Personal information is information about an identified or identifiable individual. Personal information that Elexicon Energy may collect includes such information as your name, birth date, contact information (including address, phone number, and email address), information needed to support your account and validate your identity, transaction information, and other information about you collected electronically, in person, or by telephone.

Personal information does not include the name, title or business address or telephone number of an employee of an organization. Personal information does not include information that has been aggregated such that an individual’s information cannot be identified.

Elexicon Energy is accountable for the protection of Personal information within the organization’s possession or control, including all Personal information held by us or transferred to a third party for processing. We do this by maintaining a privacy program and by putting in place policies and procedures that direct Elexicon Energy and its affiliates to manage personal information in accordance with the principles set out in this Privacy Notice.

Elexicon Energy will tell you why we collect personal information before or at the time of collection. Our employees and representatives collecting personal information will explain these purposes or refer you to a designated person within Elexicon Energy who can explain these purposes.

Unless required by law, Elexicon Energy will not collect, use or disclose, for any new purpose, personal information that has been collected without first identifying and documenting the new purpose and obtaining your consent.

All personal information that Elexicon Energy collects is collected for the following purposes:

• To establish, deliver and maintain energy services and telecommunication or ancillary services;
• To identify and authenticate individuals, respond to inquiries and otherwise maintain a responsible business relationship with customers and third parties;
• To bill and collect payment, and provide notifications;
• For pre-authorized payments;
• To perform credit reviews to determine creditworthiness;
• To determine eligibility for products and services;
• To recommend particular products and services to meet customer needs;
• To provide individuals with notices and communications about Elexicon Energy services, events such as outages, weather events and emergencies;
• To address and respond to issues related to the usage of critical, power dependent, and/or medical equipment during an outage;
• To notify customers or members of the public about events, causes or programs sponsored by Elexicon Energy and to keep track of participation levels and interest in such events;
• To provide customers with information about the electricity industry, rates, government and energy conservation programs such as programs that allow you to benchmark your energy consumption against other customer groups;
• To provide individuals with information they have requested, such as financial quarterly reports, news releases, community reports etc.;
• To provide information to third party service providers, such as an electricity retailer with whom you have contracted;
• To request customer or public participation in surveys, contests or other similar activities and initiatives;
• To support quality controls and training, such as through call recording.
• To develop, enhance, promote or provide Elexicon Energy products and services;
• To meet legal and regulatory requirements;
• To manage and develop Elexicon Energy business and operations;
• To support Elexicon Energy’s legitimate interests as an organization, such as to support contractual obligations, or enforce/defend claims made in regulatory matters or litigation;
• For monitoring to support protection of infrastructure (such as CCTV), physical security, networks, and data;
• To ensure the safety of the general public and Elexicon Energy employees;
• To assist with law enforcement investigations and proceedings as needed; and
• To manage recruitment and respond to candidates.

In obtaining consent, Elexicon Energy will use reasonable efforts to ensure that you are advised of the identified purposes for which personal information will be used or disclosed. This includes any sharing with third party data processors or Elexicon Energy’s legitimate use of software and tools that requires your data to be shared with a third party. Purposes shall be stated in a manner that can be reasonably understood.

Unless the collection or use of personal information is mandated by law or our licence, Elexicon Energy will get your consent to use and disclose personal information at the same time we collect the information. However, Elexicon Energy may seek your consent to use and disclose personal information after it has been collected but before it is used or disclosed for a new purpose.

Elexicon Energy will require your consent to the collection, use or disclosure of personal information as a condition of the supply of a product or service only if it is required to provide the good or service.

In determining the appropriate form of consent, Elexicon Energy will take into account the sensitivity of the personal information and your reasonable expectations.

In general, the use of Elexicon Energy supplied products and services by you constitutes implied consent for Elexicon Energy to collect, use and disclose personal information for all identified purposes.

You may withdraw consent at any time, subject to legal or contractual restrictions, and reasonable notice. For instance, we cannot honour a withdrawal of consent when the personal information is required to provide an ongoing service or product. Customers may contact Elexicon Energy for more information regarding the implications of withdrawing consent.

Elexicon Energy collects personal information primarily from its customers. Elexicon Energy will not, as a condition of supplying you with a product or service, require you to consent to the collection of personal information beyond that required to fulfill the specified, legitimate purpose.

Elexicon Energy may also collect personal information from other sources including credit bureaus, employers or personal references, or other third parties that represent that they have the right to disclose the information.

Elexicon Energy may disclose personal information without knowledge or consent to a lawyer representing Elexicon Energy, to collect a debt (including collection agencies), to comply with a subpoena, warrant or other court order, or as may be otherwise required by law. Elexicon Energy may also use or disclose personal information without knowledge or consent in the case of an emergency where the life, health or security of an individual is threatened.

Only those employees of Elexicon Energy who require access for business reasons, or whose duties reasonably so require, are granted access to personal information about customers.

Due to the structure of the electricity sector in Ontario, it may be necessary to share your billing and consumption information with third party billing and settlement agencies, such as where you have signed a separate contract with a retailer. Our billing, settlement and regulatory relationships with third parties are governed by our license and regulatory codes that are established by the Ontario Energy Board.

Elexicon Energy may engage employees, contractors or other companies and third parties to perform services for Elexicon Energy that involve a transfer of or access to personal information, solely for the purposes contracted by Elexicon Energy. These third parties may be located outside of Ontario or Canada.

In accordance with the Distribution License, Elexicon Energy will not disclose any consumer information (which may include personal information) to any of its affiliates without the consumer’s written consent except where consumer information is required to be disclosed:

1. for billing or market operation purposes;
2. for law enforcement purposes; or
3. for the purpose of complying with a legal requirement.

Elexicon Energy shall keep personal information only as long as it remains necessary or relevant for the identified purposes or as required by law. Depending on the circumstances, where personal information has been used to make a decision about a customer, Elexicon Energy shall retain, for a period of time that is reasonably sufficient to allow for access by the customer, either the actual information or the rationale for making the decision.

Elexicon Energy maintains reasonable controls and practices for information and records retention and destruction which apply to personal information that is no longer necessary or relevant for the identified purposes or required by law to be retained. Such information shall be destroyed, erased or made anonymous.

Personal information used by Elexicon Energy must be sufficiently accurate, complete and up-to-date to minimize the possibility that inappropriate information may be used to make a decision about a customer. Elexicon Energy will update personal information about customers primarily upon notification by you, and as and when necessary to fulfill the identified purposes for the information collection.

Elexicon Energy protects personal information against such risks as loss or theft, unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use, modification or destruction, through appropriate security measures. Elexicon Energy protects the information regardless of the format in which it is held.

Elexicon Energy protects personal information disclosed to third parties by communicating the confidentiality of the information, ensuring appropriate contractual controls, identifying the purposes for which it is to be used, limiting the number of persons whose job function requires access to the information, and requiring physical and procedural security measures to safeguard that information.

All employees of Elexicon Energy with access to personal information are required, as a condition of employment, to respect the confidentiality of personal information.

Elexicon Energy is committed to making information about this Notice easy to understand, accessible and updated. Elexicon Energy will make changes to its Privacy Notice from time to time and such changes will be posted on the website, and by bill inserts if appropriate.

Upon request, you (or a duly authorized representative) may obtain information regarding the type, use and disclosure of your personal information that Elexicon Energy has in its possession and control. Elexicon Energy may require satisfactory proof of identity prior to providing access to personal information. Elexicon Energy may charge a nominal fee for responding to such a request to cover the costs of reproduction. Elexicon Energy may refuse to provide you with access to your personal information where such refusal is permitted (such as where it would violate the privacy of another person), or as required by law or regulatory authorities.

Any customer may challenge Elexicon Energy’s compliance with this Privacy Notice by contacting Elexicon Energy’s General Counsel as set out above.

Elexicon Energy will investigate all complaints concerning compliance with this Privacy Notice. If a complaint is found to be justified, Elexicon Energy shall take appropriate measures to resolve the complaint including, if necessary, amending its policies and procedures. You will be informed of the outcome of the investigation regarding the complaint.

Elexicon Energy is authorized to collect personal information under various statutes and regulations thereunder. These include, but are not limited to:

• Electricity Act, 1998, S.O. 1998, c. 15, Sched. A
• Municipal Act, 2001, S.O. 2001, c. 25
• Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. M.56
• Ontario Energy Board Act, 1998, S.O. 1998, c.15, Sched. B
• Ontario Rebate for Electricity Consumers Act, S.O. 2016, c. 19
• Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, S.C. 2000, c. 5

The applicable statute may vary depending on the circumstances.

As is the case with websites generally, when you browse, download or access information from Elexicon Energy website(s), our web server automatically collects a limited amount of information related to your visit such as your IP address, the internet service provider you use, the type of browser & operating system used, the date and time of your visit, the names and sizes of files requested, and the IP address locations to which you linked during your visit to our website(s). Elexicon Energy cannot identify you from this information. This information is used for statistical analysis, evaluation of the effectiveness and security of our website(s), to diagnose technical problems, and to plan for future services. As a general practice, we make no attempt to link this information with the identity of individuals visiting our sites. If an attempt to damage our website(s) has been detected, further actions will be taken and we may make such an attempt.

Most of the information accessible on the Elexicon Energy website(s) does not require you to identify yourself at all. You may access it anonymously. However, Elexicon Energy may collect personal information that you voluntarily provide to us when you browse or access our website(s) or request services via our website(s). Personal information provided by visitors/users to Elexicon Energy website(s) will be collected, used and disclosed in the same manner as information collected by other means, and in a manner consistent with this Privacy Notice. We recommend that you check the latest version of our Privacy Notice each time you visit our website as this Privacy Notice may be revised from time to time.

Elexicon Energy takes every precaution to protect your information. We use industry standard encryption technology to keep personal information safe. When visitors/users submit sensitive information via our website(s), your information is protected both online and off-line. However, visitors/users should be aware that personal information could be intercepted over the Internet. Elexicon Energy is not responsible for the interception, collection, use or alteration of information transmitted over the Internet or third party applications, such as by email.

Elexicon Energy website(s) may store or install cookies, web beacons, or other similar technologies on your computer or device when you visit the website(s), to improve the user’s experience. A “cookie” is a small text file that is sent to and stored on your computer or other device from our website(s) to remember your preferences. The cookie contains a unique identification number/code, which can be used to identify the user’s browser, but not the user. A “web beacon” is a transparent file, often an image, embedded in a web page or email that is downloaded onto a user’s computer and allows the host to identify the user’s browser and other details about the interaction, but not the individual user. We use different types of cookies and/or web beacons for different purposes including to monitor our website(s) traffic, maintain the integrity of your browsing activities on our website(s), improve your experience, and for our other legitimate business purposes. However, if you are concerned about these tools, you can adjust your web browser setting to prevent the installation of cookies and tracking tools by simply disabling these features. Please note that visitors/users will not be able to access some features and services of the Elexicon Energy website(s) if they disable these tools. If you choose to accept cookies, all browsers offer the ability to later delete cookies that you have accepted.

Elexicon Energy website(s) use Google Analytics to help analyse the use of our website(s). Google Analytics collects data each time a visitor/user access the Elexicon Energy website(s). This tool is used to collect statistical data about visitors/users as a whole and not to identify specific individuals. Google Analytics uses cookies to collect and generate information about your visits to our website(s) that is transmitted to their servers in an anonymous form for processing. The data collected by Google Analytics helps Elexicon Energy to understand:

• How visitors/users navigate to & through the Elexicon Energy website(s),
• The demographics of website visitors/users,
• Time spent on the websites, pages visited and duration on each page visit,
• IP address, ISP used by visitors/users to our websites, and
• The type of browser & operating system used.

Google Analytics uses cookies, which are temporary files that may be installed on your computer or other device while you visit the Elexicon Energy website(s). Please refer to the Google Privacy Policy for more information.

Elexicon Energy website(s) may contain links to external websites that are not associated with Elexicon Energy. Elexicon Energy is not responsible for the content and the privacy practices of third party websites and Elexicon Energy encourages you to read and examine the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personal information.