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The Privacy Policy was updated On Sept. 28, 2020.

Effective, Sept. 28, 2020, we changed our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy to clarify the types of personal and other information we collect, the ways we collect information, contact information and how we may use and share your Personal Data. Here is a summary of the changes:

  • We will now use the term “Sites and Services” to describe our website, web services, mobile apps, etc.
  • We clarify the types of personal and other information we collect about you and the ways we collect this information.
  • We describe how we share and use your information.
  • We describe our use of email communications and text messaging and how to opt out and/or control these communications.
  • We clarify how we share your Personal Data with our service providers, business partners and other organizations.
  • We clarify our policy regarding the collection and use of information related to children under 13. 
  • We describe our use of cookies and other tracking technologies.

Cleco Corporate Holdings LLC, and our subsidiaries and affiliated companies (collectively referred to as “Cleco”) is committed to your privacy and the protection of your personal information. This Privacy Policy and our related Terms of Use (above) govern this website[s], any websites and mobile applications associated with this website (collectively referred to as the “Sites”), as well as related web services. Web services include, but are not limited to, any and all services of any kind available through the Sites (e.g., account access services, paperless bill delivery services, one-time and recurring bill payment services, email/SMS text message services, etc.) (collectively referred to as the “Services”). The terms “we”, “us”, “our” refer to Cleco. The terms” “you”, “your” or “user” apply to any person or entity using the Sites or Services.

THE INFORMATION WE COLLECT AND HOW WE COLLECT IT
We may collect different types of personal and other information based on your use of our products and services and our business relationship with you.

We collect information directly from you, and we also collect certain information through automated means (e.g., cookies and similar technologies) when you use the Sites and Services, purchase a product or service, pay a bill contact customer service or otherwise interact with us.

Here are examples of the types of personal information we may collect from and about you:

  • Contact information (such as name, phone numbers and fax number, email address and mailing and service address);
  • Information used to create and maintain your online account and other account-related information such as username, password, security questions and answers, account number, and any content you choose to store in your account);
  • Information regarding your usage of our services from meters and other devices;
  • Information you submit when applying for a job at Cleco;
  • Information you submit related to your questions, suggestions, videos, pictures or other materials;
  • Information you post on our dedicated social media sites;
  • Demographic information, such as date of birth, gender and other background information (such as your ethnicity) if you inquire about certain programs;
  • Social Security number, driver’s license number, tax identification number and other government-issued identification numbers;
  • Payment information, such as name, billing address, bank account information, and payment card details (including payment card number, expiration date and security code), some of which is collected and stored by our third-party payment processors on our behalf;
  • Information related to your transactions with us, such as your payment history;
  • Social media aliases, monikers;
  • Information from third parties such as credit bureaus and our service providers who assist with the servicing of your account and use of our products;
  • IP address;
  • Geolocation;
  • Information related to your use of our Sites and Services;
  • Information about your online activities over time and across third-party apps, websites, devices and other online services;
  • Information about your interests and browsing context from advertising networks;
  • Unique identifiers for your devices, and;
  • Mobile device information.

HOW WE USE PERSONAL INFORMATION
We may use your personal information for the following purposes:

  • To manage and deliver our products and services, including to communicate with you and fulfill your requests and inquiries;
  • To help you and us manage your account, including a communicating with you about your account;
  • To provide customer and technical support;
  • To improve our business processes, including enhancing our Sites and Services, developing new services, and better managing our communications and relationships with our customers;
  • To provide security authentication you when you access your account or use our Sites and Services;
  • To personalize your experience when using our Sites and Services and customize content and information when communicating with you;
  • To communicate with you about our services and products, as well as Cleco events, surveys, programs and promotions, including alerts, promotional materials, newsletters and other direct marketing communications;
  • To perform data analytics including market research, Site and Services usage metrics, demographic analysis and data aggregation and anonymization;
  • To facilitate our business processes, including accounting, auditing, billing, reconciliation and collection activities;
  • To protect you and us from fraud, unauthorized transactions, security threats, claims and other liabilities;
  • To comply with applicable laws and regulations, industry standards, contractual obligations, and our policies and practices; and
  • To protect our Sites and Services, network, information, customers, employees and others.

Combined Information
You consent that we may combine the information that we collect through the Sites and Services with information that we receive from other sources, both online and offline, and use such combined information in accordance with this Policy.

Aggregate/De-Identified Information
We may aggregate and/or de-identify information collected through the Sites Services so that such information can no longer be linked to you or your device (“Aggregate/De-Identified Information”). We may use Aggregate/De-Identified Information for any purpose, including without limitation for analytics, research and marketing purposes. Also, we may share such data with any third parties, including advertisers, promotional partners, sponsors, event promoters, and/or others.

HOW WE SHARE THE INFORMATION WE COLLECT
We do not sell or otherwise share personal information about you except as described in this Privacy Policy. We may share your information in the following ways:

Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies
We may share the personal information we collect with our subsidiaries and affiliated companies. Some state laws, and certain state utility commissions with regulatory oversight of our utility service territories, require that certain customer information be protected from disclosure to affiliated companies. Cleco has established procedures to assure that affiliate employees, computer systems, applications, or databases do not have preferential access to certain transmission information as required by Standards of Conduct provided in 18 CFR Part 37 or have access to non-public information as prohibited by the Codes of Conduct.

Third Party Vendors
We share your data with third party vendors to fulfill your servicing requests and assist with our business processes. These third-party vendors include credit card and other payment processing companies, business analytics platforms, customer service organizations, advertising and business partners, distributers of surveys or sweepstakes programs, fraud prevention firms, collection agencies, etc.

Business Partners
We may jointly offer products or services with business partners. You can tell when a business partner is involved in a product or service you have requested because their name will appear, either alone or with ours. If you choose business partner products or services, we may share your data with our partners. We do not control the privacy practices of business partners. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of our business partners for more information regarding the applicable privacy practices.

Future Business Transactions
We may share your data in connection with any proposed or actual merger, reorganization, transfer of control, a sale of some or all of our assets, or a financing or acquisition of all or a portion of our business by another company (whether the recipient of data in these cases will handle the data pursuant to this Privacy Policy depends on applicable law and other factors).

Surveys and Promotions
Cleco may conduct surveys and promotions on our Sites and Services. Our surveys and promotions are voluntary and any information you provide may be shared in accordance with this Policy.

Legally Required Disclosures and the Protection of Cleco and Others
By using our Sites and Services, you acknowledge, consent and agree that we may share your information if required to do so by law or in a good faith belief that such disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (i) comply with any legal process (e.g., a subpoena or court order, Public Service Commission request, etc.); (ii) enforce our Terms of Service, this Privacy Policy, or other contracts with you, including investigation of potential violations thereof; (iii) respond to claims that any content violates the rights of third parties; and/or (iv) protect the rights, property or personal safety of Cleco, its users and/or customers and/or the public. This includes exchanging information with other companies, authorities and other organizations for emergency response, fraud protection, and spam/malware prevention, and similar purposes.

COOKIES AND OTHER TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES
When you visit or use our Sites and Services, we may place cookies (small pieces of information) on your device to improve your experience. We may also allow business partners to use their cookies or similar technologies on our Sites and Services for the purpose of providing targeted advertisements to you about programs or services that we offer. As a result, when you use or visit the Sites and Services, we, and our business partners, will collect certain information using cookies and other technologies.

The data we collect about your use of our Sites and Services is not tied to your personal information and is only used in an aggregated form for the purposes of our own customer support, analytics, research, and improving our website. However, when you use features such as "Remember My Username/Password," a cookie is associated with your personal Information in order to provide you with a more convenient experience. We do not share the data we obtain from cookies and other technologies for any purpose other than to evaluate your usage of our Sites and Services, to provide products and services to you, or to offer programs and/or services that you may be interested in.

These cookies and other technologies help us (i) remember your information so you will not have to re-enter it; (ii) track and understand how you use and interact with our Sites and Services; (iii) tailor our Sites and Services to your preferences; (iv) measure the usage of our Sites and Services; (5v understand the effectiveness of our communications; (vi) identify, diagnose and resolve technical issues; and (vii) otherwise manage and enhance our Sites and Services, as well as our other products and services, to help us ensure they are working properly.

You may disable the usage of cookies through your browser settings. You can find out how to do this for your particular browser by clicking “help” on your browser’s menu or by visiting www.allaboutcookies.org. Please note that if you disable your browser’s ability to accept cookies, you will be able to navigate the Sites and Services, but you will not be able to take advantage of certain features, such as "Remember My Username/Password," and will not receive targeted advertisements related to our programs or promotions.

ONLINE ANALYTICS AND ADVERTISING
We may collect your information through advertising services administered by third parties. These ad services may track user’s online activities over time by collecting information through automated means such as cookies, and they may use this information to show users advertisements that are tailored to their particular interests or characteristics based on prior visits to certain sites or apps, or other information we know, infer or have collected from those users. For example, we and these third-parties may use cookies, first-party cookies and third-party cookies together, as well as other automated means, and other data to: (i) to recognize users and their devices, (ii) to inform, optimize, and serve ads, and (iii) to provide analytics about our ad impressions, uses of ad services, and how users interact with these impressions and services (including how they are related to visits to specific sites or apps).

To learn more about interest-based advertising generally, including how to opt-out from the targeting of interest-based ads by some of our current ad service partners, visit the consumer choice information sites offered by Network Advertising Initiative and Digital Advertising Alliance.

THIRD-PARTY LINKS
While browsing the Sites and Services, you may see and access links to websites or services operated by third parties that may not be controlled by Cleco. These websites and services may send their own cookies to you, log your IP address, and/or otherwise collect data or Information about you and your online activities. Cleco does not control and is not responsible for third party websites or services, or their privacy practices. Please use caution when clicking on third party links and consult the privacy policy specific to each third-party website and/or service that you visit for further information.

USING MOBILE AND OTHER DEVICES
We and/or our service providers may collect and store unique identifiers matched to your mobile device, in order to deliver customized ads or content while you use applications or the Internet, or to identify you in a unique manner across other devices or browsers. In order to customize these ads or content, we, or third parties may collect your information including your email address, your location, your device identifier and/or your IP address.

You may be able to manage how your mobile device and mobile browser share information with our Sites and Services, by adjusting the privacy and security settings on your device. Please refer to instructions provided by your mobile service provider or the manufacturer of your device to learn how to adjust your settings.

YOUR EMAIL AND TEXT CHOICES
We would like to keep in touch with you by email and text to communicate information regarding billing, service outages/restoration, emergencies, etc.

You will receive email communications from us in connection with your use of our Sites and Services, such as when you sign up for an account online, perform an online transaction (for example, paying your bill or requesting a new password) or provide your email address to one of our customer service representatives. To opt out of receiving marketing emails from us, use the one-click unsubscribe link at the bottom of each marketing email you receive or contact us as detailed below in the “Contact Us” section.

If you opt-in to text messaging services in the MyAccount portal we will communicate with you via text messaging based on the options you select. You may opt-out of text messaging by changing the preferences related to your account. For more information regarding text messaging, including your responsibility for carrier fees, please see the MyAccount features page on our Sites and Services.

OUR PRIVACY POLICY FOR CHILDREN
Some of the content on our Sites and Services is directed to children under age 13. However, we do not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from children under age 13 without parental consent, unless permitted by law. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from a child under age 13 without parental consent or unless otherwise permitted by law, we will delete it in accordance with applicable law. If you believe that a child may have provided us with personal information without parental consent or otherwise not permitted by law, please contact us as detailed below in the “Contact Us” section.

SECURING YOUR INFORMATION
There is no perfect security. We have implemented physical, technical, and administrative measures to help prevent unauthorized access, use and disclosure of your information, but we cannot promise that these measures will work. You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of any credentials that can be used to access any account or service related to the Sites and Services and you should report suspected unauthorized activity to us. You are responsible for activity conducted with your credentials.

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
This Privacy Policy may be updated periodically and without prior notice to you to reflect changes in our personal information practices. We will indicate at the top of the policy when this policy was most recently updated. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us as detailed below in the “Contact Us” section.

CONTACT US
Please contact us by email using the form available at https://www.cleco.com/contact-us, or call us 1-800-622-6537 or write to us at:

Cleco
2030 Donahue Ferry Road
P.O. Box 5000
Pineville, LA 71361-5000.