Empire Contractor Solutions Privacy Policy

Updated October 2019

We at Empire Contractor Solutions (ECS) appreciate how much you value your privacy. That is why we have developed this Privacy Policy: to describe the types of information we may collect from you, how we may use that information, how we store it and the steps we take to protect it, the circumstances under which we may disclose or transfer it, and the choices you have regarding submitting and maintaining the information you provide to us. We urge you to read this Privacy Policy, and to become familiar with our privacy practices.

By visiting a site that uses one of our embedded applications, you are consenting to the practices described in this Privacy Policy. This policy does not apply to the privacy practices of companies or organizations that are not owned or controlled by ECS, or to people who are not employed by ECS. This Privacy Policy is subject to change. When we change the Privacy Policy in a material way, a notice will be posted at the Site along with the updated Privacy Policy. If you are a returning user or a regular user of the Site, we recommend that you review the Privacy Policy to be sure you are familiar with its current terms.

If you have any questions or concerns about the privacy or security of your information, please let us know by sending an email to {{ECS EMAIL}}.

1. Personal Information

Personal information, as it used in this Privacy Policy, is information that can be associated with a specific person and can be used to uniquely identify or contact a person. It is not necessary for you to provide ECS with personal information in order to access content that is publicly available at the Site. Certain resources and services that are available at the Site require personal information to be shared to be used optimally (including, but not limited to, quote generation utilities, calculators, estimators, dashboards, ratings, and reviews, etc.). If you choose to use these resources, you will be asked to provide ECS with certain personal information that is necessary to provide you with the best service possible. That personal information may include your name, email address, phone number, and address. You may also be asked to provide personal information if and when you contact ECS by telephone or by mail, depending on your reason for contacting us. Your personal information may be shared with ECS’s Channel Partners (as defined below), and with ECS’s network of product manufacturers, independent installers and contractors, lenders and other financial institutions (“Third-Party Vendors”) for the purpose of providing you with price quotations and marketing other products and services.

Visitors to a website that uses a ECS web application (referred to collectively as “Users”) may obtain a 30 Second Quote from a Channel Partner. In order to obtain a 30 Second Quote, Users must indicate the street address where the work will be performed. If you obtain a 30 Second Quote for your property, you thus provide ECS with the address of your property, including at a minimum its street address, and potentially the city or town in which it is located, and your ZIP Code. The address information you provide will be shared with third parties in order to render your 30 Second Quote, and to deliver or promote the resources, services, programs, and functionality that are hosted at the Site. Your address information may also be shared with (i) Channel Partners (as defined below) and third parties to market related products and services, (ii) with third parties to improve the user experience of the Site, and (iii) with academic and research institutions, the sponsors of grant programs, and with other public and privately owned entities that wish to learn more about the various markets that are served by ECS. ECS will deliver the address information relating to your property to Third-Party Vendors if you (i) use a ECS web application to receive a 30 Second Quote, or (ii) you become a Registered User, and you use the ECS Marketplace or some other means available at the Site to yourself make your address information available to one or more Third Party Vendors.

ECS may not record the name or email address of a User unless such User completes a form connected to a ECS web application and provides their name, phone number, email address, or physical address to ECS.

Certain resources provided by ECS, if you choose to use them, may require you to provide information concerning the physical attributes of your property, including (in addition to its street address, city or town, and ZIP Code) what type of building it is (residential, commercial, or industrial) the energy systems that are used to heat and cool it, the fuels that those energy systems consume (oil, gas, propane, etc.), the quantities of those fuels that are consumed annually, the amount of electricity you use, and so on. Information regarding the physical attributes of your property, including building type, the energy systems on your property, and the kind and quantity of the fuel they consume, etc., while detailed and specific, cannot be used to uniquely identify or contact you, and does not, by itself, qualify as personal information. If you wish to utilize these Site resources, however, you may first be required to provide ECS with certain personal information, as described in Section I, above, under the caption “Personal Information.” ECS will disclose this information regarding the physical attributes of your property, including building type, your energy systems, and the kind and quantity of the fuels those systems consume, etc. to Channel Partners and Third Party Vendors to provide you with price quotations and to market other products and services. ECS may also share aggregated information regarding the physical attributes of Users’ properties and installed equipment with academic and research institutions, the sponsors of grant programs, and with other public and privately owned entities that wish to learn more about the various markets that are served by ECS.

If you decide to purchase, lease, or otherwise finance hardware (such as an HVAC system) for your home or business, and wish to be contacted by one or more Third-Party Vendors offering their services, you may be required to provide them with your name, your address and your telephone number, or other contact information so that they may communicate with you. This personal information will be shared with Third-Party Vendors if you specifically request or instruct ECS in writing to deliver the information to one or more Third Party Vendors. Note that Third-Party Vendors who offer their services and products using ECS web applications are independent contractors: they are not owned or controlled by ECS, nor are they employed by ECS. We encourage you to contact the Third-Party Vendors who offer their services and products directly if you wish to learn more about their respective privacy policies and practices, and to find out how they may use your personal information, how they store it and the steps they take to protect it, the circumstances under which they may disclose or transfer it, and the choices you have regarding the manner in which they maintain it.

In addition to personal information that is disclosed to Third-Party Vendors by ECS in response to your written request for ECS to make such disclosure, your personal information may also be shared with third parties for marketing, or other commercial purposes that are related to the delivery and promotion of the resources, services, programs, and functionality that are hosted at the Site.

From time to time ECS enters into partnerships with for-profit companies and firms, non-profit organizations, municipalities and other governmental entities, and employers (collectively “Channel Partners”), that wish to offer their customers, clients, members, constituents, or employees the resources and services provided at the Site. Our Channel Partners host hyperlinks and embedded web applications on certain of their own web pages that permit their customers, clients, members, constituents, or employees to access resources at the Site that have been customized for their use. Channel Partners may also publish the Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) for these customized Site web pages in printed promotional materials and in emails and social medial posts they may deliver or transmit to you. Pursuant to our agreements with these Channel Partners, ECS may share with them the personal information you provide when you submit a request through one of our web applications. If you are affiliated with one of ECS’s Channel Partners, and access a page at the Site customized for your use via a link or URL that has been provided by that Channel Partner, we encourage you to contact that Channel Partner directly to learn more about their privacy policies and practices, and to find out how they may use the personal information we share with them, how they store it and the steps they take to protect it, the circumstances under which they may disclose or transfer it, and the choices you have regarding the manner in which they maintain the information that you provide to us and that we may be required to share with them.

ECS employs payment intermediary services such as PayPal™ and Stripe™ to receive payment from its Third Party Vendors, and does not request or store any of your financial information, such as your bank routing or account numbers, or your debit or credit card account numbers.

2. Non-Personal Information

ECS collects certain non-personal information from you automatically when you access the Site. This non-personal information includes your Internet Protocol (“IP”) address — a numeric label that your Internet service provider assigns to your computer each time you connect to the Internet. Your IP address does not contain any personal information (such as your name, your mailing address, or your email address). Your IP address facilitates communication between your computer and the Site, and helps us to administer the Site.

Additional non-personal information is collected from you through the use of “cookies.” A cookie is an alphanumeric file that is delivered by a web site to your computer, and is stored by your web browser. Cookies can be used to verify the identity of a source of information, to store web site preferences, to store certain items of information so that they can be accessed later on (“shopping cart” contents, for example), or for any other purpose that depends on retrieving stored data. We use cookies to identify your computer whenever you access the Site. This facilitates and enhances your use of the content, resources and services provided to you at the Site. We also use cookies to gather information about the number of visitors to the Site, how frequently they visit, and the hosted resources those visitors access. This information helps us to improve the appearance and content of the Site, and improve the functionality of Site resources. These cookies do not gather information that can be used to uniquely identify or contact you.

Cookies may remain on your hard drive after you leave the Site. You may modify the settings of your web browser to prevent cookies from being installed on your computer. If you decline to have your web browser accept cookies, however, you may not be able to access or utilize certain resources or services that are available at the Site.

ECS may also use other technology that is standard to the Internet, such as pixel tags, web beacons, and other similar technologies, to track visitors to the Site. These technologies also help us to gather information about the number of visitors to the Site, whether and how those visitors arrived at the Site as the result of a web search, the pages those visitors accessed, etc. This information also helps us to improve the appearance and content of the Site, and enhances the functionality of Site resources.

ECS uses Google Analytics and similar web analytics services. Google Analytics is used to track Users on the Site, to record multiple visits by Users to the Site, and to record all the pages that Users visit at the Site. Google Analytics tracks Users visits to the Site whenever they return.

ECS will not (and will not allow any third party to) use Google Analytics to track, collect or upload any data that personally identifies an individual (such as a name, address, or billing information), or other data that can reasonably be linked to such information by Google.

ECS uses all features of Google Analytics for Display Advertisers. That includes obtaining specific visitor cookie data, such as the source, medium, and keyword used to visit the Site. Google Analytics does not store any visitor-specific data, and ECS will not use specific data regarding Users in any way related to Google Analytics, Google Adwords, and Remarketing.

ECS uses remarketing with Google Adwords and analytics to display content-specific advertisements to Users that have previously visited the Site when those visitors go to other websites that have Google Display Network implemented.

ECS and other 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 based on Users’ past visits to the Site.

ECS will not facilitate the merging of personally identifiable information with non-personally identifiable information that is collected through any Google advertising product or feature unless you have specifically and affirmatively provided ECS with your consent to that merger of personally identifiable and non-personally identifiable information.

Users can opt-out of Google Analytics for Display Advertising and customize Google Display Network ads using Google’s Ads Settings.

Users can also opt-out of Google Analytics for Display Advertising, to prevent your data from being used by Google Analytics, by going to the Google Analytics opt-out page.

Whenever your non-personal information is used or is stored together with the your personal information, it will be treated as personal information.

3. Use of Your Information

As a User of the Site and its web applications, you will be able to use the resources and services that are made available by Site (including, but not limited to, calculators, estimators, dashboards, ratings, reviews, etc.).

If you are a User who has shared your contact information with ECS, ECS may also use your personal information to send you notices regarding changes to our Terms of Use, this Privacy Policy, and other policies relating to the Site, or to promote the resources, services, programs, and functionality that are hosted at the Site, or that are offered by our Channel Partners, our affiliates, or their partners.

If you use a ECS web application to solicit proposals from contractors for the installation and/or financing of equipment or labor for your home or business or any other residential or commercial property, ECS will record the offerings and price quotations you receive in response to your solicitation. ECS uses this non-personal information to aggregate data regarding the prices our Users were quoted or paid for work in specific geographic locations, the equipment that our Users were quoted or selected, and the manner in which our Users financed or considered financing their systems (i.e. cash purchase, lease, PPA, or loan). Data, if reported to other Users, will be reported anonymously, and will only be associated with your ZIP Code and/or region, and will not be associated with your name, or your address, or any other personally identifiable information. Unless you yourself opt to report the amount you paid, and/or the choices you selected, and/or the financing option you agreed upon. ECS will not publish non-personal information concerning your purchases in connection with your name or your address, whether on the Site or elsewhere. ECS may, however, share the price you paid, and/or the choices you selected, and/or the financing option you agreed upon, in connection with your name and address, with Channel Partners, affiliates, and Third-Party Vendors. If you yourself have given a license or some other form of permission to a third-party, including a Third-Party Vendor (e.g. an independent installer, manufacturer, or financier), to publish information regarding the amount you paid for your system, and/or the choices you selected, and/or the manner in which you financed, that third-party may also have the right to publish such information, whether on the Site or elsewhere. ECS may share aggregated, non-personally identifiable information regarding the prices that our Users paid for work performed, and the choices that our Users selected, and the manner in which our Users financed the work performed, with academic and research institutions, the sponsors of grant programs, and with other public and privately owned entities that wish to learn more about the various markets that are served by ECS.

4. Disclosures of Your Information

As stated in Section I above, captioned “Personal Information,” your personal information may be shared with ECS’s Channel Partners and Third-Party Vendors for the purpose of providing you with price quotations and for marketing other products and services.

From time to time ECS may create, purchase or sell business subsidiaries. ECS may disclose your personal information to any subsidiary that it creates or purchases. In addition, personal information constitutes a business asset that is transferrable in any transaction involving the sale of ECS or any of its business subsidiaries. Whether ECS engages in any such transaction, or creates, acquires, or sells a business subsidiary, any personal information that is shared or sold will remain subject to the promises made in the Privacy Policy then current, unless you consent otherwise in writing.

ECS may make other disclosures of your personal information to third parties if required to do so by law, to enforce our Terms of Use, to offer you other relevant products or services, or upon your written request. The most current version of our Terms of Use can be reviewed by clicking on the "Terms of Use" link located at the bottom of each page on the Site.

You are solely responsible for any personal information that you choose to post in a forum, blog, or comment that is visible to other Users. Please be mindful of the information that you post in forums, blogs, or in a comment: specifically, whether it constitutes personal information, and whether you wish to publish it in a forum, blog, or in a comment that is hosted on the Site.

5. Correcting Your Personal Information

Users may correct or update their personal information:

1. by email sent to {{ECS EMAIL}};

2. by mail sent to {{ECS MAILING ADDRESS}}; or

3. by telephoning {{ECS PHONE}}.

6. Protection of Personal Information

ECS has developed and implemented a comprehensive information security program that contains administrative, technical, and physical safeguards that are intended to protect Users’ private information from disclosure in compliance with regulations enforced by Texas House Bill (HB) 4390, the Texas Privacy Protection Act. One or more ECS employees have been designated to maintain the Security Program. Among other things, the Security Program has been implemented to identify and assess reasonably foreseeable internal and external risks to the security, confidentiality, and/or integrity of any electronic, paper or other record that contains “Personal Information” as defined in HB4390 and the Texas Business and Commerce Code Title 11: Personal Identity Information. The Security Program also represents an ongoing effort to evaluate and improve, where necessary, the effectiveness of the current safeguards for limiting such risks, and provides for the development of security policies for employees to follow when storing, accessing and transporting records that contain personal information. ECS reviews the scope of the measures contained in the Security Program at least annually, and whenever there is a material change in business practices that may reasonably implicate the security or integrity of records containing personal information.

To make sure your personal information is secure, we communicate our privacy and security guidelines to all ECS employees and strictly enforce privacy safeguards within the company.

7. Children

If you are under 18, you may use the Site only with the involvement of a parent or guardian. If you become aware that your child has provided ECS with personal information without your consent, please contact us immediately at {{ECS EMAIL}}. ECS does not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If ECS becomes aware that a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, we take steps to remove such information and terminate the child's account.

8. Third-Party Sites

The Site may contain links to third-party websites promoting products, and services. Information collected by such third parties at websites hosted by them, including personal information, is governed by and subject to their own privacy practices, and not by this Privacy Policy. You are encouraged to learn about the privacy practices of the third parties that host such sites.

9. California Do Not Track Disclosures

Do Not Track is a privacy preference that users can set in their web browsers. When a user turns on the Do Not Track signal, the browser sends a message to websites requesting them not to track the user. For information about Do Not Track, visit www.allaboutdnt.org. At this time, ECS does not respond to Do Not Track browser settings or signals. In addition, ECS may use other technology that is standard to the Internet, such as pixel tags, web beacons, and other similar technologies, to track visitors to ECS.com or one of the affiliated pages hosted at the ECS domain. Those tools may be used by us and by third parties to collect information about you and your internet activity, even if you have turned on the Do Not Track signal.

10. Privacy Questions

We encourage you to contact us if you have any questions or concerns about the privacy or security of your information. You may submit your questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, or any other privacy matter, via email sent to {{ECS EMAIL}}.