Effective Date: June 10, 2026 · Last Updated: June 10, 2026
1. Introduction
Auto World Approvals (the "Service", "we", "us" or "our") is owned and operated by Merk Digital Ltd., a corporation organized under the laws of British Columbia, Canada, with its registered office in Vancouver, British Columbia (the "Company"). This Privacy Policy describes how the Company collects, uses, discloses, retains, transfers, and otherwise processes Personal Information in connection with your access to and use of the website located at autoworldapprovals.ca, any subdomains or successor sites, and any associated services, features, content, or applications (collectively, the "Platform").
This Policy is issued in accordance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (Canada) ("PIPEDA"), the Personal Information Protection Act (British Columbia) ("BC PIPA"), the Personal Information Protection Act (Alberta) ("AB PIPA"), and Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation ("CASL"), as each may be amended, supplemented or replaced from time to time. By accessing the Platform or submitting any Personal Information to us, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to the practices described herein.
2. Personal Information We Collect
We collect only the Personal Information reasonably necessary to provide, maintain, secure and improve the Platform and to fulfill the purposes identified at or before the time of collection. The categories of Personal Information we may collect include:
- Identification & Contact Information: full legal name, date of birth, residential address, telephone number, and email address.
- Financial & Employment Information: employment status, occupation, employer name, gross monthly income, length of employment, housing status and monthly housing cost, and other information voluntarily provided in support of a pre-qualification request.
- Vehicle Preference Information: preferred vehicle category, intended use, trade-in details, and target budget.
- Technical & Usage Information: IP address, device identifiers, browser type, operating system, referring URLs, pages accessed, time stamps, and aggregate interaction data collected through cookies and similar technologies (see our Cookie Policy).
- Communications: records of correspondence, support tickets, and call notes when you contact us.
We do not collect Social Insurance Numbers, government-issued ID numbers, or full banking credentials through the Platform. You should never transmit such information to us by email or web form.
3. Purposes of Collection, Use and Disclosure
We collect, use and disclose Personal Information for the following identified purposes (the "Purposes"):
- to evaluate eligibility for vehicle financing pre-qualification and to match you with appropriate dealer-finance partners;
- to transmit your application package to one or more vetted lenders, automotive dealers, or finance intermediaries operating in British Columbia and Alberta;
- to contact you regarding your inquiry, application status, financing offers, or related transactions;
- to verify the accuracy and integrity of information provided and to detect, prevent and respond to fraud, identity theft, or other unlawful activity;
- to operate, maintain, secure, audit and improve the Platform, including analytics, performance monitoring, and product development;
- to comply with applicable laws, regulations, court orders, and lawful requests of governmental or regulatory authorities; and
- any additional purpose to which you have specifically consented.
4. Legal Basis and Consent
We collect, use and disclose Personal Information on the basis of your express or implied consent, except where collection, use or disclosure without consent is permitted or required by applicable law. By submitting an application or otherwise providing Personal Information through the Platform, you expressly consent to the processing described in this Policy and to the transmission of your application to the third-party lenders and dealer-finance partners necessary to fulfill the Purposes.
You may withdraw your consent at any time, subject to legal and contractual restrictions and reasonable notice, by contacting us as set out in Section 12. Withdrawal of consent may prevent us from providing the Platform or completing your application.
5. Disclosure to Third Parties
We may disclose your Personal Information to the following categories of recipients, in each case bound by appropriate confidentiality and data-protection obligations:
- Dealer-Finance Partners: licensed automotive dealers, lenders, and finance companies operating in Canada that may extend financing offers to you.
- Service Providers: hosting, cloud infrastructure, analytics, communications, fraud prevention, customer support, and similar vendors retained by Merk Digital Ltd. to perform functions on our behalf.
- Legal & Regulatory Authorities: where disclosure is compelled by law, court order, subpoena, or as reasonably necessary to enforce our Terms of Use, protect our rights, property or safety, or those of any third party.
- Corporate Transactions: in connection with a proposed or completed merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, sale of assets, or insolvency proceeding involving the Company, subject to standard confidentiality safeguards.
We do not sell, rent, or trade Personal Information to third parties for their independent marketing purposes.
6. Cross-Border Transfers
The Company is based in Canada and stores Personal Information primarily on servers located in Canada. Certain of our service providers may process or store Personal Information in jurisdictions outside Canada, including the United States and the European Economic Area. When Personal Information is transferred outside Canada, it is subject to the laws of the receiving jurisdiction and may be accessed by foreign courts, law-enforcement and national-security authorities. We contractually require all such service providers to maintain a level of protection comparable to that required under Canadian law.
7. Retention
We retain Personal Information only as long as reasonably necessary to fulfill the Purposes for which it was collected, to comply with applicable legal, accounting, or reporting obligations, and to resolve disputes or enforce agreements. Application records are generally retained for a period of seven (7) years from the date of submission. When Personal Information is no longer required, we will securely destroy, erase or anonymize it in accordance with our records-retention schedule.
8. Security Safeguards
We maintain administrative, physical, and technical safeguards designed to protect Personal Information against unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification, disposal, loss, theft and similar risks, in accordance with the sensitivity of the information and recognized industry standards. These safeguards include encryption of data in transit using TLS 1.2 or higher, encryption at rest where appropriate, role-based access controls, network segmentation, intrusion monitoring, vendor due-diligence, and periodic security reviews. No method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is, however, perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
9. Your Rights
Subject to applicable law, you have the right to:
- request access to the Personal Information we hold about you;
- request correction of inaccurate or incomplete Personal Information;
- withdraw consent, subject to legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice;
- request information about our policies and practices and the name of our Privacy Officer; and
- file a complaint with our Privacy Officer or with the applicable supervisory authority (in Canada, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, the Office of the Information & Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia, or the Office of the Information & Privacy Commissioner of Alberta).
We will respond to verifiable requests within the timeframes prescribed by applicable law. We may require sufficient information to verify your identity before fulfilling a request.
10. Cookies and Similar Technologies
The Platform uses cookies and similar tracking technologies for operational, analytics, and (where you consent) marketing purposes. See our Cookie Policy for details and instructions on how to manage your preferences.
11. Children
The Platform is intended for individuals who have reached the age of majority in their province of residence. We do not knowingly collect Personal Information from minors. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected such information, we will delete it promptly.
12. Privacy Officer & Contact
For questions, requests, or complaints relating to this Policy or our handling of Personal Information, please contact our Privacy Officer:
Privacy Officer — Merk Digital Ltd.
c/o Auto World Approvals
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Email: admin@autoworldapprovals.com
13. Changes to This Policy
We may amend this Policy from time to time. The "Effective Date" above indicates the most recent revision. Material changes will be communicated by posting a prominent notice on the Platform or, where required by law, by direct notice. Your continued use of the Platform following the posting of any amendment constitutes your acceptance of the revised Policy.