Privacy Policy : Cleco

Customer Information Privacy Policy

Protecting our customers’ personal information is important to Cleco. We treat personal information and data about our customers as confidential, consistent with applicable legal and regulatory requirements, including those established by the Louisiana Public Service Commission (“LPSC”). This privacy policy describes how Cleco collects, uses and protects customer information.

What Information Do We Collect?

We collect customer information based on our business relationship with you and your use of our utility services. Some examples include:

Contact information, including your name, address, telephone number, and email;

Billing information, including your payment data, credit history, and Social Security number;

Electric usage data gathered by our metering systems; and

Information gathered when you participate in Cleco programs, such as those related to energy efficiency.

How Do We Collect Information?

We collect customer information in various ways, including:

When you set up your account and interact with Cleco regarding your account, your utility service, and your participation in Cleco programs;

When you use electricity service, usage data is collected by our metering systems;

When you engage with us through our main Web site at www.cleco.com or any of our sub sites, including www.clecoenergysmart.com; and

When we interact with third parties, such as credit agencies.

Some parts of Cleco’s sites use cookies, which may automatically collect information from the computer used by anyone who accesses our sites. Our Web site may ask your Web browser to store automatically a small text file on your computer, which will then be sent back to our Web site each time you click on a new page on our site. Through cookies, we may collect information about interactions between your Web browser and the Cleco Web sites, including your IP address, the Web pages on our Web site that you visit, and how long you visit them. For example, we may collect information that tells us how long you spent on a certain page and what information you supplied.

We may use this information for a number of purposes, including revising our Web pages to make them more user-friendly, diagnosing problems, investigating security issues, supporting our training efforts, or documenting your interaction with the Web site. This information also may be used in the aggregate to evaluate our Web site’s effectiveness and to improve performance.

You can refuse the cookie or delete the cookie file from your computer by adjusting your Web browser privacy settings or by other widely available methods. Note that you may not be able to use certain features of this web site if your Web browser does not accept cookies, or your privacy settings prevent certain access.

How Do We Use Customer Information?

We use personal information to administer your account, inform you about your energy usage, and provide, manage, and improve Cleco’s services and business operations. Some examples include:

To generate your customer billing statement and otherwise in connection with billing and payment on your customer account; and

To communicate with you about specific programs or opportunities offered by Cleco that may help you to lower your energy usage or realize other benefits.

We may also aggregate data about your electric usage in various formats so that the data becomes anonymous and cannot be identified personally with you. For instance, aggregated data could be a summary of total energy usage for all homes in a certain area. Aggregated data is not subject to privacy restrictions and is used by Cleco to provide, manage, and improve our services and business operations. Some examples are:

To analyze rates and rate structures;

To project usage demand patterns and plot growth in different geographic or other areas; and

To improve our energy supply planning and to better design and engineer our energy distribution system.

Does Cleco Disclose Customer Information To Others?

Cleco does not release personal customer information to any other person or business entity without your prior written consent.

There are, however, certain exceptions authorized by law, and Cleco may release personal information without your prior written consent as follows:

To law enforcement officers, pursuant to legal process (such as a warrant or subpoena approved by a judge), or if we form a good-faith belief that disclosure is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding any illegal activities or interference with the operation of our Web site or violation of its terms of use;

To contractors providing utility-related services to Cleco – but only to the extent necessary to render the service and subject to confidentiality and security obligations;

To the LPSC, or other governmental agencies with jurisdiction over Cleco, when they require such information;

To others as required by court order or applicable laws, rules, or regulations governing Cleco; and

To credit reporting agencies, and to collection agencies (if your account is assigned for collection).

Cleco may install two-way communicating (sometimes called “advanced” or “smart”) meters in the future. We will not disclose any individual electrical data obtained from those meters without approval from the LPSC. Your consent would also be required prior to Cleco’s disclosure of your electrical usage data from such meters.

How Does Cleco Protect Customer Information From Unauthorized Access?

We understand that data security is a top priority for our customers. Cleco takes extensive measures to ensure the integrity of our systems and to secure and protect customer data. We safeguard customer information on secure systems with restricted access, and have implemented appropriate security controls to protect the information when it is stored or transmitted by us.

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