Privacy

Last Updated: March 22, 2017



Privacy has always been an important part of how we do business. We would like to make our policy concerning information collection and use absolutely clear. This notice explains our online information practices and the choices you can make about the way your information is collected and used.

Duke Energy Business Services LLC is the service company subsidiary of Duke Energy Corporation (Duke Energy Corporation and its subsidiaries is referred to herein, individually and collectively, as "Duke Energy", "we", "us" or "our"). This privacy policy describes how Duke Energy collects, uses, shares, and secures the personal information you provide. It also describes your choices regarding use, access, and correction of your personal information.

If you have questions or concerns regarding this policy, please communicate with us through Contact Us. 

If you have an unresolved privacy or data use concern that we have not addressed satisfactorily, please contact our U.S.-based third party dispute resolution provider (free of charge) at https://feedback-form.truste.com/watchdog/request.

The Information We Collect

We do not collect personal information about you through our websites or mobile website unless you voluntarily provide it. We may collect personal information when you create or modify your online account, respond to surveys, contact us via the web or mobile device, or complete any self-service transaction with us online. For example, if you choose to use online or mobile customer services, including account access, e-bill and product or service enrollment, you will be asked to provide personal information.

At any time, you may opt out of providing such personal information by simply not providing it or by discontinuing your use of our website or mobile website. (Please note: Even if you choose not to have an online account with us, we will still store some of your personal information in our billing system if you are our customer. If you choose not to provide this information, we may not be able to provide you with the requested service or complete your transaction.)

Personal information is information that identifies you specifically. Examples of information that you may provide to us while using our site, whether personal information, demographic information or other, include:

• Account number (if you are a current customer)
• Name
• Email address/es
• Mailing or service address
• Phone number
• Social Security number
• Date of birth
• Driver’s license number or government-issued ID number
• Information about your computer and browser
• Gender and ethnicity (if you inquire about programs applicable to minorities)
• To assist you with finding a nearby payment location, we may ask you to provide the location information of your mobile device. This information is transmitted to us in an encrypted format and is not stored by us for future use. Location services can be turned off within the settings of your mobile device.

You may be asked to submit additional personal or financial information such as identifying topics of interest, your title and function for business users, or account information in order to:

• use certain specific services offered in customer account transaction areas
• customize some areas within our site
• ask detailed questions or request information to meet your specific needs

Appended Information

During the Start Service process, Duke Energy supplements/appends the information you provide with additional data received from third-party sources. This supplemental information helps us to verify, update and correct the information our customers provide as well as helps us determine if a deposit will be needed in order to provide you with services.

Automatic Collection of Information

We receive and store certain types of information when you interact with our website, mobile website, emails and online advertising to monitor proper functionality, determine areas for continuous improvement and to support website analytics and marketing campaigns. We collect information such as the number of visits to our site and mobile website, mobile device identifier and operating system, the amount of time visitors spend on the site and mobile website, the number of pages viewed and the domains from which visitors visit the site. This information is gathered automatically and we store it in log files. 

Examples include internet protocol (IP) addresses or similar identifiers, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring websites, exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp and clickstream data, meaning the path you take to navigate through our webpages. 

To collect this information, we use tracking technologies like cookies and clear gifs (aka web beacons/web bugs). These technologies may be invisible to you, and we analyze the information collected only in the aggregate; it is not associated with any specific individuals. We use these tracking technologies at the point of collection of your personal information, not in emails that you receive from us. We also use a third-party tracking service that uses these technologies to track nonpersonal information about visitors to our site. This information is collected in the aggregate and is used to track usage and volume statistics. The use of cookies by our third-party tracking service is not covered by our privacy policy. We do not have access or control over these cookies.

These third-party technologies may also be used to collect nonpersonal information about your activities on this and other websites to provide you targeted advertising based upon your interests on this and other websites. These third-party technologies may use cookies or similar tracking technologies in order to provide you advertising based upon your browsing activities and interests. If you wish to not have this information used for the purpose of serving you targeted ads, you may opt out by clicking here. Please note that this does not opt you out of being served advertising. You will continue to receive generic ads.

We use "cookies" to recognize you as you use or return to our websites or mobile website. This is done so that we can provide a continuous and more personalized experience for you. A cookie is a small text file that a website or email may save to your browser and store on your hard drive. We use both session ID cookies and persistent cookies. We use session cookies to make it easier for you to navigate our shopping cart. A session ID cookie expires when you close your browser. A persistent cookie remains on your hard drive for an extended period of time. We set a persistent cookie to store your passwords, so you don’t have to enter it more than once. To remove persistent cookies, follow directions provided in the internet browser's "help" file.

If you reject cookies, you may still use our website or mobile website, but your ability to use some areas of our websites or mobile website, such as contests or surveys, will be limited.

How We Use the Information We Collect

We use your information to provide requested services and to support our business functions. For example, we may use your information to:

• Fulfill your requests for products and services and communicate with you about those requests
• Help you quickly find and/or receive information about Duke Energy or one of its affiliated companies
• Register and service your account
• Administer surveys
• Provide customer service
• Improve the content of our websites and mobile website for your reference
• Alert you to updated information and services
• Protect the security or integrity of our websites, mobile website and our business
• Answer your questions

We will retain your information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services, and as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes and enforce our agreements. If you wish to cancel your account or request that we no longer use your information to provide you services, please review the “Access” section below.

Information Sharing

Duke Energy does not sell, rent or lease your personal information, nor does Duke Energy share such information with third parties for the purpose of sending you advertisements for products or services unaffiliated with Duke Energy, its affiliates or business partners without your consent.

Absent your consent, Duke Energy may, however, share personal information you provide to us for legitimate business purposes, including, without limitation, the following:

• Transferring such information to Duke Energy’s affiliates and subsidiaries, unless such transfer is prohibited by law.
• Transferring such information as part of a merger, consolidation, acquisition, divestiture or other corporate restructuring (including bankruptcy). If such an activity occurs, we will provide notice as described below in "Changes to our Privacy Policy."
• Making such information available to third parties who are providing the product, service or information that you have requested (but never your password).
• Making such information available to third parties who are service providers to Duke Energy or its subsidiaries or affiliates, e.g., third parties performing computer-related services, credit card processing, email service providers, map service providers, employment services, sweepstakes administrators, credit reporting agencies, electronic bill payment services or debt collection purposes (in the event of account default) for Duke Energy or its affiliates (but never your password). These companies are authorized to use your personal information only as necessary to provide these services to us.
• We form a good faith belief that disclosure of such information is necessary to investigate, prevent or take action regarding any illegal activities or regarding interference with the operation of our site or violation of its terms of use.

We reserve the right to disclose any and all pertinent information about you in our possession if we are required to do so by federal or state law, subpoena or court order, or as we, in good faith, believe it is necessary or appropriate. In addition, in order to strengthen our network security, we may participate in partnership programs with public or private entities that involve the sharing of certain information collected automatically as described above.

If you choose to use our referral service to tell a friend about our site, we will ask you for your friend’s name and email address. We will automatically send your friend a one-time email inviting him or her to visit the site. We do not retain this information.

Widgets, such as the “Share” feature, support functions that require that you disclose certain personal information given your choice of participation. These features may collect your IP address and which page you are visiting on our site, and they may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Social media features and widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our site. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it.

We also post testimonials on our site from customers who have given approval to post their personal information along with their testimonial.

Aggregate Information

Duke Energy reserves the right to share any aggregate and statistical information (i.e., nonpersonal information) with any third parties for any reason, unless prohibited by law.

Consent

By providing personal information, you expressly consent to these privacy practices. We may also supplement your information with additional information we receive from a credit check performed when you apply for certain services.

Regulatory Requirements

Some state statutes, and certain state utility commissions with regulatory oversight of our Duke Energy utility service territories, require that certain customer information be protected from disclosure to our Duke Energy affiliate companies.

The statutes or applicable codes of conduct may be found here:

• North Carolina and South Carolina
• Ohio
• Kentucky
• Indiana
• Florida: Rule No. 25-6.014 and Rule No. 25-6.015

Communications from Us

You will receive email communications from us when you sign up for an account online, perform an online transaction (such as paying your bill, requesting a new password, etc.) or opt in to receive marketing emails from us. If you have opted to receive marketing emails, we may contact you via email about new products and services. To opt out of receiving these marketing emails, please log into your online account and edit your profile.  

In some instances, Duke Energy will co-brand with another company. Please be aware that the privacy policy referenced at the bottom of the webpage governs the collection of information on that page.

Information Protection

The privacy, security and integrity of your information are very important to us. Duke Energy uses industry-standard practices to protect your personal information from loss, misuse, alteration and destruction. Such measures include, but are not limited to, firewalls, intrusion monitoring and Secure Sockets Layers (SSL) to encrypt and protect certain sensitive transmissions of information. However, no security system is fail-safe, and Duke Energy cannot guarantee the information you provide will never be obtained by unauthorized persons. You should protect the confidentiality of your information such as your customer account number, email address and password.

Password Protection

Duke Energy will not intentionally disclose your password to a third party; however, you are also responsible for maintaining the privacy and security of your password. We strongly urge you to guard the confidentiality of your username and password. We advise you to not share your username and password with third-party services or use your Online Services password with any other website. Passwords are your first line of defense against unauthorized access to your account. If your password is compromised, your information can be misused. Please take precautions to guard your password. If you believe your password has been compromised in any way, please contact us immediately at one of the 1-800 numbers listed below. 

Children's Policy

We do not intend to collect any personal information from children through this website or mobile website. Please do not allow children under the age of 13 to provide any personal information in connection with this website or mobile website. If we determine that a child under 13 has provided personal information in violation of this policy, we will delete that information as soon as practical. If you become aware that such information has been provided by a child under 13, please send us an email so we can delete this information.

Access

If you wish to correct, delete or edit your information or email address online, please log into your account and access your online profile. To request removal of your personal information from our blog or community forum, contact us through one of the methods listed below. In some cases, we may not be able to remove your personal information, in which case we will let you know if we are unable to do so and why.

If you wish to obtain a copy of the personal information or email addresses that we have obtained from you through your use of this site or mobile website for any reason, including if you believe it is in error, please contact us using the information below:

How to Reach Us

	Duke Energy	Duke Energy Progress
General Correspondence Address Not for customer account inquiries or payments	550 S. Tryon Street Charlotte, NC 28202	P.O. Box 1771 Raleigh, NC 27602
Customer Service Email/Web	Contact Us	Contact Us
Customer Service Telephone	Carolinas - 800.777.9898 Florida - 800.700.8744 Indiana - 800.521.2232 Ohio and Kentucky - 800.544.6900	Carolinas - 800.452.2777

If you have questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy or believe we have not followed this Privacy Policy in any instance, please contact our business ethics officer by email at ethicsofficer@duke-energy.com.

Links to Non-Duke Energy Sites

For the convenience of our users, some pages of our website and mobile website offer you the ability to link to and view pages of websites not operated or controlled by Duke Energy (such as weather and financial information). Often, but not always, you can tell that you have linked to a non-Duke Energy website because a separate browser window will open. If you use such links, you will leave the Duke Energy website. Links by Duke Energy to such external websites do not imply endorsement by Duke Energy of that company, its site or its privacy policy, which may differ from Duke Energy’s practices. Duke Energy and its affiliates do not monitor or control the content or the privacy policies of the external sites, and they are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of linked external websites. When using a link to a non-Duke Energy website, we recommend that you investigate the privacy practices and policies of such external site. Any use of external links is at the sole discretion of the user.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

Duke Energy reserves the right to change this Privacy Policy and its email practices at any time. If we decide to make material changes to our policy regarding privacy and/or email practices, we will notify you here, on our mobile website home page and on our website home page prior to the changes taking effect, so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. When an update is made, the date at the top of this page changes to reflect the date new content was posted. You may want to visit this website and mobile website periodically to review the current Privacy Policy. Use of our website and mobile website after the posting of a revised privacy policy constitutes your agreement with the revised policy. This Privacy Policy is not intended to and does not create any contractual or legal rights in or on behalf of any party. Use of this website and mobile website after the posting of a revised Privacy Policy constitutes your acceptance of our privacy practices.