Privacy Policy | AutoNova Finance

AutoNova Finance ("AutoNova Finance", "we", "us", or "our") operates autonovafinance.ca and helps Alberta drivers get pre-approved for auto financing. We take your privacy seriously. This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, who we share it with, and the rights you have over your information.

We are based in Calgary, Alberta, and we comply with Alberta's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), and Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL). If you apply from outside Alberta, we still handle your information according to these standards.

1. A quick summary (in plain language)

We collect the information you type into our pre-approval form so we can match you with financing and a vehicle.
Filling out our form does not affect your credit score. We do not pull your credit. A formal credit check only happens later, at the dealership, and only if you give clear, separate consent.
All sensitive information (name, email, phone, date of birth, address, and income) is encrypted in our database.
We share your information with our sales team and partner dealerships so they can help you get approved. We do not sell your information.
You can ask us to see, correct, or delete your information at any time by emailing info@autonovafinance.ca.
You can unsubscribe from our emails or text messages at any time by replying STOP, clicking "unsubscribe", or emailing us.

2. Who we are and who this policy applies to

This Privacy Policy applies to information we collect through autonovafinance.ca, our online pre-approval application, our phone calls, text messages, and emails with you, and any other interaction you have with AutoNova Finance.

AutoNova Finance is a lead-generation and pre-approval matching service. We are not a lender or a dealership ourselves. We work with a network of Canadian lenders and Alberta dealer partners — we collect your pre-approval information and share it with the partner or partners best suited to your situation, who help match you with a vehicle and a lender.

3. Personal information we collect

We only ask for information we actually need. When you fill out our pre-approval form, we collect:

Contact and identity information

Full name
Email address
Mobile phone number
Date of birth

Address and housing information

Street address, city, province, and postal code
Housing situation (rent, own, live with family, etc.)

Employment and income information

Employment status (employed, self-employed, retired, on benefits, etc.)
Employer name (if applicable)
Monthly or pay-period income and pay frequency

Credit and financial background (self-reported)

Your own description of your credit (good, fair, poor, no credit, etc.)
Whether you have had a bankruptcy or consumer proposal
Whether you have a vehicle to trade in, and basic details about it

We do not pull your credit report or credit score to submit this form. The credit information above is self-reported and is used only to help us route your application to the right financing partner. A formal credit inquiry would only happen later, at the dealership, with a separate written or electronic consent that is clearly identified as a credit authorization.

Vehicle preferences

Type of vehicle you are looking for (SUV, truck, sedan, etc.)
New or used preference
Budget range

Consent and audit information

The date, time, and IP address when you accepted our consent checkboxes
Which consents you agreed to (CASL marketing, privacy acknowledgement, etc.)

Technical information collected automatically

IP address, browser type, operating system, and device type
Pages visited on our site and how long you spent on them
Referring website and any UTM tracking parameters in the link you clicked
Cookies and similar technologies (see Section 10)

4. How we protect sensitive information

We use Laravel's encrypted-at-rest storage for sensitive personal information, meaning that fields like your name, email, phone number, date of birth, street address, and income are stored in an encrypted form in our database. Access to the admin system where leads are viewed is restricted to authorized AutoNova Finance staff, protected by passwords, and logged.

No system is perfectly secure, but we use reasonable physical, organizational, and technical safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information, as required by PIPA Alberta.

5. Why we collect your information and how we use it

We use your personal information to:

Evaluate your pre-approval request and match you with a financing option;
Have a member of our sales team contact you (usually within a few minutes) by phone, text, or email to follow up on your application;
Verify your phone number with a one-time code so we know we are talking to the right person;
Arrange a visit to the dealership, schedule a test drive, and select suitable vehicles;
Submit your application to third-party lenders or financing partners, with your consent, so they can assess whether to offer you a loan;
Communicate with you about your application, appointments, and vehicle availability;
Send you marketing messages about AutoNova Finance vehicles, promotions, and financing offers, but only if you have given CASL consent (see Section 8);
Prevent fraud, protect our systems, and comply with our legal obligations; and
Keep an audit trail of consents, as required by PIPA Alberta and CASL.

6. Who we share your information with

We share your personal information only in the following limited situations:

Our sales and finance team

Authorized AutoNova Finance staff access your lead in our admin panel so they can call you, answer your questions, and walk you through the financing process.

Financing partners and lenders

With your consent, we share your application information with banks, credit unions, and other licensed lenders in Canada so they can determine whether to offer you a loan. A hard credit check, if needed, will be authorized separately by you at that stage.

Service providers

We use the following service providers to run our website and communicate with you:

Twilio (United States) — sends the one-time code used to verify your phone number. Only your phone number is shared with Twilio.
Resend (United States) — sends transactional emails such as application confirmations. Only your email address and the content of the message are shared with Resend.
DigitalOcean — hosts our website and database. We aim to keep production data in Canadian data centres where possible.
Google Workspace — receives incoming email sent to info@autonovafinance.ca.
We may also use analytics and advertising tools such as Google Analytics, Google Ads, Meta (Facebook) Pixel, and Microsoft Clarity to measure how visitors use our site and to improve our advertising. These tools may set cookies on your device and may process anonymized or pseudonymized information outside Canada.

Because some of our service providers are located in the United States, your personal information may be stored or processed outside of Canada and, as a result, may be subject to the laws of those countries, including lawful access requests by foreign authorities. By using our website and submitting our form, you acknowledge this cross-border transfer. You can request more information about our use of service providers outside of Canada, and the name of a person who can answer your questions, by contacting our Privacy Officer (see Section 12).

Legal and safety reasons

We may disclose personal information when we are required to by law, by a subpoena, warrant, or court order, or when disclosure is needed to investigate fraud, protect our legal rights, or protect the safety of our staff and customers.

Business transfers

If AutoNova Finance is sold, merged, or reorganized, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to the protections required by PIPA Alberta.

We do not sell your personal information to third parties for their own marketing.

7. How long we keep your information

We keep your personal information only as long as we need it for the purposes described in this policy, or as required by law. In general:

Active leads are kept while we are actively working with you, and for up to 24 months after our last meaningful contact, so we can follow up on renewals, trade-ins, and future vehicle needs.
CASL consent records (including IP address and timestamp) are kept for at least three years after consent is withdrawn, as proof of compliance.
Financial and transaction records related to completed vehicle sales are kept as long as required by Alberta and federal tax, consumer protection, and dealer regulations.

When personal information is no longer needed, we securely delete it or make it anonymous.

8. Marketing communications and CASL

When you submit our pre-approval form, you are giving us express consent to contact you about your application by phone, text message, and email. This includes follow-up messages from our sales team and notifications about vehicles that may match what you are looking for.

If you check the optional marketing box, you also give us express consent under CASL to send you commercial electronic messages about AutoNova Finance promotions, new inventory, financing specials, and related offers.

You can withdraw your consent to marketing messages at any time:

Reply STOP to any text message from us;
Click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any marketing email;
Email info@autonovafinance.ca with "Unsubscribe" in the subject line; or
Tell any member of our sales team to remove you from our marketing list.

We will honour unsubscribe requests within 10 business days, as required by CASL. Even after you unsubscribe from marketing, we may still contact you about an active application or a transaction you have started with us.

9. Your rights under PIPA Alberta and PIPEDA

Under Alberta's Personal Information Protection Act, you have the right to:

Access the personal information we hold about you, subject to limited exceptions allowed by law;
Correct any information that is inaccurate or incomplete;
Withdraw consent to our collection, use, or disclosure of your personal information, subject to legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice;
Ask us how your information has been used and to whom it has been disclosed; and
File a complaint with our Privacy Officer, and, if you are not satisfied, with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta (oipc.ab.ca) or the federal Privacy Commissioner (priv.gc.ca).

To exercise any of these rights, email info@autonovafinance.ca. We may need to verify your identity before we can respond. We will normally reply within 30 days, as required by PIPA Alberta.

10. Cookies and tracking

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies (such as pixels and local storage) to:

Keep your session active while you fill out the form;
Remember your progress through the multi-step pre-approval form;
Measure how visitors use our site, so we can improve it;
Measure the performance of our advertising campaigns (Google Ads, Meta, etc.);
Attribute leads to the marketing campaign that referred you (via UTM parameters).

You can disable cookies in your browser settings, but some parts of our site, including the pre-approval form, may not work properly if you do.

11. Children's privacy

AutoNova Finance is intended for adults who are legally able to enter into a vehicle financing agreement in Alberta (generally 18 years of age or older). We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under the age of majority. If you believe a minor has submitted information to us, please contact us and we will delete it.

12. Contact our Privacy Officer

AutoNova Finance has designated a Privacy Officer who is responsible for our compliance with PIPA Alberta and PIPEDA. To ask a question, request access to your information, correct your information, withdraw consent, or file a privacy complaint, please contact:

Privacy Officer, AutoNova Finance
Email: info@autonovafinance.ca
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Website: autonovafinance.ca

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta at oipc.ab.ca or the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at priv.gc.ca.

13. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in the law, our business, or our technology. When we do, we will update the "Effective date" at the top of this page. If the changes are significant, we will take reasonable steps to notify you, such as posting a notice on our homepage or sending you an email.

By continuing to use autonovafinance.ca after an update, you accept the revised Privacy Policy.