TaxCloud Privacy Policy

Your privacy is important to us at TaxCloud, and we have prepared this Privacy Policy to explain to you how we collect, use, and share information we obtain through your use of TaxCloud®; our websites located at taxcloud.net or taxcloud.com or any of our other websites; e-mail messages; or other software containing a link to this Privacy Policy (each, a “Site”), as well as any products or services offered through any Site (collectively, our “Sites and Services”). This Privacy Policy does not govern our use of any information you provide to us when you call us, write to us, or communicate with us in any manner other than through our Sites and Services. By using any of our Sites and Services, you explicitly consent to such use of your information and agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy is effective as of July 1, 2010.

Information We Collect
1. Information You Choose to Submit
  1. Personally Identifiable
    Information You can visit a Site without telling us who you are or revealing any Personally Identifiable Information (“PII”) about you and/or your company, such as your first and last name, e-mail address, telephone number, or credit card number. If, however, you become a registered TaxCloud Merchant or submit a form for requesting information from us, you may be required to provide certain PII. For example, in order to create an account with us, our TaxCloud Merchant Site requires that you provide us with your first and last name, your company name, your company’s website(s), your company’s mailing address(es), your e-mail address, your company’s banking information, and your
    telephone number, as well as other personal and business information. We collect any PII or other information you choose to submit through our Sites and Services.
2. Information We Automatically Collect
  1. Cookies
    
    We automatically collect certain information to help us understand how you use our Sites and Services. Our Sites use cookies (alphanumeric identifiers that we send from a web server to your browser and that are stored on your computer’s hard drive) to enable our systems to recognize your browser. We use persistent, identifying cookies to remember your information and to link your activities to you. Generally, you can set your browser not to accept cookies or to notify you if you are sent a cookie, giving you the opportunity to choose whether or not to accept the cookie. Please note that if you do set your browser not to accept cookies, certain aspects of our Sites and Services may not function properly. Our cookies may collect: (a) the domain name and host from which you access the internet and the internet address of the website from which you direct-linked to ours; (b) the date and time you access a Site and the pages you visit; (c) your computer’s Internet Protocol (IP) address and information about its operating system, platform, and the browser type and version you use; (d) demographic information; (e) information to combat fraud or misuse; and (f) other data relating to your use of our Sites and Services.
  2. Pixel Tags
    
    In our e-mails to you, we may use pixel tags to determine if your e-mail software or service can display html-formatted e-mail. This helps us optimize the size of our e-mail messages and conserve bandwidth.
How We Use Information
1. PII
  
  We use your PII to fulfill your requests for products and services, to answer your questions, to improve our Sites and Services, to contact you from time to time about us or our Sites and Services, to enforce our rights and the rights of third parties, and to investigate and ensure compliance with the TaxCloud Terms of Service and other agreements relating to our Sites and Services.
2. Other Information
  
  We use information collected by cookies to keep track of your use of each of our Sites and Services, to validate your identity, to remember your preferences, to tailor each of our Sites and Services to meet your personal interests, and to improve the quality of our Sites and Services. We use other non-PII information we collect, including IP addresses, to measure the number of visitors to sections of our Sites and Services, to keep track of your use of each of our Sites and Services, to analyze trends, to gather demographic information, and to improve the quality of our Sites and Services.
Our Information Sharing Practices
1. Generally
  
  Except as otherwise described in this section of our Privacy Policy, we will never share your PII or other data about you that we collect from you through our Sites and Services (collectively, “User Information”) with any third party without your permission.
2. Usage Data
  
  From time to time, we may enter into relationships with third parties to help us collect data relating to your use of our Sites and Services. In those circumstances, those third parties have access to that data, and any third-party cookies set during such collection of data are governed by the privacy policies of those third parties. Under no circumstances will Usage Data include your PII.
3. Aggregated Data
  
  From time to time, we may share aggregated User Information with third parties. We will not share any aggregated User Information, however, in a manner that would enable the recipient to personally identify you. Under no circumstances will Aggregated Data include your PII.
4. Service Providers
  
  From time to time, we may enter into relationships with third parties who directly provide services to us (e.g., marketing assistance, customer service, e-mail newsletters, data analysis and management). In those circumstances, we disclose your PII to the minimum extent necessary for such service providers to perform those services.
5. Public Information
  
  There may be areas of our Sites and Services where you are able to post information (e.g., reviews, comments) that will be available to all other users of a Site. By choosing to use these areas, you understand and agree that anyone may access, use, and disclose any information that you post to those areas.
6. Other Disclosure Scenarios
  
  Notwithstanding anything in this Privacy Policy to the contrary, we reserve the right, and you hereby expressly authorize us, to share any User Information: (1) to comply with applicable law, including in response to subpoenas, court orders, or legal process and to address written complaints of copyright infringement; (2) to establish, protect, or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims, including enforcing any Terms of Use (3) if we believe it is necessary in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding suspected illegal activities, fraud, or situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person or property, including our own; or other agreement relating to our Sites and Services; (4) if we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding significant abuse of any of our Sites and Services or the internet in general (such as voluminous spamming, denial of service attacks, or attempts to compromise the security of information); (5) if all or any portion of our business is acquired by, acquires, or is merged with another entity, if we undergo a change of control, or if we engage in a similar transaction, in which case we may share User Information with the acquiring, acquired, or successor entity or its investors, lenders, or advisers; and (6) if we become the subject of bankruptcy proceedings, in which case we may share User Information with a bankruptcy trustee, debtor in possession, or subsequent purchaser of assets.
Retention; Modifying and Deleting Your PII

We retain your User Information at our discretion and in accordance with applicable laws. However, we do not undertake any retention obligations and may dispose of information at our discretion and without notice, subject to applicable law that specifically requires the handling or retention of information. You must keep your own separate back-up records. If you would like to modify or delete from our database any User Information you previously submitted to us, you may e-mail us at service@taxcloud.net. We may keep a record of all information that is changed or deleted, and we may determine what may be changed or deleted. For example, if we are required to keep track of certain kinds of transactions, you may be
prevented from changing or deleting information relevant to those transactions. Please note that any User Information that we have copied may remain in back-up storage for some period of time after your request, and that if you delete certain information you may not be able to use our Sites and Services in the future without re-submitting such information. We are not responsible for removing information about you from the databases of any third parties to whom we were authorized to disclose your information prior to processing a request from you.
Choice/Opt-Out

We offer you the opportunity to control whether we may use your PII to send you additional information about our Sites and Services and to send you general system and administrative messages. You may opt out of such messages at any time by modifying your profile settings within any of our Sites and Services, by e-mailing us at service@taxcloud.net, or by following the instructions provided in each such message you receive from us. Even if you do opt out of these general messages from us, we reserve the right to send you messages relating to your use of our Sites and Services (e.g., about changes to this Privacy Policy or our Terms of Use, product updates and/or changes, or general system and administrative messages).
Security

We have implemented reasonable measures to help protect your User Information from loss, misuse, or unauthorized access or disclosure. Unfortunately, however, no data transmission over the internet (including by e-mail) can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Neither people nor security systems are foolproof, including encryption systems. In addition, people can commit intentional crimes, make mistakes, or fail to follow policies. As a result, while we strive to protect your User Information, we cannot guarantee its security. If applicable law imposes any disclaim-able duty, you agree that the standard used to measure our compliance with that duty will be one of intentional misconduct. If you are concerned about the interception of sensitive information, do not include it in any e-mail or other transmissions to us. You must do what you reasonably can to ensure the security of your PII and of our Sites and Services. You should protect against unauthorized access to your account. For example, if you’re using a shared computer, log off and close the browser window when you’re finished.
Changes

We may modify this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make any material change to the way in which we treat your User Information, we will inform you of such change via e-mail or by posting a notice on relevant areas of a Site. Any modified version of this Privacy Policy will be effective as of the date set forth therein. If you continue to use any Sites and Services after the effective date of a modification, you will be deemed to have agreed to the modified Privacy Policy.
Contact Information

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please feel free to contact us by e-mail at service@taxcloud.net. To send us a legal notice, mail it by certified mail (return receipt requested) to:

TaxCloud, Legal Department
162 East Avenue, Third Floor
Norwalk, CT 06851-5715

When we need to contact you, we may do so via the e-mail address that we have on file for you, or we may post a notice on a Site. This includes any notices we may be required to send you by law, such as those regarding the breach of any security systems. It is therefore critical that you keep your e-mail contact information correct and updated at all times.