Social Insurance Number - Open Records

In this case, it is not the bank wants your SIN, they are forced by our government to do so for tax purposes.

Any kind of investment account requires your SIN for tax purpose.

Yep...If there's tax tied to it, a SIN will be involved. It sucks =/. I'm sure my data has been spilled out everywhere before.

Thanks everyone

I was just surprised that all of the staff have open access to it. The bank staff and the Investors Edge staff. Shouldn't those numbers be at least masked, I wonder.

J/

Jakinthe wrote: ↑I applied for CIBC Investors Edge and the CIBC branch asked for my SIN which I didn't want to give, but the branch rep just looked in the system and automatically populate it. The forms were then faxed to Investors Edge and then mailed all the forms including my identity documents over.

This is a bit worrisome. I do not agree with opening up an investing account without a SIN. Even if it's a TFSA the CRA still needs to know about the account (to check it off against any other TFSAs you may have).

Having said that, if you didn't or couldn't provide a SIN, they should have not opened the account, and should not have access to your SIN from other sources.

Can I ask CIBC Bank and Investors Edge to delete my SIN from their system?

You could refer to PIPEDA, but if you have any other sort of relationship with them, you can't, as it need it for other things.

It seems that any staff member can access it and not sure how comfortable I am with them just sending all my ID documents/SIN etc through their mailing system.

Generally that information is on a "need to know" basis. In that case, the agent "needed to know", assuming you already had a relationship with CIBC so they already knew your SIN (although I think they should have had to stop the process right there instead).

Jakinthe wrote: ↑ I applied for CIBC Investors Edge and the CIBC branch asked for my SIN which I didn't want to give, but the branch rep just looked in the system and automatically populate it. The forms were then faxed to Investors Edge and then mailed all the forms including my identity documents over.

(Not sure how secure that is)

Question:

Can I ask CIBC Bank and Investors Edge to delete my SIN from their system?

It seems that any staff member can access it and not sure how comfortable I am with them just sending all my ID documents/SIN etc through their mailing system.

Thoughts/experience?

J/

From which system did the rep get your SIN? I don't think the bank can get your SIN from any external sources except maybe their own CIBC internal systems and that too only if you have ever provided your SIN to them in the past.

In any case, you have to provide your SIN to open a trading investment account whether it be registered or non-registered.

Yes it was from their CIBC system but the point was any and every rep can open it and retrieve it..I didn't know that before.

J

Scary stuff eh?

Jakinthe wrote: ↑ Yes it was from their CIBC system but the point was any and every rep can open it and retrieve it..I didn't know that before.

J

Weird that's for sure.

WOULD SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!

J

So today I learnt that Tangerine is the same - and you are supposed to update your SIN with Tangerine over the phone.

Won't disagree with you. I am really not comfortable with my SIN floating out there at financial institutes for anyone to see. Not sure what kind of checks and balances they have to discourage staff from looking at SIN.

Jakinthe wrote: ↑ So today I learnt that Tangerine is the same - and you are supposed to update your SIN with Tangerine over the phone.

What do you mean Tangerine is the same? It’s the law for all banks that they need to tie your account to a SIN number? Same for all banks.

Or is your concern that CIBC still had your sin from a previous relationship with them?

Actually it's only required when their is income generated. IE the account pays interest. A chequing account with 0 interest, your sin number is NOT required.

darwoodcanada wrote: ↑ Actually it's only required when their is income generated. IE the account pays interest. A chequing account with 0 interest, your sin number is NOT required.

can't speak to the investment accounts, but last year while the gf visited here from Philippines (ie, not a Canadian citizen), TD had no problem opening a savings account and credit card in her name with (obviously) no Canadian SIN. Her account has since been generating (very little, but not zero) interest.

I think you pretty much have to accept that your SIN (among much, much, much more of your personal information) will be "out there" if you expect to avail of their services. I wonder what the fixation is on the SIN, specifically, over everything else? You can either make peace with the fact and the use the service, or just avoid, that's basically the choice.

zcypher wrote: ↑ can't speak to the investment accounts, but last year while the gf visited here from Philippines (ie, not a Canadian citizen), TD had no problem opening a savings account and credit card in her name with (obviously) no Canadian SIN. Her account has since been generating (very little, but not zero) interest.

I think you pretty much have to accept that your SIN (among much, much, much more of your personal information) will be "out there" if you expect to avail of their services. I wonder what the fixation is on the SIN, specifically, over everything else? You can either make peace with the fact and the use the service, or just avoid, that's basically the choice.

If you aren't married or don't have kids with your girlfriend, and she has no home in Canada and was physically present for less than 6 months, then her income probably isn't reportable here. In any case, of course the bank can't pull a SIN if there is none, but they still would have required at least one piece of uniquely identifiable Canadian government ID - in her case, it was probably a Visitor Record (IMM 1442) from CBSA. Then if she ever became a resident and got a SIN, there would be a paper trail for the bank to link it.

Documentation here:

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency ... tatus.html

https://www.canada.ca/en/financial-cons ... count.html