Our Privacy Policy

Last Updated: August 6, 2024

Tabetha Hinman, Esq. (“the Firm” or “Hinman Legal”) provides fractional general counsel and other legal services to technology companies. This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use and share personal information through our website (“Site”), and in connection with blogs, alerts, newsletters and other communications and events we offer (collectively, the “Services”). The terms “Firm”, “Hinman Legal”, “we,” “us,” and “our” include the Firm and our affiliates and subsidiaries. This Privacy Notice explains the kinds of information we may collect and how we intend to use and share that information. This Privacy Policy does not address our processing of personal information in connection with our attorney-client relationships, which are addressed in our engagement agreements with our clients.

NOTICE AT COLLECTION

At or before the time of collection, California residents may have a right to receive notice of our privacy practices, including the categories of personal information to be collected, the purposes for which such information is collected or used, whether such information is “sold” or “shared” and how to opt-out of such uses, and how long such information is retained. You can find those details in this Privacy Policy as set forth below.

PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

Our primary goals in collecting personal information are to provide and improve the Services, to administer your use of the Services, and to provide you with information that you request from us via your use of the Services.

Your Communications with Us.  We may collect personal information from you such as your email address, phone number, or mailing address when you request information about our legal services and expertise or otherwise communicate with us.

Interactive Features. Our Services may include publicly accessible blogs, forums, social media pages, commenting functionalities, and messaging and chat features, (“Interactive Features”). We may collect personal information that you submit or make available through our Interactive Features and social media pages. Any information you provide using the public sharing features of the Services (referred to herein as “User Content”) will be considered “public,” unless otherwise required by applicable law, and is not subject to the privacy protections referenced herein. In addition, social media buttons such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter (that might include widgets such as the “share this” button or other interactive mini programs) may be 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. These social media features are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our Site. Your interactions with these features apart from your visit to our Site are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it.

Social Media Content. We may offer forums, blogs, or links to social media pages such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. Any content you provide on these channels will be considered public, and we may use this information to tailor our engagements with you, for example, providing you with details of events or legal updates we think may be relevant to you.

Conferences, Trade Shows, and Other Events. We may collect personal information from individuals when we attend or host conferences, recruiting events, and other events. 

Business Development and Strategic Partnerships. We may collect personal information from individuals and third parties to assess and pursue potential business opportunities.

Information Collected Automatically or From Others

Automatic Data Collection. We may collect certain information automatically when you use the Services including information collected when you search our website, view a video, publication or blog and use our Services. This information may include your Internet protocol (IP) address and inferred information such as company, area code, postal code and country; user settings; cookie identifiers and similar technology; mobile carrier; mobile advertising and other unique identifiers; details about your browser, operating system or device information; location information and inferred metro area and city); and Internet service provider. We may also automatically collect information regarding your use of our Services, such as pages that you visit before, during and after using the Services including information about the links you click, the types of content you interact with, the frequency and duration of your activities, and other information about how you use the Services. Information we collect may be associated with accounts and other devices.

In addition, we may automatically collect data regarding your use of our Services, such as the types of content you interact with and the frequency and duration of your activities. We may combine your information with information that other people provide when they use our Services.

Cookies, Pixel Tags/Web Beacons, Analytics Information, and Interest-Based Advertising.  We, as well as third parties that provide advertising and analytics services to us, may use cookies, pixel tags, local storage, and other technologies (“Technologies”) to automatically collect information through the Services. Technologies are essentially small data files placed on your computer, tablet, mobile phone, or other devices that allow us and our partners to record certain pieces of information whenever you visit or interact with our Services.

• Cookies. Cookies are small text files placed in visitors’ computer browsers to store their preferences. Most browsers allow you to block and delete cookies. However, if you do that, the Services may not work properly. For a detailed description of the cookies we use and to opt out of the use of certain cookies, please visit “Cookie Preferences” on our Site.

• Pixel Tags/Web Beacons. A pixel tag (also known as a web beacon) is a piece of code embedded in the Services that collects information about users’ engagement on that web page. The use of a pixel allows us to record, for example, that a user has visited a particular web page or clicked on a particular advertisement. We may also include web beacons in e-mails to understand whether messages have been opened, acted on, or forwarded.

• Analytics. We may use Technologies and other third-party tools to process analytics information on our Services. These technologies allow us to process usage data to better understand how our website and web-related Services are used, and to continually improve and personalize our Services. Some of our analytics partners include:

• Google Analytics. For more information about Google Analytics, please visit Google Analytics’ Privacy Policy. To learn more about how to opt-out of Google Analytics’ use of your information, please click here.

• LinkedIn Analytics. For more information, please visit LinkedIn Analytics’ Privacy Policy. To learn more about how to opt-out of LinkedIn’s use of your information, please click here.

• Facebook Connect. For more information, please visit Facebook’s Data Policy. You can object to the collection of your data by the Facebook pixel, or to the use of your data for the purpose of displaying Facebook ads by contacting the following address while logged into your Facebook account: https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads.

Information from Other Sources.  We may obtain information about you from other sources, including through third party services and organizations to supplement information provided by you. For example, if you access our Services through a third-party application or site, such as a social networking site, we may collect information about you from that third-party site that you have made public via your privacy settings. This supplemental information allows us to verify information that you have provided to us and to enhance our ability to provide you with information about our business, and Services.

HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

We use your information for a variety of business purposes, including to:

Provide you with our Services, such as:

• Managing your information and accounts;

• Providing access to certain areas, functionalities, and features of our Services;

• Communicating with you about your account, activities on our Services and policy changes;

• Undertaking activities to verify or maintain the quality or safety of a Service or device;

• Providing Services on behalf of our clients, such as maintaining or servicing accounts, providing client service, and verifying information;

• Processing your financial information and other payment methods for our Services; and

• Processing job applications if you apply for a job we post on our Services.

Analyze and improve our Services pursuant to our legitimate interest, such as:

• Authenticating and verifying individual identities, including requests to exercise your rights under this policy;

• Measuring interest and engagement in our Services;

• Undertaking research for technological development and demonstration;

• Researching and developing the Services, marketing or security procedures to improve their performance, resilience, reliability or efficiency;

• Improving, upgrading or enhancing our Services;

• Developing new content and Services;

• Ensuring internal quality control;

• Verifying your identity and preventing fraud;

• Detecting security incidents, protecting against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent or illegal activity;

• Debugging to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality;

• Sharing personal information with third parties as needed to provide the Services;

• Enforcing our agreements and policies; and

• Complying with our legal obligations, protecting your vital interest, or as may be required for the public good.

Provide you with additional content and Services, such as:

• Furnishing you with promotional information or materials about our legal services and expertise, where we think that these may be of interest to you. Where required to do so by applicable law, we will obtain your consent in order to send you these promotional materials;

• Auditing relating to interactions, transactions and other compliance activities; and

• Other purposes to which you consent that are clearly disclosed to you when you provide personal information.

Where European Union data protection laws apply, such as the General Data Protection Regulation, we will process your personal information for the purposes described above and for marketing (described below) where we have a lawful basis to do so, as described above. For example, for processing necessary to provide you with the Services, the lawful basis will generally be that it is necessary for the purposes of performing our contract with you. For marketing (described below), we may send you marketing based on it being in our ‘legitimate interests’ to do so (where you are a corporate client) or based on consent where you are acting in an individual capacity. Other processing we do, such as that for service development and improvement, may not be ‘necessary’ to provide the Services but may still be necessary for our ‘legitimate interests’ of running a business and offering the Services.

If you have any questions about our marketing practices, you may contact us at any time as set forth in “Contact Us” below.

Use of Chatbots for Client Intake and Information Collection. For clients with whom we have established an attorney-client relationship through signed engagement letters, we may utilize automated chatbot technology to collect important information pertinent to our representation. This may include, but is not limited to, company formation documents, form agreements, and other material contracts that are necessary for us to reference in the course of providing legal services. The chatbot serves as a secure means to gather and organize this information efficiently. Please note that the chatbot is programmed to interact only with clients who have a formal engagement with our firm, ensuring that the confidentiality and privacy of your information are upheld in accordance with the terms of our engagement and this Privacy Policy.

Use De-identified and Aggregated Information. We may use personal information and other data about you to create de-identified and aggregated information, such as de-identified demographic information, de-identified location information, information about the device from which you access our Services, or other analyses we create. De-identified and/or aggregated information is not personal information, and we may use, disclose, and retain such information as permitted by applicable laws including, but not limited to, for research, analysis, analytics, and any other legally permissible purposes.

Share Content with Friends or Colleagues. Our Services may offer various tools and functionalities that allow you to provide information about your friends through our referral services. Our referral services may allow you to forward or share certain content with a friend or colleague, such as an email inviting your friend to use our Services. Please only share with us contact information of people with whom you have a relationship (e.g., relative, friend, neighbor, or co-worker).

Process Information on Behalf of Our Clients.  The data that we process through our Services is processed by us on behalf of our client, and our privacy practices will be governed by the engagement letters or other arrangements that we have in place with our clients, not this Privacy Policy.

If you are a client and wish to receive a list of our sub-processors, contact us as described below.

Automatic Collection Technologies.  We, as well as third parties that provide content, advertising, or other functionality on the Services, may use cookies, pixel tags, local storage, and other technologies to automatically collect information through the Services. Our uses of these Technologies fall into the following general categories:

• Operationally Necessary. This includes Technologies that allow you access to our Services, applications, and tools that are required to identify irregular site behavior, prevent fraudulent activity and improve security or that allow you to make use of our functionality;

• Performance-Related. We may use Technologies to assess the performance of our Services, including as part of our analytic practices to help us understand how individuals use our Services (see Analytics above);

• Functionality-Related. We may use Technologies to assess the performance and offer you enhanced functionality of our Services. This may include identifying you when you sign into our Services or keeping track of your specified preferences, interests, or past content viewed;

• Advertising- or Targeting-Related. We may use first party or third-party Technologies to deliver content, including ads for Fenwick on third party sites.

See “YOUR PRIVACY CHOICES AND RIGHTS” below to understand your choices regarding these Technologies.

Cross-Device Tracking.  Your browsing activity may be tracked across different websites and different devices or apps. For example, we may attempt to match your browsing activity on your mobile device with your browsing activity on your laptop. To do this our technology partners may share data, such as your browsing patterns, geo-location and device identifiers, and will match the information of the browser and devices that appear to be used by the same person.

Notice regarding Third Party Websites and Social Media Platforms.  The Services may contain links to other websites, and other websites may reference or link to our website or other Services. These other websites are not controlled by us. We encourage our users to read the privacy policies of each website and application with which they interact. We do not endorse, screen or approve and are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of such other websites or applications. Providing personal information to third-party websites or applications is at your own risk.

Our Services may include publicly accessible blogs, forums, social media pages, and private messaging features. As such information will be public, the personal information provided by you may be viewed and used by third parties for any number of purposes. In addition, social media buttons such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Threads (that might include widgets such as the “share this” button or other interactive mini-programs) may be 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. These social media features are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our site. Your interactions with these features apart from your visit to our site are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it.

DISCLOSING YOUR INFORMATION TO THIRD PARTIES

Except as provided below, we do not disclose or sell your personal information with the following categories of third parties.

Service Providers. We may share any personal information we collect about you with our third-party service providers and vendors that assist us with the provision of our Services. This includes service providers and vendors that provide us with IT support, data hosting, website development and operation, and related services; payment processing, customer service, and related services.

Business Partners. We may provide personal information to business partners to provide you with the products or services you have requested. We may also share your personal information with business partners with whom we jointly offer products or services.

Advertising Partners. Through our Services, we may share your personal information with third-party advertising partners. These third-party advertising partners may set Technologies and other tracking tools to collect information regarding your activities and your device (e.g., your IP address, mobile identifiers, page(s) visited, location, time of day). We may also combine and share such information and other information (such as demographic information) with third party advertising partners. These advertising partners may use this information (and similar information collected from other websites) for purposes of delivering targeted advertisements for the Firm to you when you visit digital properties within their networks. This practice is commonly referred to as “interest-based advertising” or “online behavioral advertising.” If you prefer not to share your personal information with third party advertising partners, you may follow the instructions below under “Your Privacy Choices and Rights” or, if you are a California resident, by following the opt-out instructions described under “Supplemental Notice to California Residents.” 

Disclosures to Protect Us or Others.  We may access, preserve, and disclose any information we store associated with you to external parties if we, in good faith, believe doing so is required or appropriate to: comply with law enforcement or national security requests and legal process, such as a court order or subpoena; protect your, our or others’ rights, property, or safety; enforce our policies or contracts; collect amounts owed to us; or assist with an investigation or prosecution of suspected or actual illegal activity.

Disclosure in the Event of Merger, Sale, or Other Asset Transfers.  If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, financing due diligence, reorganization, bankruptcy, receivership, purchase or sale of assets, or transition of service to another provider, then your information may be sold or transferred as part of such a transaction, as permitted by law and/or contract.

International Data Transfers. All personal information processed by us may be transferred, processed, and stored anywhere in the world, including but not limited to, the United States or other countries, which may have data protection laws that are different from the laws where you live. We endeavor to safeguard your personal information consistent with the requirements of applicable laws.

If we transfer personal information which originates in the European Economic Area, Switzerland, and/or the United Kingdom to a country that has not been found to provide an adequate level of protection under applicable data protection laws, one of the safeguards we may use to support such transfer is the EU Standard Contractual Clauses. 

For more information about the safeguards, we use for international transfers of your personal information, please contact us as set forth below. 

YOUR PRIVACY CHOICES AND RIGHTS

Your Privacy Choices. You have certain choices about your personal information. Where you have consented to the processing of your personal information, you may withdraw that consent at any time and prevent further processing by contacting us as described below. Even if you opt out, we may still collect and use non-personal information regarding your activities on our Services and for other legal purposes as described above.

Email and Telephone Communications.  If you receive an unwanted promotional email from us, you can use the unsubscribe link found at the bottom of the email to opt out of receiving future emails. Note that you will continue to receive transaction-related emails regarding our Services you have requested. We may also send you certain non-promotional communications regarding us and our Services, and you will not be able to opt out of those communications (e.g., communications regarding the Services or updates to our terms or this Privacy Policy).

We process requests to be placed on do-not-mail, do-not-phone and do-not-contact lists as required by applicable law.

Mobile Devices.  We may collect location-based information if you use our Services from a mobile application. You may opt-out of this collection by changing the settings on your mobile device.

“Do Not Track”.  Do Not Track (“DNT”) is a privacy preference that users can set in certain web browsers. Please note that we do not respond to or honor DNT signals or similar mechanisms transmitted by web browsers.

Cookies and Interest-Based Advertising.  You may stop or restrict the placement of Technologies on your device or remove them by adjusting your preferences as your browser or device permits. However, if you adjust your preferences, our Services may not work properly. Please note that cookie-based opt-outs are not effective on mobile applications. However, you may opt-out of personalized advertisements on some mobile applications by following the instructions for Android, iOS, and others. The online advertising industry also provides websites from which you may opt out of receiving targeted ads from data partners and other advertising partners that participate in self-regulatory programs. You can learn more about targeted advertising and consumer choice and privacy by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative, the Digital Advertising Alliance, the European Digital Advertising Alliance, and the Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada.

Your Privacy Rights.  In accordance with applicable law, you may have the right to:

• Confirm whether we are processing your personal information (the right to know).

• Access to and portability of your personal information about you including: (i) obtaining access to or a copy of your personal information in a structured, commonly used, and machine readable format; and (ii) receiving an electronic copy of personal information that you have provided to us, or asking us to send that information to another company in a structured, commonly used, and machine readable format (the “right of data portability”).

• Request correction of your personal information where it is inaccurate or incomplete. In some cases, we may provide self-service tools that enable you to update your personal information.

• Request deletion of your personal information.

• Request to Opt-Out of Certain Processing Activities including, as applicable, if we process your personal information for “targeted advertising” (as “targeted advertising” is defined by applicable privacy laws) or if we engage in “profiling” in furtherance of certain “decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects” concerning you (as such terms are defined by applicable privacy laws).

• Request restriction of or object to processing of your personal information, including the right to opt in or opt out of the sale of your personal information to third parties, if applicable, where such requests are permitted by law.

• Withdraw your consent to our processing of your personal information. Please note that your withdrawal will only take effect for future processing and will not affect the lawfulness of processing before the withdrawal.

• Appeal our decision to decline to process your request.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, contact us as set forth below. We will process such requests in accordance with applicable law. To protect your privacy, we will take steps to verify your identity before fulfilling your request.

If applicable laws grant you an appeal right and you would like to appeal our decision with respect to your request, you may do so by informing us of this and providing us with information supporting your appeal. 

DATA RETENTION

We store the personal information we receive as described in this Privacy Policy for as long as you use our Services or as necessary to fulfill the purpose(s) for which it was collected, provide our Services, resolve disputes, establish legal defenses, conduct audits, pursue legitimate business purposes, enforce our agreements, and comply with applicable laws.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information, we may consider applicable legal requirements, the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal information, certain risk factors, the purposes for which we process your personal information, and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means.

SUPPLEMENTAL NOTICE FOR CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS

This Supplemental Notice for California Residents supplements our Privacy Notice and only applies to our processing of personal information that is subject to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (as amended from time to time) (“CCPA”). The CCPA provides California residents with the right to know what categories of personal information we have collected about them, and whether we disclosed that personal information for a business purpose (e.g., to a service provider), whether we “sold” that personal information, and whether we “shared” that personal information for “cross-context behavioral advertising” in the preceding 12 months.

The categories of sources from which we collect personal information and our business and commercial purposes for using personal information are set forth in “Personal Information We Collect”, “How We Use Your Information”, and “ Disclosing Your Information to Third Parties” above, respectively. We will retain personal information in accordance with the time periods set forth in “Data Retention”.

We “sell” and “share” your personal information to provide you with “cross-context behavioral advertising” about the Firm’s products and services.

Additional Privacy Rights for California Residents

Opting Out of “Sales” of Personal Information and/or “Sharing” for Cross-Context Behavioral Advertising under the CCPA. California residents have the right to opt out of the “sale” of personal information and the “sharing” of personal information for “cross-context behavioral advertising.” California residents may exercise these rights by emailing info@hinmanlegal.com.

Disclosure Regarding Individuals Under the Age of 16. Hinman Legal does not have actual knowledge of any “sale” of personal information of minors under 16 years of age. The Firm does not have actual knowledge of any “sharing” of personal information of minors under 16 years of age for “cross-context behavioral advertising.”

Disclosure Regarding Sensitive Personal Information. Hinman Legal only uses and discloses sensitive personal information for the following purposes as permitted under the CCPA:

• To perform the services or provide the goods reasonably expected by an average consumer who requests those goods or services

• To prevent, detect, and investigate security incidents that compromise the availability, authenticity, integrity, and or confidentiality of stored or transmitted personal information.

• To resist malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal actions directed at Fenwick and to prosecute those responsible for those actions. 

• To ensure the physical safety of natural persons. 

• To verify or maintain the quality or safety of a product, service, or device that is owned, manufactured, manufactured for, or controlled by Fenwick, and to improve, upgrade, or enhance the service or device that is owned, manufactured by, manufactured for, or controlled by Fenwick. 

• For purposes that do not infer characteristics about individuals.

Non-Discrimination. California residents have the right not to receive discriminatory treatment by us for the exercise of their rights conferred by the CCPA. 

Authorized Agent. Only you, or someone legally authorized to act on your behalf, may make a verifiable consumer request related to your personal information. To authorize an agent, please contact us as set forth in “Contact Us” below, provide written authorization signed by you and your designated agent and ask us for additional instructions.

Verification. To protect your privacy, we will take the following steps to verify your identity before fulfilling any request submitted under the CCPA. These steps may involve asking you to provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we collected personal information or an authorized representative. Examples of our verification process may include asking you to provide the first name, last name, email address, company name and country. We’ll also ask for your phone number and job title if applicable to the contact information we have on file.

If you are a California resident and would like to exercise any of your rights under the CCPA, please contact us as set forth in “Contact Us” below. We will process such requests in accordance with applicable laws. 

Accessibility. This Privacy Policy uses industry-standard technologies and was developed in line with the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, version 2.1. If you wish to print this policy, please do so from your web browser or by saving the page as a PDF.

CHILDREN’S INFORMATION

The Services are not directed to children under 18 (or other age as required by local law), and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you learn that your child has provided us with personal information in violation of applicable law, we will delete any personal information.

SUPERVISORY AUTHORITY

If your personal information is subject to the applicable data protection laws of the European Economic Area, Switzerland, or the United Kingdom, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority if you believe our processing of your personal information violates applicable law.

• EEA Data Protection Authorities (DPAs)

• Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC)

• UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)

CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

We may revise this Privacy Policy from time to time at our sole discretion. If there are any material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you as required by applicable law. You understand and agree that you will be deemed to have accepted the updated Privacy Policy if you continue to use the Services after the new Privacy Policy takes effect.

CONTACT US

If you have any questions about our privacy practices or this Privacy Policy, or if you wish to submit a request to exercise your rights as detailed in this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:

Tabetha Hinman, Esq.
Attn: Privacy Questions
1725 Lincoln Ave.
San Jose, CA 95125
info@hinmanlegal.com
+1 650.291.3485