Privacy Policy

Introduction

By using this site, you consent to the terms of our privacy policy for the collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information for the purposes set out below. We do not collect, use or disclose your personal information for any other purpose than those identified below, except with your consent or as required by law.

What is personal information and what personal information do we collect?

Personal information is recorded information about an identifiable individual. The information that USVitalCertificates.org collects is only what is needed to prepare, submit, and support your request for birth, marriage, death, and divorce certificates, following the guidelines set out by the Vital Records agencies across the United States.

When you place an order, we collect your contact details such as your name, mailing address, phone number, and email address, along with the type of certificate you are requesting. For the record itself, we collect the subject's full legal name, the date and place of the event, and related family details such as parents' and spouses' names where the application requires them. Only the information required for your specific request is collected.

When you pay, your card details are transmitted securely to our payment processor (Stripe), which tokenizes and charges your card. Order information needed to fulfill your request is kept in encrypted form and used only to process your order and submit your application to the issuing agency.

Why we collect and use personal information

USVitalCertificates.org collects, uses and discloses personal information only for the purposes of providing the requested services of ordering birth, marriage, death, and divorce certificates from the various Vital Records agencies across the United States. Our role is to submit applications for birth, marriage, death, and divorce certificates on your behalf, provided you meet the requirements of the issuing government agency. We are not a government agency.

Limits on collection, use, and disclosure: USVitalCertificates.org will only collect, use and disclose personal information that is necessary to fulfill the requested services and in a manner required by law. We will not collect, use or disclose personal information except for the identified purposes unless USVitalCertificates.org has received further consent from the individual, or as required by law.

How we disclose personal information

For the purpose of our services, the information that we collect is submitted to the corresponding Vital Records agencies for obtaining vital certificates. USVitalCertificates.org is not a government agency and as such does not hold or have access to any vital records. All certificates received are processed, printed and mailed from Vital Records directly to our clients. USVitalCertificates.org collects personal information with the intention of submitting it to the corresponding Vital Records agency to assist in the application process of requesting vital certificates.

How we obtain consent to collect, use, and disclose personal information

Where personal information is voluntarily submitted to USVitalCertificates.org for the obvious purpose of requesting birth, marriage, death or divorce certificates, we will consider consent to be implied. However, USVitalCertificates.org also obtains express consent with every application submitted for the purpose of disclosing personal information to the respective Vital Records agency. Your personal information will be used for no other purpose, commercial or otherwise, except where required by law.

How long we retain personal information

USVitalCertificates.org will retain personal information for a minimum of four months as is required by law. Subject to the above-mentioned four month minimum, USVitalCertificates.org will retain some information such as account and payment information for longer as is necessary to fulfill our business and legal requirements, to a maximum of seven years.

How we keep personal information secure

USVitalCertificates.org has security measures in place to prevent against risks such as unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification and disposal of personal information. These security measures include appropriate physical, electronic, and management procedures to ensure the safety and protection of your personal information.

Website analytics and cookies

USVitalCertificates.org uses Google Analytics 4 and the OpenAI Ads Measurement Pixel, including cookies and similar measurement tools, to understand public-page and order-funnel activity, attribute advertising conversions, and improve the Service. OpenAI measurement is limited to non-identifying page categories, certificate type, number of copies, checkout starts, and charged amount after payment is confirmed. We send OpenAI a securely hashed version of your email address for paid-order conversion measurement; we never send your raw email address. We do not send names, phone numbers, addresses, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, certificate-subject details, payment-card data, Stripe identifiers, application form values, order identifiers, or external customer IDs to OpenAI. Google Analytics records remain limited to page and funnel events, certificate type, copies, rush-processing selection, public order number, and charged amount after payment is confirmed, and receive none of those sensitive customer, application, or payment fields.

How we ensure that personal information is accurate

USVitalCertificates.org is committed to ensuring that the personal information we collect, use and/or disclose is accurate and complete. Whenever possible, USVitalCertificates.org obtains information directly from our clients and not from other sources such as public resources available online. USVitalCertificates.org cannot be held accountable for inaccurate or incomplete information that has been provided to us directly by our clients.

How we provide individuals with access to their personal information under our control or custody

At any time individuals have the right to access their personal information that USVitalCertificates.org has under its control and custody. All requests for access must be made in writing along with a photocopy of a piece of government-issued photo identification. USVitalCertificates.org will only release information to the individual it pertains to.

At a request for information, USVitalCertificates.org will provide individuals a copy of their personal information we hold, information about the ways in which their information has been used, and the names of the organizations to which their personal information has been disclosed. USVitalCertificates.org will respond to all requests for information within 30 days after it has been requested. USVitalCertificates.org will only refuse access to personal information where required by law. If USVitalCertificates.org refuses an access request, you will be notified in writing stating the reasons for the refusal and provided with any further steps that are available to you.

Correcting and updating your personal information

To review and update your personal information to ensure it is accurate, please contact us at support@usvitalcertificates.org or through our contact page.

Notification of privacy statement changes

We may update this privacy statement to reflect changes to our information practices. If we make any material changes we will notify you by email (sent to the email address specified in your order) or by means of a notice on this site prior to the change becoming effective. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices.

How individuals can ask questions, ask for access or make a complaint

For all other inquiries, contact us at support@usvitalcertificates.org.