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Privacy Policy

June 2, 2020
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ACEEE Website Privacy Policy

Last Updated: June 2021
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The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (“ACEEE”, “we”, or “us”) wants you to be familiar with how we collect, use, and disclose information. This Privacy Policy describes our practices in connection with information that we collect through:

  • Websites operated by us from which you are accessing this Privacy Policy (the “Websites”);
  • Our social media pages on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram (collectively, our “Social Media Pages”);
  • HTML-formatted email messages that we send to you that link to this Privacy Policy or other communications with you; and
  • Offline business interactions you have with us.

Collectively, we refer to the Websites, Social Media Pages, emails, and offline business interactions as the “Services.”

This Privacy Policy does not cover the processing of information of current or prospective donors of ACEEE in the context of making a donation to ACEEE. For more information about our donor privacy practices, please review our Donor Privacy Policy.

Personal Information

“Personal Information” is information that identifies you as an individual or relates to an identifiable individual. The Services collect Personal Information, including:

  • Name
  • Title and job title
  • Organization, organization type, and industry
  • Postal address
  • Telephone number
  • Email address
  • Credit and debit card information
  • Account information (e.g., such as, username, password, registrations for events and conferences, and newsletter interests)

Collection of Personal Information

We and our service providers may collect Personal Information in a variety of ways, including:

  • Through the Services:
    • We collect Personal Information through the Services, for example, when you sign up for a newsletter, register an account to access the Services, register for or attend an event, or register to download a research report.

 

  • From Other Sources:
    • We receive your Personal Information from other sources, such as, publicly available databases or providers of demographic information.
    • If you connect your social media account to your Services account, you will share certain Personal Information from your social media account with us, for example, your name, email address, photo, list of social media contacts, and any other information that may be, or you make, accessible to us when you connect your social media account to your Services account.

Where we collect Personal Information, we note which Personal Information you need to share with us so that we can provide the requested Services to you. If you do not provide the required information, we may not be able to provide the Services. If you disclose any Personal Information relating to other people to us or to our service providers in connection with the Services, you represent that you have the authority to do so and to permit us to use the information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Use of Personal Information

We and our service providers use Personal Information for the following purposes:

  • Providing the functionality of the Services and fulfilling your requests.
  • To provide the Services’ functionality to you, such as, arranging access to your registered account and providing you with related functionalities, or customer service.
  • To respond to your inquiries and fulfill your requests, when you contact us via one of our online contact forms or otherwise, for example, when you send us questions, suggestions, compliments or complaints, or request other information about our Services.
  • To complete your transactions (e.g., when you register and pay for an event), or verify your information.

 

  • Providing you with our newsletter and/or other marketing materials and facilitating social sharing.
    • To send you marketing related emails, with information about our services, new products, and other news about ACEEE.
    • To facilitate social sharing functionality that you choose to use.

 

  • Analyzing Personal Information for business reporting and providing personalized services.
    • To analyze or predict our users’ preferences in order to prepare aggregated trend reports on how our digital content is used, so we can improve our Services.
    • To better understand your interests and preferences so that we can personalize our interactions with you and provide you with information and/or offers tailored to your interests.
    • To better understand your preferences so that we can deliver content via our Services that we believe will be relevant and interesting to you.

 

  • Aggregating and/or anonymizing Personal Information.
    • We may aggregate and/or anonymize Personal Information so that it will no longer be considered Personal Information. We do so to generate other data for our use, which we may use and disclose for any purpose, as it no longer identifies you or any other individual.

 

  • Accomplishing our business purposes.
    • For data analysis, for example, to improve the efficiency of our Services;
    • For audits, to verify that our internal processes function as intended and to address legal, regulatory, or contractual requirements;
    • For fraud prevention and fraud security monitoring purposes, for example, to detect and prevent cyberattacks or attempts to commit identity theft;
    • For developing new products and services;
    • For enhancing, improving, repairing, maintaining, or modifying our current products and services, as well as undertaking quality and safety assurance measures;
    • For identifying usage trends, for example, understanding which parts of our Services are of most interest to users;
    • For determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns so that we can adapt our campaigns to the needs and interests of our users; and
    • For operating and expanding our business activities, for example, understanding which parts of our Services are of most interest to our users so we can focus our energies on meeting our users’ interests.

Disclosure of Personal Information

We do not sell, trade, or share Personal Information with third parties for their own fundraising or marketing purposes nor do we use Personal Information we collect to send fundraising or marketing mailings on behalf of other organizations, except as indicated in this Privacy Policy.

  • We may disclose your name and affiliation to our conference attendees, if you have attended the same conference.
  • We may disclose your name and affiliation to our Ally Program members and conference sponsors, as indicated on our conference registration form, unless you have opted out of such disclosure.
  • We may disclose your Personal Information to our third-party service providers, to facilitate services they provide to us, such as, website hosting, data analysis, payment processing, information technology and related infrastructure provisions, customer service or related benefits (including special promotions), email delivery, auditing, and other similar services.
  • You may disclose your Personal Information on message boards, chat, profile pages and blogs, and other services to which you are able to post information and materials. Please note that any information you post or disclose will become public and may be available to other users and to the general public.
  • You may disclose your Personal Information through your social sharing activity. When you connect your Services account to your social media account, you will share information with your friends associated with your social media account, with other users, and with your social media account provider. By doing so, you authorize us to facilitate this sharing of information, and you understand that the use of shared information will be governed by the social media provider’s privacy policy.

 

Other Uses and Disclosures

We may also use and disclose Personal Information as we believe to be necessary or appropriate: (a) to comply with applicable law, to respond to requests from public and government authorities, to cooperate with law enforcement, or for other legal reasons; (b) to enforce our terms and conditions; and (c) to protect our rights, privacy, safety or property, and/or that of our affiliates, you, or others.

We may use, disclose or transfer your information to a third party in the event of any reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer or other disposition of all or any portion of our assets or stock (including in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings).

OTHER INFORMATION

“Other Information” is any information that does not reveal your specific identity or does not directly relate to an identifiable individual. The Services collect Other Information, such as:

  • Browser and device information;
  • IP address (we may also derive your approximate location from your IP address);
  • Information collected through cookies, pixel tags, and other technologies;
  • Demographic information and other information provided by you that does not reveal your specific identity; and
  • Information that has been aggregated in a manner such that it no longer reveals your specific identity.

Collection of Other Information

We and our service providers may collect Other Information in a variety of ways, including:

  • Your browser or device.
    • Certain information is collected by most browsers or automatically through your device, such as your Media Access Control (MAC) address, computer type (Windows or Mac), screen resolution, operating system name and version, device manufacturer and model, language, Internet browser type and version, and the name and version of the Services you are using. We use this information to ensure that the Services function properly.

 

  • Cookies.
    • Cookies are pieces of information stored directly on the computer that you are using. Cookies allow us to collect information, such as browser type, time spent on the Services, pages visited, language preferences, and other traffic data. We and our service providers use the information for security purposes, to facilitate navigation, to display information more effectively, and to personalize your experience. We also gather statistical information about use of the Services in order to continually improve their design and functionality, understand how they are used, and assist us with resolving questions regarding them. We do not currently respond to browser do-not-track signals. If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, most browsers allow you to automatically decline cookies or be given the choice of declining or accepting a particular cookie (or cookies) from a particular website. You may also wish to refer to http://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/index.html. If, however, you do not accept cookies, you may experience some inconvenience in your use of the Services.

 

  • Pixel tags and other similar technologies.
    • Pixel tags. Pixel tags (also known as web beacons and clear GIFs) may be used to, among other things, track the actions of users of the Services (including email recipients), measure the success of our marketing campaigns, and compile statistics about usage of the Services and response rates.
    • Analytics. We use Google Analytics, which uses cookies and similar technologies to collect and analyze information about use of the Services and report on activities and trends. This service may also collect information regarding the use of other websites, apps and online resources.  You can learn about Google’s practices by going to www.google.com/policies/privacy/‌partners/, and exercise the opt-out provided by Google by downloading the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Uses and Disclosures of Other Information

We may use and disclose Other Information for any purpose, except where we are required to do otherwise under applicable law. If we are required to treat Other Information as Personal Information under applicable law, we may use and disclose it for the purposes for which we use and disclose Personal Information as detailed in this Policy. In some instances, we may combine Other Information with Personal Information. If we do, we will treat the combined information as Personal Information as long as it is combined.

SECURITY

We seek to use reasonable organizational, technical, and administrative measures to protect Personal Information within our organization. Unfortunately, no data transmission or storage system can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure, please immediately notify us in accordance with the “Contacting Us” section below.

CHOICES AND ACCESS

Your choices regarding our use and disclosure of your Personal Information

We give you choices regarding our use and disclosure of your Personal Information for marketing purposes. If you no longer want to receive marketing-related emails from us on a going-forward basis, you may opt out by emailing register@aceee.org or using the ‘Unsubscribe’ option on our website available here.

Please note that if you opt out of receiving marketing-related emails from us, we may still send you important administrative messages, from which you cannot opt out.

How you can access and update your Personal Information

If you would like to correct and update your Personal Information, you may contact us in accordance with the “Contacting Us” section below. We will respond to your request consistent with applicable law.

In your request, please make clear what Personal Information you would like to have changed or updated. For your protection, we may only implement requests with respect to the Personal Information associated with the particular email address that you use to send us your request, and we may need to verify your identity before implementing your request. We will try to comply with your request as soon as reasonably practicable. 

Please note that we may need to retain certain information for recordkeeping purposes and/or to complete any transactions that you began prior to requesting a change or update (e.g., when you enroll for a conference, you may not be able to change or update the Personal Information provided until after the conference). 

THIRD-PARTY SERVICES

This Privacy Policy does not address, and we are not responsible for the privacy, information, or other practices of any third parties, including any third party operating any website or service to which the Services link. The inclusion of a link on the Services does not imply endorsement of the linked site or service by us or by our affiliates.

In addition, we are not responsible for the information collection, use, disclosure, or security policies or practices of other organizations, such as Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft, RIM, or any other app developer, app provider, social media platform provider, operating system provider, wireless service provider, or device manufacturer, including with respect to any Personal Information you disclose to other organizations through or in connection with our Social Media Pages.

THIRD PARTY PAYMENT SERVICE

The Services may provide functionality allowing you to make payments to ACEEE using third-party payment services with which you have created your own account. When you use such a service to make a payment to us, your Personal Information will be collected by such third party and not by us, and will be subject to the third party’s privacy policy, rather than this Privacy Policy. We have no control over, and are not responsible for, this third party’s collection, use, and disclosure of your Personal Information.

USE OF SERVICES BY MINORS

The Services are not directed to individuals under the age of thirteen (13), and we do not knowingly collect Personal Information from individuals under thirteen (13).

JURISDICTION AND CROSS-BORDER TRANSFER

Your Personal Information may be stored and processed in any country where we have facilities or in which we engage service providers.

Our Services are controlled and operated by us from the United States and are not intended to subject us to the laws or jurisdiction of any state, country, or territory other than that of the United States.

SENSITIVE INFORMATION

Unless we request it, we ask that you not send us, and you not disclose, any sensitive Personal Information (e.g., Social Security numbers, information related to racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion or other beliefs, health, biometrics or genetic characteristics, or criminal background) on or through the Services or otherwise to us.

UPDATES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

The “Last Updated” legend at the top of this Privacy Policy indicates when this Privacy Policy was last revised. Any changes will become effective when we post the revised Privacy Policy on the Services.

CONTACTING US

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at register@aceee.org or ACEEE, 529 14th St. N.W., Ste. 600, Washington, D.C. 20045. Because email communications are not always secure, please do not include credit card information or other sensitive information in your emails to us.

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