SPEAK ENERGY PRIVACY POLICY

1. Introduction

By accessing the Service (as defined below), you accept this Privacy Policy and you expressly consent to our use and disclosure of your personal information in the manner described in this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy is incorporated into and subject to the Terms of Service.

Speak Energy ("we", "us"), which owns and operates www.speakenergy.com and www.usefulorwaste.com web site (our "Sites"), has created this privacy policy (the "Privacy Policy") as part of our commitment to helping our users better understand what information we collect about them and what we may do with that information. The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices for our Sites.

We understand the concerns that you may have about your privacy and respect your right to protect your personal information while online. Our Sites provides a fun way to conserve energy and an opportunity to view and rate how others use energy (our Sites and such services, collectively, our "Service"). As part of the normal operation of our Service we, therefore, collect and, in some cases, may disclose information about you.

2. Information We Collect

Our primary goal in collecting personal information is to provide you with a smooth, efficient and customized experience. This allows us to provide services and features and to customize our Service to make your experience better.

We collect two types of information: user information and aggregate and anonymous data. We collect this information in a variety of ways through the features provided on our Sites, such as registration, when you communicate or otherwise interact with us, contests or promotions, or when you purchase a product or service through our Sites. Providing us with personal data is your choice, and you can always choose not to provide certain information, but then you may not be able to take advantage of some of the Sites’ analytical tools to their full potential.

(a) Use of Cookies

We use data collection and persistence devices such as "cookies" on certain pages of our Sites for practical purposes. "Cookies" are small files placed in memory and/or disk on your computer that assist us in providing customized services and better functionality as you move from page to page within our Sites. Cookies make the personalization of your internet experiences possible. For example, without the use of cookie files, it would be virtually impossible for us to remember your username and password as you click from page to page and you would need to log-in over and over again as you interact with pages of the Sites that need to know who you are or what actions you have taken in previous pages of a session. We also offer certain features that are only available through the use of a "cookie." You are always free to decline our cookies if your browser permits; however, many aspects of our Service may not work properly without them.

(b) Web Beacons and Web Bugs

Generally, a Web beacon consists of a small string of software code that represents a graphic image request on a Web page in an email message. There may or may not be a visible graphic image associated with the Web beacon and often the image is designed to blend into the background of a Web page or email. Web beacons can be used for many purposes - including Sites traffic reporting, unique visitor counts, advertising auditing and reporting, and personalization. The Web beacons on our Sites collect only anonymous data. We may use Web beacons to do the following: count users who have visited specific pages or access certain cookies; monitor traffic and conversion patterns through our various product and other offerings on our Sites; personalize your experience when you visit our Sites, including the advertising content you see; and determine whether or not messages were opened, links were clicked or notifications/offers were acted upon.

3. Information You Provide About Yourself While Using our Service

We provide areas on our Sites where you can post information about yourself and others and communicate with others or upload content such as photographs. Such postings are governed by our Terms of Service. In addition, such postings may appear on other websites or when searches are executed on the subject of your posting. Also, whenever you voluntarily disclose personal information on publicly viewable web pages, that information will be publicly available and can be collected and used by others. For example, if you post your email address, you may receive unsolicited messages. We cannot control who reads your posting or what other users may do with the information you voluntarily post, so we encourage you to exercise discretion and caution with respect to your personal information.

4. Our Use of Your Information

We use information in the files we maintain about you, and the other information we obtain from your current and past activities on the Sites, to resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems and enforce our Terms of Service. At times, we may review the data of multiple users to identify problems or resolve disputes.

You agree that we may use your user information to improve our marketing and promotional efforts, to analyze Sites usage, improve our content and product offerings, and customize our Sites’ content, layout, and services. These uses improve our Sites and may better tailor it to meet your needs. The data collected will be used anonymously and in aggregate for a variety of purposes. For instance, we will use this data and feedback from the users to refine and improve the accuracy and relevancy of recommendations, estimated savings, and calculating local and national averages. Anonymous aggregated data may also be provided to utilities or regulatory bodies to help improve or measure the effectiveness of various conservation programs. Personally identifiable information on your energy usage or home profile is not shared with others without your consent.

You agree that we may use your information to contact you and to deliver information to you regarding your account, administrative notices, newsletters and/or alerts for which you have opted-in and may cancel at any time, product offerings, targeted advertising on behalf of us and third-parties and communications relevant to your use of the Sites. You agree to receive commercial e-mail messages from us, and acknowledge and agree that your e-mail addresses and other personal information may be used by us for the purpose of initiating commercial e-mail messages. We collect all email addresses that you provide to us, and communicate with you via email in accordance with your preferences. When creating a user profile, you select the notifications that you wish to receive from us. For users that pay for our subscription service, we occasionally notify those users by email about account renewal dates, cancellations, changes in service or other operational concerns fundamental to the delivery of a high quality paid experience. We do not share your email address with any other users of our Sites, including paid subscribers. While we may maintain a copy of your email address if you send us an unsolicited email inquiry, we will not alter the email notifications that you have selected.

In addition, as a subscriber to the Sites and/or in agreeing to receive email marketing from us, you agree that such act constitutes an inquiry and/or application for purposes of the Amended Telemarketing Sales Rule, 16 CFR §310 et seq. (the "Rule"). Notwithstanding that your telephone number may be listed on the Federal Trade Commission's Do-Not-Call List, we retain the right to contact you via telemarketing in accordance with the Rule.

5. Our Disclosure of Your Information

Due to the regulatory environment in which we operate, we cannot ensure that all of your private communications and other user information will never be disclosed in ways not otherwise described in this Privacy Policy. By way of example (without limiting any of the foregoing), we may be required to disclose information to the government, law enforcement agencies or third parties. Under certain circumstances, third parties may unlawfully intercept or access transmissions or private communications, or users may abuse or misuse your information that they collect from our Sites. Accordingly, although we use industry standard practices to protect your privacy, we do not guarantee, and you should not expect, that your user information or private communications will always remain private.

6. Financial Information

Under some circumstances we may require certain additional information, including but not limited to your credit card billing information. We use this financial information, including your name, address, and other information to bill you for use of our subscription services and products. By purchasing a subscription, making a purchase, or engaging in any other kind of activity or transaction that uses financial information on the Sites, you consent to our providing of your financial information to our service providers and to such third parties as we determine necessary to support and process your activities and transactions, as well as to your credit card issuer for their purposes. These third parties may include the credit card companies and banking institutions used to process and support your transaction or activity. By purchasing, or registering for, or making reservations for products or services of third parties offered on the Sites, or by participating in programs offered on the Sites that are administered by third parties and that require you to submit financial information in order to use them, you also consent to our providing your financial information to those third parties. Any of these various third parties may be authorized to use your financial information in accordance with our contractual arrangements with such third parties and in accordance with their own privacy policies, over which we have no control, and you agree that we are not responsible or liable for any of their actions or omissions. Additionally, you agree that we may use and disclose all information submitted to such third parties in the same manner in which we are entitled to use and disclose any other information that you submit to us.

7. Advertisers

We do not disclose your credit card number or bank account number to marketing advertisers. Moreover, by registering with, or requesting information from, a third-party advertiser at or through the Sites, such action shall constitute an inquiry and/or application with the respective third-party advertiser for purposes of the Rule and you may be contacted via email, direct mail and/or telemarketing by such third-party advertiser in accordance with the Rule.

We may use third-party advertising companies to serve ads on our behalf. These companies may employ cookies and action tags (also known as single pixel gifs or web beacons) to measure advertising effectiveness and to better manage the advertising on our Sites. For example, the companies typically gather data about consumers who view their ads. That data is anonymous - linked only to a numbered cookie on a user's computer. Networks collect and analyze this data to make a variety of inferences about each consumer's interests and preferences. The result is a profile that attempts to predict the individual consumer's tastes, needs, and purchasing habits. That profile enables the advertising companies' computers to make split-second decisions about how to deliver ads directly targeted to the consumer's specific interests. This is called online preference marketing.

Some advertisers also track and analyze anonymous usage and browsing patterns of the visitors to our Sites. All data collected by these third parties on behalf of our Sites is owned and used by us, but is licensed to the third party for the purposes of creating behavioral information segments. We use this information to help provide our advertisers with more targeted advertising opportunities, which means that users see advertising that is most likely to interest them and advertisers send their messages to people who are most likely to be receptive, improving both the viewer's experience and the effectiveness of the ads. In addition, the third parties can sell the behavioral information segments to other third parties for use in ads on other web Sitess.

8. Legal Requests

We cooperate with law enforcement inquiries, as well as other third parties to enforce laws, such as: intellectual property rights, fraud and other rights. We can (and you authorize us to) disclose any information about you to law enforcement and other government officials as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate, in connection with any investigation of fraud, potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of our Terms of Service, intellectual property infringements, or other activity that is illegal or may expose us or you to legal liability or is necessary to exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims. We can (and you authorize us to) disclose any information about you in response to subpoenas, court orders, legal process, governmental investigative demands or where we believe, in our sole discretion, disclosure is necessary to comply with the law.

9. Your Use of Other Users Information

Our Service also includes access to instant messaging and message or dashboards. As a user you have access to users' user names, and you might gain access to other contact information of other users through the regular use of the Service. By accepting this Privacy Policy, you agree that, with respect to other users' user information that you obtain through the Service, we hereby grant to you a license to use such information only for: (a) communications related to the Sites that are not unsolicited commercial messages, and (b) any other purpose to which such user expressly agrees after complete disclosure of the purpose. In all cases, you must give users an opportunity to remove themselves from your database. In addition, under no circumstances, except as defined in this Privacy Policy, may you disclose user information about another user to any third party without our consent and the consent of such other user after adequate disclosure. We and our users do not tolerate spam. Therefore, without limiting the foregoing, you are not licensed to add a Site user to your mail list (email or physical mail) without their express consent after adequate disclosure of your intentions.

10. Accessing, Reviewing and Changing Your Profile

Following registration, you can review and update the information you submitted during registration by logging-in and going to the "Edit Settings" section of your profile (this section is clearly labeled in the left-hand User Dashboard that is part of the all use homepage). You are always free to change your password and email address, name, address, city, state, zip code, country, phone number and profile. If you change your password and/or email address, we will retain a record of your old password and email address.

Upon your notification, we will remove your profile from our active databases as soon as reasonably possible in accordance with our policy and applicable law. To deactivate your profile so that others cannot view it, log-in to your profile and go to the "Account Settings" section of your profile (this section is clearly labeled in the left-hand navigation bar that is part of all profile pages). From there, click "Personal Info" and then "click the "deactivate" link.

We will retain in our files information you have requested be removed from our active databases for certain purposes, such as to resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems and enforce our terms and conditions. Further, such prior information may never be completely removed from our databases due to technical and legal constraints, including stored 'back up' systems. Therefore, you should not expect that all of your user information will be completely removed from our databases in response to any request you may submit.

9. Control of Your Password

You are responsible for all actions taken with your login information and password. Therefore we do not recommend that you disclose your Site password or login information to any third party. If you choose to share this information with any third party, you are responsible for all actions taken with your login information and password. If you lose control of your password, you may lose substantial control over your user information and may be subject to legally binding actions taken on your behalf. Therefore, if your password has been compromised in any way, you should immediately change your password.

10. Other Information Collectors

Except as otherwise expressly described in this Privacy Policy, this document only addresses the use and disclosure of information we collect from you. To the extent that you disclose your information to other parties, whether they are on our Sites or on other sites throughout the Internet, different rules may apply to their use or disclosure of the information you disclose to them. To the extent that we use third party advertisers or have third party e-commerce partners, they adhere to their own privacy policies. Since we do not control the privacy policies of any third parties, you should investigate their policies before you disclose your personal information to them.

11. Energy Provider Datafeed

One feature of Service allows you to retrieve past and ongoing information about your energy bill and usage from your energy company. If you use this feature, you consent to Speak Energy retrieving this information on your behalf. Speak Energy's ability to retrieve the data depends on the availability of this data from your energy company.

12. Account and Data Storage

Your home profile and related data feeds from your energy provider(s) are specific to a given physical address and a given utility meter or account. If you move to another address, you will be required to set up a new home profile and establish new data feeds (if available in your new area). You may also be required to establish a new account for your new address.

If you delete your account with the Speak EnergyService, Speak Energy will not retain any of your data (including, but not limited to, personal data, energy usage data, or home profile information), other than anonymous aggregated data that Speak Energy may have collected during your use of the service. If you do not use your account for a period of 13 months, Speak Energy may delete your account information without notice to you. Termination or cancellation of the Speak Energyservice will not affect your account(s) with your energy provider(s).

13. Security

We treat data as an asset that must be protected against loss and unauthorized access. To safeguard the confidentiality and security of your user information, we use industry standard practices and technologies including but not limited to "firewalls", encrypted transmission via SSL (Secure Socket Layer) and strong data encryption of sensitive personal and/or financial information when it is stored to disk.

14. Notice

We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time based on changes in the law, your comments, or our need to accurately reflect our data collection and disclosure practices. We will notify you about significant changes in the way we treat personal information by sending you a notice via email or by placing a prominent notice on our Sites. All changes will be posted on this page and we recommend that you check it regularly.

15. California Privacy Rights

Under California Civil Code sections 1798.83-1798.84, California residents are entitled to ask us for a notice describing what categories of personal customer information we share with third parties or affiliates for those third parties or affiliates for direct marketing purposes. That notice will identify the categories of information shared and will include a list of the third parties and affiliates with whom it was shared, along with their names and addresses. If you are a California resident and would like a copy of this notice, please submit a written request to the address listed below. Please note that it may take 60 days from receipt of your written request to receive the notice.