Privacy Policy

LawyersList is operated by Synmek, which is responsible for the personal information collected through LawyersList (lawyerslist.ca). We handle personal information in line with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and applicable provincial privacy laws. These include Québec's Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector (as amended by Law 25), and the private-sector privacy laws of Alberta and British Columbia.

Our Privacy Officer is responsible for our compliance with this policy and with privacy law. You can reach them at hello@lawyerslist.ca (subject line “Privacy”). By mail: Privacy Officer, Synmek, 100 King St West. Suite 5600 Toronto, ON M5X 2A1.

If you browse the directory

• Profile activity counts. When a profile is viewed, or someone clicks a lawyer's phone number, email or website, we record that event against the lawyer's profile so we can show them how their listing is doing. These records contain no information that identifies you: no name, no IP address and no cookie identifier.
• Technical information. Like most websites, our hosting provider automatically processes your IP address, browser and device type, and the pages you request, to deliver the site, keep it secure and fix problems. These logs are kept for a short time.
• We do not use advertising cookies, cross-site tracking, or third-party analytics on LawyersList.

If you contact a lawyer

We collect your name, email address, optional phone number, the practice area you choose and your message. We send these to the lawyer you chose, and store them so the lawyer can read them in their dashboard. We also email you a copy for your records.

If you leave a review

We collect:

• the name you want shown, your email address, your rating and the review text;
• your confirmation that the review is genuine;
• a one-way, keyed hash of your IP address. We use it only to detect fake or duplicate reviews; it cannot be turned back into your IP address.

Your email address is used to confirm the review and to tell you whether it was published. It is not shown publicly.

If you create an account or manage a listing

• Account information: your email address and password. Passwords are stored only as a secure hash by our authentication provider, and we never see them. If you sign in with Google, we receive your name, email address and profile picture from Google.
• Listing information: what you add to a lawyer or firm profile, such as:
  • name, photo, logo and cover images;
  • law society, year of call and licence details;
  • practice areas, languages, education, biography and fees;
  • office addresses, business phone, email and website, and any linked Google Business Profile.
• Claim and verification information: to confirm you are entitled to manage a listing, we may collect your name, role, phone number, law society number and a message, send a code to an address on your website's domain, and check your website for our badge.
• Firm information: for firm pages, the firm's details, the lawyers invited or listed under the firm, and seat assignments.
• Billing information: your plan, billing status, invoice amounts and Stripe customer reference. Card details are collected and stored by Stripe, not by us; we see only the card brand, its last four digits and its expiry date.
• Email preferences and history: which optional emails you receive, unsubscribe requests, and a record of the emails we sent you and whether they were delivered.

Lawyers who have not signed up

We may list lawyers and firms using publicly available professional information, such as public law society directories and firm websites. This is limited to professional details: name, firm, office location, practice areas, and business contact details and website. We use it to give the public a complete directory. We may also send one email to a published business address inviting the lawyer or firm to claim the listing. If this is you, you can claim the listing, correct it, opt out of emails or ask us to remove it at hello@lawyerslist.ca.

If you subscribe to our newsletter or contact us

We collect your email address and your confirmation of the subscription. If you email us, we keep the correspondence so that we can help you.

We use personal information only for purposes a reasonable person would expect, and that we explain here:

• to run the directory and publish listings, firm pages and approved reviews;
• to deliver your messages to lawyers, and send you a copy;
• to create and secure accounts, send sign-in codes and security notices, and prevent fraud, spam and fake reviews;
• to confirm listing claims and verification, and to moderate profiles, images and reviews;
• to process subscriptions and payments, send receipts and billing notices, and meet tax and accounting obligations;
• to show listing owners how many views, clicks and messages their listing received, as totals that do not identify visitors;
• to send optional emails you have agreed to, or that CASL otherwise allows (you can unsubscribe at any time);
• to respond to you, provide support, fix problems and improve LawyersList;
• to comply with the law and to protect the rights, safety and property of our users, the public and Synmek.

We do not sell personal information, rent it, or share it for advertising. We do not use it for purposes other than these without your consent, unless the law allows or requires it.

We rely on your consent, which is express where the information is sensitive or the law requires it. For example, we ask before sending optional emails and we ask newsletter subscribers to confirm. Otherwise we rely on consent that is implied by what you choose to do, such as sending a message to a lawyer or publishing a profile. You may withdraw consent at any time, subject to legal or contractual limits, by contacting us or using your email settings. Withdrawing consent may mean we can no longer provide part of the service, such as keeping an account open.

• Published lawyer listings and firm pages, including photos and business contact details, are public and can be found by search engines.
• Approved reviews are public with the display name the reviewer chose, the rating and the text. Reviewers' email addresses are never published.
• Messages to lawyers, account details, claim information, billing information and email addresses of visitors and reviewers are not public.

We share personal information only as described here:

• Lawyers and firms you contact. Your message and contact details go to the lawyer you chose. If the profile is managed by the lawyer's firm, it goes to the contact address the firm set for that profile.
• Firm owners. A firm's account owner can see and manage the lawyers listed under the firm, their seats, and profiles the firm manages.
• Service providers who process information for us, under contracts that require them to protect it and use it only to provide their service to us:
  • Supabase: database, user accounts and sign-in, and image storage;
  • Vercel: website hosting and delivery;
  • Stripe: payments, subscriptions, invoices and fraud prevention;
  • Resend: sending email;
  • Google: “Sign in with Google”, if you use it, and displaying Google reviews for lawyers who link their Google Business Profile.
• Legal reasons. Where the law requires or permits it, for example in response to a court order, a law society or regulator, or to prevent fraud or harm.
• Business transfers. If Synmek is involved in a merger, acquisition or sale of all or part of its business, personal information may be transferred to the other party. It remains protected by this policy, and we will notify you where the law requires it.

Our service providers may store and process personal information outside your province, and outside Canada, including in the United States. Information held outside Canada is subject to the laws of that country, and may be accessible to its courts, law enforcement and national security authorities. Before transferring personal information outside Québec, we assess whether it will receive adequate protection, as Québec law requires, and we use contractual safeguards with our providers.

We keep personal information only as long as we need it for the purposes above, or as long as the law requires:

• Accounts: until you delete your account. When you do, we delete your sign-in details, and your listing is unpublished and kept as an unclaimed listing (see the Terms). Ask us if you want it removed completely.
• Messages to lawyers: kept in the lawyer's inbox while their listing exists, and deleted with the listing.
• Reviews: published reviews are kept while the listing exists, unless removed. Reviews whose email address was never confirmed are deleted automatically after 7 days.
• Billing and tax records: kept for as long as tax law requires, generally six years after the end of the tax year they relate to.
• Unsubscribe and suppression records: kept for as long as needed to honour your choice not to receive emails.
• Technical logs: kept for a short period, normally no more than 30 days, unless needed to investigate a security incident.

When we no longer need personal information, we securely delete it or make it anonymous.

LawyersList uses only the cookies needed for it to work. These are mainly the cookies that keep you signed in and protect your account. We do not use advertising, analytics or social media tracking cookies, so there is no cookie banner to accept.

When you pay through Stripe, or sign in with Google, those services set their own cookies on their pages, for security and fraud prevention, under their own privacy policies. Your browser lets you block or delete cookies, but you will not be able to sign in without the essential ones.

Subject to limited exceptions in the law, you have the right to:

• ask whether we hold personal information about you, access it, and learn how it has been used and shared;
• have inaccurate or incomplete information corrected;
• withdraw your consent;
• ask us to delete your information, or to stop sharing or using it;
• receive information you gave us in a structured, commonly used technological format (data portability);
• be told about, and ask questions about, any decision made about you only by automated means (we do not currently make any).

You can update most account and listing information yourself in your dashboard, and delete your account in your account settings. For anything else, email hello@lawyerslist.ca. We may need to verify your identity first. We respond within 30 days, and tell you if we need longer and why. There is normally no charge.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to:

• the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada;
• in Québec, the Commission d'accès à l'information;
• in Alberta or British Columbia, the Information and Privacy Commissioner of that province.

Every optional email, including tips, reports, summaries, newsletters and invitations to claim a listing, has a one-click unsubscribe link. Account holders can also manage their choices in email settings. We still send essential emails about your account, listing, messages, reviews and billing for as long as you have an account or manage a listing.

We use safeguards that are appropriate to how sensitive the information is. They include:

• encryption in transit (HTTPS) and at rest with our providers;
• hashed passwords and one-time codes;
• database access rules that limit each user to their own data;
• limiting staff access to people who need it, with an audit log of administrative actions;
• keeping card data with Stripe, a PCI DSS Level 1 certified processor.

No system is perfectly secure. If a privacy breach creates a real risk of significant harm, we will notify affected people and the relevant privacy commissioners as the law requires, and keep a record of every breach.

LawyersList is meant for adults. Accounts are only for people aged 18 or older, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16. If you believe a child has given us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

We may update this policy. We will post the new version here with a new effective date. If the changes are significant, we will notify account holders by email before they take effect. If a change means using your information for a new purpose, we will ask for your consent first where the law requires it.

For questions, requests or complaints about privacy, contact our Privacy Officer at hello@lawyerslist.ca.