REALGOODS.COM PRIVACY POLICY
This RealGoods.com Privacy Policy
(“Privacy Policy”) governs your use of the RealGoods.com website(the
“Website”), which is owned by Real Goods Solar, Inc. (“Real Goods”).
We know how visitors like you
value your privacy, and we have created this Privacy Policy to ensure that you
understand our policies and procedures, what personal information you must
provide if you wish to use certain portions of our Website and, ultimately, just
how we use such personal information. This Privacy Policy is a part of and
is incorporated into our RealGoods.com Terms and Conditions of Use. By
accessing or using our Website, you accept, without limitation or qualification,
the terms of this Privacy Policy.
1.
Information Collected By Our Website
We collect two types of information from
users of our Website: personal information described below; and non-personal
information such as information about traffic patterns on our
Website.
2.
Personal Information
To access certain portions of our Website,
we require you to register and select a user name and password. Some personal
data is collected during the registration process. We may then ask for
additional information, including personally identifiable and non-personally
identifiable information.
When you make a purchase on one of our
Website, or when you enter a contest or other promotion, we may ask you for
certain personal information such as your name, address, e-mail address, or
credit card number, in order to process your order, administer the contest, or
send you promotional e-mails. Providing personal information in these
instances is solely your choice; you do not need to provide such information,
make purchases, or enter such contests to browse our Website.
3.
How We Use Your Personal Information
We use the information collected on our
Website for a variety of purposes, including, but not limited to, running the
Website and contacting users. Our Website may also make available to other
registered users information provided by you during registration, such as your
screen name. We may use your information to communicate back to you, to
update you on products, services and benefits, to personalize our Website for
you, to contact you for market research or to provide you with marketing
information, newsletters, or other information we think would be of particular
interest. In addition, if you make a purchase on our Website, we may send
you order and shipping confirmation emails. We will always give you the
opportunity to opt out of receiving such materials.
You
can remove your e-mail address from our e-mail list at any time by following the
procedures set forth in the “Opt Out Procedures” section below or by clicking on
the “unsubscribe” link in every Real Goods e-mail. In addition, you can
modify your information or change your preferences, as set forth in the
“Reviewing or Changing Your Information” section below.
Information obtained through our Website
may be intermingled with and used in conjunction with information obtained
through sources other than our Website, including both offline and online
sources.
4.
Discussions and Community Tools
Our Website may make product reviews, chat
rooms, forums, bulletin boards, news groups and other community tools available
to registered users and/or visitors. Please remember that any information that
is disclosed in these areas becomes public information for other users to view
and for Real Goods to use. Please do not disclose any personally identifiable
information in these publicly accessible areas of our Website. Please be
considerate and respectful of others while using any chat rooms, forums or
message boards to share your opinion.
5.
Non-Personal Data
In some cases, we may collect non-personal
information. Examples of this type of information include the type of internet
browser you are using, the type of computer operating system application
software, and peripherals you are using and the domain name of the web site from
which you linked to our Site. We use your information on an aggregated basis to
do such things as operate and enhance our Website.
6.
Cookies
Certain features on our Website utilize
cookie technology. A cookie is a small data file that certain web sites write to
your hard drive when you visit them. A cookie file can contain various types of
information, including a user ID that the site uses to track the pages you've
visited. We may use cookies to enhance your experience on our Website, to
determine user traffic patterns and for other purposes.
Most browsers
are initially set up to accept cookies; however, you can reset your browser to
refuse all cookies or indicate when a cookie is being sent or you can flush your
browser of cookies from time to time. (Note: you may need to consult the help
area of your browser application for instructions.) If you choose to disable
your cookies setting or refuse to accept a cookie, however, you may not be able
to access all areas of our Website.
7.
Opt Out Procedures
You have the option to opt out of
receiving information from Real Goods and our Website. This opt out messaging
will appear at the bottom of every email that is sent out. If you no longer
wish to take advantage of our Website or receive any form of direct contact from
Real Goods or our Website, whether it is email, discounts, newsletters, or other
promotional offers or materials, contact us.
8.
Reviewing or Changing Your Information
In order to ensure that the
information we maintain is accurate, Real Goods gives users the option to change
or modify their information previously provided during registration. If you
would like to change your information currently in our database please log
in and click the "My Account" link on our Website.
9.
Sharing of Your Information
Real Goods may share your personal
information: (i) with third parties who are under obligations of confidentiality
with Real Goods or with Real Goods’ affiliates or subsidiaries,(ii) if Real
Goods is required by law to do so, (iii) in the event of a transfer of ownership
of Real Goods, merger or other similar transaction, or (iv) as otherwise set
forth in this Privacy Policy. The following describes some of the ways that your
personal information may be disclosed to third parties:
We may employ other third parties to
perform services or functions on our behalf in order to improve our Website,
merchandising, marketing and promotional efforts, communications or other
services. Those third parties may include authorized contractors, consultants
and other companies working with us (collectively, "agents"). They only have
access to personal information needed to perform their functions, and they may
not share any personal information with others or use it for any other purpose
than providing or improving Real Goods’ services and offerings.
We may share certain non-personal
information with third parties for advertising, promotional and other
purposes. For example, we may work with third party advertising companies,
to serve and track our ads. These third parties may serve other cookies. Our
advertising partners may use the non-personal information they collect from our
Website, in the aggregate, to help us better market and serve our
customers.
This Privacy Policy applies only
to Real Goods’ Website and does not address the practices of third parties who
may collect your personal information. You may visit other websites, through
links on our Website, which may collect, use and share your personal information
in accordance with their own privacy policies. The information practices of
those linked websites are not covered by this Privacy Policy, and we encourage
you to be very cautious before you disclose your personal information to others.
In order to provide you with the
information, products or services which you have requested, we may share or
transfer your personal information with our affiliates or subsidiaries, or third
party agents acting on their behalf.
Real Goods may be obligated to cooperate
with various law enforcement inquiries. Real Goods reserves the right to
disclose or transfer personal information and non-personal information about you
and your activities on our Website in order to comply with a legal requirement
or request from law enforcement or other government officials, administrative
agencies or third parties as we, in our sole discretion, determine necessary or
appropriate for the administration of justice, or in connection with an
investigation of fraud, intellectual property infringements or violations of any
other law, rule or regulation, our RealGoods.com Terms and Conditions of Use or
other rules or policies of our Website, the rights of third parties, or an
investigation of any other activity that may expose us or you to legal
liability, or to investigate any suspected conduct which Real Goods in its sole
discretion deems improper.
10.
Security
Providing a secure site is essential for
your peace of mind and trust in Real Goods. We have installed encryption
software conforming to the Secure Socket Layers (SSL) protocol to safeguard all
of the information you send to us. All information is stored on our servers
in a secure location. It is important for you to protect against
unauthorized access to your password and to your computer. If your password
is compromised, notify Customer
Service at once.
11. Protection
for Children
Our Website is not intended for users
under the age of 18. Furthermore, we have no intention of collecting personally
identifiable information from children (i.e., individuals under the age of 13).
Where appropriate, we take reasonable measures to inform children not to submit
such information to our Website or in response to advertisements.
12. Privacy
Precaution Warning
Please note that no data transmission over
the Internet is 100% secure. As a result, we cannot guarantee the security of
the information that you transmit via our online services.
13. Your Consent
You may have certain rights under various
state and federal statutes that may apply to the personal and non-personal
information collected by Real Goods online. By accepting the terms of this
Privacy Policy and using our Website, you are waiving all of such rights as to
collection, use, disclosure and storage of your personally identifiable and
non-personal information as described herein. You recognize that we are able to
offer our Website and services to you at our rates based upon these terms, which
are an integral part of our contract for the provision of services.
By
using our Website and providing your personal information to us, you also
authorize the export of your personal information to the USA, as well as its
storage and use as specified herein. Our headquarters is located in the state of
Colorado, in the USA. This Privacy Policy and our legal obligations are subject
to the laws of Colorado and the USA, regardless of the location of any user. Any
claims or complaints must be filed in the USA in the State of
Colorado.
We may amend our Privacy Policy at any time, without notice to
you, by posting such revised Privacy Policy on this page, so you are always
aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances
we may disclose it. Any changes will only apply to information collected after
the change is posted.
This
Privacy Policy was last updated on January 25,
2007.