Our Commitment to Your Privacy

Last updated: November 25, 2025 – This update reflects changes to our practices in the protection of your privacy and aims to maintain your trust in our practices. Learn more about the changes [+]

We have updated the following elements in our commitment to your privacy:

  • types of personal information collected
  • situations requiring your consent
  • our practices regarding the use and communication of personal information
  • types of personal information collected
  • situations requiring your consent
  • our practices regarding the use and communication of personal information

Hydro‑Québec’s privacy protection program

Download program (Governance rules) [PDF 358 kB]

Privacy Protection Commitment

Why does Hydro‑Québec have a Privacy Protection Commitment?

Your personal information plays a vital role in some of our business processes, and we need it to carry out our mission. Your satisfaction and our respect for your privacy guide our activities on a daily basis, and we have adopted the Privacy Protection Commitment (the “Commitment”) to ensure that we fulfill our responsibilities in this regard.

The Commitment is one of the cornerstones of the Privacy Protection Program. The objective of the program is to ensure that Hydro-Québec meets its legal obligations under the Act respecting Access to documents held by public bodies and the Protection of personal information (the “Access Act”). Hydro‑Québec’s Commitment aims to establish and maintain your confidence in our privacy practices.

Personal information is information concerning an individual that allows this person to be identified wither directly or indirectly.

In the interests of transparency, we are providing you with this Commitment with you.

Find out more about the Privacy Protection Commitment

Download the Commitment [PDF 458 kB]

Consult the previous version of Our Commitment to Your Privacy.

Collecting information

What types of personal information does Hydro‑Québec collect?

We’ve organized the types of personal information into different categories and provided examples. Some information is generated as part of our relationship with you.

Important: If you share personal information with us regarding other people (for instance, family members or other customers responsible for the contract), you must ensure that they have been informed and that they have provided their consent in this regard.

Category of collected personal informations
Category Examples
Information needed to identify you
  • First and last names, contact information, such as phone number, service address, billing address and email address
Information about your service contract and your customer relationship
  • Consumption data, consumption history, consumption profile
  • Written communication with you, including emails, comments and survey responses
  • Information about your participation in our programs
  • Note about our communications with you, recording of phone calls with customer services
Information about your finances
  • Payment methods, billing history, amounts due
Information about your use of our digital platforms and our applications
  • IP address, cookies
  • Data entered into HTML forms
  • Data collected when using mobile applications

For more information, please refer to the Terms of Use governing Digital Platforms and Confidentiality Policy.
Other categories
  • Information related to the hiring process (e.g., résumé, transcripts, if applicable, or your information related to the reliability and integrity background check)
  • Information about your health when necessary, within the context of prioritizing service restoration (life‑support devices); some health‑related information may be required as part of the hiring process
  • Information used by Hydro‑Québec to meet its legal obligations (e.g., social insurance number to issue tax statements following your participation in a government program)

Find out more

Use of personal information

What are Hydro‑Québec’s practices concerning the use of personal information?

We use your personal information for the purposes indicated at the time it is being collected. On occasion, however, we might wish to use your personal information for other purposes. In this case, we will ask for your permission in advance.

Please note that there are certain situations where we are authorized by law to use your personal information without your consent.

Example: We are allowed to use information regarding your electricity consumption to determine whether you are eligible for a new energy efficiency program that would save you money. We are authorized to do so because it is clearly to your advantage.

Use of your personal informations
For Hydro‑Québec For our customers For society
  • Adapt our ways of doing things to make our activities more efficient(e.g., simplifying and streamlining our practices, process automation)
  • Increase system reliability (e.g., stability, capacity, forecasting, optimization, planning, studies, new technologies)
  • Provide reliable, simple, affordable service (e.g., improve our terms of service and rate offerings, enhance our communications, platforms and digital tools)
  • Help our customers make better use of energy (e.g., understand needs, preferences, behaviours and habits, offer personalized advice and guidance, develop and provide incentives, offers and programs)
  • Help guide the energy transition by contributing to the development of the government’s roadmap for decarbonization
  • Work with stakeholders (e.g., businesses, universities and associations, research centres and major global energy companies) to innovate

Please note that for studies, research or statistical purposes, we are permitted by law to use your information through de‑identification methods.

Find out more

Disclosure of personal information to a third party

What are Hydro‑Québec’s practices concerning the sharing of personal information?

We share your personal information with third parties when you request it or consent to it.

However, there are certain cases provided by law where we are allowed to share your personal information with third parties without your consent. In all cases, we ensure that only the necessary information is shared.

Find out more

Consent

When and how does Hydro-Québec ask for my consent concerning my personal information?

We ask for your written or verbal consent in situations where required by law, namely when we wish to collect or use personal information that you are not required to provide. However, there are certain cases provided by law where we are allowed to use your personal information without asking for your consent, namely when such use is compatible with the purposes for which the information was collected or when its use is clearly to your benefit.

To ensure that your consent is fully informed:

  • We will send you any information you need to make an informed decision in advance and in a clear and concise manner.
  • We will explain to you why we need the information, how it will be used, as well as the implications of refusing to provide your consent or withdrawing it.
  • We will indicate the process for withdrawing your consent.

Security protection

What security measures does Hydro‑Québec have in place to protect my personal information?

Because your trust is so important to us, we implement generally recognized security standards to protect your personal information for the entire period your information is in our possession.

When deciding which measures to apply, we ensure that they are reasonable given certain factors, including the sensitivity of the personal information in question and the context in which it will be used.

Our security measures fall into three main categories:

  1. Technological security measures
    Examples: firewall, management of access privileges, encryption or de‑identification of information, logging and monitoring of actions of Hydro-Québec team members concerning your personal information.
  2. Physical security measures
    Examples: locked filing cabinets and restricted access to premises.
  3. Organizational security measures
    Examples: policies, procedures, training and awareness concerning information security, reliability/integrity checks, identification and authentication procedures when you contact us or use our secure electronic services, such as your Customer Space or job candidate file.

We review these security measures regularly to ensure they are applied properly and continue to be fully effective and appropriate given the evolution of our systems and of information technologies.

We have also established procedures for detecting and managing confidentiality incidents that may affect your personal information. Members of the Hydro‑Québec team are required to report any suspected or actual incident.

Find out more

Retention of personal information

How long does Hydro‑Québec keep my personal information?

We keep your personal information for the amount of time we need it to carry out our activities and offer you services. Then, we keep it for an additional period of time provided in our retention rules, which we have adopted and which have been approved by the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec. This additional time allows us to meet certain legislative and regulatory requirements, or to enter such information into evidence in the event that we are party to legal proceedings.

If you have questions concerning the retention period that applies to a specific situation, please contact our contact our access to information and privacy team.

Your rights

What are my rights concerning my personal information?

You have the right to access your personal information. Only you can exercise this right, unless you authorize the disclosure of your personal information to a third party.

In addition, if you believe that we hold personal information about you that is inaccurate, incomplete or ambiguous, or if you believe that we have collected, used, communicated or retained this information contrary to the Access Act, you have the right to request that we correct your information or that we stop collecting, using, communicating or retaining the information in ways you consider are against the law.

The law provides certain cases limiting your exercise of these rights. We will advise you in such situations.

Exercising your rights concerning your personal information

Who should I contact if I have questions about the Commitment?

You can contact by email our access to information and privacy team.