Privacy Policy
Last updated:
Overview
Privacy matters to us, and the people who reach this practice tend to have more reason than most to care about who sees what. This policy lays out how we handle information collected through this website (drmantonya.com).
Information we collect
This site is mostly informational. There are two narrow places where we pick up data:
- Contact form submissions. If you use the contact form, we collect your name, email address, service interest, and message content. We use that to reply. Nothing else.
- Email correspondence. If you write to us at contact@drmantonya.com, we keep the thread so we can deliver what you've asked for.
Information we do not collect
- No cookies for advertising. No behavioral tracking.
- No sale, sharing, or trade of personal information with third parties.
- No information collected from minors.
How we use information
Anything you send through the contact form or email is used for these purposes only:
- To respond to your inquiry.
- To answer questions about our professional services.
- To schedule a consultation if you've asked for one.
Clinical records
This website does not handle clinical, medical, or psychological records. Any clinical records created during professional services are kept separately and follow the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), California law, and applicable professional ethics standards. Clinical privacy practices live under a separate Notice of Privacy Practices that you receive at the time of service.
Third-party services
The site uses these third-party services:
- Google Fonts. Typography. Google may pick up limited technical data (IP address, browser information) when the fonts load.
Data security
This website is served over HTTPS with TLS encryption. We take reasonable steps to protect anything you send through the contact form.
Your rights (California residents)
Under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), California residents have the right to:
- Know what personal information we hold.
- Ask us to delete it.
- Opt out of the sale of personal information. (We don't sell it.)
Protection of immigration client records
Our practice works with immigration clients who carry privacy risks most clients never have to think about. The protections below apply to every evaluation record we handle.
Legal protections
- Confidentiality under California medical-privacy law (including the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act) limits when your mental-health information may be disclosed without your consent. Because a forensic evaluation is prepared for submission in an immigration case rather than for treatment, the psychotherapist-patient privilege recognized in Jaffee v. Redmond (518 U.S. 1, 1996) and California Evidence Code 1014 may not fully apply to it, so ask your immigration attorney about the protections for your specific records.
- Attorney work product protections may apply to evaluations prepared at the direction of an immigration attorney for use in a legal proceeding. These protections are limited and can be waived, for example when a report is filed with an immigration agency, so ask your attorney how they apply to your case.
- California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA) goes further than federal HIPAA. Written authorization is required before any medical information leaves our control.
Government access
- Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) administrative subpoenas are not self-enforcing. They cannot compel a psychologist to hand over records without a court order.
- I will never voluntarily disclose client records, client lists, appointment records, or the contents of an evaluation to ICE, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), or any other government agency.
- Any subpoena or court order that arrives goes to legal counsel first, gets reviewed, and gets challenged on the client's behalf before a single page of records leaves the office.
- Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) cases sit under an extra layer of protection: 8 U.S.C. 1367 prohibits government officials from disclosing information about VAWA applicants.
Technical safeguards
Our practice will run these safeguards on every record we hold:
- Client records stored on encrypted systems with AES-256 encryption at rest.
- Data transmissions over TLS 1.3 in transit.
- Multi-factor authentication on every system that touches client data.
- Full-disk encryption on every device used for practice work.
- Reports delivered only to the referring attorney through encrypted channels.
- No client data on unencrypted devices, personal email accounts, or consumer cloud services. None.
- Remote wipe on all practice devices.
Your client's evaluation records sit behind layered legal privilege and technical security. No government agency can reach them without a valid court order, and any such order will be challenged.
Contact
For privacy questions or to exercise your rights, write to us at contact@drmantonya.com.
Changes to this policy
We will update this policy when something material changes. The updated date at the top of the page is the source of truth.