Privacy Policy

Updated: February 16, 2022

At Tax Group Center, Inc. (referred to as “Company,” “us” or “we”), we recognize that your privacy is important. This Policy discloses the privacy practices for the Company’s family of Websites (collectively, the “Site”), as well as related products and services we may offer to you (collectively referred to as the “Services”). This Policy also covers how personal and other information that we receive or collect about you is treated. Please read the information below to learn the following regarding your use of this Site.

You acknowledge that this Privacy Policy is designed to be read in connection with the Site Terms and Conditions, which is available at https://www.taxgroupcenter.com/terms-conditions/, and that by accessing or using our Site, you agree to be bound by the Site’s Terms and Conditions, as well as this Policy.

We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you about significant changes in the way we treat personal information by either sending a notice to the primary email address specified in your account, by placing a prominent notice on our site, and or by updating any privacy information on this page. Your continued use of the Site and or Services available through this Site after such modifications will constitute your: (a) acknowledgment of the modified Policy; and (b) your agreement to abide and be bound by that Policy.

If you have any questions about this Policy, please feel free to contact us at: privacy@taxgroupcenter.com.

IMPORTANT: BY USING THE SITE AND/OR OFFERINGS AVAILABLE ON THIS SITE, YOU GIVE YOUR CONSENT THAT ALL PERSONAL DATA THAT YOU SUBMIT MAY BE PROCESSED BY US IN THE MANNER AND FOR THE PURPOSES DESCRIBED BELOW. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, DO NOT USE THE SITE.

 

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. PURPOSE OF POLICY. Tax Group Center, Inc. (“us,” “we,” or “Company”) is committed to respecting the privacy rights of its customers, visitors, and other users of the Company Website and services (together, the “Site”). We created this Privacy Policy (this “Policy”) to give you information about our collection, use, and disclosure of information about you, as well as your rights regarding that information. This Policy is only applicable to the Site and any offline location where we make this Policy available to you, and not to any other websites that you may be able to access from the Site, each of which may have data collection and use practices and policies that differ materially from this Policy.

1.2. NOTICE CONCERNING CHILDREN. PLEASE NOTE: We are a general audience site, and do not direct any of our content specifically at children under 13 years of age. We understand and are committed to respecting the sensitive nature of children’s privacy online. If we learn or have reason to suspect that a Site user is under age 13, we will promptly delete any personal information in that user’s account.

2. INFORMATION COLLECTION PRACTICES

2.1. WHAT INFORMATION DOES THE COMPANY COLLECT?

 

(a) INFORMATION YOU PROVIDE. In operating the Site, Company may include registration, online surveys, and other online forms that ask users to provide their names, e-mail addresses, and other contact information, as well as the following categories of information including but not limited to: employer, job title, tax debt information, state and federal tax return status and filing information, personal income and debt information, credit card debt information, and referral information.  This is called “Personally Identifiable Information” or “PII” and refers to information that lets us know the specifics of who you are. Examples of PII may include your first and last name, email address, mailing address (including zip code), employer, job title and department, telephone and facsimile numbers, and other identifying information. When submitting your PII on the Site, you may be asked to provide this PII information.  Depending on your use of the Site, we may also request financial data (such as your account or credit card number for purchases and service installment agreements) and demographic data (such as your zip code, sex, age, and income). If you communicate with us by e-mail, post messages to any of our chat groups, bulletin boards, or forums, or otherwise complete online forms, surveys, or contest entries, any information provided in those communications will be collected from you.

 

(b) AUTOMATIC COLLECTION. When you visit the Site, our servers automatically recognize (1) visitors’ domain names; (2) IP addresses (the number assigned to computers on the Internet); (3) device information; and (4) location data. This “traffic data” may be used for marketing purposes or for improving the services we offer, as explained in more detail below.

 

(c) TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES.We use “cookies” and other tracking technologies that allow us to store a small piece of data on your computer about your visit to the Site. Cookies help us learn which areas of the Site are useful and which areas need improvement. You can choose whether to accept cookies by changing the settings on your browser. However, if you choose to disable this function, your experience at the Site may be diminished and some features may not work as they were intended.

 

(d) INFORMATION FROM OTHER SOURCES. We may also collect from our third party advertising partners certain Aggregate Information. “Aggregate Information” 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 and what other sites may have directed you to us. This information, which is collected in a variety of different ways, is compiled and analyzed on both a personal and an aggregated basis. This information may include the Website’s Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”) that points to the site you just came from, which URL you go to after visiting our Site, what browser you are using, and your Internet Protocol (“IP”) address. For example, we may use your IP address to diagnose problems with our servers, software, to administer our Site and to gather demographic information. Our third party advertising partners may also provide us with aggregate, but not individual, reports that will tell us how many ads were presented and clicked upon at out Site.

2.2  SECURITY OF YOUR PII.  At our Site you can be assured that your PII is secure, consistent with current industry standards. We strive to take appropriate security measures to protect against unauthorized access to or unauthorized alteration, disclosure or destruction of your PII. For example:

• We work hard to ensure that the data we collect is reliable, accurate, complete and current. We encrypt all PII, in order to prevent unauthorized parties from viewing such information when it is transmitted to us. We also only keep collected information only for as long as reasonably necessary and use it only for the purposes for which it was collected or to comply with any applicable legal or ethical reporting or document retention requirements.
• We limit access to PII only to specific employees, contractors and agents who have a reasonable need to come into contact with your information. For example, we may provide members of our technical support team with limited access to your account in order to allow them to troubleshoot problems you may be having with the Site. These individuals are bound by confidentiality obligations and may be subject to discipline, including termination and criminal prosecution, if they fail to meet these obligations.
• Additionally, we also employ a number of physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect PII. Our secure servers and our data centers are protected by industry-standard encryption, and our servers reside behind firewalls and employ high-level password protection.

In order to most effectively serve you, credit card transactions are handled by established third party banking institutions and processing agents. They receive the information needed to verify and authorize your credit card or other payment information.

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 PII, you acknowledge that: (a) there are security and privacy limitations inherent to the Internet which are beyond our control; and (b) the security, integrity and privacy of any and all information and data exchanged between you and us through this Site cannot be guaranteed.

 

 

3. USE AND SHARING OF INFORMATION

3.1. WHAT DOES COMPANY DO WITH COLLECTED INFORMATION?

(a) OPERATING OUR SITE AND PERFORMING SERVICES. We use your personal information to verify your identity, to check your qualifications, or to follow up with transactions initiated on the Site. We may also use your contact information to inform you of any changes to the Site, or to send you additional information about Company. If you give your permission during the account registration process, we may share your contact information with our business partners or other companies so that they may send you promotional materials. We use financial information to verify your qualifications for certain products or services and to process payments. We use demographic data to customize and tailor your experience on the Site, displaying content that we think you might be interested in and according to your preferences.

(b) TRAFFIC DATA. We use traffic data to analyze our Site traffic, but we do not examine this information for individually identifying information. In addition, we may use IP addresses to help diagnose problems with our server, to administer the Site, or to display the content according to your preferences. Traffic and transaction information may also be shared with business partners and advertisers on an aggregate basis.

(c) USE OF COOKIES. We may use cookies and other tracking technologies to deliver content specific to your interests, to save your password so you don’t have to re-enter it each time you visit our Site, or for other purposes. A cookie is a small data text file which is stored on your computer that uniquely identifies your browser. Cookies may also include more personalized information, such as your IP address, browser type, the server your computer is logged onto, the area code and zip code associated with your server, and your first name to welcome you back to our Site. We may use cookies to perform tasks such as: monitoring aggregate site usage metrics, storing and remembering your passwords (if you allow us to do so), storing account and advertising preferences that you have set, and personalizing the Services we make available to you. Promotions or advertisements displayed on our Site may contain cookies. We may also use an outside advertising partner to display banner advertisements on our Site. We do not have access to or control over information collected by outside advertisers on our site.  Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies, but you can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, some aspects of the Site may not function properly if you elect to disable cookies.

(d) DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION. We may disclose personal information that you provide via the Site to the following third parties:

(1) Our subsidiaries and affiliates;

(2) Joint venture or marketing partners who may want to send you information about their products or services, unless you have specifically requested that we not share your information for this purpose; and

(3) Contractors, vendors, and service providers we use to support our business and the Site. These support partners have all agreed to uphold the same standards of security and confidentiality that we provide to you under this Policy, and they have agreed to only use your information to carry out their specific business obligations to Company.

We may also disclose personal information that you provide via the Site in the event of a merger, acquisition, or any form of sale of some or all of our assets, in which case personal information we collect via the Site will be among the assets transferred to the buyer. Further, we may disclose your personal information to third parties to: (i) Comply with any court order or other legal obligation; (ii) Enforce or apply our terms of use and other agreements; and (iii) Protect the rights, property, or safety of our business, our clients, customers, employees, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for the purposes of fraud protection, information security, and other related matters.

3.2.  SERVICE PARTNERS.  We do provide some of our product and service offerings through contractual arrangements made with affiliates, service providers, partners and other third parties (“Service Partners”). We and our Service Partners may need to use some PII in order to perform tasks between our respective sites, or to deliver products or services to you. For example, we must release your credit card information to the card-issuing bank to confirm payment for products and services purchased on this Site; release your address information to the delivery service to deliver products that you ordered; and provide order information to third parties that help us provide customer service.

We will encourage our Service Partners to adopt and promote strong privacy policies. However, the use of your PII by our Service Partners is governed by the respective privacy policies of those providers, and is not subject to our control. 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 this Site, including our Advertising and Service Partners, 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.

Occasionally we may be required by law enforcement or judicial authorities to provide PII to the appropriate governmental authorities. In such cases, we will disclose PII 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.

We may also provide PII and or Aggregate Information about our customers’ sales, traffic patterns, and related Site information to third party advertisers as states in Section 5.3.2. below.

 

4. USER CHOICES REGARDING COLLECTION, USE, AND DISTRIBUTION OF INFORMATION

4.1 COLLECTION AND USE OF INFORMATION.  We may, from time to time, send you email or mail regarding new products and services that we feel may interest you. In addition, if you indicated upon registration that you are interested in receiving offers or information from us and our partners, we may occasionally call or send you direct mail about products and services that may be of interest to you. Only Company (or agents working on behalf of Company and under confidentiality agreements) will send you these solicitations, and only if you have previously indicated that you wish to receive them. If you do not want to receive solicitations from us, you can “opt-out” You can opt-out of e-mails from us by clicking on the unsubscribe link in each message, or e-mailing us at privacy@taxgroupcenter.com with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject field of the e-mail. You also have choices with respect to cookies, as described above. 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.

4.2. LOST OR STOLEN INFORMATION. You must promptly notify us if your credit card, user name, or password is lost, stolen, or used without permission. In such an event, we will remove that credit card number, user name, or password from your account and update our records accordingly.

4.3 COMMUNICATIONS.  If you do not wish to receive information and promotional material from us or from some of our partners, you may select the appropriate “opt-out” option each time we ask you for information.  You can opt-out of e-mails from us by clicking on the unsubscribe link in each message, or e-mailing us at privacy@taxgroupcenter.com with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject field of the e-mail.

 

5. FOR RESIDENTS OF CALIFORNIA

5.1 SHINE THE LIGHT.  Under California’s “Shine the Light” law, California residents who provide personal information in obtaining products or services for personal, family, or household use are entitled to request and obtain from us, once each calendar year, information about the customer information we shared, if any, with other businesses for their own direct marketing uses. If applicable, this information would include the categories of customer information and the names and addresses of those businesses with which we shared customer information for the immediately preceding calendar year.  To obtain this information, please send an e-mail message to privacy@taxgroupcenter.com with “Request for California Privacy Information” in the subject field and in the body of your message. We will provide in response the requested information to you at your e-mail address. Please be aware that not all information sharing is covered by the “Shine the Light” requirements and only required information will be included in our response.

5.2 [RESERVED]

5.3 The California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) provides additional rights to residents of California regarding our information collection and use practices. Though the CCPA does not apply to our Company at the time of this Privacy Policy’s effective date, we would like you to be informed in the event the CPPA may later apply to our Company.

5.3.1 CATEGORIES OF PERSONAL INFORMATION COLLECTED. We identify below the categories of personal information that we have collected about our users in the last 12 months, using the categories provided in the CCPA:

• Identifiers

 

• Customer Records Information

 

• Commercial Information

 

• Internet or Other Electronic Network Activity Information

 

• Geolocation Data

 

• Professional or Employment-related Information

 

• Educational Information

For more detail on the information we collect, including the sources we receive information from, please refer to our Information Collection Practices above. We collect and use these categories of personal information for the business purposes described in the Information Collection Practices Section above and below in Section 5.3.2.

5.3.2 CATEGORIES OF PERSONAL INFORMATION SOLD.  We identify below the categories of personal information that we have sold (as defined under the CCPA) in the last 12 months, using the categories provided in the CCPA:

• Identifiers (first name, last name, email address, phone number, residing state)

 

• Commercial Information (debt, income)

 

• Geolocation Data

 

• Professional or Employment-related Information

 

• IP Address

5.3.3 RIGHTS OF CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS.

(a) Right to Know.  You have the right to know certain details about our data practices in the past 12 months. In particular, you may request the following from us:

• The categories of personal information we have collected about you;

 

• The categories of sources from which the personal information was collected;

 

• The categories of personal information about you we disclosed for a business purpose or sold;

 

• The categories of third parties to whom the personal information was disclosed for a business purpose or sold;

 

• The business or commercial purpose for collecting or selling the personal information; and

 

• The specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you.

To exercise the Right to Know, please submit a request through our email to: privacy@taxgroupcenter.com. In the request, please specify which right you are seeking to exercise and the scope of the request. We will confirm receipt of your request within 10 days. We may require specific information from you to help us verify your identity and process your request. If we are unable to verify your identity, we may deny your requests to know.

(b) Right to Delete. You have the right to request that we delete the personal information we have collected from you in the last 12 months. To exercise the Right to Delete, please submit a request through our email to: privacy@taxgroupcenter.com.  We will confirm receipt of your request within 10 days. We may require specific information from you to help us verify your identity and process your request. If we are unable to verify your identity, we may deny your request to delete. If we deny your request, we will explain the reason why in our response.

(c) Right to Opt-Out.  You have the right to tell us not to sell your information at any time. You may submit a request to opt-out through our email to: privacy@taxgroupcenter.com. Please state “Do Not Sell My Personal Information” in the subject field.  We will confirm receipt of your request within 21 days.

(d) Right to Non-discrimination.  You have the right not to receive discriminatory treatment by us for exercising any of your rights.

(e) Authorized Agent.  You can designate an authorized agent to submit requests on your behalf. However, we will require written proof of the agent’s permission to do so and verify your identity directly.

(f) Notice of Financial Incentives.   We may offer financial incentives are programs, benefits, or other offerings, including payments to consumers as compensation, for the disclosure, deletion, or sale of personal information about them. In the event financial incentives are offered you may request information on those offers at anytime.

6. SECURITY.

The Site has security measures in place to prevent the loss, misuse, and alteration of the information that we obtain from you, but we make no assurances about our ability to prevent any such loss, misuse, to you or to any third party arising out of any such loss, misuse, or alteration.

7. PUBLIC WEBSITE AREAS AND ACCESS TO OTHER WEBSITES.

7.1. PUBLIC FORUMS.  The Site may include interactive forums such as message boards and chat rooms. Please remember that any information that is disclosed in these areas becomes public information and you should exercise caution when deciding to disclose your personal information.

7.2. OTHER WEBSITES.  The Site may contain links to other websites. If you choose to visit other websites, we are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those other websites, and it is your responsibility to review the privacy policies at those websites to confirm that you understand and agree with their policies.

You should also be aware that when Personally Identifiable Information is voluntarily disclosed (i.e. your name, email 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 (including unwanted spam messages) from third parties. Such activities are beyond our control and this Policy does not apply to such information. Please consult our Site Terms and Conditions.

 

8. CONTACT INFORMATION AND POLICY UPDATES

8.1. CONTACTING US. If you have any questions about this Policy, our practices related to this Site, or if you would like to have us remove your information from our database, please feel contact us at the following:

Tax Group Center, Inc.

5010 N. Parkway Calabasas, Suite 110

Calabasas, CA 91302

Attn: Privacy Compliance Dept.

Email: privacy@taxgroupcenter.com

 

Please include your name, address, and/or email address when you contact us. Allow us at least 21 days to respond.

 

8.2. UPDATES AND CHANGES.  We reserve the right, at any time, to add to, change, update, or modify this Policy, simply by posting such change, update, or modification on the Site and without any other notice to you. Any such change, update, or modification will be effective immediately upon posting on the Site. It is your responsibility to review this Policy from time to time to ensure that you continue to agree with all of its terms. Your continued use of the Site and or Services available through this Site after such modifications will constitute your: (a) acknowledgment of the modified Policy; and (b) your agreement to abide and be bound by that Policy.