About this policy
Your privacy is important to us. In order to provide services to you we need to collect, store and in some cases share personal information. This policy explains how we manage your information in order to protect your privacy.
We are committed to complying with Australia’s privacy laws, including the Australian Privacy Principles (“Privacy Obligations”) which are designed to protect your personal information. Information that can be used to identify an individual (such as name, address and so on) is classified as personal information.
How we collect your personal information
Electricityinabox will only collect personal information if it’s necessary for one or more of the services we provide to you.
We may collect personal information:
– directly from you (for example when you sign-up to become an Electricityinabox customer, you complete a form on our website or in a phone conversation with us);
– through your use of our website;
– from third parties such as your distribution company or metering coordinator so we can calculate your electricity usage;
– from your existing energy retailer so we can fulfil your request to transfer to us;
Cookies and our website
To help improve our website and online experience, we use analytical tools to measure how our website is used. Like most websites, Electricityinabox uses cookies to help improve our customers’ online experience. Cookie files can’t be used to access your computer or the information stored on it.
In order to improve the services available to our customers, we may promote special offers from Electricityinabox and our partners on the Electricityinabox website. This would involve the use of cookies to better select promotions and offers that may be relevant to you, but your private data would not be shared in these circumstances.
We may use third parties to help us deliver our service to you. Where we do, those third parties are subject to the same Privacy Obligations as those that apply to us. If you choose to interact directly with any of our third party suppliers, those third parties may have their own cookie applications and terms.
Personal information we collect
Types of personal information we collect include:
– your name, your date of birth, your address, email address, telephone number, concession details (if applicable), health information (if applicable, for example if life support equipment is used at your address), payment details to enable direct debit payments of your electricity bills, ABN (if applicable) and other relevant financial and credit related information;
– information about the energy consumption at the premises, and any services or equipment at the property which are connected to the services we provide you (for example, solar installations);
– information about services and how you use them;
– information on how you use our website;
– information you provide to us when you contact us regarding our services;
– information you provide when you respond to our marketing or research requests.
How we keep your information secure
We will store your information electronically wherever possible. Mostly this will be within our customer billing system. Where other information needs to be stored electronically, it will be held in password-protected storage areas and only staff who need access to personal information will be able to retrieve it. From time to time it may be necessary to transfer information outside of Australia in order to process it and provide our services to you (for example when storing information using cloud service providers). Where this happens, it will also take place using secure transfer and storage methods. The countries it may be necessary to transfer personal data to include the United States of America.
If it is necessary to store personal information physically, it will be held using rigorous security precautions at our offices.
Use of your information
Your personal information will not be disclosed outside of Electricityinabox except as outlined in this policy. To provide you with our services, we use your information in a number of ways, such as:
– setting up and maintaining your electricity supply;
– confirming your identity as required by applicable energy regulations;
– applying on your behalf and with your consent for concession entitlements to which you may be entitled;
– assessing the capabilities of and optimising energy resources located at your premises;
– emailing you with relevant information about your account with us, or about products and services we offer which may benefit you;
– communicating with you, including following up when you have started the process to become an Electricityinabox customer;
– carrying out credit checks, receiving payments and collecting debts;
– providing you with information on related products and services;
– assessing the performance of our business (at an aggregate, not individual customer, level).
Your information may also be used to:
– collect any money you may owe on your account;
– ask you for your feedback on us; or
– report to regulatory bodies or as required by law.
Electricityinabox may from time to time, anonymise and aggregate your Usage Data with other data it collects, and share this aggregated data with other third parties including Government agencies, regulators and energy suppliers. We do this to help improve and market our services, and as required to comply with our regulatory and contractual obligations. This anonymised and aggregated version of your Usage Data may become publicly available but will not be capable of identifying you as the source of that data. Electricityinabox will at all times comply with our Privacy Obligations when disclosing or sharing your Usage Data.
Disclosure of your information
The only time we will disclose your personal information outside of Electricityinabox is when:
– we are required to by law or it is validly requested by Police or other Government authorities;
– your local distribution company, metering coordinator or metering provider requires information to maintain your supply or resolve a dispute;
– it is necessary to provide the information to our trusted partners for the purpose of performing the services under a supply contract with you;
– the information has been anonymised or aggregated with other data as described in this policy;
– we carry out a credit check;
– we need to use a third party to collect an overdue debt;
– you choose to move to a different energy retailer;
– we need to work with an ombudsman or other approved body to resolve a complaint or dispute;
– we need to add your information to other customers’ information so we can measure the overall performance of our business; or
– you authorise us to do this.
Your access to your personal information
You can ask us to share with you the information we hold about you. You can do this by emailing us at customer.service@electricityinabox.com.au
If you think that we are holding inaccurate information, you can ask us to change or delete it. We will take reasonable steps to ensure your personal information is accurate, up-to-date and complete. This is subject to our regulatory obligations which require us to hold certain types of information for specified time periods.
If we’re sending you information about new products and services that you don’t want to receive, you can opt out of these communications at any time by emailing customer.service@electricityinabox.com.au
Your payment details
When you input your credit card details on our website, the credit card information will be encrypted and securely stored by our online payment provider ezidebit.
Changes to this policy
We may amend this policy from time to time and if we do, we will publish the updated version of our privacy policy on our website.
Complaints
If you feel we have not complied with this policy or our Privacy Obligations please contact us so we can investigate. You can contact us by sending an email to customer.service@electricityinabox.com.au, or calling 1300 933 039. We handle all complaints in accordance with our Complaints Policy which is available on our website.