Last Updated: May 18, 2018

LegalGuidance, (“LegalGuidance“, “we“, “our“, “us“) operates the Internet platforms LegalGuidance.org and LegalGuidance.com (“Websites“), through which questioners (users) can pose general questions to experts.

If you have questions, concerns, or suggestions concerning data protection and the security of your data, please contact us using our contact details below.

Overview

We recommend that you read this Privacy Notice in full to ensure you are fully informed.  However, if you only want to access a particular section of this Privacy Notice, then you can click on the relevant link below to jump to that section.

1. Collection of personal data
2. Use of personal data
3. Sharing of personal data
4. International data transfers
5. Data retention
6. Your rights
7. Use of links to and from external providers
8. Security
9. Updates to this Privacy Notice
10. How to contact us

1. Collection of personal data

Personal data refers to any information which relates to you as an individual and from which you can be identified, either directly or indirectly.  This includes, for example, information about your name, address, date of birth, and occupation.

Information that you provide voluntarily

Certain parts of our Websites may ask you to provide personal data voluntarily. If you register an account with us as a questioner, you must provide us with your email address. You can also choose to provide your name, addresses and phone number. If you ask a question to our expert then you will also need to provide your credit card number, and, in the case of issuance of direct debit authorizations, your bank account information (unless you wish to make payments via PayPal).

If you wish to register with LegalGuidance as an expert, we need specific personal data in order to make it possible. This includes your e-mail address, names, addresses, telephone numbers, documentation of performance, professional licenses, and certifications.

Additional personal data might also be necessary, depending on the services that LegalGuidance offers and which you wish to utilize. Do not use the relevant service of LegalGuidance if you do not wish to disclose such personal data. The personal data that you are asked to provide, and the reasons why you are asked to provide it, will be made clear to you at the point we ask you to provide your personal data.

Information that we collect automatically

When you visit our Websites, we may collect certain information automatically from your device, such as your IP address or mobile advertising identifier, your browser type, the date and time of your visit and the pages you access.  In some countries, including countries in the European Economic Area, this information may be considered personal data under applicable data protection laws.

We use cookies to collect this information.  The information we collect enables us to better understand the visitors who come to our Websites, where they come from, and what content on our Websites is of interest to them.  We use this information for our internal analytics purposes and to improve the quality and relevance of our Websites to our visitors. Further details can be found in our Cookie Notice.

Information that we obtain from third party sources

From time to time, we may receive personal data about you from third party sources (including third party platforms where you have chosen to make information publicly available), but only where we have checked that these third parties either have your consent or are otherwise legally permitted or required to disclose your personal data to us. 

The types of information we collect from third parties includes publicly available information such as information you have posted publicly to third party sites, e.g., email addresses and comments on public posts. We use the information we receive from these third parties to provide customer support.

Providing information about others

If you wish to provide the personal data of third parties (for example, the e-mail address of friends or possible experts) to LegalGuidance, make sure in advance that the relevant person has been made aware of the disclosure of their personal data to LegalGuidance for the purposes for which you will provide it, and that you have obtained any consents that may be necessary under applicable laws. Note that you can be liable to the relevant person, as well as LegalGuidance, if you have not obtained the person’s consent where required.

1. Use of personal data

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

• Answering questions. LegalGuidance uses your personal data to send you information concerning the services of the Websites via e-mail, if you are registered as a user or have concluded an Expert Contract. For more details see our General Use and Business Terms and Conditions for Questioners (Users) and – for Experts – the Expert Contract).
• Publication of your content. Please note that LegalGuidance.org is an Internet forum, whose content is available to the public. Therefore, the content of your questions, answers, posts, and other contributions (hereinafter referred to jointly as “Contributions”) can be published on the Websites and viewed by users of the Websites, as well as downloaded and sent. The content can generally also be called up via external search engines. You should therefore make absolutely certain that your Contributions contain no information that enables you or other persons to be identified.
• Publication of expert profiles. If you are admitted as an expert at LegalGuidance (in this regard, see the Expert Contract), your profiles are also published on the Websites and accessible to everyone and are also available via external search engines.
• Research. LegalGuidance also uses some of your data in order to ascertain the preferences of users and user habits, for the purpose of market research, and for the purpose of advertising on the Websites. However, LegalGuidance will anonymize your personal data in all of these cases.

Our legal basis for collecting and using the personal data described above will depend on the personal data concerned and the specific context in which we collect it. In most cases this will be because we have a contract with you for your use of the service as a user or expert or because we are processing for our legitimate business interests which are not overridden by your rights such as responding to your queries, undertaking marketing or detecting and preventing misuse of our Websites. In some cases, we may also have a legal obligation to collect personal data from you or may otherwise need the personal data to protect your vital interests or those of another person.

If we ask you to provide personal data to comply with a legal requirement or to perform a contact with you, we will make this clear at the relevant time and advise you whether the provision of your personal data is mandatory or not (as well as of the possible consequences if you do not provide your personal data). 

If you have questions about or need further information concerning the legal basis on which we collect and use your personal data, please contact us using the details provided below.

1. Sharing of personal data

We will share your personal data with the following:

• Service providers that assist us with the performance of the services, for example, to the credit card companies, through which the collection of payments and the disbursement of balances and payment claims are carried out. You can see whether we use service providers, and which service providers we use, in the respective provisions for our services, particularly the General Use and Business Terms and Conditions for Questioners (Users), Participation Terms and Conditions for E-Mail Recommendations of New Users and Experts for LegalGuidance (Referral Program) and, if you are or want to become an expert, the Expert Contract.
• Advertising partners to place advertising on the websites that might interest you, however the only personal data we share is cookie information that does not directly identify you as an individual. We do not share your contact details such as name, e-mail address, or telephone number. For more details and to learn about how to amend your cookie settings, see our Cookie Notice.
• Competent law enforcement bodies, regulatory, government agency, court or other third parties where we believe disclosure is necessary (i) as a matter of applicable law or regulation, (ii) to exercise, establish or defend our legal rights, or (iii) to protect your vital interests or those of any other person.
• Actual or potential buyers (and their agents and advisers) in connection with any actual or proposed purchase, merger or acquisition of any part of our business, provided that we inform the buyer it must use your personal data only for the purposes disclosed in this Privacy Notice.
• Any other person with your consent to the disclosure.

1. International data transfers

Our Website servers are currently located in the USA and our group companies and third party service providers and partners operate around the world. Please note that the data protection law in the US does not currently offer the same protection against use and transmission of personal data as is the case under the law of the European Union.  By using our service, you consent to the transfer of your personal data outside of the European Economic Area.

1. Data retention

We retain personal data we collect from you where we have an ongoing legitimate business need to do so (for example, to provide you with a service you have requested or to comply with applicable legal, tax or accounting requirements). 

When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal data, we will either delete or anonymise it or, if this is not possible (for example, because your personal data has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your personal data and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.

1. Your rights

You have the following data protection rights, which you can request using the contact details below:

• If you wish to access, correct, update or request deletion of your personal data. Note that you can modify and correct some of your personal data at any time by opening your account via the Websites and changing your profile information that is posted there.
• In addition, you can object to processing of your personal data, ask us to restrict processing of your personal data or request portability of your personal data.
• You have the right to opt-out of marketing communications we send you at any time. You can also exercise this right by clicking on the “unsubscribe” or “opt-out” link in the marketing e-mails we send you.  To opt-out of other forms of marketing (such as postal marketing or telemarketing), then please contact us.
• If we have collected and process your personal data with your consent, then you can withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawing your consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing we conducted prior to your withdrawal, nor will it affect processing of your personal data conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent.

We respond to all requests we receive from individuals wishing to exercise their data protection rights in accordance with applicable data protection laws and you have the right to complain to a data protection authority about our collection and use of your personal data.  For more information, please contact your local data protection authority.

1. Use of links to and from external providers

Note that the Websites contain links to external third parties (advertising banners, for example) and that links can be named in Contributions. If you open these links, you will be on the website of third parties, whose data protection policy and security measures LegalGuidance is not able to influence.

1. Security

The Websites use a number of technical and organisational security precautions in order to protect the Websites and you against unauthorized third-party access to your data:

• LegalGuidance uses a 128-bit secure socket layer (SSL) encryption technology and digital certification for monetary payments via credit cards and the confirmation thereof.
• The LegalGuidance database records important changes, such that unauthorized payment flows can be cancelled quickly.
• The main servers of LegalGuidance are located with a leading Internet Access Provider with the highest level of security precautions, including biometric recognition and 24/7 monitoring of the employees. In addition, LegalGuidance has a backup server system, in which, however, no e-mail addresses, credit card information, or passwords are stored.

In spite of the high security precautions, however, the possibility cannot be ruled out that unauthorized third parties might gain access to personal data without permission.

1. Updates to this Privacy Notice

We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time in response to changing legal, technical or business developments. When we update our Privacy Notice, we will take appropriate measures to inform you, consistent with the significance of the changes we make.  We will obtain your consent to any material Privacy Notice changes if and where this is required by applicable data protection laws.

You can see when this Privacy Notice was last updated by checking the “last updated” date displayed at the top of this Privacy Notice. 

1. How to contact us

If you have any questions or concerns about our use of your personal data, please contact us / our data protection officer using the following details: 

support@LegalGuidance.org

The data controller of your personal data is LegalGuidance.

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