Website and Free Resources Disclaimer

1. What these resources are

Preferred Data Corporation publishes free guides, checklists, reports, tools, a glossary, policy templates and blog posts on this website (together, the "free resources"). They are general information, provided for educational purposes only.

The free resources are not legal advice, and they are not insurance, tax, accounting, compliance or other professional advice. They are not a substitute for advice from a licensed professional who knows your facts.

2. Does using them make us your lawyer or adviser?

No. Reading or using the free resources does not create an attorney-client, consulting or other professional relationship between you and Preferred Data Corporation. Preferred Data Corporation is not a law firm and is not an insurer.

If you are a Preferred Data Corporation client, your service agreement governs the services we provide to you. The free resources do not add to it or change it.

3. Are they guaranteed to be accurate and current?

No. The free resources are provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including warranties of accuracy, completeness, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement.

Laws, regulations, insurer requirements, industry standards and contracts change, sometimes quickly. Each resource is current only as of the date it was published or last reviewed, which we show on the resource where we can, and may not reflect later changes. It also may not apply to your state, country, industry, contracts or situation.

4. What do the free tools actually tell me?

Our free tools give results for planning only. They are based on what you enter, on information the tool looks up when you run it, and on our own assumptions. Their results are not certifications, audits, formal risk assessments or guarantees.

Some tools are named as assessments or readiness checks. That name describes the questions they ask, not a formal assessment of your organization. For example: an SPRS estimate from our calculator is not an official score and is not a submission to the Supplier Performance Risk System. A cyber insurance readiness score is not an underwriting decision, a quote or a promise of coverage; only your insurer decides what it will cover. An email security check is a point-in-time lookup of public DNS records, which can change at any moment, and it does not test everything that protects your email. A website analysis is an automated, point-in-time check of the address you enter, and it does not test everything about your site. Budget, cost and scoring tools rely on assumptions that may not match your business.

Most of our tools work out your results in your browser. Some save your answers there so you can come back to them, or save the email address you gave us so they do not ask for it again. A few contact other services so they can run. The email security checker asks public DNS services, such as Cloudflare and Google, for a domain's records. The website analyzer uses Cloudflare Turnstile to block automated use, which runs in your browser and which our server checks with Cloudflare, sending along your IP address. It then has our server fetch the page you name, along with its robots.txt and sitemap files, and check its security certificate. Our server may also send the site's host name to a page-ranking service, and your browser sends the page's address to Google PageSpeed Insights to test it.

Some tools ask for your email address before they show your full results, and others let you ask us to review your results. When you give us your email address for either reason, it is sent to us with the page you were on, how you found our website and, for most tools, a summary of your answers and results, and we keep it in the customer relationship management, marketing automation and workflow automation services we use. Our website does not send your results to you automatically, but a member of our team may contact you about them.

What you enter in a tool and any contact details you give us are handled, once they reach us, as described in our Privacy Policy; outside services handle what they receive under their own terms. Like the rest of this website, tool pages may also run analytics, advertising, session-recording and form-tracking services, which can record how you use the page and what you submit in a form; see our Cookie Policy. Do not enter confidential or regulated information. Where a tool asks for figures such as revenue or earnings, a rounded estimate is enough.

5. Can I use the templates and checklists as they are?

No. Policy templates and sample documents are starting points. Adapt them to your organization, and have qualified legal counsel review them before you adopt, publish or rely on them. Checklists are general guidance; check any step that involves a legal duty with your attorney. You are solely responsible for how you adapt, adopt and use them.

Each policy template also carries its own notice, which you must acknowledge before you download it.

Incident response templates, including the breach notification procedure, describe common legal triggers and deadlines in general terms. Whether, when, and how you must notify anyone depends on your facts and on the laws and contracts that apply to you, and only your attorney can advise you on that. In an actual incident, contact your attorney and your cyber insurer first.

6. What if I find an error?

Tell us. Use our contact page or call (336) 886-3282, and include the page address and what you believe is wrong. Our editorial standards explain how we source, review, and correct our content. A correction does not change the rest of this disclaimer: always check a free resource against its cited sources and your own advisers before you act on it.

7. Who is responsible if something goes wrong?

You are. You are responsible for the decisions you make and the actions you take, including any decision based on the free resources.

Following a guide, checklist, template or tool result does not guarantee compliance, insurance coverage, or protection from a cyberattack or data breach.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Preferred Data Corporation and its officers, directors, employees and agents are not responsible or liable for any loss or damage of any kind, whether direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special or punitive, arising from or related to your access to, use of, or reliance on the free resources, including any error or omission in them. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain warranties to be excluded or certain liability to be limited, so some of these limits may not apply to you.

8. What about links to other websites?

The free resources link to and quote government agencies, standards bodies, vendors and other third parties. Those links are provided for convenience and to show our sources. A link is not an endorsement, and we are not responsible for the content, accuracy, availability or practices of any third-party site. Product and company names belong to their owners.

9. What should I do before I act?

Consult a licensed attorney about your legal obligations, and your insurer or insurance broker about your coverage, before you act on anything in the free resources that involves a legal obligation or insurance coverage. Where a resource discusses a contract, such as a defense contract clause or an insurance application, read the actual document and ask the party that issued it.

10. How does this relate to your other terms?

This disclaimer adds to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy; it does not replace them. Governing law and dispute resolution are covered in section 16 of the Terms of Service.

We may update this disclaimer at any time. The effective date at the top of this page shows when it last changed.

11. Contact Information

For questions about this disclaimer, please contact us at: