Privacy policy.

How Setara collects, uses, and protects personal information.

Draft. Pending legal review. This document is provided in good faith and reflects industry-standard practice for Canadian freight forwarders. It has not yet been reviewed by counsel and may be updated. For binding terms, contact us.

Effective: January 1, 2026. Last updated: May 23, 2026.

Setara Logistics Inc., part of Setara Group (which also owns Setara Transport Inc.) ("Setara," "we," "us," "our") respects your privacy. This policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, retain, and protect personal information when you visit our website, request a quote, book a shipment, register for our client portal, or otherwise interact with us. We handle personal information in accordance with the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), Quebec's Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector as amended by Law 25, and other applicable provincial privacy legislation.

1. Scope and our role

This policy applies to personal information that Setara collects in the course of providing freight forwarding, road transport, customs brokerage arrangement, warehousing arrangement, and related logistics services to businesses in Canada and internationally. Most of our customers are organisations; the personal information we collect is largely contact and operational data of employees, owners, and representatives of those organisations, together with information of the shippers, consignees, and recipients on shipping documents.

Setara is the controller of personal information that we collect about our customers, suppliers, and website visitors. Where we act on behalf of a customer to file customs entries, security filings, or carrier bookings, we process additional personal information as the customer's service provider, on the customer's instructions.

2. Personal information we collect

We collect personal information that you provide directly, that is included on shipping and customs documents, and that is generated automatically when you use our digital properties.

Information you provide directly:

Name, business name, job title, email, phone number, mailing address;
Billing and delivery addresses, business registration numbers (BN, GST/HST, QST), tax IDs;
Login credentials for our client and carrier portals;
Communications you send to us (emails, portal messages, support tickets, call recordings where notice is provided).

Information on shipping and customs documents:

Shipper, consignee, notify party, and supplier contact details;
Commercial invoices, packing lists, certificates of origin, bills of lading, and waybills;
Customs broker authorisation forms and importer of record details;
Information required for advance security filings (CBSA ACI eManifest, U.S. ISF / 10+2, EU ENS, and equivalent);
Cargo description, value, HS classification, and end-use information.

Payment information:

Bank account or wire details, EFT instructions, and remittance advice;
Payment card information is handled by our PCI-DSS-compliant payment processor. We do not store full card numbers.

Information collected automatically when you use our website or portal:

IP address, device type, browser type, operating system, referring URL;
Pages visited, time on page, and interaction events;
Cookies and similar technologies. See Section 8.

3. Purposes for which we use personal information

We use personal information for the following purposes:

To provide quotes and to perform the services you instruct us to perform, including arranging carriage, customs clearance, and related logistics services;
To file required customs and regulatory submissions with the CBSA, U.S. CBP, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and other regulators;
To communicate with you about bookings, shipment status, exceptions, invoicing, and service updates;
To process payments, collect outstanding amounts, and operate our accounting and audit functions;
To verify identity, prevent fraud, and protect our network and systems;
To improve our services, train our staff, and develop new offerings;
To send marketing communications where you have given express consent under Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL). You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in any commercial email;
To comply with our legal, regulatory, and contractual obligations.

We collect, use, and disclose personal information only for purposes that a reasonable person would consider appropriate in the circumstances, and only with the consent of the individual where required by law. Consent may be express or implied depending on the sensitivity of the information and the context.

4. Disclosure to third parties

We disclose personal information only as needed to deliver our services and to meet our legal obligations. Recipients include:

Carriers. Ocean lines, airlines, trucking companies, rail providers, and drayage carriers performing the physical movement of your shipment.
Customs broker partners. Licensed customs brokers we engage to file entries on the Customer's behalf.
Government authorities. CBSA, U.S. CBP, CFIA, FDA, USDA, and other regulators when required by law or for cargo release.
Sub-contracted service providers. Warehouses, terminals, insurance brokers and underwriters, port authorities, and parties acting on our behalf under written confidentiality.
Technology providers. Our transportation management system, document management, EDI/API integration providers, hosting providers, email and analytics tools.
Professional advisors. Accountants, auditors, and legal counsel under professional confidentiality obligations.
Banks and payment processors. For processing of payments and remittances.
Successors. In the event of a sale, merger, reorganisation, or other corporate transaction, subject to the recipient agreeing to handle information in accordance with this policy.

We do not sell personal information. We do not rent or trade personal information for marketing purposes.

5. Cross-border transfers of personal information

Freight forwarding is inherently cross-border. Personal information necessarily travels with the shipment, and we may transfer personal information to service providers, carriers, and government authorities in any country your cargo touches, including the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Asian jurisdictions.

Where we transfer personal information of Quebec residents outside Quebec, we conduct a privacy impact assessment in accordance with section 17 of Quebec's Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector, taking into account the sensitivity of the information, the purposes of the transfer, the protections (including contractual protections) that apply, and the legal framework of the destination jurisdiction. Where the assessment indicates that the information will receive adequate protection, we proceed; where contractual safeguards are required, we put them in place.

Personal information transferred outside Canada is subject to the laws of the destination jurisdiction and may be accessible to courts, law enforcement, and national security authorities of that jurisdiction in accordance with their applicable laws.

6. Automated decision-making

We do not currently use personal information to render decisions based exclusively on automated processing that produce significant effects for individuals. If we begin to do so, we will inform affected individuals at or before the time of the decision, explain the principal factors and parameters used, and provide the opportunity to submit observations and to request that a human review the decision, in accordance with applicable law.

7. Retention

We retain personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected and to meet our legal obligations, after which we securely destroy or anonymise it. Indicative retention periods:

Customs records. At least 6 years from the end of the calendar year of the importation, in accordance with CBSA and CBP record-keeping requirements.
Accounting and tax records. 6 years in accordance with the Income Tax Act (Canada) and the Excise Tax Act (Canada).
Shipping and operational records. Typically 7 years from completion of the shipment.
Marketing contact data. Until you withdraw consent or after a period of inactivity.
Website analytics. Aggregated for up to 26 months.

8. Cookies and analytics

We keep cookies to a minimum. We use a small number of first-party functional cookies to operate the website, such as remembering that you dismissed our cookie notice and maintaining session state on the client portal. For website analytics we use a privacy-friendly, cookieless analytics tool that does not set cookies, does not track you across sites, and does not build advertising profiles or collect information that on its own identifies you. We do not use cross-site advertising cookies or share information with ad networks for behavioural advertising. You can block or delete cookies in your browser; some portal features may not work as a result. In Quebec, where a technology we use to collect personal information offers privacy settings, those settings are set by default to the highest level of confidentiality, as required by law.

9. Security

We use commercially reasonable technical, organisational, and physical safeguards proportionate to the sensitivity of the information, including:

Encryption of data in transit (TLS) and at rest for sensitive systems;
Role-based access controls and the principle of least privilege;
Multi-factor authentication for administrator access;
Logging, monitoring, and regular security reviews;
Confidentiality obligations on staff and contractors;
Vendor due diligence for service providers handling personal information.

No system is perfectly secure. If you believe your account or personal information may have been compromised, please contact our Privacy Officer immediately.

10. Confidentiality incidents and breach notification

We maintain a confidentiality incident response process. Where a confidentiality incident occurs that presents a real risk of significant harm to an individual, we will notify the affected individual and the appropriate regulator (the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada under PIPEDA, the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec under Law 25, or other applicable authority) as required by law, and we will maintain a register of confidentiality incidents.

11. Your rights

Subject to legal exceptions, you have the right to:

Access the personal information we hold about you;
Correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
Withdraw consent to the collection, use, or disclosure of your personal information, subject to legal or contractual restrictions and our ability to continue providing services;
Request deletion or de-indexing of personal information in certain circumstances under Quebec law;
Receive a portable copy of computerised personal information you provided to us in a structured, commonly used technological format, in accordance with applicable law;
File a complaint with our Privacy Officer, with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, with the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec, or with another applicable supervisory authority.

To exercise any of these rights, contact our Privacy Officer using the details below. We will respond within 30 days, or notify you within that period if more time is required.

12. Children

Our services are directed to businesses, not individuals, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe we hold personal information about a child, please contact our Privacy Officer.

13. Privacy Officer and contact

We have appointed a Privacy Officer responsible for compliance with applicable privacy legislation. To contact our Privacy Officer with questions, access or correction requests, or complaints:

Privacy Officer
Setara Logistics Inc.
Email: [email protected]

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (priv.gc.ca) or, for matters under Quebec law, the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec (cai.gouv.qc.ca).

14. Language

This policy is published in English. A French version is available on request, in accordance with Quebec's Charter of the French Language for our Quebec operations.

15. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as our practices evolve and as legislation changes. Material changes will be communicated by posting the updated policy on this page at least 30 days before they take effect. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page reflects the current version.