(Updated May 23, 2018)
Acuity Brands knows that you are concerned about your privacy. This Privacy Policy is designed to help you understand what information Acuity Brands and its affiliates collect and what we do with it.
In addition, we want you to know that there are a few instances where this Privacy Policy will not apply:
First, if you share information via a forum, social media site, or similar channel, the information you are sharing is not subject to this Privacy Policy.
Second, Acuity Brands’ products and websites may direct you to sites managed by people other than Acuity Brands. While we try to link only to sites that share our high standards and respect for privacy, Acuity Brands does not control, and is not responsible for, the content or the privacy practices employed by those sites. You should pay attention and, if you go to someone else’s site, you should read their privacy statements before you provide them with any information.
Who We Are
We are Acuity Brands, Inc., the North American market leader and one of the world’s leading providers of lighting and building management solutions for commercial, institutional, industrial, infrastructure, and residential applications throughout North America and select international markets. Acuity Brands is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia with operations throughout North America, and in Europe and Asia. To find out more about Acuity Brands and our affiliates, look under the “About Us” section of our website, www.acuitybrands.com.
Acuity Brands operates and sells products around the world. Acuity Brands’ headquarters and main technology centers, however, are located in the United States of America. Therefore, if you are located outside the United States, Acuity Brands may hold or process your information outside the country where you live and by giving Acuity Brands that information you are agreeing to allow us to do so.
What Information We Collect
The specific information about you that we collect depends on how you interact with Acuity Brands. For example, if you visit our website we may collect certain information. But if you use one of our software products, we may collect totally different information. In general, however, the information Acuity Brands collects falls into a few broad categories.
Information That You Give Directly to Us
Sometimes, you may provide us with information directly, such as when you provide information to us by filling out a form on a webpage or in a product. Additionally, you may provide us with information via feedback forms, employment applications, registration forms, order forms, information requests, online surveys, or contests. Or you may provide us with information when you call us for technical support or warranty services. The information you provide may include name, physical address, email address, phone and fax numbers, company name, title or job position, employment history, purchase history, and plans for future purchases.
Information About Your Technology
Through some of our technology products, we may automatically collect device-specific information like device model, operating system version, non-unique device identifiers, and network information. Likewise, when you visit our website Acuity Brands may record information such as the web request that sent you there, your Internet Protocol address, your browser type and language settings, and the date and time of your visit. Our software products may also tell us what version of the software you are using.
Information About Your Usage
When using our technology products or visiting our website we may record information about your experience. For example, details of how you used the product or website, what functions you utilized and how often, and information about crashes.
Like many websites, Acuity Brands may use "cookies" to recognize your computer on subsequent visits, either directly or through a web analytics tool. Cookies are small files created by websites that reside on the hard drive of the visitor’s computer and that store information about a visitor’s use of a particular web site.
Information About a Device’s Location
Some of Acuity Brands’ products can determine the physical location of your device via sensors using various technologies such as GPS, radio communication, and by reading light patterns using the camera in your device. While that location information is provided to Acuity Brands, we assure you that Acuity’s products that do collect location information never collect information that would allow Acuity Brands to correlate that location information to a specific individual.
For example, if Robert Jones installed one of our software apps on his phone, the app might assign his phone the name “#372A8DUF”. When Mr. Jones uses that app, the app will tell Acuity Brands that device 372A8DUF was at certain GPS coordinates at a certain time. However, there is no way for Acuity Brands to trace those coordinates or 372A8DUF to someone named Robert Jones.
That being said, if you have separately granted an Acuity Brands business partner permission to correlate certain information (e.g., unique device identifiers and names or customer ID numbers), that partner may be able to discover your location by combining the information that you have provided them with the location information held by Acuity Brands. For example, our software may be incorporated into that partner’s app and Mr. Jones may have given that partner permission to correlate his device name “372A8DUF” with is real name, Robert Jones – so that partner could use Acuity Brands’ connection between his location information and his device name and the partner’s connection between the device name and his real name to connect his location information and Robert Jones. However, Acuity Brands has no control over or access to that information and Acuity Brands requires all partners to contractually obligate themselves to comply with all laws, including all privacy laws when using Acuity Brands’ location providing products.
Information Acuity Brands Does Not Want
Acuity Brands does not knowingly collect and does not want any information from children under the age of 13. We do not design our products or websites to appeal to children and request that children do not provide us information through our products or websites and that parents monitor and do not allow their children to provide us such information.
Do Not Track Disclosure
Some browsers have incorporated "Do Not Track" (DNT) features that can send a signal to the websites you visit indicating you do not wish to be tracked. Because there is not yet a common understanding of how to interpret the DNT signal, our services do not currently respond to browser DNT signals. You can use the range of other tools we provide to control data collection and use, including taking steps to discourage the use of cookies described below.
What We Do With The Information We Collect
Acuity Brands is committed to making sure that you understand what we are doing with the information you provide us. Acuity Brands only uses your information for legitimate business purposes such as:
To Provide and Improve Products Generally
Primarily, we use the information we collect from you to provide, maintain, and improve our existing products and services as well as to develop new ones. For example, unless we obtain a device name, there is no way for us to provide location information. And unless we know about what a user was doing when an app crashed, there is no way for us to perform maintenance on the code to prevent crashes in the future. Likewise, unless we receive user feedback, there is no way for us to improve the features of our existing products and services or know if there is a new product or service that we should develop to satisfy our users. By providing this kind of information, you agree that we can use it for these purposes and disclaim any ownership rights in anything that we may create as a result.
To Do Specific Things
Additionally, if we state that we are collecting information for a specific purpose, and you provide us with information, we will use it for that specific purpose. For example, if we tell you that you are submitting information to us for the purposes of applying for employment, then we will use that information to evaluate your candidacy for employment. Likewise, if you are submitting information to us for the purposes of a request for services under a warranty, then we will use that information to evaluate your request and fulfil our warranty obligations. However, there are some limited situations where we will use your information for additional reasons other than the specific purpose we identified. For example, the government requires that all companies of Acuity Brands’ size report certain information about our job applicants to ensure that we are in compliance with non-discrimination laws. And Acuity Brands may choose to share information about a warranty claim with your relationship manager so that he or she can follow up with you to ensure that the issue was resolved satisfactorily. By providing information that is identified as being collected for a specific purpose, you agree that we can use it for the identified specific purpose as well as other uses reasonably related to the specific purpose.
To Share with Others
Acuity Brands also may share your information with third parties so that they can do things on our behalf. For example, we may share your employment application with a company that performs background checks for us. Or our mobile apps may upload information to a third-party company that hosts our software products. In all cases, Acuity will only provide these parties with your information after entering contracts with these third parties that are reasonably designed to protect the privacy and security of your information. By providing this kind of information, you agree that we can use it for these purposes under this restriction.
Acuity Brands also may share your information with specific parties or the public if we have taken steps to alter the information so that it becomes non-personally identifiable. That means that this information can no longer be used to identify you as an individual, either alone or through combination with readily available public information. For example, you may respond to a customer satisfaction survey where you provide information about yourself, your use of Acuity Brands’ products, and your satisfaction with those products. Acuity Brands may send out a public announcement about the results of that survey, including the information you provided us, so long as the information cannot be readily used to identify you as an individual.
Of course, Acuity Brands may share your information with third parties if you explicitly consent to us doing so.
To Respond to Exceptional Circumstances
Finally, there are also some exceptional reasons why Acuity Brands might disclose your information. Examples of these situations include the following: to protect the security of Acuity Brands’ products and websites as well as the information provided to us by other users, to respond to claims by third parties that information provided by you violates their rights, to comply with laws or regulations applicable to Acuity Brands, including responding to subpoenas or other judicial process, or as required or beneficial in connection with the purchase or sale of any of Acuity Brand’s businesses or assets.
What You Can Do
Acuity has created a process to make it easy for you to request that we update or delete the information that we maintain about you, or that we change how we use the information we have about you. If you are interested in taking advantage of this process, you should look at the bottom of this page and click on either the link that says “DO NOT SELL” or “EXERCISE MY RIGHTS”, or both. They will lead you to the processes that will allow us to investigate what information we have about you and then take appropriate action to ensure that our use is in line with applicable law in light of your request. Alternatively, if you need help with those requests you can contact our privacy team at 844-228-4899 (a United States number) and they can assist you with submitting your request.
Acuity Brands will take commercially and technologically reasonable precautions to protect your information while it is in our possession. However, due to the nature of the Internet and current technology, no computer system is completely safe and we cannot guarantee the security of your information. This Privacy Policy describes what information Acuity Brands collects and what we do with it so that you can make an informed decision when you share information with us, given these inherent risks.
Privacy is not a “one size fits all” situation. Some people are happy to share information so long as it provides them with some benefit. Others prefer to forgo some benefits in order to maintain a greater amount of privacy. If you prefer to limit your disclosure of information, you may wish to set your browser to block cookies or set your computer to delete all cookies on a periodic basis (for more information about how Acuity Brands uses cookies in advertising, please see www.acuitybrands.com/privacy-policy/cookie-disclosure). Alternatively, you may wish to forgo installing certain software or seeking certain benefits that require the disclosure of particular information. Acuity is being as transparent as possible so that you can decide what level of disclosure is best for you considering the risks involved.
How We Can Change This Policy
Acuity may change this Privacy Policy from time to time, however we will not reduce your rights under this Privacy Policy without your explicit consent. We will post any privacy policy changes on this page and we may also provide a more prominent notice, such as providing an email notification of privacy policy changes.
