Privacy Statement

The summary below is provided for convenience. The sections that follow control.

• We collect contact details, information you submit through our forms, information member firms provide about their practice, intake and verification information about individuals, and standard technical data from your device.
• We use it to operate our systems, provide customer support, verify victim identity, verify contact information, and verify relevant documents. We also use information to communicate with members, communicate with prospects, secure our systems, and meet applicable legal obligations.
• We do not sell personal information to data brokers or advertisers, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising or targeted advertising. TELN is not a database or a data broker and therefore does not retain any personal information processed on behalf of a member.
• We disclose it to service providers acting on our behalf and to member firms in the performance of our professional services.
• You have rights to access, correct, delete, obtain a portable copy of, and opt out of certain processing of your personal information, subject to the law that applies to you.
• Contact us at privacy@teln.law for any privacy question or to exercise a right.

The Ethical Lawyer Network ("TELN," "we," "us," "our") is a Wyoming corporation operating a legal services and ethics platform. TELN is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal representation.

For purposes of United States state privacy laws, TELN is the "business" or "controller" responsible for the personal information described in this Statement, except where we act as a service provider or processor on behalf of a member firm. For purposes of the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation, TELN is the "controller" of the personal information it determines the purposes and means of processing. Member law firms that receive information from TELN act as independent controllers of that information and apply their own privacy policies to it.

The Ethical Lawyer Network LLC, Wyoming · privacy_@teln.law · teln.law

The information we collect depends on how you interact with us. We do not collect all of the following from every individual.

Information you provide directly

• Identifiers and contact details: name, postal address, email address, telephone number, and, for member firms, firm name, bar number, jurisdiction, and practice areas.
• Account and credential information: username, password, authentication factors, and role assignments within our member-facing applications.
• Communications: the content of forms, emails, chat sessions, telephone calls, and support requests, together with any attachments you send us.
• Commercial and billing information: membership tier, transaction history, and payment details processed by our payment providers. TELN does not store full payment card numbers.
• Professional information: for member firms and applicants, licensure status, disciplinary history disclosures, insurance information, and other diligence materials submitted as part of membership screening.

Intake and verification information

Where an individual contacts us for assistance, or where we verify a matter for review by a member firm, we may collect information describing the individual and the incident: date and location, description of what occurred, injuries or damages claimed, insurance details, treatment or repair records, employment and income information, correspondence, photographs, and supporting documentation. Some of this information is sensitive — including health information, government identifiers, and, in limited circumstances, information revealing other protected characteristics.

We collect sensitive personal information only where it is necessary to verify and document a matter, or where you volunteer it. We do not use or disclose sensitive personal information for purposes other than those permitted by applicable law, and we do not use it to infer characteristics about you.

Information collected automatically

• Device and connection data: IP address, browser type and version, operating system, device identifiers, language settings, and referring URL.
• Usage data: pages viewed, links selected, dates and times of access, session duration, and interactions with forms and applications.
• Cookies and similar technologies, as described in Section 08.

Information from third parties

• Public records, court records, licensing authorities, and government databases used to verify identity, incident, and eligibility.
• Commercial data providers, skip-trace and identity-verification services, and fraud-prevention services.
• Member firms, referral partners, and marketing partners who submit information to us with the individual's knowledge.
• Analytics, hosting, and security providers that process data on our behalf.

Restricted sources. Certain data sources carry statutory use restrictions. Information obtained from motor vehicle records is handled in accordance with the Driver's Privacy Protection Act, 18 U.S.C. §§ 2721–2725, and is used only for permissible purposes under that statute. Where other sources impose comparable restrictions, those restrictions govern the entire downstream use of the information.

The table below summarizes, by category of personal information, the sources we collect it from, the purposes for which we use it, and the categories of parties to whom we disclose it for a business purpose. Categories follow the framework used by the California Consumer Privacy Act.

We retain each category for the period described in Section 09 and disclose it only as described in Section 06.

• To operate, maintain, and improve teln.law and our member-facing applications.
• To respond to inquiries, provide support, and communicate with you about your matter or membership.
• To identify, verify, and document matters, and to prepare files for review by member firms.
• To evaluate applications for membership, conduct ethics and eligibility screening, and administer renewals.
• To process payments, maintain accounts, and keep financial and tax records.
• To secure our systems, detect and prevent fraud and abuse, and enforce our terms.
• To send administrative messages and, where permitted, information about the network. You may opt out of non-transactional email at any time.
• To comply with legal obligations, respond to lawful requests, and establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.
• To create de-identified or aggregated information for analysis and reporting. We maintain such information in de-identified form and do not attempt to re-identify it.
• We do not use personal information for automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects without human review, and we do not use personal information to train third-party generative artificial intelligence models.

• Service providers and processors. Hosting, application platform, analytics, email, document management, payment processing, identity verification, and security vendors, each engaged under contract terms restricting them to processing on our instructions.
• Member law firms. Where you ask to be connected with counsel, or where your matter is referred for review, we disclose the information necessary for that review. The receiving firm acts as an independent controller and its own privacy policy applies from that point forward.
• Professional advisors. Auditors, accountants, insurers, and lawyers, subject to professional duties of confidentiality.
• Legal and safety. Where we believe disclosure is required by law, subpoena, court order, or regulatory demand, or is reasonably necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of any person.
• Corporate transactions. In connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, subject to the protections described in this Statement.
• With your direction. Where you ask us to share information with a specified recipient.

No sale; no targeted advertising

TELN does not sell personal information to data brokers or advertisers for monetary consideration, and does not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising or targeted advertising as those terms are defined under United States state privacy laws. We do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of individuals under 16 years of age.

Disclosures of intake and matter information to member firms are made to deliver the service the individual has requested and are governed by contractual restrictions on the receiving firm's use of that information.

Where the EU or UK General Data Protection Regulation applies, we process personal information on the following legal bases:

• Contract. To provide services you or your firm have requested and to administer the resulting relationship.
• Legitimate interests. To operate and secure the network, prevent fraud, conduct diligence on member firms, and communicate about our services, where those interests are not overridden by your rights.
• Consent. For optional cookies and analytics where consent is required, for certain marketing communications, and for processing of special category data. You may withdraw consent at any time without affecting processing already carried out.
• Legal obligation. To meet recordkeeping, tax, and regulatory requirements and to respond to lawful requests.
• Legal claims and vital interests. To establish, exercise, or defend legal claims, or to protect the vital interests of an individual.

We use cookies, pixels, local storage, and similar technologies to operate the site, remember your preferences, keep your session secure, and understand how the site is used. We classify them in three categories:

• Essential — required for the site to function, including member authentication, session management, security, and abuse prevention on our forms. These cannot be switched off.
• Analytics — aggregate measurement of site traffic and errors so we can improve the site. Not used to identify you individually.
• Marketing — advertising and attribution technologies that measure the performance of TELN campaigns.

On your first visit we present a cookie preference banner. Nothing beyond essential cookies is set until you make a choice. Your selection is stored in your own browser as a first-party cookie, tied to that browser and not to your identity, and is honored for one year or until you change it. You can change your selection at any time on our Cookie Preferences page, reachable from the Cookie preferences link in the site footer, and you can also manage cookies through your browser settings. Blocking essential cookies will prevent parts of the site from functioning.

Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track

We recognize and honor the Global Privacy Control (GPC) and other universal opt-out mechanisms required by applicable state law as a valid opt-out of the sale or sharing of personal information for the browser or device transmitting the signal. Because there is no consistent industry standard for "Do Not Track" browser headers, we do not respond to them separately.

We retain personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this Statement, and thereafter only as required for legal, regulatory, tax, accounting, audit, dispute-resolution, or legitimate business purposes. In determining the retention period we consider the volume, nature, and sensitivity of the information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure, the purposes for which we process it, and whether those purposes can be achieved by other means. TELN is not a database or a data broker and therefore does not retain any personal information processed on behalf of a member longer than needed to deliver our professional services.

In general, website analytics data is retained for up to 24 months; inquiry and contact records for up to three years after the last interaction; membership and billing records for the term of membership plus seven years; and intake and verification records for the period required by the applicable member firm agreement and by law. When a retention period ends, we delete the information or de-identify it irreversibly.

We maintain administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information against unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. These include encryption of data in transit and at rest, role-based access controls, multi-factor authentication, least-privilege administration, logging and monitoring, vendor security review, and a documented incident response process.

The TELN website and its member-facing applications are hosted on the Base44 platform, which maintains SOC 2 Type II attestation and ISO/IEC 27001 certification and is subject to regular internal and third-party penetration testing. Our Compliance Statement describes that arrangement, and the division of responsibility between platform and application, in detail.

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. Please do not send sensitive information to us by unencrypted email. If we become aware of a security incident affecting your personal information, we will notify you and the appropriate authorities as required by applicable law.

United States

Depending on your state of residence, you may have the right to: confirm whether we process personal information about you and access that information; obtain a portable copy; correct inaccuracies; delete personal information; opt out of targeted advertising, the sale of personal information, and profiling in furtherance of decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects; limit the use and disclosure of sensitive personal information; and not be discriminated against for exercising any of these rights.

These rights are available to residents of states with comprehensive consumer privacy laws in effect, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia. The precise scope of each right, and the exemptions that apply, are set by the law of your state. We extend the core rights above to all United States residents as a matter of practice.

How to submit a request

• Email privacy @ teln.law with the subject line "Privacy Rights Request." Underscore and spacing used to prevent bots from generating fraudulent emails.

We will verify your identity before acting on a request, using information already in our possession and, where necessary, additional information reasonably required to confirm that you are the individual to whom the personal information relates. An authorized agent may submit a request on your behalf with written permission and, where required, verification directly from you.

We respond to non-bot-generated, verifiable requests generated by a legitimate human being within 45 days of receipt. Where reasonably necessary, we may extend that period by an additional 45 days. There is no fee for a request unless it is manifestly unfounded, excessive, or repetitive, in which case we will tell you the reason and the amount before proceeding.

Appeals

If we decline to act on your request, you may appeal by replying to our response or by writing to the above email address with the subject line "Privacy Rights Appeal." We will respond to an appeal within 45 days (60 days where your state's law provides) with a written explanation of our decision. If your appeal is denied, you may contact the attorney general of your state to submit a complaint.

This section supplements the rest of this Statement and applies to California residents under the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended.

• Categories collected and disclosed. See the table in Section 04. Over the preceding 12 months we collected the categories listed there and disclosed them for a business purpose to the categories of recipients identified.
• Sale and sharing. We have not sold personal information or shared it for cross-context behavioral advertising in the preceding 12 months.
• Sensitive personal information. We use and disclose sensitive personal information only for the purposes permitted by section 7027(m) of the CCPA regulations. You may nevertheless direct us to limit its use by contacting privacy@teln.law.
• Retention. We do not retain personal information for longer than reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, as described in Section 09.
• Non-discrimination. We will not deny goods or services, charge different prices, or provide a different level or quality of service because you exercised a privacy right. We do not offer financial incentives in exchange for personal information.
• Shine the Light. California Civil Code § 1798.83 permits residents to request information about disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. We do not make such disclosures.
• Notice at collection. This Statement, together with any notice presented at the point of collection, constitutes our notice at collection.

If you are located in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, you have the right to request access to your personal data; rectification of inaccurate data; erasure; restriction of processing; portability; and to object to processing carried out on the basis of our legitimate interests, including profiling. Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

We respond to these requests within one month, extendable by two further months for complex or numerous requests, and will tell you if an extension applies.

International transfers

Personal data we process is stored in the United States by default. Where we transfer personal data from the EEA, the UK, or Switzerland to a country that has not received an adequacy decision, we rely on appropriate safeguards, principally the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, together with the UK International Data Transfer Addendum where applicable.

Supervisory authority

You may lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority. In the United Kingdom this is the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk). We would appreciate the opportunity to address your concern before you do so.

Our website and services are directed to legal professionals and to adults seeking assistance. They are not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from a child under 13. Where a matter concerns a minor, information about that minor is provided to us by a parent, guardian, or authorized representative and is handled as sensitive information.

If you believe a child has provided us with personal information without the involvement of a parent or guardian, contact TELN and we will delete it promptly.

Our site may link to websites operated by member firms, service providers, and other third parties. We do not control those sites and are not responsible for their content or privacy practices. Review the privacy policy of any site you visit before providing personal information. TELN partners with Lovable to host our website and web application. Information about their platform can be found here: https://trust.lovable.dev/

We may update this Statement to reflect changes in our practices, technology, or applicable law at anytime without prior notice. The effective date at the top of the first page indicates when it was last revised.

For any question about this Statement, about how we handle personal information, or to exercise a privacy right:

privacy@teln.law

The Ethical Lawyer Network LLC, Wyoming

Inquiries concerning our compliance program, vendor diligence, or platform security should be directed to compliance@teln.law and are addressed in the TELN Compliance Statement.