Privacy Statement Overview:

The following Privacy Statement (the "Privacy Statement") describes policies and practices with respect to how Smart Grid Information Clearinghouse (SGIC) and its affiliates may collect, use, and disclose certain information. You may provide or generate in connection with Your use of the Site as well as information You or Your company provide to SGIC. Any capitalized terms not defined herein have the meanings described in the Terms of Use. This Privacy Statement is incorporated into the Terms of Use of the Site, which can be found at Terms of Use. All Users of the Site agree to follow and be bound by the Terms of Use and this Privacy Statement as a condition of providing any information to the Site or accessing, using or downloading anything from the Site. If You do not agree with the Terms of Use and this Privacy Statement, do not use the Site. The Site contains hyperlinks to third-party web sites over which SGIC has no control. SGIC is not responsible for the policies, practices or contents of other web sites to which You choose to link from the Site. You visit such sites at Your own risk and we encourage You to review the terms of use and privacy polices of such web sites.

Consent:

By submitting Personal Information through the Site, You agree to the terms of this Privacy Statement, and You expressly consent to the processing of your Personal Information according to this Privacy Statement. Your Personal Information may be processed by us in the country where it was collected as well as other countries (including the United States of America) where laws regarding processing of Personal Information may be less stringent than the laws in Your country.

Collection, Use, Sharing, Control and Disclosure of Information:

"Personal Information," for purposes of this Privacy Statement, refers to any information that identifies or can be used to identify, contact or locate the individual to whom such information pertains, such as names, business title, company/organization represented, electronic addresses, and, if requested for export control purposes, national residence or citizenship; provided, however, that Personal Information does not include anonymous information that, by itself, does not permit the identification of individual persons.

Registration Information:

• Collection of Registration Information: In order to use certain portions of the Site not made available to the general public (the "Password Restricted Site"), You must meet applicable eligibility requirements and will be required to agree to the terms of this Privacy Statement as well as register for, receive and use one or more User Identification(s) and Password(s). To complete the registration process and receive User Identification(s) and Password(s), You are required to provide to SGIC certain Personal Information. This Personal Information includes Your first and last name, business title, company/organization represented, primary email address and if requested for export control purposes, national residence or citizenship. You may also elect to volunteer additional Personal Information that may be requested (such as physical address, a phone number, a fax number and areas of research interest, for example). The Personal Information that You provide in connection with registering for Your User Identification(s) and Password(s) and any subsequent updating of such information (collectively, Your "Registration Information") will be collected, stored and maintained by SGIC and such third party entities that SGIC may utilize for hosting/data storage purposes.
• Use of Your Registration Information By SGIC: Your Registration Information will be used by SGIC: (i) to determine and authenticate the information that You may access/download/upload on the Site; (ii) as a means for SGIC to update and reduce errors in various databases; (iii) to monitor use of and access to various portions of the Site to prevent abuses to our systems and access rights to particular content/products made available through the Site; (iv) to provide reliable contact information for SGIC and its affiliates to contact and/or provide relevant materials to You.
• Sharing of Your Registration Information: SGIC will not sell, rent or lease Your Registration Information to third parties. You agree to share Your Registration Information as follows:

  o Your Registration Information is made available to SGIC for all of the purposes described in the paragraph labeled "Use of Your Registration Information By SGIC."

  o Your name, employer and title will be displayed through the SGIC People Finder, regardless of whether you agree to display other Registration Information.

  o You may also choose to make Your Registration Information available to all persons with access to the SGIC People Finder (i) at the time of registering for Your User Identification(s) and Password(s), (ii) upon prompting via electronic mail from SGIC, and (iii) at any time subsequent thereto by modifying your User Profile on SGIC website.

  The "SGIC People Finder" is a searchable contact-database that contains the names and contact information of individuals, organizations, institutions and companies registered at SGIC. Access to the SGIC People Finder is provided to registered users of SGIC in possession of User Identification(s) and Password(s) for the Password Restricted Site. At a minimum, if you register for a Site ID, your name, employer, and title will be displayed through the SGIC People Finder, even if the remainder of your Registration Information is not. If your employer ceases to be a member of SGIC, SGIC will terminate your access to the Site and will no longer display your Registration Information in the SGIC People Finder.

• Control over Your Registration Information: o You may review, correct, update and change Your Registration Information updating your user profile in SGIC website. o You can request to have Your Registration Information removed from the SGIC People Finder and the Site at any time by utilizing the tool available at Update My Profile. As a consequence of such request, SGIC will delete Your Registration Information from the Site, except that SGIC may maintain copies of such information for its administrative purposes, which are not accessible on the Internet. o If at the time You provided Personal Information to SGIC through the Site You were given the opportunity to limit how the applicable Personal Information is used to communicate with You by third parties, SGIC will not change Your preference in this regard without Your consent.

Server Log Information, Profile Information & Cookies:

• Collection of Server Log Information, Profile Information & Cookies: o When You use the Site, which may be hosted in part or entirely by a third party, SGIC automatically collects certain technical, routing, server log and other information to facilitate use of the Site and for internal purposes, such as to administer and improve the Site. For example, we may log such things as browser type, operating system, CPU speed, the Internet Protocol Address (a number that is automatically assigned to Your computer when You use the internet), time and date stamps, landing page and referring Web site addresses. Information of this type is referred to as "Server Log Information." o In addition, the Site also uses "cookies" to track certain aspects of usage on the Site and in order to improve the functionality of the Site (A "cookie" is a small amount of data that is transferred to Your browser by a server and then stored on Your hard drive and can generally only be read by the server that gave it to You). Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies. If You prefer, You can reset Your browser either to notify You when You receive a cookie or refuse to accept cookies. You may also delete cookies from Your hard drive. Please note, however, that the Password Restricted Site will not be usable unless Your browser is accepting cookies. o On login to the Site, Server Log information automatically collected by the Site, including, cookies, page views, content that you contribute to Site (such as through chat rooms, blogs, emails or other suggestions), time spent on particular pages, order of pages viewed and products/services downloaded from the Site, may be tracked and recorded and associated with Your User Identification(s) and Password(s) and, consequently, the Personal Information contained in the Registration Information You provided. Your "Profile Information" includes your Registration Information, your User ID, Server Log information and any other information set forth in this paragraph or regarding your use of the Site.
• Use of Server Log Information, Profile Information and Cookies: o At any time when You are logged on to the Site, Profile Information may be collected. SGIC uses this Profile Information primarily to track Your usage of the site to improve the efficiency and experience rendered by the Site, to monitor uses and access to various portions of the Site to prevent abuses to our systems and access rights to particular content/products made available through the Site, as well as to provide information to respective SGIC Member organizations regarding the contents accessed/downloaded by and the usage of the Users of the Site.
• Sharing of Server Log Information, Profile Information and Cookies:
  o As discussed in the preceding paragraph, Profile Information of Users of the Site may be shared with respective SGIC Member organizations. This provides them with information regarding Your usage, contents, products and services accessed/downloaded. Except as provided in this Privacy Statement, we do not share Profile Information with any other third-parties without Your permission. Cookies, except to the extent there are used to compile Profile Information, are not shared with any third parties.
  o Server Log Information that is not connected with any Personal Information may be shared by SGIC with any party and for any purpose.

• Control over Server Log Information, Profile Information and Cookies:
  o Profile Information will be retained for such periods as SGIC may deem appropriate for its business purposes.
  o Server Log Information will be retained for such periods as SGIC may deem appropriate for its business purposes.

Electronic Newsletters:

SGIC may provide You with a number of electronic newsletters determined to be of interest to You based on expressions of interest, company and/or research area affiliation and Personal Information provided to the Site. You may unsubscribe from such newsletters at any time by using the unsubscribe feature contained in such electronic newsletter or by sending an email to smartgrid@vt.edu regarding Your desire to unsubscribe from the relevant electronic newsletter.

Forums:

If You use any forum provided on the Site, You should be aware that any Personal Information You submit in connection with such use makes the information "public information" and that it can be read, collected or used by other Users. SGIC assumes no responsibility for any Personal Information (or the privacy thereof) submitted in connection with these forums. Anything that you place in one of these forums is not subject to this Privacy Statement, and may be used or shared by SGIC with or without attribution or compensation.

Legal Requirements and Other Disclosures:

SGIC reserves the right to disclose any and all Personal Information, Your Profile Information, or any information You may have provided or that we might otherwise possess regarding Your use of the Site as required by law and when SGIC concludes in its sole discretion that such disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, the rights of our Members or other third parties, as well as to comply with a judicial/court proceeding or legal process.

Security:

We undertake reasonable measures to protect the Personal Information submitted to SGIC through the Site. No method of transmission over the Internet or method or electronic storage is, however, 100% secure. Therefore, while we try to protect Your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee its security.

Changes in this Privacy Statement:

SGIC reserves the right to change the Privacy Statement and Terms of Use from time to time at its sole discretion and will provide notice of material changes on the home page of the Site. You will be deemed to have been made aware of, and will be subject to, the changes to the Privacy Statement by Your continued use of the Site after such notice has been posted.

Contact Us:

If You have any questions about these Terms of Use, the Privacy Statement, the practices of the Site, or Your experience on the Site, please email us at smartgrid@vt.edu