Legal
Privacy policy
Last updated October 19, 2026 · governed by Alberta PIPA and PIPEDA
The short version: this site collects as little about you as it can, uses it only for the purposes listed below, sells it to nobody, and tells you plainly where it lives. The long version follows.
1. Who is responsible
This website is operated by Chris Birchard, REALTOR®, of TREC The Real Estate Company, #512, 22 Midlake Blvd. SE, Calgary, AB T2X 2X7. Chris Birchard is the designated Privacy Officer responsible for this policy and for how personal information is handled. Reach him at chris@supermodern.ca or (403) 540-1053.
2. What is collected, and why
Contact form
Name, email, optional phone, and your message - used only to respond to your inquiry. Providing them is your consent for that purpose.
Newsletter
Email address and the page you signed up from, collected only when you enter them, and used to send the monthly market email. You confirm by pressing the button the confirmation email links to; nothing is pre-checked. If you don’t confirm, you get one reminder about two days later and nothing else, and an unconfirmed sign-up is deleted after 30 days. The record of your consent is kept: the wording you were shown, when you signed up, confirmed and unsubscribed, and a log of the emails sent to you.
Community follow
First name, email, up to five communities you choose to follow, and the reason you give for each (selling, buying, or watching) - used to assemble your monthly community update and to understand what you’re looking for so any reply you request is relevant. Stored in this site’s own subscriber list, held by Cloudflare, alongside the consent record, and sent through Google Workspace. Following again adds to your list (up to five) and never removes or changes what you already follow. To change or remove communities, email the Privacy Officer; unsubscribe from the link in any email.
Analytics
Basic usage data (pages viewed, which links and page features are used, approximate location from IP, device type) to understand what content helps. See section 8 for cookies and opting out.
Listing updates by email
Your name, email address, optional phone number and note, the search filters you chose, whether you also asked for the monthly email, and the consent wording you ticked and when - used so Chris can set up that listing search for you in the Pillar 9 MLS® System, confirm the request to you by email, and reply to or contact you about it. Nothing is pre-ticked. The MLS® System then sends the listing emails under its own confirmation and unsubscribe. Reply to any email from Chris to change or stop the request.
No personal information is ever sold or shared for marketing.
3. Consent
Purposes are stated at the point of collection, or for analytics in section 8, and information is used only for those purposes. Any new purpose would require your fresh, separate consent. You may withdraw consent at any time by contacting the Privacy Officer, subject to legal or contractual limits explained at the time. To leave the newsletter, the unsubscribe link in every email opens a page with one Unsubscribe button, no login needed, and takes effect at once; your mail app’s own Unsubscribe button works too. A reply asking to stop is acted on the same day where possible.
4. Where your information lives
This site uses service providers based in the United States: Cloudflare (website hosting; the subscriber list that holds newsletter and community-follow sign-ups: email, first name, communities, reasons, and the consent and send records; storage of listing-update requests and sending the request emails; this information is stored in the United States, and possibly Canada, and a form you submit may be processed in the Cloudflare location nearest you); Google Workspace (the email accounts that send the newsletter and its confirmation, reminder and welcome emails, hold copies of what was sent, receive delivery-failure notices and replies, and receive inquiries and listing-update requests; stored in the United States and other countries where Google stores data); and Google Analytics, loaded through Google Tag Manager, for site usage statistics. The maps on this site (the listing search and the bungalow villa map) load their base map from OpenFreeMap, which receives your IP address with each map tile request and nothing else about you; the villa map’s satellite view loads its imagery from Esri (United States), which receives your IP address in the same way. Listing data requests go from our server to the listing data provider without your name, email or IP address, but listing photos load in your browser from the provider’s image service, which receives your IP address. beehiiv (United States) held the newsletter list until it moved to this site’s own list; that former list sends nothing and will be deleted by December 31, 2026. Your information may be stored or processed in the United States and in other countries where these providers operate. Information stored outside Canada may be accessible to foreign courts, law enforcement, and authorities under the laws of those countries. This section is our written policy on service providers outside Canada; the Privacy Officer (section 1) can provide it in writing and answer questions about how these providers collect, use, disclose or store your information.
5. Retention and destruction
Personal information is kept only as long as needed for the purpose it was collected, plus any period required by law or brokerage record-keeping rules, and is then securely deleted. Inquiry emails that don’t become client relationships are deleted within 24 months. When you unsubscribe, your first name and the communities and reasons you gave are deleted at once. Your email address, the consent record and the log of emails sent are kept indefinitely, as proof of consent and so that nobody who left is ever emailed again. A sign-up that is never confirmed is deleted after 30 days. A copy of each email sent to you (the confirmation, any reminder, the welcome and each issue) stays in the sending mailbox’s Sent folder in Google Workspace, including for sign-ups that were never confirmed; these copies hold your email address and the email’s text, are kept as the record of what was sent, and only Chris Birchard can open them. A listing-update request, and the copy emailed to Chris, is kept for 24 months after it is made, or deleted sooner at your ask; after that, Chris emails you about it again only if you make a new request. The MLS® System’s own records of the search are the board’s.
6. Safeguards
Information is protected with technological safeguards (encrypted connections, access controls, provider security programs), administrative safeguards (access limited to Chris Birchard and contractual confidentiality with service providers), and physical safeguards for any records held at the brokerage. In the unlikely event of a breach creating a real risk of significant harm, the Alberta Information and Privacy Commissioner will be notified without unreasonable delay, and affected individuals as required.
7. Accuracy, access and correction
You can ask what personal information is held about you, how it is used, and to whom it has been disclosed, and ask for corrections - write to the Privacy Officer. Requests receive a response within 45 days as PIPA requires.
8. Cookies and analytics
This site uses Google Analytics, loaded through Google Tag Manager, which sets cookies and collects IP address and usage data to produce aggregate statistics about how the site is used. No advertising or cross-site tracking cookies are set. The pages your confirm and unsubscribe links open load no analytics at all. You can opt out with the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on or by blocking cookies in your browser; the site works fully without them.
9. Questions and complaints
Start with the Privacy Officer (section 1) - most concerns resolve with one email. If you are not satisfied, you have the right to complain to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta: oipc.ab.ca, 1-888-878-4044.
10. Changes
Material changes to this policy will be posted here with a new “last updated” date, and, where the change affects how already-collected information is used, notice or fresh consent will be sought first.