Privacy Policy

1. What we collect

Ancestra collects only the information necessary to assess your eligibility for citizenship by descent and to file your case if you retain us. This includes:

• Eligibility inputs: country, ancestor relationship, birth year, emigration year, and naturalization status — submitted through our eligibility checker.
• Consultation requests: name, email, timezone, preferred date, and the family history you choose to share in the consultation form.
• Case documents: birth certificates, marriage certificates, naturalization records, and other documents you provide if you retain us for a full case.
• Usage analytics: aggregated, anonymized page views and traffic patterns. We do not use third-party advertising trackers.

2. How we use your information

We use your information to:

• Generate your eligibility opinion and case assessment.
• Respond to your consultation requests and case inquiries.
• Compile and file your citizenship application if you retain us.
• Communicate with you about your case, milestones, and deadlines.
• Improve our content, tools, and country coverage.

We do not use your information for advertising, sell it to third parties, or share it with anyone outside our editorial team and vetted professional network without your explicit consent.

3. Attorney-client privilege

When you retain Ancestra for a citizenship case, your communications with our counsel and the documents you provide are protected by strict confidentiality to the fullest extent permitted by law. This protection survives the termination of our engagement. We will not disclose your case information to any government, third party, or successor in interest without your written authorization, except as required by law or court order.

4. Data retention

We retain your information as follows:

• Eligibility inputs: 24 months from submission, then permanently anonymized.
• Consultation requests: 36 months from your last interaction with us, unless you retain us.
• Case files: 7 years from case closure, in accordance with professional responsibility rules for legal practice.
• Analytics: 13 months, then permanently deleted.

5. Your rights

You have the right to:

• Request access to the personal information we hold about you.
• Request correction of inaccurate information.
• Request deletion of your information, subject to our retention obligations.
• Request a copy of your information in a portable format.
• Withdraw consent for processing at any time.

To exercise any of these rights, email privacy@ancestra.legal. We will respond within 30 days.

6. Security

We protect your information with industry-standard security measures, including TLS encryption in transit, AES-256 encryption at rest, role-based access controls, and quarterly security audits. Case documents are stored in access-controlled repositories with audit logging. We have never experienced a data breach.

7. International transfers

Because citizenship by descent cases are inherently international, your information may be processed in the country whose citizenship you are seeking, in the country where you currently reside, and in the United States. We rely on Standard Contractual Clauses and the EU-US Data Privacy Framework for lawful international transfers.

8. Children

Ancestra does not knowingly collect information from children under 16. If you believe we have collected information from a child under 16, please contact us at privacy@ancestra.legal and we will delete it immediately.

9. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. We will post the updated version on this page with a new "Last reviewed" date. If we make material changes, we will also notify you by email if you have an active case or consultation request with us.

10. Contact

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or how we handle your information, please contact us at privacy@ancestra.legal or by mail at Ancestra, 501 Madison Avenue, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10022.