Five Star Merchant Advocate Website Privacy Policy
Last modified: December 26, 2023
Introduction
Five Star Merchant Advocates, LLC (“FSMA”, “We”, “Our”, or “Us”) has implemented this Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) for its websites, including but not limited to fivestarmerchantadv.com, and all areas and sub-pages of the site (the “Website”), applications and software provided online and made available offline through or in connection with the service (collectively, the “Service”), including through a mobile device to provide our registered users (“Clients”) and unregistered users and visitors (along with Clients, collectively “Users” or “you”) information regarding the collection and use of your information on the Service, so that you can make an informed decision about your use of the Service.
We will not use or share your Personally Identifiable Information with anyone except as described in this Privacy Policy. FSMA does not own your user generated content. For further details on using the Service please refer to your service agreement.
This Privacy Policy applies to information collected by FSMA and does not apply to information collected by third-party sites to which the Service may link, or to information provided to or collected by third parties through third-party cookies, web beacons, or other third-party technologies served during your visit to the Service.
Please see the Online Tracking Disclosures – “Do Not Track” Setting section of this Privacy Policy for how the Service responds to “Do Not Track Mechanisms”.
If you have questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy, you should contact us via email [email protected] or send mail to Privacy, Five Star Merchant Advocates, 4325 N Rancho DR, Las Vegas, NV 89130.
As we update and expand our Service, this Privacy Policy may change, so please check this web page for your updates to our Privacy Policy. By using the Service, you agree to the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy.
The Information We Collect and How We Collect It
When you visit our Service, we may collect information regarding your visit from your computer. Such information helps us to determine insight about how you found our Service, the date you visited our Service, and search engines that may have led to our Service. We collect this information in order to continually improve and enhance the functionality of the Service.
Generally, you may provide us with two types of information, (1) Information You Choose to Provide, which may include Personally Identifiable Information, and (2) Website Usage Information, both of which are discussed in greater detail below.
Information You Choose to Provide
Sign-Up Information. We may ask you to provide certain information if you choose to submit an initial inquiry as a prospective Client. This includes your name, email address, telephone number, and other information that identifies you (collectively “Personally Identifiable Information” or “Personal Information”). Additionally, we may request further information to assist us in the initial intake of your file such as potential amount of taxes owed, or whether you have unfiled tax returns.
Children Under the Age of 18. Do not supply us with, or disclose to us, any Personally Identifiable Information of any individual under eighteen (18) years of age on the Service, as we do not intend to collect information from, or invite to participate in the Service, anyone under the age of 18. For further information, please consult the Children’s Privacy portion of this Policy below.
User Content. Our Service may offer its users the opportunity to post User Content including comments, reviews, or tag messages via bulletin boards, blogs, articles, or chat rooms. If you choose to use these features, you should be aware that any Personally Identifiable Information you submit through the above-mentioned public Service features can be read, collected, or used by other viewers; and this information could lead to unsolicited contact. We are not responsible for the Personally Identifiable Information you choose to submit in the public forums of the Service.
Questionnaires and Surveys. We may occasionally ask users of our Service to complete online surveys, questionnaires, and opinion polls about the Service, as well as their activities, attitudes, and interests. These surveys help us to better serve you and improve the usefulness and features of the Service. In requesting your participation in these surveys, we may ask you to provide your name and email address to us.
Contact Us. If you email us through the Contact Us link on our Service, or via our Company information email address [email protected], we may ask you for information such as your name and email address so we can respond to your questions and comments. If you choose to correspond with us via email, we may retain the content of your email messages, your email address, and our response to you. In certain cases, and with your permission, we may post content from your emails to us on the Service.
Website Usage Information
The technologies we use for automatic data collection may include:
Cookies. The Service may use cookies to collect information for record-keeping purposes and make it easier to navigate the Service. Cookies are small text files that are stored on users’ hard drives which often include an anonymous unique identifier. The Service uses “session ID cookies” and “persistent cookies”. Session ID cookies are used to store information while a user is logged into the site, and they expire when the user closes their browser. A session cookie is temporary and will disappear after your browser has been closed. Persistent cookies are used to make tasks, like logging into the site, easier for returning users by remembering a user’s log-in information. Persistent cookies may also be used by your browser upon subsequent visits to the Website, and will stay on a user’s hard drive from session to session. However, persistent cookies can be removed by following your web browser’s directions.
When you visit our Website, our server may ask your computer for permission to employ the use of a session or persistent cookie. If your browser’s preferences allow it, our Website will then send a cookie to your browser. Most web browsers can be adjusted to inform you when a cookie has been sent to you, and will provide you with the opportunity to refuse that cookie. However, refusing a cookie may, in some cases, preclude you from using, or negatively impact, the display or function of our Website or certain areas and features of our Website. You may choose not to receive cookies from the Service by following instructions in your web browser’s “help” file, but this may make certain features of the Services inaccessible to you.
Clear GIFs/Web Beacons. When visiting our Website, we may also use “Clear GIFs” (also known as “web beacons” or “pixel tags”) or similar technologies within our Website and/or our communications with you. A Clear GIF is typically a one-pixel, transparent image located on a web page, in an e-mail, or another type of message. A Clear GIF will allow us to know whether you have viewed a web page prior to visiting our Website, and may enable us to relate such information to other information that has been collected; such as your Personally Identifiable Information. We use information provided from Clear GIFs to enable more accurate reporting, improve the effectiveness of our marketing, and make our Service better for our users.
IP Address and Clickstream Data. Our servers automatically collect data about your Internet Protocol address when you visit us. When you request pages from our Website, our servers may log your IP Address, and sometimes your domain name. Our server may also record the referring page that linked you to us (for example, another website or search engine), the pages you visit on this Website, the website you visit after this Website, other information about the type of web browser, computer, platform, related software or settings you are using, any search terms you have entered on this Website or a referral website, or other web usage activity and data logged by our web servers. We use this information for internal system administration to help diagnose problems with our servers, analyze general usage patterns, and administer our Website. Such information may also be used to gather broad demographic information such as country of origin or Internet Service Provider. We may aggregate user information in a non-personally identifiable manner to share with potential clients, to enhance the Website with new features, and for our general business purposes.
The Website Usage Information collected and described in this section may also be referred to as “non-Personally Identifiable Information”. Any, or all, of these activities with regard to the above-described Website Usage Information may be performed on our behalf by our third-party service providers.
Information from Third Parties
We may collect Personal Information directly from third parties. For example, we speak with relevant taxing authorities, i.e. the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), to obtain information concerning your potential outstanding obligations upon your written authorization.
How We Use Your Information
Personal Information. If you submit information to us through the Service, we may use, or disclose, the Personal Information we collect for one or more of the following business purposes:
To fulfill, or meet, the reason you provided the information. We collect your Personal Information for the purposes of providing tax advisory services related to a particular tax claim. For example, we may ask you to provide certain forms and receipts concerning a particular tax payment period to verify your eligibility to receive a refund or adjustment, or to evaluate a potential penalty. If you share your name and contact information to ask a question about our products or services, we will use that Personal Information to respond to your inquiry;
To send you Service-related notices other messages including changes to Service features or special offers. By providing your email address to FSMA, you consent to us using the email address to send you Service-related notices including notices required by law in lieu of postal mail. Please note, you may not opt out of Service-related e-mails; and
To respond to law enforcement requests and as required by applicable law, court order, or governmental regulations.
We will not collect additional categories of Personal Information, or use the Personal Information we collected, for materially different, unrelated, or incompatible purposes without providing you notice.
Usage Information. We use non-Personally Identifiable Information, such as anonymous Website-use data and IP addresses, to improve the quality and design of the Service. Additionally, this information is used to create new features and services by storing, tracking, and analyzing your preferences and trends. We may use such information to: (a) remember information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your current, or subsequent, visits to the Service; (b) provide customized content and information; (c) monitor the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns and aggregate metrics i.e. total number of visitors and traffic; (d) diagnose or fix technology problems; (e) access your information after you sign in; (f) market our Service; (g) aggregate general User and Class Member statistics including demographic and geographic information; and (h) other purposes for which your personal identity is not revealed.
Disclosure of Your Information
FSMA will not share your email address with advertisers or unaffiliated third parties without first obtaining your express permission.
We may provide information, including personal information, to our subsidiaries, affiliated companies or subcontractors, so that such parties can (a) perform services and/or process such information on our behalf, (b) use the information to offer greater functionality and enhanced services through the Service to (c) provide you with additional product and service opportunities, and (d) communicate these opportunities to you. When we do this, the recipients of your information are bound by the terms of this Privacy Policy.
We may share non-Personally Identifiable Information (such as anonymous Website usage data) with third parties to assist them in understanding our Service. This includes Users’ use of our Service as well as the services we provide, and the success of advertisements and promotions. We may share non-personally identifiable aggregated user data, including aggregated gender, age, geographic, and usage data without the inclusion of a user’s name or other identifying information. This data will be shared with advertisers and other third parties for their marketing and promotional purposes. We may use analytic services provided by third parties that use cookies and similar technologies to collect information about the Service without identifying individual visitors. The third parties that provide us with these services may also collect information about your use of third-party websites and applications. We may also share location-based information with third parties for their marketing and promotional purposes on the basis that you have allowed location-based services.
We may release your information if required to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with state or federal laws, respond to a court order, subpoena, law enforcement, regulatory request, or search warrant. We reserve the right to collect and share any information due to the following: (i) to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding suspected or actual illegal activities, (ii) when appropriate or necessary to enforce our Terms of Use, or investigate potential or actual violations of the Terms of Use or Privacy Policy, (iii) take precautions against liability, (iv) to protect the security or integrity of our Service; (v) to exercise or protect our rights and property, the Service, or the rights and personal safety of FSMA affiliates, Users, or others; or (vi) for other legitimate purposes.
We may assign or transfer the information we collect to a third-party in the event that FSMA is acquired by, or merged with, a third-party entity, or due to FSMA’s bankruptcy, insolvency, reorganization, receivership, or any other similar situation. In the event we sell or transfer all, or a portion, of our business, we reserve the right to transfer any information we have about you. Should such a sale or transfer occur, we will use reasonable efforts to direct the transferee to use personal information you have provided through our Service in a manner that is consistent with this Privacy Policy.
Rights to Opt-In / Opt-out of Data Collection
You have the right to “opt in” and/or “opt out” of certain of our uses of your Personally Identifiable Information. For instance, you may have the opportunity to elect whether you would like to receive correspondence from us and/or third-party service providers. Your personal information will not be shared with third-party service providers unless we receive consent from you. You will have the opportunity to opt out of our promotional e-mails by clicking the “opt out” or “unsubscribe” link in the e-mails you receive from us. You can also request to unsubscribe by sending an e-mail to [email protected] specifying the following: (i) you would like to opt out of receiving promotional correspondence from FSMA in general, or opt out of just e-mail, postal mail, or phone; or (ii) you would like to only opt out of certain of our e-newsletters or correspondence. Please understand, if you opt out of receiving promotional correspondence from us, we may still contact you in connection with your relationship, activities, transactions, and communications with us.
Our Commitment to Children’s Privacy
Protecting the privacy of children is especially important, and is mandated by U.S. law. For these reasons, FSMA does not knowingly collect Personally Identifiable Information on the Service from any person under eighteen (18) years of age, and no part of our Service is directed to persons under 18. If you are under 18 years of age, then you must not use or access the Service at any time, or in any manner, or provide any information to the Service. If we become aware that we have inadvertently received personal information from a visitor under the age of 18 on our Service, we will delete that information from our records.
Accessing and Correcting Your Information
You can access, or delete, your personal data. It is also important to know that you have many choices about how your data is collected, used, or shared. For personal data that we have about you, you can:
Delete Data: You can ask us to erase, or delete, all or some of your personal data (i.e. if it is no longer necessary to provide services to you).
Change, or Correct, Data: You can ask us to change, update, or fix your data in certain cases; particularly if it is inaccurate.
Object to, or Limit or Restrict, Use of Data: You can ask us to stop using all, or some, of your personal data (i.e. if FSMA has no legal right to keep using it). Or, you can request to limit our use of it (i.e. if your data is inaccurate or unlawfully held).
Right to Access and/or Take Your Data: You can ask us for a copy of your personal data as well as a copy of the personal data you provided in machine-readable form.
Right to Know
You have the right to request up to two (2) times within any 12-month period that we disclose certain information to you about our collection, and use, of your Personal Information over the past twelve (12) months. Once we receive, and confirm, your verifiable consumer request, we will disclose the following to you:
The categories of Personal Information we collected about you;
The categories of sources for the Personal Information we collected about you;
Our business or commercial purpose for collecting, selling, or sharing that Personal Information;
The categories of third parties with whom we disclose that Personal Information; and
The categories of Personal Information, if any, that we sold or shared, and for each such category of Personal Information, the categories of third parties to whom such information was sold or shared.
If we disclosed your Personal Information for a business purpose, a separate list identifying the Personal Information categories that each category of recipient obtained.
Right to Access
You have the right to make a data portability request, up to two (2) times in any 12-month period, that FSMA provide access to, or disclosure of, the specific pieces of Personal Information we collected about you in the past twelve (12) months.
Right to Delete
You have the right to request, up to two (2) times in any 12-month period, that FSMA delete any of your Personal Information that we collected and retained from you, subject to certain exceptions. Once we receive, and confirm, your verifiable consumer request, we will delete your Personal Information from our records and direct our service providers to do the same, unless an exception applies.
We may deny your deletion request if retaining the information is necessary for us in relation to our service provider(s) to:
Complete the transaction for which we collected the Personal Information, provide a good or service that you requested, take actions reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing business relationship with you, or otherwise perform our contract with you;
Detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, or prosecute those responsible for such activities;
De-bug products to identify, and repair, errors that impair existing intended functionality;
Exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise their free speech rights, or exercise another right provided for by law;
Engage in public, or peer-reviewed, scientific, historical, or statistical research in the public interest that adheres to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws when the information’s deletion may likely render impossible, or seriously impair the research’s achievement if you previously provided informed consent; and
Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with consumer expectations based on your relationship with us.
Users from the EU, EEA, and Switzerland
This section of the Privacy Policy applies only if you use our Service from a country that is a Member State of the European Union (“EU”), European Economic Area (“EEA”), or Switzerland (the EU, EEA, and Switzerland collectively, “Designated Countries”), and supplements the information in this Privacy Policy.
To the extent that FSMA is subject to the laws of the Designated Countries when processing personal data, it shall be the “data controller” under such laws. We have lawful bases to collect your data, as detailed in this Privacy Policy. The nature of our business means the Personally Identifiable Information, and Usage Information, will be transferred to the United States. We take appropriate steps to ensure that recipients of your personal data are bound to duties of confidentiality, and we implement measures including standard data protection contractual clauses to ensure that any transferred personal data remains protected and secure. You may request copies of these clauses by contacting [email protected]. You may also lodge a complaint with the applicable supervisory authority in the event you consider our processing of your information violates applicable law.
Your Choices
We have lawful bases to collect, use, and share data about you. In turn, you have choices about the use of your data. We will only collect, and process, Personally Identifiable Information about you where we have lawful bases. Lawful bases include consent (where you have given consent), contract (where processing is necessary for the performance of a contract with you, i.e. to delivery the FSMA services you have requested), and our legitimate interests under the pretenses that such processing shall not outweigh your rights and freedoms. FSMA will seek to obtain your additional consent when required by applicable law. Please note, you can withdraw the consent you have provided by contacting us at any time.
To protect your privacy and security, we take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting you profile access or revision authority. This includes requesting a password to accompany your corresponding account information. You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your password and account information at all times.
Online Tracking Disclosures – “Do Not Track” Settings
You may decline to utilize location-based services on your mobile device. If you do not want us to use location-based information, please refrain from using a location-based service or click “Don’t Allow” when location-based information is requested by your mobile device.
You may be accessing the Service via a browser that has a “Do Not Track” setting. If you have turned this setting in your browser on, or if you are using a browser with the default setting of “Do Not Track”, please be advised that all features of the Service may not function in such setting. As detailed above, we collect a variety of functional, and analytic, cookies for you to completely engage with our services.
If you wish to opt-out of the collection of tracking information, you may do so according to your browser settings. However, please be advised that such an election may limit the functionality of the Website available to you.
Our Commitment to Data Security
We have implemented commercially reasonable, technical, and organizational, measures designed to secure your Personally Identifiable Information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, or disclosure. Such measures include, but are not limited to, the utilization of Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption to transmit sensitive information through the Service. However, we cannot guarantee that unauthorized third parties will never be able to defeat those measures or use your personal information for improper purposes. You acknowledge that you provide your Personally Identifiable Information at your own risk.
While FSMA strives to protect the security and integrity of Personally Identifiable Information on its Service, we cannot guarantee that your information will be safe from intrusion of others during transmission through the Internet or while in our care due to the inherent nature of the Internet as an open global communications vehicle. You should also be aware that if you contact us by email, a “contact us” feature, or any other similar feature on the Service, your transmission might not be secure. An unaffiliated third party could view information you send by these methods in transit. You should also be aware that if you are accessing the Service via a mobile device, your transmissions may not be secure due to the inherent nature of mobile data carrier networks. We will have no liability for disclosure of your information due to errors or unauthorized acts of third parties during, or after, transmission.
If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure, or has been compromised, please immediately notify us of the problem by contacting us in accordance with the information provided in the Introduction to this Privacy Policy.
Compromise of Personal Information
In the event that personal information is compromised as a result of a beach of security, FSMA will promptly notify those persons whose personal information has been compromised in accordance with the notification procedures set forth in this Privacy Policy, or as otherwise required by applicable law.
In the event the breach involves your online account credentials, we will provide notification in electronic form. We will also direct you to promptly change your password and accompanying security question, as applicable, and take further appropriate steps to protect the online account and any other online accounts for which you utilize the same credentials or security question and answer. You consent to our use of e-mail as a means of such notification.
Contact Information
Please contact us with any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy, the Service, the ways in which FSMA collects and uses your information, your choices and rights regarding such use, or if you would like to review, delete or update information we have about you or your preferences, as follows:
Write to us by physical mail at:
Five Star Merchant Advocates, LLC
Attn: Privacy
4325 N Rancho Dr
Las Vegas, NV 89130
Write to us by email at: [email protected]
Call us at: 800-735-5715
