Updated: 01/26/2023

 

This Privacy Policy describes how your personal information is collected, used, and shared when you visit or submit information to https://dcrefers.org/ (the “Site”).

In this policy, “you” refers to those who use and/or interact with our website, and “the directory” “we”, “us”, and “our” refer to DC Refers.

 

Information We Collect

From Professionals who join our directory:

When you apply to join the directory we collect certain personal and contact information from you including your name, address, email address, phone number, bar admission information, languages spoken, legal practice areas and other personal information necessary to vet your application and/or facilitate referrals through the Site.

You need an account to join our directory as a lawyer. When you register for an account, we collect your username, password and email address. 

From individuals seeking a referral:

We collect certain personal and contact information including your name, email address, phone number, pertinent deadlines, the issue area of your request, and income information. From time to time we may collect additional optional personal information including but not limited to educational attainment, age, race/ethnicity, and gender.  

From individuals who join our mailing list or donate to DC Refers:

When you sign up for our email list, we collect your contact information, interest information, and some information on how you would like us to contact you.

When you make a donation through the Site, we collect certain donor information from you, including your name, billing address, payment information, email address, and phone number.

From visitors to our website: 

When you visit the Site, we automatically collect certain information about your device, including information about your web browser, IP address, time zone, and some of the cookies that are installed on your device. Additionally, as you browse the Site, we collect information about the individual web pages that you view, what websites or search terms referred you to the Site, and information about how you interact with the Site. We refer to this automatically-collected information as “Device Information.”

We collect Device Information using the following technologies:

• “Cookies” are data files that are placed on your device or computer and often include an anonymous unique identifier. For more information about cookies, and how to disable cookies, visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org.

• “Log files” track actions occurring on the Site, and collect data including your IP address, browser type, Internet service provider, referring/exit pages, and date/time stamps.

• “Web beacons,” “tags,” and “pixels” are electronic files used to record information about how you browse the Site. [Google Analytics is the tracking technology used: Tracks global traffic and sources of traffic, location of public, landing pages, demographic`s, social insight, research console, objectives, new visitors vs. known visitors, pages per session and average length of visit, all pages, and mobile devices.]
• Links to or Integrations with Third-Party Websites: Our Website and Services may contain links and provide integrations to other websites. We do not operate, control, or endorse these websites, and your usage of these links and integrations is your choice and is subject to the policies and terms of those websites.

 

How Do We Use Your Personal Information?

From Lawyers who join our directory:

We use your personal and contact information to vet your application to join the directory and to create and maintain your profile on our website. This information is used to facilitate referrals through the site.

From individuals seeking a referral:

We use your contact and certain personal information that we collect to facilitate your request for a referral. From time to time we may provide anonymized demographic information provided by you to grant funders as required when applying for grants or as a condition of maintaining funding. 

From individuals who join our mailing list or donate to DC Refers:

We use your contact information for signing you up for our email list, managing your email preferences or contacting you directly.

We use the donor information that we collect generally to complete a donation transaction placed through the Site (DonorBox processes your payment information, and an emailed thank you is generated). Additionally, we use this Donor Information to communicate with you.

From visitors to our website: 

We use the Device Information that we collect to help us screen for potential risk and fraud (in particular, your IP address), and more generally to improve and optimize our Site (for example, by generating analytics about how visitors browse and interact with the Site, and to assess the success of our marketing and advertising campaigns).

 

Sharing Your Information

We may share your Personal Information with third parties to help us use your information as described above. For example, when you request a referral, we share personal and contact information with the lawyers on our directory to facilitate the referral. 

We use DonorBox to facilitate online donations — you can read more about how DonorBox uses your Personal Information here: https://donorbox.org/privacy.

We used JotForms for lawyer application submissions — you can read more about how JotForms uses your Personal Information here: https://www.jotform.com/privacy/.

We also use Google Analytics to help us understand how our visitors use the Site — you can read more about how Google uses your Personal Information here: https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/. You can also opt-out of Google Analytics here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Finally, we may also share your Personal Information to comply with applicable laws and regulations, to respond to a subpoena, search warrant or other lawful request for information we receive, or to otherwise protect our rights.

 

Behavioral Advertising

Please note that we do not alter our Site’s data collection and use practices when we see a Do Not Track signal from your browser.

 

Your Rights

If you are a European resident, you have the right to access personal information we hold about you and to ask that your personal information be corrected, updated, or deleted. If you would like to exercise this right, please contact us through the contact information below.

Additionally, if you are a European resident we note that we are processing your information in order to fulfill a request made by you (for example if you request a referral through the Site), or otherwise to pursue our legitimate business interests listed above.

Additionally, please note that your information will be transferred outside of Europe, including to the United States.

 

Data Retention

When you make a donation, request a referral or generally request that we contact you, we will maintain your Donor and/or Contact Information for our records unless and until you ask us to delete this information.

 

Changes

We may update this privacy policy from time to time in order to reflect, for example, changes to our practices or for other operational, legal or regulatory reasons.

 

Contact Us

For more information about our privacy practices, if you have questions, or if you would like to make a complaint, please contact us by email at admin@dcrefers.org or by mail using the details provided below:

Privacy Officer

DC Refers

1629 K St. NW Ste 300

Washington, DC 20009