Privacy Policy

Last update:  February 26, 2021

Marks Paneth LLP (“Marks Paneth”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) respects your privacy and understands the importance of protecting it. Toward that end, we have adopted this Privacy Policy to describe the personal information we collect about you and how we use, disclose, maintain, and protect that information. This Privacy Policy applies to the information collected from you when you visit our website www.markspaneth.com (the “Website”), contact us or sign up for our newsletter, or access or use our Secure File Exchange, Client Portal, or Client Accounting Portal (linked from our Website) (collectively, the “Services”). This Privacy Policy does not apply to information collected by us offline or through any other means, including on any other website operated by us or any third party; to client information governed by a separate client agreement; or to personal information collected from a potential, current or former employee of Marks Paneth. This Privacy Policy is incorporated by reference into our Legal Notice.

Acceptance of This Privacy Policy

PLEASE READ THIS PRIVACY POLICY CAREFULLY TO UNDERSTAND OUR POLICIES AND PRACTICES REGARDING YOUR INFORMATION AND HOW WE HANDLE IT. BY ACCESSING OR USING ANY OF THE SERVICES, YOU ACCEPT THE TERMS OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY. YOUR CONTINUED USE OF OUR SERVICES AFTER WE MAKE CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY CONSTITUTES YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THOSE CHANGES, SO YOU SHOULD PERIODICALLY CHECK THIS PRIVACY POLICY FOR UPDATED VERSIONS. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THIS PRIVACY POLICY OR OUR LEGAL NOTICE, WHICH ARE INCORPORATED HEREIN BY REFERENCE, YOUR CHOICE IS TO NOT USE OR ACCESS ANY OF OUR SERVICES. BY ACCESSING OR USING ANY OF OUR SERVICES, YOU ALSO REPRESENT THAT YOU ARE AT LEAST THE AGE OF MAJORITY IN YOUR STATE OR COUNTRY.

Information We Collect

Types of Information We Collect

When you access or use the Services, we may collect the following types of personal information from you:

  • information which identifies you personally, such as your first or last names, email address, city, state, server location, demographic information, telephone number, job title, and/or company name (“personal information”); and
  • information that is about you but, by itself, does not identify you personally, such as the type of device you may be using (mobile, tablet, desktop) to visit or access our Website, your operating system, your web browser type, the pages on our Website you viewed, the frequency of your visits to our Website, your connection speed, and the date(s) and time(s) you may have visited our Website.

Sources of Information

We collect some of the information described above directly from you when you provide it to us, such as by registering for or using our Secure File Exchange, Client Portal, or Client Accounting Portal; signing up for e-mail newsletters from our Website; registering for or participating in a webinar; completing forms or surveys on our Website; or sending us emails or messages.

We also collect some of the information described above via automatic data collection technologies (described in further detail below) when you visit or access our Services. Automatically collected information may include your usage details, Internet protocol address (“IP address”), and information collected through cookies, web beacons, and other tracking technologies.

Information That You Provide to Us

Any electronic communication sent to us through our Website or via e-mail may not be secure and thus may be disclosed. Even though we provide a secure Client Portal and take efforts to keep our Client Portal secure, there is no guarantee that it will be secure at all times. Please also be aware that the sending of electronic mail to our professionals or through other contact/address provided in the site does not create a client relationship between you and Marks Paneth, and the contents of any such electronic mail are not privileged.

Automatic Data Collection Technologies

As you navigate through and interact with our Website, we or our third-party service providers may use automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about you, including but not limited to details of your visits to our Website or use of our Secure File Exchange, Client Portal, or Client Accounting Portal, including traffic data and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on any of the Services; and information about your computer and Internet connection, including your IP address, operating system, and browser type.

Some of the information we collect automatically is statistical data and is not intended to identify you personally. Statistical information helps us to improve our Website and to deliver a better and more personalized experience, including by enabling us to:

  • Estimate our audience size and usage patterns;
  • Store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize our Website according to your individual interests; and
  • Recognize you when you return to our Website.

For example, we use Google Analytics to provide us with statistics or metrics about the usage of our Website, and Google Analytics may use cookies (described below) to compile and provide that information to us. You can learn more about how Google Analytics collects and processes data by visiting the following link: https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/ which will take you to the site “How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services.” You may opt out from tracking through Google Analytics cookies at the following link: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

The technologies we use for automatic data collection may include:

  • Cookies (or browser cookies). A cookie is a small text file placed on the hard drive of your computer or device (mobile, tablet, or desktop computer). Cookies placed on your computer by our Website are called “first-party” cookies, and those placed by third parties are “third party” cookies. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser such as a “Do Not Track” feature or delete or “flush” all cookies from your web browser. However, if you select such a setting or delete all cookies 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.
    By visiting our Website, you consent to our use of first-party and third-party cookies and other automated technologies we or third parties may use to collect information from our Website.
  • Web Beacons. Pages of the Website may also contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit us, for example, to count users who have visited those pages and for other related Website statistics or metrics such as, for example, recording the popularity of certain Website content and verifying system and server integrity.

How We Use the Information We Collect

We may use or disclose the personal information we collect for one or more of the following business purposes:

  • To fulfill our contractual obligations to you, or for any other purpose you consent to when we collect the information. For example, if you provide us with personal information in order for us to conduct an audit or prepare a tax return, we will use that information to provide that service to you.
  • To create, maintain, customize, and secure your account with us.
  • To notify you about changes to our Services or any products or services we offer or provide through it.
  • To respond to your inquiries or to provide you with email alerts, event registrations and other notices concerning our products or services, or events or news, that you request from us or that may be of interest to you.
  • To carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us, including without limitation to enforce or apply our Legal Notice, our Privacy Policy, or any other contract, such as for billing and collections.
  • To improve our Website, enhance our Services, or optimize your user experience with our Services.
  • To market our products and services to Website visitors, including without limitation by analyzing data or metrics about our Website to send more targeted messages to visitors of our Website.
  • To respond to complaints or inquiries or comply with reviews made by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants (NYSSCPA) or New York State Board for Public Accountancy, or any duly constituted investigative or disciplinary body having jurisdiction over our Services; or
  • If we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of us, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.
  • To respond to law enforcement requests and as required by applicable law, court order, or governmental regulations.
  • As described to you when collecting your personal information or as otherwise set forth in the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
  • For testing, research, analysis, and product development.
  • To evaluate or conduct a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by us is among the assets transferred.

We will not collect additional categories of personal information or use the personal information we have collected for materially different, unrelated, or incompatible purposes without providing advance notice to you.

How We Share and Disclose Information

We may disclose information that does not identify any individual, such as aggregated information about users of the Services, without restriction. We do not sell your information to third parties for marketing or advertising purposes. However, we may disclose personal information that we collect or you provide to the following third parties:

  • To our subsidiaries and affiliates;
  • To our joint or sponsored partners or vendors for events or registration purposes;
  • To contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support our business or who provide services to us;
  • To law enforcement, governmental agencies, or regulatory bodies when we reasonably believe disclosure is required or permitted by law, regulation, or legal process;
  • To a buyer or other successor of our business in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of a bankruptcy, liquidation or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by us about our Website users is among the assets transferred and which may result in the buyer or successor altering the terms of this Privacy Policy or our Legal Notice; or
  • To any other third party with your consent or if we believe doing so is reasonably necessary to protect us or others.

Your Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information

We strive to provide you with choices regarding the personal information you provide to us. We have created mechanisms to provide you with the following control over your information:

  • Tracking Technologies. You can set your web browser to refuse all or some browser cookies or to alert you when cookies are being sent. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts or features of our Website may then be inaccessible or not function properly.
  • Promotional Offers from Marks Paneth LLP. If you do not wish to have your email address or contact information used by us to promote our own or third parties’ products or services, you can use the “unsubscribe” feature found in any marketing emails we send to you, or you can send an unsubscribe request to the email address listed in the Contact Information section below. If we have sent you a promotional email, you may send us a return email asking to be omitted from future email distributions. This opt-out does not apply to information provided to us as a result of a product purchase, warranty registration, product service experience or other transactions.

Accessing and Correcting Your Information

To access and/or correct any of the personal information we have about you, you may send us an email at the email address listed in the Contact Information section below to request access to, correct, or delete any personal information that we may have about you. We may be unable to accommodate a request if we believe doing so would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect.

Even after you have changed your information, deleted it, or requested its deletion, we may need to keep archival copies of such information for legal or compliance purposes.

California residents may have additional rights regarding their personal information. Please refer to the California Privacy Notice.

Third Party Links and Sites

Our Services may contain links to other websites and services not maintained by us. For example, we may use third-party vendors for webinar hosting, secure file transfer, or accounting services who have websites or services you may be required to visit or use in order to access the Services. Specifically:

  • ON24, Inc. (“ON24”) helps us deliver our webinars. When you register for or attend a webinar, ON24 processes your personal information on our behalf and has agreed to comply with the restrictions in this Privacy Policy.
  • HubSpot, Inc. (“HubSpot”) supports our direct marketing campaigns. If you sign up for our newsletter, HubSpot processes your personal information on our behalf and solely for purposes of providing services to us.
  • We use Citrix to provide you with the Client Portal. Citrix process your personal information on our behalf and at our direction, in a manner consistent with this Privacy Policy.
  • Swizznet helps us provide the Client Accounting Portal. When you access the Client Accounting Portal, the personal information collected by Swizznet is subject to Swizznet’s Privacy Policy.
  • LeapFILE provides us with secure file transfer services through our Secure File Exchange. When you use the Secure File Exchange, LeapFILE’s collection and processing of personal information is subject to LeapFILE’s privacy statements in the Secure File Exchange and in LeapFILE’s Terms of Service.
  • We use Payroc for payment processing.  To the extent that our use of Payroc may require you to access or use Payroc’s website at secure.itransact.com, your use of their site will be governed by Payroc’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Similarly, we may use other third-party vendors such as for payment processing or secure file transfers who have separate websites you will be required to visit in order to use these services. Any information you submit through these third-party vendors’ websites will be subject to their privacy policies and terms of use. These other websites or services are not subject to our Privacy Policy and we are not responsible for their content or for the policies or practices they apply to the treatment of your information. We encourage you to be aware when you enter or leave our Website, or surf the Internet, and to read the privacy statements of each website and service that you visit. We do not endorse, screen, or approve, and are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of, other websites or services.

Our Services also include links to third-party social media sites, including without limitation Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. When you click on these links, you will be directed to a third-party site governed by a third party’s privacy policy and terms of use. You should read the third party’s policies to learn more about how they handle your personal information.

Login Credentials

Certain Services, such as the client portals, require you to provide login credentials prior to access. Login credentials will be provided to you when appropriate as part of our provision of the Services to you. It is your responsibility to safeguard and maintain the confidentiality of such. We will assume that all activity on such password-protected portions of our Services is your activity, when performed using your login credentials, and you will be solely responsible for any loss or damage we incur as a result of the use of your login credentials. If your login credentials are lost or stolen, please notify us immediately.

Our Commitment to Children’s Privacy

Our Services are not intended for use by anyone under the age of thirteen (13) years old. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are under 13, do not use or provide any information through our Website or on or through any of its features or register for the Services, make any purchases through the Services, use any of the interactive or public comment features of the Services or provide any information about yourself to us. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information as soon as it is commercially practicable. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us at contacts@markspaneth.com, and we will endeavor to delete such information promptly.

Information Security

We have implemented measures designed to secure your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers behind firewalls. Any payment transactions will be encrypted using SSL technology.

The safety and security of your information also depend on you. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password for access to certain Services, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone. We also urge you to be careful about disclosing confidential or private information in public areas of the Services, such as message boards or comment areas. The information you share in public areas may be viewed by any user of the Services, and we have no control over what other users or third parties do with the information.

Unfortunately, no method of transmission of information over the Internet is completely secure. Consequently, although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to or over the Services. Any transmission of personal information is therefore at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on our Services. Please also be aware that the sending of electronic mail to our professionals or through other contact/address provided on the Services does not create a client relationship between you and Marks Paneth, and the contents of any such electronic mail are not privileged.

Governing Law and Dispute Resolution

This Privacy Policy shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of New York without giving effect to any choice or conflict of law provision or rule (whether of the State of New York or any other jurisdiction).

You agree that any dispute, claim or controversy arising out of or relating to this Privacy Policy shall be settled by binding arbitration between you and Mark Paneth, and not in a court of law.  The arbitration will be administered by the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) applying the law of the State of New York and in accordance with the AAA’s applicable Rules of Arbitration. Claims shall be heard by a single arbitrator. The place of arbitration shall be New York, NY. The arbitration shall be governed by the laws of the State of New York. Each party shall bear its own costs and expenses and an equal share of the arbitrator’s and administrative fees of arbitration. Except as may be required by law, neither a party nor an arbitrator may disclose the existence, content, or results of any arbitration hereunder without the prior written consent of both parties.

You acknowledge and agree that you are each waiving the right to a trial by jury or to participate as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class action or representative proceeding. Unless both you and Marks Paneth otherwise agree in writing, any arbitration will be conducted only on an individual basis and not in a class, collective, consolidated, or representative proceeding.

Contact Information

If you have any questions or comments about this notice, the ways in which Marks Paneth collects and uses your information, your choices and rights regarding such use, or wish to exercise your rights under California law, please do not hesitate to contact us at:
 
Websitehttp://www.markspaneth.com

Emailcontacts@markspaneth.com

Postal Address:
Marks Paneth LLP
685 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10017

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