Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 8, 2026

Welcome to smallbusinessloancanada.ca (the "Website"), operated by Small Business Loan Canada ("we," "us," or "our"). Our platform is an information and comparison service about small business financing in Canada, used to learn about lenders and credit, or to request financing and related financial services (collectively, the "Services"). Our platform is not itself a lender: when you submit an application through our site, it may be forwarded to one or more partner lenders, who will independently assess your eligibility and make the final approval decision. "Users" and "you" refer to any person who visits or uses our Services, or who communicates with us.

This Privacy Policy explains what information is collected, how we use and share it, and what choices you have regarding our personal information practices. For purposes of this Policy, "personal information" means any information about an identifiable individual, excluding business contact information used to reach a person for employment-related purposes. For any collection, use, disclosure, or other processing that is not reasonably necessary to provide you with what you requested, or for purposes related to protecting your rights or ours, you may opt out of that practice. See the "Your Choices" section below for how to do so.

Summary

Our platform's purpose is to help small business owners in Canada compare financing options and understand the full cost of borrowing before they apply.

With your consent, we forward a request to Loans Canada, which may share it with its partner lenders. Our platform also provides free educational resources on how financing products work, eligibility conditions, applicable regulatory frameworks, and your rights as a borrower.

You can request a connection with a lender by completing our online form. Users may also contact us directly by email with questions about their file.

If you have questions or wish to contact our privacy team, you may write to us at [email protected] or complete our contact form.

Acceptance of this Privacy Policy

Before using the Services or submitting personal information to us, please carefully review this Privacy Policy and contact us with any questions. By using the smallbusinessloancanada.ca website or submitting information to us, you agree to the practices described in this Policy. If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, please do not access the Website or use our Services in any way.

The Service is intended for users residing in Canada. If you do not reside in Canada, please do not use our Services.

The application form, available on the dedicated Service page, includes a separate consent checkbox that is mandatory before your application can be submitted. This checkbox reads:

"I agree that my personal information will be shared with Loans Canada and its partner lenders to assess my loan application, in accordance with the Privacy Policy."

A link to this Privacy Policy accompanies this text and opens in a new tab, so you can review it without losing information already entered in the form.

When you submit the application form, your information is first stored centrally on our own secure application system and is then transmitted to our partner Loans Canada, which may share it with its partner lenders to assess your loan application.

The application form is protected by Google reCAPTCHA v3, which checks that a submission comes from a person rather than an automated program. Google's Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply to that check.

This box is never pre-checked: you must actively select it to give your consent. Until it is checked, your application cannot be forwarded to our partner lenders. If you try to submit the form without checking the box, a message appears near it: "To submit your application, you must give your consent." While online applications are not yet open, or while the anti-robot check is loading, the submit button is inactive; once the form is open, trying to submit without the box checked shows this message.

This specific consent applies only to the loan application form. Our general "Contact Us" form does not require this checkbox and does not trigger any transmission of your information to a partner lender.

Personal Information We Collect

Our primary purpose in collecting personal information is to provide the services expected by our users, ensure our platform functions properly, and improve the quality of your interactions with us. The type of information we collect is reasonably related to these purposes. For any information not reasonably related to the reason you contacted us, you may opt out of that processing practice.

We collect only the information necessary to assess your connection request and, where applicable, connect you with a verified partner lender. The type of information collected varies depending on the amount requested, the repayment term chosen, and the product requested, and includes, without limitation:

Contact information: your full name, email, phone number, home address, and any other information you choose to provide to obtain a response to your request.
Financial, employment, and other personal information: when you apply for a loan and give consent via the checkbox described above, we may ask you to provide, and will collect, the financial information necessary to submit a complete file to verified partner lenders who may be able to help you, including your primary source of income (salaried employment, self-employment, employment insurance, social assistance, pension, retirement income) and your approximate net monthly income. Financial and other personal information we collect (including your date of birth and IP address) will be used to assess your eligibility and identify partner lenders able to respond to your request. This includes data obtained through bank account verification, a temporary, secure, read-only connection to your bank account, conducted only with your explicit consent, which analyzes the regularity of your deposits over 90 days, your average balance, and the absence of repeated non-sufficient-funds incidents, without affecting your credit score. Information shared with us may be shared with other financial partners to process your file on your behalf. This information is only disclosed to partners bound by confidentiality obligations.
Identity verification information: to prevent fraud and protect your file, you may be asked to provide a valid government-issued photo ID.
Communication-related information: we may collect information if you contact us with questions via our "Contact Us" form, or if you voluntarily respond to surveys. Providing this information is optional, and this form does not result in any transmission to a partner lender.
Commercial information: we may retain an overview of the products you have requested, including the amount and term associated with your request.
Technical and internet activity information: if you use our Service, we (or third-party tracking tools) may automatically record device information (device type, IP address, browser type, operating system, usage duration, unique identifiers), usage information (pages viewed, features used, time, frequency, and duration of your activities), and email engagement information (date and time you open or click links in our emails). We may use a privacy-focused analytics tool to measure visits; it never receives information you enter in our forms.

Some information may be recorded whether or not you submit a request for service, provided that users are first required to consent to this recording where it is not essential. If you submit a loan application, all information described in this section may be recorded and retained to the extent necessary to properly respond to your request.

How Your Information Is Collected

Personal information may be collected in a number of ways, including through our Services.

In general, you can browse our Website without telling us who you are or revealing any personal information. If you want to use our Services, we ask for certain information to ensure expected functionality, verify your identity, and ensure the security of all parties.

We may use the following technologies to collect information:

Cookies: text files stored on your device to identify your browser or store information and settings to help you navigate efficiently, remember your preferences, and enable certain features. By using our Website, you agree to the use of cookies and similar technologies for the purposes described in this Policy. We may use cookies from platforms such as Google Ads, Meta (Facebook/Instagram), and other technology or advertising platforms.
Local storage technologies, such as HTML5, which provide functionality similar to cookies but may retain larger amounts of data on your device.
Web beacons, used to verify that a web page or email has been viewed or opened.
Third-party measurement and analytics, to help us understand and analyze visitor traffic and identify areas of our platform needing improvement.
Social media: if you post a review or submit personal information on our social media accounts, your communications may be viewed by the public.

You are not required to use our Services if you do not wish to disclose your information.

Where required by applicable law, users benefit from a prior-consent mechanism for cookies, local storage, and other non-essential tracking technologies. We reserve the right to retain cookies and/or other data for essential purposes only.

How We Use Personal Information

We generally use your personal information for the following reasons:

Providing the Service, including to provide, operate, maintain, and secure our Services. Applications are generally processed by the partner lender within hours of bank verification, often the same day.
Communicating with you, including sending administrative updates (changes to our Privacy Policy) and providing user support.
Improving the Service, including improving our platform, creating new features, facilitating future applications, personalizing your experience, and generating insights from aggregated information.
Marketing and advertising, including sending you marketing messages about promotions, offers, and special events by email, text, or phone call.

In accordance with applicable anti-spam legislation, we may only send direct marketing messages if one of the following two conditions is met (and you have not unsubscribed):

You expressly consented to receive marketing emails when submitting a loan application; or
At the time of submitting a request, you gave implied consent to receive marketing emails from us, in which case your authorization will expire 6 months after your request is submitted.

We also engage in interest-based advertising: we work with advertising partners, including third-party advertising companies and social media companies, to display ads on our Service and other online services. And we process personal information for compliance and security, including to comply with applicable laws, legal requests, and judicial proceedings (for example, to respond to requests from regulatory or government authorities), protect our rights, safety, and property, as well as yours or others', and prevent, identify, and deter fraudulent, unauthorized, or illegal activities, including identity theft.

We limit access to personal information provided by users. This information is only accessible to team members for whom access is necessary, including:

Our technical team, for reporting, development, and maintenance of our internal systems.
Our marketing team, for reporting or marketing-related operations.
Our legal and privacy team, to handle deletion requests or other privacy-related requests.

Data sharing: we do not sell, rent, or license your personal information to third parties, except for the purpose of validating your loan application - and only when you have checked the consent box described above. This does not authorize third parties to bypass anti-spam legislation and send you marketing messages.

Personal information may be accessed by:

Service providers, including verified partner lenders with whom we work to help users obtain the product they request. When a user submits a request and gives consent, their information may be shared with one or more partner lenders to assess eligibility. Some lenders may also report repayment history to credit bureaus (Equifax or TransUnion); you may ask your partner lender whether this applies before signing.
Technology service providers, including hosting services, email services, our bank verification provider, our e-transfer provider, and advertising and analytics services.
Professional advisors, such as lawyers and accountants, where necessary to facilitate the services they provide us.
Business transaction recipients, such as counterparties and others assisting with a merger, acquisition, or asset sale.
Regulatory requirements, where necessary to comply with applicable laws.

We may disclose your personal information: to any government entity in connection with an investigation into our compliance with applicable laws; in response to a court order or other legal process; as required or permitted by applicable law; and in good faith, to protect or defend our rights or those of a third party.

Retention and Destruction of Personal Information

Personal information is retained until we no longer need it to fulfill the purposes described in this Policy, or until it is no longer reasonably necessary to comply with, defend, or protect our rights, your rights, or those of a third party, or to meet legal requirements.

Automatic deletion of your information from our servers is scheduled after a reasonable period, unless you have given explicit marketing consent, in which case we will retain your basic contact information for as long as your opt-in status remains unchanged.

Retained data is stored securely on servers managed by our partner hosting providers. If you would like us to delete your data, write to us at [email protected].

Children

Our Service is not directed to individuals under 18 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from minors. If you have reason to believe that a person under 18 has provided us with personal information through the Service, please contact us and we will make efforts to delete that information from our databases.

Links to Other Websites

The Service may contain links to other websites not operated or controlled by us, including social media services and our partner lenders' sites. Information shared with these third-party sites will be governed by their own privacy policies, not this one.

Data Security and Risks

Use of the site is at the user's own risk. Personal information is protected online and offline through commercially reasonable technical, administrative, and organizational measures against loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction.

No transmission over the Internet or by email is completely secure or error-free. You should exercise great caution regarding the information you send us through the Service or by email. We encourage all users to provide only information they are comfortable sharing, remain alert to suspicious communications, and report any suspicious activity to us promptly.

International Data Transfers

If your personal information is transmitted or disclosed to a third party outside Canada, it may be subject to the laws of foreign jurisdictions in connection with data processing or storage. We take diligent steps and appropriate safeguards to protect your personal information and require our third-party service providers to adopt adequate protective measures as well.

Your Choices

Updating or correcting personal information: you may request any update or correction necessary to keep your personal information accurate, current, and complete.
Withdrawing consent to a loan application: you may withdraw the consent given via the application form checkbox at any time by contacting us at the address below. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.
Unsubscribing from marketing communications: you may unsubscribe using the instructions included in our marketing emails.
Opting out of information use practices: users may opt out of the processing practices described in this document that are not reasonably necessary to achieve the purposes they requested.
Limiting online identification: block cookies through your browser settings (Firefox, Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Safari all let you remove or reject cookies), limit ad identifiers through your device settings, use privacy-focused plug-ins or browsers configured to block third-party cookies, or use an industry opt-out tool such as the Digital Advertising Alliance or Network Advertising Initiative.
Do Not Track: we do not respond to "Do Not Track" signals or similar signals.

Governing Law

This Privacy Policy and any related matters will be interpreted in accordance with the laws of Canada and the applicable province.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy at any time. An updated version will be posted on this page, and the effective date of the update will be shown at the top of this Policy. Continued use of our Service after an updated version is posted constitutes acceptance of the revised version and the practices described in it.

Contact Us, File a Complaint, or Request Data Deletion

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, our personal information practices, or wish to withdraw your consent to share your data with our partner lenders, please contact us.

Small Business Loan Canada

Email: [email protected]

Contact form: smallbusinessloancanada.ca/contact/