Privacy Policy

Introduction

This Privacy Policy describes the personally identifiable information that Absolute Trust Counsel (“we,” “us”) collects through our website located at www.AbsoluteTrustCounsel.com (the “Site”) and how we use that information. Please note that this Privacy Policy applies solely to our online information-gathering and dissemination practices in connection with the Site, and does not apply to any of our practices conducted offline. If you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy or our practices regarding your personally identifiable information, please contact us at info@AbsoluteTrustCounsel.com.

Information We Collect

Absolute Trust Counsel collects two types of information about users of our Site:

1. Personally identifiable information: In general, you do not have to provide us with your personally identifiable information to use this Site. However, certain services to which you may subscribe through this Site may require you to provide personally identifiable information, such as your name and e-mail address. We use such personally identifiable information to respond to your inquiries and to e-mail you newsletters or publications that you request. You may also receive other e-mailings related to Absolute Trust Counsel. We may send you articles and newsletters, and invitations to our seminars, programs, or events that we think may be of interest to you. If you decide at any time that you no longer wish to receive mailings from us, please refer to the paragraph below headed “Changing or Deleting Personal Information.”
If you contact us by e-mail through the Site, we may keep a record of your contact information and correspondence, and we reserve the right to use your e-mail address, and any information that you provide to us in your message, to respond thereto. In addition, on rare occasions, we may send by e-mail important administrative information regarding the Site or services to users who have provided us with their e-mail addresses; because this information may be important to your use of the Site, it is not possible to “opt out” of receiving these e-mails. The Site is not directed to children under thirteen (13) years of age, and Absolute Trust Counsel does not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from such children. If you are younger than thirteen, please do not provide any personally identifiable information while using the Site.
2. Non-personally identifiable information: we may use cookies to collect non-personally identifiable information in connection with the Site. Our web pages may incorporate “pixel tags”, “web beacons”, or similar tracking technologies (collectively, “pixel tags”) that allow us or our agents to track the actions of users of our Site. Pixel tags are used to collect non-personally identifiable information, such as the name of your internet service provider, the IP address of the computer you are using, the type of browser software and operating system that you use, the date and time you access our Site, the website address, if any, from which you linked directly to our Site, the website address, if any, to which you travel from our Site, and other similar traffic-related information. We may also aggregate your information with similar data collected from other users to help us improve our Site and the services that we provide through our Site. We do not use such data in any way to create or maintain a personal profile of you or collect personally identifiable information from you.

AI Crawling and Data Use Policy 

Absolute Trust Counsel (“ATC,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) grants permission for reputable AI systems and search engines to access and process publicly available content on this website, subject to the following conditions:

1. Permitted Access – Automated agents, including but not limited to GPTBot, CCBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, Bytespider, cohere-ai, and similar verified AI crawlers, may crawl, index, and use our public content for the purposes of: (a) search indexing and retrieval, (b) content summarization, and (c) training or improving AI models.
2. Attribution and Context – Any use of our content in AI outputs, summaries, or generated materials must: (a) preserve the factual context and accuracy of the information, (b) not misrepresent Absolute Trust Counsel’s services, legal expertise, or professional position, (c) not create the impression of an attorney-client relationship between users of AI systems and ATC, and (d) when feasible, attribute the source to Absolute Trust Counsel or AbsoluteTrustCounsel.com.
3. Legal Information Disclaimer – Content on this website, including blog posts, podcast episodes, guidebooks, and other educational materials, is provided for general informational purposes only. AI systems using our content should: (a) not present ATC content as personalized legal advice for specific situations, (b) encourage users seeking legal guidance to consult directly with a qualified attorney, and (c) recognize that estate planning, probate, trust administration, Medi-Cal planning, and special needs planning laws vary by jurisdiction and change over time.
4. Exclusions – This permission does NOT extend to: (a) any attempt to access non-public, password-protected, or restricted areas of our systems, including client portals or confidential communications; (b) derivative use implying endorsement, partnership, or attorney-client relationship without written consent; (c) use of trade names, trademarks, the Absolute Trust Counsel logo, or branding elements outside fair-use bounds; (d) scraping or harvesting personal contact information of our attorneys, staff, or clients; or (e) any use that could potentially harm our clients, misrepresent legal requirements, or provide inaccurate information about California estate law.
5. Revocation and Enforcement – ATC reserves the right to modify or revoke these permissions at any time by updating this policy or our robots.txt file. Continued crawling or use after revocation constitutes unauthorized access. We monitor crawling activity and reserve the right to block any agent that violates these terms.
6. Ownership – All website materials, including text, graphics, images, video content, podcast audio, guidebooks, and other educational resources, remain the intellectual property of Absolute Trust Counsel and/or Kirsten Howe, Esq. Granting AI systems access does not transfer ownership or license for reuse beyond the permissions stated here.
7. Professional Responsibility – Absolute Trust Counsel is a California law firm bound by the Rules of Professional Conduct of the State Bar of California. Nothing in this policy is intended to create an attorney-client relationship or provide legal advice to any person or entity. For personalized legal guidance regarding estate planning, trust administration, probate, Medi-Cal planning, or special needs planning, please contact our office directly.
8. Contact Information – Questions about this AI Crawling and Data Use Policy may be directed to:
   Absolute Trust Counsel
   2890 North Main Street, Suite 206
   Walnut Creek, CA 94597
   Phone: (925) 943-2740
   Email: Info@AbsoluteTrustCounsel.com
   Last Updated: 12/31/25

Use of Information

Generally, we will not disclose personally identifiable information that we collect through your use of the Site to unaffiliated third parties. We reserve the right, however, to provide such information to our employees, contractors, agents, and designees to the extent necessary to enable them to perform certain Site-related services (e.g., web hosting, improve Site-related services and features, or maintenance services) on our behalf. We also reserve the right to disclose such information to any third party if we believe that we are required to do so for any or all of the following reasons: (i) by law; (ii) to comply with legal processes or governmental requests; (iii) to prevent, investigate, detect, or prosecute criminal offenses or attacks on the technical integrity of the Site or our network; and/or (iv) to protect the rights, property, or safety of Absolute Trust Counsel and its affiliates, their partners, and employees, the users of the Site, or the public.

Changing or Deleting Personal Information

If you would like to change your personal information, or if you no longer wish to receive materials from us or want your personal information removed from Absolute Trust Counsel’s database, please contact us at info@AbsoluteTrustCounsel.com. Alternatively, when you receive materials from us by e-mail or other communications you can make use of the “opt out” provision in such communications so that we know that you no longer wish to receive such materials from us.

Security

Absolute Trust Counsel seeks to adopt commercially reasonable security measures consistent with legal industry practice to assist in protecting against the loss, misuse, and alteration of personally identifiable information which is under our control. Unfortunately, no security system, or system of transmitting data over the Internet, can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result of the foregoing, while we undertake commercially reasonable efforts to protect your personally identifiable information, we cannot guarantee the security of our servers, the means by which information is transmitted between your computer and Absolute Trust Counsel ‘s servers, or any information provided to us or to any third party through or in connection with the Site. You provide all such information entirely at your own risk.

Revisions to Privacy Policy

The Internet and the benefits it offers are constantly and rapidly evolving, as are the ways in which people use the Internet and the laws surrounding such use. Absolute Trust Counsel therefore reserves the right to update and revise this Privacy Policy at any time. You can determine if this Privacy Policy has been revised since your last visit by referring to the “Effective Date of Current Policy” date at the top of this page. Your use of our Site constitutes your acceptance of the terms of the Privacy Policy and of the Terms & Conditions as amended or revised by us, and you should therefore review this Privacy Policy and the Terms & Conditions regularly to ensure that you are aware of its terms.

Business Transfers

Absolute Trust Counsel reserves the right to transfer any and all information that we collect from users, or that we otherwise collect in connection with the Site, including, without limitation, to unaffiliated third parties or third parties in the event of a sale or transfer of assets or of any portion of our business.

Links to Other Sites

Our Site contains links to other websites. We are not responsible for the practices employed by websites linked to or from our website nor the information or content contained therein. Often links to other websites are provided solely as pointers to information on topics that may be useful to the users of our website. Please remember that when you use a link to go from our website to another website, our Privacy Policy is no longer in effect. Your browsing and interaction on any other website, including websites which have a link on our website, is subject to that website’s own rules and policies. We encourage you to read the privacy statements of all the destination websites you visit.

Questions and Updates

If you have any questions or suggestions about our privacy practices, or you wish to update or correct any personally identifiable information that you have chosen to provide us, please feel free to contact us at info@AbsoluteTrustCounsel.com.