PRIVACY POLICY
This Privacy Policy is effective as of December 31 , 2018.
Cheng Cohen, LLC (referred to as “Cheng Cohen,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) has developed this privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) to explain our practices regarding the use and disclosure of information we may obtain from you when you visit our website located at www.chengcohen.com (“Website”). We respect your privacy. We value your trust and we strive to safeguard any personally identifiable information (“PII”) that you may share with us. PII is information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate an individual.
Your use of our Website is subject to this Privacy Policy. Therefore, it is important that you fully understand the conditions of our collection and use of your information. Please take a moment and read this Privacy Policy carefully before using and/or submitting information at our Website. We reserve the right to further modify this Privacy Policy, so please revisit this Privacy Policy when subsequently accessing our Website. If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy, please send an email to tech@chengcohen.com, or write Cheng Cohen, LLC, Attention: Managing Member, 311 N. Aberdeen St., Suite 400, Chicago, Illinois 60607.
Please understand, if you contact us via the Website, reply to any of our marketing materials or alerts, or send other communication to us, such communication does not create an attorney-client relationship with us. Any such communication may not be considered confidential or protected by the attorney-client privilege. As such, please do not send us any documents, materials or other information that you may consider confidential or sensitive, unless we specifically ask you to do so.
What personal information do we collect?
We do not collect any PII from individuals unless specifically provided by you. For example, we may collect PII from you while performing legal services for you. If you subscribe to receive our legal alerts and updates, we may receive PII, such as your name, occupation, employer and contact details. Or if you submit a resume or other employment or school records, we will have access to that information. In addition, we may receive PII in the form of social media user names or handles and any other information you choose to provide or disclose when interacting with our Website or any linked social media websites discussed further below. However, you are not required to provide PII to access the Website.
PII might include information about your activity within the Website, when any of this information is linked to personal information that identifies you.
We may also collect and store statistics and other non-personal information about the online activities of our visitors on an aggregate basis (“Non-PII”). Non-PII is information that we collect about a group or category of services or users that is not personally identifiable or from which individual identities are removed. It includes non-personal information such as IP addresses, browser type, system type, page hits, number of visits, web pages viewed and the length of visits to the Website. We do not tie Non-PII to your PII.
How do we use your PII?
We may use the PII we collect from you in the following ways:
- Provide legal services;
- Operate, manage and improve the Website;
- Answer and respond to your questions and inquiries;
- Communicate with you regarding our services or certain programs and events;
- Send you updates, security alerts, notices and other related messages;
- Manage and create alerts that correspond with certain trends in the franchise industry;
- Respond to court orders as required; and
- In accordance with your express consent.
We will retain your PII for as long as is necessary for the purpose(s) we collected it, as well as to the extent we deem necessary to comply with our legal obligations and legitimate business interests.
How do we protect personal information?
Your privacy is very important to us. We maintain administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect against loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction of the information you provide when visiting or using the Website. However, due to the existing legal and technical environment, we cannot guarantee that these security measures will prevent third parties from illegally obtaining this information. Additionally, we can (and you authorize us to) disclose any information about you to private entities, law enforcement or other government officials that we, in our sole discretion, believe is required: (a) by law; (b) to protect and/or defend our property or other legal rights; and/or (c) to protect the personal safety, property or other legal rights of others.
Do we share your PII with third parties?
We are the sole owners of all information collected on our Website. We may share your PII with: (i) state bar associations; (ii) our vendors, consultants and other service providers; (iii) companies, partnerships and other entities, individuals or groups in connection with any merger, acquisition or financing of Cheng Cohen’s assets; and (iv) others, such as law enforcement or national security authorities, in the event we are required to disclose your PII to comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request.
We are not in the business of selling, trading or renting PII gathered on our Website; however, we may share aggregated, non-PII and statistics with our advertisers and service providers.
We may use supplemental vendors to process payment transactions required to pay for our provided legal services. We cannot, and do not, guarantee that these companies will not retain, share, store, or use PII for purposes beyond processing the payment for your purchase.
We may partner with other parties to provide specific services, such as sending emails and alerts, analyzing data, providing marketing assistance, providing customer service, and providing search results and links (including paid listings and links). When using these service providers, we will share names, or other contact information that is necessary for the third party to provide these services. These parties may not use PII for purposes other than providing these services.
If we or substantially all of our assets are acquired, PII will be one of the transferred assets.
Do we use “cookies”?
Yes. Cookies are small files that a website or its service provider transfers to your computer’s hard drive through your browser (if you allow) that enables the site’s or service provider’s systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information. We use cookies to help better understand your preferences based on previous or current site activity, which enables us to provide you with improved services. We also use cookies to help us compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction, so we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future.
You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies. You do this through your browser (like Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, or Safari) settings. Each browser is a little different, so look at your browser’s Help menu to learn the correct way to modify your cookies.
If you disable cookies, some Website features may be disabled.
Third-party links
Any third-party websites linked to or from the Website may have different privacy policies and practices. You should review the privacy policies on those other websites in order to determine how each website may use any personal information you provide. We have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites.
In particular, our Website contains links to social media websites, such as LinkedIn®, Facebook® and Twitter®. If you link from our Website to any social media websites, the personal information and content you share is visible to other users and can be read, collected, or used by them. You are responsible for the personal information you choose to share or submit in these instances. For example, if you list your name and email address in a forum posting, that information is public. Please take care when using these features.
Children
We will not knowingly collect any PII from children 17 years of age or younger. When you disclose PII on the Website, you are representing to us that you are 18 years of age or older. If a person 17 years of age or younger has provided PII to us, a parent or guardian should contact us at tech@chengcohen.com so that we can remove such PII from our active databases.
Do Not Track
We do not track users across the web and therefore do not respond to web browser “do not track” signals.
We do not authorize third parties to collect PII from visitors of the Website for third party use without the visitor’s consent.
Opt Out
If you choose to opt-out from allowing us to use your PII in the future to provide you with marketing communications, simply click the “Opt-out” box at the time you provide PII. You may also contact us directly at tech@chengcohen.com. Additionally, “Opt-out” instructions are contained in each marketing communication sent to you. Upon receipt and processing of an “opt-out” request, we will, within a commercially reasonable amount of time, remove your information from any listings used to provide you with marketing communications from us in the future. Please note that we may occasionally contact you for administrative purposes, or in connection with legal services we may provide to you, even if you unsubscribe from our email list.
Controlling or Changing Your Information
You may review, change, or request the deletion of your PII and preferences at any time by contacting us at tech@chengcohen.com. We will then take all reasonable efforts to correct or remove your PII from our active database.
Security
We take every reasonable precaution to protect your PII from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. When you provide PII to us, that information may be encrypted. If we do so, we will notify you at that time if such encryption is available. Please note, however, that no data security measures can be guaranteed to be completely effective and we cannot guaranty the safety or security of your information. You understand that your use of the Website and submission of information to us is at your own risk.
Changes to Our Privacy Policy
We use collected information in accordance with this Privacy Policy under which the information was collected. However, we reserve the right to change, modify, amend and/or update this Privacy Policy at any time with or without prior notice in our sole and absolute discretion. We will post such changes, modifications, amendments and/or updates on this webpage, and, if the changes are significant, a notice will be posted prominently on the Website so that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. However, your use of the Website following any changes, modifications, amendments and/or updates to this Privacy Policy constitutes your unconditional agreement to follow and be bound by this Privacy Policy as so changed, modified, amended and/or updated. You are responsible for reviewing this Privacy Policy each time you use or access the Website.
Use and Access Outside the United States
The Website is hosted in the United States. If you visit from Canada, the European Union or other foreign jurisdictions, please note that (a) we make no representations or warranties that the information or services contained on the Website is appropriate for use or access or is available in other jurisdictions and (b) these jurisdictions have laws governing data collection and use that may differ from United States law. You should be aware that if you transfer PII to us through the Website, you are transferring such information to the United States and the United States does not have the same data protection laws as Canada, the European Union and some other regions. By providing PII to us, you consent to the transfer of it to the United States and the use of it in accordance with this Privacy Policy. You accept that the transmission of PII and other data via the internet is not completely secure. Cheng Cohen cannot guarantee the security of your information when it is in the process of being transmitted to and from the Website. Any questions regarding this Privacy Policy should be directed to tech@chengcohen.com.
Residents of the European Economic Area
If you are a resident of the European Economic Area (“EEA”), you may have certain data protection rights regarding the access, rectification, deletion, processing, storage, portability, transfer and restriction of your PII. We will only process your PII when we have a legitimate interest, when we perform legal services for you, when we must comply with applicable legal obligations, or when we have your express consent. If you provide us with your consent, you may revoke it at any time.
If you would like to access any of your data protection rights, please contact us as directed below. If you are concerned with how we process your PII, you may lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. Please find additional information and contact details for your respective local data protection authority at the following: https://ec.europa.eu/justice/article-29/structure/data-protection-authorities/index_en.htm.
Residents of Canada
If you are a resident of Canada, we will only use our PII to provide you with information on our services, or to send you marketing materials or alerts, if you provide us consent to do so. If you provide us with your consent, you may revoke it at any time.
California Privacy Rights
If you are a California resident, California Civil Code Section 1798.83 provides you with the right to request and obtain information related to any PII that has been shared with third-parties for their own direct marketing purposes. We do not sell or share your PII with any third-parties for their own direct marketing purposes without your consent.
Governing Law
This Privacy Policy is governed under the laws of the State of Illinois, without regard to its conflict of law provisions.
Contacting Us
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us at 312-243-1701; e-mail us directly at tech@chengcohen.com; or write us at: Cheng Cohen, LLC, Attention: Managing Member, 363 West Erie Street, Suite 500, Chicago, Illinois 60654.