Privacy policy

Who this is from

This site is operated under the name Heirs Legacy, in Pennsylvania. The registered legal entity behind it is not confirmed yet, so it is not named here. When it is registered, the entity name and its registered address will appear on this page and in the footer of every page. We would rather leave a gap than print a name that turns out to be wrong.

Until then, the way to reach us about anything on this page is through the contact form.

What we collect

We collect what you type into the contact form, and nothing you did not choose to give us. That is:

• your name
• your email address
• your phone number, only if you give it, and only because you would rather we called
• the county you select, which is the county the person lived in
• the message you write

We do not ask for a date of birth, a Social Security number, an account number or a document, and you should not send any of those through the form. If we ever need something like that, we will tell you how to send it securely instead.

The consent record we keep with it

Alongside your message we store a record of the agreement you gave when you sent it. That record holds the exact wording of the checkbox you ticked, a version number for that wording, the date and time you sent it, the IP address the message came from, the browser user agent string, and the page you sent it from.

We keep it for one reason: to be able to show, later, what you actually agreed to. Storing a bare yes proves nothing a year afterwards when nobody can say what the checkbox said at the time. So we store the sentence itself, and when we change the wording we mint a new version rather than editing the old one.

Why we are allowed to hold it

Because you gave it to us for a purpose you chose, and ticked a box saying we could use it for that purpose. That is the only basis on which we hold any of it. We use your details to answer your enquiry and to carry on that conversation. We do not use them for anything else, and we do not add you to a marketing list on the strength of a question you asked us.

You can withdraw that agreement at any time. It costs nothing, you do not have to give a reason, and the only consequence is that we stop contacting you.

How long we keep it

We keep an enquiry while we are dealing with it, and the consent record for as long as we could plausibly need to evidence the agreement it describes. We have not yet fixed a single retention period in months, and rather than publish a number we are not yet committed to, this page will state it once it is set.

You do not have to wait for that. Ask us to delete your enquiry and we will, unless we are required to keep a record of the agreement itself, in which case we will tell you exactly what is being kept and why.

Who else sees it

Nobody buys it, because we do not sell it. We do not share it for advertising, we do not trade or rent lists, and we do not pass your details to another business so they can pitch you something.

Three kinds of people can see it:

• the people at Heirs Legacy who are handling your enquiry
• the companies that host this website and deliver our email, because a message has to travel through something to reach us
• anyone we are legally required to give it to, which in practice means a court order or an equivalent legal demand

We have not yet chosen the system that will hold enquiries once they arrive. When we do, this page will name it before it starts receiving anything. If you would rather not use the form at all, say so and we will find another way.

Cookies, analytics and tracking

This site sets no advertising cookies and no cross site tracking of any kind. There is no advertising pixel, no tag manager and no third party script watching what you read.

The only thing kept in your browser is your choice of light or dark theme, stored under a single key so the page does not flash the wrong colours when you come back. It never leaves your device, it is not sent to us, and clearing your browser storage removes it.

We do not run analytics on this site at present. If we add measurement later it will be a form that does not follow you across other websites, and this page will say so before it goes live rather than afterwards.

Keeping it safe

The site is served over an encrypted connection, so what you type into the form is encrypted in transit. No website can promise perfect security and we are not going to pretend otherwise. What we can do is hold as little as possible, which is why the form asks for five things and not fifteen.

Children

This site is written for adults dealing with an estate. It is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect anything from a child. If you believe a child has sent us something, tell us and we will delete it.

Your rights, and how to use them

You can ask us for any of the following, whether or not a statute requires us to offer it. We are offering it because it is reasonable, not because we were forced to.

• a copy of what we hold about you
• a correction, if something we hold is wrong
• deletion of your enquiry
• withdrawal of your agreement to be contacted, including text messages if you agreed to those
• an explanation of where a particular piece of information came from

Make a request through the contact form, or by replying to any message we have sent you. Say what you want and we will do it. We will acknowledge your request, tell you what we are doing about it, and come back to you when it is done. We will not charge you for it and we will not make you explain yourself.

If a privacy law that applies to you gives you more than this page offers, that law wins and we will honour it.

If you are not satisfied

Tell us first, in writing, and we will look at it again. If you want to take it further, the authority you would complain to depends on where you live and on the entity we register. We have not confirmed that yet, so we are not going to name one here and risk sending you to the wrong door. When it is settled, this page will name it and link to it.

Changes to this page

If we change this policy we will change the date at the top of the page. Where a change actually affects what we do with information we already hold, we will tell the people it affects rather than leaving them to notice a new date.