Last Modified: July 2023
Introduction
Harvard Business Services, Inc. ("Harvard" or "we" or "us") and its staff’s respect for your privacy and commitment to protecting your personally-identifiable information (“PII”) are fundamental to our business culture and ethos. We manifest that respect through strict adherence to these Privacy Policies governing our collection, use, storage, and transmission of PII, whether provided to us by customers, prospective customers, or others who appropriately entrust us with PII, such as those subscribing to receive our blog posts, articles, or other updates.
The definition of PII varies by state and across national borders, and even among federal and state regulatory agencies. Generally, it refers to information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household. It can include your name, social security number, driver’s license number, email address, records of products purchased, internet browsing history, and bank account or credit card information, among other things. This Privacy Policy describes the PII we collect and how we collect, use, and maintain it.
We do not sell or otherwise furnish your information to marketers, advertisers, solicitors, spammers, or others.
We strongly encourage you to read these Privacy Policies carefully. If you have any questions regarding the terms or application of this Privacy Policy, contact us via telephone at 1-302-645-7400 or via email to privacy@delawareinc.com. Also, you should read and be aware of the Terms of Use, which generally governs your use of and access to our website, www.delawareinc.com (the “Website”).
Consent to These Privacy Policies Required
If you do not consent to the terms of this Privacy Policy, you must not access or use the Website or transmit any PII to us. Acknowledgement and acceptance of this Privacy Policy and agreement to its terms (so long as they comply with applicable law) is an express condition of using the Website, employing any of our services, or receiving publications or other materials (articles, updates, etc.).
Amendment of these Privacy Policies
Our commitment to the privacy of your PII does not change, but the regulations governing the collection and use of PII frequently do. The U.S. federal government, state governments, and non-U.S. jurisdictions are actively adopting and/or considering additional new privacy laws and regulations. Further, as we add new services and features, the ways we may accept or gather information may expand. For this and other reasons, we may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time.
Sources of Information we Collect
This Privacy Policy applies to the full range of ways we collect PII, which include:
Note that this Privacy Policy does not any information or the collection, retention, use, storage, or transmission of information by any third-party, including through any application or content (including advertising) that may link to or be accessible on the Website (such as advertisements outside of our direct control).
Information We Collect About You and How We Collect It
We collect several types of PII:
Information you Provide to Us
Information we Collect through Automatic Data Collection Technology
When you browse the Website, you can do so anonymously. Generally, we do not collect personal information when you browse, not even your email address. We do not collect PII using automatic data collection tools (discussed below), but we may tie this information to personal information about you that we collect from other sources or that you provide to us. Your browser, however, does automatically tell us the type of computer and operating system you are using.
The automatic data collection tools we may employ include:
Harvard does not track or recognize Do Not Track signals.
The information we collect automatically is used primarily as statistical data and does not include PII. It helps us to improve our Website and to deliver a better and more personalized service, including by enabling us to estimate our audience size and usage patterns. However, we may store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize our Website according to your individual interests, speed up your searches, and recognize you when you return to our Website, although you may opt out of such use as discussed below.
How We Use Your Information
As noted above and throughout these Privacy Policies, we do not sell your information to third parties for any reason. We use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including PII:
We may also disclose your PII:
Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information
We strive to provide you with choices regarding the information you provide to us. We have created mechanisms to provide you with the following control over your information:
We do not control third parties' collection or use of your information to serve interest-based advertising. However, these third parties may provide you with ways to choose not to have your information collected or used in this way. You can opt out of receiving targeted ads from members of the Network Advertising Initiative ("NAI") on the NAI's website (www.networkadvertising.org).
California-Specific Notice. California residents may have additional personal information rights and choices. Please see Your California Privacy Rights for more information. Your rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act are described in brief here.
Nevada-Specific Disclosure. We do not currently sell data triggering Nevada’s Chapter 603A; therefore, the opt-out available to residents under that statute is inapplicable.
Accessing and Correcting Your Information
You can review and change your personal information by logging into the Website, visiting your account profile page, and changing any information. You may also send us an email at privacy@delawareinc.com to correct or delete any personal information that you have provided to us. We cannot delete the entirety of your personal information without deleting your account. We may not accommodate a request to change information if we believe the change would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect. As a registered agent, we must by statute maintain accurate contact information for our clients. If you are a registered agent client of the Company, you have the affirmative duty to access your account and update the contact person information page with accurate, updated information as needed. We will also rely entirely upon the accuracy and completeness of the information we receive from you in making filings on your behalf, including those under the CTA.
How We Protect Your Personal Information
We do not give or sell your name, email address, physical address or any other PII to any third party for marketing purposes, and will reveal such information only as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy. We take strong measures to secure your data against improper outside disclosure, whether over the internet or in hard copy form.
We use commercially reasonable physical, managerial, and technical safeguards to preserve the integrity and security of your personal information, once we receive it. For example, we continuously and regularly back up your data to help prevent data loss and aid in data recovery. Access to our records is protected by biometric fingerprint scanners and monitored by personnel on site. Access to your data is monitored by a 16-camera infrared system, backed up by independent propane power supplies, generators and a state of the art, digitally-controlled power management system. Your records are stored in secure facilities with 24-hour surveillance and, in case of a regional disaster, we can start servicing your requests within 48 hours at our location of choice. To learn more about how we protect your information, please contact us by email at privacy@delawareinc.com.
Harvard uses industry-standard Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption on all web pages where PII is required. To place on-line orders with us, you must use an SSL-enabled browser. This protects the confidentiality of your personal and credit card information while it is transmitted over the internet.
We urge you to take every precaution to protect your personal data when you are on the Internet. Change your passwords often, use a combination of letters and numbers and make sure you use a secure browser.
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your PII, we cannot guarantee the security of your PII transmitted to or via the Website. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for illegal or unauthorized circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Website or that we otherwise employ.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
The GDPR is an EU Regulation to improve the protection of the personal data of EU citizens and increase the obligations of organizations who collect or process personal data. These new regulations took effect on the 25th of May 2018.
We function as both a controller and processor of our clients’ PII. As a controller of data, we store personal information such as customer names, email addresses, physical addresses, IP addresses, phone numbers and avatars. We use databases through GDPR compliant service providers (MSSQL) to store sensitive customer data. We may employ sub-processors with which we may partner to provide you with certain services, to which we transmit data for storage or processing beyond our immediate control. We have entered into agreements with such sub-processors to protect your private information and other data and to ensure such parties comply with necessary privacy laws and regulations in the U.S. and, if applicable and to a very limited extent, outside the U.S. You will receive notification and disclosure regarding any transfer to a sub-processor that assists in providing you with services either as part of the applicable Services Agreement or otherwise.
The Company is also a processor of customer data. We use customer data to compile legal documents, certificates, and other filings as part of our core business formation and registered agent services. If you wish to delete/remove/deactivate your profile or account, remove your testimonial from our site, or opt out of sharing basic information we may transmit to provide you services or maintain our servers and systems, please email us at privacy@delawareinc.com. We will respond to your request within 30 days. Such deletion may result in our inability to continue to provide you with services, and may result in your inability to access the Website under our policies.
For more information about your rights under the GDPR, see the GDPR supplement (the “GDPR Supplement”), available here.
Data Retention
Except as otherwise permitted or required by applicable law or regulation, the Company retains personal data for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes the Company collected it for, as required to satisfy any legal, accounting, or reporting obligations, or as necessary to resolve disputes.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, the Company considers the amount, nature, and sensitivity of personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of personal data, the purposes for processing the personal data, whether the employer can fulfill the purposes of processing by other means, and any applicable legal requirements. The Company does not retain payment information (e.g., credit card numbers, checking account numbers, etc.) after the payment is processed; such information is securely destroyed immediately after payment processing is complete.
Generally, the Company maintains electronic client records of details regarding our formation and registered agent services indefinitely. Other information is retained only for so long as there is a reason to retain it (e.g., blog and podcast info, questions put to our chatbot, or questions posed to or information collected by our sales and filing staff that do not result in a contract for services). When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your PII, we may either delete it or anonymize it, or, if this is not possible (for example, because your personal information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.
We use reputable, nationally-known data storage companies to assist in our long-term retention of electronic and hard copy records.
Unsolicited Information Not Included Within These Policies
This Privacy Policy shall not apply to any unsolicited information you provide to the Company through the Website or through any other means. This includes, but is not limited to, information posted to any public areas of Website, such as blog post comments, any ideas for new products or modifications to existing products, and other unsolicited submissions (collectively, “Unsolicited Information”).
Social Media Widgets
Our Website includes social media features, such as the Facebook and Twitter button. These features may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on the Website, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Social media features and widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our Website. Your interactions with these features and any information collected by such features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, etc.).
Limitation of Liability
The Company exercises all efforts to safeguard the security and confidentiality of your PII; however, transmissions protected by industry standard technology and administered by humans cannot be guaranteed to be secure. To the extent permitted by applicable law, without limitation, the Company will not be liable for unauthorized disclosure of PII that occurs through no fault of the Company including, but not limited to, errors in transmission, access to your account by anyone using your user ID and password, or your failure to comply with reasonable security practices.
You may contact us at privacy@delawareinc.com and we will provide you with reasonable access to the personal information we maintain about you. We will also provide you a reasonable opportunity to correct, amend or delete that information where and if it is inaccurate. We will respond to your request within a reasonable period. We may limit or deny access to personal information where providing such access is unreasonably burdensome or expensive under the circumstances, or as we otherwise deem appropriate. In addition, please note that (i) we may not be able to edit or delete your personal information stored with our third-party service providers, and (ii) we may be required (by law or otherwise) to keep this information and not delete it (or to keep this information for a certain time, in which case we will comply with your deletion request only after we have fulfilled such requirements).
Minors under the Age of 18
Our Website is not intended for children under 18 years of age. No one under the age of 18 may provide any information to or on the Website. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18. If you are under 18, do not use or provide any information on this Website or through any of its features, register on the Website, make any purchases through the Website, use any of the interactive or public comment features of this Website (primarily through the blog), or provide any information about yourself to us. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under 18 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information promptly. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 18, please contact us at privacy@delawareinc.com.
Contact Information
If you have any questions regarding the terms or application of this Privacy Policy, you should contact us via telephone at 1-302-645-7400 or via email privacy@delawareinc.com.
Since 1981, Harvard Business Services, Inc. has helped form 429,589 Delaware corporations and LLCs for people all over the world.
Harvard Business Services, Inc. guarantees your annual Delaware Registered Agent Fee will remain fixed at $50 per company, per year, for the life of your company.
Harvard can provide assistance throughout the life of your company. These custom services are the most popular with our clients: