Introduction

Direct Energy ("Company" "We" “Us” “Our”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal information.

We know that you care how information about you is collected, used, and shared. We appreciate that you trust us with your information. This Privacy Notice (“Notice”) outlines the information we may collect about you or that you may provide to us and discloses our practices for collecting, using, retaining, and sharing your information. In addition, this Notice describes choices you may have to control your information and your privacy preferences. We will not use or share information except as specified in this Notice or as permitted by law.

We note that Direct Energy operates in multiple states, and each state may have different laws governing how we may collect, use, and share your information. This Notice generally describes our practices, and it contains links to additional information about certain states in which we operate, which may not apply to you.

Application of Privacy Notice 

This Notice applies to the use of our products, services, websites, devices, and online portals or mobile applications offered by Direct Energy and our affiliates, and the information collected by us or our service providers as described below. 

This Notice applies to information collected:

• On our websites (“Website”).
• When you enroll for service with us, or purchase or use our products and services.
• Through our mobile and desktop applications that you may download from this Website or other sources (our “apps”), which provide dedicated non-browser-based interaction between you and the Website.
• When you interact with our advertising and applications on third-party websites and services if those applications or advertising include links to this Notice.
• When we interact with you via phone calls, text messaging, chats, emails, webforms, or social media. 

Please read this Notice carefully to understand our practices regarding your information and how we treat it. This Notice may change from time to time (see Notice Changes). Your continued use of this Website or our products and services after we make changes is understood as your acknowledgment of those changes, so please check the Notice periodically for updates.

Additional privacy disclosures may be provided that are specific to a product or service. In the event of any conflict between this Notice and any product- or service-specific privacy disclosures, the more specific disclosures will control with respect to that product or service.

In this Notice, “Personal Information” means information that directly identifies an individual (such as a name) or that is associated with an identified individual (such as a home or work address linked with a name), or information that can be used to identify a specific individual, without too much effort (such as a mobile phone number or home address).  Personal Information does not include:

• Publicly available information from government records.
• Deidentified or aggregated information.
• Information excluded under applicable law, like that covered by certain sector-specific privacy laws, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FRCA), the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) or California Financial Information Privacy Act (FIPA), and the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act of 1994

If there are sections of this Notice where we refer to “personal information,” as the term may be defined differently under a specific applicable law or regulation, we will let you know.

Information We Collect About You and How We Collect It

We collect Personal Information about you in connection with our products and services, in order to provide our products and services to you, and to help us improve and provide you with the best possible experience. When using our Website or our products and services, you may be prompted to create an account which will store your name, mailing address, service address, email address, telephone number, credit card or other payment account information. 

By providing us Personal Information, you agree that you are authorized to provide that information and accept this Notice and any supplementary privacy statement that may be relevant to you. If you do not agree with our practices, please do not register, subscribe, create an account, or otherwise interact with our products and services, Website, or mobile-device applications.

Information We Collect. We use and process the Personal Information for the purposes outlined in the How We Use Your Information section below. We collect (or have collected in the 12 months prior to the effective date of this Notice) the following categories of Personal Information about our customers and share these categories of Personal Information with the listed categories of third parties, including:

How We Collect Information. We may collect your information in one or more of the following ways:

• Directly from you through your interactions with us via phone calls, text messaging, chats, emails, webforms, or social media and use of our products and services;
• When you subscribe to our marketing materials, enroll for service with us, or use our products or services;
• Automatically as you navigate through our Website (See Information We Collect Through Automatic Data Collection Technologies below);
• From affiliates, third parties or publicly available sources (e.g., from social media services, forums, commercially available services); and
• When you apply for a job with us. 

The information we collect from you on or through our Website or apps may include:

• Information that you provide by filling in forms including online registration forms (whether or not you hit the submit button), subscribing to or enrolling for our service, posting material, or requesting further services. We may also ask you for information when you enter a contest or promotion sponsored by us, and when you report a problem with our Website or provide online feedback on your experiences with our products/services.
• Records and copies of your correspondence (including email addresses) if you contact us.
• Your responses to satisfaction surveys that we might ask you to complete for research and information purposes.
• Details of transactions you carry out through our Website or apps, and of the fulfillment of your orders. You may be required to provide financial information before placing an order, making a purchase, or enrolling for service through our Website.
• Referral contact information for friends or relatives from you to forward promotional opportunities or other information on our Website. This personal referral information you provide to facilitate this communication is used on a one-time basis and is not further retained by Direct Energy, except in circumstances where we obtain consent from the people you have referred to receive communications from us or when they subscribe for our products or services.

Information We Collect Through Automatic Data Collection Technologies

Like many websites and online services, we use “cookies” and other tracking technologies such as web beacons and pixel tags (collectively “Automatic Data Collection Tools”) to personalize your use of our Website and to provide you with a better and faster user experience. We allow our service providers to utilize Automatic Data Collection Tools for analytic and marketing purposes. Some of the Automatic Data Collection Tools we use are associated with your customer account and others are not. For example, we may use “session cookies” (cookies that last until you close your browser) or “persistent cookies” (cookies that last until you or your browser delete them). 

We also automatically collect Usage Information and other technical information about how you use and navigate our Website, apps or other online services, such as your IP address, equipment you use to access online services (such as a browser or mobile device), time of your use, what features are used, how long you spend on our online services and other “clickstream” information.  Information we collect automatically about you may be combined with other information we collect about you from other sources.

If you are concerned about the use of Automatic Data Collection Tools, you may be able to direct your browser to reject cookies or to notify you and seek approval whenever a cookie is being sent. You may also delete a cookie manually through your browser or other programs. If you are using a mobile or wireless device to access our Website, your mobile or wireless carrier may use cookies or unique identifier headers to transmit certain information about you to third parties. Contact your mobile or wireless carrier to change or opt out of such setting if possible. Note that some parts of our Website may not function properly or may not be available to you if you refuse to accept a cookie or choose to disable the acceptance of cookies.

Online behavioral advertising is automated, customized advertising that you see when using online services, like ads in mobile Apps or on websites. Those ads are served to you based on inferences about your interests.  Those interests are determined from data collected about you, whether by us or other parties. In addition, some content, or applications, including advertisements, on the Website are served by third parties, including advertisers, ad networks and servers, content providers, and application providers. These third parties may use cookies to collect information about you when you use our Website. The information they collect may be associated with your personal information or they may collect information, including Personal Information, about your online activities over time and across different websites and other online services and they may use this information to provide you with interest-based (behavioral) advertising or other targeted content. 

We do not control these third parties' tracking technologies or how they may be used, and we do not control third parties' collection or use of your information to serve interest-based advertising. If you have any questions about an advertisement or other targeted content, you should contact the responsible provider directly. If you do not wish to participate in interest-based advertising via third party advertising networks or to opt out of the use of certain tracking technologies, click here and follow the simple opt-out process.

Certain browsers may offer you the option of providing notice to websites that you do not wish for your online activities to be tracked for preference-based advertising purposes (referred to as “Do Not Track Signals” or “DNT Notice”). Unfortunately, given the lack of standardization among browsers and interest-based advertising technology, DNT Notices may not effectively accomplish this goal. For this and a variety of other reasons, with respect to our Website, we do not take any particular action based on browser based DNT Notices.

How We Use Your Information  

We process the Personal Information for a variety of business and commercial purposes, including to provide you with our services, to manage and support our business functions, to communicate with you, for security and fraud prevention, and to comply with the law. Specifically, we may use your information for the following business purposes: 

• To provide and personalize or services such as fulfilling your requests for products or services and to service your account. This may include enrolling you as a customer, providing access to and managing your account, determining your eligibility to receive certain services including obtaining credit approval, providing customer service, and enhancing your customer experience, and billing and collections;
• To communicate with you or your authorized representative, including responding to your requests and questions, notifying you about changes that may affect your products and services, and sharing valuable information or alerts;
• For operational purposes (including but not limited to  product and service development and delivery; managing our communications; marketing and advertising, including providing personalized ads and web content and conducting market research,  and determining the effectiveness of our sales, marketing and advertising efforts; analyzing and enhancing our products, services, Website and apps; ensuring the security of our networks and information systems; providing technical support; performing accounting, auditing, invoicing, reconciliation and collection activities; payment processing; data processing and management;  improving and maintaining the quality of our customer service; and evaluating or conducting a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of our assets);
• To personalize our service offerings and Website and inform you of our products and services, in some cases, other than those that you have specifically requested, including targeted offers and ads through our Website, third-party sites, and via email or text message (with your consent or as permitted by law);
• To comply with legal or regulatory requirements or with legal process including subpoenas, court orders or search warrants, and as otherwise authorized or required by law;
• To monitor and record any communications we have with you, including phone conversations (in compliance with applicable laws), chat sessions, and emails to ensure we are providing you with quality service and meeting our regulatory and legal responsibilities;
• To investigate or prevent illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person or violations of the terms and conditions of using our Website or our products and services;
• To enable your participation in programs, promotions, sweepstakes, contests, games, special events, blogs, and chats if you choose to participate;
• To update or correct our records by combining information we collected directly from you with information received from other sources (e.g., publicly available databases);
• In connection with a job application or inquiry for employment consideration; and
• To conduct data analytics.

We will not collect additional categories of Personal Information, use, or share the information we collected for materially different, unrelated, or incompatible purposes without providing a form of notice and obtaining your express consent where required by law or regulation. 

Disclosure and Sharing of Your Information

We do not sell or rent your Personal Information, as those terms are traditionally understood, but we may share or disclose Personal Information as disclosed in this Notice with our affiliates and subsidiaries, service providers who act on our behalf, our business partners,  other third parties pursuant to legal purposes, or to others at your direction. For any purpose not specified in this Notice, we will provide specific notice or ask for your consent before we share your Personal Information. For more information about the controls you have and to opt out of the sharing your information, see Your Privacy Rights and Choices.

We may disclose Personal Information with the following categories of third parties or in the following ways:

Sharing Information with our Affiliates 

We may disclose or share your Personal Information with our affiliates and subsidiaries for purposes described in this Notice, including marketing products or services that may be of interest to you. When required by law or regulation, we will provide you with specific notice or ask for your consent before we share your information with our affiliates. You can learn more about our affiliates by going to www.nrg.com.

Sharing Information with Service Providers

We may share your information with our contractors and vendors (collectively, “service providers”) who use that information to provide or improve our products or services provided, including marketing on our behalf. These service providers are prohibited from using your information for any purpose other than to perform those services, and we contractually require them to protect the confidentiality and security of any data they receive from us consistent with this Notice.

Sharing Information with Business Partners

With your consent, we may share your information with our business partners so that they may market certain products or services to you, including companies that operate cookies and other advertising and marketing partners. For more information about the controls you have and to opt out of sharing your information, see Your Privacy Rights and Choices.

Sharing Information in Connection with a Corporate Transaction

Personal information may be shared with a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of Direct Energy’s assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which your information held by Direct Energy about our Website users and our customers is among the assets transferred.

Sharing Information with Law Enforcement, Regulators or Other Parties for Legal Reasons

Personal Information may be disclosed to third parties to:

• Comply with court orders, subpoenas, lawful discovery requests and as otherwise authorized or required by law or regulation; 
• Detect and prevent fraud or other illegal or unauthorized activities;
• Ensure proper operation and security of technology;
• Notify or provide information (including location information) to a governmental entity in emergency circumstances; and/or
• Enforce our legal rights, protect our property, or defend against legal claims or lawsuits.

We may also use and disclose deidentified or aggregated information about our customers and Website users, as information that does not (and cannot reasonably be used to) identify any individual, without restriction, for any lawful purpose.

Your Privacy Rights and Choices

Your Privacy Rights

Depending on your state of residency and applicable privacy laws, you may be entitled to a variety of legal rights regarding the collection and processing of your Personal Information. These rights vary depending on your state of residency, but may include: 

• Right to Know: You may have the right to request information about the Personal Information we have collected about you, the purpose of our collection, and the source of the data. You may also have the right to know with whom we have shared your Personal Information, for what purpose, and what Personal Information has been shared. If you are a California resident, you may be entitled to request information about our disclosures to third parties for their direct marketing purposes, which may include the categories of Personal Information shared and the names of the third parties with which we shared Personal Information.
• Right to Access: You may have the right to request information about how we process your Personal Information and to obtain a copy of that Personal Information.
• Right to Opt-Out: You may have the right to opt-out of the processing of your Personal Information for the purposes of targeted advertising, profiling, and the sale or sharing of your Personal Information.  Subject to certain exemptions, you may have the right to restrict or limit our use and disclosure of sensitive Personal Information. For purposes of this Notice, we do not sell Personal Information as that term is defined under law.
• Right to Portability: You may have the right to receive your Personal Information, in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format and to have that information transmitted to another organization in certain circumstances.
• Right to Correction: You may have the right to request the modification or correction of any errors in the Personal Information that we have collected from you. Please note that we may not accommodate a request to change Personal Information if we believe that doing so would violate any law, legal requirement, or rights of another person, or cause the information to be incorrect.
• Right to Deletion: Subject to certain exemptions, you may have the right to request the deletion of your Personal Information that we have collected. Please understand that we may not be able to delete your Personal Information except by also deleting your account, which may require cancellation of products or services that we provide to you.
• Right to Withdraw Consent: When processing of Personal Information is based on consent, you may have the right to withdraw your consent to such processing.
• Right to Be Free from Discrimination: You may have the right to not be discriminated against by us (e.g., by providing you with different prices or services) for exercising your consumer privacy rights. 

Exercising Your Privacy Rights

Submitting Privacy Requests

A. Non-Texas Residents

To exercise the applicable privacy rights stated above, you may contact us by emailing us at csdirectenergy@directenergy.com or by visiting your online customer account.

B. Texas Residents

To access or correct your information, you may email us at deonlinehelptx@directenergy.com or by visiting your online customer account. You may also submit a request online here. 

Please understand that we may not be able to delete your Personal Information except by also deleting your account, which may require cancellation of products or services that we provide to you. In addition, we may not accommodate a request to change Personal Information if we believe that doing so would violate any law, legal requirement or rights of another person, or cause the information to be incorrect. We may also decline to process requests that are frivolous or unreasonably repetitive or burdensome, impact the rights or privacy of others, or are extremely impractical. Lastly, we may charge you a reasonable fee in instances that require a disproportionate effort, but we will advise you of any fee in advance.

Authorizing an Agent

To use an authorized agent to submit a privacy request on your behalf, your authorized agent may submit a request via email to deonlinehelptx@directenergy.com. Your authorized agent must provide written authorization from you indicating your permission to submit the request on your behalf. 

Verification

Upon receiving a privacy rights request from you or your authorized agent, we will verify the request by matching the information provided in the request to the Personal Information we currently have.

Appeals

Under applicable state law, if we decide to decline your privacy request, you may have the right to appeal our decision by submitting your appeal by emailing us at csdirectenergy@directenergy.com.

Marketing and Communication Preferences

Sharing Your Information for Marketing or Advertising

To exercise your right to opt of the sharing or your Personal Information  with affiliates or third parties for advertising, marketing, or analytics purposes, you can email us at csdirectenergy@directenergy.com for Non-Texas residents or deonlinehelptx@directenergy.com for Texas residents, or by visiting your online customer account (Texas/Non-Texas).

Communication Choices

To manage your communications preferences—including how we contact you and whether you want to receive marketing communications from—please use one or more of the methods laid out below. When making changes to your communication preferences, please allow sufficient time for those preferences to be processed. Note that even if you opt-out of receiving marketing communications, we may still contact you with service- and account-related information or other non-marketing communications.

• Email: You can opt-out of receiving marketing emails by following the unsubscribe links or instructions included in the email.
• Text messages: You can opt-out of receiving text messages from us at any time by texting “STOP" to any message. 
• Mobile applications: You may opt-out of receiving notifications through our mobile applications by either selecting the option to “not allow” on the notification prompt or disabling them through the Settings function on your mobile device.
• Telemarketing: Ask to be removed from our consumer telemarketing lists by contacting us at 1-888-549-0173, or by sending an e-mail to deonlinehelptx@directenergy.com for Texas residents or csdirectenergy@directenergy.com for Non-Texas residents. You also can ask the Direct Energy representative to remove you from our telemarketing lists when you receive a marketing or promotional call from us. In addition, the National Do Not Call Registry gives you a choice about whether to receive telemarketing calls at home. For more information, go to donotcall.gov. Some states in the United States may also maintain their own Do Not Call Registry. Putting your number on these registries may limit telemarketing calls that you receive.
• For the state of Texas, the Public Utility Commission of Texas (“PUCT”) has established two do-not-call lists. You can indicate to the PUC that you do not wish to receive telephone solicitations from providers of electric service regarding your choice of service provider by placing your name, address, and telephone number on the electric do-not-call list. You can indicate that you prefer not to receive any telephone solicitations by placing your name, address, and telephone number on the statewide do-not-call list. For more information or to register your name, address, and telephone number on the do-not-call lists you may use one of three different methods.

Online – https://www.texasnocall.com

By phone – call toll-free 888-309-0600

By mail – write to Texas No Call, 100 Summer Street Suite 800, Boston, MA 02110, or find a printable registration form at https://www.texasnocall.com

How We Protect Your Information 

Data Security

Protecting your information is a top priority, and we have implemented physical, administrative, and technical safeguards and security measures we consider reasonable and appropriate to protect against the loss, misuse, and alteration of Personal Information under our control. However, the internet and electronic communications always involve risks to Personal Information. Safeguards cannot prevent all loss, misuse, or alteration of Personal Information, and we cannot guarantee the security of information we hold. In the event your information is compromised, we will notify you in the most expedient time reasonable under the circumstances and where required under law. We also review our security procedures periodically to consider appropriate new technology and updated methods to safeguard your information and our systems.

Data Storage, Retention and Disposal

The information we collect may be processed and stored in the United States or in other countries where we or our affiliates or service providers process our data. We take steps to ensure that data is processed according to this Notice and to ensure adequate protections of Personal Information in accordance with applicable law.

We will retain, use, and store your Personal Information as necessary to provide products and services to you; to comply with our business requirements and objectives, and legal and regulatory obligations; to mitigate and resolve disputes; and to enforce our agreements. We do not commit to any obligation to retain your data for any particular length of time and anticipate retaining your Personal Information for as long as it is required by law or regulation or is useful, as permitted under applicable law. If these purposes no longer apply, we will destroy, deidentify, or anonymize the information in accordance with our internal policies and applicable law.

International Users

Our products and services are intended only for individuals in the United States. If you are located outside of the United States and choose to use our products and services, you do so at your own risk. You understand that the information we collect about you will be transferred to the United States and other countries where we or our service providers and business partners are located. Please be aware that the laws in the United States may not be as protective as the laws in your country.

Other Privacy Information

Minors

Our Website is not intended for minors (the age of which is defined by jurisdiction). We do not knowingly collect Personal Information from minors. If you are a minor, do not use or provide any information on this Website or on or through any of its features. If we learn that we have collected or received Personal Information from a minor without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information.

Complaints and Contact Information

Direct Energy is committed to working with consumers to obtain a fair and rapid resolution of any complaints or disputes about privacy. Please send us your questions or comments regarding our privacy practices either by sending an email to deonlinehelptx@directenergy.com for Texas residents or csdirectenergy@directenergy.com for Non-Texas residents or by writing a letter to:

Direct Energy
c/o Compliance Department
910 Louisiana Street
Houston, TX 77002

We will be happy to respond to your questions and comments.

Links to Other Sites

Our Website and mobile applications may contain links to other sites. Direct Energy is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such web sites. We recommend you carefully read the privacy policies of each site you visit.

Notice Changes

We reserve the right to make changes to this Notice from time to time without prior notice. If we modify this Notice, we will update the “Last modified” date at the top of this Notice. Your continued use of this Website or our products and services following that “Last modified” date constitutes your acknowledgment of and consent to those modifications.