NOTE: If you are a third party company that requests data from account holders, your use of this platform is covered by the UtilityAPI Data Services Privacy Policy.
Effective Date: August 10, 2023
BLUEWATER POWER DISTRIBUTION CORPORATION ("Us", "We") is helping build a more efficient and interactive energy marketplace. Both businesses and individuals ("End Users") can use the Applications that BLUEWATER POWER enables by sharing of information with Application providers of the customer’s choice in order to help customers understand their energy consumption through the tools and analysis provided (the "Services").
BLUEWATER POWER complies with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (Canada) ("PIPEDA"), Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA) and the Digital Privacy Act, which amended sections of PIPEDA. BLUEWATER POWER has developed a Privacy Policy which can be found on its website, as well as internal procedures to comply with its privacy obligations. This Privacy Procedure summarizes for your convenience, but does not supersede or replace, any of the before-described policies or legislative obligations.
We are responsible for the Personal Information we collect, use, maintain and disclose. We commit to using clear, simple language for the purpose of obtaining consent where ever needed. We follow reporting requirements in the event there is a breach of security safeguards involving Personal Information.
Under PIPEDA and MFIPPA, Personal Information includes any factual or subjective information, recorded or not, about an identifiable individual. This includes information in any form, such as:
Personal Information does not include business related information such as: business address, business title, or business telephone numbers.
We make every effort to protect this sensitive information and we require consent whenever this information is used. The next section discusses consent in greater detail.
In most cases, we ask you to provide explicit consent when we collect, use, or disclose your Personal Information. Normally, we ask for your consent through the Application (the "Application"), but in some circumstances your consent may be implied through your conduct with Us and activity within the application.
The first level of consent is downloading or in the case of on-line tools using the Application. The second level of consent is accepting the install on your device or accepting any terms and conditions in our on-line tools we provide you to display and share information. The third level of consent is (when available) creating an account and syncing Personal Information to cloud-based storage located within Canada (the "Cloud"). Within your personal account there are various ways of interacting with the Application. Application features may require Personal Information in order to provide you, the End User, and your pre- authorized third parties with relevant and accurate information. For example, energy information is used to create customized content regarding energy consumption. The fourth and final level of consent that may be available within the application is with regard to consent to use data for research. If you choose, your Personal Information will be depersonalized by removing a sub-set of information, and generally assign you to a sub-grouping that depersonalizes the data ('Depersonalized Data').
In the case of Personal Information, location, energy and building details and unique ID will be provided to Researchers and certain Third Parties approved by the BLUEWATER POWER and can be used to provide you with specific research about your information. These IDs will be used to relay research back to the user within the Application.
Further information is available on the mobile and or on-line Application or under the "Research Use" section of this privacy policy.
Primarily, We receive Personal Information from you, the End User, when you import Personal Information. At your discretion, you may provide information to customize your account, such as a cell phone number or email address. When you use the Application, you consent to the collection, transfer, storage, and disclosure of your Personal Information. This Personal Information not only includes the energy and property data you keep in the Application but other pieces of information that results from your use of the Application, such as how you navigate through the Application or how you authorize third parties to gain access to your information. Additional uses are described in the "Use of Your Personal Information" section of this privacy policy.
We also receive Personal Information from organizations/companies outside of BLUEWATER POWER ("Third Parties") who collect Personal Information and abide by their own privacy policies. These third parties can include a) parties that you have requested information from or provide information to, b) parties that we use to create features or reports for your use, c) parties, including private and institutional, that we have agreements with to provide a service for the user or for research. All parties that are authorized will be required to abide by the same privacy policies that we abide by.
Lastly, We may collect Personal Information for our Research Partners (Government, Colleges, Universities) (the "Researchers"). The research will be used by us to develop the Application and improve the Services. When the research is used by a Third Party, the Personal Information will be depersonalized at the user's discretion (and is referred to in this privacy policy as Depersonalized Data). We ensure all companies/institutions that we transact with are operating in an ethical and legal way that corresponds to our corporate social responsibility. It is our purpose to use this information to better understand how to control and manage sustainability.
If you are unsatisfied with the Services provided to you by the Application, you may unsubscribe from all Services by using the tools and communications systems we have within the applications we use.
We use your Personal Information to improve the Services that are offered to you.
For the purposes of this privacy policy, 'Shared Data' refers to your Personal Information if you provide consent / authorization to share that data with Third Parties and refers to Depersonalized Data where you have elected to depersonalize your Personal Information.
We use your Personal Information to customize the content that is displayed to you, including charts, reports and graphs. We will use your contact information to send you information about operations, products or services that are offered through us. When you sync, upload or manually enter information on the Application, We will use your Personal Information to assist with the consistency of your experience.
Your address, email and account information are key pieces of information for the use of the Application. Most of our Services are dependent on the use of this information. By uploading or manually entering your information, you are providing the Application with your personal details. This is a form of implied consent.
With regards to your GPS location and Log Data, We may use and store Log Data to provide you with additional services. Within the Application, you may have the option of services or information from us or Third Parties. In order to make this process efficient, We may use service providers to process and protect you from fraud. These service providers are subject to confidentiality agreements that are consistent with our privacy policy. When you activate services, personal information and transaction data is needed by our solution to process and fulfill the request (the "Purchaser Information") (e.g. signup, authentication, authorization process). The Purchaser Information is not used for any other purposes unless you willingly provide this information to third parties that are not affiliated or support our own internal systems.
We receive Log Data when you interact with our Services and application, for example, when you use the Applications to sign-in to our Services, interact with our notifications or use your BLUEWATER POWER account to authenticate to a third-party website or Application. We may also receive Log Data when you click on, view or interact with a link on our Services to a Third-Party application. We use Log Data to provide, understand, and improve our Services. We delete Log Data or remove any Personal Information after 24 months.
A cookie is a small data file that is transferred to your computer's hard drive. Most internet browsers (e.g., Explorer, Edge, Chrome and Safari) automatically accept cookies. Application permissions are permissions set by the user when the application is installed on your device. Like many Applications, We use cookies, application permissions and similar technologies (such as APIs) to collect usage data and control third party device functions that improve our Services. BLUEWATER POWER may use both session cookies, persistent cookies and Application permissions to better understand how you interact with our Services, to monitor aggregate Application usage by our users and web or device traffic routing on our Services and to customize and improve our Services. You can instruct your browser or application (in settings in the case of a mobile application) to stop accepting cookies (or application authorizations) or to prompt you before accepting a cookie from the websites you visit. You can remove application permissions by changing them in your device settings area. However, some Services may not function properly or disable the features of the Application or service.
Your Feedback is used to improve our Services and make decisions on what research should be conducted.
BLUEWATER POWER uses Third Party services to assist in providing our Services, such as hosting, APIs, Energy Utility Data retrieval to help Us understand and improve the use of our Services. These Third Party service providers we use may collect information sent by our Applications or your browser or third party applications as part of a request, such as Log Data. Third Party advertising partners may share information with Us, such as a browser cookie ID, website URL visited, mobile device ID, or cryptographic hash of a common account identifier (such as an email address). We may also receive information about you from our corporate affiliates in order to help provide, understand, and improve our Services and our affiliates' services.
You may choose to share your information to third parties that provide services to you. These third parties have no relationships to us other than the obligation to access your authorized information. When doing so, you take on the responsibility to manage the privacy and security of your own data with that third party. ACN is not responsible for this data once it leaves our infrastructure and you agree we have no liability of your information once it leaves our infrastructure.
We will continue to have associations and working relationships with institutions such as universities, governments and public utilities that may utilize your Shared Data for analysis, trends and insights. These parties also have their own privacy policies. The analysis is done by parties that are interested in assisting you the End User. The research completed will be focused on reviewing opportunities for conservation, education, demand side management and behind the meter generation. Privacy and security of your Personal Information is of utmost importance and outcomes of research (if made public) will be aggregated and depersonalized to ensure confidentiality.
Specifically, your Shared Data will reside in our servers for use and your authorized sharing of information. In the case of research, your Shared Data may be uploaded to a cloud at the research facility, (the "Researcher Cloud"), where the Researchers will have access to the Shared Data and abide by their privacy policies. The Researchers will use their own internal analysis tools. Any other tools that are used will be approved by BLUEWATER POWER. Once the Shared Data is added to the Researcher Cloud, BLUEWATER POWER and the Researchers will have access to the Shared Data and the research being performed. Please note these parties are governed by the privacy provisions of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Ontario) ("FIPPA"). When We share information with research facilities, these parties will be required to report on and abide by their policies and procedures.
The research outcomes are to assist you, the End User, and educational institutions in understanding how to create sustainable usage and enhance the use of green energy. A Researcher Cloud will only be available to the Researchers for the purpose of researching.
The Shared Data will be available to the Researchers for as long as research projects lasts. Any updates will be reflected in this Privacy Policy. Other research projects will be added to enhance the use of the Shared Data and expand research potential. This research will be explained in areas of our Applications.
Identified End Users (those who provided their address/GPS location and consented to sharing their Personal Information) will receive specific feedback regarding the results of the research and how it relates to their building/property. Anonymous participants (those who have not provided their address/GPS location and therefore their Personal Information was depersonalized into Depersonalized Data) will not benefit from specific feedback about their building/property, since we are unable to locate them. However, the anonymous participants may have access to the general results of our research.
Your Personal Information may be disclosed, without your consent, in the following circumstances, under PIPEDA and MFIPPA:
If you consent to giving the Researchers access to some Personal Information, they can only disclose your Personal Information in accordance with FIPPA.
This privacy policy will still apply to your Personal Information in the event of a bankruptcy, merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets.
Further details regarding what can be disclosed can be found under section 7 (3) of PIPEDA.
We may also disclose Data to our corporate affiliates in order to help provide, understand, and improve our Services and our affiliates' services, including the delivery of ads and information. This type of disclosure must be accompanied with your consent.
To ensure the safety and protection of your Personal Information, BLUEWATER POWER takes the following precautions, in addition to adhering to PIPEDA and MFIPPA:
Considering that We may use Personal Information to customize the content or to deliver it to your Authorized third parties, we show you, it is important that all Personal Information be accurate and up-to-date. If you are a registered user of our Services, We provide you with tools and account settings to access or modify the Personal Information you provided to Us. BLUEWATER POWER will do our best to make you aware of any Personal Information that is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date.
You can permanently delete your BLUEWATER POWER account with us through the contact information within the application. When your account is deactivated, it is no longer viewable. The Personal Information that has already been collected and used for analysis will not be able to be withdrawn including the data you have authorized YOUR third parties to receive. For up to 30 days after deactivation, it may still be possible to restore your account if it was accidentally or wrongfully deactivated. After 30 days, We begin the process of deleting your account from our systems, which can take up to a week.
You, the End User, can make a request to access Personal Information We hold about you. This Personal Information is saved on the Cloud, for as long as the End User allows or as stated in PIPEDA. However, your rights to Personal Information are not absolute and We may deny access when, as per PIPEDA and :
If we deny your request for access to, or refuse a request to correct Personal Information, we shall explain why.
Further information is available under section 9 of PIPEDA and section 38 of MFIPPA.
You have the right to share your BLUEWATER POWER account with another person, service or application for the purpose of sharing tools or information. The other service may send Us your registration or profile information and other information that you have authorized through their application. Your information enables information sharing, helps Us improve the Services but also allows the information you Authorize to be delivered to a third party where it becomes your responsibility to now manage.
As long as authorized, you are free to share data and information about your usage with anyone. Be cautious about who you share your Personal Information with, as they may not treat your Personal Information with the same care that the BLUEWATER POWER does.
Learn more on how to manage your privacy and security in our Help area of the Application or search online for Government information, policies and regulations.
For information regarding Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), please go to:
http://fightspam.gc.ca/eic/site/030.nsf/eng/home
We may revise this privacy policy from time to time. The most current version of the policy will govern our use of Personal Information and will always be accessible within or application. If We make a change to this policy that, in our sole discretion, is material, We will notify you via a twitter update, in application notification or email / phone number the email address / phone number associated with your account. By continuing to access or use the Services after those changes become effective, you agree to be bound by the revised Privacy Policy.