McDonald Hopkins :: Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

© Copyright 2010, McDonald Hopkins LLC. All Rights Reserved. No portion of this website may be reproduced, copied or revised without written permission.
Last Updated on May 6, 2009.

Introduction

This Website (the “Website”) is owned and maintained by McDonald Hopkins LLC. McDonald Hopkins developed the following Privacy Policy to explain our privacy practices for the Website. McDonald Hopkins encourages you to read this Privacy Policy carefully, and by accessing or using the Website, you acknowledge and consent to the practices described below.

Information That We Collect

You may use the Website without disclosing to us any personally identifiable information. McDonald Hopkins collects personally identifiable information from you only if you choose to provide it, for example when you sign up to receive newsletters or advisories or contact us by e-mail. When you use the Website, our servers automatically receive and record certain information regarding your use, including the browser you use, your IP address, the pages you view, operating systems, referring and destination pages, and other similar information. The Website also may use cookies, which are is a small file containing a string of characters that stores user preferences and tracks user trends. The Website may present links in a format that enables us to keep track of whether these links have been followed. If you choose to receive e-mail from McDonald Hopkins, we may use unique identifiers in our email messages. McDonald Hopkins uses such usage-related information to help administer the Website, analyze user information, track users’ movement through the Website, and gather information to improve the Website and our services.

Our Information Disclosure Practices

McDonald Hopkins is the sole owner of the information we collect through the Website, and it may share the information it collects with through the Website as allowed by law. McDonald Hopkins may share collected information with third parties who provide certain services on our behalf, including but not limited to website hosting, database administration, event management, mailing and marketing services, transaction processing, statistical analysis and technical support. McDonald Hopkins also may disclose or use your information when we believe, in good faith, that disclosure or use is reasonably necessary to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request, to detect fraud, security or technical issues, to protect against imminent harm to the rights, property or safety of McDonald Hopkins, users of the Website or the public, or as otherwise required or permitted by law.

Client Advisories

McDonald Hopkins distributes client advisories and other firm publications to clients and friends of the firm from time to time. Each recurring advisory or publication will contain instructions telling you how to receive such publications by e-mail or facsimile and how to be removed from our distribution list.

Security

McDonald Hopkins uses commercially-reasonable measures to protect against unauthorized access or use of the information we collect. Where appropriate, those measures include the use of firewalls, restricted access, and encrypted transmissions and limiting internal access to only those in our organization who have a business need to access such information. However, no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. Therefore, while McDonald Hopkins strives to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, it cannot guarantee its absolute security. McDonald Hopkins is not responsible for unauthorized access to information by hackers or others who have obtained such access through illegal means and you agree that you use of the Website is at your own risk.

Linked Sites

McDonald Hopkins may include links to external sites on its Website from time to time. The inclusion of any link does not imply our endorsement of such external Website or the products and services offered at such site. If you link a third party site from our Website, any information you reveal on that site is not subject to this Privacy Policy. Therefore, you should consult the privacy policies of each site you visit.

Information from Children

No part of the Website is directed to persons under 18, and McDonald Hopkins does not knowingly collect or maintain personally identifiable information or non-personally-identifiable information from the Website from persons user 18 years of age. Please do not use or access the Website at any time or in any manner if you are under 18 years of age. If McDonald Hopkins learns that personally-identifiable information of persons under 18 years of age has been collected on the Website without verified parental consent, we will take commercially reasonable measures to delete such information.

Note to International Users

The Website is hosted in the United States and is intended for and directed to users in the United States. If you are a user accessing the Website from the European Union, Asia or any other region with laws or regulations governing personal data collection, use and disclosure that differ from the United Sates’ laws, please be advised that through your continued use of the Website, which is governed by United States law, this privacy notice and our terms of use, you are transferring your personal information the United States and you consent to that transfer.

Retention

McDonald Hopkins reserves the right to retain the information it collects for as long as necessary to permit it to use such information for the purposes that it has communicated to you and to comply with applicable law or regulations.

Changing or Deleting Personal Information

If you would like to change your personal information, or if you no longer wish to receive materials from us or want your personal information removed from McDonald Hopkins’ database, please contact us at info@mcdonaldhopkins.com. Alternatively, when you receive materials from us by e-mail or other communications you can make use of the “opt out” provision in such communications so that we know that you no longer wish to receive such materials from us. You should be aware that removal of your personal information from our database may not ensure permanent removal of such information from our Website. For example, your personal information may remain in archival or backup copies of our Website.

Changes and Questions

The Internet is evolving rapidly, as are the ways in which people use the Internet and the laws surrounding such use. McDonald Hopkins therefore reserves the right to revise this Privacy Policy at any time by posting a new Privacy Policy at this location. Please check this page periodically for changes. You can determine if this Privacy Policy has been revised by referring to the “Last Updated” date at the top of this page. Your use of the Website constitutes your acceptance of the terms of this Privacy Policy.

If you have questions about our Privacy Policy, please e-mail us at info@mcdonaldhopkins.com.