We take your privacy very seriously. This Privacy Policy applies to all customers of My Solar Limited and any visitors to our website.
We collect, use and are responsible for certain personal data about you. When we do so we are subject to the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (EU GDPR) in relation to products and services we offer to individuals and our wider operations in the European Economic Area (EEA).
Please read this privacy policy carefully as it contains important information on who we are and how and why we collect, store, use and share your personal data. It also explains your rights in relation to your personal data and how to contact us or supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint.
01) Key Terms
| We, us, our | MY SOLAR LIMITED, a company incorporated in Ireland with registration number 651647and headquartered at 1-3 The Green, Malahide, Co. DUBLIN, K36VF22, Ireland; |
|---|---|
| Personal data | Any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual as defined under GDPR |
| Special category personal data | Personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs or trade union membership; Genetic and biometric data (when processed to uniquely identify an individual); Data concerning health, sex life or sexual orientation, as defined under GDPR |
| Data subject | The individual who the personal data relates to, as defined under GDPR |
02) Personal Data We Collect About You
We may collect and use the following personal data about you :
- Your name and contact information, including address, email address and telephone number
- Information about the suitability of your property for the installation of solar panels
- Information to check and verify your identity
- Your gender, if you choose to give this to us
- Your billing information
- Information about how you use our website, IT, communication and other systems
03) How Your Personal Data Is Collected
We collect most of this personal data directly from you either in person, by email, and via our Platform, website and related apps.
However, we may also collect information from other sources such as:
- Directly from you if/when you contract for our services
- From publicly accessible sources, e.g. Companies Registration Office, Property Registration Authority, Companies House
- From a third party with your consent, e.g. your bank or financial advisor
- From cookies on our website—for more information on our use of cookies, please see our cookie policy
- Via our IT systems e.g. through automated monitoring of our websites and other technical systems, such as our computer networks and connections, communications systems, email and instant messaging systems.
04) How and Why We Use Your Personal Data
Under data protection law, we can only use your personal data if we have a proper reason, e.g.:
- Where you have given consent
- To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
- For the performance of a contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract
- For our legitimate interests or those of a third party
A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests. We will carry out an assessment when relying on legitimate interests, to balance our interests against your own.
The table below explains what we may use your personal data for and why.
| What we may use your personal data for | Our reasons |
|---|---|
| Providing products and services to you | To perform our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract |
| Preventing and detecting fraud against you or us | For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to minimise fraud that could be damaging for you and/or us |
| Conducting checks to identify our customers and verify their identity and other activities necessary to comply with professional, legal and regulatory obligations that apply to our business | To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
| Gathering and providing information required by or relating to audits, enquiries or investigations by regulatory bodies | To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
| Ensuring business policies are adhered to, e.g. policies covering security and internet use | For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to make sure we are following our own internal procedures so we can deliver the best service to you |
| Operational reasons, such as improving efficiency, training and quality control | For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service to you at the best price |
| Statistical analysis to help us manage our business, e.g. in relation to our financial performance, customer base, product range or other efficiency measures | For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service to you at the best price |
| Preventing unauthorised access and modifications to systems | For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging for you and/or us To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
| Updating and enhancing customer records | To perform our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, e.g. making sure that we can keep in touch with our customers about existing orders and new products |
| Marketing our services and those of selected third parties to: —existing and former customers; —third parties who have previously expressed an interest in our services; —Candidates |
For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to promote our business and where you have given your consent as appropriate |
| Credit reference checks via external credit reference agencies | For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to ensure our customers are likely to be able to pay for our products and services |
| External audits and quality checks, e.g. for ISO or equivalent accreditation and the audit of our accounts | For our legitimate interests or a those of a third party, i.e. to maintain our accreditations so we can demonstrate we operate at the highest standards To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
05) Marketing
06) Who We Share Your Personal Data With
We routinely share personal data with:
- companies within our group
- third parties we use to help deliver our products and services to you, e.g. PV installers
- other third parties we use to help us run our business, e.g. marketing agencies or website hosts
- credit reference agencies
- our insurers and brokers
- our banks
We only allow our service providers to handle your personal data if we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect your personal data. We also impose contractual obligations on service providers to ensure they can only use your personal data to provide services to us and to you.
We may also need to:
- share personal data with external auditors, e.g. in relation to ISO accreditation and the audit of our accounts
- disclose and exchange information with law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
- share some personal data with other parties, such as potential buyers of some or all of our business or during a restructuring—usually, information will be anonymised but this may not always be possible, however, the recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations.
If you would like more information about who we share our data with and why, please contact us (see ‘How to contact us’ below).
07) Where Your Personal Data is Held
Personal data may be held at our offices and those of our group companies, third party agencies, service providers, our clients, and representatives as described above (see above: ‘Who we share your personal data with’).
Some of these third parties may be based outside the EEA. For more information, including on how we safeguard your personal data when this happens, see below: ‘Transferring your personal data out of the EEA’.
08) How Long Your Personal Data Will Be Kept
We will keep your personal data while you have an account with us or we are providing products and services to you.
Thereafter, we will keep your personal data for as long as is necessary:
- To respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you or on your behalf
- To show that we treated you fairly
- To keep records required by law
We will not keep your personal data for longer than necessary. Different retention periods apply for different types of personal data. When it is no longer necessary to keep your personal data, we will delete or anonymise it.
09) Transferring Your Personal Data out of the EEA
Under data protection law, we can only transfer your personal data to a country or international organisation outside the EEA where
- the European Commission or the UK government has decided the particular country or international organisation ensures an adequate level of protection of personal data (known as an ‘adequacy decision’);
- there are appropriate safeguards in place, together with enforceable rights and effective legal remedies for data subjects; or
- a specific exception applies under data protection law
These are explained below.
| Adequacy Decision |
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We may transfer your personal data to certain countries, on the basis of an adequacy decision. These currently include:
|
The list of countries that benefit from adequacy decisions will change from time to time. We will always seek to rely on an adequacy decision, where one exists. Other countries we are likely to transfer personal data to do not have the benefit of an adequacy decision. This does not necessarily mean they provide poor protection for personal data, but we must look at alternative grounds for transferring the personal data, such as ensuring appropriate safeguards are in place or relying on an exception, as explained below. |
| Transfers with Appropriate Safeguards |
Where there is no adequacy decision, we may transfer your personal data to another country if we are satisfied the transfer complies with data protection law, appropriate safeguards are in place, and enforceable rights and effective legal remedies are available for data subjects. The safeguards will usually include using legally-approved standard data protection contract clauses |
10) Your Rights
| Access | The right to be provided with a copy of your personal data |
|---|---|
| Rectification | The right to require us to correct any mistakes in your personal data |
| Erasure (also known as the right to be forgotten) | The right to require us to delete your personal data, in certain situations |
| Restriction of processing | The right to require us to restrict processing of your personal data in certain circumstances, e.g. if you contest the accuracy of the data |
| Data portability | The right to receive the personal data you provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and/or transmit that data to a third party, in certain situations |
| To object | The right to object:
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| Not to be subject to automated individual decision making | The right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (including profiling) that produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you |
For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, please contact us (see ‘How to contact us’ below).
If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please:
- Email or write to us—see below: ‘How to contact us’; and
- (provide enough information to identify yourself (e.g. your full name, address and customer or matter reference number) and any additional identity information we may reasonably request from you
- (let us know what right you want to exercise and the information to which your request relates.
11) Keeping your personal data secure
We have appropriate security measures to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed unlawfully. We limit access to your personal data to those who have a genuine business need to access it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.
12) How to complain
Please contact us if you have any query or concern about our use of your information (see below ‘How to contact us’). We hope we will be able to resolve any issues you may have.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Commissioner and they may be contacted at https://www.dataprotection.ie/en/individuals.