Privacy & Security

Last Updated: December 8, 2023

Thurgood, Inc. (“Thurgood”) provides this Privacy Policy to inform you about our practices concerning the collection, use and disclosure of your information. By using the website located at www.askthurgood.com (the “Site”), including all subdomains, all portals, applications, interactive features, or the services provided by Thurgood (collectively the “Services”), you agree to the information practices described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy, you may not access or use the Sites or Services. This Privacy Policy is incorporated into the Thurgood Terms of Service, and any other terms that post a link to this Privacy Policy and incorporate it by reference. If you opt into Services that include independent attorney consultation or representation, your relationship with the independent attorney will be governed by the Attorney Agreement.

1. Information We Collect

1.1. Personal Information. When you use the Sites or Services, we collect certain information from you which can be used to contact or identify you, including, but not limited to, your name, gender, date of birth, telephone number, postal address, and email address (“Identity Information”). If you place an order for Services and/or pay a fee, we will collect additional payment and billing information from you, including, but not limited to, your credit/debit card information or bank account information (“Billing Information”). If you place an order for Services, you may also be required to provide information or documents necessary for preparation or filing of forms or applications to be submitted to government agencies, and if you file an application, we may receive from the government a unique receipt number assigned to your application (“Application Information”). Together, your Identity Information, Billing Information, Application Information, and Usage Data (defined below) are referred to as “Personal Information.”

1.2. Usage Data. We also automatically collect certain information regarding your access to and use of the Sites and Services. This information includes your computer or device hardware and software, IP address, browser type, referring website URLs, domain names, access times, log files, pages on the Sites that you visit, and links you click on (“Usage Data”).

1.3. Cookies. Like many websites, we utilize devices to recognize you when you visit the Sites, track your interactions with the Sites, and personalize your experience. These include devices such as cookies, web beacons, pixels and similar devices. Cookies are small data files we transfer to your computer hard drive. We utilize some cookies that remain on your computer after you leave the Site so that we can recognize you when you return and provide a more personalized and helpful experience. We also utilize session cookies to enable certain features of the Sites, to better understand how you interact with the Sites and to monitor use of the Sites by Thurgood users and web traffic routing on the Sites. Session cookies are deleted from your computer when you log off from the Sites and close your browser. You maintain control over some of the information we collect through the use of cookies, and you can set your preferences regarding the use of cookies through your browser settings. If you choose not to accept cookies, you may not be able to access portions of the Sites or all functionality of the Services.

2. Use of Information We Collect

2.1. Account Creation. We use information you submit to us at the time of account registration, such as your name and email address, and any updated information you subsequently submit, such as a new email address, to create and maintain your account.

2.2. Operation and Improvement of Our Business. We use your information, including Personal Information, primarily to operate our business and provide the Services to you, including the completion of immigration forms. We use such information to personalize the Services we provide to you. We may use your information to verify your identity, for fraud prevention, to enforce the applicable terms of use and to protect the integrity of the Site. We may also use your information to develop new features or Services and to improve the quality of our Services.

2.3. Customer Service and Technical Support. We may use your information, including Personal Information, to respond to questions you have regarding use of our Services or to provide technical assistance.

2.4. Communications with You. We may contact you using the contact information you provide in order to respond to inquiries you send to us, to communicate with you regarding our Services and the services of our partners, and to market our Services, or those of our partners, to you. We may send you emails advertising or promoting our Services or those of our partners. If you do not wish to receive such emails, you can choose to opt-out of receipt using the unsubscribe link within each email, or by sending an unsubscribe request to help@askthurgood.com.

We also may use information about you, including Personal Information, to improve the effectiveness of our marketing and advertising efforts.

2.5. Internal Research. We may use information about you, including Personal Information, and other users, in aggregate form, for our own internal research and analytical purposes. For example, we may use certain types of your information to understand which features of our Services are being used most frequently.

3. Information Sharing and Disclosure

3.1. Your Privacy Rights. Thurgood does not share your Personal Information with third parties without your consent. Thurgood does not sell, rent, or lease its customer lists to third parties.

3.2. Upon Consent to an Attorney. If you opt into Services that include independent attorney consultation or representation, you expressly grant Thurgood permission share your information, including Personal Information, with the Attorney in accordance with the Attorney Agreement.

3.3. Upon Consent to a Third Party. We may share your information, including Personal Information, with third parties if you provide us with authorization to do so. For example, if you include Personal Information in a review or testimonial of our Services for posting to social media platforms, such information will be publicly disclosed upon posting.

3.4. Service Providers. We may share your Personal Information with third-party service providers, but only to the extent necessary for them to assist us in providing our Services. For example, if you opt into Services, we will share your Billing Information with third-party payment processors to the extent necessary to process your payment. We use written contracts to require all third-party service providers to protect the security of your Personal Information, to keep your Personal Information confidential, and to use such information for no other purposes.

3.5. Responses to Legal Process, Subpoenas or Court Orders. We will not voluntarily disclose your Personal Information. However, we may disclose your Personal Information as required by law, such as in response to a court order, subpoena, or similar legal process legally requiring us to produce the information. If legally permitted and feasible, we will give you notice of our receipt of a demand for your Personal Information and provide you a reasonable time in which to seek to quash such demand in court, or otherwise obtain a withdrawal or modification of the demand, before complying with the demand.

3.6. Business Transfers. Your Personal Information may be included in the event that some or all of our assets are sold, assigned or transferred in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets, or in the event of bankruptcy. As a general matter, however, an acquiring party cannot retroactively change the Privacy Notice that was in place when Thurgood collected your Personal Information.

3.7. Academic Research. We may share non-personally identifiable and non-privileged information about you and other users, in aggregate form, to third-party academic researchers. We require all third-party researchers to use such anonymized information for no purposes other than academic research. For example, we may use certain types of non-personally identifiable and non-privileged information to help researchers study factors that reduce barriers facing applicants navigating the immigration system. If you are in the EU, we will only share your non-privileged information with such academic researchers with your consent.

3.8 Third Party Cookies. We use Google AdWords Conversion tracker and other Google services (collectively “Google Cookies”) that place cookies on a browser. These cookies help us increase our Sites effectiveness for our visitors. These cookies are set and read by Google. To learn more about Google Cookies and how to opt out, please visit https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads.

We also use AdWords remarketing to market our Sites across the web. It places cookies on a browser that are then read by Google or other third parties, such as advertising networks, which may then serve you an ad on a third party website. You may opt out of this type of ad serving using the link to Google. You can also visit the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page at https://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/.

4. Policy Regarding Children

Our Sites and Services are not intended for persons under 18 years of age, and we do not knowingly collect Personal Information from persons under 18 years of age. If you are a parent or guardian and believe that your child has provided us with Personal Information without your consent, please contact us at help@askthurgood.com. If we become aware that a person under 18 years of age has provided us with Personal Information, we will delete such information from our files.

5. Security

We have put in place physical, electronic and managerial procedures to protect the security of the information we collect, both during transmission and once received. This includes, but is not limited to, encryption, access control and audit logging on Personal Information. However, no method of transmission over the internet or method of storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee that our security measures will prevent our computer systems from being accessed illegally, nor can we guarantee that the information on our computer systems will not be viewed or stolen. ACCORDINGLY, THURGOOD DISCLAIMS ALL LIABILITY FOR THE THEFT, INTERCEPTION, LOSS, OR UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO DAMAGE TO YOUR INFORMATION. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT USE OF THE SITES AND SERVICES IS AT YOUR OWN RISK.

6. Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics to collect information about use of the Sites. Google Analytics collects information such as how often users visit the Site, what pages they visit when they do so, and what other websites they used prior to coming to the Site. We use the information we get from Google Analytics to improve the Sites and Services. Google Analytics collects only the IP address assigned to you on the date you visit this site, rather than your name or other Personal Information. We do not combine the information collected through the use of Google Analytics with personally identifiable information. Although Google Analytics plants a permanent cookie on your web browser to identify you as a unique user the next time you visit this site, the cookie cannot be used by anyone but Google. Google’s ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to this site is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Use and the Google Privacy Policy. You can prevent Google Analytics from recognizing you on return visits to the Sites by disabling cookies on your browser.

7. Changes to Privacy Notice

Thurgood may make changes to this Privacy Notice at any time. If we make any material changes we will notify you via email (sent to the e-mail address specified in your account) or by posting the revised Privacy Notice on the Sites prior to any changes becoming effective. You should review our Privacy Notice each time you access the Sites or use the Services. Your continued use of the Sites or Services following the posting of any changes or notice to you of the changes constitutes your agreement to such changes.

8. Retention of Personal Information

At a minimum, we will retain your Personal Information for as long as it may be needed to provide you Service and as needed to comply with our legal obligations. Unless you request deletion of your Personal Information sooner, we may hold any of your Personal Information which may be used to provide future Services for up to ten years. Upon request, Thurgood will inform you about whether we hold any of your Personal Information. You may terminate your account and request deletion of your Personal Information by contacting us at help@askthurgood.com. In some situations, we may be legally required to retain your Personal Information or for other reasons will not be able to comply with a request to delete data.