Privacy Policy
Boston Technology Law Privacy Policy
Last Modified: February 1, 2023
Boston Technology Law, PLLC (“BTL”, “we”, “us” or “our”) is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy applies to Personal Information that we collect, use, share or otherwise process in the conduct of our business operations, including through the Services that we provide to our clients. As professionals engaged in the provision of legal services, a cornerstone policy of the firm is to comply with the rules of professional conduct, which require us to preserve and protect confidential client information. Nothing in this Privacy Policy is intended to limit or modify our ethical obligations under the applicable rules of professional conduct.
Additionally, this Privacy Policy applies to Personal Information obtained from or regarding Site visitors, job applicants and other third parties who provide Personal Information to us.
Please read this Privacy Policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding our treatment of Personal Information. If you do not agree with our practices as described in this Privacy Policy, please do not access or use our Services or our Site, or any other aspect of our business. If you have any privacy-related questions or concerns, please contact us as set forth in the “Contact Us” section below.
If you are a resident of the European Economic Area, United Kingdom or Switzerland, please additionally see Addendum 1 below.
1. Overview
The following terms have the following meanings for purposes of this Privacy Policy:
- “Personal Information” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person who can be identified, directly or indirectly, by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person. “Personal Information” includes information or data that would be considered “personal information,” “sensitive personal information” or “personal data” under applicable data protection laws and regulations.
- “Services” means:
- our performance of professional legal services;
- the information provided by us through our Site;
- our marketing and business development activities, including any social media properties we create and emails that we send (collectively, “Marketing Activities”); and
- all other online publications and activities owned, controlled or otherwise made available or performed by us.
- “Site” means our website available at https://bostontechlaw.com.
- “You” means an individual whose Personal Information we collect, use, share or otherwise process in providing the Services and as more fully set forth in this Privacy Policy, including without limitation our actual or prospective clients and their employees and representatives, and visitors to our Site.
2. Information we Collect and Receive
We collect Personal Information directly from individuals and from third parties in the course of providing and marketing the Services for actual and prospective clients, including without limitation contact information; financial, billing and account information; records of prior communications; information regarding matters undertaken for our clients; and information regarding actual and prospective BTL employees. We may also collect Personal Information when you interact with or provide information on social media or through our Site (including via “contact us” forms, technical usage data automatically collected upon visits to our Site, and as described in our cookie policy below).
We also collect and process other types of information and data which does not constitute Personal Information. For example, we may de-identify and aggregate certain Personal Information we collect such that the information no longer identifies, and cannot any longer reasonably be linked to, a particular user or individual. We may use this information to improve our Services and Site, to analyze trends, to create market research, and for other development, marketing, research and statistical purposes, and we may disclose such de-identified information to third parties for these purposes.
3. Purposes for Use of Personal Information
We use the Personal Information we collect for our legitimate business interests, which include the following purposes:
- Providing the Services: To provide you with the Services; to communicate with you about the Services, to respond to your inquiries; to perform essential business operations or otherwise to carry out the matters we undertake on your behalf or on behalf of our clients.
- Personalization: To tailor the content and information that we may send or display to you via the Services and the Site, and otherwise to personalize your experience.
- Marketing: To share relevant information about the Services; to perform marketing, such as to send news and newsletters regarding the Services or the Site; to conduct surveys and similar inquiries; or to otherwise contact you about the Services or provide other information we think may be of interest to you. If you do not wish to receive newsletters or other communications that we think would be of interest, you may opt out of or withdraw your consent to receive direct marketing emails from us at any time. Instructions on how to unsubscribe from relevant alerts and newsletters are included in each email, or you may opt out or withdraw your consent by contacting us; please see the “Contact Us” section below.
- Compliance: To comply with applicable legal obligations and requests, such as to comply with laws that compel us to disclose information to public authorities, courts, law enforcement or regulators, and to maintain records for a period sufficient to enable us to comply with our legal and ethical obligations.
- Business and legal operations: To conduct our general business and legal operations, such as accounting, record-keeping, and other business administration purposes; and as necessary to establish, exercise and defend (actual and potential) legal claims.
- Prevent misuse: To investigate, prevent or take action regarding unlawful activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the security of the Services or the Site or to any person or property, or actual or potential violations of our terms of service, other agreements or this Privacy Policy.
We do not profile visitors to our Site or collect, in any automated manner, any special categories of sensitive Personal Information. No automated decision-making, including profiling, is used when processing Personal Information.
4. How we Share and Disclose Personal Information
We may share Personal Information with the following categories of recipients:
- Third-party vendors: Certain of your Personal Information may be shared with and processed by non-affiliated third-party vendors, including service providers and contractors, as permitted by law and for the business purposes described in this Privacy Policy. We may disclose Personal Information to certain non-affiliated specialized service providers, including professional advisors, consultants, technical service providers, and other third parties, who are bound by contractual obligations to keep Personal Information confidential and use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them. We may disclose your Personal Information to third-party service providers to provide us with services such as hosting of the Services and the Site, including information technology and telephony services, and related infrastructure, billing, customer service, email delivery, auditing and other similar services.
- Business transfers: When applicable, we may share your information in connection with an actual or proposed substantial corporate transaction, such as a merger, consolidation, asset sale, or in the unlikely event of bankruptcy; including in negotiations, due diligence, and integrations related to such transactions.
- Third-party management of our advertising: We may share information with third parties that manage only our advertising on other sites and applications. However, we do not disclose your Personal Information to third parties for purposes of their own advertising.
- With your consent or at your direction: We may share information for any other purposes disclosed to you at the time we collect the information or pursuant to your consent or direction.
- Other legal reasons: In addition, we may use or disclose your Personal Information as we deem necessary or appropriate: (1) under applicable law, regulation or ethical obligation; (2) to respond to requests or required disclosures from public and government authorities; (3) to pursue available remedies or limit damages we may sustain; (4) to protect our operations; and (5) to protect the rights, privacy, safety or property of BTL, you, and others.
We may disclose de-identified or aggregated information that does not identify any individual (and therefore is not deemed to be Personal Information) without restriction.
5. Data Security
We have implemented privacy and security measures reasonably adequate to preserve Personal Information from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. Although we work hard to protect your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you choose to transmit to us through the Services, online forms and applications or other such mechanisms, and you do so at your own risk. In accordance with applicable law, we will let you know promptly if a breach occurs that we determine may have compromised the privacy or security of your Personal Information. We are not responsible for any outcome resulting from your circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures.
6. Retention of Personal Information
We will retain your Personal Information for the period necessary to fulfill and provide the Services, including as set forth in a client engagement letter with you, as applicable. We will also retain your Personal Information to comply with our legal obligations and resolve disputes.
All Personal Information we retain will be subject to this Privacy Policy and our internal retention guidelines. We will delete your Personal Information when it is no longer required for the above-mentioned purposes. If you have a question about a specific retention period for certain types of Personal Information we process about you, please contact us in accordance with the “Contact Us” section below.
7. Children’s Privacy
The Services and the Site are only intended for individuals who are at least 16 years of age. We do not knowingly encourage or solicit visitors to the Site who are under the age of 16 or knowingly collect Personal Information from anyone under the age of 16 without parental fiduciary consent. If we learn we have collected or received Personal Information from a child under 16 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 16, please contact us in accordance with the “Contact Us” section below.
We are committed to complying with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The Services and the Site are not directed to children under the age of 13 and children under the age of 13 are not to use or provide any information to the Services or the Site without express parental consent. We do not knowingly collect Personal Information from children under the age of 13. If we receive Personal Information that we discover was provided by a child under the age of 13 without parental consent, we will promptly destroy such information.
8. Withdrawal of your Consent
Where you have provided consent to process Personal Information, you have the right to withdraw such consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal or the lawfulness of processing based on other lawful bases. You may do this by contacting us as set forth in the “Contact Us” section below.
9. Cookies Notice
We may use cookies and related technologies (“Cookies”) to provide the Services, gather information when users navigate through the Site to enhance and personalize the experience, to understand usage patterns, and to improve the Services and the Site.
What are cookies and why are cookies used: Cookies are small text files containing a unique string of characters that are stored in your web browser’s memory when you visit a website. When you return to a website that has placed a cookie in your browser, the cookie allows a website provider to recognize that you have visited the site before.
While cookies are often only used to measure website usage (such as number of visitors and duration of visit) and effectiveness (such as topics visitors are most interested in) and to allow for ease of navigation or use and, as such, are not associated with any Personal Information, they are also used at times to personalize a known visitor’s experience of a website by being associated with profile information or user preferences. They are also used to provide us with insights into usage of the Services and the Site in order to help us improve the user experience.
Cookies on our Site are generally divided into the following categories:
- Necessary Cookies: These cookies are necessary to provide you with the Services and the Site to use some of their features, such as access to secure areas. Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the Services, you cannot refuse them without impacting how the Services and the Site function. These cookies do not collect identifying information about you, and they do not monitor or remember any of your internet browsing on sites other than the Site.
- Helpful Cookies: These cookies allow us to provide you with a better experience when you use the Services and the Site. These cookies do not collect identifying information about you, and they do not monitor or remember any of your internet browsing on sites other than the Site.
- Analytics and Customization Cookies: These cookies collect information to help us understand how the Services and the Site are being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize the Services and the Site for you to enhance your experience. This data is anonymous and only used for statistical purposes, analytics cookies do not collect or share any personally identifiable information. These cookies qualify as “third-party” cookies as they are not sent directly by us.
- Pixel Tags: Pages of our Site and our emails may contain small electronic files known as pixel tags (also referred to as clear gifs, web beacons, and single-pixel gifs) that permit us, for example, to count users who have visited those pages (or opened an email) and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website content and verifying system and server integrity). Pixel Tags have a similar function as Cookies. However, Pixel Tags differ from Cookies in that they are embedded directly on webpages or in HTML-based emails, instead of being stored on a user’s local storage drive. We may utilize Pixel Tags in our email marketing activities to allow us to track which emails have been opened by recipients, and through that, understand the efficacy of our email marketing activities.
- Targeting Cookies: These record your visit to our Site, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed to recognize you as a previous visitor and to track your activity on the Site and other sites you visit. These Cookies qualify as persistent cookies, because they remain on your device for us to use during a subsequent visit to our Site. You can delete these Cookies via your browser settings. See below for further details on how you can control third-party targeting cookies.
- Google Analytics: Our Site may use Google Analytics. Google Analytics uses cookies to help us to analyze how users use the Site. It counts the number of visitors and tells us things about their behavior in the aggregate. Google Analytics does not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. You may see how Google uses data when you use our Site at https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
For more information on how to control Cookies:
- You can review your Internet browser settings, typically under the sections “Preferences,” “Help” or “Internet Options,” to exercise choices you have for certain Cookies. If you choose to block all cookies, you may not have access to our Site, our Services will not function as intended, and you will not be able to log in. If you have blocked all cookies and wish to make full use of the features and Services we offer, we recommend enabling at least first-party cookies. Rather than blocking all cookies, you can choose to block only third-party cookies. This will allow the Services to function as intended.
- To learn more about the use of Cookies by Google for analytics, please see https://policies.google.com/technologies/cookies. To exercise choice regarding those Cookies, please see the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. The opt-outs described above are device- and browser-specific and may not work on all devices.
10. Links to Third-Party Sites
Occasionally we may provide links to other sites for your convenience and information. These sites operate independently from our Site and are not under our control. These sites may have their own privacy notices or terms of use, which you should review if you visit any sites linked through our Site. We are not responsible for the content or use of these unrelated sites.
11. Updates to this Privacy Policy
We may change our Privacy Policy from time to time, at our discretion. We encourage individuals to frequently check this page for any changes to this Privacy Policy.
12. Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, including the processing of your Personal Information, if you would like to exercise your data rights under applicable laws, or if you believe your privacy rights have been violated, please contact us by emailing info@bostontechlaw.com or by mail at the following address:
Boston Technology Law, PLLC
Re: Privacy Policy
Cambridge Innovation Center
One Broadway, 14th Floor
Cambridge, MA 02142
Addendum 1
European Economic Area, United Kingdom and Switzerland Residents Privacy Rights
The following provisions additionally apply to residents of the European Economic Area, United Kingdom and Switzerland.
Your Personal Information will be treated in a secure and confidential manner, using appropriate technical and organizational measures, in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations, including the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), and the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection. Depending on the context in which personal information is provided, we may be a data processor (“processor”) or a data controller (“controller”) of your personal information.
The following legal bases for processing Personal Information apply to the foregoing purposes:
| Purposes of Processing (see above) | Legal Bases of Processing |
|---|---|
| Providing the Services |
|
| Personalization |
|
| Marketing |
|
| Compliance |
|
| Business and legal operations |
|
| Prevent misuse |
|
As applicable under the GDPR and UK GDPR, individuals have additional rights including (a) the right to obtain a copy of your Personal Information together with information about how and on what legal basis that information is processed; (b) the right to rectify inaccurate Personal Information (including to have incomplete Personal Information completed); (c) the right to erase your Personal Information (in limited circumstances, such as where it is no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which it was collected or processed); (d) the right to restrict processing of your Personal Information under certain circumstances; (e) the right to export certain Personal Information in machine-readable format to a third party (or to you) when we justify our processing on the basis of your consent or the performance of a contract with you and the processing is carried out by automated means; (f) the right to withdraw your consent to our processing of your Personal Information (where that processing is based on your consent, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal); (g) the right to obtain, or see a copy of the appropriate safeguards under which your Personal Information is transferred to a third country or international organization; and (h) the right to object to our use and processing of your Personal Information that is conducted on the basis of our legitimate interest. You also have the right to object at any time to any processing of your Personal Information for direct marketing purposes, including profiling for marketing purposes. You may opt out of or withdraw your consent to receive direct marketing emails from us at any time. Instructions on how to unsubscribe from relevant alerts and newsletters are included in each email, or you may opt out or withdraw your consent by contacting us; please see the “Contact Us” section above.
Lodging a Complaint: You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority for data protection, or privacy regulator.
Submitting a Request: To exercise the above rights or contact us with questions or complaints regarding our treatment of your personal information, please contact us in accordance with the “Contact Us” section above. Please note that we may request proof of identity, and we reserve the right to charge a fee where permitted by law, especially if your request is manifestly unfounded or excessive. We will respond to your request within the applicable timeframes set out by law.
International Transfers: If you are located within the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, you should note that your Personal Information may be transferred to countries outside these jurisdictions, including the United States where BTL or certain of our third-party service providers are located. The United States is deemed by the European Union to provide inadequate data protection. Transfers of your Personal Information between us and a third party shall be done pursuant to adequate protections, which may include Standard Contractual Clauses, your explicit consent, and/or other permitted mechanisms under applicable law.
In addition, please check the following sections of this Privacy Policy: “Information we Collect and Receive”; “Purposes for Use of Personal Information”; “How we Share and Disclose Personal Information”; and “Withdrawal of your Consent”.