Internet Privacy Policy

Cookson Hills Electric Cooperative Inc. is committed to protecting the privacy of our members and those with whom we do business.

Membership Information
When you contact Cookson Hills Electric Cooperative Inc. to sign up for service, you may be asked to provide personal information. This information may include “personally identifiable information” such as your name, billing and service address, phone number, social security number, and e-mail address. We do not rent or sell members’ personally identifiable information to other parties. There are situations where we do share member information with third parties as further described below.

Web Site Visits
In order to provide the best service to our members and customers, we collect aggregated statistical information when you visit our Web site which is stored in server log files. For example, the IP address of the computer or service provider used to access our site, the type of browser being used, searches that are performed, and the pages that visitors click on and follow. We do not automatically collect any personally identifiable information from you as a result of you simply visiting our Web site. By collecting this aggregated statistical data, we are better able to organize our website to suit members' needs and interests. This information is treated as confidential.

Children
Cookson Hills Electric Cooperative Inc. occasionally publishes the names, pictures, and schools of children who have achieved academic excellence, special awards, or attend cooperative functions. In order to protect your children, Cookson Hills Electric Cooperative Inc. will not publish full names or other personal information about children without consent from parents or legal guardians. Although we provide online information and games that may be of interest to children we do not seek any personally identifiable information regarding children.

Online Transactions
It is our commitment to protect your personal information when using our Web site for online billing and payment options. Our servers are protected and secured by the use of current security techniques including encryption software. Should you make any online transactions with us, you can be assured we act to keep your personal information safe.

Links to Other Websites
Links to other Web sites are provided as a convenience to our members. Please be aware that Cookson Hills Electric Cooperative Inc. is not responsible for the privacy practices of the sites for which we provide links. Once you leave our Web site by accessing another linked Web site, we no longer have control over how your personal data may be used. We encourage you to be aware of this and read the privacy policy of any additional Web sites you visit where personal and financial data may be collected.

Opt-In\Opt-Out Programs
We will not send you e-mail messages or newsletters unless you ‘opt-in’ to receive this information. You may be given the opportunity to submit your e-mail address in order to receive electronic communications from us. These may include newsletters, special rebates, promotions, and event notices. You are not automatically opted-in to any e-mail programs so that your privacy is respected. You will need to sign up on our Web site or contact us in order to take advantage of our opt-in program. Should you decide you no longer want to receive e-mail correspondence from us, you can opt out at any time by contacting us.

Sharing Information 
There are instances in which we will share users’ personal information either at the user’s request or in order to complete a transaction initiated by the user. Also, although we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process.

Security
This Web site takes every precaution to protect our users’ information. When users submit sensitive information via the Web site, their information is protected both online and offline.

While we use encryption to protect sensitive information online, we also protect user information offline. All of our users’ information, not just the sensitive information mentioned above, is restricted in our offices. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, our billing clerk or a customer service representative) are granted access to personally identifiable information. Our employees must use passwords to gain access to user information. Furthermore, ALL employees are kept up-to-date on our security and privacy practices. Our employees review this policy annually to remind them of the importance we place on privacy, and what they can do to ensure our users’ information is protected. Finally, the servers that store personally identifiable information are in a secure locked facility.

Correcting/Updating/Deleting/Deactivating Personal Information
If a user’s personally identifiable information changes (such as zip code, phone, e-mail, or postal address), or if a user no longer desires our service, they may contact us to correct, update, or delete/deactivate the user's personally identifiable information. 

Notification of Changes
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement on the homepage, and other places we deem appropriate so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. 

If, however, we are going to use users’ personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection we will notify users via e-mail. Users will have a choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner. However, if users have opted out of all communication with the site, or deleted/deactivated their account, then they will not be contacted, nor will their personal information be used in this new manner. In addition, if we make any material changes in our privacy practices that do not affect user information already stored in our database, we will post a prominent notice on our Web site notifying users of the change. In some cases where we post a notice, we will also e-mail users who have opted to receive communications from us, notifying them of the changes in our privacy practices.