Solar Energy Solutions Privacy Policy – What you need to know
This is the Solar Energy Solutions privacy policy to explain how and why we use your personal information. It’s important, so please read it and make sure you control your privacy.
Our privacy principles
We take your privacy seriously.
We are committed to protecting the security of your personal information.
We comply with data privacy laws when using your personal information.
We only use it for the lawful reasons you expect or that we explain to you in this document.
We will limit our collection and use to details we really need or which you have provided.
We will explain your rights to control your personal information to you and how to use them.
We want you to understand:
- What personal information we collect about you and where we get it from
- What we do with your personal information
- Who we share your personal information with and why
- How we keep your personal information secure
- How long we keep your information and why
- Your rights and how to use them
- Other details you should know
1. What personal information we collect about you and where we get it from
We collect your information directly from you when you contact us. The personal information we collect and use will depend on why we need it. We will only collect the personal information we believe we need to use, or which you have agreed we can collect from you.
2. What we do with your personal information
We need to collect email addresses and telephone numbers so that we can communicate with you. In some instances, we may hold your banking details, so that we can make or receive payments as agreed with you.
Our use of your details will depend on you and what you are doing: buying or selling, if you are new to us or a registered customer or supplier.
3. Who we share your personal information with and why
We use banks and service providers, for dealing with card checks and payments. We only share the personal details they need to know for their services and we make sure your privacy is respected and protected.
We share personal information with third parties when you have told us that we can share, , or you agree we can share your information, such as the Banks if you choose to use their payment service, for the purpose of enabling the service which you have sought to use.
We will provide personal information about you to the police, fraud prevention and credit reference agencies when we have to by law, or when we deem necessary to prevent fraud. If we decide to reorganise or sell all or most of our business, your personal information may be transferred to the buyer of the business but we will never sell your personal information to third parties for them to market their products to you.
4. How do we keep your personal information secure
Our people understand how important it is to keep your personal information safe and secure. We take steps online and in house to keep our offices, systems and records secure.
5. How long we keep your information and why
We will only keep your personal information for a limited period of time. This period will depend on a number of reasons, such whether you have an account with us, or we are providing ongoing customer care to you. Sometimes we must also keep your information by law, to deal with a regulator or where required by our insurers. We delete your personal information at your request where possible and we won’t keep it for longer than we should or need to for the provision of a service and for communicating with you.
6. Your rights and how to use them
You have rights to find out about how and why we use your personal information and to control its use. These include rights to access and correct your details, in some cases to ask us to limit or stop our use of them and even to delete them. Where we use your personal information based on your consent, you have the right to change your mind and you can always unsubscribe from our direct marketing to you, by simply clicking unsubscribe in a marketing email, or in this policy.
Your privacy matters to us. You can get in touch with our Customer Care team for help with data protection matters at [email protected]. You also have a right to complain to the Data Protection Commissioner should you feel your rights or the law has been compromised.
7. Other details you should know.
Our privacy policy explains how we at Solar Energy Solutions are responsible for using your personal information. If you would like to get in touch, you can write to us at: Tullysleva Ballina, Co Mayo F26 D934. You can also email us at [email protected].
From time to time we will update this policy. We’ll always send you a copy in the event of material change but if minor changes are made, we won’t bombard your mailbox. You can, of course, check back here for updates in the mean time!
Additional details
Where we collect and use information about you and which allows us to identify you, it is your personal information. Our quick read summary privacy policy has already given you some key facts but this part of our policy adds further detail if you want to understand more about how and why we use your information.
What personal information we collect about you and where we get it from
The personal information we collect and use will depend on why we need it. The technical term for information about you which identifies you is your personal data. We need lots of different types of information and have explained what categories we collect, why it is needed and where we get it from below. Collection and use of this information is not new and is commonly used by businesses, but explaining this level of detail to you is new!
We want you to understand why we use the personal information we do and our legal basis for doing so. We explain this here.
Where we can, we will also move from using your information in ‘individual picture’ form about you, to ‘big picture’ form as a member of a group but not as an individual. To do this, we can bunch lots of information on individuals together (aggregation), remove or change details that identify you to make that more difficult or impossible (de-identification, pseudonymisation and anonymization) and change information about people into information about numbers (statistics). This helps us to protect your privacy whilst having the information we need to run our business and comply with our obligations. We can use the details for research, statistical analysis, and reports.
| Category of personal information
| Examples of your personal information and why we need it |
| Contact information | What: Name, Address, Email Address, Telephone Number, account information (user name, log-in details) Why: so we can know who you are to get in touch and for contract, legal and payment reasons as well as administering your account with us Where: from you |
| Order information | What: Contact information, together with order details, drawings, specs, site location, any communications we have about your quote/contract. Why: so we can give you a quote, in line with your drawings/site location, create a contract, deliver the finished construction work. Where: from you |
| Payment / bank information | What: Name and address of Bank, name of account BIC and IBAN numbers. Why: so that we can process payments quickly and accurately. Where: from you, your bank. |
| Communications | What: Communications we may have with you, whether relating to an order or not. Why: so we can deal with your requests, help you, meet your needs and make sure we have accurate records. Where: from you |
| Observed information | What: CCTV images of you in and around entrances and exits to our offices. Why: so we can keep you, other customers, our staff, buildings, systems and data safe and secure; Where: from you; from our CCTV. |
| Marketing information | What: Your customer journey before and after visiting our store from Google beacons. Details of your online browsing activities on our website, such as the pages, products or areas of our website that you visit, or which link has brought you to our website from our email communication. Why: so we can learn more about you; try to understand the type of customer you are. Where: from you, from our website technology interaction with your browser/devices and cookies tracking the pages you visit; without seeing the details collected, from cookies set by ad providers, social media platforms and Google |
| There are also “special categories” of more sensitive personal information which require a higher level of protection, such as information about a person’s health, criminal offences, sexuality, race, ethnicity, health or disability. | |
| Accident information | What: details about any accident or injury on our premises, or health incident Why: so we can get you the help you need, deal with the emergency services, insurance and claims Where: from you, witnesses or observed about you |
| Suspected crime information | What: details of your identity, image, name and address, suspected or alleged thefts, fraud, assault or other criminal behaviour Why: so we can protect customers, the public and our business against risks and crime Where: from crime and fraud prevention agencies , from you, witnesses, and from the police |
| Legal basis | When we use this basis |
| Contract | This is where we need to use your personal information for a contract reason (to comply with a contract with you, or take steps you have requested to start a contract with you). |
| Legal obligation | This is where we must use your personal information to comply with the law, or a binding request like a court order. |
| Consent | This is where we use your personal information with your clear consent, you have a complete free choice to say yes or no, and you can change your mind at any time. |
| Public interest | This is where we need to use your personal information for an official purpose, or for a reason in the public interest for the greater public good, like cooperating voluntarily with an official police investigation. |
| Vital interests | This is where we need to use your personal information in an emergency to protect you (or someone else) from death or serious harm. |
| Legitimate interests | This is where, on balance and being fair to you, we have (or a third party has) another good and lawful business reason for using your personal information and we do not need your consent. |
By law we must treat special category or sensitive personal data, such as on health or alleged crimes, with even more care and must have an additional reason for collecting and using this type of personal information. Where special categories of sensitive personal information are involved in addition our use will always be for one of these reasons.
| Legal basis | When we use this basis |
| Legal obligation | This is where we must use your personal information to comply with your or our legal rights or obligations related to employment or social protection. |
| Preventative medicine | This is where we need to use your personal information for medical diagnosis or preventative health reasons |
| Substantial public interest | This is where we need to use your personal information in the substantial public interest for the greater public good. |
| Explicit consent | This is where we use your personal information with your very clear and express consent, you have a complete free choice to say yes or no, and you can change your mind at any time. |
| Legal claims | This is where we need to use your personal information to investigate, take advice on bring or defend legal claims. |
| Vital interests | This is where we need to use your personal information in an emergency to protect you (or someone else) from death or serious harm and you are not capable of giving your consent. |
| Why we use your personal information | Lawful basis for use | |
| All personal information | Sensitive personal information | |
| To accept your orders, check and take payment, deliver your order and communicate with you about it. This may include a gift delivered to another person or delivery to another address if you want Dealing with snags, queries, and warranty issues we are obliged to deal with Dealing with snags, queries, and warranty issues we are not obliged to deal with | Contract Contract; Legal obligation Legitimate interests Legitimate interests | |
| To accept card payments, we need to comply with anti-money laundering legal obligations and comply with the rules of the card issuers eg Visa to make sure we get paid This means checking your identity and that your use of the card appears lawful by checking with credit reference agencies and fraud prevention agencies who may keep records of this and of any concerns. We use specialist payment providers to help with this. Preventing and detecting crime is important to everyone and any concerns may be shared with law enforcement agencies | Legitimate interests; Legal obligation | Substantial public interest; Legal claims |
| To deal with your queries, requests and respond to any customer care concerns. To provide you with information about your order or request we think you need. Sometimes this will be where this involves a legal right or obligation we must comply with and unusually this may relate to legal claims | Legitimate interests; Legal obligation | Legal claims |
| To set up your account with us and run it to make your online shopping experience quicker and easier for you, including dealing with related requests and changes and communications Storing any payment card details with your consent | Legitimate interests; Explicit consent | |
| Managing any accidents, injuries or health incidents which occur in store. Meeting our health and safety legal obligations. Dealing with any related insurance or legal claims | Legitimate interests; Legal obligation; Vital interests | Vital interests; Preventative medicine; Legal obligation; Legal claims; Substantial public interest |
| Responding to warnings and providing details to law enforcement and fraud prevention agencies to investigate, prevent and detect crime. Dealing with any related insurance or legal claims | Legal obligation; Legitimate interests | Legal claims; Substantial public interest Legal obligation |
| To keep evidence of our dealings with you to comply with our legal obligations, including on accounting, taxation and data privacy To keep records for risk management and insurance purposes | Legal obligation Legitimate interests | |
| To keep our systems, websites and their use under continual review to check and maintain their integrity and security and proper operation and continually improve their efficiency Meeting our obligations to secure personal information | Legitimate interests; Legal obligation | |
| To authenticate customers and contracts. | Legitimate interests; Legal obligation | |
| To deal with our legal obligations, such as warranties, and binding requests for information, such as from courts | Legal obligation | Legal claims |
| To cooperate with and disclose information to law enforcement and official agencies and government, regulators courts and other parties even where not legally binding. This is where we believe it is needed to prevent or detect crime, or help with legal compliance or good governance This includes where we take professional advice to understand and deal with our legal rights and obligations and dealing with our insurers | Legitimate interests; Public interest | Substantial public interest Legal claims |
| To deal with the reorganisation or sale if our business or part of it and sharing details needed | Legitimate interests | |
Where we have explained that our use of your personal information is needed for us to comply with a legal obligation, or to start or comply with a contract with you, if you refuse to provide those details, on most occasions, we won’t be able to accept your order or continue to deal with your project.
Who we share your personal information with and why
We do not sell your personal information to third parties for them to market their products to you but, on occasion, we do need to share some of your details with third parties.
We need to work with, suppliers and professional service providers as they help us to run our business and look after you. In these cases, we only share the personal details they need to know for their services and work closely with them to make sure your privacy is respected and protected. They must keep your details confidential and secure and only use them to provide the help we have agreed with them or as allowed by law.
Who we share your personal information with and why | |
Who we share with | Why we share it |
| External suppliers | We use external suppliers to help us with supply of materials, · payment service providers to securely validate and take your payments by card; · specialist providers to host and operate our websites, · specialist providers to help with cyber and other security; |
| Cookies* | We explained above how we use cookies with third parties. · Where you accept third party cookies, we do not send them data but they normally collect data directly from your device |
| Social media | · Where you want to link your social media account to us, we will share the details needed to do that with your provider. |
| Third party content and links on our websites | · Our websites and apps sometimes feature links to third parties which we think you will like · We do not send them your details but if you follow those links, you will do so direct and leave our website. You can choose to share your personal data with them separately and subject to their Privacy Policy |
| Law enforcement, credit reference and fraud prevention agencies | We will provide personal information about you to: · the Gardai; · fraud prevention and credit reference agencies, if we must by law, or when we think it is necessary to prevent fraud, or protect you, our staff, business or other customers, from threats, theft or, fraud |
| Business buyers | If we decide to reorganise or sell all or most of our business: · to the buyer of the business, their professional advisers and related partners who need to know |
| Other recipients | We may also disclose your personal information where needed to comply with a legal obligation, to enforce a contract or to protect the rights, property or safety of you, our employees, customers or others, or where permitted by law and needed to help others to do so. · Consultants and professional advisors including legal advisors, accountants and auditors; · courts, court-appointed persons/entities, receivers and liquidators; · business partners and joint ventures; · insurers; and · Governmental departments, statutory and regulatory bodies including the Data Protection Commissioner’s Office, the Gardai and The Revenue Commissioners. |
How do we keep your personal information secure
We take specific steps required by data privacy law to take appropriate care of your personal information, whether online or not. This is to protect it against theft or other loss, being corrupted so we cannot use it properly or at all and to stop people who should not be able to see or use it from doing so.
How long we keep your information and why
We will only keep your personal information for a limited period of time. This will depend on a number of factors, including:
- whether you have placed an order with us, or have had a property built/restructured or maintained by us.
- any laws or regulations that we are required to follow;
- whether we are dealing with a current request, customer care issue or complaint;
- where there is a legal or other type of dispute involving or affecting you;
- the type of information that we hold about you; and
- whether we are asked by you or a regulatory authority to keep your personal data for a valid reason.
We will keep your personal information during the period that you are a customer with us and then for as long as is necessary in connection with both our and your legal rights and obligations. This may mean that we keep some types of personal information for longer than others. Generally, if you are an inactive customer we will remove your account after 18 months.
Your rights and how to use them
You have rights to understand and control use of your personal information. These rights only apply to your own personal information. For all these rights:
- we must be able to verify your identity;
- your request must not impact the privacy rights of other people;
- Your request must not be excessive, very unreasonable or repeated [too often].
- They cannot clash with the provision of a service (for example submitting a right to erasure when we are processing an order from you)
Many rights have limitations and exceptions, for instance, we do not have to provide you with legally privileged advice involving your personal information.
| Your right | What does it mean? | Limitations and conditions of your right |
| Right of access | You are entitled to have access to your personal information and specific information about its use by us (this is more commonly known as submitting a “data subject access request”). | You should specify the type of information you would like to see to ensure that our disclosure is meeting your expectations. |
| Rights in relation to inaccurate personal or incomplete data | You may challenge the accuracy or completeness of your personal information and have it corrected or add details to make it complete. You must inform us of changes to your personal information. Please notify us of any changes as soon as they occur, including changes to your contact details. | Where available, please use any self-help tools to correct the personal information we use about you. When exercising this right, please be as specific as possible. |
| Right to object to our use of your personal information
| You have the right to object to our use of your personal information. | This general right applies where our use of your personal information is needed based on legitimate interests and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. We will then consider your request.
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| Right to restrict our use of your personal information | You are entitled to limit our use of your personal information for so long as we are considering any request you have made for us to correct or complete your personal information, or to consider an objection you have made to our use of it based on legitimate interests. You can also request us to limit our use permanently in some cases. | The temporary restriction on our use will end when we have dealt with your request for correction or completion of your personal information or we have made a decision on further use following your objection. If we agree that we should stop that use of your personal information, or in limited other cases, the limitation will become permanent. The impact of the restriction is limited to personal information affected by the request/use. |
| Right to erasure | You are entitled to have your personal information deleted or destroyed, such as where your personal information is no longer needed for its intended use. | We may not always be able to erase your personal information completely, such as were we still need it to comply with a legal obligation, or to deal with legal claims. |
| Right to withdrawal of consent | Where our processing of your personal information is based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. | If you withdraw your consent, this will only affect future use of that personal information. |
| Right to data portability | You are entitled to receive the personal information which you have provided to us and which is used by us in a commonly used format to help make it readily re-usable. | This right only applies where we are using the personal information you have provided based on your consent or on our contract with you. |
To unsubscribe, or change your mind about receiving our marketing, you can:
- use the unsubscribe link in our emails
- email our Customer Care team [email protected]
- call our Customer Care team
- write to us at the address listed below.
We are committed to protecting your privacy, so we have appointed a Data Protection Officer to help. If you wish to exercise any of these rights please contact our Customer Care team by emailing [email protected]
- You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Commissioner.
- Other details you should know.
- Our privacy policy explains how we at Solar Energy Solutions use your personal information. If you would like to get in touch, you can write to us at Tullysleva, Ballina, Co Mayo F26 D934.
