Arken Instruction Hub Terms and Conditions
ARKEN.LEGAL INSTRUCTION HUB TERMS AND CONDITIONS
LEGAL NOTICE
The website https://member.estgro.com is published by:
Arken.legal (UK) Limited
Company Number: 2690082
Registered Address: General Wolfe House, 83 High Street, Westerham, Kent TN16 1PG
VAT number: 602627173
Email: info@arken.legal
Under licence from:
Estgro Limited
Company Number: 4115231
Registered Address: General Wolfe House, 83 High Street, Westerham, Kent TN16 1PG
VAT number: 602627173
Email: hello@estgro.com
TERMS OF USE
Last updated: 31 July 2023
These Terms of Use and the Privacy Statement constitute your agreement with Arken.legal (UK) Limited (“Arken”). Read them carefully; these provisions bind you as soon as you sign up to use the Service.
Attention: If you do not agree with all or some of these Terms of Use, you should not use the Service.
Definitions
1. In these terms of use, the following definitions shall apply:
“Arken Content” means information (text, videos, audio clips and images) contained within the Site or as part of the Service.
“Estate Summary Questionnaire” means a questionnaire which is sent to a User by their Service Provider in respect of legal services which will ask questions in relation to the User’s personal, family, asset and liabilities situation as well as other questions which may be relevant to the User’s estate plan.
“Estate Summary Report” means a report which is sent to the User and the User’s Service Provider summarising all of the information submitted in an Estate Summary Questionnaire.
“Hub” means the portal through which the Service is delivered to a User which is accessible through the Site.
“Service” means the Arken Estate Hub available to a User through the Site.
“Service Provider” means the provider of estate planning services who invited the User to sign up to use the Service or who hosted the link through which the User initially signed up to use the Service.
“Site” refers to all web and mobile websites accessible at https://member.estgro.com and such other websites, and apps as We may advise from time to time.
“Terms of Use” refers to these general conditions of use and any special conditions of use.
“Third Party Service” means any service provided to a User through the Service by their Service Provider.
“User” means You, a person who has an account with the Service or a visitor to the Site as the case may be.
“User Content” refers to all data inputted by the User to the Site or into the Service including any data relating to a third party.
“We” means Arken.
“You” or “Your” means you, the individual being a User.
Acceptance and modification of the Terms of Use
2. Arken provides the User with access to the Site and/or the Service in exchange for unconditional acceptance of these Terms of Use. Users declare and acknowledge having fully read these Terms of Use. By using the Service or accessing the Site, Users unconditionally accept to be bound by these Terms of Use.
3. Arken reserves the right to amend these Terms of Use or to add any additional terms at any time in whole or in part. Any changes of the Terms of Use or any additional terms will be available in the Hub. It is therefore the User’s responsibility to regularly consult the latest version of these terms. Users are deemed to accept this latest version upon each new visit to the Site or use of the Service.
Description of the Site
4. Use of the Service is subject to limitations of liability on the part of Arken as detailed in these Terms of Use.
5. The Hub is a platform that allows a User to:
a. view information about the Service;
b. sign up for an account on the Service to become a User who can:
i. view notifications, documents and messages through their Hub;
ii. connect with their Service Provider;
iii. view information about estate planning;
iv. contract for and receive legal and estate planning services and documents through the Hub;
v. transfer documents and send messages to the User’s Service Provider; and
vi. use functionality that is ancillary to other activities under this subclause as may be added by Arken from time to time.
Payments
6. The Services offered by Arken to a User of the Service are free to the User.
7. If a User contracts with their Service Provider through the Service for the provision of estate planning services, legal advice and/or legal documents, then that Service Provider will be entitled to charge the User in accordance with their own terms and conditions and/or with an express agreement between them and the User.
Third party sites and services
8. The Site may contain links to sites managed by third parties. These links are for information only. Arken does not control these sites and is not responsible for their content or for the privacy policy or other practices of such sites. The display of links to such sites does not constitute approval of the elements on these sites nor any association with the publishers of these sites. It is the User’s responsibility to carry out any checks deemed necessary or appropriate before using these sites or entering into a transaction with any of them.
Access and Use of the Site
9. Use of the Site is subject to the following eligibility requirements: as a User
a. you are at least 18 years of age;
b. you have the legal capacity to submit to be bound by legal obligations; and
c. any use of the Site on behalf of any other person for whom you are legally entitled to act, will be legitimate and having obtained the requisite legal permissions.
10. Arken reserves the right to suspend, delete or modify all or part of the Site or the services offered on the Site without prior notice. Arken also reserves the right to suspend access to the Site for all or any Users for any reason and at any time.
11. Users undertake to provide accurate, up-to-date and truthful information, in particular regarding their title, last name, first name, email address and telephone number, which are necessary for their proper identification in relation to the opening and maintenance of their account.
12. The User undertakes that they will obtain permission from any third party on whose behalf they provide information within the System. The User will indemnify and hold Arken blameless for any failure to comply with this clause.
13. During the creation of their account, Users choose an ID and a password (“Credentials”) enabling them to access their account. The Credentials are personal and confidential. They can only be changed at the request of the User concerned or at the initiative of Arken.
14. Users are solely and entirely responsible for the use of their account and the Credentials concerning them and undertake to do everything possible and reasonable to keep their Credentials secret and to not disclose them to anyone in any form whatsoever. In the event of loss or theft of one of a User’s Credentials, that User is liable for any consequential damage of this loss or theft, and must, as soon as possible, change their password within the Service.
15. Users may close their account by emailing their Service Provider. If the User has accepted an agreement for the provision of legal services with their Service Provider, then, at the discretion of Arken, the closure of the account may be delayed until all payments have been made by the User under that agreement.
16. Users are informed that as of the closure of their account, they will no longer be able to benefit from the services offered by Arken and their data will be deleted in accordance with the Arken Data Deletion Policy.
Prohibited Actions
17. Users agree to use the Site in accordance with these Terms of Use and applicable law. In particular, Users agree not to:
a. modify, copy, distribute, transmit, display, make available, reproduce, publish, license, create derivative works, transfer, sell or resell any information, images, videos, audio files, software, products or services obtained from or through the the Site;
b. use the Site or its contents for illegal, illegitimate or fraudulent purposes;
c. submit User Content to the Site that is inaccurate, illegal and in particular which invades privacy, is abusive, indecent, threatening, incites hatred or violence, or of which the intellectual property rights do not belong to them and for which they do not have the express permission of the rights holder;
d. use, monitor, extract or copy the architecture, content or data of the Site or the actions of any User on the Site by using a robot, a spider, a scraper, Spyware, keystroke recorder or any other program or automatic device or manual process for any purpose;
e. violate restrictions regarding robot exclusion files on the Site or circumvent measures to prevent or limit access to the Site;
f. take any action that imposes, or could impose an unreasonable or excessive burden on the infrastructure of the Site;
g. establish an invisible link to the Site for any reason;
h. “frame”, “reflect” or incorporate any portion of the Site into another site; and
i. attempt to modify, translate, adapt, revise, decompile, disassemble or reverse engineer any software program used by Arken in connection with the Site or its Services.
Penalty for breach of contract
18. In the event of the total or partial non-compliance or non-respect by a User of any of the obligations or provisions of these Terms of Use, or in the event that a User performs any of the prohibited actions as set out in these Terms of Use, or for any other reasonable reason, Arken may modify, suspend, limit or remove access to any or all of the services of the Site, including by deactivating the User’s account, with or without notice and without any right whatsoever for the User to claim compensation, and without prejudice to any compensation that Arken may otherwise claim in court.
Damages
19. Without prejudice to the penalties imposed by Clause 18, Arken shall also be entitled to claim compensation for any damage incurred by it or the Licensor.
User Content
20. Users agree that by adding User Content to the Service or the Site they automatically grant Arken a royalty-free licence to Arken to use the User Content:
a. for the purposes of providing Services to the User including:
i. creating an Estate Summary Report;
ii. internal business purposes necessary to the provision of the Service; and
iii. as anonymised data for business purposes wider than the provision of the Service; and
b. to share User Content in the following ways:
i. the Estate Summary Report will be shared only with the User’s Service Provider;
ii. the status of the User’s Arken registration and legal document creation will be shared with Arken, and the User’s Service Provider;
iii. anonymised User Content may be shared by Arken for marketing and wider business purposes providing always that the User cannot be identified in such Data.
21. Users represent and warrant that they are entitled to grant the licence referred to in Clause 20.
22. A User is responsible for their User Content uploaded to the Service and for making the decision to:
a. create an account on the Service;
b. upload their personal details to the Service;
c. upload the details of any third party to the Service;
d. fill in the Estate Summary Questionnaire;
e. upload documents; and
f. send messages.
23. A User can permanently delete User Content uploaded as a document to the Service as long as it has not already been shared with Service Provider by deleting an uploaded document and then permanently deleting it.
24. Where a User shares User Content with their Service Provider through the messaging or document sharing functionality of the Service, that person will receive a copy of the User Content shared, and to delete that User Content, the User must request that the Service Provider deletes the content. Arken is in no way responsible for User Content that has been shared through the Service and is unable to assist with its deletion.
Cookies
25. Arken has a Cookie Policy in place which is set out at Schedule 1.
Privacy
26. Arken has a Privacy Notice in place to protect Users’ privacy which is set out at Schedule 2.
Intellectual Property
27. Arken asserts all available intellectual property rights relating to the content and information on the Site and contained in the Service as belonging to Arken, with the exception of third party rights, for which Arken has obtained the necessary rights or licences.
28. The rights conferred on Users by using the Site and the services supplied by Arken do not entail any licence of rights or permission to use or exploit any part of the Site.
29. All elements (brands, designs, texts, hyperlinks, logos, images, videos, sounds, software, screen lay-out, databases, codes etc.) in/on the Site and in the Service and on associated sites are protected by national and international intellectual property law. These elements remain the sole property of Arken and/or its licensors.
30. Users may not reproduce, represent, republish, redistribute, adapt, translate and/or amend in part or in full, or transfer to another media, any information from the Site without the prior written of Arken or its licensors.
Limitation of Liability
31. It is up to Users to make any checks that seem necessary or opportune before creating an account on the Site, including asking their Service Provider for any necessary information about the Service. Arken will not be responsible for any information given in this regard by a Service Provider, and the User acknowledges that they act upon their own judgement in creating an account on the Service.
32. Arken is not responsible for any content provided by a Service Provider on the Site on in the Service and Users accept that they will make any necessary enquiries before relying on any such content.
33. Arken offers no warranty whatsoever in relation to the Service and/or the commercial practices of any Service Provider. Accordingly, Arken does not warrant that Users will be satisfied with the products, services and/or business practices experienced following the provision of services by a Service Provider through the Site.
34. All information contained in the Site and in the Service is subject to change at any time, without this engaging the responsibility of Arken.
35. Arken does not warrant uninterrupted access to the Site or service continuity, the only obligation of Arken being one of reasonable endeavours in this respect.
36. Arken shall not be liable for any failure to access the Site or the Service or for any damage or loss arising out of the use or inability to use the Site or its content, except as provided by law.
37. Arken does not warrant that the information displayed on the Site or in the Service is detailed, complete, verified or accurate. Any content on the Site or in the Service is provided “as is” without any express or implied warranties of any kind whatsoever. No information contained in the Service is legal or financial advice and must not be treated as a substitute for professional legal or financial advice.
38. Users generally accept and acknowledge that use of the Site does not guarantee that the Service Provider will agree to provide any or particular services to the User and that the User is not under any obligation to accept an offer by the Service Provider to provide services. Users agree that Arken cannot be held liable if Users fail to benefit from the services of a Service Provider.
39. In all circumstances, Arken and its licensors are not parties to an agreement for services between a User and their Service Provider, and the User acknowledges that they are acting solely on their own judgement in entering into an agreement for services with their Service Provider and that such agreement will be governed by the Service Provider’s own terms and conditions or as specified in the agreement itself.
40. Users warrant that they are fully familiar with the features and limitations of the internet. In particular, they acknowledge that it is impossible to guarantee that the data sent by Users over the internet will be fully secure. Arken cannot be held responsible for any incidents that could arise from this transmission of data.
41. Users agree to indemnify Arken against any liability, damage, expense, claim or cost, incurred by Arken arising from any claim or dispute, in or out of court, in relation with the use of the services of Arken, including the creation of User Content on the Site or in the Service by Users.
42. Users explicitly acknowledge and agree to use the Site at their own risk and under their sole responsibility.
General Provisions
43. In the event that any provision of these Terms of Use is declared null and void, illegal, unenforceable or inapplicable, the validity, legality, enforceability or application of the other provisions of these Terms of Use shall in no way be affected or impaired, these other provisions remaining in force and retaining their full effect.
44. These Terms of Use may be amended by Arken from time to time and without advance notice to Users. Users should regularly check the Site to see the precise content of the Terms of Use in effect at that time.
45. The headings of these Terms of Use are for illustrative purposes only and are not to be considered an integral part of these Terms of Use.
46. Except as may be otherwise provided in these Terms of Use, the failure or delay by Arken in exercising any of its rights or remedy under the terms these Terms of Use shall not constitute a waiver of the right or remedy or prevent any further exercising of the right or remedy. On the contrary, such right or remedy shall remain in full force and effect.
47. To the greatest extent permitted by law, these Terms of Use and relationship between Arken and Users are governed and interpreted in accordance with the laws of England and Wales and are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of England and Wales.
SCHEDULE 1
Cookie Policy
This policy provides detailed information about how and when we use cookies.
What is a cookie?
A cookie is a small file stored on your device or on your browser when you visit our site. Cookies allow us to see patterns in customer behaviour, and also allow us to improve our site.
What cookies are used
Below is the list outlining the cookies we use and the purpose for which we use them.
| Cookie | Cookie name | Purpose |
| Session Maintenance | .AspNetCore.Cookies | To allow a user to sign into the Service. |
| Mixpanel | _mp | Mixpanel cookies are used to collect data about how you use our website. We use this information to understand your interests, improve our products and services and to create a better user experience on our website. |
| Universal Analytics (Google) | _ga
_gat _gid |
Google Analytics cookies. These track number and duration of visits to the Arken website as well as details and keywords of searches that led the user to the site. Google Analytics cookies do not identify individual users and every website using Google Analytics deploys a different set of cookies – visitors are not tracked across multiple sites |
Why cookies are used
We use cookies to track your usage across the Site. We use this information to improve both our service to you and marketing to customers.
If you decline to allow cookies, our website and our services may not function correctly. Please contact us at info@arken.legal for further guidance.
Google Analytics
We use Google Analytics (with anonymisation function) which is a web analytics service. Web analysis is the gathering, collection and analysis of data about the behaviour of visitors to websites. Among other things, a web analysis service collects data on which website a data subject has come to a website from (so-called referrers), which subpages of the website were accessed or how often and for which period of time a subpage was viewed. A web analysis is mainly used to optimise a website and for the cost-benefit analysis of Internet advertising.
The operator of the Google Analytics component is Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043-1351, USA.
Google Analytics uses cookies. The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website is usually transmitted to a Google server in the USA and stored there. Google might transfer the personal information collected via this technical procedure to third parties.
As IP anonymisation is activated on our website, your IP address will be shortened by Google within Member States of the European Union or other states in agreement with the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases, the full IP address is sent to and shortened by a Google server in the USA. On behalf of the operator of the website, Google will use this information to evaluate your use of the website, compile reports on website activity and to provide further services related to website and internet use to us. The IP address transferred through your browser to Google Analytics will not be combined with other data held by Google.
In addition, this website uses the Analytics feature UserID to track interaction data. This User ID will be additionally anonymised and encrypted and will not be linked with other data.
You may prevent the collection of the data generated by the cookie and related to your use of the website (including your IP address) by Google as well as the processing of this data by Google by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available under the following link: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en
This browser add-on informs Google Analytics via JavaScript that no data and information about website visits may be transmitted to Google Analytics.
In addition, a cookie already set by Google Analytics can be deleted at any time via the Internet browser or other software programs.
Further information and Google‘s applicable privacy regulations can be found at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en and https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/ The following link provides a further explanation of Google Analytics https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/.
Our website also uses Google Analytics performance reports relating to demographics and interests and reports on Google Display Network impressions. You can disable Google Analytics for display advertising and customize the ads on the Google Display Network by visiting the ad settings at this link: https://adssettings.google.com.
Google AdWords
We use Google AdWords which collects data about your activities that does not personally or directly identify you when you visit our website, the website of entities for which we serve advertisements (our “Advertisers”), or the websites and online services where we display advertisements (“Publishers”). This information may include the content you view, the date and time that you view this content, the products you purchase, or your location information associated with your IP address. We use the information we collect to serve you more relevant advertisements (referred to as “Retargeting”). We collect information about where you saw the ads we serve you and what ads you clicked on. You may opt out of the automated collection of information by third-party ad networks for the purpose of delivering advertisements tailored to your interests, by visiting the consumer opt-out page for the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising at https://www.aboutads.info/choices and edit or opt-out your Google Display Network ads’ preferences at https://www.google.com/ads/preferences/.
Google Tag Manager
We use Google Tag Manage through which website tags can be managed centrally via a user interface. Google Tag Manager only implements tags. No cookies are used and no personal information is collected.
For each third-party data collection, Google will provide a respective privacy policy: https://www.google.com/analytics/tag-manager/use-policy/
However, Google Tag Manager will not access these data. If deactivation has been implemented for certain domains / websites or cookies, it will remain in effect for all tracking tags as far as they are implemented with the Google Tag Manager.
Agreement to Cookies
By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
We use the following cookies:
Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our site. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our site.
Analytical/performance cookies. They allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our site when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our site works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.
Functionality cookies. These are used to recognise you when you return to our site. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).
Targeting cookies. These cookies record your visit to our site, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our site more relevant to you.
If you provide us with your contact details through the website we will record these along with your website usage and may contact you if we consider our services would be of use to you.
What to do if you do not want cookies to be set or want them to be removed
If you do not want us to use cookies when you visit https://member.estgro.com, you should refer to your web browser’s help section. More information is also available on the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s site, All About Cookies.
Schedule 2
Privacy Notice
Arken.legal (UK) Limited.
General Wolfe House, 83 High Street, Westerham. TN16 1PG
Company registration no. 2690082
ICO Registration: Z7453602
Our Data Protection representative can be contacted by email on: info@arken.legal
This privacy notice describes how we collect, use and store personal information about you during and after your business relationship with us, in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018) and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).
Arken.legal (UK) Limited is a data processor for the users of our platform. You, Your Referring Advisor and/or Service Provider (as the case may be) will be the data controller. We are required under the DPA 2018 / UK GDPR to notify you of the information contained in this privacy notice.
We may update this notice at any time. If relevant (and feasible), we will notify you.
It is important that you read this notice, together with any other privacy notices we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using your personal information.
DATA PROTECTION PRINCIPLES
We will comply with all relevant data protection law (including the DPA 2018 / UK GDPR). This requires that the personal information we hold about you must be:
1. Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way.
2. Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes.
3. Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes.
4. Accurate and kept up to date.
5. Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about.
6. Kept securely.
THE KIND OF INFORMATION WE COLLECT AND HOLD ABOUT YOU
Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified, whether directly or indirectly. It does not include data where an individual cannot be identified (anonymous data).
The following data types are entered into our system by you or advisors working on your behalf:
- Full name, gender, date of birth, address, email address and telephone number, family relationships, assets / liabilities, health information about you & your beneficiaries. Information regarding your Will.
We also collect, store and use the following “special categories” of sensitive personal information:
- Information about the race or ethnicity of when a Service Provider creates Islam-compliant Wills or other documents which identify religious preferences and observances;
- Information on medical history or any addictions, or that of any beneficiary.
This personal data is collected through our data capture process and certain elements of it are shared with organisations who support our business operation.
- Our web developers, AWS and payment provider.
Access to personal data on this is permission-based and is stored in the UK. No personal data is transferred outside of the EEA.
We have put measures in place to protect the personal data we process, such as two-factor authentication – further details on these measures can be requested from us at info@arken.legal.
HOW WE WILL USE INFORMATION ABOUT YOU
As a Data Processor:
Our use of your personal data will be dictated by the instructions we are given by your Service Provider who uses our platform.
DATA RETENTION
We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for.
- We will retain User Content until we receive an instruction to delete from you or your Service Provider.
- Any incomplete records or entries will be deleted after a period of six months.
RIGHTS OF ACCESS, CORRECTION, ERASURE & RESTRICTION
It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes during your working relationship with us.
Your Rights:
Subject Access Request – this enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you. To action this request, please email the data protection contact: info@arken.legal.
We require a suitable form of identification and under normal circumstances, we will supply this to you within one calendar month of your request and of identification being received.
No fee is usually payable; however, we may apply an appropriate fee if the request is deemed to be excessive, or repetitive.
Request Correction – this enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
Request Erasure – this enables you to delete or remove personal information when there is no good reason for us to continue processing it.
Object to Processing – in certain circumstances, you have the right to request we suspend the processing of your data. Please contact us if you require more information on this.
Request the Transfer – you have the right to request the transfer of your personal data to a third party. Please contact us if you require more information on this.
Right to Withdraw Consent – where we rely on consent to process your data, you have the right to withdraw this at any time, without giving reason. To withdraw your consent, please contact the data protection officer. Once received, we will not process your data for the reasons you have agreed to, unless we have another legal basis for doing so.
Right to complain – you have the right to complain at any time to the Information Commissioners’ Office (ICO) regarding data protection issues – https://ico.org.uk
We reserve the right to update this privacy notice at any time. If you have any questions about it, please contact us at info@arken.legal.
Last Updated 16 January 2024