Privacy Policy

1. About this policy

EV Studio ("EV Studio," "we," "us," or "our") is a motor dealer in Surrey, British Columbia that sells and services electric, hybrid, and plug-in hybrid vehicles. We respect your privacy and are committed to handling your personal information in accordance with British Columbia's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) and, where it applies, Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

This policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, how we use and disclose it, how long we keep it, how we protect it, and the choices and rights you have. It applies to evstudio.ca, our physical dealership, and all of our online forms, calls, emails, and in-person interactions.

2. Privacy Officer

Our designated Privacy Officer is responsible for compliance with PIPA and for responding to your privacy questions, access requests, and complaints.

3. What we mean by "personal information"

"Personal information" means information about an identifiable individual. It does not include business contact information used solely to communicate with you in your business capacity (name, title, business address, business phone, business email).

4. Information we collect

We collect only the personal information we reasonably need to provide our services. Categories include:

a. Identification and contact information

Name, email, phone number, mailing address, preferred method of contact.

b. Vehicle interest and shopping information

Vehicles you view, save, compare, or ask about; your answers to our Find My EV quiz (e.g., daily driving distance, household size, charging access, budget range, purchase timeline); test-drive bookings; trade-in details about your current vehicle (year, make, model, kilometres, condition, VIN if you provide it).

c. Financing and credit information (only if you apply for financing)

Date of birth, address history, employment and income information, housing status, monthly expenses, credit situation, banking information, Social Insurance Number (only where required by a lender and only with your explicit consent), and a copy of your government-issued ID where required to verify identity or comply with anti-fraud and anti-money-laundering obligations.

d. Transaction and service information

Vehicle sales agreements, deposits, payment records, service history, warranty registrations, and correspondence with you.

e. Communications

Records of your messages, form submissions, call notes, emails, and SMS conversations with us.

f. Website and device information

IP address, device and browser type, pages viewed, referral source, UTM parameters, approximate location derived from IP, and interactions with our forms. See our Cookie Policy for more detail on cookies, pixels, and analytics.

g. In-dealership information

Visitor sign-in details, security camera footage at and around the dealership for safety and loss-prevention. Cameras are signposted on the premises.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. Our website and services are intended for adults.

5. How we collect personal information

We collect personal information:

• Directly from you — when you fill out a form on evstudio.ca (contact, Find My EV, Book a Test Drive, Financing, Trade-In), call us, email us, visit us, or sign documents.
• Automatically — through cookies, pixels, and analytics tools when you use our website (see the Cookie Policy).
• From third parties — with your consent or as permitted by law, including credit bureaus and lenders (for financing applications), ICBC and registry searches (for vehicle history and lien checks), your insurer, prior owners of trade-in vehicles, and our service providers.

6. Why we collect, use, and disclose your information (purposes)

Under PIPA we may only use your personal information for purposes that a reasonable person would consider appropriate in the circumstances, and we identify those purposes to you on or before collection. We use your personal information to:

1. Respond to your inquiries, recommend vehicles, and arrange test drives.
2. Prepare quotes, financing pre-approvals, trade-in appraisals, and sales agreements.
3. Verify your identity and protect against fraud.
4. Process payments, deposits, and refunds.
5. Register, deliver, and (where applicable) service vehicles you purchase.
6. Communicate with you about your transactions, appointments, recalls, and warranty matters.
7. With your consent, send you marketing emails, SMS, or other electronic messages about EV Studio offers, events, new inventory, and educational content (see Section 9 and our CASL Electronic Communications Policy).
8. Improve our website, products, services, and customer experience, including measuring the performance of our advertising.
9. Comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, including the Motor Dealer Act, the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act, tax law, anti-money-laundering requirements, and lawful requests from regulators or law enforcement.

We will obtain fresh consent before using your personal information for a materially different purpose than the one for which it was originally collected.

7. Who we share personal information with

We share personal information only with parties that need it for the purposes listed above:

• Lenders and financial institutions — when you ask us to submit a financing application.
• Credit bureaus (e.g., Equifax, TransUnion) — to obtain credit reports with your consent.
• ICBC, the Vehicle Sales Authority of BC (VSA), and registry/lien search providers — for registration, transfer, and vehicle-history verification.
• Insurance providers — at your direction.
• Our service providers — hosting, email delivery, CRM, analytics, marketing, e-signature, IT security, and payment processing. They are contractually required to protect your information and use it only for the services they provide to us.
• Professional advisors — lawyers, accountants, auditors.
• Regulators and authorities — where required or permitted by law (e.g., court orders, FINTRAC, VSA inquiries, tax authorities).
• Successor entities — if EV Studio is involved in a sale, merger, financing, or reorganization, personal information may be transferred as part of the transaction, subject to the receiving party agreeing to handle it in accordance with this policy and applicable law.

We do not sell your personal information.

8. Storage and cross-border processing

Personal information is stored on our systems in Canada and with cloud service providers whose servers may be located in Canada, the United States, or elsewhere. Where personal information is stored or processed outside of British Columbia, it may be subject to the laws of those jurisdictions, including lawful access by foreign courts and authorities. We choose reputable providers and put contractual safeguards in place to protect your information.

[CONFIRM: list the main hosting/CRM/email regions you rely on — e.g., "Lovable Cloud / Supabase (Canada and United States), Google Workspace (United States), Meta (United States) for advertising pixels."]

9. Consent

We collect, use, and disclose your personal information with your consent, except where the law allows or requires us to do so without consent. Consent may be express (for example, ticking a box, signing a credit application, or telling us in writing) or implied (for example, providing your contact details so we can answer a question you asked).

For marketing electronic messages (email and SMS), we follow Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL): we obtain your consent (express or implied), identify ourselves, and include an unsubscribe mechanism in every commercial electronic message. See our CASL Electronic Communications Policy for more detail.

You may withdraw your consent at any time, subject to legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice. To withdraw consent, contact our Privacy Officer. Withdrawing consent may limit our ability to provide certain products or services to you (for example, we cannot process a financing application without credit-bureau consent).

10. Your rights under PIPA

You have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you and receive an account of how it has been used and to whom it has been disclosed.
• Correct factual errors in your personal information.
• Withdraw consent (subject to Section 9).
• Complain to our Privacy Officer if you believe we have not handled your personal information properly.

We will respond to written access and correction requests within 30 business days, as required by PIPA, or we will notify you of an extension permitted by law. We may charge a minimal fee for access requests, and where we do, we will provide a written estimate before proceeding.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia (OIPC):

11. How we protect personal information

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

• Restricted access on a need-to-know basis;
• Encrypted transmission of sensitive data (HTTPS/TLS);
• Encryption at rest for our databases;
• Strong authentication for staff accounts;
• Confidentiality obligations for employees and service providers;
• Secure disposal of paper and electronic records when no longer needed;
• Monitored premises and locked filing for paper records.

No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure. If we become aware of a privacy breach that creates a real risk of significant harm to you, we will notify you and, where required, the OIPC.

12. Retention

We keep personal information only as long as we need it for the purposes we collected it, or as required by law (for example, the Motor Dealer Act, tax law, and lender requirements). When personal information is no longer required, we securely destroy, erase, or anonymize it.

Typical retention periods:

• Sales and financing records: at least 7 years after the transaction (tax and regulatory requirement).
• Service records: for the life of our relationship plus 7 years.
• Marketing contact records and consent records: for as long as you remain subscribed plus 3 years after unsubscribe (CASL recordkeeping).
• Unconverted website leads (Find My EV, contact form, etc.): [CONFIRM: e.g., 24 months] from last contact, then deleted or anonymized.
• Security camera footage: [CONFIRM: e.g., 30 days] unless preserved for an incident.

13. Automated decision-making

We do not make solely automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects about you. Lender decisions on financing applications are made by the lender, not by EV Studio, and you can ask the lender for the reasons for an adverse decision.

14. Links to other websites

Our website may link to third-party sites (for example, manufacturer pages, lender portals, or social media). This policy does not apply to those sites; please review their privacy policies.

15. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top will show when it was changed. Material changes will be brought to your attention on our website. Continuing to use our website or services after a change means you accept the updated policy.

16. Contact us

For any privacy question, access request, correction request, or complaint, contact our Privacy Officer using the details in Section 2.