Energy Sparks Privacy and Cookie Policy

This privacy policy will explain how our organization uses the personal data we collect from you when you use our website.

What data do we collect?

Energy Sparks collects the following personal and non-personal data:

• Contact name(s) and email(s)
• Your language preference (English or Welsh)
• Organisation name and job title
• Mobile phone number(s), for users choosing to receive mobile phone alerts
• School name, address, URN, floor area, pupil number, website
• Meter MPRN or MPR number, meter serial numbers
• Gas and electricity consumption data on a half hourly basis
• Gas and electricity tariff information (optional)
• Information on your school’s solar panels, if relevant
• Energy saving activities, actions and classroom temperatures recorded by your school.

How do we collect your data?

We collect data and process data when you:

• Request more information about our services or arrange a demo
• Register as a user, or request to join Energy Sparks as a School, Multi-Academy Trust or Local Authority
• Update your school or user details via our website
• Sign-up to receive our newsletter

Energy Sparks may also receive your data from the following sources:

• Your school’s energy supplier
• Your energy meter data collector or aggregator
• Your Local Authority (if relevant)
• Your Multi-Academy Trust (if relevant)

User contributed content

Energy Sparks allows school users to post descriptions of their energy-saving activities and may choose to upload relevant photos.

As described in our terms and conditions, if this text refers to pupil's by name or the photos include individual pupils, it the responsibilty of users to ensure that the school has the necessary parental permission for that to be shared and made public for anyone to access.

We provide functionality for users to delete activity descriptions and any associated photos.

How will we use your data?

Energy Sparks collects your data so that we can:

• Provide you with the information or help requested
• Support you in joining the service
• Present you with English or Welsh content depending on our language preference
• Analyse and present your energy consumption data on our website, energysparks.uk
• Email or text you alerts highlighting changes in energy use, or long term energy consumption problems
• Email you our regular newsletter
• Support you with saving energy at your school

Energy usage data is published under an open licence to Energy Sparks. This includes both ongoing and historical data. Publishing the energy data under an open licence will allow it to be accessed, used and shared by anyone, including the Energy Sparks team.

Contact email addresses or mobile phone numbers are not publicly available on Energy Sparks. We will not share your personal information with or sell it to third-party marketers.

How do we store your data?

Energy Sparks securely stores your user and school data at Amazon Web Services data centres within the EU.

Energy Sparks will keep your data as long as your school is an Energy Sparks participant. Your school has the right to withdraw consent to your data being published to Energy Sparks at anytime. You can withdraw consent by emailing hello@energysparks.uk.

Our use of third party services

We use Mailchimp to manage our email newsletter subscriber lists and send newsletters to our users. Their use of your contact details is governed by their data processing agreement. You can opt out of our newsletter using the link provided in each email.

We use Mailgun to send email from our service, including weekly email alerts, user invitations and password reminders. Their use of your name and email address is governed by their data processing agreement

We use Twilio to send messages to users that have opted in to weekly alerts via SMS. Their use of your telephone number is governed by their data processing agreement

We use Google Workspace and specifically, Google Drive and Google Forms, to capture and store information essential to us running our organisation and supporting your use of our services. This includes information submitted via our enrolment forms, user surveys and research, contracts, etc. Their use of data is governed by their data processing agreement.

We use CapsuleCRM as a contact management service. This is used to hold your contact details and the text of emails you send to us in the course of using our services. Their use of data is governed by their data processing agreement.

We use Calendly to help us organise meetings with you. This includes your name, email and organisation name. Their use of data is governed by their data processing agreement.

We use EventBrite to organise and run our online events and workshops. This will involve collecting your name and contact details as a participant. Their use of this data is governed by their data processing agreement

We use Sprint Education Campus in our marketing communications. We do not share any personal data with Campus. You can opt out of our marketing emails using the link provided in each email.

We may occasionally work with marketing agencies to help promote or advertise our services. We do not share any personal data with those agencies.

We may occasionally use social media adverts to help promote or advertise our services. We do not share or collect any personal data as part of running those advertising campaigns.

We will not share your personal information with any other third-party unless we have your permission or the law requires us to.

What are your data protection rights?

Energy Sparks would like to make sure you are fully aware of all of your data protection rights. Every user is entitled to the following:

• The right to access - All Energy Sparks energy data is publicly available. School contact details can be viewed by asking your Energy Sparks School Admin to log into their account to check this information.
• The right to rectification - You have the right to request that Energy Sparks correct any information you believe is inaccurate. You also have the right to request Energy Sparks to complete information you believe is incomplete.
• The right to erasure - You have the right to request that Energy Sparks erase your ongoing and historical data from the Energy Sparks website and our records.
• The right to restrict processing - You have the right to request that Energy Sparks restrict the processing of your data, under certain conditions.
• The right to object to processing - You have the right to object to Energy Sparks's processing of your data, under certain conditions.
• The right to data portability - You have the right to request that Energy Sparks transfer the data that we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions.

If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you. If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us at hello@energysparks.uk

Our use of cookies

Cookies are small files saved on your phone, tablet or computer when you visit a website.

We use cookies to make Energy Sparks work and collect information about how you use our service.

For further information, visit allaboutcookies.org. Or view our Cookies page.

How do we use cookies?

Energy Sparks uses cookies in a range of ways to improve your experience on our website, including:

• Keeping you signed in
• Remembering your preferences
• Understanding how you use our website

What types of cookies do we use?

There are a number of different types of cookies, however, our website uses:

• Essential cookies - Energy Sparks uses these cookies so that we recognize you on our website, to keep you signed in and to remember your previously selected preferences. These could include settings for units in charts.
• Google analytics cookies - You may choose to opt in to allowing Energy Sparks to use Google Analytics cookies to collect further information about your visit to our website. This includes the content you viewed, the links you followed and information about your browser and device. We collect this information so we can understand which parts of our website are viewed most often, and improve our service to schools. Energy Sparks sometimes shares anonymised summaries of this data with our funders and their appointed evaluation partners, so they can better understand the impact of their investment in Energy Sparks.

How to manage cookies

You can opt in or out of Google Analytics cookies via our Cookies page.

You can also set your browser to refuse all cookies from our site. See allaboutcookies.org for more information. However, in a few cases, some of our website features may not function as a result.

Privacy policies of other websites

The Energy Sparks website contains links to other websites. Our privacy policy applies only to our website, so if you click on a link to another website, you should read their privacy policy.

Changes to our privacy policy

Energy Sparks keeps its privacy policy under regular review and places any updates on this web page. This privacy policy was last updated on 10th April 2024.

How to contact us

If you have any questions about Energy Sparks' privacy policy, the data we hold on you or your school, or you would like to exercise one of your data protection rights, please do not hesitate to contact us at hello@energysparks.uk

How to contact the appropriate authority

Should you wish to report a complaint or if you feel that Energy Sparks has not addressed your concerns in a satisfactory manner, you may contact the Information Commissioner's Office.

https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/ or 0303 123 1113.