The Peoples Gas Light and Coke Company and North Shore Gas Company (collectively "Peoples") are committed to respecting your privacy.  Please read the following policy to understand how your personal information will be treated.  This policy may change from time to time so please check back periodically.  This policy will let you know the following:  

1.  What personally identifiable information is collected from me?

On some Peoples Web pages you can make requests and/or receive materials.  The types of personal information collected at these pages include your name, e-mail address, standard contact information, including addresses and phone numbers, employer name, meter number, meter readings and banking information (including account numbers, routing numbers and other account information).

2.  What are cookies and how are they used by Peoples?

Peoples may place Internet cookies on your hard drive.  Internet cookies are small files that may be placed on your hard disk for record-keeping purposes.  Cookies may be used to (a) remind us of who you are in order to deliver you better service; (b) estimate our audience size by determining repeat usage of the Web Site to help target advertisements based on user interests and behavior; and (c) measure certain traffic patterns for use as a research tool to understand how our users’ habits are similar or different from one another.  You can set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie, giving you the chance to decide whether to accept it.  By not accepting cookies, some Web pages may not display properly or you may not be permitted to access certain information.

Peoples may also collect IP addresses (the Internet address of a computer) to track a user’s session while the user remains anonymous.  We analyze this data for certain trends in statistics, such as which parts of our site users are visiting and how long they spend there.  In general, we do not link your IP addresses to anything personally identifiable to you.

3.  How is my information used?

Peoples will not sell, rent or lease your personally identifiable information to others without your consent.  However, by accessing this Web Site, you acknowledge that your information may be shared among our affiliated companies and with our agents, contractors or business partners.  When you submit personal information to Peoples, you are agreeing to permit Peoples to access, store and use the information wherever in the world Peoples does business.  In particular, Peoples, its agents, contractors and business partners may use your personal information for various business purposes, such as statistical analysis, doing market research, improving services, supporting your customer or other relationship with Peoples and notifying you about services and changes that may affect you, among other business purposes, in an effort to better serve you.

Accordingly, we may send you direct mailings or contact you by email or telephone about your use of the Web Site, our various products and services or other products and services we feel may be of interest to you. 

From time to time, Peoples may conduct research on our users’ demographics, interests and behavior based on the information provided to us during your use of the Peoples Web Sites.  This research is compiled and analyzed on an aggregated basis.  Aggregated data does not include personally identifiable information.  Peoples may share this aggregated data with others.  

4.  Who is collecting my information?

When you are on a Peoples Web Site and are asked for personal information, you are sharing that information with only Peoples and its affiliates, unless specifically stated otherwise.  If you do not want your data to be shared, you can choose not to allow the transfer by not using that particular service or purchasing those particular goods.

Please be aware that Peoples advertisers or third party web sites (including CheckFree) that have links on our site may collect personally identifiable information about you.  The information practices of those web sites linked to Peoples, either through advertisements or other hyperlinks, are not covered by this privacy statement.  Peoples does not assume responsibility for the actions of other parties.

5.  With whom does Peoples share my information?

We may share the personal data you provide with other Peoples agents, contractors or our business partners for the purposes of performing services for Peoples.  We also believe it is necessary to share information in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of the Terms of Use, or as otherwise required by law or requested by any government authority.  Except as provided above or in the event of a merger, consolidation, or sale of all or substantially all of Peoples' assets, we will not share any of your information with any third party without your permission. 

6.  How do I access, update or delete my information?

Gas customers may request to review their billing-related personal information that Peoples has collected and correct factual inaccuracies and/or update such billing-related personal information by contacting info@PeoplesEnergy.com.

7.  What else should I know about my privacy?

Third party Internet sites and services accessible through Peoples have separate privacy and data collection practices.  Peoples has no responsibility or liability for these independent policies or actions of such third parties.  Please be careful and responsible online.  If you post personal information online that is accessible to the public, you may receive unsolicited messages from other parties in return. While we strive to protect your information, Peoples cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information through the transmission process and you do so at your own risk.  Peoples' Web Sites are primarily intended for adults and not children under 18 years old.  Peoples will not knowingly collect or disclose personal information from minors for any purposes.

8.  Other Legal Notices.

Any dispute over privacy is subject to this privacy policy and our Terms of Use, including limitations on damages and application of the law of the State of Illinois.  If you have any concern about your privacy in connection with this policy, please send us a thorough description to contractadmin@pecorp.com, and we will try to resolve it.  From time to time we may post a revised privacy policy on our Web Sites.  Please note that the use of information that we gather is subject to the privacy notice in effect at the time of use.  You should check our Web Site frequently to see recent changes.