Privacy Policy

Clean Energy Fund of Texas, Inc. 

Privacy Policy and Terms of Use

Introduction

Clean Energy Fund of Texas, Inc. (CEFTX), values your privacy. This Privacy Policy applies to the Websites, as defined below, operated by CEFTX, Rising Sun Solar Project, LLC, and any, subsidiaries, affiliates, and/or designees, if any (“CEFTX,” “Rising Sun,” “we,” “us,” and “our”). As used herein, “you,” “your,” “users,” or the like means the entity and/or individual accessing and/or using our Websites.

This page informs you of our policies regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of personal data when you use our Websites, and the choices you have associated with that data. By using our Websites, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time. Such changes may be made without prior notice; but, all updates will be in this Privacy Policy. Changes will be effective when updated and posted. Your continued use of the Websites confirms your agreement and compliance with this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with all or part of this Privacy Policy, do not use our Websites.

This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) describes our policies and practices regarding the collection, use and disclosure of personal information you submit or we obtain in connection with your use of this Site.  Please read this Policy carefully before using the Site or submitting information to us.  By accessing or visiting this Site, you indicate your understanding that the collection, use, and sharing of your information is subject to the terms of this Policy. If you do not consent to the collection, use, and sharing of your information as described in this Policy, please do not provide us with such information.

Information We Collect

As you are probably aware, we may collect information from a variety of sources to operate the Site, carry out our business, comply with law and other purposes described herein. 

  • To access our products, services and programs sites, we may ask you to provide:
    • Name
    • Email address
    • Phone number
    • Residence and Business addresses
    • Name and description of the organization you work for or are affiliated with
    • Job description

This information may be used to subscribe to a chat bot, newsletter, e-blasts, e-news, respond to surveys, contact us, or request information.

  • To execute loan applications, loan agreements and other lending operations, we utilize third-party sites for intake and maintain regular communications to conduct identity verification, income verification (including but not limited to banking information, W2, 1099) and employment verification. We may also request information regarding your property, mortgage, property tax, utility bills, credit history, and automatic payments or funds transfers.

You do not have to provide the above information to access or use the other sections of the Site.  We do not intend to collect information such as political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, health information, sexual orientation, or criminal history through our general website contact forms. However, if you apply for or participate in a loan program, we or our third-party service providers may collect financial, identity, property, credit, income, employment, banking, payment, and other information necessary to process, underwrite, close, service, administer, and report on the loan or related program.

Information On Your Use.   We collect information about and log your visits and use of the Site.  We also use cookies and internet protocol (“IP”) addresses to identify you and log your use of the Site.  For more details, please see our section on Cookies, below.

  • Statistical Data.  To monitor use of the Site and improve its quality, we may compile statistical information concerning the use of the Site through analytics services, such as those provided by Google Analytics. Examples of this information may include: the number of visitors to the Site, or to sections or pages within the Site, patterns of traffic flowing through the Site, length of time spent on the Site, or in sections or pages of the Site, the other sites that refer visitors to the Site, the pages of the Site that visitors frequently use as entry and exit points, utilization of the browser and operating systems and versions used by visitors to the Site. The analytics services may transfer this information to third parties in case of a legal obligation or if a third-party processes data on behalf of that service. To compile this information, we may collect and store:
    • Your IP address
    • Your operating system version
    • Your browser version
    • Geographical location
    • Referral source
    • The pages you visit within the Site
    • The length of time you spend on pages within the Site
    • Search terms you used in search engines which resulted in you linking to the Site, etc.

We (and/or our service providers) use this aggregated information in the administration of our website to improve its usability and to evaluate the success of particular search engine optimization strategies, and other marketing activities. We (and/or our service providers) use non-identifying and aggregated information to help optimize our website based on the needs of our users.

Google’s Privacy Policy is incorporated herein and can be found at https://policies.google.com/privacy. By using this site, you agree to be bound by Google’s Terms of Service which may be found at https://policies.google.com/terms.

While all of this information can be associated with the IP address belonging to the computer you used to visit the Site, it will not be associated with you as an individual or associated with any other information you may submit through the Site, or that we may store about you for any other purposes.

  • Cookies and Similar Technology.   We may use technologies such as cookies, pixel tags, browser analysis tools, server logs and web beacons to recognize you when you return to the Site and to help us improve the quality of our service when you visit our Site.

A cookie is a text file sent by a web server to a web browser and stored by the browser. The text file is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server. This enables the web server to identify and track the web browser and load the pages according to a user’s preferences for that particular site, including the personalization of content. Cookies are also used to gather statistical data, such as which pages are visited, what is downloaded, the ISP’s domain name and country of origin, and the addresses of sites visited before and after coming to our site, as well as your “click stream” activity, meaning the paths taken by visitors to our site as they navigate from page to page and transactional attributes in accordance with information you voluntarily submit in the course of using our site. This data is aggregated for analysis to ensure proper functioning of our site in terms of navigation and usability, as well as to evaluate the effectiveness of our marketing activities. At no time do any of our cookies capture any personally identifiable information. However, to the extent that Internet Protocol (IP) addresses or similar identifiers are considered personal information by local law, we also treat these identifiers as personal information.

Similarly, to the extent that non-personal information is combined with personal information, we treat the combined information as personal information for the purposes of this Cookie Policy. More importantly, using cookies also helps us protect the security of your account. Encrypted session ID cookies follow your activities on our site so that we can ensure that no one is making changes to your profile, applying for loans, or making loans on your behalf. We may send a cookie that can be stored by your browser on your computer’s hard drive. We may use the information we obtain from the cookie in the administration of our website, to improve its usability and for evaluating our marketing events. We may also use that information to recognize your computer when you visit our website. Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies. Blocking cookies, however, can also have a negative impact on the usability of many websites. We also use third-party tracking services that use cookies or other tracking technology to track non-personal information about visitors to our site in the aggregate such as web page views, other sites visited and referral page information to track the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns to bring visitors to our site. We use respective web beacons to gather information that lets us tune and improve the user’s browsing experience, as well as track user responsiveness to various advertising campaigns and user activities. No personal or sensitive information is transmitted to advertising partners. However, certain partners may collect incoming IP addresses in connection with your visits to our site.

If you want to disable cookies and you’re using the Safari web browser, go to Safari preferences and then to the privacy pane to manage your preferences. On your Apple mobile device, go to Settings, then Safari, scroll down to the Privacy & Security section, and tap on “Block Cookies” to manage your preferences. If you want to disable cookies and you’re using the Chrome browser, go to Settings > Privacy and Security > Cookies and Other Site Data, make the selection that provides the level of tracking you prefer. If you want to disable cookies and you’re using the Explorer browser, go to Settings > Internet Options > Privacy Tab > Advanced, make the selection that provides the level of tracking you prefer. For other browsers, check with your provider to find out how to disable cookies. Please note that certain features of the Clean Energy Fund of Texas, Inc website will not be available once cookies are disabled.

IMPORTANT: By using the Site, you consent to the processing of any personal data provided or collected for the analytics purposes and functions described above.

How We Use Your Data

In general, we will use the information we collect about you only for the purpose it was collected, for compatible purposes, as permitted or required by law, as necessary to carry out our contractual duties and obligations, and as otherwise provided in this Policy. For example, we may use your data:

  • To respond to your requests for information about loans, or relating to activities, opportunities, events, or products or services appearing on the Site.
  • To communicate with you.  We may send you messages about the availability of our Site, security, or other service-related issues.  Please be aware that you cannot opt-out of receiving service messages from us, including security and legal notices.
  • For our research and development efforts.  We may use data, including public feedback and surveys, to conduct research and for the development of the Site and the services, products, and information we provide to you.
  • For other everyday business purposes. For example, product development, contract management, IT and website administration, fulfillment, analytics, fraud prevention, corporate governance, reporting and legal compliance.
  • To provide you with the products and/or services you have requested.
  • To inform you of the products, services, events, or activities that we think may be of interest to you. For example, we may send you announcements, surveys, and newsletters using any communications preferences you have expressed. We may provide these communications via email, postal mail, online advertising, social media, telephone, text message (including SMS and MMS), push notifications, in-app messaging, and other means.  
  • To ensure your information is accurate and to personalize our communications to you. For example, we may aggregate your personal information with data from third-party sources for purposes of keeping information up to date. We may also rely on information from third parties to provide better, more personalized service. If you connect your social media services or other accounts to our services, we may use this information to make your experiences with us more personal and social or share and use it as described elsewhere in this Policy.

We do not share your personal data with any third-party advertisers for their advertising.

If you no longer wish to receive a communication from CEFTX, you have the option of unsubscribing from our mailing list by clicking “unsubscribe” at the bottom of any communication.

How We Share Your Data

In general, we will not disclose your personal data we collect through this Site except with your consent and as described in this Policy. We may disclose your data for the same reasons that we may use it as described in this Policy, which includes disclosing it to our affiliates and non-affiliated entities, as we deem necessary to carry out those purposes.

  • In general, we may disclose on an aggregated basis, personal demographic information to funders and other interested stakeholders who require such information.
  • Lending Programs & Initiatives. In connection with loan programs and lending operations, we may share personal information and loan-related information with third-party service providers and program partners, including loan originators, loan servicers, payment processors, identity verification providers, income and employment verification providers, underwriting providers, credit reporting or credit evaluation providers, document management providers, software providers, contractors, title companies, insurance providers, funders, investors, purchasers or participants in loans, government agencies, auditors, legal counsel, and other professional advisors, as necessary or appropriate to process, underwrite, close, service, administer, sell, participate, report on, or enforce loans or related program requirements.
  • Third Parties.  We only share personally identifiable information about you, as required or permitted by law, with third parties, such as service providers, title companies, appraisers, insurance companies, underwriting services, processing services, printing companies, software providers, and purchasers of loans. Our policy is to require third party service providers to enter into confidentiality agreements with us, prohibiting them from using any personally identifiable information they obtain for any other purpose other than those for which they were retained or as required by law. We may need to use or disclose this information with third-parties:
    • To manage the Site;
    • To provide you with products, services, or offers;
    • To assist us in the administration, processing, servicing, and sale of loans.
    • To engage in fundraising related activities
    • To enhance our services by, among other methods, obtaining assistance with providing more personalized services to you through analytics and other technologies;
    • To protect our interests and legal rights, such as through responding to subpoenas and defending litigation; and to protect against and prevent fraud, illegal activity (such as identifying and responding to incidents of hacking or misuse of our websites and mobile applications), and claims and other liabilities.

We endeavor to choose affiliates and non-affiliates with similar standards to ours regarding the protection of data.

  • Legal Process, Security, Defense, Protection.  It is possible that we will need to disclose information about you if required by law, subpoena, or other legal process.  Additionally, we may disclose information about you if we have a good faith belief that disclosure is reasonably necessary to:
    • demonstrate our relationship with you;
    • investigate, prevent, or take action regarding suspected or actual illegal activities or to assist law enforcement agencies;
    • protect the security or integrity of the Site;
    • investigate and defend ourselves against any third-party allegations or claims; or
    • protect the rights and safety of others.
  • Change in Control or Sale.  We may share, sell, assign, or license your personal data in connection with certain business transactions, such as a sale, acquisition, merger, or change in control, or in preparation for any of these events. In such cases, we will take appropriate steps under the circumstances and to the extent possible to ensure that the recipient agrees to provide privacy protections substantially similar to those established by this Policy.  Any entity that acquires all or substantially all of the CEFTX’s assets will have the right to continue using your data consistent with this Policy or as otherwise agreed to by you.

In no case will we sell or license your data to third parties, except as set forth above or as required or permitted by law.

  • Social Media Plugins. This Site may use social media plugins (e.g. Facebook and LinkedIn) to enable you to easily share information with others.  When you visit our Site, the operator of the social plugin can place a cookie on your computer, enabling that operator to recognize individuals who have previously visited our Site.  If you are logged into the social media website (e.g. Facebook, Twitter) while browsing our Site, the social plugins allow that social media website to share data about your activities on our Site with other users of their social media website.  For example, Facebook Social Plugins allow Facebook to show your Likes and comments on our pages to your Facebook friends.  Facebook Social Plugins also allow you to see your friends’ Facebook activity on our website.  We do not control any of the content from the social media plugins.  For more information about social plugins from other media websites you should refer to those sites’ privacy and data/information sharing statements/policies.

Communications from Our Site, Including Sites of Our Affiliates

When you submit an application and/or create a profile on our site or a third-party site with whom we have a contractual relationship with, you may receive emails that confirm specific actions you requested. You may receive notifications confirming your registration, the successful verification of email addresses and the bank accounts, and confirmation of successful submissions of loan requests and portfolios. These are transactional notifications that you cannot opt out of receiving, as they are in place to protect the security of your account and your personal information. We may also send you responses to emails you send us, if appropriate or applicable. From time to time, we will also send user surveys, requests for user feedback regarding user experience and site operations or marketing offers from us or from us on behalf of our marketing partners. The completion of these surveys or requests for feedback or acceptance of any offer is strictly voluntary. If you do not wish to receive these offers, surveys or user feedback emails, please opt out of any offer email you receive from us.

Your Choices Regarding Your Personal Information

You can always limit the information you provide to us, but if you choose not to provide certain requested information, you may be unable to access some of the services and content on the Site.  You can also limit the communications that we may send you by following a simple opt-out or unsubscribe process.  Simply follow the instructions in our newsletter or other communications to opt-out of receiving, or unsubscribe from, future communications. We will attempt to address your opt-out request immediately but it may take up to ten (10) days for us to process such requests.

Please note that even if you opt-out of certain communications from us, we may still need to contact you with important information about your use of the Site. We may send you other types of transactional and relationship email communications, such as processing requests, conditional loan offers, requests for additional information, service updates or announcements, administrative notices and surveys, without offering you the opportunity to opt out of receiving them. Please note that opting out of receipt of promotional e-mail communications will only affect future activities or communications from us.

Note: If we have already provided your information to a third party as part of your loan application then you may have to change your preferences directly with that third party.

Retention

We retain your personal data only for the period of time needed to fulfill the purposes stated in this Policy or as required by applicable legal, regulatory, or operational needs.

Links to Third Party Websites

We may provide links to websites or resources outside of our Site for informational purposes only.  In most cases, these links to websites that are owned or operated by companies other than CEFTX (“third-party websites”) are provided solely as an access point to obtain information on products and topics that may be useful to the users of Clean Energy Fund of Texas, Inc website. You acknowledge and agree that CEFTX is not responsible for the availability of such sites or resources, and does not endorse and is not responsible or liable for any content, advertising, goods, services or other materials on, available through or provided by such sites or resources.  We are not responsible for the privacy or other practices of such sites and cannot guarantee the security of any of your personal information that you provide or may be collected by such sites.  We encourage you to familiarize yourself with the privacy policy, terms of use and security practices of the third-party website before providing any information on that website.

Third-Party Loan Application, Intake, and Servicing Platforms

To provide loan products, prequalification tools, application processing, underwriting, identity verification, income verification, employment verification, loan closing, loan servicing, payment processing, reporting, and related lending services, we may use third-party platforms, service providers, contractors, vendors, program partners, originators, servicers, payment processors, verification providers, software providers, and other lending support providers.

When you request information about a loan, complete a prequalification form, submit a loan application, upload documents, authorize payments, verify your identity, verify income or employment, or otherwise participate in our lending programs, you may be directed to or interact with a third-party website, portal, application, or platform. Those third parties may collect information directly from you on our behalf or in connection with services provided to CEFTX, Rising Sun Solar Project, LLC, our program partners, or our loan servicing/origination partners.

The information collected through these third-party platforms may include, as applicable, your name, contact information, address, date of birth, government identification information, Social Security number or taxpayer identification number, income information, employment information, bank account or payment information, credit history, utility bills, mortgage or property tax information, property information, loan application information, contractor or project information, documents submitted in connection with a loan, and communications related to your application or loan.

We may receive, access, use, store, share, or rely on information collected through these third-party platforms for purposes of evaluating eligibility, processing applications, underwriting loans, closing loans, servicing loans, processing payments, meeting reporting obligations, complying with legal and regulatory requirements, preventing fraud, managing our programs, and administering our business operations.

We require third-party service providers that receive, maintain, process, or otherwise access personal information or loan-related information on our behalf to use such information only for the purposes for which they were engaged, to maintain the confidentiality of the information, and to use reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards appropriate to the nature of the information. However, third-party websites, platforms, and service providers may also have their own privacy policies, terms of use, security practices, and legal obligations. We encourage you to review those policies before submitting information through any third-party site or platform.

Notifications

CEFTX will send you email notifications from time to time, and these are required elements of your transactions on our website, such as confirmations of particular actions you have taken. These required notices are sent typically to notify you of a change in status such as when you are confirmed as a borrower or for legal or security purposes. For example, certain notifications are sent for your own protection to ensure that no one can make a change to your account without your knowledge, such as confirming the addition of a new email address or linked external bank account. These notifications are sent to you so that you can be assured that no one is making changes to your account without your knowledge. In other cases, these notifications involve changes to various legal agreements, terms and condition updates and privacy policy update notifications. Generally, you may not opt out of these service related emails.

Safeguarding of Information

No system for safeguarding personal or other information is 100% secure and even though we have taken steps to protect your personal information from being intercepted, accessed, used, or disclosed by unauthorized persons, we cannot fully eliminate security risks associated with personal information.  However, we take several steps to safeguard the security of personal information obtained through the Site. For example, we maintain administrative, technical, and physical controls to reasonably safeguard data from unlawful use, unauthorized access, or disclosure.  Additionally, we use Secure Socket Layer (SSL) data encryption when data is transmitted over the Internet to our Site. Individuals who have access to confidential and otherwise nonpublic data are required to maintain the confidentiality of such information.

Do Not Track

“Do Not Track” is a privacy preference that you can set in your Internet search browser that sends a signal to a website that you do not want the website operator to track certain browsing information about you.  However, because our Site is not configured to detect Do Not Track signals from a user’s computer, we are unable to respond to Do Not Track requests.   This Site does not collect personally identifiable information about the individual’s online activities over time and across different Websites when the user uses our Site or service.

Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act & Other Acts

CEFTX does not intend to knowingly collect or solicit any information from anyone under the age of 13. We do not knowingly allow minors under the age of 13 to disclose their personal information to us through our sites or otherwise. Our websites are directed to adults above the age of 18, who are permitted to share their personal information without parental consent. If you believe that we may have any information from a child under the age of 13, please contact us HERE.

California Residents

If you are a California resident, please read the following:

  • California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits you to request information regarding the disclosure of your personal information by certain members of CEFTX to third parties for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes. Requests may be made one time per calendar year. If applicable, this information would include the categories of customer information and the names and addresses of those businesses with which we shared customer information for the immediately prior calendar year (e.g., requests made in 2024 will receive information regarding 2023 sharing activities). You may submit your request using the contact information at the end of this Policy.
  • If you are under the age of 18, and a registered user of any site where this policy is posted, California law permits you to request and obtain removal of content or information you have publicly posted. You may submit your request using the contact information at the end of this Policy. Please be aware that such a request does not ensure complete or comprehensive removal of the content or information you have posted and that there may be circumstances in which the law does not require or allow removal even if requested.

Applicable Law

This Policy is governed by the internal substantive laws of the State of Texas, without regard to its conflict of laws principles. Jurisdiction for any claims arising under or out of this Privacy Policy shall lie exclusively with the state and federal courts within Texas. If any provision of this Policy is found to be invalid by a court having competent jurisdiction, the invalidity of such provision shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions of this Policy, which shall remain in full force and effect.

Compliance with State and Federal Laws

This privacy policy may not constitute your entire set of privacy rights, as these may also vary from state to state. To be certain of your privacy rights, you may wish to contact the appropriate agency in your state that is charged with overseeing privacy rights of consumers. Certain regulations issued by state and/or federal government agencies may require us to maintain and report demographic information on the collective activities of our customers. We may also be required to maintain your personal information for at least seven years in order to be in compliance with applicable federal and state laws regarding recordkeeping, reporting and audits.

Notice to Site Users Located Outside the U.S.

CEFTX operates in accordance with the laws of the U.S. When you access our Site from outside the U.S., we may transfer the personal information that we collect from you to a location outside of your jurisdiction, including the U.S. The data protection laws in these jurisdictions may not provide you with the same protections as those of your jurisdiction. By using this Site you acknowledge that these laws may provide a different standard of protection and you consent to the transfer of your personal data to other jurisdictions, including the U.S.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to change this Policy at any time. In the event we make material change(s) to the Policy. Changes will be effective immediately upon posting to the Site and will apply to your use of the Site after the “effective date” listed above.  You understand and agree that your continued use of the Site after the effective date, means that the collection, use, and sharing of your information is subject to the updated Policy.

Except to the extent, we obtain your consent or as permitted or required by applicable law, we will handle your personal information collected through the Site in accordance with the terms of the Policy in effect at the time of such collection.

Contact Us

If you have any questions regarding this Policy, your privacy, or our policies in the event of a compromise of your information, you may contact us HERE.