Privacy notice

Effective date: October 6, 2026

This notice explains how Hickok Tax, doing business as Hickok Tax Advisory (“HTA,” “we” or “us”), handles personal information on hickoktax.com, in our secure client portal, and when providing tax preparation, tax advisory and related accounting services. Individual clients also receive our Financial Privacy Notice. Hickok Tax Law, PC is a separate affiliated law firm with its own services and privacy practices; this notice does not cover its services.

Information we collect

We collect identity and contact details; taxpayer identifiers and verification information; tax returns and supporting financial, family, employment, property and business records; bookkeeping transactions and connected account information where included in the work; bank details for authorized fees or tax payments; documents, messages, instructions, signatures and consents; and technical, sign-in, security and service-activity records.

We receive information from you, people you authorize, institutions and accounts you connect, approved providers and tax authorities where permitted. We also create extractions, calculations and summaries to support the work. On eligible public marketing pages, approved optional tools may collect browser/device identifiers, general location from an IP address, permitted page interactions and campaign information.

Use our secure client portal for sensitive records. Do not send tax returns, Social Security numbers or full bank information through a general inquiry or ordinary email. Information provided to seek tax services can be protected before an engagement is signed.

How we use it

We use relevant information to provide agreed services; verify identity and authority; communicate; bill and process authorized payments; keep required records; protect our systems; and meet legal obligations or defend legal rights when permitted. Tax-payment instructions send funds directly from the selected account to the taxing authority; HTA does not hold those tax funds.

Permitted public marketing information may be used to measure campaigns, improve public content or advertise HTA’s services. We do not make advertising audiences from tax records, inquiries, connected accounts, client lists, portal activity or client-service outcomes. We obtain a separate written consent where required before using tax information for an optional additional-service offer.

Our technology, including AI

Our website and document systems run in our own Microsoft Azure environment. Our secure client portal is provided by us or our service providers, subject to confidentiality obligations. We use software, service providers and automated tools, including AI, to support our services. The AI models run in the United States, and your information is not used to train them. Microsoft, which provides these AI models, automatically screens requests for misuse of its service, and in rare cases its authorized staff may review a flagged request. The tools and providers may change, subject to applicable confidentiality restrictions and any required notice or consent. A draft or automated response not released as HTA advice is not a substitute for advice provided under your engagement.

How we share information

Subject to law and valid instructions, information may be disclosed to authorities and financial services for authorized filings or payments; providers supporting permitted services; recipients you authorize; and other recipients where disclosure is legally required or permitted. Providers receive information for the applicable permitted purposes, including the misuse screening described above, and are subject to applicable confidentiality restrictions. Advertising partners have the separately described roles below, not unrestricted access to client records.

Information you share through our website. When you contact us, use this site or ask about our services, we may share that information with our affiliated companies, including Hickok Tax Law, PC, to respond to you or to coordinate services you ask about. Please keep these messages general: do not send Social Security numbers, tax documents, account numbers or other confidential financial information through the website or ordinary email. Clients can share those securely through our client portal. We do not sell personal information.

We do not sell tax return information or disclose protected client-service information for advertising. Information you provide for the preparation of a tax return is handled under federal and California tax-preparer confidentiality rules and is shared only with your written consent or as those rules permit.

Different rules for public marketing and protected services

No optional public-page analytics or advertising tools are currently enabled. Information about any optional collection and applicable choices is provided in Cookie and Advertising Choices or with the relevant collection notice. Optional tools may measure public visits, advertising or content; separately explained interaction recording requires its own selection. An advertising provider may combine permitted public browsing information with activity elsewhere, which can be sale, sharing or targeted advertising under privacy law even without payment for the data.

We do not operate advertising tags, cross-context behavioral tracking or session replay in the portal, sign-in/recovery, onboarding, inquiry/booking and completion pages, uploads, messages, personalized tax work, signatures, payments or privacy-rights forms. Necessary hosting, identity, communication and security processing still operates there. A marketing choice cannot enable advertising in those services.

Tax records, client status, names/emails from service inquiries, messages, questionnaire answers, signatures, payments and customer lists are not ad-platform inputs. Hashing identifiers, sending a suppression list or forwarding events through our servers does not change that rule.

Your public-site choices

Optional tools stay off until you make the relevant affirmative selection. You may reject optional tools, choose categories or change them later without losing essential content or agreed services. Interaction recording needs its separate explained choice; a general advertising acceptance does not turn it on.

Use Cookie and Advertising Choices or Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information without a portal login. We honor Global Privacy Control and applicable recognized opt-out signals for covered advertising; as our policy we also treat the older Do Not Track signal as an advertising opt-out. An absent signal later is not renewed permission. A refusal applies to the covered collection and downstream use, including server-side transfers, not only cookies.

Choices normally apply to the browser/device and appropriately associated information. Clearing storage does not turn optional tools on; they remain off until the required choice. We do not fingerprint you to restore a preference. We honor applicable downstream restrictions, but turning off our tools cannot guarantee recall of prior lawful copies or that you will see no contextual HTA ads.

How long we keep information

Retention depends on the record, the services involved, applicable legal requirements, outstanding obligations and any hold. Tax returns and material supporting records may remain relevant across tax periods; engagement letters, authorizations, instructions and related evidence may be retained to document the relationship, completed actions and claims. Public inquiries, submissions we can’t connect to a client and routine technical records have shorter retention when no continuing permitted need exists.

Records may be retained longer for continuing tax needs, disputes, legal holds or other legitimate purposes. Unnecessary duplicates and temporary processing copies may be disposed of sooner. Deletion is subject to applicable retention requirements and the relevant backup and provider processes; it does not necessarily erase every copy immediately.

Unless expressly included in the engagement, HTA is not a complete or permanent archive of your records. Keep your own complete records and originals. Retaining a document does not extend our engagement or create continuing advice or monitoring. Account closure or withdrawal does not itself require erasure of retained records or authorize a new use.

Security, submissions and helpers

We maintain administrative, technical and physical safeguards as required by applicable law. Safeguards and access methods may change; no electronic service is risk-free. Report suspected misuse to security@hickoktax.com or (408) 265-8400.

A public upload receipt does not establish identity, document ownership, review, acceptance of work or payment authority. Access is subject to applicable security and authority checks. A family connection, email address or payment of a fee does not itself grant access. Ending a recipient’s grant does not recall copies already received.

Requests, changes and children

Ask for available copies or corrections, change contact or delivery choices, or withdraw optional permissions at privacy@hickoktax.com, (408) 265-8400, or the address below. Requests concerning protected records may require identity and authority verification. Advertising opt-outs do not require portal enrollment. Requests are handled under applicable rights, deadlines and exceptions; some records must remain despite a deletion request.

Our website and portal are not directed to children under 13. We handle dependents’ information only for permitted work and do not knowingly use minors’ information for targeted advertising. Material changes receive the required notice and, where needed, new consent before the activity. A privacy or cookie choice does not amend your engagement, sign a return or authorize a payment.

Contact us

Hickok Tax Advisory, 2110 South Bascom Avenue, Suite 103, Campbell, CA 95008. privacy@hickoktax.com · (408) 265-8400