1. Who we are
This Privacy Policy is published by Breton Law, APC ("Breton Law," "we," "us," or "our"), a California professional corporation with its principal office at 8880 Rio San Diego Drive, Suite 800, San Diego, CA 92108.
Breton Law is an immigration law practice. The firm is led by attorney Ivanne Tonnessen, who is licensed to practice law in California; license status is verifiable on the State Bar of California website at calbar.ca.gov.
This policy applies to information collected through the website at www.bretonlaw.com (the "Site"). For questions about this policy or to exercise the choices described in Section 10, see Section 16 (How to contact us).
2. Scope and no attorney-client relationship
This policy covers personal information we collect through the Site. It does not cover information you give us after we have agreed in writing to represent you, which is governed by the rules of professional conduct and your engagement agreement with the firm.
Submitting information through this Site does not create an attorney-client relationship. An attorney-client relationship with Breton Law is formed only by a signed written engagement agreement. Please do not send confidential, time-sensitive, or privileged information through the contact form or by email until that relationship is established. We cannot promise that information sent before engagement is confidential or that the firm will be free of conflicts that prevent us from representing you.
3. Categories of personal information we collect
The categories below follow the framework used by the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (together, "CCPA/CPRA"), so visitors familiar with California privacy rights can match what we collect to those categories.
- Identifiers and contact information.
- When you use the contact form, we collect the name, email address, and (optionally) phone number you provide.
- Communications you send us.
- The contact form includes a free-text field that invites you to briefly describe your situation. Any information you choose to include there is collected when you submit the form. The form also records the language you prefer to be contacted in, if you select one.
- Internet or other electronic network activity.
- Our hosting provider automatically receives basic technical information when your browser loads a page, such as IP address, browser type, the page requested, and the date and time of the request. This information is used to deliver the Site and to protect it from abuse. We do not combine this information with the contact-form fields above unless necessary to investigate a security incident.
- Inferences.
- We do not draw inferences from the information collected through the Site to build a profile of you.
We do not collect: government identifiers (such as Social Security or A-Numbers) through the Site; biometric information; precise geolocation; payment-card information; account login credentials; or audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory, or similar information.
4. Where the information comes from
We collect personal information from two sources:
- Directly from you when you fill out the contact form, email us, or call us using the contact information shown on the Site.
- Automatically from your device when you visit the Site (the basic technical information described in Section 3).
5. How we use the information
We use the personal information collected through the Site only for the following purposes:
- To respond to your inquiry, evaluate whether the firm can assist with the matter you describe, and communicate with you about a possible engagement.
- To check for conflicts of interest before any engagement, as required by the California Rules of Professional Conduct.
- To operate, secure, and improve the Site, including detecting and preventing fraud, abuse, or technical problems.
- To comply with legal obligations and to defend our legal rights.
We do not use information collected through the Site for advertising, profiling, or automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects.
6. Who receives the information
We share personal information only as described here:
- Hosting and form processing — Netlify.
- The Site is hosted by Netlify, Inc. Contact-form submissions are processed and stored by Netlify Forms on our behalf and then forwarded to our firm email address. Netlify acts as a service provider to Breton Law under Netlify's Data Processing Addendum, which Netlify incorporates by reference into its standard terms of service and which applies to all Netlify customers (current version published here). That Addendum contractually limits Netlify to processing the information for our purposes.
- Embedded map — Google.
- Our Contact page embeds a Google Maps view showing the office location. When that page loads, your browser makes a request to Google, which may set its own cookies and receive your IP address and other technical information as described in Google's privacy policy. The embed uses a restrictive referrer policy to limit what is shared with Google. We do not control how Google handles the data sent by your browser.
- Professional and legal recipients.
- If we are required to disclose information to comply with a subpoena, court order, or other lawful process, or to enforce our rights, we may do so to the extent required by law. Information you provide to retain the firm as your attorney is, after engagement, protected by attorney-client privilege and the duty of confidentiality, and is not "shared" within the meaning of this policy.
We do not provide personal information to advertising networks, data brokers, or analytics vendors. The Site loads no analytics, no advertising pixels, and no third-party tracking scripts.
7. We do not sell or share personal information
Breton Law does not sell personal information, and does not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, as those terms are defined under California law. We have not done so in the preceding twelve months and have no current plans to do so.
8. Sensitive personal information
Our intake form does not ask for sensitive personal information. However, immigration matters are sensitive by nature, and the free-text "situation" field on the contact form lets you tell us about your circumstances in your own words. People often choose to mention things like immigration status, national origin, family relationships, or prior contact with law enforcement. Categories of that kind are treated as sensitive personal information under California law.
We use information of this kind only for the purposes described in Section 5 (responding to your inquiry, evaluating a possible engagement, and conflicts checking). We do not use it to infer characteristics about you, and we do not disclose it except as described in Section 6.
You are not required to include sensitive information to contact the firm. A short message with your name and the general subject of your inquiry is sufficient to start a conversation, and we can collect any further details by phone or in a confidential setting.
9. How long we keep the information
We keep personal information for as long as needed for the purposes described in this policy, and then delete it. Information you submit through the contact form is kept in our firm email and in our Netlify Forms account while we evaluate your inquiry and, if we are engaged, for the duration of representation and a reasonable period afterward, consistent with our professional and record-keeping obligations as a California law firm.
You may ask us at any time to delete information you have sent through the Site; see Section 10.
10. Your privacy choices and California rights
California law gives consumers certain rights regarding personal information that businesses collect about them. Breton Law is a small professional corporation and does not meet the revenue, volume, or selling-of-data thresholds that make a business formally subject to the CCPA/CPRA. Even so, the firm honors the following choices for personal information collected through the Site as a matter of practice:
- Right to know. You may ask us to tell you what categories of personal information we have collected about you through the Site, where we got it, why we collected it, and to whom (if anyone) we disclosed it.
- Right to access a copy. You may ask for a copy of the specific pieces of personal information you submitted through the Site.
- Right to correct. You may ask us to correct inaccurate information about you that we hold.
- Right to delete. You may ask us to delete personal information you submitted through the Site, subject to exceptions that allow a law firm to retain information needed to perform a contract with you, comply with legal obligations, maintain records required by professional rules, or exercise or defend legal claims.
- Right to limit use of sensitive personal information. Because we use sensitive personal information only for the limited, purpose-necessary uses described in Section 8, no separate request is required to limit its use.
- Right to non-discrimination. We will not deny you services, charge you a different price, or provide a different quality of service because you exercised a privacy choice described here.
- Authorized agent. You may use an authorized agent to submit a request on your behalf. We may ask the agent to provide written authorization and verify your identity.
How to make a request. Use either of these methods, and tell us which choice you are exercising:
- Email ivanne@breton-law.com with the subject line "Privacy Request."
- Mail a letter to: Privacy Request, Breton Law, APC, 8880 Rio San Diego Drive, Suite 800, San Diego, CA 92108.
So that we can respond accurately, please describe what you would like us to do and provide enough information for us to locate your records (for example, the email address or name used when you contacted us, and approximately when). We will verify your identity in a manner proportionate to the sensitivity of the request, and we aim to respond within forty-five (45) days. If we need more time, we will tell you why.
12. Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control
Because the Site does not sell or share personal information and does not load advertising or tracking technologies, there is no advertising-related processing to opt out of. We do not respond differently based on Do-Not-Track or Global Privacy Control signals because we are not engaging in the activities those signals are designed to limit. If that changes in the future, this policy will be updated and the firm will honor those signals as the law requires.
13. Children's privacy
The Site is intended for adults and is not directed to children under thirteen (13). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under thirteen through the Site, and we do not knowingly sell or share personal information of consumers under sixteen. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has submitted information through the Site, please contact us using the methods in Section 16 and we will delete the information.
Adults frequently contact the firm about immigration matters that involve children (for example, sponsoring a child relative or seeking humanitarian protection for a minor). When an adult provides information about a child in that context, we handle it as part of the inquiry described in Section 5.
14. Security
We use reasonable administrative and technical measures designed to protect personal information collected through the Site, including transport encryption (HTTPS) for the Site and for form submissions, and access controls on our firm email and our Netlify Forms account. No method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. For confidential or time-sensitive matters, please contact the firm by phone or after a written engagement is in place.
15. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The "Effective" and "Last updated" dates at the top of the page show when the current version took effect. If we make a material change, we will update those dates and, where appropriate, post a notice on the Site.
16. How to contact us
For questions about this Privacy Policy or to exercise a choice described in Section 10:
- Email: ivanne@breton-law.com
- Phone: (619) 302-0362
- Mail: Breton Law, APC, 8880 Rio San Diego Drive, Suite 800, San Diego, CA 92108