Data Policy & Terms of Use

Data Policy

Last updated: May 16 2007

Data Controller

Any personal information that you provide on this website is controlled by the Energy Saving Trust Limited.

Your personal information

Occasionally you will be asked to submit personal information about yourself (e.g. name, address and email address) in order to receive or use services on our websites. Such services include details of grants and offers, newsletters, publications, information and advice.

By entering your details in the fields requested and pressing 'Submit', you are consenting to the processing of your information by the Energy Saving Trust and its agents in accordance with this Data Policy. You may also provide personal information to us when you contact us by email, telephone or letter. Whenever you provide such personal information, we will treat that information in accordance with this policy. Our services are designed to give you the information that you have requested. The Energy Saving Trust will, at all times, act in accordance with current legislation and aim to meet current Internet best practice.

Use and storage of your personal information

When you supply any personal information to the Energy Saving Trust we have legal obligations towards you in the way we deal with that information. We must collect the information fairly, that is, we must explain how we will use it. This Data Policy explains how we will use your personal information. The 'Data Protection Notice' that you will find present whenever personal information is collected will provide additional information about how your personal information will be used by the Energy Saving Trust.

You will find the following symbol, known as the 'Information Padlock', wherever we collect personal information from you. The Information Commissioner and the National Consumer Council have devised this symbol to alert consumers that their personal information is being collected and processed. Wherever you see this symbol you should read the information carefully as it will explain exactly how, and for what purpose(s), your information will be processed.

We will use personal information provided by you or gathered by the Energy Saving Trust for the following purposes:

• To process and respond to requests, enquiries and complaints received from you
• To provide services requested by you
• To communicate with you about services provided to you
• To process payments
• To update our records
• To analyse trends and profiles
• For audit purposes
• To carry out customer satisfaction research
• To prevent or detect fraud
• To recommend products and services that we believe will be of interest to you
• To enable third parties to carry out any of the purposes above on our behalf

If you are notified that your personal information may be used to allow the Energy Saving Trust to contact you for 'service administration purposes', this means that the Energy Saving Trust may contact you for a number of purposes related to the service you have signed up for. For example, we may wish to provide you with password reminders or notify you that the particular service has been suspended or changed.

We will not contact you for promotional purposes, such as notifying you of new offers and grants relating to sustainable energy use, unless you specifically agree to be contacted for such purposes at the time you submit your information on the site, or at a later time if you sign up specifically to receive such promotional information.

We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out above and we will remove it when the purposes have been met, unless you opt-in for future communications with us.

Where you have opted-in to future communications, we will, on each subsequent communication, offer you an easily executable 'opt-out' option, which will allow you to remove yourself from any future mailings.

Sharing of your personal information

The Energy Saving Trust may share your personal information with third parties in the following ways:

• We sometimes use agents and service providers to process personal information on our behalf. For example, we use third parties to [carry out inspections, to send postal mail, to carry out credit checks and to maintain our IT systems]. Where we use agents and service providers to process your personal information, we will ensure that they have adequate security measures in place and are governed by our privacy policies in respect to the use of your personal information
• We share information with government departments and government bodies that provide funding to the Energy Saving Trust or have an interest in the Energy Saving Trust's activities. Information is passed to government departments and government bodies (for analysis purposes)
• We will release your personal information when we are required to do so by law
• We will release your personal information to others when you have given your consent to that release
• The Energy Saving Trust may occasionally present a promotion that is sponsored by a third-party company. To qualify for entry, we may ask you to provide personal information. If we plan to share that information with the sponsor(s) we will make this clear at the point of collection of your information

Use of Cookies

During the course of any visit to an the Energy Saving Trust website, the pages you see, along with something called a cookie, are downloaded to your computer. Most, if not all, websites do this, because cookies allow the website publisher to accumulate useful data such as whether the computer (and sometimes its user) has visited the site before. This is done on a repeat visit by checking to see, and finding, the cookie left there on the last visit.

We use cookies to help us to provide you with a better service and to assist us to analyse the profile of our visitors. From time to time we will review the information cookies provide on how the site is used in order to improve navigation and increase the relevance of content.

What is a cookie?

When you enter a site your computer will automatically be issued with a cookie. Cookies are text files that identify your computer to our server. Cookies in themselves do not identify the individual user, just the computer used. Many websites do this whenever a user visits their site in order to track traffic flows.

Cookies themselves only record those areas of the site that have been visited by the computer in question, and for how long. Users have the opportunity to set their computers to accept all cookies, to notify them when a cookie is issued, or not to receive cookies at any time. The last of these, of course, means that certain personalised services cannot then be provided to that user.

Access to your personal information

You have the right to request a copy of the personal information the Energy Saving Trust holds about you and to have any inaccuracies corrected. We will ask for confirmation of identity before we disclose any personal information and may charge a £10 administration fee to process the request. Please address requests to the Data Protection Officer, Energy Saving Trust, 21 Dartmouth St, London, SW1H 9BP.

Terms of Use

Last updated: May 16 2007

These Terms of Use govern your use of the Energy Saving Trust's website. By using the website you are indicating your acceptance of these Terms of Use. The Energy Saving Trust may update the Terms of Use from time to time.

Copyright

The information and images contained on our websites are the property of the Energy Saving Trust and are protected by copyright laws. All software used on this website is the property of the Energy Saving Trust or our software suppliers and is protected by copyright laws. The content of websites may not be distributed, modified, reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of the Energy Saving Trust.

Material may be downloaded free of charge or printed without requiring specific permission. This is subject to the material being reproduced accurately and not being used in a derogatory manner, in a misleading context or for commercial purposes. Where this material is being issued to others, the source (including web address) and copyright status must be acknowledged.

Trade Marks

"Energy Saving Trust", the "Energy Saving Recommended" logo and other marks used on the Energy Saving Trust's websites are the Energy Saving Trust's trade marks and may not be used without the Energy Saving Trust's prior written permission.

Disclaimer

The Energy Saving Trust does not accept any responsibility for any loss or damage including, without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damages whatsoever arising from use or loss of use of, data or profits arising out of or in connection with the use of the Energy Saving Trust's websites.

The Energy Saving Trust does not guarantee that access to and use of the Energy Saving Trust's websites will be uninterrupted or error-free.

Mention of third party products, services, companies and websites on any of the Energy Saving Trust website is for informational purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation unless the said product, service or company is referred to under the Energy Saving Endorsement scheme. The Energy Saving Trust's "Energy Saving Endorsement Scheme" and associated "Energy Saving Recommended" trademark was launched to support and promote Energy Saving products in conjunction with manufacturers and retailers. The Energy Saving Trust only endorses products that are featured within the Energy Saving Recommended products database. Please note that all third party products must be ordered directly from the vendor, and all licenses and warranties, if any, take place between you and the vendor.

The Energy Saving Trust's websites hold a wide range of links to related websites from a variety of related organisations, companies and services. While every effort is made to check the content and accuracy of the websites we link to, the Energy Saving Trust takes no responsibility for information contained on websites maintained by other organisations or for action taken as a result of information contained on websites maintained by other organisations. View our links policy.

Although we may from time to time monitor or review discussion postings on our bulletin boards, we are under no obligation to do so and assume no responsibility or liability arising from the content of any such locations nor for any error, omission, infringement, defamation, obscenity, or inaccuracy contained in any information within such locations on the Energy Saving Trust's websites.

Governing Law

These terms and conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales. Any dispute arising under these terms and conditions shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

Visit the Information commissioner's website for more information on UK data protection