Last updated: October 16, 2026

Society's First Alternative Services Limited ("Society's First", "we", "us" or "our") operates societysfirst.ca and provides cremation and funeral services in British Columbia from Aldergrove.

This policy explains what personal information we collect when you visit our website, contact us, make arrangements with us after a death, or plan ahead with a pre-need plan; why we collect it; who we share it with; how long we keep it; and the choices and rights you have. We follow British Columbia's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) and, where information crosses provincial or national borders, the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

The short version

We collect what we need to care for the person who has died, register the death, carry out your arrangements or pre-need plan, and run this website.
We never sell your personal information, and we don't use it to train artificial intelligence models.
Card payments are entered on Moneris's secure checkout.
Analytics tags load only on our public pages: never when you are signed in, and never on arrangement, pre-need, payment or sign-in pages.
You can ask to see or correct your information at any time by contacting our Privacy Officer.

Our Privacy Officer

Our Privacy Officer is responsible for how we handle personal information and for our compliance with this policy. You can reach them at:

Email: info@societysfirst.ca (subject "Privacy")
Phone: 604-607-1150
Mail: Privacy Officer, Society's First, 3070 275A Street, Aldergrove, BC V4W 3L4

What we collect

When you visit our website

Technical information: your IP address, browser and device type, the pages you view, the page that sent you here, and the date and time.
Your approximate area (city and province), worked out from your IP address so we can show you local information. We use ipstack and Cloudflare for this. We do not use your device's GPS.
Cookies, described under Cookies and tracking.

When you contact us or ask for a quote

Your name, email address, phone number, your message, and the details you give us about the services you are considering.

When you create an account

Your name, email address and password (we store only a secure, one-way hash of the password). If you sign in with Google, Google gives us your name, email address and Google account identifier.

Staff accounts sign in with Microsoft 365. Microsoft gives us the staff member's name, work email address and Microsoft account identifier, and we keep a record of each sign-in.

When you make arrangements after a death

To arrange a cremation and register the death, British Columbia law requires information about the person who has died. This includes their legal name; date and place of birth and death; Social Insurance Number; BC Personal Health Number; marital status and spouse; occupation; usual residence; parents' names and birthplaces; the attending physician; and whether there is a pacemaker or other medical implant, which must be removed before cremation for safety.

We also collect the name, contact information and relationship of the person authorizing the cremation and of other next of kin, and the payment and invoicing details for the arrangement.

When you buy a pre-need plan

The name, contact information and date of birth of the purchaser and of the person the plan is for; the information the insurer or trust that funds the plan requires (which can include a Social Insurance Number and a beneficiary); and payment information, such as card details or the bank account for pre-authorized debits.

When you sign documents electronically

Your name, email address and signature, and the IP address, device and time of signing. This record is what makes an electronic signature valid.

Why we use it

To care for the person who has died and carry out the cremation and services you choose.
To register the death with the BC Vital Statistics Agency and obtain the permits the law requires.
To prepare, sign and keep your contracts, invoices and receipts.
To set up and administer pre-need plans with the insurer or trust that funds them.
To take payments and keep accounting and tax records.
To answer your questions, keep you informed about your arrangements, and offer support afterwards.
To keep our website secure, stop spam and fraud, and fix problems.
To understand how our public pages are used.
To send newsletters, follow-ups and offers where you have agreed or the law allows it, with an unsubscribe link in every one.
To meet our legal obligations, including record-keeping under BC's Cremation, Interment and Funeral Services Act and Canada Revenue Agency rules.

We will not use your information for a new purpose without telling you first, and asking for your consent where the law requires it.

Your consent

When you give us information to make arrangements, ask for a quote or buy a pre-need plan, you consent to our using it for that purpose. We ask for your express consent for sensitive information. We send marketing email only where you have agreed to it or where Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation allows it, for example for a limited time after you ask us for a quote or buy from us.
When you give us information about someone else, such as the person who has died, a family member or a beneficiary, you confirm that you have the authority to do so: for example, as the executor, as the person entitled by law to make the arrangements, or with that person's permission.
You can withdraw your consent at any time, subject to legal and contractual limits, by contacting our Privacy Officer. We will explain what withdrawing means for you. For example, we cannot register a death without the information the law requires.
Every marketing email includes an unsubscribe link, as Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation requires.

Who we share it with

We share personal information only as needed for the purposes above.

Government and others involved in the arrangements

BC Vital Statistics Agency, to register the death and obtain the cremation permit. About death registration.
Physicians, coroners, hospitals and care homes, to obtain the medical certificate of death and bring the person into our care.
The licensed crematorium that performs the cremation, which needs the information BC law requires before a cremation.
Cemeteries, clergy, celebrants and other providers you ask us to work with.
Consumer Protection BC, which licenses funeral providers and crematoriums and may inspect our records.

Pre-need plan funding

TruStage Life of Canada underwrites insurance-funded pre-need plans and receives the plan application, including the purchaser's and insured person's details and payment information. Contact TruStage's Privacy Officer at Canada.privacychoicesmail@trustage.com or visit trustage.ca.
Guaranteed Funeral Deposits of Canada (Fraternal) (GFD) holds pre-need funds in insurance policies. Read GFD's privacy policy.

Service providers

These companies host, process or deliver information for us. Our agreements with them limit their use of it to the services they provide to us.

Moneris Solutions Corporation: card payments. The card details you enter at checkout go directly to Moneris. Privacy statement.
DocuSeal: electronic signatures. Privacy policy.
ClickSend: faxing release authorizations and other papers to hospitals, care homes and physicians. Privacy policy.
Mailchimp (Intuit): newsletters and email updates. Privacy statement.
Resend: delivery of the emails we send. Privacy policy.
Microsoft 365: our email, and sign-in for staff accounts. Privacy statement.
Google: Google Analytics on our public pages; Google sign-in; address suggestions on our forms (Google Maps); and Google Fonts. Privacy policy and how Google uses information from sites that use its services.
Meta (Facebook): the share button on our public pages. Privacy policy.
Cloudflare: website security and privacy-friendly visitor statistics. Privacy policy.
ipstack: your approximate area from your IP address. Privacy policy.
EmbedSocial: showing our customer reviews on our website. Privacy policy.
Laravel Forge: managing our servers. Privacy policy.
Amazon Web Services: secure off-site backup copies of our records. Privacy notice.
LineLedger: our accounting system (customer names, invoices and receipts). Privacy policy.
A related company that runs our shared client-records and aftercare system. It receives the names and dates of the person who has died and the contact details of the person who made the arrangements.

When the law requires it

We disclose personal information where the law requires or allows it: for example, to comply with a court order or a lawful request from the coroner or police, or to protect someone's health or safety in an emergency. If our business is sold or merged, personal information may pass to the new owner, who must use it as this policy describes.

We do not sell, rent or trade personal information, and we do not use it to train artificial intelligence models.

Information stored outside Canada

Some of our service providers, including Google, Meta, Microsoft, Mailchimp, DocuSeal, ClickSend, Resend, Cloudflare, EmbedSocial, ipstack and Amazon Web Services, store or process information in the United States or other countries. While it is there, it is protected by our agreements with them, but it may be accessed by the courts, law enforcement and national security authorities of those countries under their laws. To ask about our service providers outside Canada, contact our Privacy Officer.

Cookies and tracking

Cookies our website needs

Session cookie: keeps you signed in and remembers your progress through a form. It ends after 2 hours without activity.
Security cookie (XSRF-TOKEN): protects our forms against forgery.
"Keep me logged in": set only if you tick the box, and lasts up to 7 days.
Your area (city_id and hide_location_alert): remembers the area you chose, and that you closed the location notice, for up to a year.

Analytics and reviews

On our public pages, and only for visitors who are not signed in, we use Google Analytics and the Facebook share button. These may set their own cookies to measure visits. They never load when you are signed in, or on arrangement, pre-need, payment or sign-in pages. The EmbedSocial reviews widget loads on every page so that our reviews can be shown.

To limit this tracking:

Install the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.
Opt out of interest-based advertising at YourAdChoices.ca.
Block or delete cookies in your browser settings. If you block the cookies our website needs, signing in and our forms will not work.

How long we keep it

Arrangement and pre-need records, contracts and signed documents: for as long as BC funeral and cremation law requires, and at least six years after the end of the tax year they relate to, as the Canada Revenue Agency requires. Pre-need records are kept while the plan is in force and for that period after it ends.
Card numbers for a pre-need application: stored encrypted only until the application is signed, then deleted.
Online arrangements you start but leave before entering a name, or that are cancelled: deleted automatically within 48 hours.
Working copies of documents: deleted 7 days after the signed copy is complete.
Sign-in and security records: kept as long as we need them to protect accounts and look into problems.
Area look-ups from your IP address: kept for up to 7 days.
Marketing email lists: until you unsubscribe.

When we no longer need personal information, we securely delete it or make it anonymous.

How we protect it

Every page of our website is served over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection.
Card numbers and security codes for pre-need applications are encrypted in our database.
Only staff who need information to do their work can see it. Staff sign in with Microsoft 365, and sign-ins are logged.
Card payments are taken on Moneris's checkout, which meets the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).
Our records are backed up securely off site.

No method of transmitting or storing information is completely secure, but we work to protect your information and review our safeguards regularly.

If there is a privacy breach

If personal information we hold is lost, stolen or accessed without authority, and this creates a real risk of significant harm to you, we will tell you as soon as we can. We will tell you what happened and what you can do, and we will report the breach to the privacy commissioner where the law requires it.

Your rights

Access: ask what personal information we hold about you, how we have used it, and who we have shared it with.
Correction: ask us to correct information that is wrong or incomplete.
Withdraw consent: stop marketing email or other uses, subject to legal and contractual limits.
Someone who has died: their executor, administrator or other legal representative can exercise these rights on their behalf.

Send requests to our Privacy Officer. We will answer within 30 business days, as PIPA requires, or tell you if we need more time and why. We may ask you to confirm your identity first. Most requests are free; if a minimal fee applies, we will tell you before we start.

If you have a concern, please contact our Privacy Officer first. If we cannot resolve it, you can complain to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia, or, where federal law applies, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Children

Our website and services are meant for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information online from anyone under 19, except information about a child who has died that a parent or guardian gives us to make arrangements.

Links to other websites

Our website links to websites we do not run, including those listed in this policy. Their own privacy policies apply when you visit them, and we are not responsible for their practices.

Changes to this policy

We will update this policy when our practices change, and the date at the top shows when it last changed. If we make a significant change, we will post a notice on our website and email account holders before it takes effect.

Contact us

For questions about this policy or your personal information, contact our Privacy Officer by email at info@societysfirst.ca, by phone at 604-607-1150, or by mail at 3070 275A Street, Aldergrove, BC V4W 3L4.