1. Accountable organization and scope
This policy describes how F&I Studio (trade name; the operator's legal identity and Quebec enterprise number remain to be confirmed) handles personal information through F&I Studio, including its Desktop application, cloud services, administration interface, iPhone application, and related communications. It applies to dealership users and to individuals whose information is placed in a dealership file.
F&I Studio Privacy Officer: Marc-André Noël, 1009-7640 boulevard Marie-Victorin, Brossard, marcandrenoel@fistudio.ca, telephone 514-554-1504. These details come from policy V0.3 and do not designate a dealership's Privacy Officer.
Each dealership remains accountable for collection purposes, use of its customers' information, its notices, consents and applicable obligations. F&I Studio provides and operates the technology infrastructure and remains responsible for its own security, technical access, encryption, hosting and processing obligations. A written agreement must define each party's responsibilities and instructions. F&I Studio's adopted position is not an approval on behalf of any dealership. The Credit form must display separate F&I Studio and dealership policies.
2. Information that may be handled
Depending on the enabled features, F&I Studio may handle:
- dealership-user contact details, account identifiers, roles, and dealership membership;
- dealership-customer contact and identification information;
- vehicle, transaction, financing, credit, product, warranty, or insurance information;
- documents, notes, emails, and attachments added to a file;
- technical logs, device information, security events, and support data.
Some information may be sensitive, including financial or credit information and a social insurance number when legally required and strictly necessary. Dealerships must not collect or upload sensitive information that is not necessary for an authorized purpose.
3. Sources and purposes
Information primarily comes from authorized users, their customers, systems they choose to connect, and technical events generated by the service. It is used only to provide and secure the service; administer accounts and access; prepare, track, and document files; deliver requested communications; provide support; meet legal duties; prevent incidents; and improve the service using authorized data.
An incompatible secondary use, including marketing, requires an appropriate legal basis and consent.
4. Disclosure, service providers, and transfers
Information may be available to authorized dealership personnel, authorized F&I Studio personnel, and providers required for hosting, authentication, email delivery, software distribution, backup, or support. The Credit workflow uses Supabase (database, authentication and server functions), Resend (transactional email), and Sites/OpenAI with Cloudflare infrastructure (Web hosting). Provider contracts, subprocessors, locations and retention periods remain to be finalized in the register.
Some providers or systems may process information outside Quebec or Canada. Before such a transfer, F&I Studio must complete the required assessment, document contractual and security safeguards, and confirm adequate protection. The Supabase project's declared region is ca-central-1, Canada; this does not guarantee the location of all processing or support access. Exclusive storage in Quebec is not promised.
5. Retention and disposal
Information is kept only as long as needed for authorized purposes and applicable obligations. For credit applications within F&I Studio, the adopted technical retention period is 90 days from invitation creation, not submission or the last edit. An automated job runs every minute and physically deletes expired applications and their applicants, encrypted contact details and responses, consents, events, read states and OTP-copy links. Deletion occurs on the next job run after expiry, subject to availability.
A documented legal hold suspends deletion of the affected application for a legal duty, litigation or a rights request; its continued necessity must be reviewed. Consent evidence is deleted with the application unless a justified hold applies; indefinite separate retention is not promised. The Credit module currently collects neither attachments nor a social insurance number. Files and copies retained outside this module by the dealership follow its own rules.
Internal purge records contain only a date and deletion count, retained for 90 days. Provider logs and backups follow separate cycles that remain to be confirmed; deleting active database records does not guarantee their immediate erasure. A restoration must reapply expired deletions and applicable holds before service resumes. Retention periods for other categories and contractual end-of-service arrangements remain to be adopted.
6. Safeguards
Administrative, technical, and physical safeguards proportionate to sensitivity are applied, including authentication, access controls, dealership separation, logging, backups, and incident procedures. No system can guarantee absolute security.
7. Your rights
Subject to applicable law and identity verification, you may request access to or correction of your information, withdraw consent where consent is the basis for processing, file a complaint, and exercise other applicable rights, including portability when its legal conditions are met. A deletion request may be limited by a retention duty, transaction evidence, or another lawful ground.
Send a request to the dealership holding the file or to marcandrenoel@fistudio.ca. The accountable person will determine who must respond and within which legal period. A refusal will include reasons and available recourse. Do not include a social insurance number or a complete identity document in an initial email.
8. Email and consent
Messages required for an account, security, or a transaction are separate from commercial messages. Commercial electronic messages may be sent only with applicable consent or a lawful exception, and must include required identification and unsubscribe mechanisms.
9. Cookies, devices, and minors
Web interfaces related to the service may use mechanisms strictly necessary for authentication and security; analytics or advertising technologies must be disclosed separately before activation. Desktop and iPhone applications may store certain operational data locally; their retention and user-isolation settings must be validated. The service is not intended to knowingly collect information about minors except in a documented and legally authorized context.
10. Changes and effective date
The applicable version, effective date, and material changes will be communicated as required. Version: 0.4 — updated: November 2, 2026 — effective date: not set, final validation pending.