1. Who We Are
NS Lease Signing is a free electronic document signing tool for Nova Scotia residential tenancy agreements. It is operated privately and is not affiliated with the Province of Nova Scotia or the Residential Tenancies Program. References to "we," "us," or "our" in this policy refer to the operator of this service.
2. Information We Collect
We collect only the minimum information required to process a lease signing:
- Party information — full legal name, email address, and phone number (optional) for each landlord and tenant
- Property information — civic address and lease term
- Uploaded documents — the Form P lease PDF and optional Schedule B PDF you upload
- Electronic signature data — the typed name used as a signature, the date and time of signing, the IP address and browser type of the device used to sign
- Session data — a temporary browser session cookie used to maintain your login state during a single visit. This cookie contains no personal information and is not used for tracking.
We do not collect payment information, government identification, social insurance numbers, or any sensitive personal information beyond what is listed above.
3. How We Use Your Information
Your information is used solely to:
- Send signing invitation emails to each party
- Record and verify electronic signatures
- Generate signed PDF documents (Form P and Schedule B)
- Email completed signed documents to all parties
- Provide an audit trail embedded in the signed PDFs as required for electronic signature validity under Nova Scotia's Electronic Commerce Act, S.N.S. 2000, c. 26
We do not use your information for marketing, advertising, analytics, profiling, or any purpose other than those listed above.
4. We Do Not Share Your Information
We do not sell, rent, trade, or share your personal information with any third party for any purpose, including marketing, advertising, data brokerage, or analytics.
The only parties who receive your information are:
- Other parties to your lease — landlords and tenants named on the same lease see each other's names and masked email addresses (e.g. j***@outlook.com) during the signing process
- Infrastructure providers — Render.com (hosting) and the email relay service store data only as necessary to operate the service, under their own privacy policies, and do not use it for any other purpose
We may disclose information if required to do so by a valid court order, subpoena, or applicable law. We will notify affected parties to the extent permitted by law before making any such disclosure.
5. Data Retention — 30-Day Automatic Deletion
All data associated with a lease — including uploaded PDFs, signed documents, party names, email addresses, and signing records — is automatically and permanently deleted 30 days after the lease is created.
This means:
- You should download and save your signed documents promptly after all parties have signed
- We cannot recover documents after deletion
- Voided leases are deleted on the same 30-day schedule
Database records (party names, email addresses, signing timestamps) follow the same 30-day deletion schedule as the associated files.
6. Your Rights
Under Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and applicable Nova Scotia privacy law, you have the right to:
- Access — request a copy of personal information we hold about you
- Correction — request correction of inaccurate information
- Deletion — request deletion of your information before the automatic 30-day period. We will delete all associated lease records within 5 business days of a verified request
- Withdrawal of consent — you may withdraw consent at any time by contacting us, though this may prevent completion of a lease signing in progress
To exercise any of these rights, contact us using the lease ID shown on your status page. Given the 30-day automatic deletion schedule, most requests will be fulfilled by the automatic process before a response is required.
7. Cookies and Tracking
We use one cookie:
- Session cookie — a temporary, encrypted cookie that keeps you logged in during your current browser session. It is deleted when you close your browser. It contains no personal information.
We do not use advertising cookies, tracking pixels, Google Analytics, social media plugins, or any third-party tracking technology. No data is sent to advertising networks.
8. Security
We implement the following security measures:
- All connections are encrypted using HTTPS/TLS
- Signing links are unique, single-party tokens that expire after 14 days
- Session cookies are encrypted and HTTP-only
- All forms are protected against cross-site request forgery (CSRF)
- Email addresses are masked in the signing interface (e.g. j***@outlook.com)
- The database uses parameterised queries to prevent SQL injection
No system is completely secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security but apply reasonable safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information handled.
9. Children's Privacy
This service is intended for use by adults entering into residential tenancy agreements. We do not knowingly collect information from persons under the age of 19 (the age of majority in Nova Scotia). If you believe a minor has submitted information through this service, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.
10. Changes to This Policy
We may update this privacy policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page reflects when the policy was last revised. Continued use of the service after a policy change constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.
11. Governing Law
This privacy policy is governed by the laws of Nova Scotia and Canada, including the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), the Electronic Commerce Act, S.N.S. 2000, c. 26, and the Residential Tenancies Act, R.S.N.S. 1989, c. 401.