Privacy policy

BCIN Exam (bcinexam.ca) is an online study resource for the Ontario Building Code examinations (the BCIN exams), operated by NiShre Inc. from Ontario, Canada. We are responsible for the personal information described here. Our Privacy Officer is accountable for this policy and can be reached at hi@bcinexam.ca.

• Account details: your email address, your name if you add one, and your password, which we store only as a secure one way hash. If you sign in with Google, we receive your Google account identifier, email address and name.
• Study activity: your answers, practice sessions and exam attempts, scores, bookmarks, reading progress, and any highlights and notes you save.
• Security information: the IP address and browser type used for sign in sessions and important account events, such as sign ins, password changes and purchases.
• Messages: anything you send us by email.
• Payments: payments are processed by Stripe. We receive your name, email, the amount and a payment reference. We never see or store your full card number.

• We do not sell or rent your personal information.
• We do not show advertising and we do not use advertising trackers.
• We count visits with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which uses no cookies and does not identify or follow individual visitors. It tells us totals such as page views, the pages people read, the site that referred them, and their country and browser type.
• We use one essential cookie to keep you signed in. Display preferences such as night mode, text size and your reading position are stored in your own browser.
• When you first visit, your browser notes how you reached us for up to 30 days: the name of the site that sent you (such as a search engine or YouTube, the site name only, never the page you were on), the first page you opened here, and, if you came through one of our tagged links such as an ad, that campaign name. If you create an account in that time, we record it with your account so we know how people find us. It is never shared, and no cookie or third party is involved.

• To run your account and keep your progress in sync across devices.
• To provide the service: practice, the exam simulator, the study guides and results.
• To send account emails, such as email verification, password resets and purchase confirmations.
• To keep accounts secure and prevent fraud and abuse.
• To answer your questions and requests.
• To improve our content and support you, using study activity, for example to find questions many people find unclear or to see where a learner is stuck.
• To meet legal obligations, such as keeping purchase records for tax purposes.

We send marketing emails only if you ask for them, and every one includes a way to unsubscribe. Account emails that you need to use the service are not marketing.

By creating an account, you consent to the uses described here. You can withdraw consent at any time by deleting your account or asking us to, although we then cannot provide the service.

We share personal information only with providers who help us run BCIN Exam, only as needed for that purpose, and under their own security and privacy commitments:

• Railway: hosting for our website, application and database.
• Cloudflare: domain name service, network security and cookieless visit statistics.
• Google Workspace: delivery of our emails and our support inbox.
• Google: sign in, if you choose to sign in with Google.
• Stripe: payment processing. Stripe handles your card details under its own privacy policy and emails your payment receipt.

We may also disclose information where the law requires it, for example in response to a valid legal order.

Our application and database are hosted in the United States (California), and our providers may process information in other countries. Information stored outside Canada is subject to the laws of those countries and may be accessible to their courts and authorities. We choose providers that protect information to a standard comparable to Canadian law.

• Account and study information: for as long as your account is open.
• Sign in sessions: they expire after 30 days without use.
• Security records: for as long as needed to protect accounts and meet legal obligations.
• Purchase records: six years, as Canadian tax law requires.

When you delete your account in Settings, it is closed and you are signed out on every device. To have your remaining personal information erased, email hi@bcinexam.ca from your account email and we will erase it within 30 days, except records we must keep by law.

• Access: ask what personal information we hold about you and get a copy.
• Correction: ask us to correct information that is wrong or incomplete.
• Deletion: delete your account in Settings, or ask us to erase your information.
• Withdrawal of consent: stop marketing emails at any time, or close your account.

Email hi@bcinexam.ca and we will respond within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, or, if you live in Quebec, to the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec.

All traffic to BCIN Exam is encrypted with HTTPS. Passwords are stored only as strong one way hashes, sign in sessions can be revoked, and access to our systems is limited to the people who run the service. If a breach ever creates a real risk of significant harm, we will notify you and the Privacy Commissioner as the law requires.

BCIN Exam is for adults preparing for professional licensure. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16.

We will post any change on this page with a new date. If a change materially affects how we use your information, we will tell you by email before it takes effect. See also our terms of service.