Privacy Policy
This page is periodically updated. Information on this page was last updated on January 31, 2015.
It is our policy to keep our customers information private. We never, for example, share or sell email addresses, delivery/billing addresses or telephone numbers except as necessary to ship items to you.
SolarFlairLighting.com, our credit card processor, and our website host will never share any information without your permission unless required to do so by law.
There are occasions where we may contact you asking permission to share limited information. Typical examples are cited below.
- We May Ask You to Serve as a Reference to a Potential Customer
Requests for customer references are usually referred to our Testimonial page.If they want to speak directly with a customer who has worked with us or purchased the product they wish to buy, we may contact you by phone or email to ask if will serve as a reference; we only do this with your explict permission.
If you agree to serve as a reference, we will provide the potential customer only the information that you wish to share. For example, some people like to provide phone numbers, others prefer to exchange email addresses. We respect all wishes of customers who do not want to share personal information available and/or who do not wish to serve as a reference. (We do not provide last names, emails or addresses on our Customer Testimonial page or on any public forum.) -
A Manufacturer Wishes to Discuss a Product Issue With You (Typically Repairs or Warranty Issues)
Many products are shipped to you directly from our manufacturers, therefore they do have your name and delivery address. We may share other information if you have an issue with a product or if an item is damaged during shipment.
Usually, these issues are noted when the product is first delivered. Other times they occur after the product has been in use and often for several months or more. If you call regarding a defective product, the manufacturer may wish to discuss the matter with you directly.
Before we share this information with you after the purchase, we contact customers and ask what, if any, information you are comfortable providing to resolve the issue.
Many products include registration cards or links to online product registration forms, often along with the product instructions. These should always be completed and returned to the manufacturer to protect your warranty rights. Please note that once you provide any information to the manufacturer through warranty cards, your information is then controlled by the company with the warranty card. They may, for example, add you to mailing lists but should not sell or share your information with other companies.
Note: Regardless of any product registration information you provide directly to the manufacturer, we do ask that you contact us if when a warranty issues arises so that we may assist you with your claim.
- If we are contacted by either a recognized legal authority (municipal or county police, state police, or federal agency) regarding purchases or activity on our site, we will provide information as legally necessary such as to assist in a criminal or civil information particularly if a subpoena is issued.
This could happen, for example, if your credit card were to be used or attempted to be used on our site without your consent. All payment transactions are subject to risk management/fraud protection measures by the respective processors and by our internal review.
If we have a transaction we suspect may be fraudulent, we attempt the rightful card holder whenever possible and also notify our credit card processor that the card has been attempted to be used fraudulently. Depending on the nature of the attempted or actual fraud, they may report the incident to your credit card company.
If someone attempts to use your credit card information on our site without your consent on our site, we will cooperate as much as you wish and/or as is possible with your credit card company, bank, and any entity conducting a criminal or civil fraud investigation.
SolarFlairLighting.com cooperates to the fullest extent possible with appropriate law enforcement and prosecuting authorities related to attempted or actual fraudulent purchases on our site.
Account Creation
Most customers do not need to create an account with us to use our new Check-Out Cart. For special orders, we reserve the right to ask you to create an account before we provide quotations, create online special orders, and/or or ship the items as part of our due diligence procedures.
If we are requested to respond to a Request for Proposal, we may require the individual requesting the proposal to create an account with our store before we respond to the request.
Check-Out Cart Information
The information you provide to create an account or make a purchase on our site is protected at all points of the purchase process.
Information relating to financial data is never stored on our website, computers at the offices of SolarFlairLighting.com, or on the servers that host our website. Credit card information is retained by our credit card processor for six months, after which it is purged.
Please note that SolarFlairLighting.com only sees a truncated version of your credit card number and we never see the CVC code or the expiration date. All credit card information is available us (such as for returns for no longer than 120 to 160 days); after this time, it is deleted by our credit card processor.
Our new check out cart does allow guest check-out. You can create an account if you like, but it is optional except for special orders. You may edit or delte information and/or your customer account creation at any time. If you need assistance doing so, please contact us.
If you do not wish to provide this information, you can check out as a guest. Please note that we do need your name, shipping and billing addresses, email address and phone number to process your order.
Telephone Orders
SolarFlairLighting.com regularly take phone orders for customers who are unable to make their purchase online. When phone orders are taken, the information is directly input into our virtual terminal while we are on the phone with customers; payment information is not recorded or stored by SolarFlairLighting.com in any manner what so ever.
Once your card data it is entered into our virtual terminal, we only see a truncated version of that information. Our terminal does not allow us to re-use the payment information except to void the sale/cancel the order or to issue a full or partial return.
Your Information is Protected in Accordance with PCI Data Security Standards
Our company is regularly audited for compliance with the 'Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards' or "PCI DSS." These standards are a set of security requirements created by the Payment Card Industry.
The standards outline strict guidelines specifying what Merchants must do to protect the privacy of customer information.
This includes measures to protect any information you provide to us over the internet or the telephone as well as physical measures we take to physically safeguard any data that we need to keep for tax records. This information is basically limited to invoices, which we store in a locked fireproof file cabinet in a building with a security system.
The PCI Council requires that Merchants meet this set of security requirements if their business accepts, transmits, or processes customer payment cards (such as credit cards or debit cards).
Our secure checkout also meets or exceeds industry standards for encryption so that you can buy with confidence, knowing your private information and payment information is secure. We do not see your credit card number or your security code.
Note: SolarFlairLighting.com urges all customers never to send any financial information such as credit card numbers or bank account numbers via email or through fax systems that use an email interface. Email is never a secure method to send this information.
What Information We Collect and Why
When you use the SolarFlairLighting.com checkout cart, we will request your name, street address, telephone number or other "real world" contact information necessary to ensure quality customer service.
As you browse SolarFlairLighting.com, we may gather navigational and click stream data that shows what pages are visited and how long various features are used. This information will not reveal your identity or be linked to you personally although certain features do capture the IP address of the visitor. If requested, this information may be provided to appropriate parties if we are legally required to do so.
This information may be disclosed only to our staff and to our immediate agents, such as credit card processors: our manufacturers do not see it. This information does not inherently reveal your name and will not be linked to you personally. We use this information to complete and support the immediate activity requested, and to comply with any requirements of law. This information may be disclosed only to our staff and to our immediate agents.
What Are Cookies? Why Do We Use Them?
Cookies are small files stored by your browser in your computer when you visit our Site. We use cookies to improve our Site and make it easier to use. Cookies permit us to recognize users and avoid repetitive requests for the same information.
We do not use tracking cookies (cookies that allow sites to follow and record what sites you visit after leaving SolarFlairLighting.com), and information from our cookies cannot be read by other sites.
Please note that most browsers will accept cookies until you change browser settings to refuse them. You may set your browser to prohibit all cookies from www.solarflairlighting.com (or any other site for that matter). However, certain functions on this site (such as the shopping cart) will prompt you to allow cookies in order to proceed.
We recommend that all customers clear their cache (to remove cookies and other stored data from our site and other sites) after each transaction on our site or on any site in which you enter sensitive or financial information.
For more information on how to keep your web history, personal information, and browsing habits private, please read our blog post Tips to Stay Safe & Private Online, Particularly When Shopping! (off-site link to our blog, SolarLightingSmart.com.)
How Do We Protect Information We Collect?
SolarFlairLighting.com offers secure web pages to collect certain kinds of user information and we store certain kinds of data in encrypted form. We follow PCI Data Security Standards technical and management practices to help protect the confidentiality, security and integrity of data stored on our system.
We do not discuss what specific details about the type of systems we use except as by required by law, as we believe this is the most prudent strategy against fraud and other malicious activities.
While no computer system can be both completely secure and accessible to the general public, the measures implemented by our Site, our webhose and our credit card processor provide a superior level of security and protect by your private and financial information. involved.
How Long Do We Keep User Information?
We generally keep user data on our server or in our archives for as long as we reasonably need it, such as for tax purposes or for the duration of your warranty.
As necessary, we may change our practices to stay in compliance with Payment Council Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards.
Please note that information posted in a public forum (which would be a page outside of www.SolarFlairLighting.com, such as our blog www.SolarLightingSmart.com) could stay in the public domain indefinitely.
Note: we have greater control over recently collected data than for archived data. Once data is removed from the system and archived, it may not be feasible to accommodate specific requests. In those cases, our general data retention policy applies.
