Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Trial Guides is committed to fair information practices. We respect your privacy and security. We want you to have an online shopping experience that delivers the information, resources, and services you need. To achieve this, we sometimes collect information during your visits to understand what makes you different from each of our other visitors. We will not disclose that information to anyone outside Trial Guides, except as described in this privacy policy.

This privacy policy describes the personal data collected or generated (processed) when you use Trial Guides’ website (“Site”) and mobile applications (“Apps”). It also explains how your personal data is used, shared and protected, what choices you have relating to your personal data and how you can correct any inaccuracies in the information.

Information We Collect, and How We Use It

Trial Guides collects information in three ways:

• directly from you
• from our Web server logs
• with cookies

Information Directly From You

On our Web site and associated technology sites, visitors can register to purchase products or services, and receive personalized content. When you register, we will ask you for information.

If you’re purchasing a product, we will require financial information such as credit card numbers. We only use your financial information to bill you for what you purchased. If you purchase with a credit card, we will forward this information to your credit card provider.

For other types of registrations, we may ask for your name, address, e-mail address, or telephone number. We may then contact you with information about other Trial Guides products and services in the future.

Finally, we may ask you for personal information so that we can provide assistance. For example, we may ask for e-mail address, system type, and a description of your problem so we can provide online technical support and troubleshooting.

If you don’t want to receive promotional materials from Trial Guides, you can opt out at any time. To do this, send an email to us. Include your name, contact information, and a message saying you’d like to stop receiving promotional materials.

More About Information We Collect on our Web Sites

We maintain information about our customers and their purchases at Trial Guides in a secure environment. We do not share this information with any third parties for marketing purposes.

How We Protect Your Information

Trial Guides uses technical security measures to prevent the loss, misuse, and alteration of information under our control. For example, when we ask customers to provide financial information (such as a credit card number) that data is protected using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology. This is a protocol for secure data transmission over the internet.  With exception to orders placed via phone, our staff do not have access to credit card information. It is processed directly by our web site without our staff having personal access.

In addition to electronic security, all Trial Guides employees and contractors sign confidentiality waivers agreeing not to disclose personal information on customers to any third parties.

Who Has Access to the Information?

Trial Guides, will share your personal data in only three situations:

• As required by law, in a matter of public safety or policy, or as needed in connection with the transfer of other business assets. In compliance with U.S. law, Trial Guides, does not share information with any unaffiliated third parties for marketing purposes.
• With agents and contractors who use it on Trial Guides’ behalf, or in connection with their work on behalf of Trial Guides.
• For continuing education classes from Trial Guides, the company will share your class credit information with state Continuing Education regulators and content providers who track continuing education usage.

Links to Other Companies’ Sites

Our Web sites contain links to sites which other companies maintain. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of those sites, and we encourage you to use caution when visiting them. In particular, we recommend you view the privacy policy posted on each site.

Privacy Policy Changes

If our information practices change in a significant way, we will post and highlight the policy changes.

California Consumer Privacy Act 

Please note: The California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) does not apply to Trial Guides operation for the following reasons: 

1. Trial Guides has annual gross revenues below $25 million / year;
2. Trial Guides does not possess the personal information of 50,000 or more consumers, households or devices; and
3. Trial Guides does not earn more than half of its annual revenue from selling consumers’ personal information. (In fact, Trial Guides has never sold or leased it’s customer list to any party during the company’s history, nor will we in the future.)

Trial Guides does not seek or intend to advertise to minors under age 13.  Trial Guides is dedicated to only reaching customers that are lawyers, doctors, librarians or graduate students in law or the health care professions.  By the nature of our business, there is no intention to reach people who are minors.

Despite the fact that CCPA does not apply to Trial Guides (for the above reasons), we respect our customers' privacy and do not use customer data for any other purpose than our internal use for improving service or creating new products.  

Trial Guides invests in technology with high levels of security to protect our customer data. To date in our 15+ years of operation, Trial Guides is unaware of any instance of data theft.  In order to prevent the type of security breaches commonly experienced at Equifax and high profile corporations that maintain e-commerce sites hosted on WordPress or Magento, in 2018 Trial Guides moved to an eCommerce host with highly secure hosting that covers the entire online shopping experience from the storefront to checkout.  Credit card, payment data, and other sensitive information is encrypted in transit and at rest.  All credit card data is processed by our integrated online web site and is not retained or ever seen by Trial Guides staff (with the exception of customers who call the office to place their order.)  Trial Guides web site is Level 1 PCI DSS complaint.  We understand that both data security and consumer privacy are very important to our customers, which is why we invest heavily in technology intended to protect our customers.

Sharing of Your Personal Data

Trial Guides’ Sharing

Trial Guides shares your personal data with:

• Trial Guides entities for the purposes and under the conditions outlined above. 
• Third party service providers processing personal data on Trial Guides’ behalf, for example to process credit cards and payments, shipping and deliveries, host, manage and service our data, distribute emails, research and analysis, manage brand and product promotions as well as administering certain services and features.  When using third party service providers we enter into agreements that require them to implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your personal data. 
• Other third parties to the extent necessary to: (i) comply with a government request, a court order or applicable law; (ii) prevent illegal uses of our Sites and Apps or violations of our Sites’ and the Apps’ Terms of Use and our policies; (iii) defend ourselves against third party claims; and (iv) assist in fraud prevention or investigation (e.g., counterfeiting). 
• to any other third party where you have provided your consent.

We may also transfer personal data we have about you in the event we sell or transfer all or a portion of our business or assets (including in the event of a reorganization, spin-off, dissolution or liquidation).

Your Sharing

When you use certain social features on our Sites or Apps, you can create a public profile that may include information such as your screen name, profile picture and hometown.  You can also share content with your friends or the public, including information about your Trial Guides activity.  We encourage you to use the tools we provide for managing Trial Guides’ social sharing to control what information you make available through Trial Guides’ social features.

Protection and Management of Your Personal Data

Encryption & Security 

We use a variety of technical and organizational security measures, including encryption and authentication tools, to maintain the safety of your personal data. Trial Guides does not have access to, nor does it store, credit card information you input for credit card transactions.  All credit card processing is handled through encryption through our web site technology.

International Transfers of your Personal Data

The personal data we collect (or process) in the context of our Sites and Apps will be stored in the USA and other countries. Some of the data recipients with whom Trial Guides shares your personal data may be located in countries other than the country in which your personal data originally was collected. The laws in those countries may not provide the same level of data protection compared to the country in which you initially provided your data. Nevertheless, when we transfer your personal data to recipients in other countries, including the USA, we will protect that personal data as described in this privacy policy and in compliance with applicable law.

Retention of your Personal Data 

Your personal information will be retained for as long as is necessary to carry out the purposes set out in this privacy policy (unless a longer retention period is required by applicable law). In general, this means that we will keep your personal data for as long as you keep your Trial Guides account. For personal data related to product purchases, we retain this longer to comply with legal obligations (such as tax and sales laws and for warranty purposes). 

Your Rights Relating to Your Personal Data

You have the right to request: (i) access to your personal data; (ii) an electronic copy of your personal data (portability); (iii) correction of your personal data if it is incomplete or inaccurate; or (iv) deletion or restriction of your personal data in certain circumstances provided by applicable law. These rights are not absolute. Where we have obtained your consent for the processing of your personal data, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.

Cookies and Pixel Tags

Trial Guides collects information, which may include personal data, from your browser when you use our Sites. We use a variety of methods, such as cookies and pixel tags to collect this information, which may include your (i) IP-address; (ii) unique cookie identifier, cookie information and information on whether your device has software to access certain features; (iii) unique device identifier and device type; (iv) domain, browser type and language, (v) operating system and system settings; (vi) country and time zone; (vii) previously visited websites; (viii) information about your interaction with our Sites such as click behavior, purchases and indicated preferences; and (ix) access times and referring URLs.

Third parties may also collect information via Sites through cookies, third party plug-ins and widgets. These third parties collect data directly from your web browser and the processing of this data is subject to their own privacy policies. 

We use cookies and pixel tags to track our customers’ usage of the Sites and to understand our customers’ preferences (such as country and language choices). This enables us to provide services to our customers and improve their online experience. We also use cookies and pixel tags to obtain aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction, to identify trends and obtain statistics so that we can improve our Sites. There are generally three categories of cookies used on our Sites:

• Functional: These cookies are required for basic site functionality and are therefore always enabled. These include cookies that allow you to be remembered as you explore our Sites within a single session or, if you request, from session to session. They help make the shopping cart and checkout process possible as well as assist in security issues and conforming to regulations.
• Performance: These cookies allow us to improve our Sites’ functionality by tracking usage. In some cases, these cookies improve the speed with which we can process your request and allow us to remember site preferences you have selected. Refusing these cookies may result in poorly-tailored recommendations and slow site performance.
• Social media and Advertising: Social media cookies offer the possibility to connect you to your social networks and share content from our Sites through social media.  Advertising cookies (of third parties) collect information to help better tailor advertising to your interests, both within and beyond our Sites. In some cases, these cookies involve the processing of your personal data. Refusing these cookies may result in seeing advertising that is not as relevant to you or you not being able to link effectively with Facebook, Twitter, or other social networks and/or not allowing you to share content on social media.

You can always change your preference by visiting the "Cookie Settings" at the bottom of each page of our Sites.

For a comprehensive and up-to-date summary of every third-party accessing your web browser (through Trial Guides Sites or otherwise), we recommend installing a web browser plugin built for this purpose.  You can also choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies. You do this through your browser settings on each browser and device that you use. Each browser is a little different, so look at your browser Help menu to learn the correct way to modify your cookies. If you turn cookies off, you may not have access to many features that make our Sites and Apps more efficient and some of our services will not function properly.

Questions and Feedback

We welcome questions, comments, and concerns about our privacy policy and privacy practices.