PRIVACY POLICY

Liberty Tax – Online and Mobile Application Privacy Policy

At JTH Tax, LLC, doing business as Liberty Tax Service® (“Liberty,” “we,” or “our”), we recognize the importance of protecting your personal information. We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of your information and want you to understand the protective measures we take. 

This Online and Mobile Application Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) concerns the information we collect when you view our websites and our affiliated companies’ websites (including www.esmarttax.com, www.esmarttax.com/ffa, www.freetax.com, www.libertytax.com, www.taxbrain.com, and www.libertytax.com/online) and our mobile applications (collectively, our “Websites”). It also describes our collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information.

If you come to one of our offices for tax preparation you will be subject to a separate privacy policy disclosed to you when you use those services.

If you have an unresolved privacy or data use concern that we have not addressed satisfactorily, please contact our U.S.-based third-party resolution provider (free of charge) here.

Tracking Technologies

If you use our Websites, we collect the following types of information:

• We and our partners use cookies, web beacons, or similar technologies. These technologies are used in analyzing trends, administering the site, tracking users’ movements around the site and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole. We may receive reports based on the use of these technologies by these companies on an individual as well as aggregated basis.
• We use cookies for online customer support, and analytics service providers. Users can control the use of cookies at the individual browser level. If you reject cookies, you may still use our site, but your ability to use some features or areas of our site may be limited.

Behavioral Targeting/Re-Targeting

We partner with a third-party ad network to either display advertising on our Websites or to manage our advertising on other sites. Our ad network partner uses cookies and web beacons to collect information about your activities on our Websites to provide you targeted advertising based upon your interests. If you wish to not have this information used for the purpose of serving you targeted ads, you may opt-out by clicking here. Please note this does not opt you out of being served advertising. You will continue to receive generic ads.  We participate in Global Privacy Control (“GPC”).  To learn more about how to enable GPC in participating browsers, visit www.globalprivacycontrol.org/.

We use Google AdSense to publish ads on this site. When you view or click on an ad, a cookie will be set to help better provide advertisements that may be of interest to you on this and other Web sites. You may opt-out of the use of this cookie by visiting Google’s Advertising and Privacy page: www.google.com/privacy_ads.html.

Log files. As is true of most web sites, we gather certain information automatically and store it in log files. This information may include Internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, Internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and/or clickstream data. We do not link this automatically collected data to other information we collect about you. 

HTML5. We use Local Storage such as HTML5 to store content information and preferences. Third parties with whom we partner to provide certain features on our site or to display advertising based upon your browsing activity use LSOs such as HTML 5 to collect and store information. Various browsers may offer their own management tools for removing HTML5 LSOs.

Personal Information We Collect  

If you choose to submit your contact information to indicate an interest in either a franchise or tax course, we receive from you your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address. If you choose to submit your e-mail address to indicate an interest in our electronic newsletter, we receive from you your e-mail address. We may receive your personal information, including (which includes, without limitation, your name, address, email or phone number) if you participate in any of our surveys or contests or if you request a service from us. Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary and you therefore have a choice whether or not to disclose this information. 

Our Websites do not support “Do Not Track” settings on your browser.  We do however participate in Global Privacy Control (“GPC”).  To learn more about how to enable GPC in participating browsers, visit www.globalprivacycontrol.org/.

Tax Filing Information

If you choose to use our Websites for tax return preparation services, we will collect, from you, your contact information (such as your name, address, email address, phone number), Social Security Number, date of birth, financial information (such as income, deductions, expenses), personal information about family members as provided by you and payment data, as required, to complete and pay for your tax return and for the provision of other services that you request and for legal and regulatory purposes.  The collection and use of such personal information is subject to our Privacy Notice available at https:www.libertytax.com.

If you choose to use our referral service to tell a friend about our website, we will ask you for your friend’s name and email address. We will automatically send your friend a one-time email inviting him or her to visit our Website.  We store this information for the sole purpose of sending this one-time email and tracking the performance of our referral program.  Your friend may contact us at promotions@libtax.com to request that we remove this information from our database.

Geolocation by 3^rd Party Vendors

Cellular geolocation services in calls made to Liberty Tax® toll free numbers are provided by AdGeo, Inc. Information about this service, the vendors terms of use and the vendor’s data retention policies may be found at http://www.adgeo.com/MobileTermsOfService.aspx.

Information about the vendor’s privacy policy for this service may be found at http://www.adgeo.com/PrivacyPolicy.aspx. Your use of and explicit or implicit consent during the toll free calls indicates your acceptance of the vendor’s terms of use and privacy policies.

How We May Use the Information

We may use your information collected in the Websites to provide the services or products you requested, to process transactions that you initiate, to improve our services and Websites, for marketing or promotional purposes, and to contact you regarding our services or your use of the Websites.

Information We Disclose

We disclose your personal information with third parties only in the ways that are described in this privacy policy.

We do not sell or allow your customer account data to be used by third parties for their own marketing purposes. Affiliated and non-affiliated third parties may be given access to your information only as permitted by law and upon your express authorization.

If you input information into our Websites to express an interest in being contacted about tax courses, your information is transferred to a local Liberty Tax Service® office, most of which are franchised, so the office may contact you. Also, we may contact you directly about a tax course in one of our offices, or an online tax course, or we may contact you about franchise opportunities with us.

If you entered your contact information into our Websites to express an interest in being contacted about a franchise opportunity, we use your information to contact you about this opportunity.

If you submitted your e-mail address to sign up for our electronic newsletter, we use your email address to e-mail our newsletter to you and we may contact you about franchise opportunities with us. Out of respect for your privacy, you may choose to stop receiving our newsletter or marketing emails by following the unsubscribe instructions included in these emails, accessing the email preferences in your account settings page or you can contact us at privacy@libtax.com.

If you submitted your e-mail address to us for any purpose, we may contact you to invite you to prepare your tax return with us and send you marketing messages.  You may opt out of these invitations and marketing messages by contacting us at privacy@libtax.com.

We may disclose or use the registration information that you provide when creating an account to show you tailored advertising or to send you marketing messages. We may disclose your registration information to non-affiliated third parties that perform operational, marketing, financial, or accounting services for us. These companies are authorized to use your registration information only as necessary to provide these services to us. Such sharing will be done in accordance with applicable law.

If you submit your personal tax return information for the purposes of preparing and filing your tax returns, our use or disclosure of that information may be limited by the Internal Revenue Code, § 7216, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and other laws. We use and disclose your personal information as expressly authorized by you, as required by court order or other legal or regulatory process, or as disclosed in our Privacy Notice available https://www.libertytax.com.

If you are using our Websites to prepare and file your tax returns, you may update your log in and password information by logging into your account or by contacting customer support at support@efile.libertytax.com. For all other inquiries please contact us at privacy@libtax.com or by postal mail to JTH Tax, Inc. c/o Privacy, 2387 Liberty Way, Virginia Beach, Virginia 23456. We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe.

We will retain your information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services or as required under applicable law. We will retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

Do Not Call (DNC) Policy

We recognize the importance of protecting your personal information. We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of your information and want you to know the protective measures we take.

Liberty will adhere to all applicable and enforceable federal and state laws and regulations governing outbound telephone calls for the protection of the privacy of telephone consumers. The National Do Not Call Registry is managed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer protection agency. Liberty will not call any number appearing on the federal or state do not call list (unless permitted by applicable law) or the number of a person, who request not to receive telemarketing campaign calls made on the behalf of Liberty Tax Service®. 

If you request not to receive calls from us, you will be placed on our internally maintained DNC list and will not be called for any future telemarketing campaigns. Upon your request, Liberty will document immediately. Please allow up to 30 days for your telephone number to be removed from any campaigns that are currently underway. You will remain on Liberty’s “Do Not Call “list for 5 years, unless you ask to be removed. Also, some states have Do Not Call laws that require Liberty to honor such request for a longer period of time, and it is Liberty’s policy to comply with those laws when applicable. When submitting a request via phone to be placed on the DNC list, all calls may be monitored or recorded. Liberty reserves the right to revise this “Do Not Call Policy”. 

All employees that engage in outbound telephone solicitation are trained in this policy and are made aware of these procedures before they are allowed to place campaigns calls to consumers. Management reviews the policy with employees on a seasonal basis. If a consumer requests a copy of our “Do Not Call” Policy, Liberty will send a copy via U.S. mail or electronic mail. The “Do Not Call” policy is also posted on the Liberty intranet site under Owned and Operated Customer Care Center – DNC Policy. 

Information Security

We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural security measures that comply with applicable legal and regulatory standards to safeguard your personal information. Access to such information is restricted to those employees who are trained in the proper handling of client information and have a legitimate business need to access that information. We follow generally accepted standards, such as encryption and secure socket layer technology, to protect the personal information you submit to us, whether that information is in transit or at rest. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure, however. Therefore, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. If you have any questions about security on our Websites, you can contact us at privacy@libtax.com. 

Additional Information

Links to Third Party Sites. Our Website(s) includes links to third party websites whose privacy practices may differ from ours. If you submit personal information to any of those sites, your information is governed by their privacy policies. We encourage you to carefully read the privacy policy of any website you visit. 

Blogs 

Our Websites offer publicly accessible blogs or community forums. You should be aware that any information you provide in these areas may be read, collected, and used by others who access them. In some cases, we may not be able to remove your personal information, in which case we will let you know if we are unable to do so and why. Our blog is also managed by a third-party application that may require you to register to post a comment. We do not have access or control of the information posted to the blog. You will need to contact or login into the third-party application if you want the personal information that was posted to the comments section removed. To learn how the third-party application uses your information, please review their privacy policy.  

Social Media 

Our Websites include social media features, such as the Facebook “Like” button and widgets, such as the “Share” button or interactive mini-programs that run on our Websites. These features may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our Websites, 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 Websites. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it. 

Privacy and Safety of Children

The Site is not directed to individuals under the age of thirteen (13), and we request that these individuals do not provide personal information through our Site. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13 without parental consent. Visit the Federal Trade Commission website for more information about the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). If you believe that we have received information from a child or other person who is not of a majority age in their relevant jurisdiction, please contact us at our email or physical mailing address listed in the “Contact Us” section below and we will take all reasonable efforts to remove the information. 

Acceptance of These Terms

You understand that any information you provide to us through any of our Websites shall be governed by this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with these terms, you should not use our Websites. Your continued use of our Websites indicates your acceptance of these terms.  

We will notify you of the changes by posting a notice on our Websites. If we make any material changes we will notify you by means of a notice on our Websites prior to the change becoming effective. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices.

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, you may contact us by e-mail at privacy@libtax.com, by mail at Privacy, Liberty Tax Service®, 2387 Liberty Way, Virginia Beach, Virginia 23456, or by calling us at 1-800-790-3863.

This privacy policy is effective September 1, 2022