This Privacy Policy discloses the privacy practices
for the HeardandSmith.com website and various
related services (together referred to as the
“site"). Heard & Smith, LLP,
the provider of the site (referred to as “us”
or “we" or “Heard & Smith”), is committed to protecting your privacy
online. Please read the information below to learn
the following regarding your use of this site.
You acknowledge that this Privacy Policy is part
of our site Terms and Conditions of Use, and by
accessing or using our site, you agree to be bound
by all of its terms and conditions of use. If you do
not agree to these terms, please do not access or
use this site.
We reserve the right to change
this Privacy Policy at any time. Such changes,
modifications, additions or deletions shall be
effective immediately upon notice thereof, which may
be given by means including, but not limited to
posting the revised Policy on this page. You
acknowledge and agree that it is your responsibility
to review this site and this Policy periodically and
to be aware of any modifications. Your continued use
of the site after such modifications will constitute
your: (a) acknowledgment of the modified Policy; and
(b) agreement to abide and be bound by the modified
Policy.
1. Types of Information Collected
In order to better provide you with our numerous
services, we collect two types of information about
our users: Personally Identifiable Information and
Non-Personally Identifiable Information. Our primary
goal in collecting information from you is to
provide you with a smooth, efficient, and customized
experience while using our site.
Personally Identifiable Information: This refers
to information that lets us know the specifics of
who you are. When you engage in certain activities
on this site, such as registering for a membership,
ordering a product or service, submitting content
and/or posting content in discussion forums or other
public areas, entering a contest or sweepstakes,
filling out a survey, or sending us feedback, we may
ask you to provide certain information about
yourself by filling out and submitting an online
form. It is completely optional for you to engage in
these activities; however, we may ask that you
provide us personal information, such as your first
and last name, mailing address (including zip code),
e-mail address, employer, job title and department,
telephone, cell phone and fax numbers and other
personal identifying information. Depending upon the
activity, some of the information we ask you to
provide is identified as mandatory and some as
voluntary. If you do not provide the mandatory data
with respect to a particular activity, you will not
be able to engage in that activity.
Non-Personally Identifiable Information: This
refers to information that does not by itself
identify a specific individual. We gather certain
information about you based upon where you visit on
our site in several ways. This information is
compiled and analyzed on both a personal and an
aggregated basis. This information may include the
website's Uniform Resource Locator (“URL“) that you
just came from, which URL you next go to, what
browser you are using, and your Internet Protocol
(“IP“) address. An IP address is a number that is
automatically assigned to your computer whenever you
are surfing the web, allowing web servers to locate
and identify your computer. Computers require IP
addresses in order for users to communicate on the
Internet.
2. Collection Methods and Use of
Information
We do not collect any
Personally Identifiable Information about you unless
you voluntarily provide it to us. You provide
certain Personally Identifiable Information to us
when you (a) register for our services and register
your e-mail address with us; (b) enter sweepstakes
or contests sponsored by us or one of our partners;
(c) sign up for special offers from selected third
parties; (d) send e-mail messages, submit forms or
transmit other information by telephone or letter;
or (e) submit your credit card or other payment
information when ordering and purchasing products
and services on our site. We may also collect
information from you at other points on our site
that state that such information is being collected.
In addition, we may also collect, or our
third party ad server and/or content server may
collect, certain Non-Personally Identifiable
Information. This information is ultimately stored
in the form of, in some cases, specific URLs. We use
your IP address to diagnose problems with our
servers, software, to administer our site and to
gather demographic information. Our third
party ad servers will also provide us with summary,
but not individual, reports that will tell us how
many ads were presented and clicked upon at our
site.
We will primarily use your
Personally Identifiable Information to provide our
services to you, as required by our agreements with
you. We will also use Personally Identifiable
Information to enhance the operation of our site,
improve our marketing and promotional efforts,
statistically analyze site use, improve our product
and service offerings, and customize our site's
content, layout, and services. We may use Personally
Identifiable Information to deliver information to
you and to contact you regarding administrative
notices. We may also use Personally Identifiable
Information to resolve disputes, troubleshoot
problems and enforce our agreements with you,
including our site General Terms and Conditions of
Use, HeardandSmith.com Terms and Conditions of Use,
any Sales Terms and Conditions and this Private
Policy.
3. Release of Information
We do not sell, trade, or rent your Personally
Identifiable Information to others. We do provide
some of our services through contractual
arrangements with affiliates, services providers,
partners and other third parties. We and our service
partners use your Personally Identifiable
Information to operate our sites and to deliver
their services.
We will encourage our service partners to adopt and
post privacy policies. However, the use of your
Personally Identifiable Information by our service
partners is governed by the privacy policies of
those service partners, and is not subject to our
control.
Occasionally we may be required by
law enforcement or judicial authorities to provide
Personally Identifiable Information to the
appropriate governmental authorities. We will
disclose Personally Identifiable Information upon
receipt of a court order, subpoena, or to cooperate
with a law enforcement investigation. We fully
cooperate with law enforcement agencies in
identifying those who use our services for illegal
activities. We reserve the right to report to law
enforcement agencies any activities that we in good
faith believe to be unlawful.
4. Updating
and Correcting Information
We believe you
should have the ability to access and edit the
Personally Identifiable Information that you have
provided to us. You may verify or correct your
personal information and privacy preferences by
writing us at:
Heard & Smith, LLP
General Counsel
10715 Gulfdale St #100, San Antonio, TX 78216
210-820-3737
Contact Us Online
Please include your name, address, phone number
and/or e-mail address when you contact us.
We
encourage you to promptly update your Personally
Identifiable Information if it changes. You may ask
to have the information on your account deleted or
removed; however, because we keep track of past
transactions, you cannot delete information
associated with past transactions on this site. In
addition, it may be impossible to completely delete
your information without some residual information
because of backups.
5. User Choices on
Collection and Use of Information
We may,
from time to time, send you e-mail regarding our
products and services. In addition, if you indicated
upon registration that you are interested in
receiving offers or information from us and our
partners, we may occasionally send you direct mail
about products and services that we think may be of
interest to you. Only Heard & Smith (or
agents working on behalf of Heard & Smith)
will send you these direct mailings and only if you
indicated that you do not object to these offers. If
you do not want to receive such mailings, simply
tell us when you give us your personal information.
Or, at any time you can easily edit your account
information to no longer receive such offers and
mailings.
You also have choices with respect
to cookies, as described below. By modifying your
browser preferences, you have the choice to accept
all cookies, to be notified when a cookie is set or
to reject all cookies. If you choose to reject all
cookies, some parts of our site may not work
properly in your case.
6. Security of
Information
At our site, you can be
assured that your Personally Identifiable
Information is secure, consistent with current
industry standards. The importance of security for
all Personally Identifiable Information associated
with our user is of utmost concern to us. Your
Personally Identifiable Information is protected in
several ways. Access by you to your Personally
Identifiable Information is available through a
password and unique customer ID selected by you.
This password is encrypted. You should not divulge
your password to anyone. In addition, your
Personally Identifiable Information resides on a
secure server that only selected Heard & Smith
personnel and contractors have access to via
password. We encrypt your Personally Identifiable
Information on our Client Portal and thereby prevent
unauthorized parties from viewing such information
when it is transmitted to us.
Personal
information that you provide that is not Personally
Identifiable Information does NOT reside on a secure
server but is only accessible via password.
Unfortunately, no data transmission over the
Internet or any wireless network can be guaranteed
to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to
protect your Personally Identifiable Information,
you acknowledge that: (a) there are security and
privacy limitations of the Internet which are beyond
our control; (b) the security, integrity and privacy
of any and all information and data exchanged
between you and us through this site cannot be
guaranteed; and (c) any such information and data
may be viewed or tampered with in transit by a third
party.
7. Cookies
When you use
our site we will store cookies on your computer in
order to facilitate and customize your use of our
site. A cookie is a small data text file, which a
website stores on your computer's hard drive (if
your Web browser permits) that can later be
retrieved to identify you to us. Our cookies store
randomly assigned user identification numbers and
the country where you are located. The cookies make
your use of the site easier, make the site run more
smoothly and help us to maintain a secure site. You
are always free to decline our cookies if your
browser permits, but some parts of our site may not
work properly in that case.
8. Privacy
Policies of Third Party Sites
Except as
otherwise discussed in this Privacy Policy, this
document only addresses the use and disclosure of
information we collect from you. Other sites
accessible through our site have their own privacy
policies and data collection, use and disclosure
practices. Please consult each site's privacy
policy. We are not responsible for the policies or
practices of third parties. Additionally, other
companies which place advertising on our site may
collect information about you when you view or click
on their advertising through the use of cookies. We
cannot control this collection of information. You
should contact these advertisers directly if you
have any questions about their use of the
information that they collect.
9.
Miscellaneous Privacy Issues
You must be
at least 18 years old to have our permission to use
this site. Our policy is that we do not knowingly
collect, use or disclose Personally Identifiable
Information about visitors that are under 18 years
of age.
You should also be aware that when
Personally Identifiable Information is voluntarily
disclosed (i.e. your name, e-mail address, etc.) in
the discussion forums or other public areas on this
site, that information, along with any information
disclosed in your communication, can be collected
and used by third parties and may result in
unsolicited messages from third parties. Such
activities are beyond our control and this Policy
does not apply to such information. Any submissions
to forums or other public areas on this site are
accepted with the understanding that they are
accessible to all third parties. If you do not want
your comments to be viewed by third parties, you are
advised not to make any submissions. Ultimately, you
are solely responsible for maintaining the secrecy
of your password and/or account information. Please
be careful and responsible whenever you're online.
If you have any questions about this Privacy
Policy, the practices of this site, or your dealings
with this site, please contact us by sending a
letter to:
Heard & Smith, LLP
General Counsel
10715 Gulfdale St #100, San
Antonio, Texas 78216
210-820-3737
Contact Us Online
