Digital Business Card Terms of Use

Last updated on December 7, 2023

1. Terms of Use

These Terms of Use are an agreement between you and the Province, and govern your use of the Digital Business Card. By indicating that you agree to these Terms of Use, and in consideration of the Province issuing the Digital Business Card to you, you agree to the following.

2. Ability to Accept Terms of Use

To accept these Terms of Use and have the Digital Business Card issued to your Wallet, you must:

  1. be at least 19 years of age, or
  2. if you are under 19, have obtained the consent of your parent or guardian to accept these Terms of Use on your behalf, in which case your parent or guardian is responsible for your compliance with these Terms of Use.

3. Creation and Issuance of Digital Business Card

You agree that the Province may:

  1. use information you provided
    1. for your BC Services Card, and 
    2. to the Registrar of Companies in a registration statement filed under section 88(1)(a) to (c) of the Partnership Act, to create the Digital Business Card, and
  2. issue the Digital Business Card to your Wallet.

4. Presentation of Digital Business Card

You are solely responsible for deciding to which Verifiers you present the Digital Business Card and what information to share with Verifiers. Verifiers will be able to confirm independently whether the Digital Business Card is valid or has been revoked, although Verifiers will not be able to see the reason the Digital Business Card was revoked.

5. Acceptable Use

You are solely responsible for all use of the Digital Business Card. You must not:

  1. allow any other individual or entity to use your Digital Business Card;
  2. attempt to add the Digital Business Card to anyone’s Wallet except your own;
  3. attempt to add the Digital Business Card to a Wallet that has not been approved by the Province for such use;
  4. use the Digital Business Card for any unlawful or inappropriate purpose, including without limitation to misrepresent your identity;
  5. tamper with the Digital Business Card;
  6. attempt to circumvent or subvert any security measure associated with the Digital Business Card; or
  7. use the Digital Business Card to misrepresent your identity or your relationship with or authority to represent the business named in the Digital Business Card.

6. Wallet and Device Protection

You are responsible for the security of:

  1. any Wallet that you use in connection with the Digital Business Card, and
  2. the device or service that holds the Wallet, including without limitation security afforded by device protection, keeping your device protection confidential, and using any other security protections in connection with your device.

7. Ownership  and License

The Digital Business Card is owned by the Province or its licensors.  Subject to your compliance with these Terms of Use, the Province grants you a non-exclusive, revocable, limited license to access and use the Digital Business Card for the purpose of allowing Verifiers with whom you choose to share the Digital Business Card to verify its contents.

8. Revocation of Digital Business Card

The Province may at any time, in its sole discretion, revoke the Digital Business Card issued to you, in order to ensure, without limitation, that the Digital Business Card reflects your current BC Services Card information and is based on current technology.  After revoking a Digital Business Card the Province may, in its sole discretion, offer to issue you a new Digital Business Card.  If the Province revokes your Digital Business Card and does not issue you a new one, then the revoked Digital Business Card will remain in your Wallet until and unless you delete it.  It is your sole responsibility to determine whether a Verifier will accept a revoked Digital Business Card.

9. Termination

These Terms of Use and your license to access and use the Digital Business Card will terminate automatically if:

  1. you fail to comply with any provision of these Terms of Use, in which case you must immediately delete the Digital Business Card from your Wallet, or
  2. you choose to delete the Digital Business Card from your Wallet for any reason.

10. No Warranty

The Digital Business Card is provided to you “as is”, and the Province disclaims all representations, warranties, conditions, obligations and liabilities of any kind, whether express or implied, in relation to the Digital Business Card, including without limitation implied warranties with respect to merchantability, satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.  Without limiting the general nature of the previous sentence, the Province does not represent or warrant that:

  1. the Digital Business Card will be available;
  2. your use of the Digital Business Card will be timely, uninterrupted or error free;
  3. any errors in the Digital Business Card will be corrected; or
  4. the Digital Business Card will meet your expectations and requirements.

11. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, under no circumstances will the Province be liable to you, to any other individual or to any entity for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential or other loss, claim, injury or damage, whether foreseeable or unforeseeable (including without limitation claims for damages for loss of profits or business opportunities, use or misuse of, or inability to use, the Digital Business Card, interruptions, deletion or corruption of files, loss of programs or information, errors, defects or delays) arising out of or in any way connected with your use of the Digital Business Card and whether based on contract, tort, strict liability or any other legal theory.  The previous sentence will apply even if the Province has been specifically advised of the possibility of any such loss, claim, injury or damage.

12. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless the Province and the Province’s employees and agents from and against all claims, demands, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs or debts, and expenses (including but not limited to reasonable legal fees) arising from:

  1. your use of the Digital Business Card, or
  2. your violation of any provision of these Terms of Use.

13. Changes to Terms of Use

The Province may at any time, in its sole discretion, make changes to these Terms of Use.  When changes are made, the Province will send a notification to your Wallet and to your email address, if you have provided one, informing you that changes have been made to the Terms of Use. You are solely responsible for ensuring that you have not disabled the “messages” function in your Wallet and for providing the Province with an up to date email address, and if you do not do so you are solely responsible for monitoring the posted Terms of Use found at https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/employment-business/business/managing-a-business/permits-licences/digital-business-card-terms-of-use for changes.  The Province is not responsible for your failure to receive any notification sent to your Wallet or email address, and regardless of whether you receive such notification your continued use of the Digital Business Card will constitute your unconditional acceptance of any changes to these Terms of Use. 

14. Province Contact Information

If you have questions about your Digital Business Card, contact the BC Registries Help Desk at: BCRegistries@gov.bc.ca

15. General

These Terms of Use are the entire agreement between you and the Province with respect to the Digital Business Card. The headings in these Terms of Use are inserted for convenience only and will not be used in interpreting or construing any provision of these Terms of Use.  Sections 7, 10, 11, 12 and 15, and any other sections of these Terms of Use which, by their terms or nature, are intended to survive termination, will survive any termination of these Terms of Use. If any provision of these Terms of Use is invalid, illegal or unenforceable, that provision will be severed from these Terms of Use and all other provisions will remain in full force and effect. These Terms of Use will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the province of British Columbia and the applicable laws of Canada. By accepting these Terms of Use, you consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the courts of the province of British Columbia, sitting in Victoria, for the hearing of any dispute arising from or related to these Terms of Use and their subject matter.

16. Definitions

In these Terms of Use, the following terms have the following meanings:

“BC Services Card” means the Province issued identification card to facilitate access to various government services and programs and which may include information such as an individual's name, photograph, date of birth, and a unique identifier.

“Digital Business Card” means the verifiable credential issued to you to identify you as the person who, in relation to the matters set out in section 88(1)(a) to (c) of the Partnership Act, filed a registration statement respecting a sole proprietorship with the Registrar of Companies for the purpose of providing that information to Verifiers.

“Province” means His Majesty the King in right of the Province of British Columbia as represented by the Minister of Citizens’ Services.

“Terms of Use” means the agreement referred to in section 1.

“Verifiers” means third parties to whom you present your Digital Business Card for the purpose of allowing those third parties to verify its contents.

“Wallet” means software, such as the BC Wallet mobile device app, that you can use to receive, store and present digital credentials such as your Digital Business Card.