PRIVACY POLICY

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.

 

• Website Users. Upon an amendment, Website visitors that allow for tracking of their acceptance of such will receive a pop-up upon landing on the Website showing an amendment has been made and their acceptance is required for continued valid access. Such visitors must affirmatively acknowledge and agree to the amended version. A link will be provided prominently next to the button evidencing affirmative acknowledgement and acceptance leading to the updated Privacy Policy and a redline showing the changes made to the last version.

 

• Customers’ Online Accounts. A notice that this Privacy Policy has been amended will be included on the landing page of our customers’ password-protected accounts. Acknowledgement and acceptance of such an amended Privacy Policy will be required for continued use of our services.   

 

Sources of Information we Collect

 

This Privacy Policy applies to the full range of ways we collect PII, which include:

 

• Your use of the Website, `such as through “cookies” or other automatic electronic data mechanisms, discussed below.

 

• Your interactions with our advertising on third-party websites and services, if those applications or advertising include links to the Website, and

 

• Your submission of information to us through the Website, such as:

 

• through our “chat” function, which allows Website users to virtually communicate with a live Harvard representative during business hours,

 

• through your use of our “chatbot,” which addresses inquiries posed by Website visitors after business hours, when our chat feature is unavailable,

 

• when you provide contact information in signing up to receive our weekly blog, periodic webinars, podcasts, surveys, etc.,

 

• when you submit information to obtain a username and password-protected account through the Website, or otherwise, and forms through our website requesting information we need to provide the services upon which we and you have agreed,

 

• when you submit information through your account with Harvard, accessible through the Website using a designated username and password, whether in ordering services; providing or updating payment, contact, or other information; or otherwise.
   

• Through emails, texts, or other messages you send to us or that you exchange with Harvard representatives.

• In telephone calls or other off-line communications with our staff.

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

• Personal information, such as name, postal address, email address or telephone number, when you correspond with us by email or the Website’s “chat” function (chatting with a representative or our after-hours “chatbot”), call us to make a purchase or request service, or participate in an online survey.

• The social security number or tax identification number of a person serving as the “Responsible Party” for the application if you authorize us to obtain an employment identification number for your new Delaware company.

 

• Information you provide to us in connection with any filings made pursuant to the Corporate Transparency Act, including information on your company’s beneficial owners (the “CTA”).

 

• Information that you provide by filling in any forms on our Website whether in purchasing services or products, or otherwise.

• Details of transactions you carry out through our Website, over the phone, or by email and of the fulfillment of your orders.

• You may be required to provide financial information before placing an order through our Website or by phone or email, although all payment information (e.g., bank account numbers, credit card numbers, etc.) is destroyed in a secure manner and not maintained in hard copy or on our servers immediately after each payment is processed.

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:

• Cookies (or browser cookies). A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our Website. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Website. Cookies help us understand which parts of our websites are the most popular, where our visitors are going and how long they spend there. We use cookies to study traffic patterns on our site so we can make the site even better.

• Flash Cookies. Certain features of our Website may use local stored objects (or Flash cookies) to collect and store information about your preferences and navigation to, from, and on our Website. Flash cookies are not managed by the same browser settings as are used for browser cookies. For information about managing your privacy and security settings for Flash cookies, see Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information.

• Web Beacons. Pages of the Website may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit the Company, for example, to count users who have visited those pages and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website content and verifying system and server integrity).

• Action Tags.  We use action tags. An action tag is a small piece of code that is placed on a webpage or in an email in order to track the pages viewed or the messages opened, the date and time when someone visited our Website, the website from which the visitor came, the type of browser used, and the domain name and address of the user's Internet Service Provider. Action tags allow us to better understand how users and visitors use the Website or browse through our pages, so that we can improve access to and navigation through the Website, add or modify pages, according to our user's patterns. Action tags cannot be removed or deleted by our users, because they are part of the programming of a webpage.

• Log Files.  Log file information is automatically reported by your browser each time you access a web page. When you use the Website, our servers automatically record certain information that your web browser sends out whenever you visit any website. These server logs may include information such as your web request, IP address, browser type, referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, the files viewed on our site (e.g., HTML pages, graphics, etc.) and URLs, number of clicks, domain names, landing pages, pages viewed, and other similar information.

• Behavioral Targeting. We partner with a third party to either display advertising on our website or to manage our advertising on other sites. Our third-party partner may use cookies or similar technologies on other websites in order to provide you advertising based upon your browsing activities and interests. If you wish to opt out of interest-based advertising, whether you are in the U.S., the European Union, or elsewhere, send an email to privacy@delawareinc.com. Please note you will continue to see generic ads on the Website which are not in the Company’s control.

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:

• To present our Website and its contents to you in a more efficient manner customized to your past use (unless opted out).

• If you register on the Website, affirmatively elect to receive certain information, or otherwise provide your information for such purpose, we will use that contact information to provide you with information about, for example, our products or services or to notify you about certain changes to our business.

• To fulfill any other purpose for which you provide information at the time (including personal information), including in connection with products we may offer in conjunction with third-party service providers, who will not make use of this information except to provide such services or provide for the use of relevant products.

• To provide you with ongoing registered agent services, including to provide you with notices about your business entity, key deadlines and required actions, including franchise tax reminders, franchise tax materials, notices of various sorts from the State of Delaware and any other relevant states, invoices and payment reminders for invoices, service of process, as well as other communications related to our role as formation agent/incorporator and/or registered agent. Upon receipt, and at least quarterly thereafter, we will compare the personal information you have provided against the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s lists of designated persons maintained by the Office of Foreign Asset Control (“OFAC”) to ensure we comply with applicable law and trade restrictions.  These comparisons are required by Delaware law governing registered agents.

 

• To make filings on your behalf as part of agreed-upon services, including making any filing under the CTA.

 

• To our service providers with a need to know such information (e.g., legal counsel) and who are bound by contractual obligations to keep such information confidential and use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them.

• To a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of the Company’s assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by the Company about our Website users is among the assets transferred, provided that such buyer or successor shall be under a strict confidentiality and non-use obligation prior to the close of transaction, beginning no later than the time the Company shares access to any PII.

• To allow you to participate in interactive features on our Website, such as webinars allowing for Q&A sessions and other recordings, podcasts we may offer, or periodic surveys we may send seeking a rating of our services or seeking to gauge client interest products and services under consideration (unless you opt out).

We may also disclose your PII:

 

• To comply with any U.S. or non-U.S. court order, subpoena, or other directive, or any U.S. or non-U.S. law, regulation, or rule, including those of a recognized self-regulatory organization (e.g., the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc.).

 

• In our discretion, to comply with any law enforcement, governmental, or regulatory request.

 

• To enforce or apply our Terms of Use and other agreements, including for billing and collection purposes and to enforce our rights under contracts with you.

• If we believe that disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of the Company, our customers, or others.

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:

• Tracking Technologies and Advertising. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. To learn how you can manage your Flash cookie settings, visit the Flash player settings page on Adobe's website. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this site may then be inaccessible or not function properly.

• Promotional Offers from the Company. If you do not wish to receive emails from the Company describing our products or services (whether offered by us alone or in conjunction with another provider), you can opt-out when we collect your data or by sending us an email stating your request to privacy@delawareinc.com. This opt-out does not apply to emails documenting or providing information about a product or service or our emails or calls related directly to our registered agent services (e.g., franchise tax reminders, invoices for payment, transmitting service of process, etc.).

• Weekly Blog/Podcasts/Surveys. You can opt out of receiving our weekly blog update or notices of webinars or podcasts by checking the relevant box on the form on which you sign up to receive our services, or simply follow the instructions in the email to unsubscribe from all or part of such communications.  Similarly, you can opt out of periodic surveys we may send to you gauging client interest in certain contemplated services or for other reasons.’

• Testimonials. We display testimonials of satisfied customers on the Website in addition to other endorsements.  With your consent, we may post your testimonial along with your name, or anonymously. If you wish to update or delete your testimonial, you can contact us at privacy@delawareinc.com.

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.