Privacy Policy

Our sensing and software platform is architected to manage and keep customer data safe and secure. We take this very seriously. We hope you will take the time to read our Privacy Policy carefully.

Last updated: December 26, 2017

BY ACCESSING AND USING WHISKER HOME SERVICES OR CONNECTED SAVINGS SERVICES IN ANY WAY, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS, INCLUDING THE WARRANTY DISCLAIMERS, LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY, AND TERMINATION PROVISIONS BELOW. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS, DO NOT USE WHISKER HOME SERVICES OR CONNECTED SAVINGS SERVICES.

WHISKER HOME SERVICES

The Whisker Home Service, which may also be referred to as the ASSURE service:

  • Measures electromagnetic fields from a sensor on the main circuit of the home electrical panel, and converts this data into current, voltage, and power measurements.
  • Discerns the electrical signature of major appliances such as the HVAC, and monitors it for abnormalities to inform customers to appliance performance and efficiency problems so they can maintain their comfort and save money.
  • Provides energy usage analytics with recommendations on how to reduce energy waste.

The Terms of Use Agreement and this Privacy Policy describe our respective rights and obligations related to the Whisker Home Services and describes how we protect and handle the information that you provide. You understand and agree that the Whisker Home Service may include certain communications from Whisker Labs and our distributors and/or our strategic partners, such as service announcements and administrative messages, and that if you continue to use the Whisker Home Service, you may not be able to opt out of receiving these communications without opting out of the Whisker Home Service entirely. If you have any questions as to how the policy applies to you, please email us at privacy@whiskerlabs.com.

Please read this Agreement carefully. By accessing and/or using any portion of Whisker Home Services, you agree to the provisions of the Terms of Use and this Privacy Policy.

 

CONNECTED SAVINGS SERVICES

Whisker Labs uses weather data combined with advanced algorithms to provide insight into and improve the control of heating and cooling of structures via our Connected Savings (CS) service. CS is currently being offered in a series of home and small business energy programs. If offered, these programs use data from your thermostat and from a real-time, local weather sensor network to optimize your thermostat settings based on the weather for energy efficiency and grid stability.

There are multiple services that may be provided within the CS program:

  1. An energy efficiency solution that optimizes your energy use via your connected thermostat to minimize the energy used to heat and cool your house, helping save you money (“Energy Efficiency Optimization”) while maintaining comfort;
  2. An optional energy efficiency analysis service that provides home Energy Reports to consumers with information on their energy use, next month’s bill forecast, suggestions on thermostat schedules and more; and
  3. An emergency service that electric utilities use to smooth the load on the grid to reduce the chance of interruption to electric service, thereby improving grid stability (“Grid Stability”).Whisker Labs is collaborating with utilities and connected thermostat providers to bring both CS services above to market.
  4. Communicating Devices (as defined below) which allow consumers to see appliance usage from participating manufacturers and allows the utility to control these devices during Grid Stability events (“Demand Optimization Events”). WL may get paid by the utility or consumer to provide these services.

The Terms of Use Agreement and this Privacy Policy describe our respective rights and obligations under the CS programs and describes how we protect and handle the information that you provide or that we otherwise obtain through the services described above, whether you are accessing the services via our partner’s or our own consumer web portal (the “Portals“); the content on the Portals or any other content provided through the services (the “Content“); devices connected to the services, including without limitation wireless thermostats acquired from our technology partners and connected appliances such as washers, dryers, and hot water heaters (the “Communicating Devices“); mobile applications (the “Mobile Apps“) that may be provided in the future; our website or through any other medium or device now known or hereafter developed. In this Agreement, for convenience we refer to the combination of products and services we provide as “CS.”   You understand and agree that CS may include certain communications from WL and our distributors and strategic partners, such as service announcements and administrative messages, and that if you continue to use CS, you will not be able to opt out of receiving these communications without opting out of CS entirely. If you have any questions as to how the policy applies to you, please email us at privacy@whiskerlabs.com.

Please read this Agreement carefully. By accessing and/or using any portion of CS, you agree to the provisions of the Terms of Use and this Privacy Policy.

PRIVACY POLICY

1. Use of Your Information; Communications with You The privacy of your personal information is important to us. We use information that you provide only as permitted by our Privacy Policy, your sharing authorizations, and/or applicable law. By accessing and using Connected Savings and/or Whisker Home Services (“Service(s)”), you acknowledge receipt of, and signify your agreement to, this Privacy Policy. You understand and agree that your registration for Services constitutes a purchase, inquiry or application under federal and state CAN-SPAM and Do-Not-Call laws, and thus creates a business relationship between you and us. From time to time, we (or our partners) may contact you by e-mail, SMS message, messages displayed on the Portals, Mobile Apps, or other methods to provide information about Services or to let you know about upcoming features or promotions that might interest you. By virtue of our business relationship, neither the federal nor any state Do-Not-Call Registry or CAN-SPAM laws preclude these communications. To the extent the contact information you provide to us includes one or more wireless devices, your provision of such information represents your permission to contact you by means of that device, and your acknowledgement and agreement that your wireless provider may charge you in connection with receipt of incoming SMS messages and calls or data usage related to use of the Services, Communicating Devices, Portals or Mobile Apps. Our means of contact may include the use of automated messaging equipment.

2. We Collect and Use Certain Information We collect information relating to you and your use of Service in order to provide services and features that are easy to use and responsive to your needs. We use the term “Consumer Information” to refer to any personally identifiable or anonymous information relating to you or your use of any portion of our System or Services. We collect various categories of Consumer Information in connection with your use of the Services and some of this information specifically identifies you or your household. The following sections describe more specific categories of Consumer Information.

2.1 Account Information Account Information is information about you and your CS account, including your Contact Information and Service Information (both defined below) and other account related information that is necessary or useful for us to manage your account, your subscription to special features or services offered through the Services and privacy preferences. Account Information does not include any personally identifiable Usage Information. Account Information may be provided by you or your utility or a technology provider, service provider, third party website, or merchant involved for the development and/or provision of the functionality of the Services. Contact Information means information that allows someone to identify or contact you, including, for example: your name, address, telephone number and email address. When you register with WL, you provide us with Contact Information. We may also collect other information about you, including anonymous demographic information that is not unique to you, such as your ZIP code, account settings, and preferences. Service Information means information necessary or useful to us in providing the Services to you. Examples of Service Information include your home profile (including ZIP Code and home size), home system configuration (including appliances monitored by the Services, schedule, mode, automation and thermostat settings), Communicating Devices in your home (including types, model numbers and software version numbers), and the level of Service. Certain Service Information is collected and transmitted to us whenever a Communicating Device is connected to the Services. In the event that you contact us for customer support, we may also request that you provide additional Contact Information or Service Information relevant to the support requested by you. You are under no obligation to provide such information. However, we cannot guarantee that we can provide customer support in the event that relevant information related to the use of the Services is not provided. We may retain communications relating to customer support, and information drawn from such communications, for statistical and reference purposes.

2.2 Usage Information Usage Information may include your homes energy usage, smart meter data including information about your electrical usage relating to electrical loads monitored by the Services, your overall household electrical usage, your electric rates, heating and cooling information and other information about the use and performance of your Communicating Devices, the interaction of your Communicating Devices and the Portals and your use of the Service. We may receive this type of information as you use the Services. Usage Information may also include information about your transactions with us, your utility, and with some of our business partners. We may also combine this information with Account Information or other information that you have provided to us and with other information that is publicly available or that we receive from other reputable sources in order to make the Services, our Services, and our communications with you more effectively targeted to your interests. We keep track of the websites and pages you visit within the Portals and/or the Services and if applicable the actions you perform in the Mobile Apps, in order to determine the ease of use and effectiveness of our marketing and sign-up process and what Services are the most popular. We may use this Usage Information to deliver customized content and advertising to customers whose behavior indicates that they are interested in a particular subject area.

2.3 Communicating Device Utilization Information Communicating Device Utilization Information is data that contains detailed information about the operation of a Communicating Device in your home, such as a connected thermostat, communicating appliance or internal environmental monitoring such as abnormal changes in a component’s temperature and operating level. Communicating Device Utilization Information records are collected whenever a Communicating Device is connected to the Services. Communicating Device Utilization Information is linked to your Account Information. Communicating Device Utilization Information does not include Usage Information.

2.4 Survey Information Survey Information is information relating your experiences and satisfaction with the Services and suggestions relating to the Services provided by you through one of the Survey Sites or by other means, which indicate that such information may be shared publicly unless otherwise provided in System program agreement applicable to you.

2.5 Payment Information WL does not collect, process or store payment information such as credit card numbers, expiration dates, banking information or similar kinds of transactional information.

3 How We Use Consumer Information We use Consumer Information for a wide variety of purposes, including enhancing the Services, to provide you with customer service and to make a wider range of products and services available to you. We also use your Consumer Information in aggregate, anonymous form to better understand how consumers use our Services, which Services they use, and who is likely to be interested in receiving certain other services, and for various other business purposes.

3.1 Account Information We use your personally identifiable Account Information to establish and service your account with us, offer new services as available, and assist you in the use of the Service (including customer support).

3.2 Usage Information We may use personally identifiable Usage Information to optimize your heating and cooling by determining your house location and your comfort settings (temperature settings per day-part and season where you are comfortable) to keep you comfortable and optimize with the local weather conditions.  We may use personally identifiable information in the form of your email address to communicate administrative, program results, and home efficiency reports to you.  If you are an eligible participant in the CS Grid Stability program, we use your address and other information to communicate your participation with your utility, and may, depending on your location and the program, acquire access to your smart meter data as necessary.

3.3 Communicating Device Utilization Information We use personally identifiable Communicating Device Utilization Information for technical troubleshooting, quality control, customer support, enhancement of the Services, and research and development activities.

3.4 Anonymous Consumer Information We also “anonymize” Consumer Information by removing any identifier that can be associated with your personal Contact Information. Anonymous Consumer Information may be associated with or include other Account Information or Consumer Information that does not identify you. It allows us to understand usage of the Services at a ZIP Code level. Anonymous Consumer Information helps us develop reports and analyses about how our customers use the Services and for other research such as research regarding behavioral inferences. We may share anonymous Consumer Information and reports and analyses based on anonymous Consumer Information with your utility and other service providers. We also use anonymous Consumer Information to troubleshoot technical issues with our System and to compile statistics and reports of usage of the Service.

4. Disclosure of Consumer Information to Third Parties We may disclose Consumer Information, and analyses and reports derived from such information to third parties including utilities, or our service providers. If the Service is distributed by one of our distributors or partners (e.g., a utility or Communicating Device manufacturer who may install a Communicating Device or implement a Communicating Device program with us), they may have the same access to your Consumer Information as we do. Please review their Privacy Policy for additional information.

4.1 Contractors and Third-Party Service Providers We may use independent contractors to assist with our operations. Such contractors may include Energy Services companies (our vendors used in connection with certain demand response programs), installers, programmers, consultants, billing and other agents, auditors, attorneys and accountants, potential purchasers of our business, collection agencies, and third parties who provide services necessary for us to provide the Service or conduct legitimate business activities in connection with the Services. Their access to such information will be limited to specific tasks. We also use third parties to help with certain aspects of our operations, which may require disclosure of your Consumer Information to them. For example, we may permit third-party manufacturers of energy management Communicating Devices to connect their devices to the Service and require them to provide support for those Communicating Devices, or we may use a third party to communicate with you (via email, letter or telephone) about your account or upcoming features or services, to generate demographic profiles based on Consumer Information of our customers, and to perform other work as part of or in relation to the Service that we may need to outsource. We require these contractors and third parties to protect the confidentiality of your Consumer Information and to use it only as necessary to perform the services they are asked to perform. These contractors and third parties are responsible and liable if they misuse any Consumer Information.

4.2 Utility and Technology Partners If the Service is provided through your utility provider, third party System provider or other technology partner, we may share Consumer Information with your utility provider, third party System provider, Energy Services company, or other technology partner in accordance with your agreement with such utility provider or third party System provider. In certain circumstances, such parties may have direct access to Consumer Information. Their obligations with respect to such Consumer Information are governed by their agreement with you.

4.3 Compliance with the Law: Protection of Our System and Services Because your privacy is very important to us, we have put in place commercially reasonable technical, physical and administrative measures to protect the Consumer Information that we collect. No security system is perfect, however, and we cannot guarantee that your Consumer Information will not be disclosed to unintended third-party recipients. It is possible that third parties may circumvent our security measures to unlawfully intercept or access your Consumer Information. In addition, we may be legally obligated to disclose Consumer Information to the government or third parties under certain circumstances, such as in response to a legal demand issued by a government entity, a subpoena issued in connection with a civil or criminal investigation or litigation, an order from a court or regulatory agency, or to comply with regulatory requirements. We may determine that, notwithstanding the provisions of this Policy, it is necessary or appropriate for us to disclose your Account Information and personally identifiable Usage Information or Communicating Device Utilization Information to comply with the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and any other relevant laws or regulations, to enforce our applicable End User License and Service Agreement or any other of our policies, to exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims, to protect the integrity of our operations, to protect our customers, or to prevent a crime.

4.4 Affiliated Companies We may share some or all of your Consumer Information with any parent company, subsidiary, joint venture or other company under a common control with us. If this happens, we will require the related company to comply with this Privacy Policy. If another company acquires us, or acquires our assets that comprise or include your Consumer Information, we may transfer the Consumer Information to that acquiring company, which may put in place its own privacy policy with terms that are different from the terms of this Privacy Policy. In that event, the acquiring company will provide you with notice of any such changes using the Contact Information that we have for you.

5. Your Choices Regarding Consumer Information

5.1 Initial Privacy Settings The initial privacy preferences for your account, summarized below, allow us to collect, use and disclose personally identifiable Usage Information and Communicating Device Utilization Information, in addition to Account Information, in manners consistent with this Privacy Policy.

In summary, your default privacy settings are:

  • Account Information– Required to Provide Service
  • Personally identifiable Usage Information– Required to Provide Service
  • Communicating Device Utilization Information– Required to Provide Service

As described immediately below, you may opt-out with respect to our providing you communications regarding upcoming promotions that may interest you. We will still use the information for the other purposes outlined in Sections 1 through 3 above, including, without limitation, sending you messages related to the Service.

5.2 Changing your Privacy Settings: How to Opt-In or Opt-Out In all cases, however, we will collect and use your Account Information to enable us to provide CS services or WL home services. We will also collect and use anonymous Usage Information and Communicating Device Utilization Information for the purposes stated in this Privacy Policy. You may opt out of receiving your Energy Report by clicking on the unsubscribe link in the e-mail.  You may un-enroll from the entire CS program via your Portal or by sending an email to connectedsavings@whiskerlabs.com. You may un-enroll from the entire WL program by sending an email to help@whiskerlabs.com.

5.3 Effect of Certain Opt-Out Choices You understand that our ability to gather and use Consumer Information may be necessary to provide certain personalized services, features and functions. If we cannot gather certain Consumer Information (such as personally identifiable Usage Information, certain Communicating Device Utilization Information, anonymous Usage Information and Commerce Information), we may not be able to provide such personalized services, features and functions.

5.4 Review and Update of Account Information You may review your Account Information collected and stored and may ask to change or update this information. If you would like to review your Account Information, you may access your account through the Portals and may make changes to your Account Information there.

6. Our Websites Like many websites, our websites use “cookies” to recognize you and to help personalize your online experience. A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your hard disk by a web page server. These cookies contain information that can later be read by a web page server in the domain that issued the cookie to you. We use cookies to store information on your computer in order to save you time by eliminating the need to enter repeatedly the same information in order to display personalized content on later visits to the websites. We also use cookies to help us understand which parts of the websites are the most popular; where our users are going and how much time they spend at various locations within the websites. The information we collect through cookies is anonymous and we do not access any of your personally identifiable information through the cookies. You have the ability to decline cookies through your web browser. Additionally, you can disable or delete similar data used by browser add-ons, such as Flash cookies, by changing the add-on’s settings or visiting the Web site of its manufacturer. If you choose to decline cookies, however, you may not be able to use the features of the websites that depend on cookies. The websites may contain tiny electronic images known as web beacons. We may use web beacons to assist us in delivering cookies on the Websites and to allow us to count users who have visited those pages. We may include web beacons in promotional email messages in order to determine whether messages have been opened and acted upon. Communication Information is information relating to you or your use of the Service derived from communications sent through the Service or entered by you in forms hosted on. We cannot protect Communication Information shared in public forums; therefore, you should use care to only disclose that information you wish to share publicly.

7. Third Party Links and Disclosure in Community Forums

7.1 Services may contain content, services, advertising and other materials that link to website operated by third parties. WL has no control over those other sites, and this Privacy Policy does not apply to these sites.

7.2 IF YOU VOLUNTARILY DISCLOSE PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION (E.G., NAME, EMAIL ADDRESS, PERSONAL PHOTOGRAPHS) IN A COMMUNITY FORUM, SUCH INFORMATION MAY BE COLLECTED AND USED BY OTHERS AND MAY RESULT IN UNSOLICITED MESSAGES FROM OTHER PARTIES. WE HAVE NO CONTROL OVER THIS TYPE OF USE OF YOUR PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION AND CANNOT BE RESPONSIBLE.

8. General

8.1 Amendments to this Privacy Policy We may occasionally update this Privacy Policy. When we do, we will also revise the “last updated” date at the bottom of the Privacy Policy. If we make changes that are material, as we determine in our sole discretion, we will notify you either by placing a prominent notice on the home page of the Consumer web portal or by sending you a notification directly. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we are helping to protect the Consumer Information we collect. Your continued use of the Service after such notice constitutes your agreement to this Privacy Policy and any updates. Please be aware that this Privacy Policy and any choices you make on the Service do not necessarily apply to information you may have provided to us in the context of other of our separately operated products or services.

8.2 Technical Problems Even though we have taken significant steps to ensure that your Consumer Information is never collected, used, or disclosed by us except as set forth by this Privacy Policy, technical mistakes are possible. If such a mistake takes place, we will take commercially reasonable steps to correct it.

8.3 Contact Us Our intention is to be diligent in protecting your privacy by carefully following our Privacy Policy. If you would like to make suggestions or find out more about our privacy practices, please email us privacy@whiskerlabs.com.

8.4 Interpreting this Privacy Policy Examples listed in this Privacy Policy are provided to assist your understanding of this Privacy Policy and are not intended as exhaustive lists. Section headings are provided for your convenience. This Privacy Policy supplements and is incorporated into the applicable End User License and Service Agreement. YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS Pursuant to California Civil Code Section 1798.83(a), if you downloaded or otherwise received, installed or use any portion of the Service, you may request the following information, which will be provided to you via either a writing or email free of charge: (1) a list of the categories of personal information disclosed by us to third parties for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes during the immediately preceding calendar year and (2) the names and addresses of all third parties that received personal information from us for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes during the preceding calendar year and, if the nature of the third parties’ business cannot reasonably be determined from the third parties’ name, examples of the products or services marketed, if known to us, sufficient to give you a reasonable indication of the nature of the third parties’ business. Consumer requests for this information should be sent to privacy@whiskerlabs.com.