Privacy Policy
Lowfoot Inc. ("Lowfoot") is committed to protecting the privacy rights of all persons with whom it deals. We will take every step to maintain the confidentiality of your personal information. This Privacy Policy applies to your use of the Lowfoot website (the "Website") and our collection, use and/or disclosure of an individual's personal information collected through the Website.
Lowfoot Inc. has been awarded TRUSTe's Privacy Seal signifying that this privacy policy and practices have been reviewed by TRUSTe for compliance with TRUSTe's program requirements including transparency, accountability and choice regarding the collection and use of your personal information. TRUSTe's mission, as an independent third party, is to accelerate online trust among consumers and organizations globally through its leading privacy trustmark and innovative trust solutions. If you have questions or complaints regarding our privacy policy or practices, please contact us by email at privacy@lowfoot.com or by mail at:
Attention: Privacy Officer
Lowfoot Inc.
2-125 The Queensway
Suite 200
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M8Y 1H6
If you are not satisfied with our response you can contact TRUSTe here. The TRUSTe program covers only information that is collected through this Web site, and does not cover information that may be collected through software downloaded from the site.
Accountability
Lowfoot is accountable for all personal information under its care and control. Lowfoot's Privacy Officer is designated as the person responsible for the Privacy Policy and for the personal information received by Lowfoot. The Privacy Officer can be reached as follows: by email at privacy@lowfoot.com, or by mail at:
Attention: Privacy Officer
Lowfoot Inc.
2-125 The Queensway
Suite 200
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M8Y 1H6
Any questions relating to Lowfoot's handling of personal information should be directed to our Privacy Officer.
Purpose
Lowfoot may collect personal information as part of any services it may provide to users of the Website. The services which Lowfoot provides are as outlined in its Member Agreement.
The personal information collected when you use the Website may include the following:
- contact and identification information which includes name and email addresses;
- utility information including, without limitation, the utility customer identification number or account number, historical consumption data, historical billing and transaction data, future usage data, future billing and transaction data;
- Internet protocol address;
- Lowfoot.com usage statistics;
- customer relationship and business relationship data;
- profile photo;
- market-related information which may include, among other things, market trends and market activities impacting Lowfoot Inc.; and any other data provided Lowfoot is permitted or required by applicable law to collect and Lowfoot may collect this data without your knowledge.
If you contact us by email through the Website, we may keep a record of your contact information and correspondence and may use your email address and any information that you provide to us in your message to respond to you.
Based upon the personally identifiable information you provide us, we will send you a welcoming email to verify your username and password. We will also communicate with you in response to your inquiries, to provide the services you request, and to manage your account. We will communicate with you by email or telephone, in accordance with your wishes.
Your IP address, your computer's operating system, the browser type and language are automatically collected each time you use the Website. Moreover, the identity of the website you came from will also be collected, as will your web request and the date and time of your visit and the Website pages visited.
The Website will also use cookies to keep track of your activities and behavior while on the Website. When you visit the Website, we send one (1) or more cookies containing a string of characters to your computer that uniquely identifies your browser. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies, but you can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. If you refuse or delete our cookies, however, you will not be able to take full advantage of the Website. Through the use of cookies, we can provide you with interest specific content as well as save your password.
We use Google Analytics, a third-party tracking service, which uses cookies to track non-personally identifiable information about our visitors to our site in the aggregate to capture usage and volume statistics. Some of our business partners (e.g., Google Analytics) use cookies on our site. We have no access to or control over these cookies. This privacy statement covers the use of cookies by our site only and does not cover the use of cookies by any third-party.
How We Use Your Personal Information
In addition to providing our services, Lowfoot may provide your personal characteristics, on an aggregate basis, to third parties. Aggregate information is information about more than one (1) individual, where the identity of any single individual is unknown. Personal information may also be provided to third parties in order to audit and to perform administrative functions including, without limitation, tracking Website usage and trends which Lowfoot may require from time to time, for Website hosting and maintenance, database storage and management. We may also from time to time provide access to your usage data to third parties for analysis, reporting, and market research without linking the data to you personally or your location. As well, from time to time, we may provide access to third parties to data that is aggregated and includes your usage and historical data, without linking the data to you personally. Your personal information may also be disclosed and used by Lowfoot in the event of any proposed future merger, acquisition, reorganization, sale of assets or bankruptcy involving Lowfoot.
Our collection of your personal information is intended to:
- effectively manage and operate Lowfoot Inc.;
- administer and manage business relationships with our members;
- process payments for advertising;
- confirm an individual is eligible for membership;
- confirm an individual is eligible to receive our products and services;
- understand your needs and provide you an improved experience on Lowfoot.com;
- promote our partners and sponsors;
- provide you rewards;
- ensure you are authenticated;
- calculate your historical baseline energy consumption;
- calculate kilowatt hour reductions;
- calculate carbon reductions;
- calculate kilowatt demand reductions;
- establish and maintain active communication with you;
- track referrals to Lowfoot.com;
- project your future energy usage;
- analyze and report on your historical and future energy usage;
- protect against Website errors, theft, damage and fraud;
- satisfy all legal, regulatory, processing or security requirements;
- make suggestions to you on how to lower your utility usage and achieve your usage goals;
- help your friends find you; and
- display personalized ads from our business partners;
You may choose to disclose your data to other Members and have the right to terminate this disclosure at any time by changing your privacy settings in your Member profile.
Members may control who gets to see their status updates, Daily Usage Reports and Tagged Updates individually by using one of the following (4) four settings:
- Nobody – Means you are sharing no information with anyone
- Followers – You are sharing with your approved followers
- All members – All members of Lowfoot will be able to see your information
- Everybody – All information is available to members and the public.
Please be aware should you choose to select the ‘Everybody setting in your account’s privacy settings, your personal information may become publically available. You may update your privacy settings at any time by logging into your account and updating your setting preferences.
Unless identified in this Privacy Policy or otherwise as required by law, Lowfoot will not provide your personal information to third parties in such a way that would disclose your identity.
Links to Other Web Sites
While our Website may contain links to other websites, please be aware that we are not responsible for the practices or the content of such sites or the treatment of your personal information on those sites.
Widgets
Our Web site includes Widgets, which are interactive mini-programs that run on our site to provide specific services from another company (e.g. displaying the news, opinions, music, etc). Personal information, such as your email address, may be collected through the Widget. Cookies may also be set by the Widget to enable it to function properly. Information collected by this Widget is governed by the privacy policy of the company that created it
Facebook Connect or other OpenID provider
You can log in to our site using sign-in services such as Facebook Connect or an Open ID provider. These services will authenticate your identity and provide you the option to share certain personal information with us such as your name and email address to pre-populate our sign up form. Services like Facebook Connect give you the option to post information about your activities on this Web site to your profile page to share with others within your network.
Blogs & Forums
Our Web site offers publicly accessible blogs or community forums. You should be aware that any information you provide in these areas may be read, collected, and used by others who access them.
Consent
By using the Website, you expressly consent to the various collection, use and disclosure of your personal information summarized in this Privacy Policy. Should you choose, at any time, to withdraw your consent, please immediately contact Lowfoot's Privacy Officer in writing via contact information above.
If Lowfoot wishes to make use of your personal information collected through its Website for a new purpose, it will seek consent for such new use.
Limits for Collecting, Using, Disclosing and Retaining Personal Information
Lowfoot, unless required or permitted by law, does not collect, use or disclose personal information except when it has obtained consent.
In order to provide our services to you, we may on occasion supplement the personally identifiable information you submitted to us with information from your utility company. We use automated technology developed by Lowfoot Inc. to verify your account information on your utility’s website, in order to in order to validate that you have an account with that utility.
In all cases, Lowfoot limits the amount and type of information collected to that which is necessary to meet the purposes described above. Lowfoot undertakes to keep all personal information it collects strictly confidential. Lowfoot will only retain personal information for the duration of its intended use or as otherwise required by law. Thereafter, all personal information that does not have a specific purpose or that no longer fulfills its intended purpose will be destroyed in a secure fashion.
Lowfoot will only provide personal information to third parties on an "as needed" basis and provided that such third parties agree to be bound by this Privacy Policy.
Safeguarding Personal Information
Lowfoot respects individual's privacy and will protect that privacy as vigorously as possible. Lowfoot stores personal information in electronic files that are secure and to which access is restricted. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure, however. Therefore, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.If you have any questions about security on our Web site, please contact us by email at privacy@lowfoot.com or my mail at:
Attention: Privacy Officer
Lowfoot Inc.
2-125 The Queensway
Suite 200
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M8Y 1H6
Accuracy of Personal Information
Lowfoot makes every effort to keep all personal information it holds, including contact information and financial information, accurate, complete, and current. Lowfoot will update any changes to personal information when received from you through the Website. If Lowfoot holds personal information about an individual which can be established by the individual to be inaccurate, Lowfoot will take reasonable steps to correct it.
Access to Personal Information
You have the ability to access all your personal information on the Website at any time. If you have any questions regarding the personal information held by Lowfoot, you should, in writing, contact Lowfoot's Privacy Officer. Lowfoot will respond to any written requests within thirty (30) calendar days of receiving written notice. Lowfoot will keep records of enquiries and/or objections and will document their resolution. Lowfoot will conduct all investigations in a timely, fair and impartial manner.
Membership Invitations
When you invite a friend to become a member of Lowfoot, we will ask you to enter your friend's email address and we will then send your friend an email asking them to join and become a Lowfoot member. Your friend's email address will not be maintained by us unless your friend joins Lowfoot at which point we will then link you and your friend through your email addresses.
Changes to Policy
We may update this privacy statement to reflect changes to our information practices. If we make any material changes we will notify you by email (sent to the e-mail address specified in your account) or by means of a notice on this Site prior to the change becoming effective. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices.
Last Updated 08/31/2010
