Our Privacy Commitment
Reliant Energy knows that you care how information about you is used and
shared, and we appreciate your trust that we will do so carefully and sensibly.
This Privacy Statement outlines the information Reliant Energy will collect and
how we will use that information. This statement will also explain how you can
make your preference known regarding when Reliant Energy may send marketing
communications to you.
What
Information We Collect
Reliant Energy's primary goal in collecting information is to allow us to offer
products and services which are relevant to consumers like you. Personal
information also allows us to provide services and features that most likely
meet your needs, and to customize our service to make your experience smooth
and efficient. Any personal information that we collect will only be used for
internal marketing purposes of Reliant Energy, except as otherwise required by
law or as disclosed to you in this Privacy Statement.
Information You Give Us
Reliant Energy will not collect any personal information from you unless you
provide it to us voluntarily. We may ask you to provide information including
your name, address, government-issued identification card number, social
security number, telephone number, and email address. In addition, we may ask
you to provide information relating to energy use, such as the characteristics
of your home, your age, gender and family size, or we may ask you to state your
opinion about potential products and services. If you opt not to provide us
with personal information,we may be unable to deliver certain promotions or
product information to you that you have requested.
Non-personal, Aggregate and Statistical
Data
Reliant Energy may collect certain non-personal or aggregate data. For example,
we may use web log information (such as your web browser, operating system,
pages visited, etc.) and use cookies when you visit many of our web pages. For
instance, when you visit one of our web sites, our web server will
automatically recognize some non-personal information, including but not
limited to the date and time you visited our site, the pages you visited, the
referrer (the web site you came from), the type of browser you are using (e.g.,
Netscape, Internet Explorer), the type of operating system you are using (e.g.,
Windows or Mac OS), and the domain name and address of your Internet service
provider (e.g., America Online, Earthlink).
Email Addresses
At the time Reliant Energy requests an email address from you, you will be
given the opportunity to indicate whether or not you wish to receive future
email solicitations from us. We may, however, send you emails for other reasons
such as responding to your requests for service or information or matters
relative to your account.
Information from Other Sources
For reasons such as providing better product recommendations or special offers
that we think will interest you and to identify persons not already a Reliant
Energy customer, we receive information from other sources and add it to our
information. The type of information we receive may include (but is not limited
to) your name, address, telephone number, and in some cases, type and
characteristics of your home, your age, and statistical estimates of your
family size, income and home value. We also sometimes receive updated delivery
and address information so that we can correct our records and deliver your
next communication more easily.
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How We
Collect Information
Information You Give Us
Reliant Energy does not require potential customers or visitors to our web
sites to provide personal information, except as necessary to be enrolled as a
customer. You may choose to enter contests, vote in polls or otherwise express
an opinion, subscribe to one of our services such as newsletters, or
participate in one of our online forums or communities. These programs may
require you to submit some information in order to participate. These programs
and the types of information required are described in more detail below.
Registration/Subscriptions: To fully use our web sites, visitors may
need to register using our online registration forms, where visitors may be
required to provide us with some personal information. Visitors may also be
asked to select a user ID and password. Further, to register for certain
services or become a member of certain communities, we may ask visitors to
submit their name, email address, home address, and zip code. You can further
make choices about receiving targeted newsletters and alerts from Reliant
Energy. You can always decide not to receive or stop receiving any targeted
solicitations from Reliant Energy that you do not want.
Contests/Sweepstakes: Reliant Energy may run contests, sweepstakes and
other promotions. We may ask you to provide personal information that is needed
in order to administer the contest, sweepstakes or promotion and to notify
winners.
Referrals: Occasionally, you will have the opportunity to forward
promotional opportunities or other information on the web site to
friends/relatives or to send messages from our web sites to friends/relatives.
This personal referral information you provide to facilitate this communication
is used on a one-time basis and is not further retained by Reliant Energy,
except in circumstances where we obtain consent from the people you have
referred to receive communications from us.
Questionnaires, Surveys and Profile Data: Reliant Energy may
occasionally ask you to complete surveys and opinion polls about your
interests, needs, and attitudes. Surveys help us provide better services and
products that meet customer needs. Participation is voluntary and these surveys
are optional.
Customer Services and Contact Information: If you provide our customer
service representatives with feedback on your experiences with our
products/services or otherwise submit questions to our customer service
representatives or webmasters, you will be asked to supply personal information
for our record keeping and follow-up.
Non-personal, Aggregate and Statistical Data
Reliant Energy may collect certain aggregate data called web log information
and use cookies when you visit many of our web pages. For instance, when you
visit one of our web sites, our web server will automatically recognize some
non-personal information, including but not limited to the date and time you
visited our site, the pages you visited, the referrer (the web site you came
from), the type of browser you are using (e.g., Netscape, Internet Explorer),
the type of operating system you are using (e.g., Windows '95 or Mac OS), and
the domain name and address of your Internet service provider (e.g., America
Online, Earthlink).
Information from Other Sources
For reasons such as providing better product recommendations or special offers
that we think will interest you and to identify persons not already a Reliant
Energy customer, we receive information from other sources and add it to our
information. The sources that provide this information have obtained it from
public sources or from voluntary informational surveys.
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How We Use
Your Information
Personal Information
We may use your personal information to contact you. For example, we may send
you marketing or promotional materials including emails or other information;
we may respond to your comments or requests for information; or we may contact
you if needed in the course of fulfilling your service request. We may also use
your personal information to confirm and verify your customer enrollment
status, and for credit approval.
Reliant Energy does not collect personal
information automatically, but we may combine non-personal information
collected automatically (e.g., through cookies and web beacons) with your
previously submitted personal information. We may also enhance or merge
personal information with data obtained from third parties for the same
purposes.
We use this personal and statistical
information about you to improve our marketing and promotional efforts; to
statistically analyze site usage; to improve our content and product offerings;
and to customize our sites' content, layout and services. We may also use your
information to deliver information to you that, in some cases, is targeted to
your interests, such as targeted banners, new services and promotions. We
believe these uses allow us to improve our site and better tailor it to meet
our visitors' needs.
Reliant Energy occasionally sends emails
describing new products, promotions or events. These email services are
optional and you may opt-out of these services completely, at any time.
Non-personal, Aggregate and Statistical
Data
Reliant Energy uses web log information (such as your web browser, operating
system, pages visited, etc.) to help us design our web site, to identify
popular features, and for other managerial purposes. However, web logs may be
used if necessary to help identify any person attempting to break into or
damage our web site. We may share web log information with law enforcement
agencies if we believe that we have evidence of a violation of computer
security or related laws.
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How We
May Share Your Information
For Promotional Purposes
Except in the event of a business transfer, we
will not share, trade or sell personal information about you for promotional
use by any business, other than Reliant Energy and its affiliates. However, we
may sometimes send offers to Reliant Energy customers on behalf of other
businesses. When we do this, we do not give that business the name, address,
telephone number or email address of our customers.
When companies acquire other businesses, sell
all, or portions of their business, customer information generally is one of
the transferred assets. If Reliant Energy or substantially all of its assets
are transferred through merger, acquisition, bankruptcy or any other change of
corporate control then, customer information will of course be one of the
transferred assets.
Aggregated and statistical data from our web
site visitors may be shared with our partners. For example, we may let a
partner know that approximately "20,000 people visited a web page regarding
a specific joint promotion."
All employees, contractors and other companies
engaged by Reliant Energy for work that involves access to personal information
are contractually required to keep the information confidential and not to use
it in any way other than what is necessary to perform their work for Reliant
Energy.
For Protection of Reliant Energy and
Others
We may release personal data, including
account information, when we believe release is appropriate to comply with
laws, regulations or judicial orders; or to protect the rights, property, or
safety of Reliant Energy, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging
information with other companies and organizations for fraud protection and
credit risk reduction.
Reliant Energy also reserves the right to
share the information to respond to duly authorized information requests of
governmental authorities or where required by law or regulation.
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Cookies and Web Beacons
When you view one of our web sites, we may collect some non-personal
information about you. The collection of this non-personal information is done
either through the "cookie" technology or with "web beacons"
(also called "single-pixel gif" or "web pings"). Neither our
cookies nor web beacons nor web log information collects any personal
information. They do not contain personal information such as your name or
email address.
Cookies
When you view one of our web sites or interactive advertisements, we may store
some information on your computer. This information will be in the form of a
small text file, also called a "cookie". Cookies help us in many ways
to make your visit to our web site more enjoyable and meaningful to you. For
example, cookies avoid you having to log in every time you come back to one of
our web sites. They also allow us to tailor a web site or advertisement to
better match your interests and preferences. Most browsers can be configured
not to accept cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent.
Web Beacons
Web beacons are site instrumentation that help us to determine, for
instance, whether a page has been viewed or not and, if so, how many times.
When you ask us to send you information on a promotion or a newsletter, we may
use web beacons to establish how many of the emails are actually opened. In
general, any electronic image viewed as part of a web page or email, including
an ad banner, can act as a web beacon. Third party advertising networks that
serve ads onto any Reliant Energy web site may use cookies and/or web beacons
in their advertisements. Reliant Energy retains no control over such third
party cookies and/or web beacons and does not have access to the information
related to third party cookies and/or web beacons.
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Children's
Privacy
Reliant Energy believes that it is especially important to protect children's
privacy online. The Reliant Energy web sites are not directed at children and
we do not knowingly collect personal information from children.
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Data Security
Reliant Energy is committed to keeping the data you provide us secure and will
take reasonable precautions to protect your personal information from loss,
misuse or alteration, including limiting access to such information within
Reliant Energy to authorized individuals and destroying personal information
that we decide not to retain in a manner designed to make it unreadable or
undecipherable. Agents, contractors, or partners of Reliant Energy who have
access to your personal information in connection with providing services for
Reliant Energy are required to keep the information confidential and are not
permitted to use this information for any other purpose than to carry out the
services they are performing for Reliant Energy.
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Your
Preferences
Reliant Energy allows you to choose to receive or stop receiving solicitations
from us. We accomplish this by maintaining a “Solicitation Preference File” in
which we record your preferences to receive or not receive solicitations from
us. We use two suppression files provided by the Direct Marketing Association,
the Mail Preference Service and Telephone Preference Service files; and we use
the National Do Not Call Registry. In addition, we use the Statewide
do-not-call and Electric do-not-call lists maintained by the Public Utility
Commission of Texas. The Statewide do-not-call list is used to identify those
consumers that do not wish to be contacted by telephone regarding any
solicitation. The Electric do-not-call list is used to identify consumers or
businesses that do not wish to be contacted by telephone regarding their choice
of electric provider.
How to Make Your Preferences
Known
To Reliant Energy
You may inform us of your preference not to receive solicitations from us
in one of two ways.
Submit your preferences online with the requested
information.
Write us at:
Reliant Energy
Solicitation Preferences
P.O. Box 3765
Houston, TX 77253-3765
When contacting us by mail, be sure to include your name, address, telephone
number, and email address. In addition, please indicate your preferences for
postal mail, telephone and email communications from Reliant Energy.
To Other Businesses
If you wish to reduce the amount of national advertising mail or telephone
solicitations you receive at home, you may register with the Direct Marketing
Association Mail Preference Service and Telephone Preference Service for free
by writing to the following addresses:
DMA Mail Preference Service
P.O. Box 643
Carmel, NY 10512
DMA Telephone Preference Service
P.O. Box 1559
Carmel, NY 10512
Be sure to include your complete name, address
and telephone number and sign the request.The Mail Preference Service and
Telephone Preference Service are consumer services provided by the Direct
Marketing Association. When you register for these services, direct marketers
will use the information you provide to purge your name, address and telephone
number from their marketing campaigns. You should see a reduction in the amount
of national advertising solicitations you receive within ninety days of
registering with the service. Before making your final decision about
registering with the Direct Marketing Association or if you wish to learn more
about the privacy initiatives of the Direct Marketing Association, consider
visiting the following web site: www.dmaconsumers.org/consumerassistance.html.
You may also register online for MPS and TPS at the above web site. There is a
fee to register online.
To the Public Utility Commission of
Texas
The PUC has established two do-not-call lists. You can indicate to the PUC
that you do not wish to receive telephone solicitations from providers of
electric service regarding your choice of service provider by placing your
name, address, and telephone number on the electric do-not-call list. You can
indicate that you prefer not to receive any telephone solicitations by placing
your name, address, and telephone number on the statewide do-not-call list. The
PUC charges a fee for this service. For more information or to register your
name, address, and telephone number on the do-not-call lists you may use one of
three different methods.
Online - www.texasnocall.com
By phone – call toll-free
512-936-7120
By mail – request an application from
Texas No Call
P.O. Box 313
East Walpole, MA 02032
To the National Do Not Call Registry
The National Do Not Call Registry gives you a choice about whether to
receive telemarketing calls at home. For more information, go to www.donotcall.gov.
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Complaints
Reliant Energy is committed to working with consumers to obtain a fair and
rapid resolution of any complaints or disputes about privacy. Please send us
your questions or comments regarding our privacy practices by either
sending us an email, or writing a letter to:
Reliant Energy
Privacy Compliance Coordinator
P.O. Box 3765
Houston, TX 77253-3765
We will be happy to respond to your questions and comments.
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Links to
Other Sites
Some Reliant Energy web sites may contain links to other sites. Reliant Energy
is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such web sites.
We recommend you carefully read the privacy policies of each site you
visit.
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Policy
Changes
We reserve the right to make changes to this Privacy Statement from time to
time. If at some time in the future, we wish to use your information for new
unanticipated uses not previously disclosed in our Privacy Statement, we
will:
- Post the policy changes to this section of our Privacy Statement to notify
you of these changes and provide you with the ability to opt out of these new
uses.
- Initially, we will only use information collected from the time of the
policy change forward for the new purposes. However, after a reasonable time
has transpired, we will use for the new purpose the information collected
before the policy change from those who do not opt out.
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Your Acceptance of
Our Privacy Practices
By using this web site or any other Reliant Energy web site or interactive
banner ads, you signify your acceptance of this Privacy Statement, and you
adhere to the terms and conditions posted on the web site. If you do not agree
with any of these terms, please do not use this site or submit any personal
information. This English version shall always prevail in case of conflicts
between it and any translations of our Privacy Statement.
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