SAFA Driving Academy ("we", "our", or "us") is an MTO-approved driving school based in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, how we use and protect it, and what rights you have regarding your data.

By using our website (safadrivingacademy.ca) or enrolling in any of our programs, you agree to the practices described in this policy.

1. Information We Collect

Information you provide directly

Full name, email address, and phone number (enrollment and contact forms)
Licence stage and preferred lesson times (booking forms)
City or area of residence (to match you with an instructor)
Any notes or messages you include with your inquiry
Payment information — processed exclusively by Stripe or Interac e-Transfer (see below)

Information collected automatically

IP address and approximate location (used for rate-limiting and security)
Browser type and device (via Vercel Analytics — aggregated, no personal identifiers)
Pages visited and time on site (aggregated, anonymised)

2. How We Use Your Information

To process your enrollment and schedule your lessons
To confirm payment and communicate about your booking
To send administrative emails (invoices, schedule confirmations)
To respond to your inquiries or support requests
To comply with legal obligations as an MTO-approved driving school

3. Sharing Your Information

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. We share it only in the following limited circumstances:

MTO-approved online BDE course provider: When you enroll in a BDE package, your name and contact details are shared with our licensed online course provider to create your course account and track completion. This is required for MTO compliance.
Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO): As an MTO-approved school, we are required to submit student completion records for BDE course graduates. This includes your name, licence information, and course results.
Stripe (online payments): If you pay online, your payment is processed by Stripe. We never see, store, or have access to your full card number, CVV, or banking credentials. Stripe is PCI DSS Level 1 certified. See stripe.com/privacy for their policy.
Resend (email delivery): We use Resend to deliver transactional emails (invoices, confirmations). Your name and email address are transmitted through their system for delivery purposes only.

4. Payment Security

All credit card, debit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Afterpay transactions are handled exclusively by Stripe. SAFA Driving Academy never sees or stores your card details — Stripe processes and encrypts all payment data on their secure, PCI-compliant infrastructure.

If you pay by Interac e-Transfer, you send the payment directly through your own bank. We receive only the confirmation and your reference message.

5. Data Retention

We retain your personal information for as long as necessary to deliver your lessons, comply with MTO record-keeping requirements, and resolve any disputes. MTO regulations require us to keep student records for a minimum of 5 years after course completion.

6. Cookies and Analytics

Our website uses Vercel Analytics, which collects aggregated, anonymised usage data (page views, referral sources). No personal identifiers, cookies tied to individuals, or cross-site tracking are used. We do not use advertising or retargeting cookies.

We also use Microsoft Clarity to record anonymised heatmaps and session replays of how visitors use our site, so we can improve navigation and page layout. Clarity sets a cookie to recognise repeat visits and does not track you across other, unrelated websites. Text typed into forms and dropdown selections are automatically excluded from what Clarity records, and we have configured Clarity to mask any personal information (such as names, emails, or phone numbers) that otherwise appears on the page. We do not use Clarity for advertising or retargeting. See Microsoft's Clarity privacy statement for details.

Cloudflare Turnstile (bot protection) may set a short-lived cookie to verify that form submissions are from a human. This cookie contains no personal information and expires at the end of your session.

7. Google Reviews Integration

The Reviews section of our homepage displays genuine customer reviews from our Google Business Profile, fetched directly from Google's Business Profile API. This integration is authorized once by SAFA Driving Academy's own Google account — visitors to our website are never asked to sign in to Google or grant any permission themselves.

The data we access and display consists of:

Reviewer name and profile photo
Star rating and review text
Any photos the reviewer attached to their review
Our overall star rating and total review count

This is all information the reviewer already made publicly visible by posting to our Google Business Profile. We use it solely to display our reviews on this website — it is never sold, shared with third parties, or used for advertising. Review data is cached on our servers for up to 7 days at a time before being automatically refreshed from Google, consistent with Google's API data-retention requirements. No personal information about website visitors is sent to Google as part of this integration.

8. Your Rights

Under Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and Ontario privacy law, you have the right to:

Know what personal information we hold about you
Request a copy of your information
Ask us to correct inaccurate information
Request deletion of your information (subject to legal retention obligations)
Withdraw consent to non-essential communications at any time

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at info@safadrivingacademy.ca. We will respond within 30 days.

9. Security

We use HTTPS encryption on all pages, rate-limiting on form submissions, and bot-protection on all checkout flows. Access to customer records is restricted to authorised SAFA staff only.

10. Children’s Privacy

Our website is not directed at children under the age of 16. If a parent or guardian is enrolling a minor in a driving program, the adult is responsible for providing consent and accurate contact information.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or legal requirements. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page will reflect any revisions. Continued use of our website after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

12. Contact Us

If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, contact us at:

Email: info@safadrivingacademy.ca
Phone: +1 (647) 807-3960
Address: 992 Ripley Crescent, Oshawa, ON