Privacy Policy

01Who is responsible

Lawyer Consult is operated by Steiner, Kenneth David MD ("we", "us"). This policy covers personal information handled through the App, official website, lawyer and law-firm workspace, and restricted matter-status enquiry service. Contact [email protected] with privacy questions or requests.

Lawyers and firms may separately determine how information is handled for their professional work. Their own privacy notices and legal duties also apply to that processing. This policy does not replace those notices.

02Information we handle

Accounts: email address, internal identifiers, password verification data if you set a password, account status, authentication events, language and region preferences, and the document versions and adult declaration you confirm. Your real name is required before the first consultation. The user-account flow does not request a phone number.

Consultations: participants and relationship records, text, images and PDFs you send, messaging identifiers, and delivery or unread information. Chat messages and attachments are handled through Tencent Cloud International Chat; our application database does not keep a separate chat-content archive.

Professional and matter records: lawyer or firm names, work emails, profiles, photos, practice areas, service regions and roles. The separate matter-status service may handle client names, identity numbers, bound emails, matter references, verification records, progress and recovery amounts supplied by the responsible lawyer or firm. A matter involving a minor may include a minor indicator and guardian name. These are not ordinary App registration fields.

Other information includes reports and descriptions you submit, support correspondence, IP addresses, security and request information, app/SDK device and version information, and notification identifiers when enabled. We record the latest successful login IP and derive its country or region using a local IP database. This is separate from the content region you choose.

03Purposes and your choices

We use information to authenticate accounts, display public directories and cases, connect users with lawyers, deliver communications, verify restricted matter enquiries, send transactional and security emails, manage permissions, handle reports, and maintain service security and audit records. Information is obtained from you, your device, the lawyer or firm providing your service, and providers performing these functions.

You can browse published public content without an App account. Authentication and the requested information are needed for consultations or restricted enquiries; if you do not supply required information, those features may be unavailable. Share only necessary information you are entitled to disclose, especially sensitive information or information about other people.

Processing must have a basis permitted by the applicable law, such as providing a requested service, a legal obligation or valid consent. Acknowledging this policy is not blanket consent. Where a separate consent or notice is required, it must be obtained or provided for that activity. Public profile and anonymised case text may be translated by our privately hosted service; private chats, identity numbers and private matter records are not sent to it for translation.

04Access and service providers

Your selected lawyer can see your name, login email, consultation messages and attachments. Authorised administrators of the relevant firm can review its consultation records. Authorised platform personnel may access records for administration, report handling, security and compliance under permission and audit controls. Consultation access is not limited exclusively to you and the individual lawyer.

Tencent Cloud International Chat handles messaging identities, messages, attachments and messaging/push information. Cloudflare handles website/API delivery and protection, transactional email, and R2 storage of platform assets such as profile photos. Email delivery receives the recipient and necessary email content, not chat histories or identity documents. Hosting providers process application data needed to operate the service.

Push delivery may use Apple Push Notification service or Firebase Cloud Messaging through the Chat integration, depending on the device. Notifications use generic text rather than the consultation body. We may also disclose information where required by law or legally necessary to address security incidents, protect rights or handle disputes, limited to the purpose concerned.

05International processing

Your selected content region does not determine where all data is stored. The Chat application is configured in Singapore. Infrastructure, provider operations, and the lawyer or firm you contact may involve processing elsewhere. The applicable law determines any notice, consent, contractual safeguards or other requirements for those transfers. This policy does not itself replace a separately required transfer consent. Contact us for information about processing relevant to your request.

06Retention and deletion

Account deletion immediately ends access and cannot be undone. The platform schedules personal-data cleanup after seven days, removing or de-identifying the deleted user’s account identity and associated identity fields in report/audit records. This process is separate from provider storage, professional records and backups, and does not mean all copies everywhere disappear within seven days.

The service’s cloud chat-retention policy is seven days from each message or attachment’s sending time. Hiding a conversation or deleting an account does not advance that expiry. The platform does not actively clear the Chat SDK’s local cache; cached messages, downloaded files and recipients’ copies may remain after cloud expiry. Do not use the chat as a permanent archive.

The latest successful login IP/country record uses a 30-day retention window and is included in post-deletion cleanup. Audit records use a one-year window; reports use one year after handling is completed. Professional-account audit fields follow their own audit lifecycle. Entrusted-matter records follow the period configured for their region and are separate from App deletion; ask the responsible firm or our contact for the period relevant to your matter.

Database backups are retained separately. Existing copies are not individually rewritten upon account deletion. At present, backups have no automatic expiry and remain until manually removed; no fixed backup-erasure deadline is promised here. Other authentication, operational, support and provider records depend on their purpose and applicable retention obligations. Contact us for the categories and periods relevant to a deletion request. Any retention must remain subject to applicable law.

07Your rights and account deletion

In the App account area, choose “Delete account” and complete email verification and confirmation. Uninstalling the App or hiding a conversation does not delete the account. Signing up again creates a new account and does not restore the previous consultations.

You can also contact [email protected] to request account deletion or exercise applicable rights of access, correction, deletion, restriction, objection, a copy of information or withdrawal of consent. Include the account email, relevant country/region and a description of your request. Do not send passwords or verification codes. Proportionate identity verification may be required. We will handle requests and explain lawful limitations within applicable legal time limits. You may complain to the appropriate authority.

08Permissions, storage and security

The App uses system photo/file selection and may request camera access when you choose to take a photo. Notifications depend on your device permission; refusing them does not prevent in-app unread indicators. Content-region selection uses system locale and your choice, not GPS permission.

Professional web applications use essential authentication cookies. The official website can store your language preference locally; legal-page country and language selections are included in the link for sharing. Network delivery and security providers may process request information. We use encrypted network connections, access controls and audit records; these do not imply end-to-end encrypted chat or encryption of every stored copy. No system guarantees absolute security.

09Age limits and policy changes

App registration and consultations are limited to people aged 18 or over. Separately recorded matters may concern minors and their guardians. Contact us if a child has created an App account or information has been submitted improperly. Updated versions identify their revision date; changes requiring renewed acknowledgement or consent will be presented in the relevant flow. Your mandatory legal rights are not reduced by an update.