Privacy Policy

Effective Date: March 3, 2017
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‍Vutility values your privacy. Vutility offers real-time software-as-a-service that gathers and displays utility information. In this Privacy Policy (“Policy”), we describe how we collect, use, and disclose information that we obtain about visitors to our website https://www.Vutility.com (the “Site”) and the services available through our Site and mobile applications (collectively, the “Services”).

By visiting the Site or using any of our Services, you agree that your personal information will be handled as described in this Policy. Your use of our Site or Services, and any dispute over privacy, is subject to this Policy and our Terms of Service, available below, including its applicable limitations on damages and the resolution of disputes. The Vutility Terms of Service are incorporated by reference into this Policy.

What Information Do We Collect About You and Why?

We may collect information about you directly from you and from third parties, as well as automatically through your use of our Site or Services.

Information We Collect Directly From You

Certain areas and features of our Site and Services may require registration. To register, you must provide your email address and a password. We also may collect additional optional information from you, including your name, location, and phone number; however, you are not required to provide us with this information. In addition, if you make a purchase, we will also request that you provide your credit or debit card information and your billing address.

We may use this information in aggregated form or we may associate it with your username and other personal information that we collect about you.

Information that We Collect About You from Social Networking Sites

You also may log into our Site and Application through Google, Facebook, and Twitter. By logging in through these systems you are granting us access to your email address. We store the information that we receive from these systems with other information that we collect from you or receive about you.

Information We Collect Automatically

We may automatically collect the following information about your use of our Site or Services through cookies, web beacons, and other technologies: your domain name; your browser type and operating system; web pages you view; links you click; your IP address; the length of time you visit our Site and or use our Services; and the referring URL, or the webpage that led you to our Site, and the following: access time, browser type, domain name, IP address, page views and referring URL. Please see the section “What About Cookies and Other Tracking Mechanisms?” below for more information about our use of cookies and other tracking mechanisms.

How We Use Your Information

We use the information that we gather about you for the following purposes:

To provide our Services to you, to communicate with you about your use of our Services, to respond to your inquiries, to fulfill your orders, and for other customer service purposes. To tailor the content and information that we may send or display to you, to offer location customization, and personalized help and instructions, and to otherwise personalize your experiences while using the Site or our Services. For marketing and promotional purposes. For example, we may use your information, such as your email address, to send you news and newsletters, special offers, and promotions, or to otherwise contact you about products or information we think may interest you. We also may use the information that we learn about you to assist us in advertising our Services on third party websites. To better understand how users access and use our Site and Services, both on an aggregated and individualized basis, in order to improve our Site and Services and respond to user desires and preferences, and for other research and analytical purposes.

How We Share Your Information

We may share the information that we collect about you, including personally identifiable information, as follows:

  • Affiliates We may disclose the information we collect from you to our affiliates or subsidiaries; however, if we do so, their use and disclosure of your personally identifiable information will be subject to this Policy. Service Providers. We may disclose the information we collect from you to third party vendors, service providers, contractors or agents who perform functions on our behalf.
  • Business Transfers If we are acquired by or merged with another company, if substantially all of our assets are transferred to another company, or as part of a bankruptcy proceeding, we may transfer the information we have collected from you to the other company.
  • In Response to Legal Process We also may disclose the information we collect from you in order to comply with the law, a judicial proceeding, court order, or other legal process, such as in response to a court order or a subpoena.
  • To Protect Us and Others We also may disclose the information we collect from you where we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person, violations of our Terms of Use or this Policy, or as evidence in litigation in which Vutility is involved.
  • Aggregate and De-Identified Information We may share aggregate or de-identified information about users with third parties for marketing, advertising, research or similar purposes.
Our Use of Cookies and Other Tracking Mechanisms

We use cookies and other tracking mechanisms to track information about your use of our Site or Services. We may combine this information with other personal information we collect from you. Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers that we transfer to your computer’s hard drive through your web browser for record-keeping purposes. Some cookies allow us to make it easier for you to navigate our Site and Services, while others are used to enable a faster log-in process or to allow us to track your activities at our Site and Service. There are two types of cookies: session and persistent cookies.

  • Session Cookies Session cookies exist only during an online session. They disappear from your computer when you close your browser or turn off your computer. We use session cookies to allow our systems to uniquely identify you during a session or while you are logged into the Site. This allows us to process your online transactions and requests and verify your identity, after you have logged in, as you move through our Site.
  • Persistent cookies Persistent cookies remain on your computer after you have closed your browser or turned off your computer. We use persistent cookies to track aggregate and statistical information about user activity.
Third Party Cookies

We may also engage third parties to track and analyze Site data. We use the data collected by such third parties to help us administer and improve the quality of the Site and to analyze Site usage. Such third parties may combine the information that we provide about you with other information that they have collected. This Policy does not cover such third parties’ use of the data.

Disabling Cookies

Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but if you prefer, you can edit your browser options to block them in the future. The Help portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your computer from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. Visitors to our Site who disable cookies will be able to browse certain areas of the Site, but some features may not function.

INFORMATION YOU CHOOSE TO DISPLAY PUBLICLY ON OUR SERVICES

Some users may elect to publicly post personally identifying or sensitive information about themselves in their normal use of our Services. This could occur through use of optional profile fields, in interactions on public boards, wikis, cases and forums, or if a previously private interaction is made public. Information like that, which is voluntarily posted in publicly visible parts of our Services, is considered to be public, even if it would otherwise be considered to be personally identifying or sensitive. As such, it is not subject to the protocols listed below, because we don’t control it; you do. Additionally, voluntarily publicizing such information means that you lose any privacy rights you might normally have with regards to that information. It may also increase your chances of receiving unwanted communications, like spam.

Please also remember that if you choose to provide personally identifiable information using certain public features of the Services, individuals reading such information may use or disclose it to other individuals or entities without our control and without your knowledge, and search engines may index that information. We therefore urge you to think carefully about including any specific information you may deem private in content that you create or information that you submit through our Services.

INFORMATION YOU GIVE TO OTHER PEOPLE

This Policy only applies to information collected by Vutility. It does not apply to the practices of companies that we don’t own or control, or employees that we don’t manage. Information on our Services’ boards, wikis, cases and forums may contain links to third party websites, and any information you provide to those sites will be covered by any privacy policies they may have. Please be sure to read the privacy policies of any third-party sites you visit. It is those sites’ responsibility to protect any information you give them, so we can’t be held liable for their wrongful use of your personally identifying information.

Third-Party Analytics

We use automated devices and applications, such as Google Analytics, to evaluate usage of our Site. We also may use other analytic means to evaluate our Services. We use these tools to help us improve our Services, performance and user experiences. We do not share your personal information with these third parties.

Third-Party Links

Our Site and Services may contain links to third-party websites. Any access to and use of such linked websites is not governed by this Policy, but instead is governed by the privacy policies of those third party websites. We are not responsible for the information practices of such third party websites.

Security of My Personal Information

We have implemented commercially reasonable precautions, including, where appropriate, password protection, encryption, SSL, firewalls, and internal restrictions on who may access data to protect the information we collect from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. Please be aware that despite our best efforts, no data security measures can guarantee 100% security.You should take steps to protect against unauthorized access to your password, phone, and computer by, among other things, signing off after using a shared computer, choosing a robust password that nobody else knows or can easily guess, and keeping your log-in and password private. We are not responsible for any lost, stolen, or compromised passwords or for any activity on your account via unauthorized password activity.

Access to My Personal Information

You may modify personal information that you have submitted by logging into your account and updating your profile information. Please note that copies of information that you have updated, modified or deleted may remain viewable in cached and archived pages of the Site for a period of time.

What Choices Do I Have Regarding Use of My Personal Information?

We may send periodic promotional or informational emails to you. You may opt-out of such communications by following the opt-out instructions contained in the e-mail. Please note that it may take up to 10 business days for us to process opt-out requests. If you opt-out of receiving emails about recommendations or other information we think may interest you, we may still send you e-mails about your account or any Services you have requested or received from us.

Children Under 13

Vutility does not knowingly collect personal information from children without parental consent. If we learn that we have inadvertently obtained information in violation of applicable laws, we will promptly delete the information. Vutility is not directed to children, and we expect that any use by children will only be done with the guidance, supervision and consent of their parents, guardians and/or authorized school officials. Vutility relies on parents and guardians to ensure that minors only use Vutility if they can understand their rights and responsibilities as laid out in these Terms of Service and our Privacy Policy.

In the event that you are a school, district or teacher in the United States and want your students, who are under the age of 13, to create Vutility accounts, you agree that you are responsible for complying with the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) and, to the extent applicable, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”). This means that you must notify the students’ parents/guardians of the personally identifiable information that Vutility will collect and that you will obtain parental/guardian consent before your students establish accounts or use Vutility. When obtaining such consent, you must provide parents/guardians with a copy of our Privacy Policy. You must keep all consents on file and provide them to us if we request them. For more information on complying with COPPA, see the Federal Trade Commission’s website. If you are located outside of the United States, we will rely upon you to obtain any required consent or approval from the parent or guardian of any student covered by similar laws, and, as a condition to your and your students’ use of Vutility, you agree that you will be responsible for complying with such laws.

EMPLOYEES’ & PROSPECTIVE EMPLOYEES’ INFORMATION

This section covers any ways in which personal information we collect from employees or applicants might be treated differently than user information. You can probably stop here if you are not an employee or interested in applying for a job with Vutility. The following is a non-comprehensive list of ways that we may use the information provided to us by employees or applicants:

  • Responding to inquiries in connection with prospective employment at Vutility, and processing employment applications
  • Carrying out human resources functions like training, career/succession planning, administering contracts, evaluating employees, and providing benefits
  • Enabling Vutility and its employees to contact each other by telephone, fax, e-mail, or “snail mail”
  • Administering compensation, bonus and other employment needs
  • Arranging employees’ travel plans
  • Maintaining building security and employee health and safety
  • Running internal administrative analytics, such as staffing, headcount and statistics initiatives
  • Complying with our legal obligations, policies and procedures
  • Transferring personal information to others as required by our legal, regulatory, compliance and auditing needs
Contact Us

If you have questions about the privacy aspects of our Services or would like to make a complaint, please contact us at support@vutility.com.

Changes to this Policy

This Policy is current as of the Effective Date set forth above. We may change this Policy from time to time, so please be sure to check back periodically. We will post any changes to this Policy on our Site at https://www.vutility.com. If we make any changes to this Policy that materially affect our practices with regard to the personal information we have previously collected from you, we will endeavor to provide you with notice in advance of such change by highlighting the change on our Site.

Change Log

• 3/3/17: Published Privacy Policy
• 2/1/2021: Updated to Vutility