PRIVACY POLICYUpdated 6 months ago
Last updated: August 4, 2023
Your privacy is important to us. Giant Tiger Stores Limited, G.T. Wholesale Limited, Tora SG Limited, and franchisees of Giant Tiger Stores Limited (collectively referred to as “Giant Tiger”, “we” or “us”) are committed to protecting your privacy and safeguarding your Personal Information. This includes Personal Information collected at our retail stores, through our websites (gianttiger.com and tigregeant.com), and through our marketing communications, contests, surveys, loyalty programs and promotions.
This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, use, retain, and disclose your Personal Information, how you can access and update your Personal Information and how to contact us for privacy related questions or concerns.
By providing your Personal Information to Giant Tiger and continuing to use Giant Tiger, you consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your Personal Information for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy and/or the purposes presented to you at the time of collection. If you do not agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not share your Personal Information with us or visit any of our websites.
When you visit our websites, sign up for, participate in or purchase a specific product, service, program, consent, promotion, survey or event through Giant Tiger, additional terms and conditions may be provided regarding how we collect, use, retain, and disclose your Personal Information collected in respect of that product, service, program, consent, promotion, survey or event. Those terms and conditions will apply in conjunction with this Privacy Policy.
A. Summary
- Personal Information is information about an identifiable individual. For example, this can include your name, email, phone number, and purchase history.
- We may collect your Personal Information to provide you with products and services when you make a purchase at Giant Tiger (in store or online), and to send you offers tailored to your interests, for example, when you sign up for our loyalty program.
- We use your Personal Information to give you a better shopping experience in store and online, to send you offers and contests we think you will be interested in, and to protect against fraud and theft or meet our legal requirements.
- We occasionally share Personal Information with third parties in order to support Giant Tiger’s collection or use of your information where we have received your consent, unless otherwise required by law.
- We ensure the use of reasonable and appropriate privacy and security safeguards to protect your Personal Information.
- We provide a few different options if you wish to change your privacy choices around how your Personal Information is used or disclosed by Giant Tiger.
If you have any questions or concerns about your Personal Information or this Privacy Policy, please contact our Privacy Office.
B. What is Personal Information?
Personal Information is information about an identifiable individual or information that could reasonably become identifiable. For example, Personal Information can include your name, email, phone number and purchase history. Personal Information does not include aggregated information that does not reasonably allow an individual to be identified. If we tie non-personal information that we collect to your Personal Information, that information becomes Personal Information.
Personal Information is only collected with your consent and will only be used for the purposes disclosed at the point of collection or as set out in this Privacy Policy, unless otherwise required by law.
C. How We Collect Your Personal Information
Giant Tiger collects Personal Information from you to provide you with products and services when you make a purchase at Giant Tiger (in store or online), and to send you offers tailored to your interests, for example, when you sign up for our loyalty program.
The Personal Information we collect may include, but is not limited to, your name; physical address; telephone number; email address; purchase details; payment information; language, store and shopping preferences; birthday or age range; household composition; and gender.
How We Collect Personal Information in Our Stores
We may collect Personal Information from you at our retail stores when you:
- Make an in-store purchase
- Pick up a purchase made online
- Ask for a refund or exchange a product
- Sign up to receive communications from Giant Tiger
- Sign up for our loyalty program
- Participate in a contest or promotion at our stores or online
- Sign up to participate in a marketing survey or focus group
- Your participation in focus groups may be recorded
- Contact or ask for help from Customer Service
- Apply for employment with us
- If you have questions on how we protect information collected, used or disclosed for recruitment or employment purposes, please contact our Privacy Office
This information can include your name, email address, physical address, payment information, a signature and/or identification check (e.g., to pick up a purchase or return a product), telephone number and purchase details.
We may also ask you for Personal Information to protect against fraud (e.g., identity theft), loss prevention or to comply with legal requirements.
In-store Third Parties
Giant Tiger stores provide space and work with other organizations to provide specific services. For example:
- Western Union to provide money transfer services in select Giant Tiger stores
- We Financial to provide reloadable prepaid credit card services in select Giant Tiger stores
- Shipping vendors to complete deliveries of our products to our stores or your specified location
These organizations may collect your Personal Information (e.g., name, address, phone number, email and purchase information) when you purchase their products or in order to provide you with services. The information they collect is subject to their own privacy policies, while any information collected and handled by Giant Tiger employees will continue to be subject to this Privacy Policy. Giant Tiger requires all third parties operating at Giant Tiger stores to provide adequate safeguards to provide Personal Information, enforced through contractual means.
How We Collect Personal Information Over the Phone
We may collect Personal Information from you over the phone (for example, if you call Customer Service or send us a text message) when you:
- Ask us a question
- Have a complaint about a product or service
- Ask for a refund or exchange of a product purchased
- Have technical issues with one of our websites or your GT ID account
- Would like to receive a link to sign up for our loyalty program
How We Collect Personal Information On Our Websites
We may collect Personal Information from you through our websites when you:
- Sign up for communications from Giant Tiger
- Create a GT ID account to use when:
- shopping online
- managing your communication preferences
- Make an online purchase
- Ask us to ship an order to a store near you or a specific location
- Ask for a refund or exchange of a product ordered
- Sign up for our loyalty program
- Participate in a contest or promotion through our website
- Sign up to be part of or participate in a marketing survey or panel
- Send us a question or complaint
- Apply for employment with us
- Browse on our websites
This information can include your name, email address, physical address, payment information, telephone number, purchase details, store preferences and communication preferences.
How We Collect Personal Information Through Our Loyalty Program
We may collect Personal Information from you through our loyalty program when you:
- Enroll in Giant Tiger’s loyalty program and provide your contact information in store or online through your GT ID account.
- Provide us with your demographic information, language, shopping preferences and communication preferences within your GT ID account.
- Provide us with your phone number or loyalty program identification number in store at checkout.
- Shop online using your GT ID account, where you have opted in to our loyalty program.
How We Collect Information Automatically Through Your Browser
We use our own and third-party technologies to collect information from you when you interact with our websites. While we do not require your Personal Information in order for you to access our websites, we may collect information about you that is not Personal Information, such as the type of internet browser or computer operating system you are using and the domain name of the website from which you linked to our websites.
When you view our websites, we or our third-party service provider may store some information on your computer in the form of a "cookie" or similar file. Cookies allow us and our third-party service providers to recognize when you use or return to our website or how you use our website. For example, in order to tailor our website or promotions to better match your interests and preferences or to enable functionality of pop-up customer surveys. Under certain circumstances, we permit these third-party service providers to collect information on our website for their own business purposes using cookies or other similar technologies. Most Internet browsers enable you to erase cookies from your computer hard drive, block all cookies, or receive a warning before a cookie is stored. Please refer to your browser instructions or help screen to learn more about these functions.
Giant Tiger may tie non-personal information that we collect automatically (such as the type of internet browser that you use) to Personal Information that you provide to us with your consent (such as when you create or use your GT ID account).
We use third-party service providers to place ads that we think will interest you on Giant Tiger or other websites (interest-based advertising, also called online behavioural advertising). To learn more about how our third-party service providers use web beacons or cookies for behavioural advertising and to manage your choices (e.g., opt-in or opt-out) for this type of advertising, you can visit the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada Website, Your AdChoices by the Digital Advertising Alliance and the Network Advertising Initiative (including for Microsoft Bing). Other advertising providers include opt-out tools on their websites and apps, including for Snapchat and Facebook. For Shopify Audiences, you can opt out on the Shopify website. Shopify Audiences also respects the Global Privacy Control settings in most browsers to prevent Shopify Audiences tracking.
We use Shopify Audiences to help us show ads on other websites with our advertising partners to buyers who made purchases with other Shopify merchants and who may also be interested in what we have to offer. We also share information about your use of the website, your purchases and the email address associated with your purchases with Shopify Audiences, through which other Shopify merchants may make offers you may be interested in.
We use Google Analytics to collect non-personal information on visitors to our website in order to provide us with statistics on website activity. If you would like to opt out of Google collecting your browsing history, please find more information on how to do so, including how to download their browser add-on.
To manage your choices for Personal Information that Giant Tiger collects, please see the section of this Privacy Policy titled How to Make or Change your Privacy Choices.
Information Collected From Other Sources
We may occasionally obtain information from other sources that help us analyze, update, expand our records and identify new guests (e.g., updating contact information or adding demographic information). Giant Tiger uses this information to improve our ability to contact you and increase the relevance of our marketing to you. These companies must follow privacy laws and Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation when collecting and sharing the information with Giant Tiger.
D. How We Use Your Personal Information
We use your Personal Information to give you a better shopping experience in store and online, to send you offers and contests we think you will be interested in, and to protect against fraud and theft or meet our legal requirements.
For example, we use your Personal Information for the following purposes:
Product and Service Fulfillment
- Fulfill and manage purchases, orders, payments, returns/exchanges, or requests for information, or to otherwise serve you through our stores or websites
- Communicate with you about your requests or purchases
- Register and provide services related to your GT ID account
- Provide Customer Service and provide alerts related to products available or purchased at Giant Tiger, such as product recalls
- GT Financial services, including providing income tax, cheque cashing, and commercial credit services within select Giant Tiger stores
- Financial information, such as T4s, may be collected and retained in order to process income taxes, in accordance with legal retention requirements
- Financial information, such as T4s, may be collected and retained in order to process income taxes, in accordance with legal retention requirements
- Process orders or contact you about an order at a pharmacy located within select Giant Tiger stores
- Personal Health Information, which is Personal Information related to your health or treatment such as your prescription information, may be collected and retained within pharmacists’ offices located within Giant Tiger stores operated by The North West Company Inc. Please see The North West Company Inc.’s Privacy Policy for further information regarding how Personal Health Information is collected and retained in these select Giant Tiger stores: http://www.northwest.ca/privacy.php
- Personal Health Information, which is Personal Information related to your health or treatment such as your prescription information, may be collected and retained within pharmacists’ offices located within Giant Tiger stores operated by The North West Company Inc. Please see The North West Company Inc.’s Privacy Policy for further information regarding how Personal Health Information is collected and retained in these select Giant Tiger stores: http://www.northwest.ca/privacy.php
- Consider job applications
- Personal Information you submit to us at a Giant Tiger store or through our websites in order to apply for a job, including contact information and your employment history, may be used for recruitment or employment purposes
- If you have questions on how we protect information collected, used, or disclosed for recruitment or employment purposes, please contact our Privacy Office
Marketing Purposes
- Deliver coupons, promotions, sweepstakes, contests, newsletters, regular flyers, emails, as well as mobile coupons and messages you have chosen to receive
- Send marketing communications and other information you have chosen to receive regarding products, services and promotions
- Administer promotions
- Administer sweepstakes and contests
- For example, the information we collect when you participate in sweepstakes and contests could be used for marketing purposes, such as sending you offers or coupons we think you would be interested in
Giant Tiger will never send you commercial electronic messages for marketing purposes without your consent. You will have an opportunity to opt in to receiving emails or text messages about our offers and contests on our website, when you make an online purchase, and when you sign up for our email lists, contests or loyalty program. You can opt out of receiving communications at any time by changing your communication preferences to opt out, by clicking on the unsubscribe link in our emails, by replying "STOP" to a text message you receive from us or by contacting our Privacy Office using the contact methods at the bottom of this Privacy Policy.
Loyalty Program
- Enable customer enrollment in Giant Tiger’s loyalty program
- Provide tailored offers, coupons, and other promotions to loyalty members based on specified interests or purchases
- Perform analytics on an aggregate basis to provide better products at Giant Tiger stores and online for customers
- Administer the loyalty program and related communication lists, including keeping up-to-date contact information, and managing consents, opt-ins or opt-outs to receive communications from Giant Tiger
- This information will generally include your name, phone number, email, postal code, preferred store and your preferences around language and receiving email or text message communications from us
- This information may also include (where you choose to provide it to us) your birth date, your age or age range, your gender, your shopping preferences, your clothing categories of interest (e.g., Fashion—men’s) and your household composition
Internal Operations
- Improve the effectiveness of our websites, stores, and website mobile experience
- Conduct research and analysis, including focus groups and surveys to improve our product and service offerings
- Where you opt in, we may share your contact information with our third-party research partners to contact you regarding optional participation in customer research or opinion studies
- Where you opt in, we may share your contact information with our third-party research partners to contact you regarding optional participation in customer research or opinion studies
- Perform internal business and troubleshooting activities to support our core operations, such as accounting, information systems, and audit functions
- In order to meet our legal requirements and to protect Giant Tiger from any illegal or fraudulent activities, or any activities that put the security or integrity of Giant Tiger operations, websites, stores, employees or customers, at risk. For example, to:
- Investigate, prevent or take action regarding suspected or actual illegal activities or to assist government enforcement agencies
- Enforce this Privacy Policy, investigate and defend Giant Tiger against any third-party claims or allegations, or protect the security or integrity of our websites
- Exercise or protect the rights, property or personal safety of Giant Tiger, our users, employees, agents or others
Customer Service
- To help answer your questions about products and services available for purchase at our stores or through our websites, including pricing, availability of products, and refunds
- Our associates may ask you to produce identification at the time of refund if, for example, you are returning a product without a receipt
- Our associates may ask you to produce identification at the time of refund if, for example, you are returning a product without a receipt
- To answers questions about our social media accounts or using social media to interact with Giant Tiger
- To answer questions or complaints about your experience at Giant Tiger stores or using our website
- To answer questions about our loyalty program or communication lists, including changing your preferences for topics within those communications
- To answer questions, complaints or other inquiries about how we handle your Personal Information, our privacy and security safeguards, and our compliance with this Privacy Policy
- To respond to or complete Personal Information access and correction requests
Only authorized employees and third party providers have access to your Personal Information for the uses described above. We take reasonable and appropriate steps to handle this Personal Information as securely as possible and in compliance with federal and provincial Canadian privacy laws.
E. How We Share your Personal Information
Giant Tiger does not sell customer Personal Information to any other organization or person for any reason. Giant Tiger will only share or disclose Personal Information to third parties in order to support Giant Tiger’s collection or use of your information for purposes outlined in the section titled How We Use Your Personal Information where we have received your consent, unless otherwise required by law.
Services Providers and Suppliers
Giant Tiger may make your Personal Information available to third-party service providers to help us provide you with a better shopping experience and improve our business operations. Where Personal Information is processed by a third-party provider, we sign agreements with those providers requiring them to use your Personal Information in a manner consistent with this Privacy Policy and with applicable federal and provincial privacy legislation in Canada governing the collection, use and disclosure of your information. Our agreements state that any third-party providers processing Personal Information on our behalf may only use that Personal Information for the purposes you have consented to at the time of collection. We take reasonable and appropriate steps to ensure that third party providers handle this Personal Information as securely as possible and in compliance with federal and provincial Canadian privacy laws and is kept only for the duration they are providing you with a product or service on our behalf, and for a reasonable time thereafter in the event that you wish to resume service.
Some of our third-party providers may be located (or use servers located) outside of Canada and may be required to abide by foreign privacy laws or to disclose Personal Information under the laws of other jurisdictions. When working with such service providers, Giant Tiger continues to require privacy and security safeguards consistent with the expectations of Giant Tiger under Canadian law and this Privacy Policy, in addition to any laws or standards that may apply to specific service providers, enforced through contractual means.
Legal Requirements and Law Enforcement Disclosures
We do not disclose any Personal Information to third parties without your consent, unless required by law, legal process, law enforcement investigation or fraud detection and prevention. In limited circumstances, Personal Information may be shared in order to meet our legal requirements and to protect Giant Tiger from any illegal or fraudulent activities, or any activities that put the security or integrity of Giant Tiger operations, websites, stores, employees or customers, at risk.
For example, we may need to disclose your Personal Information in order to:
- Investigate, prevent or take action regarding suspected or actual illegal activities, including fraud or to assist government enforcement agencies
- Enforce this Privacy Policy, investigate and defend Giant Tiger against any third-party claims or allegations, or protect the security or integrity of our websites
- Exercise or protect the rights, property or personal safety of Giant Tiger, our users, employees, agents or others
This information may include your name, contact information, purchase details, payment and shipping information and information collected through your browser (such as IP address).
Business Transfers or Mergers
In the case of a prospective or completed corporate reorganization, merger, sale of business, transfer or other disposition of all or part of the assets or shares of Giant Tiger (including the proceedings of bankruptcy or insolvency), Personal Information about you and other data as described in this Privacy Policy may be part of the transferred assets and may be shared with the other parties to the transaction by complying with the confidentiality requirements under applicable Canadian legislation.
Any third party to which Giant Tiger would transfer or sell its assets will have the right to continue to use your personal and other information, provided that they comply with applicable federal and provincial privacy legislation in Canada governing use and disclosure of your information in such circumstances.
F. Retention of Personal Information
Your Personal Information is retained only as long as necessary for the fulfillment of the purposes for which it was collected, except where otherwise necessary to comply with legal requirements. We may keep your Personal Information for a reasonable time afterwards in the event that you wish to resume service.
- For example, we may retain your login information for a reasonable period of time after you ask us to delete your GT ID account, in the event you wish to restore your account at a later date
Your Personal Information may be retained for a reasonable period of time to ensure that we honor your requests to access your Personal Information, opt out of certain communications, for record keeping purposes and the other purposes described in this Privacy Policy.
Once the Personal Information is no longer required, Giant Tiger ensures that this Personal Information is securely destroyed or anonymized (so that the information no longer is identifiable as information relating to you). We have strict procedures in place with respect to destroying, deleting or disposing of Personal Information when it is no longer required for the purposes set out in this policy or by law.
G. How to Access or Correct your Personal Information
When Giant Tiger collects your Personal Information, we take reasonable measures to keep your information up to date and accurate. Where you provide us with your Personal Information, we assume the information you have provided us with is accurate. We will not make additional efforts to verify its accuracy or to update the information, unless requested by you.
Where you wish to update or correct your Personal Information, you may do so in the following ways:
- Logging into your GT ID account and updating your profile information (where you have created a GT ID account)
- Contacting Customer Service through email or the postal address listed in the Contacting Us section of this Privacy Policy
- Sending a written request to Giant Tiger’s Privacy Office, through email or the postal address listed in the Contacting Us section of this Privacy Policy
Upon your request, you will be informed of the existence, use, and disclosure of your Personal Information and you will be given access to that information, where reasonable and subject to certain legal limitations. You may challenge the accuracy and completeness of the information and have it amended as appropriate. Administrative charges may apply, where reasonable and legally permissible.
We will assist any customer who informs us that they need assistance in preparing a request concerning their Personal Information. For assistance, please contact our Privacy Office.
H. How to Make or Change your Privacy Choices
Giant Tiger will only collect, use or disclose your Personal Information with your consent, for the purposes indicated at the point of collection or in this Privacy Policy. We provide the following options where you wish to change your choices around how your information is used or disclosed:
- You can let us know your preferences when you create a GT ID account or modify your preferences at any time within your GT ID account
- You can opt in to receive marketing emails when you enter into a contest or promotion by checking a separate box, or through your GT ID account (where you have created one)
- You can opt out of receiving marketing emails by clicking “unsubscribe” within any marketing email you receive, or through your GT ID account (where you have created one)
- You can opt out of receiving text messages by replying “STOP” to any text message you receive, or through your GT ID account (where you have created one)
- By contacting our Privacy Office to change your preferences, opt out or receive more information on changing your preferences on any of the above
We would also like to assist you in understanding your choices and making privacy decisions on information collected by our third party service providers. This includes the following:
- When you view our websites, cookies allow us to recognize when you use or return to our website, for example, in order to tailor our website or promotions to better match your interests and preferences. Most Internet browsers enable you to erase cookies from your computer hard drive, block all cookies, or receive a warning before a cookie is stored. Please refer to your browser instructions or help screen to learn more about these functions. To learn more about how to block, delete and manage cookies on your computer, please see the below links based on the browser type you are using:
- We use third-party service providers to place ads that we think will interest you on Giant Tiger or other websites (interest-based advertising, also called online behavioural advertising). To learn more about how our third-party service providers use web beacons or cookies for behavioural advertising and to manage your choices (e.g., opt in or opt out) for this type of advertising, you can visit the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada Website (https://iabcanada.com/).
- We use Google Analytics to collect non-personal information on visitors to our website in order to provide us with statistics on website activity. If you would like to opt-out of Google collecting your browsing history, please find more information on how to do so, including how to download their browser add-on, here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/
- We embed links to other websites, including social media websites, on our Giant Tiger websites. For more information about social media plug-in protocols, such as the Facebook “Like” button and its impact on your privacy rights, please visit the appropriate social media help center (e.g., Facebook’s Help Center at https://www.facebook.com/help/).
- To change your privacy settings on Facebook, including who can view your activity when using your Facebook account, visit: https://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=privacy.
I. Passwords
Giant Tiger uses reasonable and appropriate security safeguards to protect the privacy, confidentiality, and integrity of GT ID accounts. You are responsible for the security of your GT ID account and for protecting your password. For example, do not write down or share your GT ID account password with anyone, and do not save your GT ID account information on a shared or public computer. Giant Tiger will not be liable for any losses, damages or expenses arising out of or relating to any unauthorized use of such account or password. If you believe your GT ID account has been compromised, immediately contact our Privacy Office.
J. Payment Information Security
We value the security and privacy of all transactions made with Giant Tiger. We use Secure Sockets Layer (“SSL”) technology to protect the security of your payment card information (“PCI”), such as debit and credit card information, as it is transmitted through us to our third party payment providers. All third party payment processors maintain PCI DSS and SOC2 compliance.
When you make a purchase, all of your Personal Information is encrypted, including credit and debit card number, name and address. SSL is the industry standard for secure commerce transactions. It prevents your Personal Information from being read by someone else as it travels across the Internet. While we implement the above security measures on our websites, there is always a risk of a breach of security safeguards.
K. Links to Other Websites
Our website may contain links to other websites, including content from other websites that is occasionally framed within Giant Tiger’s websites.
- For example, our website contains a link to Giant Tiger’s Facebook page. If you click this link (https://www.facebook.com/GiantTiger) it will take you away from the Giant Tiger website, to Facebook, where your information may be subject to Facebook’s privacy policies.
Please note that the privacy policies applicable to the collection of Personal Information on those other websites may be different from this one and we have no control or responsibility for the privacy practices of third party websites. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of all websites you visit, before you share any Personal Information on a website.
L. Social Media Plug-Ins
We have installed on our websites various social media plug-in protocols, such as a Facebook “Like” button, which allow you to share your likes and interests in Giant Tiger’s products, services and promotions with your friends and contacts. When you click on a social media plug-in protocol link while on our website, such as the “Like” button, a link to our website may appear in the “Likes and Interests” section of your Facebook or other social media profiles.
Depending on your social media privacy preferences, your friends, contacts, or other individuals or organizations may be able to see the link and be led back to our website if they share your likes and interests or if they are interested in learning more about our products, services and promotions.
When you use a social media plug-in protocol link from our website, we may use information on your likes and interests in connection with the marketing and promotion of our business.
For more information about social media plug-in protocols, such as the Facebook “Like” button and its impact on your privacy rights, please visit the appropriate social media help center (e.g., Facebook’s Help Center at https://www.facebook.com/help/). To change your privacy settings on Facebook, including who can view your activity when using your Facebook account, visit: https://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=privacy.
M. Privacy Policy Revisions
We may change or add to this Privacy Policy from time to time, so we encourage you to review it periodically. Revisions may reflect changes in how we collect, use, share and protect your Personal Information, as well as changes in our legal or regulatory obligations. The Privacy Policy posted on www.gianttiger.com is the one currently in effect. To help you keep track, we include the date of our most recent updates.
N. Contacting Us
Customer Service
If you have any questions or comments regarding a store experience at Giant Tiger, marketing preferences, product questions or general feedback, please contact our Customer Service team here: https://www.gianttiger.com/pages/contact-us
Privacy Office
If you have any questions or concerns regarding how we handle your Personal Information, or should you wish to access or update your information, you can contact our Privacy Office at the email or address below:
Giant Tiger Stores Limited
- Privacy Office
- 2480 Walkley Road
- Ottawa, Ontario
- K1G 6A9
Attention: Chief Privacy Officer - [email protected]