At SolarPanelAdvisory.com, (“SPA,” “we,” or “us”), we value your privacy. This privacy policy describes (a) our collection of personal information from users of SolarPanelAdvisory.com, (b) our use and disclosure of that information, and (c) certain terms of your use of this website. By using SolarPanelAdvisory.com, you consent to (i) the collection of your personal information, (ii) the use of your personal information, and (iii) certain terms related to your use of SolarPanelAdvisory.com, all in accordance with this policy.
This brief summary tells you the basics of our privacy commitment to you-how we collect and use your information, how we protect it, and who can see it. We encourage you to read the entire privacy policy below for full details.
“Personal information,” as used in this policy, is information that specifically identifies an individual, such as an individual’s name, address, telephone number, or e-mail address. Personal information may also include information about an individual’s activities, such as, without limitation, information about his or her activity on SolarPanelAdvisory.com, home ownership, home statistics, home energy usage or utility provider. It may also include demographic information, such as date of birth, geographic area, and preferences, when any of this information is linked to personal information that identifies that individual.
Personal information does not include “aggregate” or other non-personally identifiable information. Aggregate information is information that we collect about a group or category of products, services or customers that is not personally identifiable or from which individual identities are removed. We may use and disclose aggregate information, and other non-personally identifiable information, for various purposes.
Passive Information We Collect About You
When you visit SolarPanelAdvisory.com, some information is automatically collected, such as your IP address, browser type, system type, the content and pages that you access on SolarPanelAdvisory.com, “referring URL” (i.e., the page from which you navigated to the SolarPanelAdvisory.com), the pages you navigate to on SolarPanelAdvisory.com, and from which you leave SolarPanelAdvisory.com, as well as the time you spend on SolarPanelAdvisory.com. Certain information such as your city and country we derive from collecting you IP Address. Other information such as what kind of device you are visiting our site on (ie. mobile phone versus desktop computer), we derive from your browser type.
We collect this information passively using technologies such as standard server logs, cookies, and clear GIFs (also known as “Web beacons”). We use passively-collected information to administer, operate, and improve SolarPanelAdvisory.com and our other services and systems, and to provide services and content that are tailored to you. If we link or associate any information gathered through passive means with personal information, we treat the combined information as personal information under this policy. Otherwise, we use information collected by passive means in non-personally identifiable form only.
Also, please be aware that third parties may set cookies on your hard drive or use other means of passively collecting information about your use of their services or content. We do not have access to, or control over, these third-party means of passive data collection.
Personal Information We Collect From You
We may also collect personal information from you, specifically information that you provide to us in a variety of ways on SolarPanelAdvisory.com. For instance, when you request a solar consultation/quote, post a request for information about products or services, request support, or otherwise communicate with us, we collect the personal information that is provided to us. We may collect personal information such as name, e-mail address, city, state, country, other demographic information, and interests and preferences in these manners. We may also save and store an html version of the page in which you submitted a request for information for compliance purposes.
For example, when a user submits their information requesting a quote/consultation about solar energy, we collect the user’s name, email address, phone number, address and other geographic information as well as information about your home and home energy usage.
Google Analytics for Display Advertising
General. We have implemented certain Google Analytics for Display Advertising features as follows:
In using the foregoing Google Analytics for Display Advertising, please note that we do not merge personally-identifiable information that we collect pursuant to this privacy policy with non-personally identifiable information collected using Google Analytics for Display Advertising. We use the non-personally identifiable information using Google Analytics for Display Advertising to learn about what our users are interested in (on non-personally identifiable level) and for remarketing purposes. We do not send this non-personally identifiable information to third parties and we do not modify the Google cookie. We may have third party vendors who place their own cookies on your browser but do not provide any information from the Google Analytics for Display Advertising cookie to them.
Remarketing. We use Remarketing with Google Analytics to advertise our services online to consumers with specific interests. As a result, third-party vendors, including Google, may show our ads on sites across the Internet. We and some of our third-party vendors, including Google, use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookie) and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) together to inform, optimize, and serve ads to you based on your past visits to this site.
Google Display Network Impression Reporting and the DoubleClick Campaign Manager. We and some of our third-party vendors, including Google, use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookies) and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) together to report how your ad impressions, other uses of ad services, and interactions with these ad impressions and ad services are related to your visits to this site.
Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting. We use the non-personally identifiable information using Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting to learn about what our users are interested in (on non-personally identifiable level) and to more effectively remarket to consumers.
Google Adsense. Many third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this site. Google's use of the DoubleClick cookie enables it and its partners to serve ads to users of this site based on their visit to this sites and/or other sites on the Internet. Users may opt out of the use of the DoubleClick cookie for interest-based advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings.
Opting Out. You can opt-out of Google Analytics for Display Advertising and customize your receipt of Google Display Network ads by visiting Google Ad Settings installing and using the tool here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/
Information We Collect from Other Sources
We may receive information about you, including personal information, from third party sources and data providers. And as a result, we may combine this information with other personal information we maintain, receive or collect about you. If we do so, this policy governs any combined information that is personally identifiable.
DNT Signals
Please note that we do not react to “do not track” or DNT signals from your browser.
You may have your telephone or wireless/mobile phone number listed on a state or federal do not call registry. By submitting your personal information when requesting a solar consultation/quote via SolarPanelAdvisory.com, you agree that such act constitutes express written consent to be contacted by us or any third parties that we may share your personal information with. Notwithstanding that your telephone or wireless/mobile phone number that you provided to us may be listed on the Federal Trade Commission’s “Do-Not-Call” List or any state “Do-Not-Call” list, you have authorized us (and any third parties that we may share your personal information) to contact you at such telephone or wireless/mobile phone number in accordance with the Amended Telemarketing Sales Rule, 16 CFR §310 et seq., any applicable Federal Communications Commission’s rules and regulations and any applicable state telemarketing rules and regulations.
Please note that if we contact you and you request that we no longer contact you via telephone, we record your name on a separate “Do Not Call” list maintained by the operators of SPA. We honor your “Do Not Call” request within a reasonable time from the date of your request, in any event, not to exceed thirty days from the date you make such request. Once we place your name on our internal “Do Not Call” list, we will no longer contact you via telephone (unless you submit another inquiry or request another consultation/quote from us subsequent to your initial request). However, we may still contact you via the email or direct mailing address that you provided to us in your submission (or collected from third party sources), pursuant to the terms of this policy.
We allow you to opt-out from receiving other communications from SPA as described in the “opt out” section below.
Please note that our process to honor your “Do Not Call” request impacts only calls may by us or by those entities on our behalf. You may still receive telephone calls from third parties to whom we have shared your personal information (if at all) regarding their products and services in which case you will need to request that those parties not call you, on a case-by-case basis.
Selling Personal Information
We are a lead generation company and are in the business of selling personal information about our users and visitors to third parties, such as, without limitation, solar energy providers and energy efficiency consultants/auditors. When you request a solar consultation/quote or otherwise request that clean energy service providers contact you, we may sell, disclose or otherwise dispose of your personal information to solar energy providers, clean energy service providers or other third party service providers not affiliated with us in order to fulfill your request.
Accordingly, these third parties that purchase or receive your personal information from us may then (i) use your personal information for their own purposes (including for commercial purposes), (ii) contact you regarding their products and services, and/or (iii) disclose or dispose of your personal information to other third parties for their own commercial purposes.
If for any reason you want to opt out of this disclosure, please see the “opt out” section below to learn how.
Please note any third parties to whom we may disclose personal information may have their own privacy policies which describe how they use and disclose personal information. Those policies will govern use, handling and disclosure of your personal information once we have shared it with those third parties as described in this Privacy Policy. If you want to learn more about their privacy practices, we encourage you to visit the websites of those third parties.
Using Your Information to Contact You About Other Products, Services, Offers, etc.
We may also use your personal information to contact you via direct mail, email and/or telemarketing regarding offers, contests, events, news, programs, and other retail opportunities from us and/or selected third parties that we believe may be of interest to you.
We allow you to opt-out from receiving marketing communications from SPA as described in the “opt out” section below.
In addition, we may also share your personal information with our marketing partners or other third parties in order to bring selected retail opportunities, offers, contests, programs, events or news to you via direct mail, email and/or telemarketing. You may have no relationship with these other companies. In addition, we not responsible for the content of any third party communications sent to you and you will be required to opt out of those communications separately, if desired.
Disclosing Your Information as a Part of a Merger, Sale or Other Financing
Also, information about our users, including personal information, may be disclosed and/or sold as part of any merger, acquisition, debt financing, sale of company assets, or similar transaction by us, as well as in the event of an insolvency, bankruptcy or receivership in which personal information could be transferred and/or sold to third parties as one of our business assets.
Using Your Information to Improve SolarPanelAdvisory.com
In addition, we may use personal information to provide services and information that you request; to enhance, improve, operate, and maintain SolarPanelAdvisory.com, our programs, services, website, and other systems; to prevent fraudulent use of SolarPanelAdvisory.com and services; to tailor your user experience; to maintain a record of our dealings with you, and for other administrative purposes.Disclosing Your Information to Help Operate SolarPanelAdvisory.com
We may disclose personal information to third-party service providers (e.g., payment processing and data storage and processing facilities) that assist us in our work. We limit the personal information provided to these service providers to that which is reasonably necessary for them to perform their functions.
Disclosing Your Information if Legally Required
We may also disclose personal information if we believe that doing so is legally required or is in our interest to protect our property or other legal rights (including, but not limited to, enforcement of our agreements), or the rights or property of others.
Using Your Information with Affiliate Companies or Subsidiaries
Although we do not presently have a parent company or any subsidiaries, joint venture partners, or other companies that we control or are under common control with (collectively, “affiliates”), we may in the future. We may share some of all of your personal information with our affiliates, in which case we will seek to require those affiliates to honor this privacy policy.
Using Your Information to Aggregate Statistics
We may disclose aggregate statistics regarding user behavior as a measure of interest in, and use of, our website and e-mails to third parties in the form of aggregate data, such as overall patterns or demographic reports that do not describe or identify any individual user.
Unsubscribing from Company Communications
Since we are in the business of selling personal information about our users to third parties, we must (a) give consumers the right to exercise a cost-free opt-out from having their information shared with or sold to third parties; or (b) upon a consumer’s request, (1) provide the consumer with a list of all the companies to whom we have provided that consumer’s personal information for marketing or commercial purposes and (2) provide the consumer the categories of information shared with the third parties.
You may opt-out from having your information shared with or sold to third parties and you may request the list referenced in subsection (b) in the paragraph above by sending us an email given at the end of this policy. In addition, please note that the list referenced in subjection (b) in the paragraph above is free to the consumer; however, we are only required to respond to one request per year.
If you receive commercial email from us, you may unsubscribe at any time by following the instructions contained within the email. You may also opt-out from receiving commercial email from us by sending us an email or by writing to us at the address given at the end of this policy.
Additionally, if you do not wish to be notified by postal mail regarding products, services, events, programs, and offers that we believe you may find of interest, you may opt-out from such communications by sending us an email or by writing to us at the address given at the end of this policy.
Unsubscribing from Third Party Communications
Any third parties to whom we may disclose personal information may have their own privacy policies which describe how they use and disclose personal information. Those policies will govern use, handling and disclosure of your personal information once we have shared it with those third parties as described in this privacy policy. If you want to learn more about their privacy practices, we encourage you to visit the websites of those third parties.
Please note that our unsubscribe process impacts only the future delivery of electronic mailings disseminated by us on our own behalf. You may still receive electronic mailings sent on behalf of third parties and your personal information may still be shared by us with third parties for use in offline marketing and data appends, including email appends unless you unsubscribe as provided above.
You should also note that unsubscribing from our electronic mailings will not automatically unsubscribe your information from any third party business associates and licensees of the data. Since third party associates and licensee partners maintain separate databases from us, and you will need to unsubscribe from each source individually, if desired. This allows you the freedom to pick and choose which subscriptions to maintain and which to discontinue.
It is our policy that visitors to our Site who are under the age of 13 should not post or provide information on our Site without the consent of their parents. The Child Online Privacy and Protection Act (COPPA) regulates online collection of information from persons under the age of 13. It is our policy to refrain from knowingly collecting or maintaining personal information relating to any person under the age of 18. If you are under the age of 18, please do not supply any personal information through the site. If you are under the age of 18 and have already provided personal information through the site, please have your parent or guardian contact us immediately, so that we can remove such information from our files. Your parent or guardian may contact us at the address below.
For your convenience, SolarPanelAdvisory.com may contain links to other Web sites, products, or services that we do not own or operate. If you choose to visit or use any third-party products or services, please be aware that this policy will not apply to your activities or any information you disclose while interacting with third parties.
SolarPanelAdvisory.com is hosted in the United States and is generally intended for United States visitors. If you visit from the European Union or other regions with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from U.S. law, please be aware that you are transferring personal information to the United States. The United States does not have the SPAe data protection laws as the EU and some other regions. By providing personal information to us, you consent to the transfer of it to the United States and the use of it in accordance with this policy.
We use reasonable security measures that are designed to protect personal information from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. Please note, however, that no data security measures can be guaranteed to be completely effective. Consequently, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any personal information or other information. You transmit personal information to us at your own risk.
A copy of SPA’s Terms of Use <%= link_to 'can be found here', '/terms-of-use', :target => '_blank' %> (the “TOU”). Such TOU may include additional provisions relating to your use of SPA, site restrictions, third party content, informational disclaimers, warranty disclaimers and limitations of liability. Please note that the TOU is expressly incorporated into this privacy policy. BY AGREEING TO THE TERMS OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY, YOU ALSO AGREE TO THE TERMS AS SET FORTH IN THE TOU.
We may occasionally update this policy. When we do, we will also revise the “last updated” date at the end of the policy. Your continued use of SolarPanelAdvisory.com after such changes will be subject to the then-current policy. We encourage you to periodically review this policy to stay informed about how we collect, use, and disclose personal information.
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about this privacy policy, email us at <%= link_to '[email protected]', 'mailto:[email protected]' %>.
This policy was last updated February 11, 2014.