Privacy Policy

2. INFORMATION COLLECTED AUTOMATICALLY

When you visit our websites we collect limited technical information, including IP address, browser type and version, device type, operating system, referring page, pages viewed, and the date and time of your visit. This information is collected through cookies and similar technologies. The Cookie Policy explains those technologies in detail and describes how to control them.

We do not use automated decision-making or profiling to make decisions that produce legal effects concerning you.

3. HOW WE USE INFORMATION

We use information to respond to your inquiry, to provide a quote, to schedule and perform the service you request, to comply with the recordkeeping duties imposed on Illinois notaries public, to process payment, to communicate about an active or completed matter, to maintain the security and functionality of our websites, to measure how our websites are used, and to comply with law.

If you have given consent, we may also use your contact information to send service updates or occasional information about our services. You may withdraw that consent at any time.

4. INFORMATION WE DO NOT COLLECT AND DO NOT SELL

We do not sell personal information. We do not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. We do not rent, trade, or license client lists. Illinois law separately prohibits a notary public from selling, renting, transferring, or otherwise making available to a third party the contents of a notarial journal, an audio-video recording, or any other record associated with a notarial act.

Illini Notary does not collect, capture, purchase, or store biometric identifiers or biometric information for identification purposes. Where a remote online notarization requires identity proofing or credential analysis, that process is performed by a third-party electronic notarization system provider approved for use in Illinois, under that provider's own terms and privacy policy. If that provider performs any process involving a facial image comparison or another biometric process, the provider is the party that determines and controls that process, and you will be presented with the provider's disclosures and consent before the session proceeds. Where the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act applies to a given process, the party performing that process is responsible for its own compliance.

5. WHEN INFORMATION IS SHARED

We share information only as follows.

With service providers who support our operations, including website hosting, form processing, scheduling, email delivery, payment processing, electronic and remote notarization platforms, and shipping and courier carriers. These providers receive only the information needed to perform their function and are not permitted to use it for their own purposes.

With government agencies when a service requires submission, including the Illinois Secretary of State Index Department for authentication and apostille requests, a county clerk, or a federal agency. In that situation the documents and the information they contain are submitted because you have asked us to submit them.

With the party who engaged us, when a title company, lender, signing service, law firm, or facility has engaged us to perform a signing, we report completion and return the executed package to that party.

When required by law, including in response to a subpoena, a court order, a law enforcement investigative request, or a request from the Illinois Secretary of State. Illinois rules require a notary public to comply with such a request in the manner specified in it.

In connection with a sale, merger, or transfer of the business, subject to the confidentiality and retention duties described in this policy and in Illinois law.

6. NOTARIAL RECORDS ARE DIFFERENT FROM MARKETING RECORDS

Illinois law requires a notary public to keep a journal of every notarial act, and requires an electronic notary public to make and keep an audio-video recording of every electronic notarial act performed by audio-video communication. These records are legally mandated. They are not marketing records, they are not used for marketing, and they cannot be deleted at your request during the retention period Illinois law establishes.

Illinois prohibits recording certain information in the journal, including government identification and other identifying numbers, biometric identifiers, and certain unencrypted personal and financial information, and requires a notary who inadvertently records prohibited information to redact it before providing access to the journal or copies of it.

An electronic journal must be retained for at least 7 years after the last electronic or remote notarial act recorded in it. An audio-video recording of an electronic notarial act must be retained for at least 7 years after it is made, whether or not the act was completed. Both must be stored so that they are protected against unauthorized access by password or cryptographic process, with reasonable steps taken to maintain a secure backup.

Illinois also recognizes a separate remote notarial act in which the two-way audio-video communication is recorded and preserved by the signatory or the signatory's designee for at least 3 years. That is a different act with a different retention period, and in that case the recording is not held by us. We will tell you which pathway applies to your signing before the session.

Access to an electronic notarization recording is limited by Illinois rule to the principal, the Secretary of State, a law enforcement or governmental agency in the course of an enforcement action, a court order or subpoena, the notary who performed the act, any person the parties authorize, and the system provider for compliance purposes. The portion of a recording containing biometric information or an image of the identification card used to identify the principal is separately confidential.

The Document Handling, Confidentiality, and Retention page describes our practices in more detail.

7. HOW LONG WE KEEP INFORMATION

Website inquiry records are retained for 24 months from the last communication unless a matter is opened.

Client and matter records, including quotes, invoices, and service correspondence, are retained for 7 years to align with our notarial recordkeeping obligations and ordinary business and tax requirements.

Notarial journals and audio-video recordings of electronic notarial acts are retained for the period Illinois law requires, at minimum 7 years as described above.

Client documents left in our custody are returned or delivered as directed. We do not retain copies of client documents beyond what is required to complete the engagement and to comply with law, except where you instruct us to hold a file.

8. HOW INFORMATION IS PROTECTED

We use administrative, technical, and physical safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information we handle. These include access controls on devices and accounts, encryption of stored electronic notarial records, secure transport of physical documents in our custody, limited internal access on a need-to-know basis, and secure disposal of materials that are no longer required.

Where we perform loan and real estate signings, the nonpublic personal information contained in a closing package is handled in accordance with the confidentiality and data-security requirements applicable to that information and to that engagement. Depending on the engagement, those may include the safeguarding and use-and-redisclosure requirements that flow from the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and its implementing rules, together with the contractual instructions of the title company, lender, or other institution that engaged us.

No system is perfectly secure. If a breach of the security of the system data occurs that affects personal information as defined by the Illinois Personal Information Protection Act, 815 ILCS 530, we will provide notice in the manner and within the time that law requires.

9. YOUR CHOICES AND RIGHTS

You may request access to the personal information we hold about you, ask that we correct inaccurate information, ask that we delete information that we are not required to retain, withdraw consent to marketing communications, and opt out of non-essential cookies through the cookie preference control on our website.

Requests are sent to support@illininotary.com or by mail to 2005 N Prospect Ave #1244, Champaign, IL 61822. We will verify your identity before responding to a request concerning personal information. We respond within 30 days.

The right to deletion does not extend to notarial journals, audio-video recordings of electronic notarial acts, or other records we are required by law to retain, and it does not extend to information we must keep to complete a transaction, to enforce an agreement, or to comply with a legal obligation.

If you are a resident of a state or country whose law provides additional privacy rights, we will honor rights that apply to you. If you are located in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, our legal bases for processing are performance of a contract with you, compliance with a legal obligation, your consent where consent is requested, and our legitimate interest in operating and securing our business. You may lodge a complaint with your supervisory authority.

10. INTERNATIONAL VISITORS

Our services are provided from the United States and information is processed and stored in the United States. If you access our websites or engage our services from outside the United States, you understand that your information will be transferred to, processed in, and stored in the United States, where privacy law differs from the law of your location.

11. CHILDREN

Our websites and services are directed to adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from a child under 13. If you believe a child has provided information to us, contact us and we will delete it. Where a notarial act involves a minor, the information collected is limited to what Illinois law requires for the act and is handled under the notarial records provisions of this policy.

12. THIRD-PARTY LINKS

Our websites link to government agencies, university offices, and other resources. We provide those links for convenience. We do not control those sites and are not responsible for their content, their accuracy, or their privacy practices.

13. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

We may update this policy. The effective date at the top of the page shows when it was last changed. Material changes will be posted on this page before they take effect. Continued use of our websites after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

14. HOW TO CONTACT US

Illini Notary and Signing Services LLC

2005 N Prospect Ave #1244, Champaign, IL 61822

Telephone: (217) 397-5833

Email: support@illininotary.com

Illini Notary and Signing Services is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. Notarial acts are performed in accordance with the Illinois Notary Public Act.