Privacy Policy

This policy explains how OpenCounsel collects, uses, and protects personal data. It applies to visitors to this website, prospective customers, and registered lawyers and firms who use the OpenCounsel platform ("the Service").

Because OpenCounsel is practice-management software used by lawyers to run their own practices, this policy describes two distinct roles OpenCounsel plays with your data — see Section 2.

OpenCounsel acts in two different capacities under Ghana's Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843), depending on whose data is involved:

• As Data Controller — for the account, billing, subscription, and login-activity data OpenCounsel collects directly about a lawyer or firm as its own customer.
• As Data Processor — for client and matter data that a lawyer or firm enters about their own clients. The lawyer or firm remains the data controller for that data; OpenCounsel processes it only on their instructions, to provide the Service.

Account and profile information (name, email, phone, firm name), billing and subscription details, authentication and login activity, and basic device/usage information needed to operate and secure the Service.

Client names and contact details, matter records, documents, and notes that a lawyer or firm enters about their own clients. We do not use this data for our own marketing, analytics, or product benchmarking, and we do not sell it or share it with third parties except as needed to provide the Service or as instructed by the lawyer or firm.

We process Controller-role data on the basis of contractual necessity (to provide the Service you signed up for), legitimate interest (security, fraud prevention, service improvement), and consent where required. Processor-role client-matter data is processed strictly on the instructions of, and under contract with, the lawyer or firm who controls it. Where special personal data is involved, we rely on explicit consent obtained by the controller of that data.

To provide and maintain the Service, process billing, respond to support requests, secure accounts against unauthorized access, and improve the platform. Client-matter data is used only to display it back to the lawyer or firm that entered it.

We share data with a limited set of service providers who help us operate the Service, under contracts that require them to protect it: payment processing, transactional email delivery, SMS/verification messaging, and cloud hosting infrastructure. We do not sell personal data.

Controller-role account and billing data is retained for as long as an account is active, and for a reasonable period afterward to meet legal and accounting obligations. Processor-role client-matter data is retained, exported, or deleted according to the instructions of the lawyer or firm that controls it — not on a schedule set by OpenCounsel.

We use industry-standard technical and organizational measures — including encryption in transit, access controls, and regular security review — appropriate to the sensitivity of the data involved. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we continually work to improve our safeguards.

As a data subject, you have the right to access, correct, and request deletion of your own account data, and to object to certain processing. If you are a client of a lawyer who uses OpenCounsel, your data rights over your matter information are exercised through that lawyer or firm, since they — not OpenCounsel — are the controller of that data.

We use strictly necessary cookies to keep you signed in and to secure your session. We do not use third-party advertising cookies.

The Service is intended for use by licensed legal professionals and their firms, not by children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children.

Where data is processed or stored outside Ghana by one of our service providers, we take steps to ensure it receives a level of protection consistent with Act 843.

We may update this policy from time to time; the "Last updated" date above reflects the most recent revision. If you have questions about this policy or wish to exercise a data right, contact us at privacy@opencounsel.app or through our contact page.