1. Who we are
LegalGuides.net ("we", "us", "our") is a U.S. immigration legal-information and verified-attorney directory platform. We provide a public Q&A library, attorney listings, and paid private consultation tooling. We are not a law firm and do not provide legal advice ourselves.
2. What we collect
2.1 Information you give us directly
- Account: name, email, password (hashed), optional U.S. state, optional phone, language preference.
- Questions you post and any details you choose to include.
- If you are a verified attorney: bar number, practice areas, service menu, malpractice carrier (optional), office address.
- Consultation intake: subject, summary, opposing-party name for conflict checking.
- Payment: handled by Stripe — we receive card metadata (last 4, brand) but not full card numbers.
2.2 Information collected automatically
- Server logs (IP address, browser, referrer) for security and abuse prevention.
- First-party analytics (page-view counts, no third-party trackers).
- Authentication cookies and CSRF tokens.
3. What we don't collect
We do not embed Facebook Pixel, Google Analytics, or any other third-party tracking. We do not sell personal data. We do not use your conversations with attorneys for AI training.
4. How we use your data
- To match your immigration questions with attorneys licensed in your state.
- To generate the instant legal-information summary at the time of posting (via Claude, an AI model we run server-side).
- To process bookings, generate engagement letters, and route payouts to attorneys via Stripe Connect.
- To send transactional email (account verification, password reset, answer notifications, consult updates).
5. Attorney–client confidentiality
Messages exchanged inside a paid consultation thread are protected by attorney–client privilege under the governing-state law in the signed engagement letter. We carry encrypted-transit (TLS) and encryption-at-rest on the message body field. We never read consultation messages for marketing or training purposes.
6. AI use
Public questions you post run through Anthropic's Claude model for jurisdiction detection and a "legal information" summary. We do not store the raw API request or response on Anthropic's side — Anthropic's data-retention policy applies to those server-side calls. The generated summary is stored on our database and shown publicly with the question.
7. Your rights
- Access & portability: download all your data as JSON from your account settings.
- Deletion: soft-delete from account settings; permanent deletion 30 days later.
- Correction: edit your profile in account settings.
- California (CCPA): you may also request data deletion or opt out of any future sale of personal information (we do not currently sell). Email privacy@legalguides.net.
- EEA/UK (GDPR): our lawful bases are contract (consultations) and legitimate interest (security and platform operations).
8. Retention
Account data: until you delete, or 90 days of inactivity (with a 30-day warning email). Signed engagement letters, paid-consult receipts, and tax records: retained 7 years per U.S. legal record-keeping standards. Server logs: 90 days. Audit log: 7 years.
9. Cookies
We use first-party cookies for authentication and CSRF protection only. We do not set third-party cookies. We do not require a consent banner under GDPR/CCPA but display one for transparency.
10. Contact
Privacy questions: privacy@legalguides.net
Data Protection Officer: same address.