Privacy Policy

Community Energy Wales aims and tries to consistently be a leader in online privacy rights. We have created this privacy statement in order to demonstrate our commitment to you, our customer, through transparent, easy-to-understand information regarding our data practices. You will understand what we collect, why we collect it and what we do with it. This policy applies to all Community Energy Wales brands, websites, apps, products, services, commissions, installations or technologies (we will collectively refer to these as “Services”). Additional privacy policies and practices for certain Services may be included at a later date whenever deemed necessary.

Information Collection: Account Level

At an Account Level, we collect and use information necessary to enable you to purchase and manage Services, provide you with support for those Services and to curate your experience with us. Some information is collected and used based on contractual consent and other is based on informed consent, which may be changed at any time.

• Basic Account Information.

Information Collected. Our site uses forms in which you give us contact information (such as your name, address, phone number, fax number, billing information, residential address, IP address and email address) so you can create an account, place orders, request information, and request support help. As you use your account, we may also collect support requests and other related types of information that is specific to the management of your account and Services with us.

Legal Requirement. This type of information is legally and/or contractually required to be able to purchase and use Services. For example, we are required to be able to verify this type of information upon request by our payment processor. It is also required to be able to serve legal notices to you and is mandated by certain Services we offer. We are required by law to verify that the information provided is accurate and serve legally required notices. Consent for the collection, use and retention of this information for these purposes is considered to be contractually given for the duration of your use of such Service and any legally required retention period.

• How We Use This Information.

Sending Emails. Legally Required. As noted above, we use emails to communicate with you, to confirm your placed orders, to send information that you have requested and to serve legally or contractually required communications. Legally required emails cover verification emails, renewal notices and any other policy or procedure created by Community Energy Wales or our partners. Or, we may deem a change to one of our policies to be material and, therefore, determine a duty (though not a legal requirement) to inform you of this change. These types of communications do not fall under any of our opt-out procedures.

Sending Emails: Service Communications & Promotional Communications. We also may use this information when it is important for us to contact you regarding functionality changes to Services you have purchased and/or our website and provide customer service (“Service Communications”.) By creating an account with us and/or purchasing or availing our Services, you agree to receive these types of communication and acknowledge that they are not optional. We also use this information to share details about new services and special offers we think you’ll find valuable (“Promotional Communications”.) You are able to opt-out of receiving Promotional Communications (or opt-into) by emailing us at info@communityenergywales.org.uk or through the preferences in your account panel or the unsubscribe instructions contained in the email communication.

Legally Required Disclosure. We will never share your information without your permission or in ways other than as outlined in this policy. The only exceptions to this are when we are required by law, in the good faith belief that such action is necessary in order to comply with the law, or when we must comply with a legal process. Examples of these types of exceptions are court orders and subpoenas. In each of these situations, we will carefully review the documentation provided and only comply if such documentation meets requisite legal standards.

Changes in Our Practices. If we change our information-handling practices or other privacy aspects, we will post those changes on this privacy statement. If we make any material changes, we will notify you by means of a notice on this site prior to the change becoming effective, and we may also try to notify you through email of the privacy changes, if necessary.

• Retention & Deletion of Account Information.

Personal Information Following Termination of Account. When your Community Energy Wales account is cancelled (either voluntarily or involuntarily) all of your personally identifiable information is placed in “deactivated” status within our corresponding databases. However, you should know that deactivation of your account does not mean your personally identifiable information has been deleted from our database entirely. We will retain and use your personally identifiable information, if necessary, in order to resolve disputes, enforce our agreements and/or as required by laws or regulations. Thus, it may not be immediately deleted upon request and is an approved exception to GDPR (and other privacy protection policies such as CCPA) deletion rights. By creating an account with us, using our support services and/or purchasing Services, you acknowledge and agree to these terms of retention.

Information Collection: Site Usage

• Device Information. We collect information from your devices (computers, mobile phones, tablets, etc.), such as IP address, cookie information, so that we may recognise your devices to provide you with legal notices (if required by your country of residence), support services (when you contact our support staff) and personalised experiences on our site and emails. Certain types of collection and use may be optional and controlled via our cookie tools.
• Information from Others. We are dedicated to continually improving your experience on our website. Like many companies, we use third-parties to help us track browsing, identify technical issues and provide ways to enhance your overall experience. Several of the tools that we use and what they do are:
  • Log Files: We use information gathered about you from our site statistics via log files provided by third-party tracking partners (for example, your IP address) to help diagnose problems with our server and to administer our website. We also gather broad demographic information from this data to help us improve our site and make your browsing and purchasing experiences more enjoyable. This is not linked to any personally identifiable information.
  • Cookies: Our site uses cookies to keep track of your session information. We do link the information we store in cookies to personally identifiable information you submit while on our site. We use both session ID cookies and persistent cookies. A session ID cookie expires when you close your browser. A persistent cookie remains on your hard drive for an extended period of time. You can remove persistent cookies by following directions provided in your internet browser’s “help” file. We also use cookies to store your username if you request to have your username remembered during login. That information will be used to pre-fill the login form at a later time. If you are referred to our website through an ad or a partner, we will store the referral information in the cookies. The use of cookies by our partners, affiliates, tracking utility company and service providers is not covered by our privacy statement. We do not have access or control over these cookies. Our tracking utility company uses session ID cookies to help us improve our site and make your browsing and purchasing experiences more enjoyable. Please see your cookie preference panel for additional instructions on how to opt-in and opt-out of cookies. The cookie preference panel is accessible once you have acted upon the cookie policy pop-up. Find more information regarding the categories of cookies we use and our specific cookie policy here. By continuing to use and navigate our sites, services, applications, tools or messaging, you are agreeing to our use of cookies described in this Privacy Policy.
• Surveys: From time to time, we request information from users via surveys. Participation in these surveys is completely voluntary, and the user, therefore, has a choice whether or not to respond and disclose this information. Information requested may include contact information (such as name, email) and demographic information (such as postcode). Survey information will be used for purposes of monitoring or improving the use and satisfaction of this site and our Services.
• Testimonials: We post customer testimonials on our website which may contain personally identifiable information. We do obtain the customer’s consent via email, prior to posting the testimonial, to post their name along with their testimonial. If you would like to request the removal of your testimonial from the site, contact us at info@communityenergywales.org.uk.
• Public Blog: Our website offers a publicly accessible blog. You should be aware that any information you provide in this area may be read, collected, and used by others who access it. To request removal of your personal information from our blog, contact us at info@communityenergywales.org.uk. In some cases, we may not be able to remove your personal information. If this occurs, we will let you know if we are unable to do so and why.
• Third-Party Offerings & Websites: Our site also contains links to other third-party websites, especially where we offer their products or services. Community Energy Wales (www.communityenergy.wales) is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites. We encourage you to carefully read the privacy statement of any website you visit.

How We Share This Information

Community Energy Wales shares information within its affiliated brands, companies and other partners. We also share information we have about you for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, including to provide Services that you have requested. We do not share information that individually identifies our customers with companies, organisations or individuals outside of Community Energy Wales, unless one of the following circumstances applies:

• With Your Consent. We will share information with companies, organisations or individuals outside of Community Energy Wales when we have your consent. This includes third-party providers who offer products or services. These providers will each have their own privacy policies and will be identified appropriately.
• Within Community Energy Wales. Information may also be shared within Community Energy Wales to provide support and delivery of Services you purchase.
• With Partners. We may share your information with non-affiliated companies who are:
  • Advertising, Analytics and Business Partners (Limited to Non-Personally Identifiable Information). We may share aggregated or pseudonymous information (including demographic information) with partners, such as measurement analytics, apps, or other companies. We do not, however, share information that personally identifies you (personally identifiable information is information such as name or email address.) When you use third-party apps, websites or other products integrated with our Services, they may collect information about your activities subject to their own terms and privacy policies.
  • For Legal and Other Purposes. We may access, preserve and disclose information to investigate, prevent, or take action in connection with: (i) legal process and legal requests; (ii) enforcement of our Universal Terms of Service; (iii) claims that any content violates the rights of third-parties; (iv) requests for customer service; (v) technical issues; (vi) protecting the rights, property or personal safety of Community Energy Wales, its users or the public; (vii) establishing or exercising our legal rights or defending against legal claims; or (viii) as otherwise required by law. This may include responding to lawful governmental requests.

Site Security

Our site has security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. We use 128-bit (or higher) SSL security to encrypt any transmissions when you provide credit card information, personal data, etc. No method of electronic storage or transmission over the internet is 100% secure, however. Therefore, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Protecting Children’s Privacy

Our Services are for a general audience. We do not knowingly collect, use, or share information that could reasonably be used to identify children under age 18 without prior parental consent or consistent with applicable law.

Data Processing and Transfers

When you use or interact with any of our Services, you consent to the data processing, sharing, transferring and uses of your information as outlined in this Privacy Policy, which will only be done when necessary for the performance of our contract with you, when we have your consent to do so, or subject to the appropriate standard contractual clauses. You authorise us to transfer, process, store and use your information in countries other than your own in accordance with this Privacy Policy and to provide you with Services.

Compliance with legal, regulatory and law enforcement requests. We cooperate with government and law enforcement officials and private parties to enforce and comply with the law. We may disclose any information about you to government or law enforcement officials or private parties as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate to respond to claims and legal process (such as subpoena requests), to protect our property and rights or the property and rights of a third party, to protect the safety of the public or any person, or to prevent or stop activity we consider to be illegal or unethical.

To the extent we are legally permitted to do so, we may take reasonable steps to notify you if we are required to provide your personal information to third parties as part of legal process. We will also share your information to the extent necessary to comply with any regulations and policies.

Other Important Information

This Privacy Policy Applies Only to Community Energy Wales. This Privacy Policy does not apply to the practices of companies that Community Energy Wales does not own or control, or to people that Community Energy Wales does not employ or manage. In addition, some third-party products may have different privacy policies and practices that are not subject to this Privacy Policy.

Changes

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time, so you should check it periodically. If we make changes that are material, we will provide you with appropriate notice before such changes take effect.

Questions & Suggestions

For privacy and GDPR related matters, you can contact us at info@communityenergywales.org.uk.

If you have questions, suggestions or wish to make a complaint, please contact us by email at info@communityenergywales.org.uk