Privacy Policy

San Bernard Electric Cooperative, Inc. (“SBEC” “we” “us” and “our”) has created this Privacy Policy in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to your privacy and security. This Privacy Policy applies to all visitors of our Website and customers of our Services. To better protect your privacy, this Privacy Policy explains our online information practices and the choices you can make about the way your information is collected and used by SBEC. We encourage you to read the entire policy so you fully understand how we collect, use, and store your personal information.

Information We Collect. 

Depending on how you choose to use and interact with our Website and/or our Services, we may collect the following types of information from you:

• Account information includes your name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, and other contact information,
• Service-related details such as billing information and transaction history.
• Information about third parties that you provide as part of our Services.
• Web browsing information includes your IP addresses, URLs, browser history, and information about your device such as operating system and platform type.

How We Collect Information.

We collect information about you in two ways:

1. information you provide to us, and
2. information we collect automatically.

Information you provide. When you make a purchase, set up an account with us, interact with one of our Services, or communicate with us by any means, you voluntarily provide information to us. For example, when you open an account with us, you provide us with your name and contact information. Whenever you provide information to us, we may use that information to communicate with you about your use of our Services (including any relevant service updates and promotions) and our Website.

Co-sponsorships. If you provide your information to us in order to register for an event or a promotion that we sponsor with another organization, or if you visit a co-sponsored site, or use a service that we promote through a partnership with another organization, you also may be providing information to our co-sponsor. In that instance, you should refer to that co-sponsor or partner’s privacy policy for information about its practices, which may differ from those of SBEC.

Information we collect automatically. To deliver a more personalized experience, when you visit our Website or use our Services, we may automatically collect certain pieces of information. The information that we may collect includes the device you use to access our Website, the pages you visit, the time you spend on our Website, the links that you click on and follow, the search terms you enter, how often you access an application or portion of the Website, and how long you spend on our Website.

Cookies & Other Technologies.

We may use cookies, web server logs, and other technologies to collect information about you when you interact with our Website. A cookie is a small data string that is written on your computer’s data storage drive by a web server that enables our Website to maintain information when a user’s web browser requests a series of web pages. Cookies generally hold data strings that contain a unique user ID that allow us to customize your experiences on our Website and gather information about your navigation of the Website. Cookies can allow us to help verify the identity of a Website user, to recognize you as a registered user, and to remember your settings and preferences so that you do not have to enter the same information each time you visit our Website. We may also use cookies to deliver content tailored to your interests, keep track of your online transactions, and alert you to new services based on your current services. You may refuse our cookies by turning them off in your browser. You do not need to have cookies turned on in your browser to access our Website, but without cookies, certain features of our Website might not be available to you.

How We Use Information.

We may use information in the following ways:

• Consistent with purposes for which you provided us with information;
• To provide our Website and its contents, including tracking, analyze, and improve your engagement with our Website and any of our advertisements;
• To provide our Services;
• To communicate with you about our mission, our initiatives, our Website, our Services, or our policies;
• To provide you with advertising;
• To detect, investigate, and prevent activities that may violate our policies or be illegal;
• To maintain the safety, security, and integrity of our Website, Services, databases, other assets, or our business generally;
• To respond to lawful process or lawful subpoena, to comply with any law, to protect the rights or property of SBEC, or its service providers, partners, customers or users, or to protect such parties from fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful use of, or subscription to, our Services; and
• To carry out our contractual obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts.

Information We Share.

We may use vendors and service providers for a variety of business purposes to help us offer, provide, and bill for services we provide. We may share your information with third party vendors and service providers when it is necessary for them to perform work on our behalf. For example, we may provide your payment card information and billing address to a payment processing vendor solely for the purpose of processing payment for a transaction that you have requested. We may share your information to a company that merges with, acquires, or purchases the assets of SBEC, in which case that company may continue to process your information. We may also disclose your information to law enforcement or other government officials upon receipt of lawful process, upon lawful subpoena, in compliance with any law, and or to protect the rights or property of SBEC, or its service providers, partners, customers or users, or to protect such parties from fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful use of, or subscription to, our Services.

Except as otherwise provided in this Privacy Policy, we do not sell, rent, license, or lease your information to third parties.

Information Security and Data Retention.

We have technical, physical, and administrative safeguards in place to help protect against unauthorized access to, use, and disclosure of the information that we collect or store, including your contact and payment information. Under our practices, access to sensitive information that could be used to identify you as an individual is authorized only for those who have a business need for such access, and sensitive information is retained only for business, accounting, tax, or legal purposes.

Although we work hard to protect personal information that we collect and store, no program is 100% secure and we cannot guarantee that the safeguards we have in place will prevent every unauthorized attempt to access, use, or disclose your personal information. If you become aware of a security issue, please contact us. We will work with you to address any problems.

Third Party Links and Websites.

Please note that we are not responsible for the websites, apps, or services of third parties. Our Website may contain links to third party websites, apps, or services. The collection, use, and disclosure of information that you provide to those third-party websites, apps, and services are not governed by this Privacy Policy.

Your Choices & Controls.

You have control over the information that you receive from us. If at any time you want to opt out of any mailing list, you may also opt out directly through the Unsubscribe link found in the footer of the email.