BUCHER LAW PLLC
Privacy Policy
Last Updated: May 18, 2023
Bucher Law PLLC (“we” or “us”) is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, store, use and distribute information through our website, legal management software, law firm, and related services (together, the “Services”) to determine if you are eligible to bring claims and to legally represent you if Bucher Law PLLC ultimately makes an offer to represent you and you accept that offer.
Consent. By using the Services, you consent to the use of your Personal Information as described in this Privacy Policy. If you are not of legal age to form a binding contract (in many jurisdictions, this age is 18), you may only use the Services and disclose information to us with your parent’s or legal guardian’s express consent. Review this Privacy Policy with your parent or legal guardian to make sure you understand it. Except as set forth in this Privacy Policy, your Personal Information will not be used for any other purpose without your consent. We do not actively collect Personal Information for the purpose of sale (i.e. we don’t sell customer lists). We do use your information to gather information regarding any potential claims you may have, confirm you are a bono fide client, and to limit the number of advertisements you see. You can terminate our attorney client relationship at any time, but, even if you do, pursuant to ethics rules governing attorneys, there is some information we must keep on file to ensure compliance with conflicts of interest and other ethical rules governing the legal profession.
Collection of Information.
Claim Eligibility Information: When using the Services and determining whether to make an offer to represent you, we may require you to provide certain personally identifiable information, such as your name, company/organization name, address, phone number, email address, Steam account name or ID number, and/or social media username (these are referred to below as your “Claim Eligibility Information”). Your Claim Eligibility Information together with any other information we gather through the Services that may be used to identify, contact, or locate you individually, are collectively referred to herein as your “Personal Information.”
Data, Diagnostic & Login Information: You may be able to create, upload, publish, transmit, distribute, display, store or share information, data, text, graphics, video, messages or other materials using our Services (this is collectively referred to below as “Data”). Some of this Data may be stored and maintained on our servers and the servers of our software provider Leverage Law. If you run into technical errors in the course of using the Services, we may request your permission to obtain a crash report along with certain logging information from your system documenting the error (“Diagnostic Information”). Such information may contain information regarding your Operating System version, hardware, browser version, and your email address, if provided. Additionally, certain login information may be maintained in a cookie stored locally on your personal computing device (i.e. not on a server) in order to streamline the login process (“Login Information”).
Usage and Analytics Information: We may also collect information through the use of commonly-used information-gathering tools, such as cookies, log files, and Web beacons. Collectively, this information is referred to as “Usage and Analytics Information.”
Cookies: We use standard browser cookies to allow us to remember details of a user session. For example, we may use cookies to make it easier for the user to resume a recent session without re-entering their log-in details. You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of our Services.
Log Files: As is true of most websites, we gather certain information automatically to analyze trends in the aggregate and administer the Services. This information may include your Internet Protocol (IP) address (or the proxy server you use to access the World Wide Web), your browser type, the pages and files you viewed, your operating system, your actions in connection with our Services, device identifiers, and date/time stamps associated with your usage.
Web Beacons: We use web beacons alone or in conjunction with cookies to compile information about your usage of the Services and interaction with emails from us. Web beacons are clear electronic images that can recognize certain types of information on your computer, such as cookies, when you viewed a particular website or Service tied to the web beacon, and a description of a website or Service tied to the web beacon. For example, we may place web beacons in marketing emails that notify us when you click on a link in the email that directs you to one of our websites. We also use web beacons to operate and improve the Services and our email communications.
Use of Information. We use the information we collect in the following ways:
Claim Eligibility Information: We use this information to manage your account, to provide the Services, to maintain our customer/visitor lists, to respond to your inquiries or request feedback, for identification and authentication purposes, to confirm that you are a bono fide potential claimant seeking legal services, for service improvement, and to address issues like malicious use of the Services. If you become a client of Bucher Law PLLC, we will also use this information to pursue your case and any legal claims we assert on your behalf.
Data, Diagnostic Information and Login Information: We use this information for the purpose of administering and improving our Services to you. We may also use this information in a de-identified, anonymous way in conjunction with an analytics service such as Google Analytics to monitor and analyze use of the Services, for the Services’ technical administration, to increase the Services’ functionality and user-friendliness.
Usage and Analytics Information: We use this information to analyze overall trends, to help us improve the Services, to track and aggregate non-personal information, to confirm you are a bono fide potential claimant seeking legal services, and to provide the Services. For example, we use IP addresses to monitor the regions from which customers and visitors navigate the Websites, and to detect potential fraudulent claims being submitted via our website.
Non-US Users. These Services are hosted in the United States and are intended primarily for visitors located within the United States or seeking legal counsel in the United States. If you choose to use the Services from other regions of the world with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from U.S. law, then please note that you may be transferring your Personal Information outside of those regions to the United States for storage and processing. By providing your Personal Information through the Services, you consent to such transfer, storage, and processing.
Security. The security of your Personal Information is important to us. We use commercially reasonable efforts to store and maintain your Personal Information in a secure environment. We take technical, contractual, administrative, and physical security steps designed to protect Personal Information that you provide to us. We have implemented procedures designed to limit the dissemination of your Personal Information to only such designated staff as are reasonably necessary to carry out the stated purposes we have communicated to you.
You are also responsible for helping to protect the security of your Personal Information. For instance, never give out your password, and safeguard your user name, password and personal credentials when you are using the Services, so that other people will not have access to your Personal Information. Furthermore, you are responsible for maintaining the security of any personal computing device on which you utilize the Services.
Sharing Information with Third Parties. The privacy policies of these third parties are not under our control and may differ from ours. The use of any information that you may provide to any third parties will be governed by the privacy policy of such third party or by your independent agreement with such third party, as the case may be. If you have any doubts about the privacy of the information you are providing to a third party, we recommend that you contact that third party directly for more information or to review its privacy policy.
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Leverage Law. We use a software provider called Leverage Law to manage your data and client files. Your data is managed securely on this platform and Leverage Law uses the data in full compliance with the applicable legal and ethical rules concerning the management of client data in an attorney-client relationship.
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Facebook Pixel. We use the “advertising pixel” from Facebook Inc. (“Facebook”) on our website. This allows user behavior to be tracked after they have been redirected to the provider’s website by clicking on a Facebook ad. This enables us to measure the effectiveness of Facebook ads for statistical and market research purposes. The data collected in this way is anonymous to us, i.e. we do not see the personal data of individual users. However, this data is stored and processed by Facebook, which is why we are informing you, based on our knowledge of the situation. Facebook may link this information to your Facebook account and also use it for its own promotional purposes, in accordance with Facebook’s Data Usage Policy at https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/. You can allow Facebook and its partners to place ads on and off Facebook. A cookie may also be stored on your computer for these purposes. You can object to the collection of your data by Facebook pixel, or to the use of your data for the purpose of displaying Facebook ads by contacting the following address: https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads.
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Google Marketing Services. We use the marketing and remarketing services of Google LLC (“Google”) on our website. These services allow us to display advertisements in a more targeted manner in order to present advertisements of interest to users. Through remarketing, ads and products are displayed to users relating to an interest established by activity on other websites within the Google Network. For these purposes, a code is used by Google when our website is accessed and what are referred to as (re)marketing tags are incorporated into the website. With their help, an individual cookie, i.e. a small file, is stored on the user’s device (comparable technologies may also be used instead of cookies). This file records which apps users have visited, which content they are interested in and which offers have been used. In addition, technical information about the browser and operating system, IP address, referring websites, the length of the visit, as well as additional data about the use of the online products and services are stored. For more information about Google’s use of data for marketing purposes, please see the summary page: https://www.google.com/policies/technologies/ads. Google’s privacy policy is available at https://www.google.com/policies/privacy. If you wish to object to interest-based advertising by Google marketing services, you can do so using the settings and opt-out options provided by Google: http://www.google.com/settings/ads.
Retention. We will keep your Personal Information for as long as it remains necessary for the identified purpose or as required by law, which may extend beyond the termination of our relationship with you. We may retain certain data as necessary to prevent fraud or future abuse, or for legitimate business purposes, such as analysis of aggregated, non-personally-identifiable data, account recovery, or if required by law. All retained Personal Information will remain subject to the terms of this Privacy Policy. Please note that if you request that your Personal Information be removed from our databases, it may not be possible to completely delete all of your Personal Information due to technological and legal constraints.
Amendment of this Privacy Policy. We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time. If we decide to change this Privacy Policy in the future, we will post or provide appropriate notice. Any non-material change (such as clarifications) to this Privacy Policy will become effective on the date the change is posted, and any material changes will become effective 30 days from their posting on bucherlawfirm.com/privacypolicy or via email to your listed email address. Unless stated otherwise, our current Privacy Policy applies to all Personal Information that we have about you and your account. The date on which the latest update was made is indicated at the top of this document. We recommend that you print a copy of this Privacy Policy for your reference and revisit this policy from time to time to ensure you are aware of any changes. Your continued use of the Services signifies your acceptance of any changes.
Access and Accuracy. You have the right to access the Personal Information we hold about you in order to verify the Personal Information we have collected in respect to you and to have a general account of our uses of that information. Upon receipt of your written request, we will provide you with a copy of your Personal Information, although in certain limited circumstances we may not be able to make all relevant information available to you, such as where that information also pertains to another user. In such circumstances we will provide reasons for the denial to you upon request. We will endeavor to deal with all requests for access and modifications in a timely manner.
We will make every reasonable effort to keep your Personal Information accurate and up-to-date, and we will provide you with mechanisms to update, correct, delete or add to your Personal Information as appropriate. As appropriate, this amended Personal Information will be transmitted to those parties to which we are permitted to disclose your information. Having accurate Personal Information about you enables us to give you the best possible service.
Notice to California Residents.
Pursuant to the CCPA, we do not sell your personal information. To the extent provided for by law and subject to applicable exceptions, California residents have the following privacy rights in relation to the personal information we collect:
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The right to know what personal information we have collected and how we have used and disclosed that personal information;
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The right to opt out of the sale of your personal information;
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The right to request deletion of your personal information; and
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The right to be free from discrimination relating to the exercise of the foregoing privacy rights.
California residents can exercise the above privacy rights by emailing us at steam@bucherlawfirm.com with the subject line “CCPA Request.” When submitting your request, please include the following information: (i) your name, (ii) email you provided with your Claim Eligibility Information, and (iii) what action you are requesting (i.e. right to know or deletion). Note that because legal ethics rules require that attorneys maintain a list of their former clients, if you are or have been a client of Bucher Law PLLC, some basic information such as your name cannot lawfully be permanently removed from Bucher Law PLLC’s database, but we will delete any and all additional data we are not required to maintain pursuant to attorney ethics rules.
Verification: In order to protect your personal information from unauthorized access or deletion, we may require you to verify your login credentials before you can submit a request to know or delete personal information. If you do not have an account with us, or if we suspect fraudulent or malicious activity, we may ask you to provide additional personal information for verification. If we cannot verify your identity, we will not provide or delete your personal information.
Authorized Agents: You may submit a request to know or a request to delete your personal information through an authorized agent. If you do so, the agent must present signed written permission to act on your behalf and you may also be required to independently verify your identity with us.
Under California Civil Code Sections 1798.83-1798.84, California residents are entitled to ask us for a notice identifying the categories of Personal Information which we share with our affiliates and/or third parties for marketing purposes, and providing contact information for such affiliates and/or third parties. We do not share your personally identifiable information with third parties for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes.
Consent to Receive Text Messages and Calls.
You authorize us to communicate with you using all means and technologies in common use, including email and text messaging. If you do not want us to contact you, just email us. We will put you on a "do not contact" list. You provide us and our designees and agents your express permission and authorization to send text messages and automated calls to the number or numbers you provide to us or our agents during the intake process and thereafter. You represent that you are the subscriber of those numbers and have the authority to give such consent. By executing this agreement, you authorize us to deliver or cause to be delivered to you telemarketing calls using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice. You are not required to provide us this authorization for us to represent you. If you do not wish to receive text messages or automated calls, please let us know by sending an email to steam@bucherlawfirm.com with the subject SMS CONSENT followed by your name. Bucher Law PLLC will be sending no more than four text messages a week, regarding your claim, potential claim, or legal documents that need to be filled out for their case/claim. Reply HELP for help, Reply STOP to stop, Message and data rates may apply, and carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages.
Contact Us. You can help by keeping us informed of any changes such as a change of email address or telephone number. If you would like to access your information, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, if you find any errors in our information about you, or if you have a complaint concerning our compliance with applicable privacy laws, please contact us at steam@bucherlawfirm.com or by mail at:
Bucher Law PLLC
350 Northern Blvd
STE 324 -1519
Albany, NY 12204-1000