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DATS Franchise Corp. (“Daniel Ahart Tax Service®,”  “Company,” “we,” “us” or “our”) recognizes the importance of protecting the information provided to us by visitors to www.danielahart.com (our “Website”). This privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) explains what information may be collected from you when you visit our Website, regardless of how you access or use the Website, whether via personal computers, mobile devices, or otherwise, and how that information is used and how it is shared with third parties. It also describes your choices regarding the use, access, and collection of your personal information.

Daniel Ahart Tax Service® offers individual tax preparation services and related products and services, through various affiliates, franchisees and company-owned stores. Because we offer in-store and online tax preparation services, our privacy policies will vary depending on how you interact with Daniel Ahart Tax Service®. This Privacy Policy applies solely to our Website, independent of any business relationship you may have with us. This Privacy Policy does not apply to our data collection activities offline or otherwise outside of our Website (unless otherwise stated below).

This Privacy Policy may change and will be updated on our Website. Changes are made when necessary to maintain the security, effectiveness, and appropriateness of our privacy and data security policies and practices, and to reflect the on-going changes in our industry. You should check this page periodically to ensure that you are in agreement with any changes. If we amend this Privacy Policy to permit material changes in the way we collect, use, and/or share your personal information, we will notify you of such amendment by prominently posting notice of such amendment on our Website’s homepages prior to the change becoming effective or by email (sent to the email address associated with your account). However, we will not use your previously collected personal information in a manner materially different than indicated at the time it was collected without your consent.

In addition, please review the Website’s Terms of Use, which governs your use of the Website. By using our Website, you consent to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and our collection, use, and sharing of your information and data, and other activities, as described below.

If you have questions or concerns regarding our Privacy Policy or practices, please contact us by calling (888) 963-1040 or emailing us at privacy@danielahart.com.

 

A. Information Collected by Daniel Ahart Tax Service®

 

1. Voluntary Registration

We collect personal information (which may include, without limitation, your name, email address, social security number, date of birth, credit card information, mailing address and/or telephone number) from you when you voluntarily register on the Website or when you request information or a service (e.g., tax preparation services) on the Website.  Additional information may be gathered during your subsequent use of the site, or when we communicate with you via telephone, email or other means.  This personal information may include, without limitation, your employment and income information, your bank account information, credit scores and credit history, and tax return information and associated IRS filings.  In order to create an account on our Website and administer that account, we will also collect a username and password which you will then use to access your account and other information.

 

2. Surveys or Contests

From time-to-time we may provide you the opportunity to participate in contests or surveys on our Websites. If you participate, we may request certain personally identifiable information from you. Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary and you therefore have a choice whether or not to disclose this information. The requested information typically includes contact information (such as name and shipping address) and demographic information (such as zip code).

 

3. Passive Collection

As is true of most websites, we and our third-party service providers may use a variety of technologies to gather certain information automatically. This information may include Internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, Internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, the files viewed on our Website (e.g., HTML pages, graphics, etc.), operating system, date/time stamp, and clickstream data to analyze trends in the aggregate and administer the Website.

 

4. Tracking Technologies

Daniel Ahart Tax Service® and our partners use cookies or similar technologies to analyze trends, administer the Website, track users’ movements around the Website, and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole (“Tracking Technologies”). These Tracking Technologies may set, change, alter or modify settings or configurations on your device. You can control the use of cookies at the individual browser level but if you choose to disable cookies, it may limit your use of certain features or functions on our Website or service.

A few of the Tracking Technologies include, without limitation, the following (and subsequent technology and methods later developed):

Cookies. A cookie is a data file placed on a device when it is used to visit the Website. A Flash cookie (or locally shared object) is a data file placed on a device via the Adobe Flash plug-in that may be built-in to or downloaded by you to your device. HTML5 cookies can be programmed through HTML5 local storage. Unlike Flash cookies, HTML5 cookies do not require a plug-in. Regular cookies may generally be disabled or removed by tools that are available as part of most commercial browsers, and in some but not all instances can be blocked in the future by selecting certain settings. Each browser you use will need to be set separately and different browsers offer different functionality and options in this regard. Also, these tools may not be effective with regard to Flash cookies or HTML5 cookies. For information on disabling Flash cookies, go to Adobe’s website at http://www.adobe.com. Please be aware that if you disable or remove cookies, Flash cookies, or HTML5 cookies on your device, some parts of our Website may not function properly, and that when you revisit our Website your ability to limit cookies is subject to your browser settings and limitations.

Web Beacons. Small graphic images or other web programming code called web beacons (also known as “1x1 GIFs” or “clear GIFs”) may be included in our Website’s pages and messages. Web beacons may be invisible to you, but any electronic image or other web programming code inserted into a page or email can act as a web beacon. Web beacons or similar technologies may be used for a number of purposes, including, without limitation, to count visitors to the Website, to monitor how users navigate the Website, to count how many emails that were sent were actually opened or to count how many particular articles or links were actually viewed.

Embedded Scripts. An embedded script is programming code that is designed to collect information about your interactions with the Website, such as the links you click on. The code is temporarily downloaded onto your device from our web server or a third party service provider, is active only while you are connected to the Website, and is deactivated or deleted thereafter.

Browser Fingerprinting. Browse Fingerprinting is the collection and analysis of information from your device, such as, including without limitation, your operating system, plug-ins, system fonts and other data, for purposes of identification. ETag, or entity tag, is a feature of the cache in browsers. It is an opaque identifier assigned by a web server to a specific version of a resource found at a URL. If the resource content at that URL ever changes, a new and different ETag is assigned. Used in this manner ETags is a form of device Identifier. ETag tracking may generate unique tracking values even where the consumer blocks HTTP, Flash and/or HTML5 cookies.

Recognition Technologies. Recognition Technologies include the application of statistical probability to data sets collected about devices or users.  When utilized, Recognition Technologies can attempt to recognize or make assumptions about users and devices based on the data sets available.  For example, a Recognition Technology might analyze available data about multiple devices and make the assumptions that the user of multiple devices is the same user.

 

Dynamic Number Insertion.  Dynamic Number Insertion (“DNI”) is a technology used in call tracking to assign attribution to inbound phone calls. Executed via embedded scripts, DNI allows a specific phone number to be dynamically displayed on a web page.  This technology also allows tracking platforms to capture the phone number the caller is calling from without any other identifier of a person.

There may be other Tracking Technologies now and later devised and used by us in connection with the Website. Further, third parties may use Tracking Technologies in connection with our Website, which may include the collection of information about your online activities over time and across third-party websites or online services. We may not control those Tracking Technologies and we are not responsible for them. However, you consent to potentially encountering third-party Tracking Technologies in connection with use of our Website and accept that our statements under this Privacy Policy do not apply to the Tracking Technologies or practices of such third parties.

 

5. California Do-Not-Track Disclosures

Various third parties are developing or have developed signals or other mechanisms for the expression of consumer choice regarding the collection of information about an individual consumer’s online activities over time and across third-party websites or online services (e.g., browser do-not-track signals). Currently, we do not monitor or take any action with respect to these signals or other mechanisms.

 

6. Behavioral Targeting / Re-targeting

We partner with a third party to display advertising on our Website and manage our advertising on other websites. Our third-party partner may use technologies such as cookies to gather information about your activities on this Website and other websites in order to provide you advertising based upon your browsing activities and interests. If you wish to not have this information used for the purpose of serving you interest-based ads, you may opt-out by visiting http://preferences.truste.com. Please note this does not opt you out of being served ads. You will continue to receive generic ads.

 

7. Live Chat

We use live chat to assist you with answers to your questions concerning certain products and offerings. We collect email address and your name to create a customer contact record to assist our Support Center in handling questions. Our chat operations hours are published within the chat feature. Daniel Ahart Tax Service® may freely use feedback you provide when you use chats. You agree that we may use your feedback, suggestions, or ideas in any way, including in future modifications of the Services, other products or services, advertising or marketing materials.

 

8. Information from Third Parties

We may receive information about you from other individuals that use the Website. Additionally, we may, from time to time, supplement the information we collect directly from you on our Website with outside records from third parties for various purposes, including to enhance our ability to serve you, to tailor our content to you and to offer you opportunities that may be of interest to you. To the extent we combine information we receive from those sources with your personal information we collect on the Website, it will be treated as personal information and we will apply this Privacy Policy to such combined information, unless we have disclosed otherwise. In no other circumstances do our statements under this Privacy Policy apply to information we receive about you from third parties.

Examples of the types of personal information that may be obtained from public sources or purchased from third parties and combined with information we already have about you, may include:

 

• Address information about you from third party sources, such as the U.S. Postal Service, for verification and fraud-prevention purposes.

• Purchased marketing data about our customers from third parties that is combined with information we already have about you, to create more tailored advertising and products.

 

You may opt-out of these practices by emailing us at privacy@danielahart.com. We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe.

 

9. Collection and Use of Third-Party Personal Information

We may also collect, from you, the following personal information about your contacts: name and email address. When you provide us with personal information about your contacts, we will only use this information for the specific reason for which it is provided.
 

If you believe that one of your contacts has provided us with your personal information and you would like to request that it be removed from our database, please contact us by calling (800) 234-1040 or emailing us at privacy@danielahart.com. We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe.

 

B. How Daniel Ahart Tax Service® May Use Collected Information

 

Daniel Ahart Tax Service® will share your personal information with third parties only in the ways that are described in this Privacy Policy. We use information collected on the Websites for the following:

 

• To provide the products and services you request and communicate with you regarding those requests

• Internal market analysis

• To improve our products and services

• To provide you with information on new products or special offers

• To tailor the Websites according to your interests

• For marketing or promotional purposes

• For purposes disclosed at the time you provide your information or as otherwise set forth in this Privacy Policy

 

We may provide your information to our service providers in order to provide services to you on our behalf to help with our business activities, or under special circumstances, such as when we have a good faith belief that the law requires it. These companies are authorized to use your personal information only as necessary to provide these services to us.

 

We also may use your information to inform you about other products or services available from Daniel Ahart Tax Service® and our affiliates. You may be offered the opportunity to receive materials or special offers from affiliated third parties. Federal law gives you the right to limit this sharing where it includes information about your creditworthiness other than your transactions and experiences with Daniel Ahart Tax Service® or is used for the purpose of marketing to you. If you would like to opt-out of this type of sharing, please email us at privacy@danielahart.com.

 

Daniel Ahart Tax Service® may keep track of what portions of the Website visitors are viewing and other visitor statistics such as geographic location and aggregate this information to help us create a better experience for future Website visits. This is all done without knowing your name or other personal information in order to describe our viewers and services to prospective partners, advertisers, and other third parties, and for other lawful purposes. If you do not wish to provide geographic location information, please contact us at privacy@danielahart.com. We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe.

 

Our use or disclosure of your information whether collected by us, uploaded by you, or otherwise provided to us, may be limited by Section 7216 of the Internal Revenue Code, the Gramm Leach Bliley Act of 1999, and certain other laws, as well as our policies.

 

Section 7216 of the Internal Revenue Code requires that we obtain your consent (“opt in”) to the disclosure and use of information you provide us in connection with your tax return information. We will not disclose or use your tax return information for any purpose other than preparing, assisting in preparing, or obtaining or providing services in connection with the preparation of your tax return unless you authorize us to do so, except when expressly required or authorized by law, necessary to the preparation of the tax return, or pursuant to court order.  For information, please see the Consent to Disclosure of Tax Return Information form and the Consent to Use of Tax Return Information Consent form that you were provided at the time of receiving tax preparation services.

 

We may collect personally identifiable information in connection with the resolution of your tax debt through Daniel Ahart Tax Service’s Tax Debt Resolution Service (“tax debt resolution information”).  We will not disclose or use your tax debt resolution information for any purpose other than in connection with providing services to resolve your tax debt unless you authorize us to do so, except when expressly required or authorized by law, necessary to the resolution of your tax debt, or pursuant to a court order.

 

We may use or disclose your personally identifiable information as described below or where you have provided consent under Section 7216, or as otherwise permitted by applicable laws.

 

• At the time of tax preparation or tax debt resolution, we will further explain how we handle your tax return information or tax debt resolution information. Depending on the service you use, we may use or disclose personally identifiable information about you to the following types of third parties: Financial service providers; non- affiliated third-parties providing credit, insurance, financial planning, debt management, and other financial products,; and others. You can find copies of our privacy notices at the following links: Daniel Ahart Tax Service® Tax Client Privacy Notice and Daniel Ahart Tax Service® Tax Debt Resolution Privacy Notice.

 

• If you apply for a product or service, we will ask you to authorize us to disclose your tax return information to the financial institution providing such product or service. We will provide you with Consent to Disclosure of Tax Return Information within the tax interview. You should review the agreements and the privacy policies of the financial institution to understand how it may use and disclose your personal information.

 

• In certain situations, we may be required to disclose personal data in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements. We may disclose personally identifiable information in response to legal process, for example, in response to a court order, subpoena, legal process, process, or other judicial, administrative, or investigative proceeding, or where we have a good faith belief that such disclosure is required by law. We also may disclose such information in the event of the sale or dissolution (bankruptcy) of assets, in whole or in part, of our business or any of its affiliates. We also may disclose such information where we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of our terms of use, or for other purposes permitted or required by law. In addition, we may transfer information about you if we are acquired by or merged with another company. You will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice on our Website of any change in ownership or uses of your personal information, as well as any choices you may have regarding your personal information.

 

C. How Collected Information May Be Shared with Third Parties

 

Daniel Ahart Tax Service® may disclose the personal information you provide to us to our service providers, business partners, sponsors or affiliates so they can assist us in providing the services you request. By requesting information from our business partners, sponsors, and affiliates through the Websites, you give us permission to transfer your personal information to them so they can fulfill your request. We may also share aggregated user statistics with third parties.

 

We may also disclose collected information in certain cases when we have reason to believe that disclosing this information is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may be causing injury to or interference (either intentionally or unintentionally) with any of our rights or property, visitors, or anyone else. We may disclose or access account information when we believe in good faith that the law requires it and for administrative and other purposes that we deem necessary to maintain, service, and improve our products and services.

 

The IRS requires a device ID as part of the electronic filing record to aid in their defense against fraudulent return filing. Device ID identifies the device (e.g., computer, tablet, phone or other device) used to create the tax return. Our software system is recording this ID during the preparation of your tax return and will provide it to the IRS (and states) when your tax return is filed electronically.

 

Linked Third Party Websites

The Websites may contain links to other affiliated websites or websites of interest that are not under our direction or control (“Linked Third Parties”). Such links are included as a convenience. Linked Third Parties may include social networking websites and websites of advertisers, sponsors, and partners that may contain our or our affiliates’ logo as part of a co-branding agreement. These other websites may send their own cookies to visitors, collect data, or solicit information. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information you may provide while visiting Linked Third Parties. This Privacy Policy does not apply to Linked Third Parties and only applies to our Websites. You should exercise caution and review the privacy policy of any Linked Third Parties you are visiting.

 

We are not responsible for, and cannot control, the information practices of Linked Third Party websites. By using the our Website, you acknowledge and agree to indemnify Daniel Ahart Tax Service® and its affiliates, and hold us harmless from and against any liability, claim, cause of action, demand, loss, damage, injury, and/or litigation (including reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs), or any kind whatsoever, whether brought by an individual or other entity, or imposed by a court of law or administrative action of any jurisdiction, arising from or related to, either directly or indirectly, the use of your information by a Linked Third Party or the privacy policy of any such Linked Third Party.

 

Social Media

Our Website includes social media features, such as the Facebook Like button, and widgets, such as the Share this button or interactive mini-programs that may run on our Website. These features may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our Website, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Social media features and widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our Website. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it.

 

You may find additional information about our products and services through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.  It is important to keep in mind that any information you share is visible to all participants on these social media platforms and you should never post any sensitive personal information on them (such as your social security number).  Please be aware that if you contact us on one of our social media platforms, request services via social media, or otherwise direct us to communicate with you via social media, we may contact you via direct message or use other social media tools to interact with you.

 

Please carefully review the terms of use and the privacy policies of these social media sites as they may be different from our own policies.

 

User Content

We may allow users with accounts to transmit information through the Website for the purpose of participating in message boards or similar features. Any information that is transmitted or posted for this purpose becomes public information and may be viewable to other users and visitors to the Website. In addition, any personally identifiable information that you choose to submit in connection with this information, such as your name, will also be publicly displayed along with any transmitted or posted information. Daniel Ahart Tax Service® is not responsible for the privacy of any such information, and we cannot prevent such information from being used by others in a manner that could violate this Policy, the law, or your personal privacy.

 

D. Storage and Protection of Personal Information

 

You understand that the use of a Daniel Ahart Tax Service® Account is creating a relationship with Daniel Ahart Tax Service® for the purpose of obtaining financial products and services from the Company, including but not limited to tax preparation services, appointment booking, secure document storage, and other financial products and services that may be available to you.

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The security of all information associated with our Website visitors is important to us. We exercise considerable care in providing secure transmission of your information from your computer to our servers or those of our business partners.

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We maintain administrative, technical, and physical safeguards that are designed to protect the privacy and security of personal information.  In order to help secure personal information collected from you as a Daniel Ahart Tax Service® customer or a Website visitor, including when you enter sensitive information (such as credit card number and social security number,) on our registration or order forms, the information is protected by SSL encryption when it is exchanged between your web browser and our Website. 

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We do not store any credit card information on our websites.

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The internet is not a fully secure environment and Daniel Ahart Tax Service® cannot ensure the security of any information transmitted to or generated by Daniel Ahart Tax Service® in connection with our Website.  There is no guarantee that information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered or destroyed by breach or by any of our operational safeguards.  You play an important role in protecting your information by maintaining up to date computer security protections as well as ensuring the security of your computer passwords or other personal identifier authentication mechanisms.  You agree that you are responsible for any additional verification procedures that you deem necessary.

By using our Website, you agree that the procedures provided for in this Privacy Policy and the procedures implemented by Daniel Ahart Tax Service® to protect personal information and to verify the identity of Daniel Ahart Tax Service® Website users constitute commercial reasonable website security and customer verification procedures.

 

Suspicious Email

It is our policy not to email you or send you electronic communications to request non-public personal information or account information (such as user name or password).  If you receive an unsolicited email or other electronic communication that appears to be from Daniel Ahart Tax Service® but you suspect may be from another source and might be fraudulent, please contact us at privacy@danielahart.com.

 

E. Controlling your Personal Information

 

You are responsible for maintaining the accuracy of the information you submit to us, such as your contact information provided as part of registration. You may choose to restrict Daniel Ahart Tax Service®’s use of your personal information. Upon request, Daniel Ahart Tax Service® will provide you with information about whether we hold any of your personal information. If you have provided your personal information to Daniel Ahart Tax Service® and subsequently decide to restrict the use of this information or if you believe that any personal information we have about you is incorrect or incomplete, please contact us at privacy@danielahart.com to correct, update, amend, delete/remove your personal information. We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe. We will retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

 

Please note that it is not always possible to completely remove or delete all of your information from our databases and that residual data may remain on backup media or for other reasons.

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We may also disclose collected information in certain cases when we have reason to believe that disclosing this information is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may be causing injury to or interference (either intentionally or unintentionally) with any of our rights or property, visitors, or anyone else. We may disclose or access account information when we believe in good faith that the law requires it and for administrative and other purposes that we deem necessary to maintain, service, and improve our products and services.

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Please feel free to contact us at privacy@danielahart.com if you have any questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy or Daniel Ahart Tax Service®’s collection and use of your personal information.

 

F. Other Disclosures

 

1. International Users

Our Website is operated in the United States and intended for users located in the United States. If you are accessing our Website from a location outside the United States, please be aware that information we collect, including personal information, will be transferred to, and processed, stored, and used in the United States. The data protection laws in the United States may differ from those of the country in which you are located, and your personal information may be subject to access requests from governments, courts, or law enforcement in the United States according to the laws of the United States. By using this Website or providing us with any information, you consent to the transfer to, and processing, usage, sharing, and storage of your information, including personal information, in the United States as set forth in this Privacy Policy. By using this Website, you also consent that all United States laws apply in connection with this Website.

  

2. Information for Parents

The Website is a general audience website and we do not knowingly collect any personal information from children younger than the age of thirteen (13) as required by United States law. We will delete any personal information collected that we later determine to be from a user younger than the age of thirteen (13). If you are a parent or guardian of a child under the age of thirteen (13) and believe he or she has disclosed personal information to us, please contact us at privacy@danielahart.com.  You can find more information about the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) at http://www.ftc.gov

  

3. Your California Privacy Rights

Daniel Ahart Tax Service® is a financial institution and collects personal information on you pursuant to the federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (“GLBA”) and the California Financial Information Privacy Act (“CFIPA”), as those law are applicable.  Therefore, Daniel Ahart Tax Service® is regulated by the GLBA and not the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). 

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California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits Website visitors who are California residents, under certain circumstances, to request and obtain certain information regarding our disclosure, if any, of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes.  We will not disclose your personal or financial information with any non-affiliated third party unless you have provided your consent to do so. Notwithstanding our data sharing and use practices permitted under GLBA (described more fully in Section B), if you are a California resident and you would like to make a request, please contact us at privacy@danielahart.com.

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Within 45 days of receiving such a request, we will provide a list of the categories of personal information, that is not otherwise covered under applicable federal law, disclosed to third parties for third-party direct marketing purposes during the immediately preceding calendar year. We reserve our right not to respond to requests submitted other than to the address specified in this paragraph.

 

ACCEPTANCE OF THESE TERMS

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You understand that any information you provide through our Website will be governed by this Privacy Policy.

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IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THIS PRIVACY POLICY, PLEASE DO NOT USE THE WEBSITE.

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Your continued use of the Website following the posting of changes to these terms will mean you accept such changes. If we amend this Privacy Policy to permit material changes in the way we collect, use, and/or share your personal information, we will notify you of such amendment by prominently posting notice of such amendment on the Websites’ home pages prior to the change becoming effective.

To the extent any provision of this Privacy Policy is found by a competent tribunal to be invalid or unenforceable, such provision shall be severed to the extent necessary for the remainder to be valid and enforceable.

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Mailing Address:
Daniel Ahart Tax Service®
Attention - Client Services
250 Georgia Ave E. #10

Fayetteville, GA 30214.

 

Or contact us at privacy@danielahart.com.

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