East Central Energy - Privacy Policy
This privacy policy describes the fair information practices that govern the collection, maintenance, use, and disclosure of personal information on the East Central Energy website.

Collection Practices
Like most other websites, East Central Energy maintains web logs that automatically record basic information about visitors. This information consists of:

• Internet domain from which visitors access our website (e.g., aol.com, yourschool.edu, yourcompany.com).
• IP address. An IP address is automatically assigned to your computer when you surf the web. In some cases, these addresses may be individually identifiable. However, even when an IP address is identifiable, it usually takes additional effort to link a particular IP address to a specific individual. For many users, an IP address cannot be linked to a specific individual.
• Type of browser and operating system used to access our website.
• Date and time of access.
• Pages visited.
• Address of the website (if any) from which you linked to East Central Energy.

East Central Energy normally only uses web log information in aggregate form to enable us to make the East Central Energy website more useful. East Central Energy likes to know which features are popular and how visitors locate the site.

Web logs may be used to identify visitors who seek to damage the website, use the website in unauthorized ways, or interfere with operations. Information about users who try to engage in any unapproved activities may be shared with law enforcement agencies.

East Central Energy does not collect any personal information about a routine visitor unless the visitor provides it to East Central Energy.

E-mail and Web Forms
If you use the East Central Energy website to send East Central Energy e-mail, request a presentation, ask for information, subscribe to a publication, or if you provide personal information through East Central Energy's website in any other way, East Central Energy collects and may maintain the information that you provide. Your information may be shared among East Central Energy staff and support services as necessary to respond to your request. Once information reaches the correct office, it will be used in the same manner as comparable information collected in other ways.

Security and Data Quality
East Central Energy maintains its website and its information with technical, administrative, and physical safeguards to protect against loss, unauthorized access, destruction, misuse, modification, and improper disclosure. East Central Energy is committed to maintaining accurate, timely, relevant, and appropriate information about our users. No computer system can ever be fully protected against every possible hazard. East Central Energy provides reasonable and appropriate security to protect against foreseeable hazards.

East Central Energy requires that employees who have access to personally identifiable information from the website acknowledge in writing that they have read this privacy policy and that they are expected to follow it. Any employee who fails to comply with these rules may be subject to disciplinary action up to and including dismissal.

Routine e-mail sent to East Central Energy through this website or otherwise is not necessarily secure against interception. If your communication contains personal information that you consider sensitive, you may not want to use e-mail.

Cookies
On the Internet, a cookie is a piece of information that a website transfers to a user's computer for record-keeping purposes. The East Central Energy website only uses cookies when a member accesses the cooperatives-only part of the website. The cookie is only active during the session and expires when the user closes the browser.

Uses and Disclosures
East Central Energy uses its website to provide services and information to its cooperative members, their employees, and members of the public.

Personal information collected through the East Central Energy website may be used from time to time by outside auditors, consultants, and others hired by East Central Energy to assist in carrying out financial, management, or other activities. East Central Energy generally directs recipients to agree to safeguard personal information, to use it only as authorized by East Central Energy, and to return it or destroy it when no longer required.

East Central Energy could be required to disclose personal information in response to valid legal process, such as a search warrant, subpoena, or court order. Any record keeper faces this possibility. Disclosures may also be appropriate to protect East Central Energy legal rights or during emergencies if physical safety is believed to be at risk. East Central Energy believes that these events are unlikely, but they are possible. East Central Energy will take reasonable steps to limit the scope and consequences of any of these disclosures.

East Central Energy does not sell, rent, or otherwise share lists of subscribers to East Central Energy publications or listservs.


Questions, Access, and Disputes
If you have any questions about this privacy policy, you may contact us by clicking here.

*Note: ECE has modeled our online privacy policy after the Touchstone Energy Alliance in an effort toward consistency in online privacy protection.