Privacy policy
This policy explains what personal information BANSO SOLUTIONS LTD. collects when you use this website or our services, why we collect it, who we share it with, how long we keep it and the rights you have. It is written to meet the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and British Columbia's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA).
1. Who we are
BANSO SOLUTIONS LTD., operating as BANSO SOLUTIONS, is incorporated in British Columbia (No. BC1531883) and registered with FINTRAC as a money services business (No. N300001386). Our office is at 1975 McCallum Road, Unit 115, Abbotsford, British Columbia, V2S 3N3, Canada.
Our Privacy Officer is our Compliance Officer. Write to office@banso.solutions with the subject "Privacy".
2. What we collect on this website
The contact form. Your name, email address, the service you are interested in, your message and the language of the page. They are stored by our database provider, Supabase, on servers in Canada, and forwarded to our office mailbox by our email provider, Resend.
Your online account. When you create an account we collect your name, your email address and your password, which is stored only in encrypted (hashed) form, together with the date you accepted our terms and the language you use. If you ask to be told when BANSO accounts are ready, we record that request with its date, and the date you withdraw it. Account data is kept by our database provider, Supabase, on servers in Canada.
The converter and the markets section. They run entirely in your browser. The amounts and currencies you enter are not sent to us or stored.
Technical data. Our hosting provider keeps standard server logs (your IP address, browser type, pages requested, date and time) for security and troubleshooting. This website sets no cookies and uses no analytics and no advertising trackers. When you sign in to your account, your browser keeps a session key in its local storage so that you stay signed in; signing out deletes it.
Market data and news. Crypto prices come from Kraken, directly to your browser, and currency rates from the European Central Bank through the Frankfurter service. Headlines are collected by our servers; the pictures of the lead stories load from the publishers' websites. Kraken, Frankfurter and those publishers receive your IP address as part of the request, under their own privacy policies.
3. What we collect when you become a client
The law requires us to know who we deal with. Before the first operation, and while you are a client, we collect and verify:
- Identity: name, date of birth, address, a government photo ID, proof of address, and for a business its incorporation documents, directors, signatories and beneficial owners.
- Your occupation or the nature of your business, the source of the funds you send us and, where required, the source of your wealth.
- Whether you or a related person is a politically exposed person, and the results of sanctions screening.
- Bank account details, wallet addresses and the details of every transaction: amounts, currencies, counterparties, purpose and references.
- Our communications with you and the records of how and when we verified you.
Registration through ARGO 1. Client files are opened in the ARGO 1 messaging app: the messages and documents you send our assistants there are collected under this policy. The app itself is covered by ARGO 1's own privacy policy.
Other people. We also process the details of the beneficiaries of your payments (name, address, account) and, for businesses, of directors, owners and signatories. If you give us information about someone else, you confirm you are entitled to do so.
4. What we collect in the BANSO wallet app
The BANSO app for iPhone and Android is a non-custodial wallet: it creates your wallet's keys on your phone, and only you control them. It has no account: we do not ask for your name, email address or telephone number.
What stays on your phone. Your 12-word recovery phrase and your private keys are created and kept only on your phone, protected by its secure storage (the Keychain on iPhone, the Keystore on Android). We never receive them, and your PIN is never sent to us. Face ID, Touch ID and the fingerprint or face unlock of Android are handled by the phone: the app only receives a yes or a no. The camera is used only to read QR codes, on your phone.
Backup on iCloud. It is optional and available on iPhone. If you turn it on, your recovery phrase is encrypted on your phone with a password you choose, before it is saved in your own iCloud. Apple stores it; we cannot read it and we cannot recover your password. On Android, the app keeps your recovery phrase out of the phone's backups to Google.
What our server receives. To show your balances and history and to deliver your sends, the app connects to our server, hosted by Supabase in Canada. It receives your wallet's public addresses; a signature proving that you own them, which cannot move any funds; the sends you make with the app (network, coin, amount, fee, recipient address, transaction reference and status); and your IP address, used only to limit abuse. The app uses no analytics and no advertising trackers, and does not access your contacts or your location.
Blockchain providers. Our server passes on only what is needed to the providers we use: Alchemy (balances and history on Polygon, Base and Arbitrum), Pimlico (it pays the network fee and delivers your sends on those networks), TronGrid (balances and history on TRON) and GasFree (it delivers USDT sends on TRON). They may store or process data outside Canada, including in the United States. Prices come from CoinGecko and contain no information about you.
Public blockchains. Every send is recorded on a public blockchain, visible to anyone and permanent: neither we nor anyone else can change or delete it.
How long we keep it. Login challenges and abuse counters, including IP addresses, are deleted within three days, and our hosting provider keeps its technical logs only for a short time, for security and troubleshooting. The record of your sends is kept to show your history; you can ask us to delete it, unless the law requires us to keep it.
Removing the wallet. "Remove wallet from this device", in the app's settings, erases the recovery phrase and the wallet's data from your phone. A backup on iCloud, if you made one, stays in your iCloud. Your funds stay on the blockchain and can be recovered only with your 12 words.
5. Why we collect it
- To provide the services you ask for: quotes, currency exchange, payments and digital-asset dealing.
- To meet our legal obligations under the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act and its regulations: verifying identity, keeping records, monitoring transactions and reporting to FINTRAC; under sanctions and tax laws; and, once our registration is granted, under the Retail Payment Activities Act.
- To protect you and us from fraud and to keep our systems secure.
- To communicate with you about your transactions and to answer your requests.
- For any other purpose, only with your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.
Where the law requires information, we cannot provide the service without it.
6. Who we share it with
- FINTRAC, when the law requires a report: large cash, large virtual currency, electronic funds transfer and suspicious transaction reports. The law prohibits us from telling you when a suspicious transaction report has been made.
- Banks, payment partners and digital-asset liquidity providers needed to execute your transaction. They receive the details the transaction requires, including originator and beneficiary information under the travel rule.
- Identity verification, sanctions and politically-exposed-person screening providers.
- Professional advisers: accountants, auditors, lawyers and compliance consultants, bound by confidentiality.
- Regulators, law enforcement and courts when required by law or by a valid order.
- IT and hosting providers that process data on our behalf under contract.
We do not sell personal information and we do not share it for marketing.
7. Where it is stored
We are in British Columbia. Some of our providers, for hosting, email or screening, may store or process data outside Canada, including in the United States, where it may be accessible to authorities under local law. We choose providers that give contractual safeguards and we limit what each of them receives.
8. How long we keep it
Client identification records, transaction records and copies of reports are kept for at least five years after the transaction or after the end of the relationship, as the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act requires. Messages sent through the contact form are kept as long as needed to handle your request, and deleted after 24 months at the latest unless they become part of a client file. Your online account is kept while it is open; when you ask us to close it we delete it, except the records the law requires us to keep. Records may be kept longer when a legal hold, a dispute or another law requires it. Afterwards they are deleted or anonymised securely.
9. How we protect it
Encryption in transit, access limited to the people who need it, secure storage of identity documents, staff training, activity logs and an incident procedure. If a breach creates a real risk of significant harm to you, we notify you and the Privacy Commissioner as the law requires.
No system is perfectly secure and ordinary email is not encrypted end to end. Do not send us identity documents unless we have asked for them through a channel we have confirmed with you.
10. Your rights
- Access to the personal information we hold about you, and to how it has been used and shared.
- Correction of information that is inaccurate or incomplete.
- Withdrawal of consent for uses that are not required by law. This may mean we can no longer serve you.
- A response within 30 days, or an explanation of why we need more time.
Some information cannot be disclosed to you when the law prohibits it, such as the content of reports made to FINTRAC.
If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia.
11. Minors
Our services are for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under the age of majority in their province, which is 19 in British Columbia.
12. Links to other sites
This website links to the FINTRAC registry and relies on third-party market data. Those sites and services have their own privacy practices, which this policy does not cover.
13. Changes to this policy
When we change this policy we publish the new version on this page with its date. Clients are told of material changes by email.
14. Contact
BANSO SOLUTIONS LTD., 1975 McCallum Road, Unit 115, Abbotsford, British Columbia, V2S 3N3, Canada. office@banso.solutions, subject "Privacy". Telephone: +1 672-800-1505.