Privacy Policy

 

Effective May 1, 2020

 

By using this Site (as defined herein) you are agreeing to the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy (this “Privacy Policy”). Our website www.legalclose.com (the “Site”) is owned and operated by LegalClose, LLC (“LegalClose,” “we,” “us,” or “our” as used in this Privacy Policy), and the Site provides real estate closing resources, informational materials, cost predictions, closing services, tools, e-mail marketing, advertising, and lead generation, and related services (collectively the “Services”). This Privacy Policy describes how we collect and use information from you when you use the Site or the Services, as well as how we secure information. By agreeing to our Terms of Use (as set forth on the Site), you have consented to the data and information handling practices described in this Privacy Policy. Capitalized terms that are used in this Privacy Policy, but not otherwise defined in this Privacy Policy shall have the meanings ascribed to them in the Terms of Use.

 

We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time, and we will notify you of any material changes by posting a message on the Site or sending you an electronic message. Your continued use of the Site or the Services after any such changes will constitute your acceptance of any modifications or changes to this Privacy Policy.

 

WHAT WE COLLECT AND HOW WE USE IT:

You can use the Site by just browsing without putting your personal data or information into the Site (each a “Visitor” and collectively “Visitors”) or by creating and maintaining a business relationship with us (each a “Consumer” and collectively “Consumers”). Each Visitor and Consumer may be referred to in this Privacy Policy by the terms “you” or “your.” The Services are only available to a Consumer.

 

SITE VISITORS:

From each Visitor, whether or not they are, or become, a Consumer, we collect, among other items, information about the technical mechanisms you used to access the Site, including, but not limited to, your browser and operating system type, the link that brought you to our Site, data points that help our analytics function and which tell us what brought you to a particular spot on the Site, and your IP address that is automatically anonymized when used by our third-party analytics services (collectively “Usage Information”). We use Usage Information to inspect, analyze, and improve the Site and the Services and ensure it all functions well with the technology used by a Visitor. In addition to analytics about the demographics of a Visitor to the Site, we use IP addresses for each Visitor to confirm we can deliver the Site and the Services to you based on applicable legal rules.

 

BUSINESS INFORMATION:

When you use the Site by accepting the Terms of Use or this Privacy Policy, whether by clicking “Start Closing” or proceeding with us in another manner (“Engagement”), you choose to supply additional information about yourself to us, including, but not limited to, your first name, last name, address and zip code, phone number, e-mail address and other personal information. In order to create a business relationship with us after you use the Site and create an Engagement you may be asked to provide us with additional information about you that may include, but is not limited to, information about certain real estate you own or expect to own (the “Property”), information about your mortgage on the Property and any lender you may be working with to refinance your mortgage on the Property (the “Refinance”), information about any existing purchase and sale contract for the Property (the “Existing Contract”), information necessary to build a purchase and sale contract for the Property (the “New Contract”), and other details about your personal attributes as they relate to the Property, the Refinance, the Existing Contract, and the New Contract (collectively, “Business Information”). We use each of these data points to match and connect you with an attorney, a law firm, or a closing and title agent to assist you with questions regarding the closing of the Property, the Refinance, the Existing Contract, or the New Contract, as applicable. Business Information is never required to visit the Site, but we do use this information to perform an analysis of your needs for the Services.

 

COOKIES AND WEB BEACONS:

The Site and the Services, especially the informational resources, are possible in part because we enable advertising by third-parties on the Site. To do so, we use cookies and web beacon technologies for a Visitor and a Consumer. Cookies are a small piece of software or text placed on your computer when you visit a website. They are used to store information on website browsers, to store and receive identifiers and other information on computers, tablets, laptops, phones, and other devices. They may include data we store on your web browser or device, identifiers associated with your device, and other software. In this Privacy Policy, we refer to all of these technologies that store or reference data on your own device as “cookies.”

 

If you use the Services and create an Engagement, we also use a cookie to recognize you on return visits to the Site. You can remove cookies through your website browser preferences menu, though the exact method varies depending on the type of website browser you use. If you visit from a phone, tablet, laptop, or other mobile device, we may reference your device identifier or other information about where your visit originated. The various cookies used on the Site last for ninety or more days.


We use cookies to:

  • Verify your information and determine whether you have previously visited the Site so we can make it easier for you to access or use the Services and show you the appropriate experience and features on the Site;

  • Show marketing, ads, and informational resources and to make recommendations for businesses and other organizations to people who may be interested in the products, services or causes they promote;

  • Measure the performance of marketing and ad campaigns for us and for businesses that market, advertise, or provide informational resources with or through the Site, including through re-targeting campaigns;

  • Serve and measure ads across different browsers and devices used by the same person; and

  • Conduct web analytics on usage of the Site and the Services.

You can opt-out of certain of cookies and tracking technologies by visiting the Digital Advertising Alliance Opt-out here. Note that this opt-out only applies to certain cookies and tracking technologies we use. Web beacons (also sometimes called “clear GIFs”) are small files stored and/or served on a website on in an e-mail that collect, track, or transmit a data point back to us or to a third-party. For example, we use a web beacon to assess whether an e-mail message has been opened.

We use web beacons to facilitate marketing and advertising, informational resources, and functionality on the Site, as well, including without limitation to:

  • Associate our users with the reports they provide about satisfaction with the Site and the Services;

  • Administer and monitor e-mail campaigns;

  • Analyze the portions of the Site that are used most often by Visitors, as well as how Visitors interact with the Site;

  • Perform A/B testing on the Site;

  • Optimize interaction with our data stores;

  • Improve the functionality and usefulness of our support and support chat functions;

  • Analyze the efficacy of our own advertising campaigns;

  • Customize the content displayed to you on the Site;

  • Organize and administer other web beacons and cookies on the Site;

  • Conduct web analytics on usage of the Site and the Services; and

  • Enable, improve, and effect targeted and re-targeted advertising for our advertising partners on both the Site and their third-party sites.

In some cases, the above web beacons functions may be performed by custom HTML in the Site’s code. We may use cookies and/or web beacons to track if and when a Visitor or Consumer abandons an Engagement before it is complete and attempts to re-engage that Visitor or Consumer. We do not currently have the ability to recognize Do Not Track signals.

 

FINANCIAL INFORMATION:

If you submit a credit card payment through the Site, for example to access, use, or purchase the Services, we will transmit your payment details, including without limitation your credit card number, to the payee through an encrypted transmission. We do not store credit card information on our own servers or associate it with your other Business Information for any purpose other than completing your access, use, or purchase of the Services.

 

OTHER USES OF BUSINESS INFORMATION:

In addition to the above, we may use Business Information to:

  • Otherwise provide, improve, maintain, or optimize the Services;

  • Help provide accurate quotes for real estate closing services;

  • Provide attorneys and closing and title agent with the required information for real estate legal, closing, and title services;

  • Provide or offer other financial and consumer products and services from partners with whom we have entered into a joint marketing agreement;

  • Provide, maintain and improve customer service;

  • Tailor your experience with the Services to your interests;

  • Develop and improve the Site and the Services;

  • Respond to your inquiries;

  • Communicate with you regarding the Services as well as other products and services that may be of interest to you and related to the Services or the Site; and

  • In addition, we may aggregate Business Information with our other Business Information and use that information for bench-marking and analysis purposes.

 

HOW WE SHARE YOUR BUSINESS INFORMATION:

We share Business Information with third-parties only as described in this Privacy Policy. Specifically, in addition to the usages described above, we share Business Information with attorneys, law firms, and real estate closing and title service providers. With regard to the Business Information we collect, generally:

  • With certain third-party vendors that help us administer the Site and the Services (and who has agreed to keep personal information they receive confidential and use it only or the purpose of providing a portion the Services or additional services requested by you), including by: (i) storing and hosting our content or your data; (ii) performing analytics on the Site and the Services; and (iii) providing operational, informational, advertising, and marketing assistance to us.

  • With corporate affiliates including any of our subsidiaries, joint ventures, or other companies under common control with us.

  • With counter-parties in the course of a corporate sale, merger, reorganization, sale of assets, dissolution, or similar event, some or all of the Business Information may be part of the transferred assets.

  • To the extent permitted by law, when required by law, in connection with a court order, or other government or law enforcement authority or regulatory agency, or whenever we believe that disclosing Business Information is necessary or advisable, for example, to protect the rights, property, or safety of us or others.

 

HOW WE SECURE YOUR BUSINESS INFORMATION:

We secure Business Information stored in our data storage system using encryption, and use additional encryption mechanisms to secure certain sensitive fields on our database. The Site uses HTTPS and SSL protocols, and transmissions from the Site to our data storage system use TLS encryption standard or better. Vendors who receive personally-identifiable Business Information from us are contractually obligated to impose no less than reasonable security measures on their storage infrastructure, and in any case no lesser measures than they use for their own data.

 

While we take commercially reasonable steps to protect Business Information from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction, we cannot guarantee perfect security – no web-based service can do so. No security system is impenetrable. Despite our security measures, we cannot guarantee the security of our data storage system, nor can we guarantee that Business Information you supply to us or we supply to third-parties will not be intercepted while being transmitted to and from us over the web.

 

CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS:

Under California Civil Code Section 1798.83, California residents who have established business relationships with us may choose to opt out of our sharing their Business Information with third-parties for direct marketing purposes. If you are a California resident and (1) you wish to opt out; or (2) you wish to request certain information regarding our disclosure of your Business Information to third-parties for the direct marketing purposes, please send an e-mail to privacy@legalclose.com.

 

VISITORS FROM OUTSIDE THE U.S.:

If you are visiting the Site or attempting to access, use, or purchase the Services from a location outside of the U.S., your connection will be through and to servers located in the U.S. All Business Information you provide to us will be maintained in web servers and/or internal systems located within the U.S. By providing us with any Business Information through the Site or in the attempt to access, use, or purchase the Services, you consent to transfer of your Business Information to the U.S.


By default, we use our best efforts to disable the submissions of Business Information to the Site from Visitors using European Union IP Addresses, regardless of whether a Visitor is an EU citizen or using a VPN device. If you need access to your account and are using an EU IP Address, please email 
privacy@legalclose.com with (i) a description of the access and/or help you need, and (ii) an express consent to use any personal information in our possession to respond to your request.

 

CHILDREN:
We do not knowingly collect personal information or Business Information from children under the age of 18. If you are under 18, please do not give us any personal information or Business Information and do not use the Site or access, use, or purchase the Services. If you have reason to believe that a child under the age of 18 has provided personal information or Business Information to us, please contact us immediately, and we will delete that information from our data storage system.

 

EXTERNAL SITES:

The Site may contain links to third-party websites, including, without limitation, the websites of the real estate service providers offering the third-party services and products made available to you through the access, use, or purchase of the Services (each an “External Site” and collectively “External Sites”), but we do not endorse and we are not responsible for the content of any linked External Sites or for the privacy practices of the third-parties that own and operate such sites. Before using any External Site, please refer to the terms of use and privacy policies of the External Sites for more information, as those terms and policies govern your use of such External Sites.

 

HOW TO OPT-OUT:

If you wish to opt-out of the use of your personal information or Business Information, we are happy to assist you. Please email us at privacy@legalclose.com and let us know what you wish to opt-out of from our Site or the Services. Please be advised that certain uses and sharing of Business Information or additional information may be required to continue providing the Services to you, and that you will not be entitled to any refund if your removal of Business Information or other personal information will make certain prepaid portions of the Services unavailable to you.

 

QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS:

If you have additional questions or would like more information regarding our information collection, use of disclosure practices or other aspects of this Privacy Policy, please feel free to contact us at privacy@legalclose.com.