Privacy Policy
FRANCIS LAW FIRM PLLC (the “Company”) is Kentucky based law firm with an international practice and is primarily focused on intellectual property and business law related matters. The Company is committed to complying fully with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (15 U.S.C. §§ 6501–6506) and other relevant statutes. Our information collection practices are described below. We urge everyone under the age of 18 to check with their parents or guardians before entering any information on any website, and we urge parents and guardians to instruct their children regarding the danger presented by the online release of personal information to anyone they don’t know. Our primary web portal/domain is www.francis-law.com and references to this domain are intended to refer to all web portals/domains owned or operated in whole or in part by the Company unless otherwise indicated in the privacy policies of those related websites. We may utilize additional domain names as needed for affiliated websites in English or other languages or to comply with local or regional laws and regulations. This privacy policy applies to all Company websites regardless of the domain. This privacy policy does not apply to third-party websites which may be accessed via any Company websites either through a hyperlink that we embed or through any third-party advertisement. The Company is not responsible for the content of any third-party advertisement, any hyperlinks embedded therein, or the safety and content of any website associated with such hyperlinks.
This website is not intended for use by anyone under the age of 18 in the United States or less than the age of majority in their jurisdiction.
What Information Is Collected?
It is our intention and policy to minimize the collection of information from our visitors. Generally, we strive to limit our collection of personally identifiable information to the minimum required to verify user identity, track users, and authenticate communications, documents, and transactions.
Personal information may be collected for the following purposes:
- Providing legal services (hereinafter called the “Services”) to clients, advertising our services to potential clients, and for conducting related activities;
- Processing of payments;
- Responses to inquiries and complaints;
- Efforts to design and improve the Services for all users, including through sending marketing questionnaires to customers (no personal information collected thereby will be disclosed to any third parties);
- Efforts to customize the Services and information offered to the interests of our users, including through sending questionnaires to customers (no personal information collected thereby will be disclosed to any third parties); and
- Providing general information that is not to be deemed legal advice. No user should depend upon any information any Company website, webpage, or downloadable material as legal advice as such requires a formal engagement of the law firm.
- Before using personal information for any purpose other than those listed above, we will notify you to request your consent, and will not use your personal information for such other purpose unless you give your consent.
- If you do not wish for us to use your personal information for the purposes described in (4) and (5) above, you may opt-out of such uses. Click HERE to opt-out.
As explained below, we also collect information of various kinds from users (e.g., credit card and billing information, e-mail addresses, ship-to and billing addresses, etc.).
In accordance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), websites normally require verifiable parental consent to the collection, use, or disclosure of information collected from or about children under the age of 13. However, this website is not intended for use by anyone under the age of 18. If you are under the age of 18, we request that you leave the website immediately and have your parent or legal guardian contact us with any inquiries..
Information collected about users may include names, addresses, phone numbers, credit card information, and service history. Information about your usage of the site may be gathered for analytical purposes and to enhance your online experience and product offerings.
Information we may collect and analyze includes, but is not limited to, the internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet; email address; computer and connection information such as browser type and version, operating system, and platform; the connection to, through, and from our Web site(s), including date and time; cookie number and products you viewed or searched for.
Online Analytics Services
We may use third-party web analytics services on our website, such as those of Google Analytics. The analytics providers that administer these services use technologies such as cookies to help us analyze how visitors use our Company websites and webpages. The information collected through these means (including IP address) is disclosed to these analytics providers to help us evaluate use of our website and diagnose technical issues. To learn about how Google Analytics collects and processes data and the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on, you can visit www.google.com/analytics/learn/privacy.html and https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
Providing Information To Third Parties
We will not provide your personal information to any third party without your advance consent, except where such disclosure:
- Is in accordance with or required by applicable law;
- Is necessary for the protection of the safety or property of our users or the public and it is difficult or impractical to obtain the consent of the individual;
- Is necessary for public health or education and it is difficult or impractical to obtain the consent of the individual;
- Is made in cooperation with government authorities, or an individual or entity appointed by such authorities to enforce the law or carry out legal process, and in which seeking the consent of the individual could affect such enforcement or legal process; or
- Is made pursuant to a merger, acquisition, or other business combination.
We may disclose aggregate information regarding users (without personally identifiable information) to third parties that we believe to be reputable. Please also see “About Cookies and Log Data” below.
If we entrust an individual or entity with the handling of any personal information, we will exercise necessary and appropriate supervision over such individual or entity to ensure the security of such personal information.
Customer Service
Users may e-mail us any questions they may have, such as questions about the website, legal services, or our information collection and retention policies. E-mails containing language deemed threatening or offensive may be filtered out and/or deleted prior to reading by Company staff and may also be forwarded to law enforcement or legal counsel if deemed necessary. The communication of any actual or perceived threat to any Company attorney or employee will result in immediate termination of your account and the revocation of any granted or implied license.
Other than an e-mail address and name, we do not request that users submit any personal information online unless they desire further communication. We may, however, ask for additional non-personal information to better help us respond to service questions. We use the e-mail address to communicate directly with customers regarding their inquiries and provide them with information that they may find helpful. We do not sell, transfer or share the e-mail address with third parties, with the exception that the information is transferred, disclosed, and shared with a third-party agent who has agreed to maintain the confidentiality of such information and who uses the information to improve user experience and site functionality.
Regulation of Internet Communication by Various Government Authorities
In some jurisdictions, e-mail communications are subject to review by various government agencies and may be subject to laws and regulations governing their content which could result in the communication not being received by us and could further result in penalties including, but not limited to, fines and/or imprisonment. The Company cannot guarantee that e-mail communications will not be read by your government authorities and encourage you to comply with all laws and regulations relating to such communications. Users assume all risks associated with the content of electronic communications they send or cause to be sent to us. We want you to have a safe and productive experience and encourage responsible use of internet-based communications. No website can guarantee that your online experience is not being monitored by government authorities, so it is prudent to act accordingly. Users are responsible to familiarize themselves with their jurisdiction’s specific laws and regulations regarding electronic communications.
Regulation of Internet Communication by Various Government Authorities
In some jurisdictions, employees and/or students using e-mail communications from a domain that they do not control have no expectation of privacy and such communications may be subject to review by third-parties as well as subject to disclosure via subpoena. Additionally, the use of work and school e-mail accounts to communicate with an attorney will likely be deemed to waive the attorney-client privilege and compromise your rights and the rights of others. You should only use a personal e-mail account to communicate with an attorney regarding personal matters.
Use and Disclosure of Information
The Company uses or may use personally identifiable information that our users provide for such purposes as responding to their questions regarding our services. The Company currently does not disclose to third parties any personally identifiable information that users provide, except time to time we may transfer, disclose or share such information with third-party agents who may be engaged by us specifically to handle and deliver services as well as those that are engaged to manage our websites and content. Such third parties have access to personal information needed to perform their functions but may not use it for other purposes. Additionally, if all or substantially all of the assets in relation to the Company are transferred or sold to another entity, personally identifiable information submitted to us may be transferred to the acquiring or combined entity or may otherwise follow the Company owner(s) to a new law firm. Finally, we may also disclose personally identifiable information to third parties to comply with various laws or requests by law enforcement agencies, to enforce our website, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of our website, users of our website and others.
About Cookies and Log Data
We may utilize web beacons (also known as Internet tags, pixel tags and clear GIFs) are Internet tools that help us determine, for example, whether a website page has been viewed. We may also utilize cookies. Cookies are information files that your Web browser places on the hard drive of your computer when you visit a website. Cookies cannot damage user files, nor can they read information from a user’s hard drive. Cookies allow websites to “remember” users’ activities on a website as well as users’ visits to a site. At Smokymtnpics.com, cookies are used to determine the number of unique visitors to our website over a period and to remember user screen names so that the need for multiple logins is eliminated. We do not store any personal information in cookies, nor do we link or combine information collected through cookies to any personal information that children or adults submit online when participating in our services. You may disable cookies on your computer by indicating this in the Preferences or Options menu in your browser. For more information about cookies visit www.allaboutcookies.org.
Third-party ads, if any, appearing on our website or webpages are delivered to you by a third-party ad service provider. In the course of serving ads, the ad service provider may place or recognize its own unique cookie on your browser and may use non-personally identifiable information about your visit to such as the number of times that you viewed an ad.
Log data collected on web servers both within our control and under the control of any third-party ad service provider, who is required to maintain such data on a confidential basis, supplies us with aggregate information about the number of visits to different pages on our site.
The Company uses such aggregate information to improve access to our content based on our visitors’ browsers and operating system types and make our content available to as many customers as possible. We do not link the log data we collect to the personal information that users submit online.
Security
The Company has taken steps to ensure that personally identifiable information collected in the future is secure, including limiting the number of people who have physical access to our database servers, as well as electronic security systems and password protections that guard against unauthorized access.
Amendments to the Privacy Policy
We may amend this Privacy Policy at any time. If we make any material changes in the way we collect, use, and/or share your personal information, we will notify you by sending you an e-mail at the last e-mail address that you provided us, and/or by prominently posting notice of the changes on the websites covered by this Privacy Policy. Any material changes to this Privacy Policy will be effective upon the earlier of thirty (30) calendar days following our dispatch of an e-mail notice to you or thirty (30) calendar days following our posting of notice of the changes on the websites covered by this Privacy Policy. Please note that, at all times, you are responsible for updating your personal information to ensure we have your current e-mail address. In the event that the last e-mail address that you provided to us is not valid, or if for any other reason we are not capable of delivering to you the notice described above, our dispatch of the e-mail containing such notice will nonetheless constitute effective notice of the changes described in the notice. In any event, changes to this Privacy Policy may affect our use of personal information that you provided us prior to our notification to you of the changes. If you do not wish to permit changes in our use of your information, you must notify us prior to the effective date of the changes that you wish to deactivate your account with us.
Questions or Concerns
If you have any questions, comments or concerns regarding our Privacy Policy and/or practices, please call 859-212-3678.
European Economic Area
For personal information received from the European Economic Area, the Company is committed to handling such personal information in accordance with U.S. law as administered by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. This website is not intended for use in the European Union or United Kingdom and is not compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2016/679.
Privacy Rights Of California Residents
Notice to California Residents – Your California Privacy Rights
This California Consumer Privacy Policy applies solely to individuals who are California residents.
This California Consumer Privacy Policy uses certain terms that have the meaning given to them in the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018.
Notice of Collection and Use of Personal Information
We may collect the following categories of personal information about you:
- Personal Identifiers: Personally identifying information such as a real name, unique personal identifier (such as a device identifier; cookies, beacons, pixel tags, and similar technology; and other forms of persistent or probabilistic identifiers), internet protocol address, email address, and other similar identifiers
- Online Activity: Internet and other electronic network activity information, including, but not limited to, browsing history, search history, and information regarding your interaction with websites, applications, or advertisements
We may use the categories of personal information listed above for certain business or commercial purposes, as described in this table:
Purpose | Categories of Personal Information |
Better understanding how visitors use our website | Personal Identifiers & Online Activity |
Enhancing the online experience of our visitors | Personal Identifiers & Online Activity |
Providing you information about our company | Personal Identifiers |
Performing services, including analytics services or other similar services | Personal Identifiers & Online Activity |
Detecting security incidents, protecting against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, and prosecuting those responsible for that activity | Personal Identifiers |
Debugging to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality | Personal Identifiers & Online Activity |
California Consumer Privacy Rights
You have certain choices regarding our use and disclosure of your personal information, as described below.
Your Rights Under the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018
- Requests Regarding the Collection and Use of Personal Data: You may have the right to request, twice in a 12-month period, that we disclose to you the personal information we have collected, used, disclosed and sold about you during the past 12 months.
- Deletion of Personal Information: You have the right to request that we delete certain personal information we have collected from you.
- Opt-Out of Sale of Information: You have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information.
To submit an access, deletion, or opt-out request, please send us an email at [email protected] with your first name and a phone number at which we may reach you. Alternatively, you may call us at 859-212-3678.
Verifying Requests: To help protect your privacy and maintain security, we will take steps to verify your identity before granting you access to any personal information or complying with such a request. To grant access, we may require that you provide information such as address and birth date. In addition, if you ask us to provide you with specific pieces of personal information, we will require you to sign a declaration under penalty of perjury that you are the consumer whose personal information is the subject of the request. If you designate an authorized agent to make an access, deletion, or opt-out of sale request on your behalf, we may require you to provide the authorized agent duly notarized written permission to do so, and, for access and deletion requests, we may also require you to verify your own identity directly with us (as described above).
Additional Information: You will not be discriminated against in any manner if you choose to exercise any of your rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act. To the extent permitted by applicable law, we may charge a reasonable fee to comply with your request.
This Privacy Policy was last updated on January 11, 2023.
English Version to Govern
The original version of this Privacy Policy has been prepared in American English. In the event of any discrepancy between the American English version and any translated version from any source, the American English version will govern.
We partner with Thomson Reuters, who might also collect data as part of our marketing efforts. To learn more about the Thomson Reuters privacy policy and the data that might be collected, please visit: Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement.