Privacy Policy
CTLawHelp.org is committed to your privacy. It is important to us.
Our privacy policy describes how we collect and use information about you.
We collect anonymous data about how the website is used. This data does not identify individual users. We will never sell any of your data.
We do not ask for or try to collect your personal information on this website. Please do not give us any of your personally identifying information, such as your name, address, or phone number, when you are using this website. If you use some features of this website, we may ask you to tell us about your legal problem in your own words. You do not need to give us that information to use this site, although some of the site features will work better if you do.
See the sections below for more on why we collect this information and how we use it.
Live chat service
This site uses LiveHelpNow to provide live chat services on this site.
LiveHelpNow collects data such as
- information about the computer, browser, and Internet Service Provider that you use;
- the date and time when you visit; and
- the pages on CTLawHelp.org that you visit.
When you chat with a Chat Navigator, LiveHelpNow stores a copy of that chat on its service, as well as the answers to any survey questions the chat service asks you. You may ask for a copy of your chat to be sent to an email address, but LiveHelpNow does not store that email address. We may, however, store chat transcripts on our servers.
Please only use the chat tool to ask for help finding information on the site or to describe in general terms the kind of legal information you are looking for. Chat navigators cannot act as your lawyer, and if you give them information that identifies you, the other parties in your case, or a particular court case, the chat navigator may not be able to keep those details confidential from other people involved in your situation, depending on the legal rules in your location.
How do we use the information that we collect in a chat?
We do not sell, trade, or rent your personal information to others. We may use the anonymous information you give us to
- train Chat Navigators,
- evaluate the chat service,
- report on the project’s success, and
- improve the quality of the legal information on CTLawHelp.org.
We do not share any personal information about you unless we are required to by law.
If you agree when you begin a chat with us, we will make the description of your legal problem that you give us available for use with the SPOT algorithm. However, as long as you have not included any personally identifying information in the description of your legal problem, this description will be anonymous. We may use and share your description in the same way that we use and share General Usage Statistics.
See below for more about the SPOT algorithm.
SPOT Algorithm and the Legal Help Finder
The information we collect from the Legal Help Finder is used to help determine the best legal resources, information, and referrals for your situation. Resources and organizations sometimes base eligibility for services on factors such as your income and where you live. We may ask for this information so we can give you the most useful results. However, we will not ask you for any personally identifying information about you, such as your name, address, or case number, and we ask that you do not share that information with us.
SPOT is a service run by Suffolk University Law School’s Legal Innovation and Technology (LIT) Lab. We use SPOT to improve suggestions given to you in the Legal Help Finder.
SPOT helps us determine which legal term in on our website fits your legal problem. SPOT remembers your description and uses it to help improve its service for the benefit of people who need legal help. This description may be read by people on the SPOT team. However, as long as you have not included any personally identifying information in the description of your legal problem, this description will be anonymous. Learn more about data sharing with SPOT.
If you choose to describe your legal problem when you are using the Legal Help Finder, we will keep a record of that description. However, as long as you have not included any personally identifying information in the description of your legal problem, this description will be anonymous. We may use and share your description in the same way that we use and share General Usage Statistics.
You can still use the Legal Help Finder tool even if you choose not to describe your legal problem. However, you will need to select your legal problem from a list of problems, as we cannot suggest what term to use without your input.
SMS (Texting) for Legal Information
We use a third-party service called Twilio to send and receive text messages. When you text a keyword to our phone number (203-780-0962), we will respond with legal information that we think will be useful to you.
We will never sell, trade, or rent your personal information to others unless we are required to by law. We use the information you give us to provide you with legal information that can help you solve your legal problems if you can’t afford a lawyer. We may also use your information to evaluate the SMS service, report on our service’s success, and improve the quality of the legal information on CTLawHelp.org.
You can learn more about what Twilio does with your personal information in their privacy policy.
General Usage Statistics
We use Google Analytics to collect statistics and data on how visitors use CTLawHelp.org. All information is anonymous, so individual users cannot be identified.
We use Google Analytics to track visits to our site. Google Analytics uses cookies on your web browser to collect and track this data. Data is collected and presented in a way that keeps your identity hidden. We only see trends and statistics, not information about you as a specific visitor. We use Google Analytics to help improve our services.
You can opt-out of letting Google Analytics collect your data by using the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on. Learn more about Google Analytics Data Collection.
We share statistics about our website with
- our funders and potential funders;
- partners in the legal aid communities (for example, for joint work on website improvement projects or for informational purposes and studies of legal aid website use);
- contractors and other third parties performing development, maintenance work, and other services on our behalf; and
- other entities that help further access to justice.
We will share information in order to comply with the law. For example, we will share information to respond to a court order or subpoena. We may also share if a government agency or investigatory body requests.
We do not sell or use data to sell things to you. We may use data to help us learn how to best promote our services or website.
Feedback Forms and Emails
We do not give legal advice through this website, including through feedback forms or email. Please do not give us personal information about yourself or your legal situation via feedback forms or email.
If you do send us an email or complete a feedback form asking for legal help, representation, or advice, we may forward that information to other entities that might be able to help you, such as other legal services organizations.
Also, if you send us feedback or an email that mentions or involves another organization, including feedback or an email with concerns or complaints about that organization, we may forward your feedback or email directly to that organization.
We do not guarantee the privacy of any information that you send us via a feedback form or email.
We keep a record of feedback and emails in order to improve our services.
Children
Our websites do not knowingly or intentionally collect personal information from children under age 13. If you are a parent or guardian and you believe our website has collected personal information about your child, please contact us. Learn more about protecting your child’s privacy online.
Links
Our sites contain links to third party sites. If you click on one of those links, you are taken to sites that we do not control. This policy does not apply to the information practices of other websites.
Internet Safety
The Internet is not 100% secure. We cannot promise that this website is completely safe. Use caution when using the Internet. If you are using a public or shared computer, the information you enter could be stored on that computer and other people could find it later. Make sure to close out of the browser completely when you are done.
Policy Updates
From time to time, we may change our privacy practices or policies. If there are changes, the latest version of our policy will be posted in this section.
Questions about this Policy
If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our data collection and usage, please email webmaster@ctlawhelp.org.
