Privacy Policy

Last Updated: March 2025

When you use Dark Horse CPAs, An Accountancy Corporation (“we,” or “us”) services, you are entrusting us with your information. We understand the gravity of this responsibility and work hard to protect your information and put you in control of it.

This Privacy Policy is designed to aid your understanding of what information we collect, why we collect it, and how you can manage your information, whether through our Services or third-party services (collectively, the “Services”). We encourage you to read the entire Privacy Policy before using our Services. By using the Services, you consent to the terms of this Privacy Policy as well as our Terms of Service.

Categories of Information We Collect

Depending on your relationship with us, we may collect specific categories of information about you. Below is a description of categories of information that we may collect:

• Client Relationship Information: This includes information that we may request from you or that you voluntarily provide us for our records about you as a client and the services we provide you. This may include your business contact information, background/history, services obtained from us, unique identification numbers, and other information our cloud servers may gather about you to serve you better, such as family members’ names.
• Personal Identifiers and Demographic Information: This includes state and federally protected classes of individual information, contact information such as your name, phone number, and email, and other types of general information that may be used to identify you, such as your city, state, country, and time zone.
• Client Financial Services Information: This includes information we may request from you or that you voluntarily provide us as part of financial services that we provide you, such as tax filings. This information may include compensation plans, information necessary for tax filings and other state or federal disclosures, corporate records, investments, and other related information.
• Employment Information: This includes any information related to your previous and current employment, such as prior employer(s), compensation, title, and information found on Forms W2 and other related tax documents. Additionally, we may have information for direct deposits, information contained in your resume and cover letter, and any information related to your application or employment at Dark Horse CPAs.
• Education Information: This includes information such as educational institutions attended, degrees obtained, scholarships awarded, graduation date, school email, and grade point average (GPA). Typically, we have this information because you applied for a position with us.
• Internet or Network Activities: This includes information we gather when you interact with our websites or systems, such as internet protocol addresses, search history, session IDs, completion of web forms, as well as other site usage information gathered through cookies hosted on our website.
• Internal Corporate Information: This refers to the information that we may obtain in the normal course of performing our internal business operations. This may include information about our Service Providers and 3rd Party vendors’ employees, business contacts including billing contacts, address and location, and services provided.
• Location Data: This includes your city, state, country, and time zone.

Business Purposes for Information Use

We may use your categories of information for various business purposes, including:

• Business Development, Marketing, and Virtual Event Management: This includes activities such as lead generation, marketing campaigns by mail or email or through our website, travel and expense reporting, hosting internal conferences and training for employees, and hosting or sponsoring events for our employees, clients, and the general public.
• Provision of Services to Clients: This includes activities such as tax preparation and filings, client services and invoicing, outsourced business services, and user registration and access rights monitoring.
• Compliance with Legal, Professional, and Regulatory Obligations: This includes activities such as corporate insurance management, payroll processing, reporting, and administration, data loss prevention and security monitoring, background screening, professional certifications and ethical compliance, personnel and incident investigations and litigation matters, regulatory and government compliance matters, and government requests and subpoena responses.
• Client Relationship Management: This includes activities such as client on-/off-boarding and communication outreach, background screening, contract engagement, engagement letters, and other contractual obligations, and event management and registration.
• Security of Dark Horse CPAs: This includes activities such as mobile device management, physical, technical, and administrative security reviews, network monitoring and online intrusion detection, and digital user registration and access monitoring.
• Employee Compliance: This includes activities such as credit review and background screening, personnel compensation, travel, and expense reporting and reimbursement, employee insurance, benefits, and leaves of absence, and employee management, lifecycle, and records.
• Management of Service Providers and Third-Party Vendors: This includes activities such as vendor assessments and security evaluations, vendor agreement negotiations, executions, and implementations, order processing, vendor payment reconciliation, and accounts receivable and payable processing.
• Internal Business Operations: This includes activities such as strategic enhancements and new service development, systems implementation and support services, day-to-day business operations, and insurance, tax, and payroll preparation and filing.

Please note, we use all categories only as permitted by law or as we may notify you. If your consent is required by law, we will obtain your consent prior to the use and/or collection of your information.

Our Sources of Information & How We Collect Information

We collect categories of information via multiple methods:

• From You or Your Legal Representative or Authorized Agent: We collect your information through emails, over the phone, in-person, electronic files, paper documents, event registration forms, web forms, and employment applications.
• From Our Clients: We collect your information through emails, over the phone, in-person, electronic files, paper documents, integrations, APIs, file transfer websites, database and data warehouse access, and event registration forms.
• From Our Business Partners, Service Providers & Third-Party Vendors: We collect your information through email, over the phone, in-person, user account portals, electronic files, paper documents, event sponsorship forms and rosters, web forms, contracts including service agreements and statements of work, and integrations, APIs, file transfer sites.
• From Our Website Cookies and Your Interaction with Our Website: We collect your information through tracking cookies, marketing cookies, analytic cookies, pixels, and tags.
• From Publicly Available Sources: We collect your information through social media, websites (such as professional networking sites and online searches), magazines, newspapers, blogs, and other reporting media, online professional forums, white papers, and other peer review publications.
• From Educational Institutions, Professional & Government Licensing Groups: We collect your information through email, over the phone, in-person, user account portals, paper documents, electronic files, and web forms.

We Combine Information

We combine information we collect from you on the website with information we receive from you in person, by email, or by other means. We also combine information you provide with information we obtain from third parties and service providers.

When We Share Information with Others

On an as-needed basis, we may share all categories of information above with third parties, service providers, and others. We share personal information with vendors who provide services to us. Refer to Categories of Information We Collect to see the types of information that may be relevant to you.

Our service providers are categorized in at least one of the following categories based on the services they provide us:

• Business operational services (such as payroll processing, recruitment, AR/AP processing, or other like services)
• Legal, compliance, and advisory services (such as attorneys, financial advisors, and external consultants)
• Marketing, events, and communications (such as hosted events, newsletters, and email marketing)
• Telecommunication and mobile services (such as telephone systems and inter-office messaging services)
• Network, data centers, and infrastructure services (such as internet, intranet, email, software, and cloud servers)

We share information with government and regulatory authorities in the course of providing services to you, such as preparation of tax returns. We only share information when required to in order to comply with law or to protect our legal interests. We may share information we collect about you to respond to a court order or subpoena. We may share information in response to a government agency or investigatory body request. This may include sharing information with the U.S. or Canadian governments. We may share information if necessary to prevent physical harm or financial loss. We may share information we collect when we are investigating potential fraud or other illegal activity.

We share information with any successor to all or part of our business. If all or part of our business is sold, we will share information as a part of that transaction. If there is a merger or acquisition, we will also share your information. We will also share information as part of a financing or bankruptcy.

We share information as permitted by law and for other reasons we may describe to you.

You Have Certain Choices

We provide you with the following options about how we use information:

Everyone

You can opt out of receiving our marketing emails at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link located at the bottom of our emails. If you opt out of receiving marketing messages, you will still receive non-marketing messages. If you object to our use of your information for direct marketing purposes, please email us at privacy@darkhorse.cpa.

California Residents

As of January 1, 2020, the California Consumer Privacy Act gives you (or your Proxy) the right to make certain requests of Dark Horse CPAs regarding information that we collect about you. We will not discriminate against you because you have exercised any of your rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act.

Your Rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act

• Request which categories of information we collect (which may also be referenced above in Categories of Information We Collect)
• Request which categories of service providers

Our Verification Process

Before we can begin to process your request, we must first verify your identity. We will use the following points of information for our verification process.

• Full Name
• E-mail Address
• Phone Number
• Mailing Address
• Employer, service provider, third party vendor or organization’s name you are an agent of

Requests made for your categories of information require that we verify your identity using at least two data points listed above. Additionally, you will be required to provide a document signed under penalty of perjury affirming that you are indeed the consumer subject to the information request.

For requests to delete information, we require two or three of the points of information above, depending on the sensitivity of the information to be deleted.

Proxy Requests. Requests made by a California resident’s proxy will follow the same verification process as above. Additionally, a proxy is required to provide to us a notarized attestation that they are the California resident’s authorized legal representative.

How To Make A Request. You or your proxy may make a request by emailing us at privacy@darkhorse.cpa. A customer service representative will collect the necessary information from you and provide you with details about how you can provide us with any additional documentation that may be necessary.

Sales of Information of California Resident. We do not and will not sell California residents’ personal information.

Children’s Privacy

We do not knowingly collect, use, or disclose personal information from children under the age of 13 without prior parental consent, except as permitted by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”). If you are a parent or guardian of a child under age 13 and believe we collected information in a manner not permitted by COPPA, please email us at privacy@darkhorse.cpa

Data Security

We maintain strict security procedures to help protect against loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration or destruction of the information you provide to us. No data transmission or storage, however, can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you disclose or transmit to us online and cannot be held responsible for the theft, destruction, or inadvertent disclosure of your information.

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account password and for any access to or use of our services using your password, whether or not authorized by you. Please notify us immediately if you suspect any unauthorized use of your account or any other breach of security.

Privacy Policy Updates

We may modify this Privacy Policy at any time by posting revisions here.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, you may contact us at:

By Email: privacy@darkhorse.cpa Subject: “Privacy Policy Questions”

By Mail:

Dark Horse CPAs, An Accountancy Corporation
2033 San Elijo Ave #148, Cardiff by the Sea, CA 92007