Privacy Notice
Last Updated: October 17, 2024
This Privacy Notice describes the privacy practices of Eastern Propane & Oil (referred to herein as “Eastern,” “we,” “us,” and “our”) with respect to personal information we collect from our customers and visitors (referred to herein as “you” or “your”), as well as the choices that are available to you with respect to your personal information. Please take the time to read this Privacy Notice.
This Privacy Notice applies to the personal information we collect whenever you interact with us, whether those interactions are when you visit the website eastern.com (our “Website”) or when you communicate with us via email, text message, our customer portal, or offline (e.g., when you visit one of our local offices or when you communicate with Eastern employees, agents, or representatives in person or via the phone or postal mail).
In this Privacy Notice, we refer to the services we provide both offline and online as “Services”. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, you may choose not to access or use our Website or our Services or to contact us to discuss your concerns.
We may revise this Privacy Notice periodically, and in such a case we will revise the date at the top of this Privacy Notice accordingly. Changes to this Privacy Notice are effective at the time they are published, and your continued use of our Services after publication will constitute acceptance of those changes. We encourage you to review this Privacy Notice from time to time. Additionally, this Privacy Notice may be supplemented or amended by other notices posted elsewhere, including on our Website, in our local offices, or in our published materials.
- Personal Information We Collect
The personal information we collect depends on how you interact with us, and may include the following:
Contact Information: We may collect your contact information, including identifiers such as your first and last name, physical address, billing address, email, and phone number(s).
Financial Information: We may collect the last four digits of your Social Security Number, your date of birth, credit score, and your financial account information.
Eastern Account Information: We may collect information on your historic product usage, delivery schedule, and payment history. We also collect personal information related to your Eastern account, including your email, password, customer number, and security question(s) to safeguard your account.
Device Information: We may collect information about your browser or device (e.g., name or type, version, settings, etc.), IP address, unique device identifiers (e.g., MAC address, mobile device identifiers, etc.), internet service provider, the name and version of your operating system, and referring and exit pages.
Usage Data: We may collect internet or other electronic network activity information about your interactions with our Website, digital advertisements, and emails, including the pages you visit, links or buttons you click, the search terms you enter, the date and time of your visit, and other similar interactions with our Website, emails, customer portal, or digital advertisements.
Location Data: We may learn information about your device’s location, including, for example, by inferring such location from your device’s IP address or other Device Information.
Communications Records: If you call, text, or email to contact our sales or customer service representatives (or other agents or representatives of Eastern), interact with our facility, district office, or showroom employees, or reach out to us via a social media platform, we may keep records of those conversations including any personal information you have provided to us in connection with such conversation.
Video recordings: We may use video cameras (i.e., CCTV) in, around, and outside of some of our local offices for purposes of fraud detection, theft prevention, and security.
Submitted Content: We collect any personal information you submit to us via the Website, customer portal, email, postal mail, in person, or otherwise, including, for example, personal information contained in your written feedback, service reviews, new customer engagement forms, responses to surveys, or other information, photos, or videos.
Inferences: We may draw inferences about any of the information above that may relate to your preferences, characteristics, or other matters.
- How We Collect Your Personal Information
We may collect the information described above from various sources, including directly from you, from third parties we partner with, and through cookies or other automated means.
Directly from You: We collect information directly from you, including when you visit our local offices and interact with our employees and representatives; interact with our employees and representatives outside of our designated offices, such as at your home or business; contact us with any questions or comments via email, phone, or postal mail; upload Submitted Content to our Website (or submit it via email, phone, or postal mail); create an account with Eastern; respond to a survey; select or update your email preferences; or fill out and submit any webforms via our Website or hard-copy forms via postal mail or in-person at our offices.
From Third Parties: Our third-party service providers, including financial services companies, credit card processing companies, HVAC subcontractors, and mailing services, may share personal information with us that they have collected from or about you.
Automatically from Your Device or Browser: Certain information (e.g., Device Information, Usage Data, and Location Data) is automatically collected from your device or browser when you visit our Website, open our emails, or interact with our digital advertisements.
Using Cookies: Eastern uses cookies (small files stored on your device or browser) and other similar technologies to automatically collect information when you visit our Website or interact with our emails or digital advertisements, including, for example, Device Information, Usage Data, and Location Data. Through the use of cookies and similar technologies, we may link information about your interactions with our Website, emails, or digital advertisements over time, for example, which pages you visit, which links or buttons you click, and how long you stay on each page.
We may also contract with third-party marketing or analytics companies. These third-party companies may use cookies or similar technologies to collect information about your interactions with our Website, emails and digital advertisements, and interactions with other websites, applications, and internet-connected services, and may use and share the information gathered to deliver ads more tailored to your interests (sometimes referred to as “targeted advertising”). We receive aggregate information from these third parties to understand our advertising effectiveness and to understand the operation, functionality, and use of the Website.
- How We Use Your Personal Information
How we use the personal information we collect depends on how you interact with us, and may include:
- Delivering Products and Services: Fulfilling your service orders and other requests, including, for example, processing payments, confirming or updating your service schedule, deliveries, and responding to your customer service inquiries.
Advertising and Marketing: Advertising and marketing our Services online, via email and direct mail, and using other communication channels, including through partnerships with social media platforms and internet search engines.
Understanding Our Customers: Analyzing your activity with us (including your visits to our local offices, interactions with our Website, communications with our employees, emails, digital advertisements, or other forms of communication). We may, from time to time, review your information and information of other customers to help us analyze trends, purchasing patterns and preferences, and demographics.
Personalization: Using your preferences and other collected information to personalize your service experience. We may use your service interests and purchase information to recommend Services or promotions that we believe you may be interested in and to personalize your experiences on our Website and in our emails, direct mailings, and digital advertisements.
Communications: Communicating with you, including responding to your requests and inquiries and asking for feedback through surveys, service reviews, or other messages.
Promotions: Running contests, sweepstakes, or other promotions.
Eastern Customer Accounts: Operating Eastern customer accounts, including by making certain Services available and scheduling future Services.
Security: Protecting Eastern, our partners, service providers, and our customers from fraud, security threats, and other illegal or harmful activity. We and our service providers may disclose specific individual information if we or they reasonably believe it is necessary to: (i) investigate any suspected misuse of the Website or Services or suspicious activities at our local offices; (ii) protect or defend the rights, property, and interests of Eastern, our employees, our customers, or the interests of our partners or service providers; or (iii) protect the personal safety of our employees, customers and visitors to our local offices, users of the Website, or the public.
Legal Obligations: Complying with legal and regulatory requirements and responding to requests from courts or other government bodies.
- How We Share Your Personal Information with Third Parties
We may share information with third parties for certain purposes. For example, we may share information with:
Service Providers and Business Partners: We may share personal information with the third-party service providers and other business partners that assist us with many aspects of our business, including, for example, managing the customer portal, handling payment services, and overseeing mailing services.
Eastern Successors: Your information may be transferred to another entity that succeeds to all or part of Eastern’s business in connection with a sale, reorganization, consolidation, or merger.
Other Third Parties: We will disclose information about you to other third parties at your direction or with your consent. We will also disclose information about you, including to government bodies or law enforcement agencies, when we believe it to be necessary for compliance with the law or to protect Eastern, our customers, our employees, or the public more generally.
- Your Privacy Choices and Your Rights
Certain states’ data protection laws provide their residents with rights regarding the business’ use of their personal information (sometimes referred to as “personal data”). Regardless of your state of residence, you can contact us at any time using the instructions set out below to request that we:
Confirm whether we are processing your personal information and provide access to such personal information (subject to certain exceptions and limitations);
Correct inaccuracies in your personal information (subject to certain exceptions and limitations);
Delete your personal information (subject to certain exceptions and limitations);
Provide you with a copy of your personal information in a portable, and to the extent feasible, readably usable format; and
Opt-out of the processing your data for purposes of targeted advertising, the sale of personal data, or profiling. To opt-out of your data being processed for purposes of targeted advertising, the sale of personal data, or profiling, please update your cookie preferences in our pop-up banner and/or your browser settings.
To exercise your privacy rights, please contact us at cs@eastern.com.
We will respond to you within forty-five days unless an extension is reasonably necessary. Furthermore, if you choose to exercise your privacy rights or make the above requests, Eastern will not treat you in a discriminatory way, nor will you receive a lesser degree of service from Eastern.
- Children
We do not knowingly or purposefully request or collect personal information from any person under the age of eighteen. If you believe that your child under the age of eighteen has submitted personal information to Eastern, please contact us at cs@eastern.com.
- Security
Although we use measures to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of information provided over the Internet or stored in our databases. Your transmissions are, therefore, at your own risk. You can help protect your information by selecting strong, unique passwords for your Eastern account and any associated email addresses.
- Retention
We will retain your personal information for the length of time needed to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Notice unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.
- Links to Other Websites; Social Media Platforms
Our Sites may, from time to time, contain links to websites owned and operated by third parties (“Third-Party Sites”). We encourage you to review the privacy policies of such Third-Party Sites so that you understand how those websites collect, use, and share your information. We are not responsible for the privacy policies or other content on Third-Party Sites.
Similarly, this Privacy Notice does not cover the privacy and security practices of social media platforms on which Eastern maintains its social media pages. Please review the terms, policies, and settings of those social media platforms if you have questions about how they collect, use, and share your information.
- Contact Us
Please email us at cs@eastern.com if you have any questions.