Privacy policy and data protection notice

1. Introduction

PetitionIQ (“PetitionIQ,” “we,” “our,” or “us”) is a Texas-based immigration legal-technology and case-preparation platform. PetitionIQ provides technology-enabled profile evaluation, workflow support, educational resources, and administrative case-preparation support. This Privacy Policy explains how PetitionIQ collects, uses, discloses, retains, and protects personal information through its public website, evaluation tools, inquiry forms, scheduling tools, communications, and related services (collectively, the “Services”). It also explains how information is handled when a user is referred to or engages an attorney.

PetitionIQ is not a law firm and does not independently provide legal advice, legal representation, legal opinions, or immigration legal services. PetitionIQ does not represent users before USCIS, the U.S. Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Labor, immigration courts, or any other governmental authority. Any legal advice or legal representation is provided solely by a separately engaged, independently licensed attorney or law firm.

Use of the Services, submission of information, receipt of an evaluation, communication with PetitionIQ personnel, or referral to an attorney does not create an attorney-client relationship between the user and PetitionIQ, its founders, officers, employees, contractors, affiliates, or representatives

2. Scope and business information

This Policy applies only to information controlled by PetitionIQ through the Services. It does not govern information collected, maintained, or processed by an attorney or law firm, or through a third-party case-management, document-storage, payment, scheduling, communications, or client-portal system selected by an attorney or another service provider.

Those parties may maintain their own privacy practices, contractual obligations, and legal or professional responsibilities.

Where PetitionIQ processes information on behalf of an attorney or law firm, the purposes and permitted scope of such processing may additionally be governed by a separate agreement between PetitionIQ and the applicable attorney or law firm.

3. Information we collect

Depending on how you use the Services, PetitionIQ may collect the following categories of information:

Contact and identity information: Name, email address, telephone number, mailing address, professional title, employer, and similar contact details.

Professional profile and evaluation information: Education, employment history, professional field, publications, citations, patents, awards, memberships, judging activity, media coverage, leadership roles, compensation information, proposed endeavor, visa category interests, and other information relevant to an immigration profile evaluation.

User-submitted content and materials: Resumes, professional documents, publications, supporting materials, evidence, correspondence, photographs, records, and other materials voluntarily submitted or uploaded through the Services.

Immigration-related information: General visa or immigration history and case-stage information that you voluntarily provide for evaluation, scheduling, or consultation purposes. Public forms should not be used to submit full passport numbers, Social Security numbers, alien registration numbers, financial account details, medical records, or other highly sensitive identifiers unless specifically requested through a secure channel designated by an engaged attorney.

Communications: Emails, form submissions, messages, consultation scheduling information, feedback, and customer-support communications.

Transaction information: Purchase, invoice, billing, and payment-status information. Payment card or bank information is generally processed directly by third-party payment providers and is subject to their privacy policies.

Technical and usage information: IP address, browser type, device information, operating system, referring pages, pages viewed, timestamps, cookie identifiers, analytics events, error logs, and security logs.

Publicly available information: Information available through professional profiles, publications, conference websites, employer websites, government records, or other lawful public sources when relevant to an evaluation or service request.

Derived or evaluation information: Information generated or derived from information submitted through the Services, such as evaluation results, evidentiary categories, profile indicators, readiness assessments, or other analytical outputs.

User-Provided Materials and Verification: Users are responsible for ensuring that information and materials they provide to PetitionIQ are accurate, complete, current, authentic, and lawfully provided. Unless PetitionIQ expressly agrees in writing to perform a particular verification service, PetitionIQ does not independently verify the authenticity, accuracy, completeness, ownership, or legal sufficiency of every document, credential, publication, award, employment record, representation, or other material submitted by a user or obtained from a third party.

4. How we collect information

Directly from you: When you submit an inquiry, complete an evaluation, schedule a consultation, purchase a service, communicate with us, or otherwise use the Services.

Automatically: Through cookies, analytics tools, server logs, security tools, and similar technologies when you access the website.

From third parties: From referral sources, attorneys or law firms, payment processors, scheduling providers, professional contacts, service providers, or public sources, where permitted by law and relevant to the requested service.

Information obtained from third-party or publicly available sources may be incomplete, outdated, inaccurate, or incorrectly attributed. PetitionIQ does not represent that information obtained from such sources is necessarily accurate, complete, current, or authentic.

5. How we use personal information

PetitionIQ may use personal information to:

Provide and operate the Services: Process inquiries, generate profile evaluations, schedule consultations, provide educational resources, and support service delivery.

Facilitate attorney connections: Share information with an attorney or law firm when you request a consultation, consent to a referral, or proceed to an attorney-led legal engagement.

Support attorney-directed workflows: Where PetitionIQ provides administrative or technology support under an attorney’s direction, process limited information as instructed by the attorney and subject to applicable contractual safeguards.

Communicate with you: Respond to questions, send service notices, appointment reminders, evaluation results, administrative updates, and support messages.

Process payments: Confirm transactions, maintain billing records, prevent fraud, and resolve payment issues.

Improve and secure the Services: Perform analytics, troubleshoot errors, test features, maintain quality, prevent misuse, detect security incidents, and improve user experience.

Data security and integrity: Detect, prevent, investigate, and respond to fraud, unauthorized access, security incidents, misuse of the Services, or other threats affecting PetitionIQ, its users, systems, personnel, or third parties.

Business administration: Maintain appropriate business records, administer accounts and transactions, resolve disputes, enforce applicable agreements, and manage PetitionIQ’s business operations.

Comply with legal obligations: Respond to lawful requests, enforce agreements, protect rights and safety, maintain required records, and comply with applicable law.

Send marketing communications: Send educational or promotional communications where permitted. You may unsubscribe at any time using the link in the message or by contacting us.

PetitionIQ will not use personal information for a materially different, unrelated, or incompatible purpose without appropriate notice and, where required, consent.

6. Automated and AI-assisted evaluations

PetitionIQ uses automated and AI-assisted tools to organize user-provided information, identify potential evidentiary strengths and gaps, and produce preliminary readiness or profile evaluations. These tools may use rules, scoring frameworks, machine-learning systems, or generative artificial intelligence.

Such tools may also involve automated data extraction, classification, summarization, matching, scoring, or other analytical processing of information submitted through the Services.

Automated outputs are informational and preliminary. They are not legal advice, do not create an attorney-client relationship, do not determine eligibility, and do not predict or guarantee any action by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the U.S. Department of State, or any other agency. Outputs may be incomplete, inaccurate, or affected by missing or incorrect information.

AI-assisted and automated systems may produce inaccurate, incomplete, outdated, inconsistent, or erroneous information, including incorrect classifications, summaries, recommendations, extracted information, or other outputs. Such systems may also generate information that appears plausible but is incorrect.

The accuracy of an automated output may be affected by incomplete, inaccurate, ambiguous, outdated, or misleading information provided by a user or obtained from another source.

PetitionIQ does not represent that any automated or AI-assisted output is accurate, complete, current, or free from errors, and users should independently review material information before relying upon, sharing, or submitting such information.

PetitionIQ may use third-party technology providers to support AI-assisted processing and related functionality. Where applicable, such processing will be subject to the provider’s applicable terms, privacy practices, contractual arrangements, and safeguards.

PetitionIQ does not intend to use automated evaluation results to make a decision that produces legal or similarly significant effects. Where available, you may request clarification or human review by contacting info@petitioniq.ai.

7. Attorney-controlled case data and third-party platforms

PetitionIQ does not operate a proprietary client portal. Once a user engages an attorney or law firm, case documents, privileged communications, legal work product, filing records, and other client-file materials are generally collected, stored, and managed by the attorney or law firm through systems selected by that attorney.

Third-party platforms may include case-management systems, document-storage services, electronic-signature providers, email or collaboration systems, scheduling tools, video-conferencing services, and payment processors. Each platform is governed by its own terms, privacy policy, security practices, and data-retention rules. PetitionIQ does not control those systems and is not responsible for their independent privacy or security practices.

If PetitionIQ receives limited access to information while supporting an attorney-directed workflow, the attorney remains responsible for the legal representation, client-file management, confidentiality obligations, and decisions regarding retention or disclosure. PetitionIQ will process such information only for the authorized support purpose and according to the applicable agreement.

Where PetitionIQ processes personal information on behalf of an attorney or law firm, the applicable agreement may establish the permitted purposes, categories of information, access controls, security requirements, retention requirements, and other requirements applicable to such processing.

PetitionIQ does not independently determine the legal purposes for which an attorney or law firm processes information in connection with an attorney-client relationship.

8. How we share personal information

PetitionIQ may disclose personal information to the following categories of recipients:

Attorneys and law firms: When you request an attorney consultation, authorize a referral, engage counsel, or when disclosure is necessary to support an attorney-directed workflow.

Service providers: Providers of hosting, website analytics, email delivery, customer relationship management, scheduling, communications, payment processing, cybersecurity, and technical support.

Professional and referral partners: Only where relevant to your request and with notice or consent as required. Service providers may also include providers supporting cloud infrastructure, data storage, AI-assisted processing, document processing, fraud prevention, security monitoring, customer support, and other functions necessary to operate the Services.

Legal and safety recipients: Government authorities, regulators, courts, law enforcement, or other parties when required by law or reasonably necessary to protect rights, safety, security, or prevent fraud.

Business transaction recipients: Potential or actual purchasers, investors, lenders, or successors in connection with a merger, financing, acquisition, reorganization, or sale, subject to appropriate confidentiality protections.

PetitionIQ may also disclose personal information where reasonably necessary to detect, prevent, investigate, or address suspected fraud, unlawful activity, security incidents, unauthorized access, misuse of the Services, or threats to PetitionIQ, its users, personnel, systems, property, or third parties.

Where PetitionIQ engages a service provider to process personal information on its behalf, PetitionIQ may establish appropriate contractual, technical, or organizational safeguards governing such processing where required by applicable law.

As of the Effective Date, PetitionIQ does not sell personal data as that term is defined by the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act, and does not process personal data for targeted advertising unless that practice is clearly disclosed and an applicable opt-out mechanism is provided.

9. Cookies and similar technologies

PetitionIQ may use cookies and similar technologies to operate the website, maintain security, remember preferences, understand usage, improve performance, and support communications or marketing. These technologies may include:

Essential technologies: Required for website operation, fraud prevention, security, and core functionality.

Analytics technologies: Used to measure traffic, engagement, performance, and user experience.

Functional technologies: Used to remember settings and improve convenience.

Marketing technologies: Used only where enabled and permitted to evaluate outreach or deliver relevant communications.

You may manage cookies through your browser settings and, where available, the website’s cookie controls. Disabling certain cookies may affect website functionality. PetitionIQ does not currently respond to browser-initiated “Do Not Track” signals unless required by law.

10. Data retention

PetitionIQ retains personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Policy, including to provide the Services, maintain business and transaction records, resolve disputes, enforce agreements, comply with legal obligations, and protect security. Retention periods vary based on the nature of the information and the reason it was collected.

• Inquiry and contact records: Generally retained while the inquiry is active and for a reasonable period afterward for follow-up, recordkeeping, and legal compliance.
• Evaluation records: Retained for the period reasonably necessary to provide, review, improve, or document the evaluation, unless deletion is requested and no legal exception applies.
• Transaction records: Retained as required for accounting, tax, fraud-prevention, and legal purposes.
• Technical logs and analytics: Retained according to operational, security, and provider-specific schedules.

Attorney-client files and legal work product are retained according to the engaged attorney’s policies and applicable professional obligations, not this Policy.

Personal information may remain temporarily in backup, archival, disaster-recovery, security, fraud-prevention, or legal-hold systems after deletion from active systems where retention is reasonably necessary or legally required.

When personal information is no longer required to be retained, PetitionIQ may delete, anonymize, or otherwise dispose of the information in accordance with applicable law and its applicable retention practices.

11. Security and breach response

PetitionIQ uses reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards appropriate to the nature of the information it controls. These may include access restrictions, authentication controls, encryption in transit, vendor review, secure configuration, logging, staff confidentiality practices, and incident-response procedures.

PetitionIQ seeks to limit access to personal information to personnel, contractors, and service providers who have a legitimate business need to access such information.

PetitionIQ may periodically evaluate and update its safeguards based on changes in technology, business operations, applicable law, and reasonably anticipated security risks.

No website, transmission, or storage system is completely secure. PetitionIQ cannot guarantee absolute security. If PetitionIQ discovers a breach involving personal information under its control, it will investigate and provide notices required by applicable law. Under Texas law, certain breaches affecting Texas residents must be reported to affected individuals, and breaches affecting at least 250 Texans must be reported to the Texas Attorney General as soon as practicable and no later than 30 days after discovery.

12. Your privacy rights

Depending on where you reside and whether a particular law applies, you may have rights regarding your personal information. Under the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act, eligible Texas consumers may have the right to:

Access: Confirm whether PetitionIQ processes your personal data and obtain access to that data.

Correction: Correct inaccuracies in your personal data, taking into account the nature and purpose of the processing.

Deletion: Request deletion of personal data provided by or obtained about you, subject to legal exceptions.

Portability: Obtain a portable and, where technically feasible, readily usable copy of personal data you previously provided.

Opt out: Opt out of targeted advertising, the sale of personal data, or profiling in furtherance of decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects, where applicable.

To submit a request, email info@petitioniq.ai and describe the request. PetitionIQ may verify your identity and may request additional information reasonably necessary to process the request. Where the TDPSA applies, PetitionIQ will respond without undue delay and generally within 45 days, subject to permitted extensions and exceptions.

PetitionIQ may decline or limit a request where permitted or required by applicable law, including where fulfilling the request would adversely affect the rights of another person, compromise security, interfere with legal obligations, or require disclosure of information that PetitionIQ is not legally permitted to disclose.

If a request is denied, you may appeal by emailing info@petitioniq.ai with the subject line “Privacy Appeal.” PetitionIQ will review and respond as required by applicable law. You will not be discriminated against for exercising an applicable privacy right.

13. Sensitive information

Immigration matters can involve highly sensitive information. Do not submit Social Security numbers, full passport or visa numbers, alien registration numbers, financial account numbers, medical records, tax returns, birth certificates, or similar documents through public website forms or ordinary email unless specifically instructed. When such information is required for legal representation, provide it only through the secure method designated by the engaged attorney.

PetitionIQ does not require users to provide sensitive identifiers through public forms where such information is not necessary for the requested Service.

Users should follow PetitionIQ’s instructions regarding the appropriate method for submitting sensitive information and should avoid transmitting sensitive information through unsecured or unauthorized channels.

14. Children’s privacy

The Services are not directed to children under 13, and PetitionIQ does not knowingly collect personal information directly from children under 13 through the public website. Information relating to minor dependents may be handled by an engaged attorney when necessary for a legal matter. If you believe a child has submitted information directly to PetitionIQ without appropriate authorization, contact info@petitioniq.ai.

15. International users

PetitionIQ is based in the United States. If you access the Services from outside the United States, your information may be transferred to, stored in, and processed in the United States or in other countries where service providers operate. Data-protection laws in those jurisdictions may differ from the laws where you reside.

Personal information may also be processed by service providers located in jurisdictions other than the jurisdiction in which the information was originally collected.

16. Third-party links and services

The Services may link to websites, attorney platforms, payment providers, scheduling systems, social networks, or other third-party services. PetitionIQ does not control and is not responsible for the content, security, or privacy practices of those third parties. Review their terms and privacy policies before providing information.

Third-party services may independently collect or process information according to their own privacy policies and terms.

Where PetitionIQ directs or authorizes a service provider to process information on PetitionIQ’s behalf, PetitionIQ may establish appropriate contractual or other safeguards governing such processing where required by applicable law.

17. Changes to this policy

PetitionIQ may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in law, technology, services, or business practices. The revised Policy will be posted with a new “Last Updated” date. If changes are material, PetitionIQ may provide additional notice through the website, email, or another appropriate method.

18. Contact us

Questions, requests, or concerns about this Privacy Policy may be directed to:

Legal Notice: This Privacy Policy describes PetitionIQ’s information practices and is not legal advice. Attorney and third-party systems are governed by their own agreements, professional obligations, and privacy policies.