The Energy Conservatory Privacy Policy

Effective Date: November 2, 2018

 

This Privacy Policy explains The Energy Conservatory’s data practices, defines our users’ (“you,” “your,” or “Users”) privacy options, and describes how your information is collected and used by The Energy Conservatory (“we,” “us,” “our,” or “TEC”). 

 

This Privacy Policy, along with our Terms of Use governs your use the TEC website at www.energyconservatory.com, (the “Site”), the software programs Users may download and install through the Site and through iTunes and Google Play app stores  (collectively, with all documentation and updates, the “Apps”), and any information we may access through social media platforms. For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, we will refer to all of these access points as the TEC system (“System”).  

By using the TEC System, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use.

 

Revisions to the Privacy Policy

We may update this policy from time to time and will mark new versions with a corresponding effective date. We will post any updates to the Privacy Policy on the Site and in the relevant App stores. Your continued use of the System constitutes your agreement to our then-current Privacy Policy. 

 

What Information is Collected? 

 

Information Collected Directly from You 

We may collect personal information about you in connection with your use of our System. Our lawful bases to collect this information includes fulfilling a contract with you, to provide the System, TEC’s legitimate interest, and/or your consent.

 

For example, this information may be voluntarily provided through the Site when you sign up for the TEC newsletter, register an account , fill out a “Contact Us” form, submit information in connection with a purchase or as part of other online services, post comments and reviews, or register for an event. The information we may collect through the Site and any services provided through the Site includes, but may not be limited to:  

• Name;
• Username and password;
• Email address, phone number, mailing address, and other contact information;
• Financial information necessary to process a purchase or other request;
• Business affiliations and employment position information; 
• Name, contact information, and password to create an account through the System; and
• Other information related to your requests or inquiries.

 

The information we may collect through the download, installation, and use of the Apps includes, but may not be limited to:  

• Name;
• Username and password;
• Email address; 
• Setup information provided by Users’ customers to Users, including contact information, such as Users’ customers’ first names, last names, phone numbers, physical addresses, and email addresses;
• Data from device sensors; 
• Usage and performance information of energy appliances; and
• Other information related to your requests or inquiries.

 

Information Collected Automatically 

Some of the information we collect through the System occurs automatically. We use tracking technologies such as cookies, log files, and pixel tags to automatically collect information when users visit our System. Our lawful basis for collection of this data is our legitimate interests, necessary for completing your requests and maintaining a functional System, and/or your consent. 

 

Information we collect through the Site includes but may not be limited to:

• IP address and location to measure our website traffic and to help provide a more personalized experience; 
• Information regarding your browser and other technical specifications required to use our System;
• Your transaction history relating to the use of our products and services;
• Computer data or files, often called “cookies,” which may be sent by your web browser and stored on an individual computer to allow our server to “recognize” you through the navigation of the Site, and for us to credit your account for various online transactions; and
• Computer data files, often called “web beacons” that are collected from emails or links on third-party sites that allow our server to evaluate the popularity of those links or the information contained in emails or on third-party sites.

 

For more information, see the “Cookies and Similar Technologies” section below. 

 

When you download, install, or use the Apps, we may use automatic means to collect information about your mobile device and about your use of the Apps. Information we collect includes but may not be limited to:

 

• Usage Details. When you access and use the Apps, we may automatically collect certain details of your access to and use of the Apps, including but not limited to your IP address, search history, how much time you spend on the web site, links and pages you click on while on the web site. 
• Device Information. We may collect information about your mobile device and internet connection, including the device’s unique device identifier, IP address, operating system, browser type, mobile network information, and telephone number; and
• Error reports sent by users containing a user’s e-mail address and device information. 

 

Information Collected by Users Through the Apps 

Users may collect information regarding their customers’ energy efficiency using the Apps. Users’ use of Users’ customers’ data collected through the Apps is governed by Users’ own separate privacy policies and terms of use. If we find that a User is acting in violation of our Privacy Policy or Terms of Use, we may, at our sole discretion, terminate User’s access to the Apps. 

 

Collecting Information from Children Under the Age of 16

Our System is not designed for children, and we do not knowingly collect information from any person under the age of 16. 

 

How Is the Information We Collect Used?

We collect information about you in order to provide you with services, applications, and products, and also to collect information that is necessary for the System to work properly. 

 

We use personal information collected through the Site for a variety of purposes related to our business, including but not limited to: 

• Providing services and support
  • Performing the essential functions of the System, including responding to inquiries, providing manuals and applications, fulfilling orders and requests, processing payments, providing support and troubleshooting, and communicating with users about their use of the System or regarding a user initiated inquiry on the System.
• Communicating with users about products or services
  • Sending or initiating direct marketing programs, such as newsletters or information about new products or services we are offering; using content from social media platforms where users discuss our products or use a hashtag related to our products; and following up in response to inquiries. 
• Personalizing user experiences on our System
  • Tailoring content on the System based on user location, preferences, and other personalization factors.
• Analytics and System improvement
  • Tracking information about your visits to our Site or use of the System to allow us to provide better service; using certain online preferences in the aggregate across all users to evaluate the System and develop additional products and services to offer.
• Compliance with legal obligations
  • Sharing information to comply with the law or a legal proceeding, such as in response to a subpoena or court order. 
• Other purposes necessary to carry out our obligations under this Privacy Policy or our Terms of Use.  

 

We also collect information about you through the Apps in order to provide you the Apps and for the Apps to work properly. We use personal information for a variety of purposes related to our business, including but not limited to: 

 

• Provide the Apps and Their Content
  • Performing the essential functions of the Apps, including responding to inquiries, providing manuals and instructions, providing support and troubleshooting, and communicating with users about their use of the Apps or regarding a user initiated inquiry on the Apps.
• Communicating with users about products or services
  • Following up in response to inquiries and notifying you when App updates are available or of any changes to products or services offered through the Apps. 
• Personalizing user experiences on our Apps
  • Tailoring content on the App based on user location, preferences, and other personalization factors. 
• App Improvement
  • Receiving error reports to allow us to debug and provide better service.
• Compliance with legal obligations
  • Sharing information to comply with the law or a legal proceeding, such as in response to a subpoena or court order. 
• Other purposes necessary to carry out our obligations under this Privacy Policy or our Terms of Use.  

 

Disclosure of Information

We may share information, in the aggregate, regarding your App performance and your online browsing preferences to evaluate our products or allow the third parties we work with to better serve our users. We will not share personally identifiable information in these instances, other than as described in this Privacy Policy. We will not share your information with third parties to directly market their products to you. 

 

We may provide user information to third-party service providers or vendors for purposes including but not limited to: 

• Initiating direct marketing programs on our behalf;
• Data tracking;
• Maintenance or development of our System;
• Development of our web design, online products, services, or customer service, or new product development;
• Other contracted promotional opportunities provided to our users. 

 

Sharing with Affiliates   
We may also share personal information with our distributors regarding your requests and to provide specific services to you. Any distributor website, system, social media page, or marketing campaign is governed by the terms of the distributor’s privacy policy and terms of use. We may also share this information with any subsidiaries, affiliates, assigns, successors, or other related entities and their respective owners.

Legal Requirements       
We may also share your personal information in connection with law enforcement requests or in response to investigations, subpoenas, court orders, or other legal processes to establish or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims, or as otherwise required by law.

Business Transfers

We may also disclose your information to a third party as part of reorganization or a sale of the assets of TEC or its subsidiaries or divisions.  Any third party to which TEC transfers or sells the System or related assets will have the right to continue to use the personal and other information that you provide to us.

 

Cookies and Similar Technologies

We use cookies, pixel tags, and similar technologies to gather information about your use of our System and to customize your experience using the System. 

 

Cookies 

Cookies are small data files that help us keep track of your usage of the System. Many of the cookies we use enable the System to function as you would expect it to. Cookies enable the System to remember things, like your login information so you do not have to re-enter it, items in your shopping cart when you navigate away from the page, user preferences, and other personalized settings. Cookies also enable us to track and analyze user behavior in order to improve our System. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies but you can choose to accept or decline certain types of cookies if you prefer. However, declining cookies may impact the functionality of the System and in some cases you may not be able to access the functions of the System. We use the following categories of cookies on the System:

 

• Session cookies
  • Session cookies are stored on the user’s hard drive temporarily and are deleted when the user ends the browsing session. Session cookies are useful for things like keepings item in a shopping cart while the user continues to browse. 
• Persistent cookies
  • Persistent cookies stay on the user’s hard drive until they expire, even after the browser is closed. Persistent cookies are useful for remembering things like login information, so users do not have to enter their password every time they visit the System. 
• Third-party cookies
  • Third party cookies are not installed directly by our System, but by third parties such as advertisers. Third party cookies are used to track advertising preferences from site to site, and to gather data about users’ browsing habits in order to improve the user experience.
• Clear GIFs
  • Clear GIFs (also called pixel tags or web beacons) are small files embedded in websites that tell us what content a user accesses and how users navigate the System. Clear GIFs enable us to track and analyse user behavior on the System in order to make it more intuitive and user friendly.

 

• How We Use Cookies
  • We use cookies for a variety of reasons. The categories of purposes for which we use cookies include:
• Strictly Necessary Cookies
  • These cookies are required for the System to function. The information collected relates to operation of the System and enables us to provide you with basic System functionality. The only way to opt out of the use of these cookies is to not use the System, as the System will not function properly without them. 
• Analytical/Performance Cookies
  • These cookies collect information about your use of the System, including which pages you visit, and whether you experience any errors. The information collected is only used to analyze how the System is being accessed and used in order for us to improve the System and your experience using it. 
• Functionality Cookies
  • We use these cookies to remember your choices, settings, or preferences from one visit to the next. The information stored by these cookies includes things like your country of origin, your language, and any changes you have made to customizable areas of the System.
• Targeting Cookies
  • These cookies collect information designed to customize your experience on the System and other sites. These cookies record information about your visit to the System including links clicked and pages viewed in order to tailor marketing to your interests and measure the effectiveness of our marketing strategies.
  • We may also use third-party vendors, such as Google Analytics, to advertise to our users online. These third-party vendors may display TEC product advertisements on other websites based on your internet usage. More specifically, these vendors use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytic cookie) and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) together to inform, optimize, and serve ads based on your past visits to the Site or another site affiliated with TEC products or services. Google’s Privacy Policy is available here:            https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en along with information on how Google uses information from sites that use its services: https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites?hl=en. You can opt-out of Google Analytics for Display Advertising by using Google’s Ads Settings.

Cookies We Use

• Google Analytics
• Google AdWords 
• Doubleclick
• eTrigue
• Facebook Connect 

Your Cookie Options
Most browsers allow you to control and/or delete cookies as you wish – for details, see aboutcookies.org. You can delete all cookies that are already on your computer and you can set most browsers to prevent them from being placed. Some browsers will allow you to block all cookies, while others will allow you to set up rules about which cookies to accept from which site, depending on your preferences. If you do block cookies, however, you may experience some functionality issues and some services within the system may not work for you. 

Each browser manufacturer deals with user cookie options slightly differently. Follow the help pages provided by your browser manufacturers to managing cookies on their platform.

Third Party Websites and Links

Our System may contain links to other websites. These websites may have privacy policies different than our Privacy Policy. The System may also contain certain social media icons or widgets. Although you can view the material we have linked to, you may have to create an individual account or register to use these third-party social media sites to use interactive features. Any interaction on social media or other third-party websites is not governed by this privacy policy, but by the terms of use and privacy policy of the particular platform. 

 

Data Retention

We retain data collected from you only for as long as necessary to complete the purpose for which it was collected or to fulfil our legal requirements. 

 

International Data Processing

TEC is located in the United States and all data related to the System is collected and processed by TEC in the U.S. If you are not located in the U.S., your personal data will therefore be transferred to, processed, and stored in a country outside of the country where you live. By submitting your personal information to us, you are consenting to the processing of your personal information in the U.S. To the extent some of our Users or distributors need to collect and share or permit us to facilitate collection and sharing of personal data to enable our services, it is the responsibility of those Users and distributors to comply with all relevant notice and consent requirements of any data privacy laws or regulations. 

 

For European Union data subjects, all personal data will be processed for lawful purposes in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and as described in this Privacy Policy. If your information is only collected based upon your consent and not for other lawful purposes you may be entitled to withdraw consent by contacting us at info@energyconservatory.com. Such withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing prior to the withdrawal of consent. Further, withdrawal of consent does not affect processing of information based on other lawful bases of processing other than consent. 

 

We encourage you to contact us regarding any issue or concern at info@energyconservatory.com. European Union data subjects may file a complaint with a data protection authority regarding our processing of your personal data. For more information, please contact your local data protection authority. Contact information of European supervisory authorities is available here:          http://ec.europa.eu/justice/article-29/structure/data-protection-authorities/index_en.htm.    

 

Data Subject Rights

European Union data subjects may have certain rights under the GDPR, including the following: 

• Right of Access
  • You may the right to access data collected about you. If you would like to know exactly what information we have collected about you and how it has been used, please contact us. 
• Right of Rectification
  • You may have a right to correct any incorrect or incomplete information we have about you. To request a correction, please contact us. 
• Right to Erasure
  • In certain circumstances, you may have the right to request that we delete your personal information. To make a request for erasure, please contact us. 
• Right to Restrict Processing
  • In certain circumstances, you may have the right to restrict the processing of your personal information. To make a request to restrict processing, please contact us. 
• Right to Data Portability
  • You may have the right to receive personal data we have collected from you in an accessible format. You also have the right to have the personal information we have collected from you transferred to another controller. To submit a request to have your information transferred, please contact us.  
• Right to Object
  • You may have the right to object to the processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes. To object to the processing of your personal data, please contact us.
• Rights Related to Automated Decision Making Including Profiling 
  • You may have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on an automated process (no human involvement) which produces legal effects or significantly affects you in a similar way. We will not make these types of decisions by solely automated processed. If you believe that an automated decision making process was applied to you, please contact us. 

 

How is User Information Protected?

We maintain administrative, physical, and technical safeguards for all user information collected in our System. 

Your Other Options

By providing information to us or using our System, you are consenting to our use of your data as outlined in this Privacy Policy. While we work hard to use and disclose our users’ personal information only for the purposes identified above, you can choose not to provide personal information or limit the personal information obtained by us as follows:

• You may have your contact information removed from our marketing lists to inform users of new or relevant products, services, and special offers by clicking on the unsubscribe link in any communication received from us, or by emailing us at     info@energyconservatory.com;
• You may limit the collection of “cookies” through your browser settings. However, this may disable our ability to provide you with the most relevant products or information regarding the System; and 
• You may limit the ability of Google Analytics to track your online activity, as outlined in the “Behavioral Advertising” section.

 

Your California Privacy Rights

Access and Correction Rights

California Civil Code § 1798.83 permits users that are California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please contact us. 

 

Do Not Track Signals

At this time, the System does not respond to Do Not Track signals. 

 

Contacting Us

For additional information pertaining to our Privacy Policy, please contact:   

            

The Energy Conservatory 

info@energyconservatory.com

 

2801 21st Ave. S

Suite 160

Minneapolis, MN 55407

+1-612-827-1117