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Privacy Policy

Who We Are

Ross & Associates operates https://accountantsierramadre.com/, providing professional accounting, tax preparation, and financial services. Your privacy is important to us, and this policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your personal information.

Information We Collect

  1. Comments & User Submissions

When visitors leave comments on our site, we collect the data provided in the comment form, including:
✔️ Name & email address (if provided)
✔️ Visitor IP address & browser user agent (for spam detection)

To improve security, an anonymized string (hash) created from your email address may be sent to the Gravatar service to verify if you use it. You can review the Gravatar Privacy Policy here. Once your comment is approved, your profile picture will be publicly visible alongside your comment.

  1. Media Uploads

If you upload images to our website, we recommend removing embedded location data (EXIF GPS) to prevent visitors from extracting your location details from the images.

  1. Cookies & Tracking Technologies

Our website may store cookies to enhance your user experience.

✔️ Comment Cookies – If you leave a comment, we store your name, email, and website in cookies for convenience. These last for one year.
✔️ Login Cookies – If you log in, cookies will store your login session for two days (or two weeks if “Remember Me” is checked). Logging out removes these cookies.
✔️ Article Editing Cookies – If you edit/publish an article, a temporary cookie stores the post ID and expires after one day.
✔️ Session Cookies – A temporary cookie is set when visiting the login page to check if your browser accepts cookies. It is deleted when you close your browser.

You can modify your browser settings to refuse cookies, but doing so may affect site functionality.

Embedded Content from Other Websites

Our website may feature embedded content (e.g., videos, articles, images) from external websites such as YouTube, social media platforms, and financial resources.

📌 Embedded content behaves as if you visited the other website directly. These third-party sites may collect data, track user behavior, and use additional cookies. We recommend reviewing their privacy policies for more details.

Who We Share Your Data With

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties. However, we may share data in the following circumstances:

✔️ Password Resets – If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the email.
✔️ Spam Detection – Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service to prevent fraudulent activity.
✔️ Legal Compliance – If required by law, we may disclose personal data to comply with legal obligations, enforce our policies, or protect rights and safety.

How Long We Retain Your Data

✔️ Comments – Stored indefinitely for spam detection and user recognition.
✔️ User Accounts – Registered users can see, edit, or delete their personal data anytime (except usernames). Website administrators also have access to edit user profiles.

Your Data Rights

If you have an account or have left comments on our site, you have the right to:

🔹 Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
🔹 Request that we delete any personal data (except where retention is required for administrative, legal, or security purposes).

To submit a data request, please contact us at (626) 357-9703 or email [email protected].

Where Your Data is Sent

✔️ Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service to enhance website security.
✔️ Data may be stored securely on our web hosting provider’s servers, following industry best practices.

How We Protect Your Data

We implement strict security measures to safeguard personal information, including:

✔️ SSL Encryption – Secure transmission of user data.
✔️ Access Control – Restricted access to authorized personnel only.
✔️ Regular Security Audits – Continuous monitoring for vulnerabilities.

However, no method of internet transmission is 100% secure, and we encourage users to use strong passwords and take additional precautions.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this policy as needed to reflect legal changes or improve transparency. The latest version will always be available on this page.

📅 Last Updated: [Insert Date]

Contact Us

If you have any questions regarding this privacy policy, please contact us:

📍 Ross & Associates
California Office: 120 S Baldwin Ave, Sierra Madre, CA 91024
📞 Phone: (626) 357-9703
📧 Email: [email protected]

🔹 Website: https://accountantsierramadre.com/