Privacy at a glance — what users should know
SentencingStats is used by a wide range of professionals who work with federal sentencing data — including private and public defense attorneys, prosecutors, judges and court staff, academic researchers, and members of the media. We understand that the information you enter may be confidential or sensitive, and that in some cases it may be protected by legal privileges such as the attorney–client privilege or the work-product doctrine. We treat it accordingly. This summary is not a substitute for the full policy below, but here are the points that matter most:- We do not sell your data, and we do not use it for advertising. We also do not resell the court documents you upload.
- Your private Case Data is used only to generate your own reports and to provide the Service to you. We never use Case Data to train any artificial-intelligence model — ours or a third party’s — and we never use it for research or product development.
- You control your Case Data. You can delete any case at any time, and deletion from our active systems is immediate. Closing your account purges all associated Case Data.
- Public court records are handled differently. When you upload publicly filed documents (for example, sentencing transcripts obtained from PACER) to our Federal Judge Sentencing Analyzer and related tools, we retain those documents and the analyses we derive from them, and the generalized judicial analyses may be made available to other users of the Service. We do not resell the underlying documents. See Sections 2, 3, 5, and 6.
- The application uses no advertising or session-recording trackers. The marketing and analytics tools described below run only on our public website, never inside the application and never with access to your data.
- We use two AI service providers — Google Cloud Vertex AI and Microsoft Azure — under their enterprise terms, which do not permit them to use your data to train their models.
- We offer a Data Processing Agreement to organizations that request one.
1. Scope of this Policy
This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) explains how SentencingStats.com Inc. (“SentencingStats,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, discloses, retains, and protects information in connection with our software application, our website located at https://sentencingstats.com/ (the “Website”), and the reports, tools, and related services we provide (collectively, the “Service”). This Policy distinguishes between three categories of information because they are treated very differently:- Account & Website Information — information about you as a user of the Service (for example, your name, email address, organization, login credentials, billing details, and information collected automatically when you visit the Website).
- Case Data — the private, substantive information you enter into or upload to the application in order to generate your own reports and analyses. Case Data may include defendant identifiers, offense and criminal-history information, presentence-report content, and other case facts. Case Data may be confidential or sensitive, and in some cases may be subject to legal protections such as the attorney–client privilege or the work-product doctrine. We treat it accordingly, regardless of which type of user provides it; we do not share it, and we do not use it to improve the Service.
- Public Court Records — documents that are already part of the public court record (for example, sentencing transcripts obtained from PACER) that you upload to our Federal Sentencing Judge Profiler and related analytical tools. Because these documents are already public, we retain them, analyze them, use them to develop and improve our analyses, and may make the generalized judicial analyses we derive from them available to other users. We do not resell the documents themselves.
2. Information We Collect
Account & Website Information. We collect information you provide when you register for, log into, or communicate with us about the Service, including your name, email address, organization or firm, password, and any billing information. When you visit the Website, we and our analytics providers automatically collect standard log and device information (such as IP address, browser type, and pages visited) and use cookies and similar technologies as described in Section 6. Case Data. We collect the case information you choose to enter into or upload to the application so that the Service can generate the reports and analyses you request. You decide what Case Data to provide. Public Court Records. When you use our Federal Judge Sentencing Analyzer or related tools, you may upload documents that are part of the public court record — currently sentencing transcripts, and over time additional filing types such as sentencing memoranda, plea agreements, jury transcripts, and indictments. Our systems extract structured data points from these documents and perform qualitative analysis of them. You should upload only documents that are lawfully part of the public record; please do not use these tools to upload sealed materials or documents you intend to keep private. Information from third parties. Only where you grant the relevant permissions, we may receive information from third-party service providers that supplement the Service.3. How We Use Information
We use Account & Website Information to provide, maintain, secure, and improve the Service; to authenticate users; to process payments; to communicate with you about the Service; to provide support; and as required by law. We use Case Data solely to provide the Service to you — that is, to generate the reports, insights, and analyses you request, and to make those outputs available to you within your account. We do not use Case Data to train, fine-tune, or improve any artificial-intelligence or machine-learning model, whether ours or a third party’s. We do not use Case Data for research, benchmarking, marketing, or product development, and we do not sell it. Any aggregated or de-identified analysis we perform to understand and improve the Service uses only Website and usage information — never Case Data. We use Public Court Records that you upload to generate judicial analyses; to extract and store structured sentencing data in our data warehouse and search index; and to develop, improve, and expand the analytical capabilities of the Service. Because these are public documents, the generalized judicial analyses we derive from them may be made available to other users of the Service. We retain the underlying documents for these purposes but do not resell them. This treatment of Public Court Records is separate from, and does not apply to, your private Case Data, which is governed by the preceding paragraphs.4. Artificial Intelligence and How Case Data Is Processed
The Service uses artificial-intelligence and search technologies to generate its reports. We want to be transparent about how your Case Data is handled by these components:- Google Cloud Vertex AI (Gemini). To extract data points from uploaded documents and to generate the insights and analyses contained in our reports and judicial profiles, we transmit the relevant Case Data and Public Court Records to Google’s Vertex AI platform (using Google’s Gemini models), which returns the generated analysis. This processing occurs under Google Cloud’s enterprise terms for Vertex AI. Under those terms, Google does not use the data we send to train its foundation models, and the data is processed only to return the requested output to us.
- Microsoft Azure AI Search. We operate a retrieval system (a “retrieval-augmented generation,” or RAG, system) built on Microsoft Azure AI Search. Case Data and Public Court Records processed through this system are handled within our cloud environment under Microsoft’s enterprise terms, which likewise do not permit the use of that data to train Microsoft’s models.
5. Data Retention and Deletion
We retain information only as long as it is needed for the purposes described in this Policy. Case Data. We retain your Case Data until you delete it. You may delete any case at any time, and deletion from our active systems is immediate. When your account is closed or disabled, we purge all associated Case Data from our active systems. Backups. We maintain encrypted backups of our databases for disaster-recovery purposes. These backups are purged on a rolling 30-day cycle. As a result, after you delete a case or close your account, any residual copy contained in a backup is permanently and irrecoverably deleted within 30 days. This 30-day window also means that a closed or disabled account can generally be restored within 30 days; after that period, the data cannot be recovered. Public Court Records. Documents you upload to the Federal Sentencing Judge Profiler and related tools, the structured data we extract from them, and the analyses we derive from them are retained on an ongoing basis so that we can maintain, refine, and enhance our judicial analyses over time, including for future features. Because these materials are part of the public record, they are not subject to the case-deletion process described above. If you believe a document was uploaded in error, was not in fact public, or should not have been treated as public, contact us at info@sentencingstats.com. Account & Website Information. We retain account information for as long as your account is active and as needed to provide the Service, and thereafter only as required to meet legal, tax, accounting, or legitimate business obligations. Website analytics data is retained in accordance with the settings of the analytics providers described in Section 6.6. How We Share Information
We do not sell your personal information; we do not share your private Case Data except as necessary to provide the Service or as required by law; and we do not resell the court documents you upload. Analyses we derive from Public Court Records may be shared as described below. Specifically: Generalized judicial analyses. Analyses we derive from Public Court Records — such as judge-level sentencing profiles, statistics, and qualitative assessments — are generalized and may be made available to other users of the Service as part of the product. We do not resell or redistribute the underlying source documents (such as the transcripts) themselves. Service providers and subprocessors. We share information with vendors that perform services on our behalf and that are bound by contractual confidentiality and data-protection obligations. These include our cloud infrastructure and AI providers (Google Cloud / Vertex AI and Microsoft Azure, as described in Section 4), as well as providers of hosting, email delivery, payment processing, and similar functions. These providers may access information only as needed to perform their functions for us. Website marketing and analytics tools. Our public Website uses analytics and marketing tools, which may currently include Salesforce, Google, OWOX, YouTube, Act-On, Mailchimp (with Mandrill), Inspectlet, AdRoll, Facebook, and Twitter. These tools operate only on the public Website. They do not run inside the application and never have access to your Case Data. Legal and safety. We may disclose information if required to do so by law or valid legal process, or where we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, your safety or the safety of others, or to investigate fraud. Where we are legally permitted to do so, we will notify the affected user before disclosing Case Data in response to legal process. Business transfers. If SentencingStats is involved in a merger, acquisition, or asset sale, we will continue to protect the confidentiality of personal information and Case Data and will give affected users notice before any such information becomes subject to a different privacy policy.7. Security
We maintain administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. These include encryption of data in transit using TLS, encryption of stored data at rest, and restricting access to personal information and Case Data to authorized personnel who need it to operate the Service and who are subject to confidentiality obligations. We monitor our systems for unauthorized access and regularly review our collection, storage, and processing practices. You are responsible for keeping your password confidential and should not share it with anyone. No method of transmission over the Internet or of electronic storage is completely secure, and while we work to protect your information, we cannot guarantee absolute security.8. Data Breach Notification
If we become aware of a security incident that compromises the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of your personal information or Case Data, we will investigate promptly and will notify affected users and, where applicable, the appropriate authorities without undue delay and consistent with our legal obligations.9. Your Rights and Choices
You may:- Access and correct the account information associated with your account.
- Delete your Case Data at any time through the application, or request deletion by contacting us.
- Export your reports and Case Data, subject to the format capabilities of the Service.
- Close your account, which purges associated Case Data as described in Section 5.
- Opt out of marketing communications by using the unsubscribe link in our emails or by contacting us.
10. Data Processing Agreement
Organizations that use the Service — including law firms, public defender and prosecutor offices, courts, government agencies, newsrooms, clinics, and academic institutions — may request a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) governing our processing of personal information and Case Data on their behalf. Contact us at info@sentencingstats.com to request one.11. Children
The Service is intended for professional use by adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18 years of age. If we learn that we have collected such information without appropriate consent, we will promptly delete it. By using the Service, you represent that you are at least 18 years old.12. International Users
The Service is operated and hosted in the United States. If you access the Service from outside the United States, you understand that your information will be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States, which may have data-protection laws that differ from those in your jurisdiction. By using the Service, you consent to that transfer and processing.13. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will revise the “Last updated” date above and, where appropriate, provide additional notice. Your continued use of the Service after an update takes effect constitutes acceptance of the revised Policy.14. Contact Us
If you have questions about this Policy or our privacy practices, or to exercise any of your rights, contact us at: SentencingStats.com, Inc. Email: info@sentencingstats.comIf you believe you are interacting with a website or message that falsely claims to be SentencingStats, do not provide any personal information and contact us directly at info@sentencingstats.com.