Taxfyle Privacy Policy
Last Modified: August 10, 2021
Welcome to Tickmark, Inc.! When you use our services—and any others we in the Taxfyle corporate family roll out, whether in the tax-referral app or elsewhere—you'll share some information with us. We get that that can affect your privacy. So we want to be upfront about the information we collect, how we use it, whom we share it with, and the choices we give you to control, access, and update your information. That's why we've written this Privacy Policy. And it's why we've tried to write it in a way that's free of the legalese that often clouds these documents. Of course, if you still have questions about anything in our Privacy Policy, just contact us at support@taxfyle.com.
Taxfyle is here to connect you with a third-party independent contractor tax professional ("Third-Party Tax Professional") who will help you with your tax preparation and filing and other accounting needs. We provide this referral service through a technology platform ("Taxfyle Platform") that also allows you to communicate with your Third-Party Tax Professional. Worklayer is here to create efficiencies in the way your company reroutes and sources work deliverables. We provide this service through a technology platform ("Worklayer Platform") that also allows you to communicate with your workforce. The Tickmark Platform ("Tickmark Platform") encompasses the Taxfyle Platform and the Worklayer Platform.
When you use, access or interact with the Tickmark Platform, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use and consenting to how we collect, share and otherwise use information about you as described in this Privacy Policy.
Please read this document fully and carefully.
What This Policy Covers
This Privacy Policy covers how Tickmark, Inc. and its affiliated companies (collectively, "Taxfyle," "we," "us" or "our") collect, share and use information in connection with your use of the Tickmark Platform. It does not cover the privacy practices of third parties that we do not own or control.
That said, you should know that we may provide third-party content or links to third-party web sites or applications, or include features that allow you to connect your account with your accounts with third parties, such as financial institutions or social media platforms like Facebook. When you leave our Services or interact with a third-party feature, you should also read the applicable third party's privacy policies and terms of service to make sure you understand how they might collect and share information about you since every company is different.
To put it simply, there are three main ways we collect information about you: (1) when you give it to us, (2) with automatic technologies and (3) when we ask others for it. Allow us to explain.
Information You Choose to Give Us
When you interact with the Tickmark Platform, we collect the information that you choose to share with us. For example, use of the Taxfyle Platform requires you to set up a basic account, so we need to collect a few important details about you, such as: a unique username you'd like to go by, a password, an email address, a phone number, your date of birth, a credit card number, and, since you are getting help with tax documents for the government, your Social Security or Tax Identification Number. Other services, such as commerce products, may also require you to provide us with a debit or credit card number and its associated account information. This type of information is Personal Information, that is information that identifies you personally.
Some of the information you choose to give us will be Non-Personal Information, that is information about you or your household that doesn't identify you personally, like your gender, income, or what types of financial products you're interested in.
When we combine information that isn't Personal Information (like Non-Personal Information or Usage Information, which we explain below) with Personal Information, we treat it like Personal Information for as long as it is combined.
Of course, you'll also provide us whatever information you send through the Tickmark Platform, but also any information you might provide when using Help Chat (our customer support vehicle), phone calls with us, or Pro Chat (our vehicle for communications between you and your Third-Party Tax Professional and/or workforce). It probably goes without saying, but we'll say it anyway: When you contact our support team or communicate with us in any other way, we'll collect whatever information you volunteer. It should also be obvious if you are providing information related to tax filings, all information on those filings will be provided to the government.
Information We Automatically Collect
In addition to information you provide to us, we automatically collect certain information about how you access and interact with the Tickmark Platform ("Usage Information"). This Usage Information is a key part of how we improve your experience and provide more personalized insights and recommendations. We and our business partners may use various technologies to collect and store Usage Information in connection with our Services. Here are some types of Usage Information we may collect:
Information Third Parties Provide About You
Some of our features may rely on information about you that we collect from third parties, such as the third-party tax documents, and other work-related documents, provided by you and possibly from your linking to one or multiple of your financial accounts through third-party account aggregation services. We may also work with different third-party data partners to supplement the Usage Information and other information we collect directly from you. For example, our business partners may provide us with information about special offers available based on your profile so that we can give you more personalized recommendations. We might also collect information from other users like you through things like a member referral program.
How We Use the Information We Collect
We use the information we collect from you and third parties to operate the Tickmark Platform, improve our Services, communicate with you and the providers, conduct research and development to improve or enhance our services and our users' experience, and promote our services. Here are a few examples of how we do this:
When We Share the Information We Collect
First, we want to be clear about how we do not share information about you (what we call the "No-Nos"):
Now that we've covered the No-Nos, let us explain how we could share with third parties. We may share information about you, including Personal Information, with third parties in the following circumstances:
Although we welcome users from all over the world, keep in mind that no matter where you live or where you happen to access the Tickmark Platform, your information may be shared within the Tickmark family of companies. This means that we may collect your personal information from, transfer it to, and store and process it in the United States and other countries outside of where you live.
How to Access, Update or Deactivate Your Account
Accessing and Updating Your Account Information
You are responsible for maintaining the accuracy of the information you provide to us, such as your profile information and your responses to our onboarding questions. You can access and make changes to certain Personal Information at any time by logging in to your account through our website or app and updating your "Personal Information."
Communications Preferences
You can manage your communications preferences by visiting the Tickmark Platform, and communicating with the customer support team, via the Help Chat, or via email, at support@taxfyle.com. Technology moves fast, so the types of communications and communication preference options might change from time to time.
Canceling Your Membership and Deactivating Your Account
We hope this never happens, but if you decide you no longer want to use our services, you can cancel and deactivate your account by reaching out to us at support@taxfyle.com.
One more thing to note: Due to our recordkeeping and information retention requirements, we do not delete information about you upon deactivation. We will, however, disable your account and stop sending you further communications. Furthermore, except to the extent necessary for legal or regulatory recordkeeping purposes, we anonymize the data in your profile two years after you deactivate your account. It may take a little more time for our automated backup systems to fully process the anonymized account, though.
Our Interest-Based Advertisement Practices
Advertising Service Providers
Some of our third-party service providers or business partners are advertising networks, marketing partners, publishers and other entities who perform analytics and advertise our products and services on websites not affiliated with us ("Advertising Service Providers"). In connection with these advertising services, we or our Advertising Service Providers, like Google Analytics (more on this below) may use cookies, web beacons, and similar technologies to collect behavioral information about how you use our site or other websites in order to perform tracking and marketing analytics or serve advertisements that are more likely to be of interest to you ("Interest-Based Advertisements"). Our Advertising Service Providers may permit you to opt out of all or some Interest-Based Advertisements on designated websites. For example, many of our Advertising Service Providers participate in the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out program or the Digital Advertising Alliance opt-out program.
Disclosure Regarding Google Analytics Advertising Features
In addition to services from other Advertising Service Providers, we use the following Google Analytics Advertising Features as part of our marketing analytics and advertising: Remarketing with Google Analytics, Google Display Network Impression Reporting, DoubleClick Platform integrations and Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting. We may also use other services provided by Google Analytics from time to time. Google provides users an opportunity to opt-out of the Google Analytics Features through Google's Ads Settings and their web browser opt-out plugin. For additional information on opting out of interest-based ads by Google, visit here.
Do Not Track Signals
At this time, we do not respond to automated signals regarding tracking mechanisms, including "do not track" instructions from your browser. Please note that blocking cookies may affect your browsing experience on many sites and may limit your ability to use certain features of our Services, including many of the personalized features we provide for our members.
Our Security Practices and Social Security Number Protection Policy Statement
Taxfyle maintains physical, electronic, administrative and procedural safeguards intended to protect the confidentiality of Personal Information that we collect about you, including Social Security Numbers. We limit access to Social Security Numbers to help protect against their loss or misuse and we do not disclose Social Security Numbers to third parties, except for Third-Party Tax Professionals, except where such disclosure is required or permitted by law.
If you have any questions about security on the Taxfyle Platform, you can send an email to us at support@taxfyle.com.
Changes to Our Privacy Policy
We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time without notice to you. If there are any material changes in the way we provide the services, manage the Taxfyle Platform in a way that affects your privacy, or the way we treat Personal Information, Taxfyle may send a notice to the primary email address on your account, make a change on this page, or place a notice on our platform before the change goes into effect. Taxfyle will also promptly make an updated Privacy Policy publicly available on our platform. Changes will be effective as soon as the revised Privacy Policy is posted unless otherwise stated.
Want More Information?
Thanks for taking the time to read through all this. If you have questions regarding this policy or privacy practices at Tickmark, you can email us at support@taxfyle.com or write to us at: Tickmark, Inc. Attention: Legal Department, 2901 Florida Avenue, Suite 840, Miami, Florida, 33133.
THE FOLLOWING IS RELEVANT ONLY TO RESIDENTS OF CALIFORNIA
Effective as of January 1, 2020
If you are a California resident, the processing of certain personal data about you may be subject to the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) and other applicable California state privacy laws. Beginning January 1, 2020, the CCPA gives you certain rights with respect to the processing of your personal data (known as “personal information”, as described in under the CCPA).
This supplement provides additional privacy disclosures and informs you of your additional rights as a California resident, and should be read in conjunction with our Privacy Policy.
Personal Information Collected and Processed
Please refer to our Privacy Policy which sets forth the type of information Tickmark, Inc. collects and processes from you, as well as a description of each category of information and where we get that information from.
Requests to Exercise your Rights
RIGHT TO KNOW REQUEST - Under the CCPA, you have a right to request information about our collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information over the prior 12 months, and ask that we provide you with the following information:
To make a verifiable request for more information we have collected about you, please contact our Customer Service department and request a copy of your data, or email us at privacy@taxfyle.com.
RIGHT TO DELETE REQUEST - You also have a right to request that we delete your personal information, subject to certain exceptions. You may exercise this right by contacting Customer Service or emailing us at privacy@taxfyle.com.
HOUSEHOLD REQUESTS - We currently do not collect household data. If all the members of a household makes a Right to Know or Right to Delete request, we will respond as if the requests are individual requests.
REQUESTS, GENERALLY - Note, if you have not used Taxfyle, or have not submitted any information to Tickmark, Inc. to process any of your taxes or other information, we will not have enough information about you to verify your Right to Know and Right to Delete requests, as we do not keep sufficient information to relink you to any previous usages or simple visits to our platform. As such, we will be unable to verify and honor your requests. You may make a verifiable consumer request related to your personal information twice per 12-month period. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your rights under the CCPA.
REQUESTS MADE THROUGH AGENTS - You may designate, in writing or through a power of attorney, an authorized agent to make requests on your behalf to exercise your rights. Before accepting such a request from an agent, we will require the agent to provide proof you have authorized it to act on your behalf, and we may need you to verify your identity directly with us.
Disclosures of Personal Information for a Business Purpose
In the preceding 12 months, Tickmark, Inc. has disclosed certain data from the following categories of personal information to the recipients listen in our Privacy Policy for one or more business purposes:
For more details on the information we collect from you, please refer to our Privacy Policy.
Sale of Personal Information
Under the CCPA, a “sale” means providing to a third party personal information for valuable consideration. We have taken substantial steps to identify whether any of our data sharing arrangements would constitute a “sale” under the CCPA, and have maintained that we do not sell or rent Personal Information to unaffiliated third parties for their advertising or marketing lists.
Contact Us
You may contact us by emailing us at privacy@taxfyle.com or using the “Contact Us” feature on our website.