Headquarters for Simple, Inc. ("HQ Simple"), a California corporation with principal offices at 11622 El Camino Real, San Diego, CA 92130, operates www.hqsimple.com(the "Site") and provides employer-of-record, payroll, human-resources consulting, and related services (the "Service"). This policy explains how we collect, use, and disclose information when you use the Site and Service. By using either, you agree to the practices described below.
What we collect
We collect and store the following categories of personal information:
- Contact: names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers.
- Payment: card numbers, expiration dates, security codes, billing addresses, routing and account numbers.
- Transactional: details of payments and other transactions.
- Contractual: information about products or services we provide to you.
- Locational: geographic data from mobile devices or internet connections.
- Behavioral: usage details for the Service and Site.
- Technical: device, browser, and connection details.
- Communications: information from messages between you and us.
- Public and third-party records: publicly available information and data from credit and fraud-prevention agencies.
- Documentary:passport copies, driver's licenses, photographs, birth certificates, and similar identity documents.
- Consents: permissions and preferences you provide.
How we collect it
- Directly, when you use our products and services or interact with the Site.
- Through cookies and other tracking technology (see the cookie policy).
- Through third parties: business and service partners, vendors, social networks, fraud-prevention agencies, financial-services companies, public information sources, government agencies, and regulatory bodies.
How we use it
We use personal information to deliver the Service, manage our business, communicate with you, prevent fraud, and meet legal obligations. The legal bases include performing a contract with you, complying with a legal duty, your consent, and our legitimate interests in running and improving the business. Specifically:
- Managing customer relationships and the work we're engaged to do.
- Processing payments and managing fees, charges, and collections.
- Improving products, testing new offerings, and managing service-provider relationships.
- Sending newsletters, event invitations, surveys, and marketing communications, where permitted by law and subject to your right to opt out.
- Identifying, investigating, and preventing fraud and money laundering, and complying with regulatory requirements.
- Operating financial management, planning, system testing, governance, and audit functions.
Communications
We may contact you with newsletters and marketing information. You can opt out at any time by following the unsubscribe link or contacting us. Transactional and administrative messages may continue after you opt out of marketing.
Sharing with third parties
We share personal information only with parties that need it to support the Service:
- Agents, partners, and service providers under confidentiality obligations.
- Government agencies and taxing authorities (IRS, federal/state/local tax agencies, regulators).
- Insurance carriers (for benefits administration).
- Banking and financial institutions.
- Parties responding to legal process, subpoenas, or law-enforcement requests.
- Legal and financial advisors and auditors.
- Credit bureaus and fraud-prevention companies.
- Referral-program participants (first names only, where applicable).
- An acquirer or successor in the event of a sale, merger, or liquidation.
- Academic institutions for de-identified research, under confidentiality agreements.
- Public, anonymized, and aggregated reporting that doesn't identify any individual.
- Third parties you or your client expressly authorize.
How long we keep it
We retain personal information while you are a user and for up to ten years after the relationship ends, to respond to questions, demonstrate fair treatment, conduct customer research, and comply with record-keeping rules, including the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds Regulations 2017, which require five-to-ten-year retention.
Security
No method of transmission over the internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. You are a key stakeholder in protecting personal information. If you suspect a breach or have a privacy concern, please tell us right away at legal@hqsimple.com.
International transfer
Personal information we collect may be transferred to and stored in the United States or other jurisdictions where data-protection laws may differ. By consenting to this policy, you agree to that transfer. For EU/EEA/UK and Swiss transfers we rely on Standard Contractual Clauses.
Links to other sites
The Service may link to sites we don't operate. Read those sites' privacy policies; we have no control over, and aren't responsible for, their content, privacy practices, or security.
Children's privacy
We don't knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you learn that a child has provided us with personal information without parental consent, contact us and we will remove it.
California privacy rights (CCPA)
If you are a California resident with an established business relationship with us, you may request notice of personal information shared with third parties for direct marketing. You also have the rights below.
- Right to know:up to twice in any 12-month period, you may request the categories and specific pieces of personal information we've collected, the sources, the purposes, the categories of third parties we shared with, and the categories of information disclosed.
- Right to delete: you may request deletion of personal information we collected, subject to legal exceptions.
- Right to opt out of sale:we don't sell, rent, or use customer or visitor personal data for interest-based advertising. We don't sell or rent personal data of users, customers, or Site visitors.
- Non-discrimination:we won't discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights.
- Do Not Track:we don't currently respond to Do Not Track browser signals.
To submit a request, email legal@hqsimple.com. We may verify your identity before responding, including by matching email addresses or requesting government-issued ID.
EU, EEA, and UK residents (GDPR / DPA)
If you are a resident of the EU/EEA, UK, or Switzerland, the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) and the UK Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) apply. Our EU representative can be reached at legal@hqsimple.com or by mail at: Data Privacy Lead, 11622 El Camino Real, San Diego, CA 92130, United States.
We commit to cooperate with EU and UK data-protection authorities and the Swiss FDPIC regarding HR data transferred in employment contexts. Subject to applicable law, you have some or all of the following rights:
- Obtain copies of your personal information and the basis for processing.
- Rectify inaccurate information.
- Erase information in limited circumstances where it's no longer needed.
- Restrict processing where accuracy is contested, processing is unlawful, or the information is required for legal claims.
- Object to processing justified by legitimate interest.
- Object to solely automated decisions, including profiling.
- Receive portable copies of your information or have it transferred to another controller.
- Information about the safeguards used for transfers outside the EEA.
- Lodge a complaint with a data-protection supervisory authority.
- Withdraw consent to processing at any time.
We may request additional data to confirm identity and may charge fees, decline impractical requests, or decline requests that would jeopardize others' privacy or violate applicable law. We may retain personal information for limited periods for record-keeping, accounting, and fraud prevention.
Changes to this policy
This Privacy Policy is effective January 23, 2023. We may update it at any time and will post material changes here, by email, or by prominent Site notice. Continued use of the Service after a change means you accept the updated policy.
Contact
Questions or concerns about privacy? legal@hqsimple.com