The Jackson & Hertogs Policy was last updated on July 27, 2020.
Your privacy is important to Jackson & Hertogs (“we”, “us”) and our Privacy Policy covers how we collect, use, disclose, transfer, and store your information. Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with our privacy practices. Please contact us using the information in the ‘Privacy Questions’ section at the bottom of this policy if you have any questions.
Quick Links
We recommend that you read this Privacy Policy in full to ensure you are fully informed. However, if you only want to access a particular section of this Privacy Policy, then you can click on the relevant link below to jump to that section.
What Personal Information We Collect and Use
Collection and Use of Non-Personal Information
Legal Basis for Processing Personal Information (EEA residents only)
Protection of Personal Information and Integrity
Retention of Personal Information
Access to Personal Information
Statement Regarding Dual Representation
Introduction
Jackson & Hertogs collects personal information about you, your family members (if applicable), and employer. Personal information is data that can be used to identify or contact a single person. Jackson & Hertogs is an immigration law firm. We prepare and file petitions and applications with various U.S. federal and state government agencies including the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of State, the Department of Labor and state employment offices. In addition, we are often retained to file immigration and labor documents with foreign governments to secure work visas and entry into foreign countries.
We are generally retained by employers on behalf of their employees and derivative family members to assist in immigration processes. We are also retained by individuals to assist in securing immigration benefits for themselves or family members. Information gained about an individual’s eligibility for a given visa category, work permit or immigration benefit is crucial to the preparation and filing of petitions and applications. Information that impacts one’s ability to work for the sponsoring employer or to reside with the sponsoring relative is generally not considered private or confidential against the sponsoring petitioner.
You may be asked to provide your personal information anytime you are in contact with our firm. Jackson & Hertogs may share this personal information within our firm and use it consistent with this Privacy Policy. You are not required to provide the personal information that we have requested, but, if you chose not to do so, in many cases we will not be able to prepare and file petitions and applications on your behalf, respond to your queries or provide legal advice and/or services.
Processor Information
In most circumstances we are the data controller of the personal information we process. However, in some circumstances we may be the data processor, for example where we have been instructed by another law firm to complete immigration applications. In such cases the instructing law firm will be the data controller and we process your data in accordance with their instructions.
What Personal Information We Collect and Use
Categories of Data: Identification and contact data (name, address, title, contact details); financial information (credit card details, account details, payment information); employment details (employer, job title, geographic location, area of responsibility, employer financial information); criminal history and immigration history (nationality, previous nationalities, travel history, administrative processing, detention, or deportation records). This type of information is routinely required to be inserted into various immigration petitions and applications and is submitted to government agencies. The personal information we collect is governed by the applicable immigration laws.
Information that we collect automatically
When you visit our website, we may collect certain information automatically from your device. In some countries, including countries in the European Economic Area (EEA), this information may be considered personal information under applicable data protection laws.
Specifically, the information we may collect automatically may include information like your IP address, device type, unique device identification numbers, browser-type, broad geographic location (e.g. country, state or city-level location) and other technical information. We may also collect information about how your device has interacted with our website, including the pages accessed and links clicked.
Collecting this information enables us to better understand the visitors who come to our website, where they come from, and what content on our website is of interest to them. We use this information for our internal analytics purposes and to improve the quality and relevance of our website to our visitors.
Some of this information may be collected using cookies and similar tracking technology (collectively “Cookies”).
Information that we obtain from third party sources
From time to time, we may receive personal information about you from third party sources (including government bodies, your sponsoring employer, or a relative).
The types of information we collect from third parties include information regarding your employment history, immigration history, or criminal record.
How we use your personal information
- The personal information we collect allows us to keep you informed as to the immigration benefits we are engaged in assisting you to secure.
- We also use personal information so as to represent you and/or your sponsor in securing immigration status and benefits and in tracking your status/benefit (e.g., work and travel authorization) expirations.
- We may use your personal information, including date of birth, to verify identity, assist with identification of users, and to determine appropriate services.
- From time to time, we may use your personal information to send important notices, such as communications about immigration law updates, or changes to our terms, conditions, and policies.
- We may also use personal information for internal purposes such as auditing, data analysis, and research to identify trends in immigration.
Collection and Use of Non-Personal Information
We also collect data in a form that does not, on its own, permit direct association with any specific individual. We may collect, use, transfer, and disclose non-personal information for any purpose. The following are some examples of non-personal information that we collect and how we may use it:
- We may collect information such as occupation, educational background, country of birth, or similar general information to provide reports to employers regarding their foreign national employees, or to better understand adjudication trends for the various agencies.
- We use client satisfaction surveys to collect and store details of our services. This information may be used to review, update and revise our current procedures. Except in limited instances to ensure integrity of data, such information will not be associated with your IP address.
If we do combine non-personal information with personal information, the combined information will be treated as personal information for as long as it remains combined.
Third party law firms
Where we are instructed by third party law firms to provide immigration services as a processor, we are merely following their instructions on how we process your personal information. Our processing is handled in accordance with the terms in place with the instructing firms.
Government Agencies
In order to apply for immigration benefits, we will disclose your personal information to government agencies.
Data Service Providers
Jackson & Hertogs stores client data and generates immigration case forms and documents using the LawLogix Edge database system and the Guardian I-9 system. As a division of Hyland Software, Inc., LawLogix has completed the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Certification by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Participation in the Privacy Shield program facilitates the transfer of personal data from the EU to the U.S. In addition to the pre-existing requirements under the EU-U.S. Safe Harbor, the Privacy Shield requirements include:
- Privacy policy disclosures
- Accountability for onward transfers
- Monitoring and regulatory enforcement
- Dispute resolution
- Audit trail documentation and reporting
The Hyland Privacy Shield Policy (in which LawLogix is included) is available online at: https://www.onbase.com/en/legal/privacy-shield-policy.The Hyland certification page can be viewed at:
https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000Gnk1AAC
https://www.lawlogix.com/products/guardian/features/security/
Please refer below to more information regarding the database system privacy and security features.
Third Party Service Providers and Partners
At times Jackson & Hertogs may make certain personal information available to strategic partners that work with us to provide legal services. For example, when we are engaged to assist in securing work and/or travel visas to other countries, we may engage the services of co-counsel in the target country. We may also retain the services of visa processors to submit applications at various consulates within the United States to secure such global visas.
In addition, we use translations services, credential evaluators, expert opinion letter providers, couriers or other necessary entities where required. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) of the Department of Homeland Security requires that all documents in foreign languages that are submitted to USCIS to be translated into English. Similarly, foreign degrees must be submitted with an evaluation by a foreign credential evaluation service. We routinely engage the services of such companies and submit your personal information including name and educational documents to them for evaluation. Similarly, we may require expert opinion letters outlining the nature of the position offered to you or your qualifications for such a position, and will engage evaluation services to obtain such letters.
Personal information will only be shared by Jackson & Hertogs in order to provide the services for which we have been retained and we will take the necessary precautions to ensure that these other service providers protect your information in line with this privacy policy.
Others
We may disclose your personal information:
- To any competent law enforcement body, regulatory, government agency, court or other third party where we believe disclosure is necessary − by law, legal process, litigation, and/or requests from governmental authorities within or outside your country of residence. We may also disclose information about you if we determine that for purposes of national security or law enforcement disclosure is necessary or appropriate.
- Where we determine that disclosure is reasonably necessary to enforce our terms and conditions or protect our operations.
- To any actual or potential buyer or other third party in the event of a reorganization, merger, or sale of our firm, we may transfer any and all personal information we collect to the relevant third party law firm.
- To any other person with your consent to the disclosure.
Legal Basis for Processing Personal Information (EEA residents only)
If you are living in the European Economic Area, please note our legal basis for collecting and using the personal information described above will depend on the personal information concerned and the specific context in which we collect it.
However, we will normally collect personal information from you only (i) where we need the personal information to perform a contract with you, (ii) where the processing is in our legitimate interests and not overridden by your rights, or (iii) where we have your consent to do so. In some cases, we may also have a legal obligation to collect personal information from you or may otherwise need the personal information to protect your vital interests or those of another person [e.g., providing information to an employer to show that you are authorized to work in the United States].
If we collect and use your personal information in reliance on our legitimate interests (or those of any third party), this interest will normally be to provide our legal services and communicate with you as necessary to provide legal services to you and/or your employer.
If you have questions about or need further information concerning the legal basis on which we collect and use your personal information, please contact us using the contact details provided under the “Privacy Questions” heading below.
Protection of Personal Information and Integrity
Jackson & Hertogs use appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect the personal information that we collect and process about you. The measures we use are designed to provide a level of security appropriate to the risk of processing your personal information. Details of the specific measures are below.
LawLogix systems provide Guardian data is protected against disaster events by its combination of multiple hard disk arrays using RAID technology as well as near real-time data replication to a secondary storage unit.
LawLogix uses Certified SSAE 16 SOC 1 Type 2 Facilities to ensure privacy and continuous up time and service. LawLogix cyber-threat resistant multiple UNIX server clusters are hosted at CyberTrails, a Tier 1 co-location facility located in seismically neutral, non-flood, non-fire risk zone with the primary facility located in Phoenix, Arizona.
Access to the facility is controlled by biometric authentication, swipe card validation, sign-in logs and 24-hour video monitoring.
All client Personal Identifiable Information (i.e. Social Security number, date of birth, etc.) is encrypted ‘at rest’ with the highest level of security allowed by U.S. law, currently 128-bit AES.
All communications (i.e. in transit) between clients and its servers are encrypted with VeriSign Class 3 128-bit Encryption Utilizing SSLv3/TLSv1.
A Tipping Point IDS/IPS is used to scan the network and prevent malicious attacks. State monitoring occurs every 20 seconds, 10 seconds for HA failover, throughout the IDS/IPS to ensure all systems are running at optimal performance.
LawLogix utilizes McAfee Secure to conduct enterprise level vulnerability scanning and daily penetration testing. Any vulnerability detected by McAfee is immediately tested in its development environment before deploying to the production environment.
LawLogix employs a typical SaaS architecture with a front-end web server, and application server, a reports server, and a database server. All of those components reside behind dual redundant 3Com X-5 firewalls with 24/7 live intrusion monitoring and prevention.
To ensure the widest compatibility, LawLogix uses Microsoft products.
To ensure the integrity and security of its system, we employ real-time virus protection which is automatically updated through Symantec Endpoint Protection. We “scrub” our incoming and out-going emails to ensure that our system is protected from SPAM and SPYWARE. This system is also automatically updated. We also have the ability to send encrypted emails through a secure server for pick up by the recipient. In addition to this encryption, we have a “sure messaging” system that is embedded into our Database System (LawLogix EDGE) whereby emails may be exchanged from within the system itself offering extreme security.
Our email is hosted by Microsoft and complies fully with a number of security standards. The system is further secured against spam and virus attacks by Barracuda Spam Firewall filtering systems. We utilize automatic service pack updates through a local server based Microsoft Software Update.
Retention of Personal Information
Jackson & Hertogs will retain your personal information where we have an ongoing legitimate business need to do so (for example, to provide you with a service you have requested or to provide you employer with tracking of status and/or work authorization or to comply with applicable legal, tax or accounting requirements), unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law. Once we have achieved the desired immigration objective, and we close your file with our office, our typical period for retention is six (6) years from the date the file is closed. We do not provide additional notice of file destruction at the six year mark.
When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information, we will either delete 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.
Your personal information may be transferred to, and processed in, countries other than the country in which you are resident. These countries may have data protection laws that are different to the laws of your country (and, in some cases, may not be as protective).
Specifically, while our sole office location and our website servers are located in the United States, our third party service providers and partners may operate around the world. This means that when we collect your personal information, we may process it in any of these countries.
We have taken appropriate safeguards to require that your personal information will remain protected in accordance with this Policy.
Access to Personal Information
If you are an active client with our firm, you can help ensure that your contact information and preferences are accurate, complete, and up to date by logging in to your account at https://ww6.welcomeclient.com/. For other personal information we hold, we will provide you with access (including a copy) for any purpose including to request that we correct the data if it is inaccurate, or to delete the data if Jackson & Hertogs is not required to retain it by law or for legitimate business purposes. We may decline to process requests that are frivolous/vexatious, jeopardize the privacy of others, are extremely impractical, or for which access is not otherwise required by local law. Access, correction, or deletion requests can be made to privacy@jackson-hertogs.com.
Statement Regarding Dual Representation
As attorneys practicing employment based immigration law, we are typically engaged in dual representation of both an employer and its foreign national employee/candidate (and any dependent(s)). Similarly, in family based immigration cases, we typically represent both the sponsoring family member and the sponsored foreign national(s).
This dual representation is solely for the limited purpose of representing both the employer and the employee and/or family members in obtaining immigration benefits based on employment and/or family relationship. These immigration benefits include status in the United States as well as benefits such as work authorization and/or travel documents as either nonimmigrants or permanent residents. We are also often engaged in assisting individuals with applying for US citizenship, where family members may process their applications at the same time.
Jackson & Hertogs’ representation for any and all cases extends only to seeking the mutual objective of the clients to remain in compliance with immigration laws and regulations, and gain immigration benefits, and it does not include other objectives. Dual representation will be provided to both clients in these circumstances for as long as the interests of all parties as outlined above are not in conflict. Note that dual representation of the employer and employee does not extend to situations where the employer pays the legal and/or filing fees for a family-based application (e.g., adjustment to permanent resident status based on marriage to a U.S. citizen); in these circumstances, the employer is not a client regardless of paying for legal services. Also, transfer of employment between mutually represented employers does not involve a conflict in the objectives of remaining in compliance with immigration laws and regulations, and gain immigration benefits.
Because of this dual representation, immigration related information gained from one party is shared with the sponsored party and vice versa, and we have no obligation of confidentiality between sponsoring and sponsored clients. Jackson & Hertogs is not required to disclose information that is not necessary to representing both parties, such as private corporate financial information or employee criminal record information that is not relevant to maintenance of status or obtaining immigration benefits. Dual representation does not require Jackson & Hertogs to disclose confidential payroll or recruitment data (including hiring statistics), our sources of prevailing wage information, nor any other information an employer or individual client wishes to keep confidential, within reasonable lawful limits. Also, in the event of a dispute between the parties, communications between either party and/or our firm may not be subject to a claim of privilege, and we cannot represent either party in litigation.
We do not want our representation to create a conflict of interest. We want not only to react to any actual conflicts of interest that may arise, but also to anticipate potential problems before conflicts arise, whenever possible. Prior to our retention to represent any individual, we will perform a computerized name check to determine if we have a record of representation based on a name check so that we can ascertain if this presents a potential or actual conflict of interest. Because circumstances change, we must be continually alert to the development of any conflicts. If you are a client, please call us immediately if you become aware of a conflict or what you think might be a conflict, or if you change your name or take other actions that would make a new conflict check prudent.
In some situations, a potential conflict of interest will arise. If a potential conflict develops, we cannot represent both parties, and will notify both the employer and the foreign national employee or dually represented individuals in writing of the possible or actual adverse consequences of continuing the dual representation, and withdraw from representing both parties in their mutual matter, unless both consent in writing to continue the joint representation, and Jackson & Hertogs decides that under the circumstances, we can fulfill our professional responsibilities to both parties. It is sometimes possible for clients to waive certain conflicts of interest. We will request your consent to any conflict of interest that we believe is acceptable.
If the parties do not consent to continued representation despite a conflict of interest, or even if they do consent, but Jackson & Hertogs does not believe we can fulfill our professional responsibilities to both, we must resign from the matter. Should that happen, we will advise both parties to seek independent counsel. This is the case unless we agree to continue representation of one party, and the other party provides written consent for such continued representation. In situations of actual conflict where we have a pre-existing and continuing general representation of one party (e.g., an employer), we will withdraw from representing the beneficiary.
If you have any questions or concerns about Jackson & Hertogs’ Privacy Policy or data processing or if you would like to make a complaint about a possible breach of applicable privacy laws, please contact us at privacy@jackson-hertogs.com. You can also contact us by phone at (415) 986-4559.
When a privacy question is received we have a dedicated team which triages the contacts and seeks to address the specific concern or query which you are seeking to raise. Where your issue may be more substantive in nature, more information may be sought from you. All such substantive contacts receive a response. If you are unsatisfied with the reply received, you may refer your complaint to the relevant regulator in your jurisdiction. If you ask us, we will endeavor to provide you with information about relevant complaint avenues which may be applicable to your circumstances.
Updates to this Privacy Policy
We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. When we change the policy in a material way, we will take appropriate measures to inform you, consistent with the significance of the changes we make.
You can see when this Privacy Policy was last updated by checking the “last updated” date displayed at the top of this Privacy Policy.
Jackson & Hertogs LLP, 909 Montgomery Street, Suite 200, San Francisco, CA 94133