Privacy Policy

Effective Date: June 1, 2020

This privacy policy (“Policy”) informs you of practices when handling your Information through the Services (both as defined below). In this Policy, “Swell”, “we” or “us” refers to Swell Energy Inc., with an office located at 1014 Broadway #949, Santa Monica, CA 90401, and our subsidiaries.

In this Policy, “Information” means any information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household, or as otherwise defined by applicable law. This includes Information you provide to us, is generated when you are the recipient of any Swell services, such as energy equipment installation, monitoring, and control, or when you access our website at https://www.swellenergy.com/ (together the “Services”).

When you use the Services, you accept and understand that we collect, process, use and store your Information as described in this Policy. If you do not agree with this Policy, you must not access the Services. If you change your mind in the future, you must stop using the Services and you may exercise your rights regarding your Information as set out in this Policy.

1. INFORMATION WE COLLECT

We may collect a variety of Information from or about you or your devices from various sources, as described below.

• Information you provide to us
• Contact information: for example, your name, email, address, and phone number. We use such Information to generate leads and sales for our business and commercial use.
• Registration information: for example, when you create an account on our website, you will be asked to provide your name, email, phone number, address and a password. We will use such information to provide you with the Services. To provide our Services, we may also ask you to provide your registration information to other entities who are under contract with us (e.g., our payments processor).
• Energy device identifiers: for example, the serial number of the battery in your energy device. We use such information to provide you with the Services.
• Residential property and energy consumption information: for example, information about your residence (such as your address, size and layout of your residence), information about the insulation and electronic components in your home, and your utility bills. We use such information to tailor the Services to the particular needs of your residence.
• Payment Information: If you make a purchase through our Services, your payment-related information, such as credit card or other financial information, is collected by us or our third party payment processor on our behalf.
• Credit information: If you request a loan or other credit-based agreement, a third party vendor collects and we or that third party process information as necessary to confirm your identity and evaluate any extension of credit.
• Information collected via voluntary activities: for example, when you communicate with us via email, online form, by phone or otherwise, we collect your email address and any Information you choose to provide to allow us to assist you.
• Information we collect when you use our Services
• Information about your energy device: for example, the activity of your solar generation system, energy storage system, location information, system telemetry data (such as data about battery activity, solar photovoltaic system activity, site load, voltage, and frequency), event data (such as commands to charge or discharge, and event execution status), charge data, energy levels, performance data, or electric vehicle charger, or any other device that you allow us to connect to in the future (e.g., smart thermostats).
• Utility use: for example, your electric utility data access information and Green Button data, including energy use information, which we access with your consent. We use such information to model energy costs, what rate schedule you should be on, whether you qualify for certain utility programs, to determine if you have a smart meter installed, calculate potential savings associated with our Services, and to improve our Services in general.
• Location information: When you use our Services, we may infer your general location information, for example by using your internet protocol (IP) address. We also receive the address information you assign to your battery as part of the information about your energy devices. If we or our service providers conduct a site survey, prepare an estimate for solar production, or certify an inspection, the tools used to provide those Services, including any on-site photographs taken, may include precise geotagged location information.
• Device information: We receive information about the device and software you use to access our Services, including IP address, web browser type, operating system version, phone carrier and manufacturer, application installations, device identifiers, mobile advertising identifiers, and push notification tokens.
• Usage information: To help us understand how you use our Services and to help us improve them, we automatically receive information about your interactions with our Services, like the pages or other content you view, the searches you conduct, purchases you make, and the dates and times of your visits.
• Information from cookies and similar technologies: We and third-party partners collect information using cookies, pixel tags, or similar technologies. Our third-party partners, such as analytics and advertising partners, may use these technologies to collect information about your online activities over time and across different services. Cookies are small text files containing a string of alphanumeric characters. We may use both session cookies and persistent cookies. A session cookie disappears after you close your browser. A persistent cookie remains after you close your browser and may be used by your browser on subsequent visits to our Services. Please review your web browser’s “Help” file to learn the proper way to modify your cookie settings. Please note that if you delete or choose not to accept cookies from our Services, you may not be able to use the features of the Services to their fullest potential.
• Information we collect from publicly available sources
• Housing characteristics: for example, solar intensity/shading information, roof shape and size information, collected from public records, for example, regarding real property and publicly available (including commercially available) satellite imagery data.
• Residential history: publicly available information regarding the history of your residence, for example, solar permit data, tax records, and records of real property sales.
• Information we collect from third parties
• Referrals: an existing customer may provide your name and phone number to us for a referral. We use such Information to generate leads and sales for our business and commercial use. Please make sure you have permission from other people before sharing Information about them with us.
• Information from third-party services: If you choose to link our Services to a third-party account, we may receive information about you, including, depending on the nature of that account, your profile information and your photo, and your use of the third-party account. If you wish to limit the information available to us, you should visit the privacy settings of your third-party accounts to learn about your options.
• Information from utilities or third-party providers: We receive utility energy use information, addresses, and information regarding your participation in other utility response/demand programs.
• Information from consumer reporting agencies: If you choose to request a loan or other credit-based approach to facilitating your payment for the Services, we may receive information about your other financial accounts, credit utilization, credit history, and other assets.
• Other third parties: We may receive additional information about you or your household, such as demographic data, from third parties such as data or marketing partners and combine it with other information we have about you.

2. DISCLOSURE, SALE AND SHARING OF INFORMATION

We disclose, sell or share your Information with the following categories of third parties in the following way:

• Companies who belong to the same group as Swell. We share your Information with entities within our group of companies to operate the Services.
• Vendors and service providers. When you sign up for our Services, we share your Information with installation partners who will receive your contact information, site address, utility use information, site specifications, information about your existing products (if any) relevant to the installation, and other information about your contract. After installation, we also share your information with service providers that assist in managing the products and Services, and we provide contact information, site address, utility energy use information, information about your products and Services, and energy system telemetry data.
• Partners. We share your Information with our business partners, including utilities, who will receive your contact information, site address, energy product system identifiers, utility use information, and energy systems telemetry data.
• Advertising providers. We share your contact information with advertising networks and providers such as Adroll, Nextdoor and Facebook.
• Analytics partners. We use analytics partners, such as Google Analytics, to collect and process certain analytics data. These analytics partners may also collect information about your use of other websites, apps, and online resources You can learn more about Google’s practices by visiting https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/. To help us understand how you use our Services and to help us improve them, we automatically receive information about your interactions with our Services, such as the pages or other content you view, the searches you conduct, purchases you make, and the dates and times of your visits.
• Third parties as required by law and similar disclosures. We may access, preserve, and disclose your information if we believe doing so is required or appropriate to: (a) comply with law enforcement requests and legal process, such as a court order or subpoena; (b) respond to your requests; or (c) protect your, our, or others’ rights, property, or safety. To avoid doubt, your information may be disclosed if you post any objectionable content on or through the Services.
• Third parties in a merger, acquisition or other asset transfer. We may transfer your Information to service providers, advisors, potential transactional partners, or other third parties during the consideration, negotiation, or completion of a corporate transaction in which we are acquired by or merged with another company or we sell, liquidate, or transfer all or a portion of our assets. The use of your Information following any of these events will be governed by the provisions of this Policy in effect at the time the applicable information was collected.
• Third Parties with Consent. We may also disclose your information to third parties with your permission.

3. HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

• Providing you with the Services: Providing you with our Services.
• Communicating: Communicating with you, providing you with updates and other information about our Services, providing information that you request, responding to comments and questions, and otherwise providing customer support.
• Connecting Third Party Services: Facilitating the connection of third-party services or applications.
• Marketing: We use your Information for marketing purposes, such as developing and providing promotional and advertising materials that may be useful, relevant, valuable or otherwise of interest to you. Swell does not currently take steps to respond to browsers’ “Do Not Track” signals as no uniform standard to respond to such signals has been developed at this time.
• Personalization: Personalizing your experience on our Services, such as presenting tailored content or optimizing the Services, based on inferences derived from information combined from multiple sources, including through the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning. For example, we may provide you information about when to use electricity throughout the day to maximize your energy savings.
• Sending messages: Sending you text messages or push notifications.
• Facilitating payments: Facilitating transactions and payments.
• Deidentification and aggregation: De-identifying and aggregating information collected through our Services and using it for any lawful purpose.
• Safety Issues: Responding to trust and safety issues that may arise.
• Compliance: For compliance purposes, including verifying tax compliance and credit eligibility, enforcing our Terms of Service or other legal rights, or as may be required by applicable laws and regulations or requested by any judicial process or governmental agency.
• Auditing: Auditing related to a current interaction with you and concurrent transactions, including, but not limited to, assessing energy use and auditing compliance with our terms and other standards.
• Fraud and Incident Prevention: Detecting security incidents, protecting against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, and prosecuting those responsible for that activity.
• Debugging: Debugging to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality of our Services.
• Transient Use: Short-term, transient use.
• Contracting Vendors: Contracting with service providers to perform services on our behalf or on their behalf, including, without limitation, maintaining or servicing accounts, providing customer service, processing or fulfilling orders and transactions, verifying customer information, processing payments, providing financing, providing advertising or marketing services, providing analytic services, or providing similar services on behalf of the business or service provider.
• Research: Undertaking research for technological development and demonstration, including through machine learning and artificial intelligence.
• Product Improvement: Undertaking activities to verify or maintain the quality or safety of our Services or those of our partners, and to improve, upgrade, or enhance them.
• Enabling Transactions: Otherwise enabling or effecting, directly or indirectly, a commercial transaction.
• Notified Purpose: For other purposes for which we provide specific notice at the time the information is collected.

4. Cookies

Cookies are small text files of letters and numbers that are stored on your browser or the hard drive of your device.

Our website uses cookies, beacons, invisible tags and similar technologies (collectively, “cookies”) to collect information about your browsing activities and to distinguish you from other users of our website. This aids your experience when you browse our website, allows us to improve the functionality of our website, increase security, measure use and effectiveness of our website, and to supply you with advertising that is more relevant to you when you are visiting our or other websites that promote our products.

We use the following cookies:

• Strictly necessary cookies: Some cookies are strictly necessary to make our website available to you; for example, to perform your login functionality and for user authentication and security. We cannot provide you with the website without this type of cookies.
• Functional cookies: These are used to recognize you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalize our content for you, greet you by name and remember your account preferences.
• Analytical or performance cookies: We use cookies for analytics purposes to operate, maintain, and improve our Services. We use third party analytics providers, including Google Analytics, to help us understand how users engage with the Services. Google Analytics uses first-party cookies to track user interactions which helps show how users use our Services. This information is used to compile reports and to help us improve our Services. The reports disclose website trends without identifying individual visitors. You can learn about Google’s practices by going to https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/ and opt-out of them by downloading the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
• Retargeting cookies: These cookies remember that you have visited a website and share this information with organizations we have asked to do so on our behalf. This enables us to serve you with advertising when you are visiting other sites (for example, to remind you about products and Services you were interested in, or to inform you of special offers and discounts). We use third-party retargeting service providers, such as Facebook, to do so.

You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our website.

5. SECURITY

We make reasonable efforts to protect your Information by using physical and electronic safeguards designed to improve the security of the Information we maintain. However, as no electronic transmission or storage of information can be entirely secure, we can make no guarantees as to the security or privacy of your Information.

6. MINORS

Our website is not targeted at children, and we do not knowingly collect Information from children under the age of 18. If you learn that a child has provided us with Information in violation of this Policy, please contact us as indicated below.

7. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We will post any adjustments to the Policy on this page, and the revised version will be effective when it is posted. If we materially change the ways in which we use or share personal information previously collected from you through the Services, we will notify you through the Services, by email, or other communication.

8. CONTACT INFORMATION

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about our processing activities, or you would like to exercise your privacy rights please email us at privacy@swellenergy.com or write to us at 1515 7th St. #049, Santa Monica, CA 90401.

California Resident Privacy Notice

This California Resident Privacy Notice supplements the information and disclosures contained in our Privacy Policy. It applies to individuals residing in California from whom we collect Personal Information as a business under the CCPA, as defined below.

We collect, use, and disclose your Personal Information in accordance with the specific business purposes as described in our Privacy Policy. In the preceding twelve months, we have not sold any California resident’s Personal Information.

In the preceding twelve months since this notice was last updated, we have collected Personal Information from the following categories of sources:

1. You/Your Devices: You or your devices directly.
2. Users: Other users of our Services.
3. Advertising Networks.
4. ISPs: Internet service providers.
5. Analytics Providers.
6. Government: Government entities.
7. OS/Platform Provider: Operating systems and platforms.
8. Partners: Business partners.
9. Public: Publicly available sources.

Your California Privacy Rights

If you are a California resident, you may exercise the following rights.

• Right to Know and Access. You may submit a verifiable request for information regarding the: (1) categories of Information collected, sold, or disclosed by us; (2) purposes for which categories of Information are collected or sold by us; (3) categories of sources from which we collect Information; and (4) specific pieces of Information we have collected about you during the past twelve months. Please visit this URL, https://www.swellenergy.com/datarequest, to access your Personal Information.

• Right to Delete. Subject to certain exceptions, you may submit a verifiable request that we delete Personal Information about you that we have collected from you. Please visit this URL, https://www.swellenergy.com/datarequest, to request deletion of your Personal Information. Generally, if we continue to provide Services to you, we can retain your Personal Information.

• Your requests to access or delete your Personal Information are subject to our ability to reasonably verify your identity. To verify your access or deletion request, please authenticate your account by visiting this URL, https://www.swellenergy.com/datarequest and providing us with your name, email address, address, and if applicable, Swell customer account number.

• Right to Opt Out. In some circumstances, you may opt out of the sale of your Personal Information. We have not sold any of your Personal Information in the twelve months preceding the date of this notice, and we do not intend to sell any of your Personal Information in the twelve months following the date of this notice.

• Right to Equal Service and Price. You have the right to be treated in a nondiscriminatory manner when you exercise your CCPA privacy rights, subject to certain limitations. We do not offer financial incentive programs related to collecting, retaining, or selling your Personal Information; however, please be aware that some Personal Information is necessary for us to be able to deliver the Services to you.

• Shine the Light. You may request information once per calendar year about our disclosures of certain categories of Personal Information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. Such requests must be submitted to us in writing using the Contact Information section below.

• Submit Requests. To exercise your rights under the CCPA, please use the links above, call our toll-free number, 1-888-465-1784, send an email via our Contact Information section, or visit our website, https://www.swellenergy.com.

• Authorizing an Agent: To authorize an agent to make a request to know or delete on your behalf, please send a written authorization signed by you and the authorized agent to us via the Contact Information To make a request under the CCPA on your behalf, please instruct your authorized agent to provide the written authorization signed by you and follow the steps above for verification of the agent’s identity.

Contact Information

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about this notice or our processing activities, or you would like to exercise your privacy rights, please submit a request at http://www.swellenergy.com/datarequest, email us at privacy@swellenergy.com, call 1-888-465-1784, or write to us at 1515 7th St. #049, Santa Monica, CA 90401.

Last Reviewed and Updated: June 26, 2020