Privacy policy
Who we are
The Energy Choices Tool has been developed by the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE). Our address and registered office is St James Court, St James Parade, Bristol BS1 3HL. Our charitable purpose is to help people and organisations from the public, private and voluntary sectors meet the challenge of rising energy costs and climate change. We are registered charity 298740, and registered company 2219673. The tool is funded by National Grid Electricity Distribution and Northern Powergrid.
Privacy
CSE is committed to ensuring that all data gathered by this website is handled appropriately and securely. This section tells you what information we collect and what we use it for, how we store it, with whom we share it, and whether it may be transferred outside the European Economic Area.
Please read the policy carefully, and if you don’t agree with it, then please don’t use this website. If you have any queries about the information we hold on you, or a complaint or an issue to raise on privacy, please write to us at the address above.
In order to use our Smart Energy Option Finder we ask for your email address so that we can send you a log-in code to allow you to return to the tool and view or amend your question responses at a later date.
We also ask for your address in order to determine which Distribution Network Operator (DNO) area you live in. We do not store your full address for this purpose, only the first three digits of your post code (e.g. BS3) and the DNO area. If you live within an area covered by either Northern Powergrid or National Grid Electricity Distribution, then this information will mean that we can provide your DNO with anonymous aggregated data to describe how the tool has been used by people living in their area.
CSE will also use anonymised data on tool usage to help us to monitor its effectiveness and to improve our services, as well as in our research into the uptake of smart energy options.
We will store all information that you add into the tool (e.g. question responses) for twelve months, at which point your information will be deleted. This information is used only for the purpose of advice. We will not share any personal data with anyone else or use it for any other purpose without your consent.
You can amend your consent information at any time by clicking on the dropdown menu with your email address on the right-hand side of the navigation bar, and then selecting ‘Update personal information’.
All information is stored on a Digital Ocean server, which is located within the European Economic Area. We view data security seriously and take appropriate technical and organisational measures against its unauthorised or unlawful processing and against its accidental loss, destruction or damage. CSE is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) (registration number Z7115671). We manage data in accordance with the eight principles of the Data Protection Act 1998.
This website has an SSL (HTTPS) certificate to ensure that personal data collected via web forms is secured against interception by a third party.
You have a statutory right to see a copy of the information we hold about you on payment of a fee – currently £10. Requests must be made in writing to the address above.
Further information about data protection issues including the Register of Data Controllers can be found at the Information Commissioner’s Office.