Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Whelan Ransel, LLC recognizes the importance of your privacy. This Policy is intended to inform you about the information we collect from your visits to our website, blogs and social media accounts (hereinafter collectively referred to as "website"), and from our marketing emails. We also explain how we use that information, and with whom the information may be shared.

​

Who We Are

Whelan Ransel, LLC is a law firm based in the United States. We are a limited liability company organized under the laws of the State of Illinois . 

​

Scope of our Online Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to information that we collect online through our website and through marketing emails. This Privacy Policy does not cover any information collected by any other company, third-party site or third-party application that may link to, or that can be accessed from our website.

​

Information We Collect from Website Visits

Information we obtain from your visits to our website can be broadly described as the personal information that visitors provide us and technical information that we collect through the use of technology concerning those visits.

​

Personal Information

From our website, we will collect any information that you voluntarily provide us such as your name, email address, telephone number or fax number, your company or firm name, and other business contact information.  

​

Technical Information

We collect certain types of technical information provided by the browser of the computer, tablet or mobile device used when visiting our website, such as:

​

Usage Details, IP Addresses, and Browser Information

When you visit our website, we collect technical information such as the identity of your Internet Protocol (IP) address, your computer or device's operating system and browser type, geo-location data, and the pages of our website that you visit. Most browsers transmit this type of information to websites automatically. We collect this information to administer and manage our website, to ensure that it functions properly and to review aggregate information. Your IP address is anonymized.

​

Cookies

Like many other websites, our website uses Cookies. Cookies are small text files that are downloaded to the browser of a computer, tablet or smartphone used to visit a website. A Cookie will identify your browser, the type of device you used, to help you log-in and improve the navigation of a website. We use Cookies to help us to improve the performance of our website. Cookies allow us to review the number of visitors to our website, the dates of your visits, and a visitor's usage patterns; to track views of any embedded videos and key performance indicators such as pages visited, frequency of visits, downloads and other statistical information; whether a visitor views the mobile or desktop version of our website; to recognize you if you return to our website; to store information about your past visits, and to remember your preferences. 

​

Consent and Withdrawing Your Consent

You are under no obligation to provide us with any personal information when visiting our website and are under no obligation to subscribe to our marketing mailings. Whether you provide any personal information is entirely voluntary and is solely within your discretion. You will suffer no legal detriment if you decide not to provide any of the requested personal information. We may be unable to provide you with any services or information you request, however, if you decide not to provide us with some or all of the personal information via our website.  Should you wish to withdraw consent previously provided, please send a message via the Firm's contact page: www.whelanransel.com/contact

​

Purposes For Our Use and Processing of Your Information

We may process the information that you provide and we collect via our website or marketing emails for various business or operational purposes in order to:

• Meet or fulfill the reasons you provided us the information, including to provide services, process requests, transactions, payments, to fulfill orders or make refunds, or to maintain and service accounts, and to prevent transaction fraud.

• Assess or maintain the quality of our services, programs, offerings or publications.

• Respond to inquiries, process requests concerning the personal information in our possession, to investigate and address concerns and to monitor and improve our responses.

• Help maintain the safety, security, and integrity of our website, products, services, events, programs, publications, databases, networks, and other technical assets.

• Prevent, detect and investigate security incidents that could compromise the availability, authenticity, integrity, or confidentiality of stored or transmitted information.

• Deliver any requested products or services, or to provide you with customer support.

• Confirm the identity of any person submitting requests; to resist, malicious, deceptive, fraudulent or illegal actions directed at our firm or the information in our possession and to prosecute anyone responsible.

• Audit, improve, develop, modify or support our website, products and services, to update and maintain client, subscription, visitor or email lists and for other internal purposes.

• Debug, identify, rectify or mitigate errors, or vulnerabilities in our website, systems, applications, technologies, hardware, software, servers or equipment.

• Respond to requests for information or respond to requests for proposals ("RFPs"), or to provide information about legal services that you request.

• Respond to lawful requests for information through court orders, subpoenas, warrants and other legal process, obligations or governmental regulations.

• Protect the operations of our law firm, or the physical and online safety, security and privacy of our Firm, our lawyers and staff, our clients or third parties. This potentially includes sharing information with others for purposes of fraud protection, information security, and related matters.

​

WE DO NOT SELL THE PERSONAL INFORMATION YOU PROVIDE US.

​

WE WILL NOT SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION WITH THIRD PARTIES FOR CROSS-CONTEXT BEHAVIORAL ADVERTISING PURPOSES.

​

WE WILL NOT USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA FOR INFERRING CHARACTERISTICS ABOUT YOU OR MAKING ANY AUTOMATED DECISIONS AFFECTING YOU OR YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS OR FOR CREATING PROFILES OTHER THAN AS DESCRIBED ABOVE.

​

With Whom We Will Share Your Information

We may share the information that you provide us via our website and/or in response to our marketing emails on a confidential basis with contractors, or service providers that support our Firm's operations and our website, but only for those purposes.

​

We may also share your personal information with courts, law enforcement authorities, regulators, attorneys or other parties when it is reasonably necessary for the establishment, exercise or defense of a legal or equitable claim, or for purposes of an alternative dispute resolution process; to comply with a subpoena or court order, legal process, or other legal requirement or when we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to comply with the law, prevent imminent physical harm or material financial loss; to investigate, prevent or take action concerning illegal activities, suspected fraud, threats to our Firm, any of its lawyers or our property; or as necessary in connection with an investigation of fraud, intellectual property infringement, piracy or other unlawful activity.

​

Links to Social Media and Third-Party Websites

Our website may include links to blogs, social media and third-party websites. These third-party sites have their own privacy policies and terms of use and are not controlled by this Privacy Policy or the terms of our website's disclaimer. You should carefully review any terms, conditions and policies of such third-party sites before visiting them or supplying them with any personal information. If you follow a link to any third-party site, any information you provide that site will be governed by its own terms of use and privacy policy and not this Privacy Policy.

Whelan Ransel is not responsible for the privacy or security of any information you provide to a third-party website or the information practices used by any third-party site, including links to any third-party site from Whelan Ransel's website. We make no representations, express or implied, concerning the accuracy, privacy, safety, security or the information practices of any third-party site. The inclusion of a link to a third-party site on our website does not constitute any type of endorsement of the linked site by Whelan Ransel. Whelan Ransel is not responsible for any loss or damage you may sustain resulting from your use of any third-party website or any information you share with a third-party website.

​

Information Security

We have implemented appropriate physical, administrative, technical and organizational security measures, including the encryption of personal information, to protect that information from inadvertent or unauthorized access, use, disclosure, alteration or destruction. No method of data storage or data transmission over the Internet, however, is guaranteed to be completely secure. Your use of our website, and any personal information that you transmit over the Internet to our website, is at your own risk. 

​

Notice to Minors

Our Firm's website is not directed at and is not intended to be visited by minors. No visitor to our website who is a minor or under the age of 18 should provide any personal information to our Firm. If you are a minor, do not visit our website, blogs or social media sites and do not send any type of personal information about yourself to our Firm or website. 

​

Privacy Statement for California Residents

The California Consumer Privacy Act ("CCPA" or "Act") grants residents of the State of California certain privacy rights in their personal information. This Privacy Statement for California Residents ("Statement") supplements the terms of our Online & Marketing Privacy Policy explained above and should be read in conjunction with the terms of our Online & Marketing Privacy Policy. It should also be read in association with our California Privacy Notice for contractors and job applicants.  

​

This Statement only applies to visitors and users of our website who are California residents (hereinafter "you" or "consumer").

​

Information We Collect

As explained above in our Privacy Policy, the information we obtain from visitors to our website fall into two distinct categories—the personal information that visitors provide us and technical information provided by the browser of the computer, tablet or mobile device used when visiting our website and from our marketing emails. To understand your privacy rights under the CCPA, you need to understand what personal information is covered by the Act.

​

Personal Information

The CCPA defines personal information as information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household.

Personal information under the CCPA, however, does not include:

​

• Deidentified or aggregated consumer information.

• Publicly available information from federal, state or local government records, or information that a business has a reasonable basis to believe is lawfully made available to the general public by the consumer or from widely distributed media, or information made available to a person by a consumer if the information was not restricted to a specific audience. Personal information also does not include lawfully obtained, truthful information that is a matter of public concern.

The CCPA also does not apply to certain types of information including:

• Medical or health information covered by the Health Insurance and Portability and Accountability Act of 1966 ("HIPAA") and the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act ("CIMIA").

• Personal information covered by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act ("GLBA"), or the California Financial Information Privacy Act ("FIPA").

• Personal information covered by the Driver's Privacy Protection Act of 1994.

• Personal information collected, processed, disclosed or sold for use in a report or by the user of a report under the Fair Credit Reporting Act ("FCRA").

​

The CCPA also recognizes a special category of personal information called Sensitive Personal Information. The information immediately below identifies categories or examples of personal information and Sensitive Personal Information covered by the CCPA. The below also identifies categories of information some of which we have collected from visitors to our website or via marketing emails in the past twelve (12) months:

​

A. Identifiers:

A real name, alias, postal address, unique personal identifier, online identifier, Internet Protocol address, email address, account name, Social Security number, driver's license number, passport number, or other similar identifiers.

Collected by Whelan Ransel? YES

​

B. Personal information categories listed in the California Customer Records statute (Cal. Civ. Code §1798.80(e)):

A name, signature, Social Security number, physical characteristics or description, address, telephone number, passport number, driver's license or state identification card number, insurance policy number, education, employment, employment history, bank account number, credit card number, debit card number, or any other financial information, medical information, or health insurance information. Some personal information included in this category may overlap with other categories.

Collected by Whelan Ransel? YES

​

C. Protected classification characteristics under California or federal law:

Age (40 years or older), race, color, ancestry, national origin, citizenship, religion or creed, marital status, medical condition, physical or mental disability, sex (including gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy or childbirth and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, veteran or military status, genetic information (including familial genetic information).

Collected by Whelan Ransel? YES

​

D. Commercial information:

Records of personal property, products or services purchased, obtained, or considered, or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies.

Collected by Whelan Ransel? NO

​

E. Biometric information:

Genetic, physiological, behavioral, and biological characteristics, or activity patterns used to extract a template or other identifier or identifying information, such as, fingerprints, faceprints, and voiceprints, iris or retina scans, keystroke, gait, or other physical patterns, and sleep, health, or exercise data.

Collected by Whelan Ransel? NO

​

F. Internet or other similar network activity:

Browsing history, search history, information on a consumer's interaction with a website, application, or advertisement.

Collected by Whelan Ransel? YES

​

G. Geolocation data:

Physical location or movements.

Collected by Whelan Ransel? YES

​

H. Sensory data:

Audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory, or similar information.

Collected by Whelan Ransel? YES

​

I. Professional or employment-related information:

Current or past job history or performance evaluations.

Whelan Ransel? YES

​

J. Non-public education information (per the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. Section 1232g, 34 C.F.R. Part 99)):

Education records directly related to a student maintained by an educational institution or party acting on its behalf, such as grades, transcripts, class lists, student schedules, student identification codes, student financial information, or student disciplinary records.

Collected by Whelan Ransel? NO

​

K. Inferences drawn from other personal information:

Profile reflecting a person's preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities and aptitudes.

Collected by Whelan Ransel? NO

​

L. Sensitive Personal Information:

A person's: social security, driver's license, state identification card or passport number; account log-in, financial account, debit card, or credit card number in combination with any required security or access code, password or credentials allowing access to the account; precise geolocation, race or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, union membership, contents of a person's mail, email and text messages unless the business is the intended recipient; genetic data; processing biometric information for the purpose of uniquely identifying a person; information collected and analyzed concerning a person's health, sex life or sexual orientation.

Collected by Whelan Ransel? NO

​

Business Purpose For Our Collection, Use and Disclosure of Personal Information

The term "Business Purpose" means the use of personal information for our Firm's operational purposes, or other notified purposes, provided that use is reasonably necessary and proportionate to achieve the purpose for which the information was collected or processed or for another operational purpose that is compatible with the context in which the personal information was collected. 

We Do Not Sell or Share Personal information or Use Personal Information to Infer Characteristics About You

​

We do not sell personal information. We do not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising as those terms are defined in the CCPA. We also do not collect or process Sensitive Personal Information for the purpose of inferring characteristics about a person. As a result, the CCPA's rights to opt-out of the sale or sharing of personal information and to limit the use and disclosure of sensitive personal information do not apply to the information we collect.

​

CCPA Privacy Rights Applicable to the Personal Information We Collect Online

​

The CCPA requires that we disclose to you at or before the time we collect any personal information about you, the categories of personal information to be collected, the purposes for which the personal information is collected or used and whether that information is sold or shared for cross-context behavioral purposes. If sensitive personal information is to be collected, to disclose the categories sensitive personal information to be collected, the purposes for which it is collected or used and whether such information is sold or shared as well as the length of time we intend to retain each category of personal or sensitive personal information.

The CCPA provides California residents with the right to request that our Firm disclose:

• Categories of personal information we have collected about you.

• Categories of sources from which the personal information is collected.

• The business or commercial purpose for collecting, selling or sharing personal information.

• Categories of any third parties to whom we disclose personal information.

• Categories of personal information we have disclosed about you for a business purpose and the categories of persons to whom it was disclosed for a business purpose.

• The specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you.

You have the right to request that we delete any personal information about you that we collected from you, subject to certain exceptions outlined below. You also have the right to request that we correct any of your personal information in our possession that you believe to be inaccurate.

The CCPA further prohibits the discriminatory treatment of a person for the exercise of the privacy rights conferred by CCPA.

​

How Long We Retain Personal Information

We strive to retain any personal information that you provide via our website or marketing emails for seven (7) years from the date you provided or last updated that information, unless you request that information be deleted at an earlier date. If that information is subject to a litigation hold, or is required to assert or defend a legal claim, then we will hold that information until the claim or action is finally resolved.

​

Requests to Delete Personal Information

You have the right to request that we delete personal information collected from you. Once we receive a request and confirm the identity of the person making the request, we will delete that information from our active system unless one of the exceptions listed below applies. Personal information stored on an archived or backup system will not be deleted pursuant to such a request until the archived or backup system is restored to an active system or the information is next accessed for a disclosure or a commercial purpose.

The CCPA provides that we are not required to comply with a request to delete personal information if the information is necessary for our Firm to:

• Comply with a legal obligation.

• Complete the transaction for which the information was collected, provide a good or service you requested, perform a contract with you, to fulfill the terms of a written warranty, or take actions reasonably anticipated by you in the context of our ongoing business relationship with you.

• Help to ensure security and integrity to the extent your personal information is reasonably necessary and proportionate for those purposes.

• Debug to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality.

• Exercise free speech, to ensure the rights of others to exercise their free speech rights, or to exercise another right provided by law.

• Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (Cal. Penal Code §1546 seq.).

• Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with your expectations based upon your relationship with our Firm and compatible with the context in which you provided the information.

• ​

CCPA's Limitations on Disclosures

We are not obligated under the CCPA to respond to any request where compliance or disclosure would violate an evidentiary privilege under California law, or conflict with federal or state law.

The CCPA, does not require that we provide personal information to a consumer more than twice in a twelve month period. If we are unable to verify the identity of a person making a request, we may deny a request to disclose categories and other information requested.

Any disclosures we make will generally cover the twelve (12) month period preceding the request. While you can request information for longer than a 12-month period, our obligation to provide information beyond 12 months only applies to personal information collected on or after January 1, 2022, and does not apply where providing more than 12 months of information proves to be impossible or involves a disproportionate effort.

We will not charge a fee to process or respond to your request and will provide information free of charge. Where a person's requests are repetitive, manifestly unfounded or excessive, the CCPA authorizes us to either charge a reasonable fee that takes into account our administrative costs, or refuse to act on the request and notify the person making the request our reason for refusing the request. If we determine that a request warrants a fee, we will explain our decision and will endeavor to provide you with a cost estimate.

CCPA regulations prohibit us from disclosing a person's Social Security number, driver's license number, other government issued identification number, financial account number, any health insurance or medical identification number, an account password or security questions and answers.

​

How To Exercise Your Privacy Rights

You can exercise these rights in several ways. You can make a request by calling the Firm or by submitting a request via the Firm's contact page. 

You may make the request on your own behalf or on behalf of your minor child. Another person who is legally authorized to act on your behalf may also submit a request for you. Please describe your request in sufficient detail to allow us to understand the nature of the request, evaluate and respond to it. Please provide sufficient information with your request to allow us to verify that you are the person about whom we collected personal information, or an authorized representative of that person. We will acknowledge receipt of your request and begin our verification process.

​

How We Will Verify and Respond

Before we respond to any request involving personal information, the CCPA requires that we confirm the identity of the person making the request, and if the request is made on behalf of another person, his or her authority to make the request on the other person's behalf. We are not obligated to provide, correct or delete any information pursuant to your request if we are unable to adequately verify your identity or the identity of the person making the request on your behalf. Accordingly, we reserve the right to deny any request where we are unable to satisfactorily confirm your identity or the identity of the person making the request. If you have authorized someone to make a request on your behalf, we reserve the right to deny the request if we are unable to adequately verify the identity of that person or if we are unable to verify that the individual making the request is authorized to act on your behalf.

We will attempt to verify your identity by matching any information provided in your request against the personal information already in our possession. If you have authorized someone to make a request on your behalf, we will attempt to verify the identity of that person. We will also seek to confirm that you have authorized that person to submit a request on your behalf, which may include requesting a copy of any written authorization or power of attorney for the request. This process does not require that you establish any type of account with our firm, or sign up to receive any of our publications or services, or attend any of our programs.

The amount of information we may require in our verification process will depend on a variety of factors including the nature of your request, the type, sensitivity and value of the personal information in our possession, the potential risk of harm that could result from any unauthorized access to, unauthorized change or unauthorized deletion of your personal information, the likelihood that fraudulent or malicious actors would seek your information and whether the information provided to us in your request is sufficient to protect against fraudulent requests or requests that are fabricated or spoofed. For instance we will require more points of confirmation if you request that we disclose specific pieces of information rather than categories of information in our possession. Concerning a request to delete information, once we confirm your identity we will separately confirm that you want the information deleted.

During our verification process, we may request additional information from you. Any information provided to the Firm during our verification process will only be used for purposes of verifying your identity or the identity and/or authority of the person making the request.

We will endeavor to respond within forty-five (45) days of receipt of your request. If, however, we are unable to respond within that time, we will notify you of the reason and the additional time needed to make our response. The CCPA permits us to extend the time of our response by up to an additional 45 days.

If we deny a request in whole or in part we will endeavor to explain the reasons for our denial.

​

Non-Discrimination

We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights. This means, for instance, that we will not deny you services, charge you a different price, including a discount or other benefit or impose a penalty for the exercise of your CCPA rights.

​

Other California Privacy Rights

The California Civil Code permits California Residents with whom we have an established business relationship, to request that we provide you with a list of certain categories of personal information that we have disclosed to third-parties for their direct marketing purposes during the preceding calendar year. To make such a request please send  us a message via the Firm's contact page:  www.whelanransel.com/contact

​

Visitors from Outside the United States

If you are visiting our website from outside the United States ("U.S."), any information you voluntarily provide via our website and any technical information from the browser of your computer, tablet or mobile device will be transferred out of your country and into the U.S. where our law firm is located. The laws and protections available to the privacy of your personal information in the U.S. may significantly differ from the protections available in your country. Personal data transferred to the U.S. may be subject to lawful access requests by state and federal authorities in the U.S. If you do not want any personal information to be transferred to the U.S., please do not provide that information to our Firm via our website

​

Visitors from the European Union

The General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR"), which is in effect in the European Union ("EU") extends certain rights to natural persons involving the privacy of their personal information.

Our Firm is the data controller for any personal information provided via our website. Our Firm does not have a data protection officer in the EU. Any information that you provide to us will be stored in the United States; we do not intend to transfer your personal data to another country or international organization.

We strive to retain any personal information that you provide via our website or marketing emails for seven (7) years from the date you provided or last updated that information, unless you request that information be deleted at an earlier date. If that information is subject to a litigation hold, or is required to assert or defend a legal claim, then we will hold that information until the claim or action is finally resolved.   

Under the GDPR individuals are granted the following rights:

​

Right of Access

You have the right to ask what personal information we have about you in our possession. You have the right to obtain a copy of your personal data free of charge so long as it does not adversely affect the rights of others. We may charge a reasonable fee based on administrative costs for additional copies. The right of access includes the right to request that we update, correct or complete your personal information in our possession.

​

Right of Erasure

You have a right to request that data be deleted or erased when it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected or processed, when you withdraw your consent, when data is unlawfully processed, to comply with a legal obligation of the EU or a Member State, or when you object to the processing and we are unable to demonstrate compelling, legitimate grounds for the processing which overrides your rights, freedoms or interests. Personal data does not have to be erased when and to the extent it is necessary "for the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims."

​

Right to Restrict Processing

You have a right to restrict the processing of your personal data when you contest the accuracy of the personal data in our possession until we are able to verify its accuracy, if the processing is unlawful and you oppose its erasure and request restriction instead.

​

Right to Data Portability

The right to data portability is triggered when processing activity was based on your consent, or was necessary for the performance of a contract, and the processing was carried out by automated means. This right, however, shall not adversely affect the rights of others.

​

Automated Decision Making

You have the right not to be subjected to decision-making based solely on automated processing or profiling that either significantly affects you or results in some sort of legal effect. This right does not apply to decisions that are necessary for entering into or performing a contract with you or are based on your explicit consent.

​

Right to Object to Processing

You have the right to object to processing when it is based on a "legitimate interest" of the controller or a third party, or to processing that occurs for direct marketing purposes.

​

Withdrawing Your Consent

You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time by sending a message via the Firm's contact page: www.whelanransel.com/contact.

​

Right to Complain

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority about our data privacy practices where you reside.

​

How to Exercise These Rights 

You can exercise these rights by sending a message via the Firm's contact page:  www.whelanransel.com/contact

​

We will review any requests we receive and will endeavor to respond in a timely manner. For security reasons, we may request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity before taking action on any request, and to ensure your right of access and the exercise any of GDPR right does not adversely affect the rights of others.

We reserve the right to refuse to act on a request, or to charge a reasonable administrative fee when a request is either manifestly unfounded or excessive because of its repetitive character.   

​

No Legal Advice or Attorney-Client Relationship Intended

Nothing contained in this Privacy Policy, our website or its disclaimer is intended to provide legal advice, or to create a contractual or attorney-client relationship. You agree that visiting our website or providing information to our website does not create a contractual or attorney-client relationship.

​

How to Contact Us

We welcome your views about our website and our Privacy Policy. If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy, or would like to share any comments with us, please send us a message via the Firm's contact page:  www.whelanransel.com/contact

​

Updates to Our Privacy Policy

Our  Privacy Policy was last updated in November 2024. We occasionally will update our Privacy Policy and the terms of our website's disclaimer. Please periodically check our Privacy Policy and our website's disclaimer to learn of any changes to our Privacy Policy and disclaimer. This Privacy Statement supersedes all prior versions governing our website.