We collect information that you voluntarily provide to us (like your name, email address, and financial account information) as well as information about how you interact with our website (like the pages you visit).

Consumers Energy collects Customer Account Information, Personal Information, and Consumption Data as necessary to accomplish its Primary Purposes such as providing energy services. Examples of the information collected include, but are not limited to:

• Contact information that allows us to communicate with you, including your name, address, telephone number and email address.
• Billing and payment information, including your payment data, credit history, driver’s license or state ID number and Social Security Number.
• Electric and natural gas Consumption Data gathered by our metering systems such as:
  • Gas data: volume of gas (ccf, mcf), British Thermal Units (BTUs, therms, decatherms, dth)
  • Electric data: kilowatt (kW), kilowatt-hour (kWh), voltage, voltage-ampere reactive (VAR), power factor (PF)
  • other information, such as outage and tampering events, that is collected by utility meters
• Information gathered when you choose to participate in company programs or services, such as bill payment assistance, shut-off protection, renewable energy, demand-side management, load management or energy efficiency, or Secondary Purposes like VAPS or Appliance Service Plans.
• For the purposes of analysis and troubleshooting of your digital experience we collect anonymized website or mobile application cookie/usage analytics data and for the purposes of analysis on how visitors use the Consumers Energy website or mobile applications. behavioral Information (e.g. how you have interacted with the website or app, mouse or touch movements, scrolls, mouse clicks, screen taps or zoom information; time of engagement, etc.).
• We may supplement the information we collect from you with information from other sources, such as publicly available information from commercially available sources, as well as data derived from our own enterprise data analytics.

The data we hold undergoes regular completeness and accuracy checks to find and remediate any potential errors.

We use your information to provide you with the services you request, to provide customer service, and to improve website customer experience.

We use information collected from you to fulfill the Primary Purpose for which it is collected to provide the requested service. Use of your data for reasons other than the purpose collected, if not ordered by the MPSC, requires your Informed Customer Consent. This includes use of your information by the Company for its Secondary Purposes.

We share your information with contractors we use to conduct our business. If required by applicable law, legal process, or regulators, we will share requested information.

Consumers Energy will not disclose your information to third parties without your Written Consent with the following exceptions:

• When it is necessary or related to our provision of electric or natural gas services (Primary Purposes), Consumers Energy may disclose your information to agents and Contractors working on behalf of the company without first obtaining your consent.
• Consumers Energy will disclose your information as directed or required by any warrants, court orders, subpoena, or regulatory requirement as ordered by the MPSC. The provision of such information will be reasonably limited to the amount authorized by law or reasonably necessary to fulfill a request compelled by law.
• We may provide third parties with aggregated and non-identifiable data, containing general characteristics of a customer group, which is used for analysis, reporting or program designs.
• Specific Customer Account Information either with your Informed Customer Consent (written or oral) or after we ensure vendors or a third-party contractor has agreed to maintain the data in accordance with our privacy policies and standards.
• We will not sell your information, except in connection with sales of certain aged receivables to collection firms for purposes of removing this liability from its accounts.

Disclosures of name and address to a provider of VAPS, regardless of whether that provider is a utility affiliate or other entity within the corporate structure or a third-party provider or a value-added program or service competitor in compliance with MCL 460.10ee(10)(a) and Mich Admin Code, R 460.10109(2).

We protect your information using industry-standard technologies such as device encryption, physical safeguards such as locked devices and buildings, and procedural safeguards such as restrictions on who can access what data.

We use industry-standard administrative, technical, and physical security measures to ensure the integrity of our systems and to protect your information from unauthorized access, destruction or alteration. Such protection measures include an enterprise security program based upon industry standard frameworks, security awareness for employees, dedicated team to detect and respond to threats, and collaboration with peers, state and federal partners.

To understand what information we have about you, or if you believe we may have incorrect data associated with you or your account, please call Customer Service at 1-800-477-5050. There, you can speak with a Consumers Energy representative to find out how to request changes or corrections to your information.

You have a right to know what information Consumers Energy maintains about you, except for proprietary data or that which is used for internal Consumers Energy business purposes only. The Company will respond to requests for the information which Consumers Energy maintains about you within 10 business days after you contact us.

Some requests for information extend beyond typical customer information. Fulfilling these requests requires special data processing that is not a part of normal utility service and results in expenses that would not otherwise be incurred. Such requests are fulfilled at the discretion of the Company. The costs of fulfilling any special requests shall be borne solely by you and be based on the specifics of the data request and the associated costs of developing, processing, and transmitting the requested data.