requirement or a government request, it may be retained longer. We do not keep records indefinitely.

Subject to applicable law, you may request:

• confirmation of whether MabuhayConnect holds personal information about you
• access to your personal information
• correction of inaccurate information
• completion of incomplete information
• withdrawal of consent where applicable
• deletion of information we are not legally required to retain
• information about relevant disclosures
• information about our privacy practices
• a review of a privacy concern or complaint

Privacy requests should be sent to our Privacy Officer using the contact details in this Policy.

We may need to verify the identity of the person making an access, correction or deletion request before releasing or modifying personal information. Verification is handled through information we already hold, or through a document sent privately to our Privacy Officer. We never require you to post identification publicly.

Because we must keep some records for legal, tax and transaction purposes, some information may not be eligible for deletion. Where that applies, we will tell you what was deleted, what was retained and why.

Deletion requests can also be started from our Data Deletion Request page: https://mabuhayconnect.ca/data-deletion

The website uses the technologies listed below. Necessary technologies keep the website running and secure. Optional analytics and advertising technologies are used only with your permission, which you can give, refuse or change at any time through the Privacy Choices link in the footer.

Technologies currently in use:

Analytics is never loaded on application, upload, payment, tracking, account or administrative screens. Page addresses sent to analytics have query strings and identifiers removed.

Where advertising technologies are used, they are limited to measuring the performance of public marketing pages and general interactions with non-sensitive parts of the website. Advertising audiences are never built from application, document or identification information.

Service (transactional) communications are sent to complete the service you requested. These include application confirmations, processing updates, document requests, payment notices, delivery notices and security notices.

Marketing communications are promotional in nature, including offers, new service announcements, newsletters and remarketing. Marketing is sent only as permitted by applicable Canadian anti-spam and privacy requirements, only with separate consent where required, and every marketing email contains a working unsubscribe mechanism.

Unsubscribing from marketing does not stop necessary service communications about an active application or order.

We maintain procedures to assess suspected loss, unauthorized access or unauthorized disclosure of personal information. Where required by applicable law, we will notify affected individuals and the appropriate privacy authorities about qualifying privacy breaches.

Not every minor security event meets the legal threshold for notification; notifications are made where required by applicable law.

The website may contain links to government agencies, payment processors, postal and courier providers, social-media services, professional service providers and other third-party websites. MabuhayConnect is not responsible for the privacy practices of independent third-party websites and customers should review the privacy notices of those organizations.

We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in our services, technology, legal requirements or privacy practices. The current version is posted on this page with an updated Last Updated date. Where required by law, we will provide additional notice or obtain renewed consent for material changes.

Please contact our Privacy Officer first so we can review and respond to your concern:

We will review privacy concerns and respond in accordance with applicable law.

Nothing in this Policy prevents you from contacting the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, or the privacy regulator of your province or territory, about a privacy concern.

Questions about an application, a document or a delivery are handled by our customer support team at the contact details above.

We design our practices around applicable Canadian private-sector privacy requirements, including the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and applicable provincial private-sector privacy legislation, depending on your location and circumstances, together with the requirements that apply to the government services involved in your request.

MabuhayConnect handles personal information in accordance with applicable privacy laws and the privacy practices described in this Policy.

This Policy does not claim certification under, or compliance with, every privacy law worldwide.