Lin Tax Law, PC (“Firm”) is a California professional corporation that provides legal services in the area of tax law (the “Services”). The Firm is committed to protecting the privacy of confidential and personal information, including personal data relating to individuals who may be clients, staff, agents, lawyers, law students, job applicants or others inside or outside the Firm. The policy of the Firm is to comply with the rules of professional conduct which impose a duty to preserve and protect confidential client information upon lawyers and their associated personnel.
This Privacy Statement is based on the privacy and data protection principles common to California, the only state in which the Firm operates. The Firm applies it in light of its overarching obligations to comply with law, to preserve client confidentiality and to represent its clients as effectively as possible within the bounds of the law. This Privacy Policy is intended to summarize the Firm’s data protection practices generally, and to advise its clients, interested law students, job applicants, website visitors, and other third parties about our policies and procedures regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of personally identifiable information received from users of this website located at www.lintaxlaw.com (the “Website”) and/or received in the course of providing the foregoing Services.
Changes. This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time for any reason, at our sole discretion. We will notify you of any material changes to our Privacy Policy by posting the new Privacy Policy on our Website. You are advised to consult this Privacy Policy regularly for any changes.
Incorporation into Terms of Service. By using or accessing the Website or the Services, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy, and you are consenting to our processing of your information as set forth in this Privacy Policy now and as amended by us. This Privacy Policy is incorporated into, and considered a part of, the Firm’s Terms of Service.
Confidentiality of Client Information. Consistent with its professional obligations, the Firm’s policy is to exercise the utmost discretion regarding the information our clients entrust to us. The Firm accepts and processes client information always subject to the client’s direction and control, and the Firm maintains reasonable and appropriate, although not infallible, security precautions. It never trades, sells or shares your information with any unrelated parties except as necessary or appropriate to conduct the Firm’s legal and business activities, subject to appropriate confidentiality, privacy and information security commitments provided by the receiving party, or to further your interests or as permitted or required by law or as authorized or directed by you. Please feel free to raise any questions, concerns or specific directions you may have regarding the privacy and security of your information to the attorney who is handling your matter or to info@lintaxlaw.com.
Personal Information. “Personal Information” may include, but is not limited to information that identifies you as an individual or relates to an identifiable person, such as name, postal address, telephone number, email address, etc. The Firm does not collect any personal data from visitors to its website that is not voluntarily provided. The Firm only collects your Personal Information if you register for an account with the Firm’s Website, when you use the Firm’s Services, and when you send the Firm communications in connection with your use of the Services.
Use and Sharing of Personal Information. As a client or prospective client, we use the information we collect from your visit to our Website and/or your use of our Services to provide and improve our Services. Additionally, we may collect personal information from prospective or ongoing consultants, suppliers, and vendors to support our provision of legal services to our clients.
Whether you are a prospective or existing client, or one of our consultants, suppliers, and vendors, we will not share your personal information with anyone except for our Firm’s authorized service providers,[1] business affiliates,[2] and/or business partners[3] for business purposes; or unless we specifically inform you and give you an opportunity to opt out of our sharing your personal information. The Firm requires its business service providers, affiliates, and/or partners to maintain data protections consistent with reasonable and appropriate obligations of data processors.
In general, we may use and/or share your Personal Information:
We will not use and/or share your Personal Information to run interest-based advertising campaigns that collect personal data such as email addresses, telephone numbers, and credit card numbers; or for any other reason unless otherwise stated herein.
However, we reserve the right to disclose Personal Information that we believe to be necessary or appropriate in the following circumstances:
Personally Non-Identifiable Information. Throughout the course of providing you with the Services, we may collect personally non-identifiable information, including but not limited to demographic data, age, education level, profession, geographic location or gender, from you. This information is not, by itself, sufficient to identify or contact you. The Firm may store such information, or it may be included in databases owned and maintained by partners, affiliates, agents, or service providers of the Firm. The Firm may use such information and pool it with other information to track data related to growing the business, such as the total number of visitors to our Website, and the domain names of our visitors’ Internet service providers.
Links to Other Websites. This Privacy Policy applies only to this Website and the Firm’s Services. This Privacy Policy does not address, and we are not responsible for, the privacy, information or other practices of any third parties. Please note that we are not responsible for the collection, data usage and disclosure policies and practices (including the data security practices) of third parties, as it may relate to any Personal Information you disclose in connection with our Website or Services. The mere inclusion of a link does not imply endorsement of the linked website or the website’s services.
Specifically, this Privacy Policy does not apply to Practice Panther (https://www.practicepanther.com), a third-party website to which this Website may redirect you in the course of your dealings with the Firm and/or when you submit information on our Website. The Firm is not responsible for the way in which Practice Panther handles your data. You are advised to review Practice Panther’s Privacy Policy here: https://www.practicepanther.com/privacy/.
Credit Card Information. The Firm uses a third party service provider, LawPay (https://lawpay.com), to process your payments for our Services. The Firm does not keep a protected copy of your credit card number. The Firm is not responsible for the way in which LawPay handles your data. If you submit payment to the Firm via LawPay, you agree to LawPay’s Privacy Policy here: https://lawpay.com/privacy/.
Tracking and Advertising. The Firm’s Website may use the foregoing technologies to track your activity on our Website:
We may use both session ID cookies and persistent cookies. A session ID cookie expires when you close your browser. A persistent cookie remains on your hard drive for an extended period of time. Persistent cookies enable us to track and target the interest of our users to enhance the experience on our site.
Functional cookies, persistent and session type, store information to enable core site functionality, such as Live Chat and Client ID remembrance.
Analytics cookies allow us to count page visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site and our marketing campaigns.
Advertising cookies may be set through our Website by our advertising partners. Data may be collected by these companies that enable them to serve up advertisements on other sites that are relevant to your interests.
If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows you to automatically decline cookies, or be given the choice of declining or accepting the transfer to your computer of a particular cookie (or cookies) from a particular site. You may also wish to refer to http://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/index.html.
If you reject cookies, you may still use our site, but some features on the site will not function properly.
Children. The Website and our related Services are not intended for anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under the age of 18. Anyone aged 18 or under should not submit any Personal Information without the permission of their parents or guardians. By using the Website and our related Services, you are representing that you are at least 18 years old.
Security. We maintain reasonable and appropriate, although not infallible, security precautions. However, we cannot guarantee that hackers or unauthorized personnel will not gain access to your Personal Information, despite our reasonable efforts. You should note that in using the Website and our Services, your information will sometimes travel through third party infrastructures which are not under our control. Please feel free to raise any questions, concerns or specific directions you may have regarding the privacy and security of your information to info@lintaxlaw.com.
Data Retention. We will retain your Personal Information for as long as needed to provide the Services. If you are a client and you do not request the return of your Personal Information upon the conclusion of our representation, we will retain your Personal Information for a period of three (3) years, after which we may have your Personal Information destroyed. If you desire to have your Personal Information maintained beyond three (3) years after the conclusion of this matter, separate arrangements with us must be made. In the event you wish us to transfer possession of your Personal Information to you or a third party, you shall make the request in writing and you or the third party shall acknowledge receipt of the file in writing. We are authorized to retain a copy of your Personal Information for a reasonable period of time in order to create a copy of the file at your expense.
Do Not Track. Your browser setting may allow you to automatically transmit a “Do Not Track” signal to websites and online service you visit. The Firm’s Website does not respond to “Do Not Track” signals or other mechanisms from a visitor’s browser. If, in the future, we create a program or protocol to respond to such web browser “Do Not Track” signals, we will inform you of the details of that protocol in this Privacy Policy. To find out more about “Do Not Track,” please visit https://www.allaboutdnt.com.
Your California Privacy Rights. Under California Civil Code Section 1798.83, California customers are entitled to request information relating to whether a business has disclosed personal information to any third parties for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes. This Code Section, often called the Shine the Light Law, is not applicable to our Firm, as we have less than 20 employees. However, as a courtesy to you, you may request and obtain from us once a year, free of charge, certain information about the personal data (if any) we disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes in the preceding calendar year. If applicable, this information would include a list of the categories of personal data that was shared and the names and addresses of all third parties with which we shared information in the immediately preceding calendar year. If you are a California resident and would like to make such a request, please submit your request in writing to info@lintaxlaw.com.
Opt-Out Policy. If, at any time after registering, you change your mind about receiving information from us or about the use of information volunteered by you, or if you prefer that we do not share your Personal Information with third parties for marketing purposes, please contact us at info@lintaxlaw.com.
Contact Us. If you have any questions or concerns relating to our use of your Personal Information, please email info@lintaxlaw.com Additionally, you may reach us by postal mail at: Lin Tax Law, PC, 1655 N. Main Street, Suite 350, Walnut Creek, CA 94596.
[1] Authorized service providers are companies that perform certain services including, but not limited to, fulfilling orders, processing credit card payments, delivering packages, providing customer service and marketing assistance, performing business and sales analyses, supporting the functionality of the Services, and supporting contests, sweepstakes, surveys and other features we offer, on our behalf. These service providers may have access to your Personal Information, but to the extent necessary to perform or fulfill their business purpose. We do not permit them to share or use any of your Personal Information for any other purpose.
[2] Affiliate businesses are those businesses with whom we may affiliate to sell our products or Services. We may share information we collect, including Personal Information, with affiliated businesses. Sharing such information with our affiliates enables us to provide you with information about a variety of products and services that might interest you. We instruct all affiliated businesses to comply with applicable privacy and security laws and, at a minimum, in any commercial e-mail they send to you, to give you the opportunity to choose not to receive such email messages in the future.
[3] Business partners are typically merchants offering the products or services in connection with or somehow related to our own Services. We will not share your Personal Information with business partners without your consent or request.