Privacy policy

Who we are

Samwell is an online human resources, payroll and coordination service for Canadian non-profit organizations. It is published by Michoozon Inc., 2440 Watercolours Way, Ottawa, Ontario K2J 7A9.

This policy applies in Québec (Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector, as amended by Law 25) and elsewhere in Canada (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, PIPEDA, and similar provincial laws).

Two roles, depending on the information

• The information your organization enters about its staff, volunteers, members and applicants belongs to it. The organization is responsible for it; Michoozon Inc. processes it only on the organization's behalf, under the data processing agreement.
• Information about the organization's account (contact person, billing) and about the people who sign in (email address, devices, sign-in log) is processed by Michoozon Inc. to provide the service. This policy describes it.

For a question about your employee, volunteer or member file, contact your organization first: it decides what it collects and who can see it.

Person in charge of the protection of personal information

The person in charge of the protection of personal information at Michoozon Inc. is its President (title of the position; the name is provided on request). Write to [email protected], or by mail at 2440 Watercolours Way, Ottawa, Ontario K2J 7A9.

What we collect

• Account: first name, last name, email address, language, role in the organization.
• Security: two-step verification factors and passkeys (Face ID, fingerprint), without ever receiving your face or fingerprint; connected devices, IP address and sign-in dates.
• Organization billing: name, address, number of paid employees, plan, payment history. Card numbers are entered at Stripe; Samwell never sees them.
• Content entered by the organization: staff files, leave, time, payroll, expense claims, documents, messages, and the rest of the modules in use.
• Support requests: what you write to us.

Why we use it

• To provide the service: sign you in, show what your role allows, send the notifications and emails you chose.
• To protect accounts: two-step verification, audit log, abuse detection, rate limits.
• To bill the organization and meet our tax obligations.
• To answer support requests and improve the service using aggregate measures, without advertising profiling.

We sell no information. No advertising, no third-party analytics. We do not use your organization's content to train artificial intelligence models.

No decision about you is based exclusively on automated processing. Samwell's calculations (payroll, leave, compliance) are proposals your organization reviews and can change.

Consent

We collect account information with your consent, given when the account is created and the terms of use are accepted. You may withdraw it by closing your account; withdrawal may prevent use of the service.

For content entered by the organization, the organization obtains the necessary consents from its staff and other people concerned.

Where the information is stored

• The database, files and authentication are hosted in Canada (Supabase, on Amazon Web Services, ca-central-1 region, "Canada Central").
• The web application is served from Canada (DigitalOcean, Toronto); traffic goes through Cloudflare's network.
• Some service providers process information outside Canada (payment by Stripe; sending email through Resend; mobile app notifications through Expo; Jitsi Meet meetings through 8x8). Before any communication outside Québec, we assess the protection offered, as Law 25 requires. The current list is published: see "Service providers".

Who can see it

• In your organization: only the people whose role allows it. Each organization is isolated from the others in the database.
• At Michoozon Inc.: only staff who need it for support or security, bound by confidentiality.
• Our service providers: only what their service requires, under contract.
• Authorities: only when the law requires it. We inform the organization when the law allows.

Security

• Two-step verification required for everyone, including with a password.
• Strict isolation between organizations and between colleagues (permissions checked by the database).
• Encryption in transit (HTTPS) and at rest; social insurance numbers and bank accounts encrypted separately, with every read logged.
• Tamper-proof audit log; remote sign-out of devices.

How long we keep it

• As long as the organization's account is active.
• When the account is closed: the organization can export all its data; it is removed from the application after 30 days, then kept 100 days in an encrypted archive, out of the application's reach, to repair a fraudulent closure, and finally deleted. Payroll (registers, slips, remittances) is kept separately, encrypted, as long as tax law requires: until January 1 of the 7th year after the last pay.
• Your own account: you can delete it at any time in "My profile". Your access stops immediately; what your organization must keep (payroll, employment records) remains its responsibility.
• Backups: deleted as they rotate, at most 30 days later.
• Michoozon Inc.'s invoices and accounting records: six years, as tax law requires.

Your rights

• Access your information and receive a copy, including in a structured, commonly used technological format (portability).
• Have inaccurate, incomplete or ambiguous information corrected.
• Withdraw your consent, and ask for your account to be deleted.
• Be informed of a confidentiality incident that presents a risk of serious injury.

Write to [email protected]. We answer within 30 days. For an employment file, we forward the request to your organization, which decides.

You may file a complaint with Québec's Commission d'accès à l'information (cai.gouv.qc.ca), the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (priv.gc.ca), or your provincial commissioner where applicable.

Confidentiality incidents

If an incident occurs (unauthorized access, use or disclosure, or loss), we act without delay to reduce the risk, record the incident in our register and, if it presents a risk of serious injury, notify the Commission d'accès à l'information or the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, and the people concerned. For an organization's data, we notify the organization no later than 72 hours after becoming aware of it, so it can meet its own obligations.

Cookies

Samwell uses only cookies needed for the service and for your display preferences. See "Cookies".

Changes

We publish every change on this page, with its date. A significant change is announced in the application at least 30 days in advance.

Contact us

• Protection of personal information: [email protected]
• Support (sign-in, account, mobile app): [email protected]
• By mail: Michoozon Inc., 2440 Watercolours Way, Ottawa, Ontario K2J 7A9