Privacy, confidentiality, and record keeping at walk-in notary
Even though we do not provide legal advice at Walk-In Notary, all of our notaries are lawyers that are registered with the Law Society of Ontario (LSO). That means that some of the rules and guidelines of the LSO apply to us when acting as notaries.
One of LSO’s requirements is record keeping. Lawyers are required to keep a record of the documents they notarize as well as the ID that they rely upon to identify an affiant. Therefore, when you have something notarized at our office we will be required to keep a record of your document and ID.
The good news is that the very same rules that require us to maintain a record of your ID also require us to adhere to strict privacy and confidentiality policies. Rest assured that we have never shared client information with a third party without the client’s consent. In fact, even with client consent, it is very rare that we will do so.
We do not keep hardcopies of your ID and documents. We keep a digital copy that is encrypted and stored on computers that are under lock-and-key and password-protected. Only notaries that work for Walk-In Notary have access to these documents.
There are many benefits to record keeping, including fraud prevention. By way of one example, imagine sending your document to a third party that alters the document in order to defraud you in some way. Our record is a sort of timestamp that creates evidence of exactly what you had signed and agreed to prior to sending out your document.
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