Privacy & Security
LegalMatch [www.legalmatch.com] has been awarded TRUSTe's Privacy Seal signifying that this privacy policy and practices have been reviewed by TRUSTe for compliance with TRUSTe's program requirements including transparency, accountability and choice regarding the collection and use of your personal information. The TRUSTe program covers only information that is collected through this Web site, www.legalmatch.com. TRUSTe's mission, as an independent third party, is to accelerate online trust among consumers and organizations globally through its leading privacy trustmark and innovative trust solutions. If you have questions or complaints regarding our privacy policy or practices, please contact us at privacy@legalmatch.com. If you are not satisfied with our response you can contact TRUSTe here.
Privacy and Security Statement
At LegalMatch.com, we are committed to protecting your privacy. It is also our goal to constantly improve our services to you and to keep up with rapidly changing technologies. In order to maximize our services to you, we use information collected about you while still protecting your privacy. Expecting future variations in our service, these policies are subject to change. If there are any modifications to these policies, we will post them on this page and notify you as described at the end of this policy.
I. Security Measures Concerning Your Personal Information
While transmission of information over the Internet cannot be guaranteed 100% secure, we make every effort to provide protection for the information that we collect about you. We, on our fully functional site, will use Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology in the transmission of logon identification and passwords. SSL technology provides advanced encryption tools that convert the information you input into code before it is sent to us. The encryption helps protect you and the information in your account.
In addition to SSL technology:
- Your personal information is password-protected. It is our policy to never sell traceable information about our users to third parties without user permission. See "Use of Information Collected" below.
- Advanced firewall technologies protect our database from outsiders.
- Your password and password reminder answers are kept encrypted at all times, so they cannot be decoded even if someone gains access to our database.
However, to avoid unauthorized use of your account by others, you must take steps to control your password. Further, this site contains various links to other Web sites. LegalMatch.com is not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites. You should not assume that other sites take similar steps in securing your information and should evaluate their privacy standards before using their systems.
II. Collection of Information
When you register with LegalMatch.com, we ask that you provide your name, email address, and zip code. If you are an attorney or other professional services provider, you will also be asked to provide your firm name, address, telephone number, state where you are licensed, and bar number. In the course of your use of the site, we may also request additional information from you. For example, if you are an attorney or other professional services provider, you will be asked to describe your areas of practice, experience, and education. If you are searching for an attorney, you will be asked to describe your situation so that attorneys can evaluate your legal needs and make a response to work for you.
In the course of using our site, we automatically track certain information including your IP address, what browser you are using, and the URL you just came from. We also collect information about your use of our site in order to optimize our site usability.
We use cookie technology to assist users in navigating through our site more efficiently. Third party affiliates may also set cookies on the site for the purpose of tracking leads. A cookie is a small text file that resides on your hard drive. At various points on our site, our system will request the cookie from your browser so that we can retrieve the stored information. The cookie may be linked to a unique number that our system can read to determine your user ID and preferences. This prevents you from repeatedly making the same selections. Knowing how you use the site enables us to better tailor content and services to your needs. The cookie does not contain information that others could use to personally identify you, and other Web sites cannot access the information we store on your computer. Although we use both session ID cookies and persistent cookies, most cookies are "session cookies," meaning that they are automatically deleted at the end of a session. You must set your browser to accept cookies to be able to use our site at this time.
III. Use of Collected Information
The primary reason that LegalMatch collects information from its users is to match the right attorneys and professional services providers with the people and businesses that need them.
LegalMatch.com does not sell, trade, or rent your personal information to others without your permission. We use your information to improve our marketing and promotional efforts, statistically analyze site usage, and improve our site's content, offering, and layout. If you are an attorney member, we may use information we have about you as part of our ongoing marketing efforts, including but not limited to displaying your profile, practice and rating information publicly in association with LegalMatch. Your IP address may be used to help diagnose problems with our server, to administer our Web site, and for security needs. LegalMatch.com may provide aggregate statistics about our customers, sales, traffic patterns, and related site information to third-party vendors, but these statistics will include no personal identifying information.
We may use the information we collect to notify you about the status of your LegalMatch account, important functionality changes to our Web site, new LegalMatch.com services, and special offers we think you'll find valuable. We may also contact you to verify your information or ask you about your experiences with our system.
Except for communications that relate directly to the service being provided, you may "opt out" of receiving communications from us. If you are seeking an attorney, required communications include (1) confirmation of your registration, (2) notification that attorneys have made responses to work on your case and (3) requests to determine which attorney (if any) you have retained. If you are an attorney, required communications may include (1) confirmation of your registration, (2) notification that your registration has been verified, (3) requests to determine which LegalMatch users have retained you and the amounts billed to or collected from them and (4) if you are enrolled in a payment plan, invoices. To opt out of non-required communications, check the appropriate boxes when you register or at any time by logging into the system and modifying your profile information. Profile information can be modified, updated but not deleted by logging into your homepage and clicking on the "My Profile" link. Users may also opt out of receiving non-required communications by replying to unsubscribe in the subject line in the email or by e-mailing us at UNSUBSCRIBE. We will retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.
When it is necessary to contact you, we use your email address and, in some situations your mailing address, phone or fax number. Note: LegalMatch.com will not ask you for your password if we contact you. Do not disclose your password if asked by a caller claiming to represent LegalMatch.com.
In order to achieve the benefits of the LegalMatch service, there are some situations in which personal information may be disclosed to third parties. These are:
- Service related disclosure: This Web site is designed to disclose certain limited information to connect attorneys with the people who need them. The users have full control over when and to whom personally identifying information is disclosed. Our service is designed specifically to keep initial exchanges of information between clients and attorneys anonymous. The limited information we disclose is described below.
- When a user posts a description of his or her legal matter, that information is reviewed only by attorneys, LegalMatch members or potential members and LegalMatch staff. The information is anonymous, meaning that the user's personally identifying information is kept hidden unless the user chooses to release it. If the user chose to release personally identifying information, it will only be released to LegalMatch members and staff. If LegalMatch does not currently have member attorneys in the user's area, the user may be asked to release case and personally identifying information to our affiliates who have interested attorneys.
- When an attorney responds to a posted matter, the response, the name and the contact information of the responding attorney is seen only by the specific client.
- If a user requests an attorney's contact information, the user's name and zip code may be revealed to that attorney for the purpose of verifying whether an attorney-client relationship was formed. The attorney is precluded from using this information to contact the user.
- The name of the user posting a rating and commentary for any attorney on this system may be released to that attorney, at the attorney's request, for the purpose of replying to the rating.
- The name of the user notifying us that an attorney-client relationship was formed through our service may be released to that attorney for the purpose of verifying the relationship.
- Information regarding whether an attorney-client relationship was formed will be used only for our internal records and statistics. We will not disclose this information to other parties, unless we are required to do so by law.
- Except for the information referred to above, user's contact information (i.e. address, telephone, fax, or email) is never revealed to attorneys or other users. User's name and contact information may be revealed to LegalMatch sponsors if you elect to have the sponsor contact you. You will have the opportunity to review the sponsor's privacy policy before selecting to share your information with the sponsor.
- Marketing Related Disclosure. If you are an attorney member, we may use any information, including personally identifiable information, contained in your LegalMatch profile and ratings in our ongoing marketing efforts to help develop and focus your practice. If you find our use of your identifiable information in association with our marketing efforts objectionable, you can opt out of future use by contacting us with your objections at privacyoptout@legalmatch.com.
- Affiliate Relationship Related Disclosure. If you are on a site that has an affiliate relationship with LegalMatch, this means that LegalMatch has a relationship with the Affiliate Site and that LegalMatch may share some of your registration information with that partner. For people and small business LegalMatch will share only your name, email address and zip code. For attorneys, LegalMatch may also share your firm name, address, telephone number, state of licensure, bar number and areas of practice.
LegalMatch.com may also develop business partnerships with other companies, as part of our service to users. These special business partnerships may include acquisitions by or mergers with other companies or special joint ventures that integrate our Web sites and services.
Whenever LegalMatch shares personally identifying information with a partner, we will do so confidentiality and require use restrictions on the information.
Legal Related Disclosure
LegalMatch.com may release account information when we believe, in good faith, that such release is reasonably necessary to:
- comply with law
- enforce or apply the terms of any of our user agreements, or
- protect the rights, property or safety of LegalMatch.com, our users, or others.
Blog/Forum
Our Web site offers publicly accessible blogs or community forums. You should be aware that any information you provide in these areas may be read, collected, and used by others who access them. To request removal of your personal information from our blog or community forum, contact us at privacyoptout@legalmatch.com. In some cases, we may not be able to remove your personal information, in which case we will let you know if we are unable to do so and why.
Social Media Widgets
Our Web site includes Social Media Features, such as the Facebook Like button [and Widgets, such as the Share this button or interactive mini-programs that run on our site]. These Features may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our site, and may set a cookie to enable the Feature to function properly. Social Media Features and Widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our Site. Your interactions with these Features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it.
IV. Consent and Changes to This Policy
By using our Web site, you consent to the collection and use of this information by LegalMatch.com. If we change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we disclose it. If we make any retroactive changes to how we disclose personally identifiable information to others, we will notify you by email and provide you at least ten (10) days to object to such disclosure and to delete your registration.
LegalMatch.com
395 Oyster Point Blvd. Suite 550
South San Francisco, CA 94080
privacyoptout@legalmatch.com
