Public Shield protects people whose safety and privacy matter. We apply the same discretion to the information you share with us through this Website. This policy describes what we collect, why, and the choices you have.
Introduction and Scope
This Privacy Policy explains how Public Shield, Inc. (“Public Shield,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, shares, and protects information when you visit our website at https://publicshield.com (the “Website”) or contact us through it, including by submitting a request for a confidential briefing.
This Privacy Policy applies only to the Website. Public Shield products and services, including the LTE panic button, the Public Shield Black app, the client portal, and our monitoring and response services, are governed by separate service agreements and privacy notices that we provide to clients at onboarding. If there is a conflict between this Privacy Policy and those documents with respect to our products or services, those documents control.
By using the Website, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with it, please do not use the Website.
Information We Collect
Information you provide to us
When you use the “Request a Confidential Briefing” form, we collect the information you choose to provide:
- your full name and email address (required);
- your phone number and your organization or title (optional);
- who the protection is for, such as yourself, an executive or principal, a public official, your family, or a security or protection team (required); and
- any message you include, such as travel schedules, team size, or current security arrangements (optional).
If you email us directly, we collect your email address and the contents of your message. Please do not include more sensitive detail in a briefing request than you need to; a specialist can collect further information through a secure channel once we are in contact.
Information collected automatically
When you visit the Website, we and our service providers automatically collect:
- Technical and log data, such as your IP address, the date and time of your request, the pages or resources requested, referring URL, and response status. Our servers and hosting infrastructure record this information in server logs, and we use your IP address for security, rate limiting, and abuse prevention.
- Device and browser data, such as browser type and version, operating system, device type, screen size, and language settings.
- Usage and analytics data collected through Google Analytics 4, such as page views, sessions, approximate location derived from your IP address, and interactions with the Website, including which sections you view, which calls to action you click, and whether you start or submit the briefing form.
Information from bot protection
The briefing form is protected by hCaptcha, a service that helps us confirm that submissions come from a person and not an automated program. To do this, hCaptcha collects information about your device and your interactions with the form and the hCaptcha challenge, and returns a verification result to us. hCaptcha’s collection and use of that information is governed by the hCaptcha Privacy Policy and hCaptcha Terms of Service.
How We Use Information
We use the information described above to:
- respond to your briefing request, contact you, and discuss whether and how our services may meet your needs;
- operate, maintain, and improve the Website and understand how visitors use it;
- protect the Website, our clients, and our team, including by detecting and preventing spam, fraud, automated abuse, and security incidents, and by enforcing rate limits;
- comply with applicable laws, regulations, and legal process, and establish, exercise, or defend legal claims;
- enforce our Terms & Conditions; and
- carry out any other purpose that we describe to you at the time we collect the information, or with your consent.
We do not use information collected through the Website to make decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects about you based solely on automated processing.
Legal Bases and Purposes of Processing
We process personal information only for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. Where a legal basis is required, we rely on:
- Steps at your request before entering into a contract, when we respond to a briefing request and discuss a potential engagement;
- Our legitimate interests in operating a secure and reliable Website, preventing abuse, understanding how the Website is used, and communicating with prospective clients, balanced against your rights and interests;
- Compliance with legal obligations, when we must retain or disclose information under applicable law; and
- Your consent, where applicable law requires it. You may withdraw consent at any time without affecting processing that took place before you withdrew it.
Data Retention
We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law. In general:
- briefing requests are kept for as long as needed to respond to you, evaluate and manage a potential engagement, and maintain appropriate business records;
- IP addresses used for rate limiting are held only briefly, and server and security logs are retained for a limited period for security, troubleshooting, and abuse prevention; and
- analytics data is retained in accordance with our Google Analytics data retention settings.
When information is no longer needed, we delete it or de-identify it so that it can no longer reasonably be associated with you.
Data Security
Discretion is central to what we do, and we use administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information. For example:
- the Website is served exclusively over encrypted connections (TLS);
- briefing form submissions are additionally encrypted in your browser before they are sent, so the contents travel as an end-to-end encrypted payload that only our servers can decrypt;
- the form is protected by CSRF tokens, bot protection, and rate limiting; and
- submissions are stored securely in our hosting environment on Amazon Web Services and delivered to our team by email, with access limited to personnel who need it.
No method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure, please contact us at support@publicshield.com.
Your Choices and Rights
Your choices
- You can choose not to submit the briefing form or to provide only the required fields.
- You can opt out of analytics by blocking cookies, using the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on, or enabling Global Privacy Control.
- You can ask us to access, correct, or delete the information you submitted by contacting us at support@publicshield.com.
US state privacy rights
Depending on where you live, including California and other states with comprehensive consumer privacy laws, you may have some or all of the following rights, subject to exceptions and limitations under applicable law:
- Right to know and access the personal information we have collected about you, including the categories of information, sources, purposes, and recipients;
- Right to correct inaccurate personal information;
- Right to delete personal information we have collected from you;
- Right to data portability, meaning a copy of your information in a portable, readily usable format;
- Right to opt out of the sale of personal information, sharing for cross-context behavioral advertising, targeted advertising, and certain profiling. As stated above, we do not sell or share personal information or use it for targeted advertising;
- Right to limit the use of sensitive personal information. We do not use or disclose sensitive personal information for purposes that would give rise to this right; and
- Right to appeal our decision on your request, where provided by your state’s law.
California residents (CCPA/CPRA)
In the preceding 12 months, we have collected the following categories of personal information through the Website, as defined by the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act: identifiers (such as name, email address, phone number, and IP address); professional information (such as organization or title); internet or other electronic network activity information (such as browsing and interaction data on the Website); and inferences limited to approximate location derived from IP address. The sources, purposes, and recipients of this information are described in the sections above. We disclose these categories for business purposes to the service providers listed in “How We Share Information.”
How to exercise your rights
To exercise any of these rights, email us at support@publicshield.com with the subject line “Privacy Request” and tell us which right you wish to exercise and the state in which you reside. We will respond within the time required by applicable law.
Verification
To protect your information, we will take reasonable steps to verify your identity before fulfilling a request, for example by asking you to confirm information you previously provided or to respond from the email address associated with your briefing request. We will use information provided for verification only for that purpose.
Authorized agents
Where permitted by law, you may designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf. We may require the agent to provide proof of written authorization and may ask you to verify your identity directly with us.
Non-discrimination
We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your privacy rights, including by denying services, charging different prices, or providing a different level of quality.
Global Privacy Control
The Website recognizes the Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal as a valid request to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information for that browser. Although we do not sell or share personal information, when your browser sends a GPC signal we also do not load Google Analytics.
Children's Privacy
The Website is not directed to children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16. If you believe that a child under 16 has provided personal information to us through the Website, please contact us at support@publicshield.com and we will delete it.
International Visitors
The Website is intended for visitors in the United States and is hosted on Amazon Web Services in the United States. If you access the Website from outside the United States, you understand that your information will be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States, where data protection laws may differ from those in your country.
Third-Party Links and Services
The Website may contain links to, or integrate services from, third parties, including hCaptcha, Google, social media platforms, and our client portal. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of third parties, and this Privacy Policy does not apply to information collected by them. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party service you use.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the “Last updated” date at the top of this page and, where the changes are material, provide additional notice as required by law. Your continued use of the Website after an update takes effect means that you acknowledge the updated Privacy Policy.
Contact Us
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, or wish to exercise your rights, please contact us:
Public Shield, Inc.
Email: support@publicshield.com
Website: https://publicshield.com