PRIVACY POLICY FOR BETA PILOT PROGRAM

PRIVACY POLICY FOR PILOT PROGRAM

Last Modified: 2/21/22

  1.  INTRODUCTION
    1. Application of this Privacy Policy. We are committed to protecting your privacy. This privacy policy describes the types of information that Treau, Inc., DBA Gradient (“Gradient”, “us”, “we and “our”) may obtain in connection with your participation in the Gradient unit user test program (“Pilot Program”) that will last approximately twelve months, beginning in March 2022 and ending in Winter 2023 or such other period determined by Gradient and will involve: Gradient installing test versions of its electric heat pump equipped with electric load and unit performance sensors (“HVAC Unit”) in your home, your use of the HVAC Unit and your installation and use of the Gradient mobile application (“App”) in conjunction with your use of the HVAC Unit and Gradient’s collection of data relating to energy efficiency of the HVAC Unit and conduct of market research about your needs relevant to HVAC products.   This privacy policy also describes how we use that information, how we disclose it, how you can get access to that information, and the choices you have regarding our use of, and your ability to review and correct, that information. 
    2. Why this Privacy Policy is Important. By participating in the Pilot Program, using the HVAC Unit or App, providing data or information to Gradient in connection with the Pilot Program, you are accepting and consenting to our collection, use and disclosure of your information as described in this privacy policy and Gradient’s End User License Agreement https://www.gradientcomfort.com/EULA-001-B (“EULA”), all of which may be updated from time to time. If anything in this privacy policy or Gradient’s EULA is unacceptable to you, please do not participate or engage in the Pilot Program, or provide any information to Gradient, and immediately notify Gradient using the contact details below. 
  2. INFORMATION WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU 

We may collect the following information about you:

  1. Personal Information. information by which you may be personally identified, such as your name, mailing and email address, telephone number, username, password, age and birthdate that you provide to us or any other information defined as personally identifiable information or personal data under any applicable law;
  2. HVAC Unit and App Usage Information.  information collected from the HVAC Unit, such as sensor data including flow rate, pressure, temperature, power consumption, ambient temperature and humidity, and the App, such as adjustment of fan speed, temperature settings, schedules, number of times App is opened, duration of time spent in App, mobile device location information, mobile device information, mobile device model and mobile device operating system version;
  3. Market Research Information.  all other information you provide via surveys, in-person or remote interviews, user feedback groups, focus groups, social media and other feedback mechanisms in connection with the Pilot Program, such as cellular service provider and plan details and electric and gas utility information (which may include your name, street address, meter number and account number); 
  4. Feedback. suggestions, endorsements and other feedback you provide in connection with the Pilot Program, including feedback on our proposed financial models; and
  5. Personal Images and Stories. photos of you and your home in which Gradient will be installing the HVAC Unit and personal story details, that you provide us or allow us to take or record, for our marketing purposes if you separately and expressly consent to our usage of such photos and details; 
  6. Qualitative Data. qualitative data you provide on your user experience with the HVAC Unit, such as pertaining to aesthetics, noise, performance, comparison to other units and home heating appliances and qualitative feedback pertaining to the App; 
  7. COVID-19 Assertion.  information you provide us regarding the safety of entering your home after you complete the COVID-19 self-screening required by Gradient; and 
  8. Requested Information. other information we specifically request in connection with the Pilot Program, which may include information to determine whether you are eligible to participate in the Pilot Program, languages read/understood/spoken, income, whether your home is rented/owned, number of people in household, ages of people in household, hours of day that users are home now and in the past, number of years at current residence, if your cell phone was purchased within the last three years, physical properties of your home and test room, images of the HVAC Unit installed in your window, your past history of appliance purchases and use, your electric and gas utility information and aggregate regional utility usage information.
  1. HOW WE COLLECT THIS INFORMATION 

We may collect the above information in the following ways:

  1. You Provide It to Us. directly from you when you provide it to us, such as when you enroll in the Pilot Program, when you participate in our screener surveys, or in-person or phone interviews, when you provide us a tour of your home and when you provide it via Gradient’s website or URLs provided to you or the App as part of the Pilot Program.  Such information will always relate to the Pilot Program but can be provided by you before or during the Pilot Program, including after the HVAC Unit has been uninstalled from your home.  
  2. Others in your Household. from others in your household who have provided this information to us; 
  3. Automated Collection. through automated means as you use the HVAC Unit and App, such as through the HVAC Unit’s internal sensor and through cookies, web beacons, pixel tags and other tracking technologies on such internal sensor and App; 
  4. Third Party Data Loggers.  from third party data loggers, such as HOBO devices for energy and environmental data logging; and
  5. Third Parties.  from other third parties, such as Google (through our use of Google Analytics).
  1. HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

We may use the information in the following ways:

  1. To Conduct the Pilot Program. to conduct and execute the Pilot Program (including to evaluate whether you qualify for the Pilot Program, to determine whether your home is safe to enter based on the COVID-19 Assertion you or others in your household have provided to us and to schedule a time to install, uninstall, provide maintenance on and monitor the HVAC Unit, and contact you for periodic surveys and interviews); 
  2. To Provide Relevant Information. to communicate with you and contact you with certain information that could be relevant to your eligibility to participate in the Pilot Program or to your use of the HVAC Unit and App, including through notifications via email and telephone;
  3. To Provide HVAC Unit and App Support. to provide technical and other support relating to the HVAC Unit and App and to provide you with any other assistance relating to the HVAC Unit and App; 
  4. HVAC Unit, App and Other Products. to evaluate and improve the energy efficiency of the HVAC Unit, evaluate, develop, design and improve other Gradient products and services (whether existing now or in the future) and for research and development to make energy efficient appliances more broadly available; 
  5. To Create Aggregated Information. to create de-identified or aggregated information that cannot be used to personally identify you (“Aggregated Information”).  Such Aggregated Information may be used by us for any purpose, including to perform data analysis, comply with any legal or contractual obligations we may be subject to, such as reporting research results to third parties that have provided us with grants and other grant collaborators to conduct the research study, to provide you with hardware settings that may improve thermal comfort while still saving energy and for advertising and marketing purposes; 
  6. To Enforce Our Rights.  to enforce this privacy policy, the EULA and any other rights or remedies that we may have under contract or law; 
  7. By Your Consent. for any purpose where you have given your consent (where legally required); 
  8. To Comply with Legal Obligations. to comply with applicable federal, state, and other laws and regulations and any judicial proceeding, court order or legal process served on us and our other legal and contractual obligations;
  9. In Connection with Our Businesses. to facilitate the financing, securitization, insuring, sale, assignment, bankruptcy, or disposal of all or part of our business; 
  10. Marketing Strategy. to understand the value of our product to customers and potential customers and to market those features to customers and potential customers in the future; and
  11. To Combine Information. to associate and combine your information with other information that we have about you, including information that we have collected or received from third parties, so we can use the associated or combined information for the purposes described above. 
  1. DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION

We may disclose your information to: 

  1. Authorized Individuals. anyone authorized under this privacy policy or under any other consent or authorization that you may provide; 
  2. Service Providers.  our service providers and subcontractors, such as third parties who may install, uninstall, monitor or support the HVAC Unit installed in your home and who may help Gradient to improve the HVAC Unit and App, third party data analytics and measurement providers (such as Google Analytics), but in all cases solely for the purpose of fulfilling their services and obligations to us;
  3. Electric Power Research Institute, Inc.. Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. (“EPRI”), to whom we will disclose Aggregated Information in aggregated anonymized form for scientific research benefiting the interest of the public. EPRI is not a sub-processor of data for this research project.  EPRI may also disclose such Aggregated Information, subject to confidentiality restrictions, to California Strategic Growth Council (CA SGC), its research funder as part of its obligations to California Strategic Growth Council.  For more information about EPRI, go to https://www.epri.com/.  For EPRI’s privacy policy, go to https://www.epri.com/privacy-statement. For more information about CA SGC, go to https://sgc.ca.gov/.  
  4. GLYNT.AI.  GLYNT.AI (“GLYNT”), to whom we will disclose all data collected.  GLYNT may also disclose Aggregated Information to third parties in connection with its efforts to develop a financial model for making high efficiency appliances accessible to low-income and disadvantaged communities and homes.  GLYNT’s use and disclosure of such Aggregated Information will be in accordance with its privacy policy, found at https://glynt.ai/privacy-policy/.
  5. Third Parties in Connection with Legal Requirements or Rights. third parties if we are under a duty to disclose your information to them in order to comply with applicable federal, state, and other laws and regulations, judicial proceedings, court orders or legal processes served on us or other legal or contractual obligations applicable to Gradient , to enforce this privacy policy or our EULA or other agreements, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of our customers, participants or others; 
  6. Forum Information. any information that you disclose in a community forum or website in connection with the Pilot Program is always public and will be accessible and useable by anyone for any purpose; and 
  7. Third Parties in Connection with Our Business. to third parties in connection with a potential sale, merger, consolidation, change in control, transfer of substantial assets, reorganization or liquidation of all or part of our business.
  1. YOUR CHOICES ABOUT HOW WE USE AND DISCLOSE YOUR INFORMATION
    1. Do Not Track. We do not currently respond to “do not track” signals as we do not track our users across third party websites.
    2. Emails. If you do not wish to receive promotional or marketing emails from us, you can contact us at the address provided in Section XII to opt-out. You can also unsubscribe from promotional and marketing emails via the unsubscribe link included in each such promotional or marketing email. This opt-out will not apply to other types of emails you receive from us. 
  2. Accessing AND UPDATING your information

You can review and update certain information, by contacting us at the address provided in Section XII. We may not accommodate a request to change information if we believe the change would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect. We may not be able to delete certain information unless we delete your entire account with us. If we delete your information, others we have provided such information to under Section V may still retain such information. 

  1. THIRD PARTY WEBSITES

The App may contain links or references to other websites outside of our control. Please be aware that this privacy policy does not apply to these websites. These third party websites may send their own cookies and other tracking devices to you, log your IP address, and otherwise collect data or solicit information. WE DO NOT CONTROL AND ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT THIRD PARTIES DO IN CONNECTION WITH THEIR WEBSITES, OR HOW THEY HANDLE YOUR INFORMATION. PLEASE EXERCISE CAUTION AND CONSULT THE PRIVACY POLICIES POSTED ON EACH THIRD PARTY WEBSITE FOR FURTHER INFORMATION.

  1. PRIVACY RIGHTS FOR CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS
    1. This section applies solely to eligible residents of California, and any terms not defined in this section have the same meanings as defined in the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”). If you are an eligible California resident, the CCPA provides you with specific rights with respect to our collection and use of your Personal Information over the past 12 months.
    2. Right to Know.  Upon submission of a verifiable consumer request for the Personal Information that we have collected about you, subject to certain exceptions under applicable law, we will disclose to you:
      1. The categories of Personal Information we collected about you;
      2. The categories of sources from which Personal Information was collected;
      3. The business or commercial purpose for collecting your Personal Information;
      4. The business or commercial purpose for disclosing your Personal Information;
      5. The categories of third parties with whom we disclosed the category of personal information for a business purpose; and
      6. The specific pieces of Personal Information we have collected about you.
    3. Right to Request Deletion.  If you are an eligible California resident, you also have the right to request that we delete any of your Personal Information that we collect or maintain about you, subject to certain exceptions. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable consumer request to delete your Personal Information, we will conduct a reasonable search of our records in order to locate any Personal Information we have collected about you that is eligible for deletion, and delete such Personal Information. To the extent we have shared any Personal Information collected about you with other third parties that is eligible for deletion, we will direct those third parties to delete that Personal Information as well. We may not be able to comply entirely with your request to delete all of your Personal Information, as set forth under the CCPA. Specifically, we are not required to delete any Personal Information we have collected about you that is necessary for us to:
      1. Complete the transaction for which the Personal Information was collected, provide a good or service requested by you, or reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing business relationship with you, or otherwise perform a contract between us and you;
      2. Detect security incidents; protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity; or prosecute those responsible for that activity;
      3. Debug to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality;
      4. Exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise his or her right of free speech, or exercise another right provided for by law;
      5. Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act pursuant to Chapter 3.6 (commencing with Section 1546) of Title 12 of Part 2 of the Penal Code;
      6. Engage in public or peer-reviewed scientific, historical, or statistical research in the public interest that adheres to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws, when our deletion of the information is likely to render impossible or seriously impair the achievement of such research, if you have provided informed consent;
      7. Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with your expectations based on your relationship with us;
      8. Comply with a legal obligation, such as retaining records for a period of time as set out in local, state, or federal laws;
      9. Otherwise use your Personal Information, internally, in a lawful manner that is compatible with the context in which you provided your information.

Following a deletion request, any Personal Information about you that was not deleted from our systems due to the above exceptions will only be used for the purposes provided for by the applicable exceptions.

  1. Right to Non-Discrimination for Exercising your Privacy Rights. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your privacy rights. In particular, we will not (if applicable): (i) deny you goods or services; (ii) charge you different prices or rates for goods or services, including through granting discounts or other benefits, or imposing penalties; (iii) provide you a different level or quality of goods or services; or (iv) suggest that you may receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services.
  2. Exercising your California Privacy Rights. You do not need to create an account with us to exercise your CCPA rights. To exercise the CCPA rights described above, please submit a verifiable consumer request to us by:
    1. Contacting us by email: dataprivacy@gradientcomfort.com 
    2. By Phone: 1-877-341-4233
    3. By Mail:

Treau, Inc.

ATTN: SGC Data Privacy

375 Alabama St.

Ste 220

San Francisco, CA 94110


Only you, the person to whom you have given power of attorney, or an otherwise authorized agent registered with the California Secretary of State may make a verifiable consumer request related to your Personal Information. However, you may make a verifiable consumer request on behalf of your minor child. Additionally, you may only make a verifiable consumer request for access twice within a 12-month period.

Your verifiable consumer request must provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify that you are the person about whom we collected Personal Information or an authorized representative. We cannot respond to your request or provide you with Personal Information if we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm the Personal Information relates to you. While we may ask for Personal Information to verify the requestor or consumer's identity when making a request, we will only use that Personal Information provided in a verifiable consumer request to verify the requestor's identity and authority to make the request. 

  1. Response Timing and Format.  We will make our best effort to respond to a verifiable consumer request within 45 calendar days of its receipt. If we require more time (up to 90 calendar days), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing. Within 10 business days of receiving the request, we will confirm receipt and provide information about our verification and processing of the request. We will maintain records of consumer requests made pursuant to CCPA as well as our response to said requests for a period of at least 24 months. 

If you have an account with us, we may require you to take delivery of our written response through that account. If you do not have an account with us, we will deliver our written response electronically, though you may alternatively choose to receive delivery by mail. The response will also explain the reasons we cannot comply with a request, if applicable. The requested specific pieces of information that we have collected about you will be sent in a portable, readily useable format that you may transmit to another entity without hindrance.

We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your verifiable consumer request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request.

  1. INDIVIDUALS UNDER THE AGE OF 18

You agree to this privacy policy on behalf of your entire household, including any household members under the age of eighteen (18).  Individuals between the age of thirteen (13) and eighteen (18) may only participate in the Pilot Program under the supervision of a parent or legal guardian.  The Pilot Program is not intended for individuals under the thirteen (13) years of age to be participants, and we do not knowingly collect or use any personal information from such individuals. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from an individual under the age of thirteen (13), we may delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from or about an individual under the age of thirteen (13) , please contact us at the address provided in Section XII. 

  1. REVISIONS TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

We may change this privacy policy at any time. It is our policy to post any changes we make to our privacy policy on this page. The date this privacy policy was last modified is identified at the top of the page. You are responsible for ensuring we have an up-to-date, active and valid email address for you, and for monitoring and reviewing any updates to the privacy policy. Should any substantial changes in the way we use your personal information be made, we will notify you by posting on Gradient’s website and/or by sending our known users an email notification.  We otherwise advise you to read our privacy policy every time you visit our website or mobile application to stay abreast of any updates. Your continued participation in the Pilot Program, including use of the HVAC Unit and App, after such changes are made to the privacy policy will be deemed your acknowledgement of and agreement to those changes.

  1. CONTACT INFORMATION

If you have any questions or comments about this privacy policy or our privacy practices, please contact us at:

Treau, Inc.
ATTN: SGC Data Privacy
375 Alabama St.
Ste 220
San Francisco, CA 94110
dataprivacy@gradientcomfort.com 
1-877-341-4233