Minnesota Energy Resources ("MER")
(Revised August 9, 2012)
Minnesota Energy Resources (also referred to as "we" or "us") is
concerned about preventing unauthorized disclosure of customer information.
We understand the importance you place on the privacy and security of information
that personally identifies you or your account information. We refer to this
information as "personal information." We want you to know what personal
information we collect and how we use it. We have therefore adopted the
following Privacy Policy to explain our commitment to your privacy. If you
have any questions about our policy after reading it, please
contact us.
By using the website, you agree to be bound by this Privacy Policy. Please
check this policy frequently, as we may amend it from time to time to reflect
changes in our services and our policies relating to customer information.
Amendments will become effective at the time they are posted on our website.
We will not provide notice of changes in this Privacy Policy.
Register for online access
If you register for online access to access various services related to your
residential account or other applications involving your business account on
the website, you may be asked to submit personal information such as
your account number, name, last 4 of SSN/FEIN and
email address. You may also be asked to submit additional personal information
or financial information to use specific services. We will protect all
information that you provide us on the website, as set forth below:
- The personal information you provide us enables you to access self-service
options offered on our website. To better serve you, we may use your email
address to contact you in response to inquiries, or provide you with
energy-related information. This information will be accessible to anyone
who has access to your email. You will have the option to opt out of email
marketing messages at anytime.
- In order to provide you with services offered on the website, or
to complete transactions or requests initiated by you on the website,
we may transfer you to a website operated by third parties that help
us provide services to you. In such cases, we will have agreements with
those parties under which they will agree to maintain the confidentiality
of your personal information and to use it only for the purpose of helping
us serve you. We only transfer or share information to those who have
a privacy policy at least as stringent or substantially similar to
Minnesota Energy Resources.
- Other than as set forth herein, we will not disclose your personal
information to third parties without your written consent (which consent
may be obtained electronically, such as by email), unless we reasonably
believe that the disclosure is essential to the conduct of
Minnesota Energy Resources' business,
including but not limited to where such disclosure is necessary to (a)
comply with the law, legal process or our regulators, (b) collect unpaid
bills, (c) enable Minnesota Energy Resources'
employees or consultants to provide service to
you and to otherwise perform their duties, (d) comply with interchange
functions, (e) obtain and provide credit reporting information, or (f)
resolve customer disputes or inquiries. We do not provide your personal
information to third parties for the purpose of telemarketing, email or
direct-mail solicitation.
- You should protect the confidentiality of your username and password.
You are responsible for all activity on the website accessed by your
username and password. Access by Minnesota Energy Resources' employees or consultants to any
personal information you provide is limited to only that necessary to
provide the business service offered and to otherwise allow such employees
or consultants to perform their duties.
We try to ensure that the personal information we maintain about
you is accurate, current and complete. If you discover that your
personal information is incorrect, not current or incomplete, you
should update your online profile.
Once you have logged in using your online profile, any account
information that you enter or that is displayed in your browser
window is secured using an industry standard security technology
known as Secure Socket Layer ("SSL"). By using SSL, we attempt to
safeguard the confidentiality of your personal and financial information.
Your browser must be capable of supporting SSL; please check with
your browser manufacturer for details.
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Visitor information
We do collect information about the website use, such as the number
of visitors to the website and the number of users that click on
certain links or services. For some applications, we link usage information
with the particular customer visiting the website. We use industry
standard software to create summary statistics of the usage data we
collect, which may then be used to highlight what our visitors find
interesting, to improve our website design specifications, to identify
system performance issues, and for other internal purposes.
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Our use of your IP address
An Internet Protocol ("IP") address is a number that is automatically
assigned to your computer every time that you browse the Internet. When
you visit the website, our servers log your current IP address. We may
use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our servers and to
administer our website. Data gathered from logging your IP address is
not tied to your personal information and is not used to identify you.
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Our use of cookies
Cookies are small text files placed on your computer's hard drive by
Web page servers. When you visit the website, our server may create
"session" cookies, making it more convenient for you to use our site by
verifying when you travel from page to page that you have signed up with
our online services.
The website may use cookies and other technologies such as pixel tags and web beacons.
These technologies help us better understand user behavior, tell us which parts of our website
people have visited, and facilitate and measure the effectiveness of advertisements and
web searches.
Minnesota Energy Resources and our partners also use
cookies and other technologies to remember personal information when you use our website and
applications. Our goal in these cases is to make your experience with Minnesota Energy Resources
more convenient and personal.
As is true of most websites, we gather some information automatically and store it in log files.
This information includes Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, browser type and language, Internet
service provider (ISP), referring and exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and
clickstream data. We use this information to understand and analyze trends, to administer
the site, to learn about user behavior on the site, and to gather demographic information
about our user base as a whole.
In some of our email messages, we use a "click-through URL" linked to content on the
Minnesota Energy Resources website. When customers click
one of these URLs, they pass through a separate web server before arriving at the destination page
on our website. We track this click-through data to help us determine interest in particular topics
and measure the effectiveness of our customer communications. If you prefer not to be tracked in
this way, you should not click text or graphic links in the email messages.
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Links to other sites
While browsing the website, you may encounter hypertext links to
other websites operated by third parties. These other websites may
send their own cookies to you, log your IP address, and otherwise
collect data or solicit personal information.
We do not control
and are not responsible for what third parties do in connection
with their websites, or how they handle your personal information.
Please exercise caution and consult the privacy policies posted
on such websites for further information.
If you have any questions about this policy, please
contact us.
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MOBILE APP Incorporation of MER Privacy Policy
The terms identified in the MER - Privacy Policy set forth above are incorporated into the Mobile
App Terms and Conditions and continue to apply when using the MOBILE APP.
Information We Collect and Why We Collect It
- Information You Provide To Us. We collect certain personal information when you provide it to us,
such as when personally identifiable information is voluntarily provided when you use MER, register
for an account, and when you electronically communicate with us. This information may consist of the
following: your name, address, telephone number, your e-mail address, the last four digits of your social
security number. The information you voluntarily supply will be used by MER to respond to your inquiries,
supply you with requested information on MER services, to issue reminders for or to track appointments
you have made with MER. Your information is considered private and confidential and treated with the
strictest confidence. We will not sell or divulge any of your private information to any third parties.
- Information We Collect Automatically. None.
- Information Collected Through Google Analytics. We use a tool called "Google Analytics" and may use
other third party analytic tools to collect information about use of MER. Google Analytics collects
information such as how often users visit MER MOBILE APP and what pages they visit when they do so. We use the
information we get from Google Analytics only to improve MER MOBILE APP. Google Analytics does not collect your
name or other identifying information. We do not combine the information collected through the use of
Google Analytics with personally identifiable information. Although Google Analytics plants a permanent
cookie on your device to identify you as a unique user the next time you visit MER MOBILE APP, the cookie cannot be
used by anyone but Google. Google’s ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics
about your usage of MER MOBILE APP is restricted by the
Google Analytics Terms of Use
and the Google Privacy Policy.
- Information Collected Through Cookies and Similar Technologies. None.
How We Use and Share Your Information
- To Provide Products, Services, and Information. As described above, we collect information from you
so that we can communicate with you, and provide and deliver the information and services you have
requested. We use your personal information to contact you about your service, or to inform you about
our other services available from MER.
Except as set forth in this Privacy Policy, we do not share, rent, license, or sell your personal information
to third parties.
- Legal Proceedings. We will share personal information with third party companies, organizations or
individuals outside of MER if we have a good-faith belief that access, use, preservation or disclosure
of the information is reasonably necessary to: (a) meet any applicable law, regulation, subpoena, legal
process or governmental request; (b) enforce applicable Terms, including investigation of potential violations;
(c) detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues; or (d) protect against harm
to the rights, property or safety of MER, our users, clients, or the public as required or permitted by
law.
- Transfer in the Event of Sale or Change of Control. If the ownership of all or substantially all of
our business changes or we otherwise transfer assets relating to our business, MER, or MER to a
third party, such as by merger, acquisition, bankruptcy proceeding or otherwise, we may transfer or
sell your personal information to the new owner. In such a case, unless permitted otherwise by applicable
law, your information would remain subject to the promises made in the applicable privacy policy unless
you agree differently.
Terminating the MOBILE APP - OPT Out
You can close your MOBILE APP account by deleting it from your mobile device.
You can deactivate these messages at any time by changing the notification settings on your device (iOS).
Security of Your Information
We use industry standard physical, technical and administrative security measures and safeguards to protect the
confidentiality and security of your personal information. However, since the Internet is not a 100% secure
environment, we cannot guarantee, ensure, or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us.
There is no guarantee that information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of
any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards. It is your responsibility to protect the security of
your login information. Please note that e-mails and other communications you send to us through MER are not
encrypted, and we strongly advise you not to communicate any confidential information through these means.
Security Monitoring
For security purposes and to ensure that the services available through our MOBILE APP Site remain available
to all users, our MOBILE APP Site may employ industry-standard methods to monitor network traffic to identify
unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. Unauthorized attempts to
upload or change information on our MOBILE APP Site are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Infrastructure Protection Act.
