Privacy Statement
Version: June 7, 2011
Columbia Gas of Virginia, Inc.
Our mailing address is:
Communications and Community Relations
Columbia Gas of Virginia
1809 Coyote Drive
Chester, VA 23836
Customer Contact Center at 1-800-543-8911
Columbia Gas of Virginia (referred to as the “Company”, “we”, “our” or “us”) understands how important customer privacy is to you. We hope this statement will answer your questions about our information and privacy practices.
The Information We Collect About You
We collect and maintain certain information when providing service to you. The information may be gathered through a variety of means such as by telephone, through this Web site or the mail, etc. This information includes among other things, your name, service address, mailing address, account number, consumption history and telephone number.
In addition, we may collect and maintain information volunteered by you, such as survey information or Web site registrations that are necessary for online transactions, including job applications. While we may maintain energy-related educational content directed at children under the age of 13, our Web site does not knowingly collect or maintain personal information from children under the age of 13.
Your visit to this Web site: We collect information about usage of this Web site, such as the number of visitors to the Web site and the number of users that click on certain links or utilize certain services. We may collect information regarding your browsing of this Web site. We reserve the right to use industry standard software to create summary statistics of the usage data we collect, which may then be used to highlight what our visitors find interesting, to improve the Web site design specifications, to identify system performance issues and for other internal purposes. We may also collect information to, for example:
- help diagnose problems with our servers and to administer this Web site;
- organize the pages you have visited on this Web site;
- help us to recognize you if you visit multiple pages on this Web site during the same session, so that we don't need to ask you for your password on each page;
- display your e-mail address on our sign-in form, so that you don't need to re-type the e-mail address each time you log in to your account;
- provide you with a more individualized delivery of information and an optimal viewing experience on this Web site;
- to let us know whether you received and opened our e-mail; and
- to serve advertisements of interest to you after you have left this Web site.
In collecting the above information for these purposes, we reserve the right to store small items of data ("cookies") on your hard drive and/or use a range of industry standard technologies, which may include, without limitation, cookies, pixels, and beacons. Maintaining the confidentiality of our customers’ sensitive personal information is important to us. The Company takes steps to protect from public disclosure your social security and bank account numbers and other sensitive personal information. However, sensitive personal information may be shared with affiliates, agents, contractors, vendors and other organizations that assist us in the conduct of our business. We further reserve the right to disclose, without your consent, any communications or sensitive personal information, when requested to do so by courts, government agencies or by law enforcement authorities; or in connection with the possible sale or reorganization of all or a portion of our business; or when we believe that disclosure is reasonably necessary or appropriate to prevent physical harm, or financial loss related to the conduct of our business.
Certain information we collect (e.g., name, address, E-mail address, browsing of this Web site, etc.) may be shared with affiliates and other third parties for commercial marketing purposes, as permitted by law. If you do not want such parties to receive your information for commercial marketing purposes, or if you want to know more about your options in this regard, please call our Customer Contact Center at 1-800-543-8911. If you do not want us to serve advertisements to you through a third party after you have left this Web site, you must delete or prevent placement of our browser cookie by following the instructions contained in the Help section of your browser. Note, even if you opt-out of having your information released for commercial marketing purposes, we may still provide your information to third parties such as affiliates, vendors, agents, contractors and other organizations that assist us in the conduct of our business, or the provision of utility service.
If you believe the information the Company holds about you is inaccurate or incomplete, please contact us, so we can investigate your concerns.
The Company may modify this Privacy Statement at anytime. Material changes will be posted for thirty (30) days before becoming effective.