Brightspeed privacy notice overview

Effective Date: January 19, 2023

 

At Brightspeed, we want you to know how we collect, use, and share personal information. This notice applies when you visit brightspeed.com and other websites that link to this privacy notice (“Sites”), when you subscribe to or access any of our voice, Internet, customer support and protection plans or other services (“Services”) for both personal and business use. It applies only to Brightspeed Sites and Services. If you access services from another company through Brightspeed, the other company’s privacy notice will apply to the information that they collect and use.

Information We Collect Directly from You

We collect your name, contact information, financial, payment, or billing information, and other information that you choose to provide to us when you visit our Sites, join our email list, contact us, create an account, apply for or subscribe to our Services, or interact with us for other purposes.  We may also ask for other information such as log-in information for your account, date of birth, Social Security number, or driver’s license number to authenticate your identity or if a credit check is needed. We may collect information from the subscription process even if you do not end up subscribing.

Information We Automatically Collect when you use our Sites or Services  

When you visit our Sites, we automatically collect technical information such as the type of browser you are using, your IP (Internet Protocol) address, your activities on the Sites, the type of device you are using, the time and date of your visit, your zip code, and other information we collect through cookies and similar technology. We may collect this information on our own or by using suppliers like analytics service providers. To learn more about the ways we use this information and the choices available to help you protect your privacy, please look at the “Digital Advertising & Analytics” section of this privacy policy.

When we provide our Services, we may automatically collect information about how the Services are used. For example, if you use our voice services, we may log dates, times, and the telephone numbers of calls made from your account. When you use our Internet services, we may collect technical information about Internet usage, such as the IP address and the access volume, activities, and times. We may also gather technical details from the device you use to connect to the Internet, such as the number and types of devices connected to your home network and whether your devices are connected via Wi-Fi or other technology.

Information We Collect About You from Other Sources

When you use our Services, we may collect information about you from consumer reporting agencies if we need to check your credit history before we can open your account. We may also get contact information from marketing companies and may combine the information we get from other sources with information we collect ourselves.

We use the information we collect to operate our business and to improve your experiences. Below are some examples of such uses:

  • To respond to your questions when you contact us;
  • To set up your account and provide our Services to you;
  • To decide whether we can extend credit to you if this is needed for the Services;
  • To bill and collect for our Services;
  • To operate, personalize, and improve the Sites and Services;
  • For troubleshooting purposes to identify and fix a service issue;
  • To provide customer support;
  • To send updates and offers to you; and
  • To comply with the law; and
  • To keep our Sites and Services secure.

Certain information we collect through our Services is subject to legal restrictions on sharing. Please see the "Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI)” section  for more information. When the law allows, we may share the information we collect:

  • With third-party service providers who process information on our behalf, such as companies that help us market and operate our Sites and Services;
  • With consumer reporting agencies in some cases, such as when an account is in collections;
  • With our parent company and with other affiliates or joint venture partners;
  • With other carriers and service providers, when required by law, when you have provided permission, to help them provide and bill for services, or when we suspect fraud, harassment, threats, or similar activity;
  • To prepare for or carry out a corporate sale, merger, or acquisition, or other transfer of all or part of our assets;
  • Because of a subpoena, court order, governmental inquiry, or other legal process or as otherwise permitted or required by law;
  • To protect our rights or the rights of others, or for safety or security reasons; and
  • With your consent or direction, or under other privacy notices we give you.

 

When you use our voice services, we may also disclose information about you, such as your name and phone number, to third parties through call-identifying features, like Caller ID. Additionally, for voice services, we may be required by law to share your name, address, and phone number with third parties like directory assistance providers and emergency service providers. You can block or limit some of this sharing. Please review your options below in the “Your privacy choices” section. 

We may share information from the Sites and Services from which identifying information has been removed so that it does not identify you personally to provide metrics reports to our business customers and service suppliers or with advertising and other companies to deliver or assess the effectiveness of advertising and marketing campaigns. Such data is sometimes called de-identified and/or aggregated because personal identifiers have been removed from de-identified data and aggregated data has been combined with other data in summary form so it cannot be used to personally identify you.

Brightspeed does not sell data we collect through our Services. However, when you visit our Sites, we may allow some advertising providers to collect technical data on our Sites for targeted advertising. Targeted advertising is a way to provide more personalized online ads based on data about your use of different websites, apps, and devices over time. You can choose to opt out of this targeted advertising by using our privacy center on our website. Opting out will not affect your use of our Sites.

You can also visit the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”) Webchoices tool at www.aboutads.info to learn more or to opt out of this type of advertising on websites by companies in the DAA program. If you delete your cookies or use a different browser or mobile device, you should renew your opt-out choices made through the DAA Webchoices tool. Opting out will not stop advertising in your browser or applications, but it might make the ads you see less relevant to your interests.

We may also work with third parties that collect data about your use of the Sites and other sites or apps over time for non-advertising purposes. For example, Brightspeed uses Google Analytics and other third-party services to improve the Sites and for our analytics and marketing. For more information about how Google Analytics collects and uses data when you use our Sites, visit www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners, and to opt out of Google Analytics, visit tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. Your browser may also offer tools to limit the use of cookies or to delete cookies. The tradeoff is that if you use these tools, then the websites you visit, including our Sites, may not work as intended.

The Sites may have links to third-party websites or apps. We do not control those websites or apps, and they are not covered by this privacy policy. You should review the privacy policies of other websites or apps that you use to learn about their practices.

The Sites may also have integrated social media tools or “plug-ins” offered by third parties. If you interact with these tools on the Sites, those other companies may collect information about you. These companies are not covered by this privacy policy. They may use and share such information under your account settings, including by sharing information with the general public.

When you have an account with us, you can review, change, or update certain account information by logging into your account or by contacting us at 833-MYBRSPD. 

When you visit our Sites, you can select and manage your cookie preferences on our Privacy preference center.

You can choose not to receive email marketing from us by using the link provided at the bottom of each marketing message, by sending an email to privacy@brightspeed.com, or completing this form: https://preferences.brightspeed.com/dont_sell. If you opt out of email marketing, we will still send you messages related to our transactions and relationship with you, like account updates.

When we provide traditional voice services (non-VOIP), you also have the following choices.

  • You can choose to have a non-published telephone number. A non-published number will not be printed in telephone directories and Directory Assistance operators will not provide the number to callers requesting it. To make this choice, please contact us through our chat services or at 833-MYBRSPD.
  • You can choose to have a non-listed telephone number. A non-listed number will not be printed in telephone directories but will be provided through Directory Assistance. To make this choice, please contact us through our chat services or at 833-MYBRSPD.
  • If you choose to be listed in a directory, you may limit the information that will be included by contacting us through our chat services or at 833-MYBRSPD.
  • Please note that we are required to give customer information, regardless of non-published or non-listed status, to directory publishers for directory deliveries and to directory assistance providers.
  • Also, non-published or non-listed status does not impact our legal responsibilities to provide information to law enforcement pursuant to a lawful request.

 

Please see the  “Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI)” section for additional choices that may be available. For choices related to targeted advertising on our Sites, please see the “Digital Advertising & Analytics” section.

If you are a resident of a state with consumer data privacy rights, you may have certain data subject rights, including the right to access your information. To file a data subject request, please complete the Data Subject Request Form. Not all states provide this right to their residents.

If you are a Texas resident and wish to file a complaint with the Texas Attorney General regarding your data privacy rights, please follow this link: File a Consumer Complaint | Office of the Attorney General, which will redirect you to the Texas Attorney General's website and their complaint process.

This section gives you more information about how we collect, use, and share Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) related to our voice services. Under federal law, you have a right, and we have a duty, to protect the confidentiality of CPNI. We have implemented policies and procedures to help ensure our compliance with the CPNI rules adopted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and we perform ongoing reviews of our compliance. We also certify our compliance with applicable CPNI rules to the FCC annually. The bottom line is that we do not intentionally use, access, or disclose your CPNI to affiliates or third parties without your permission, except as allowed under the FCC’s rules or other applicable law. 

CPNI is information that relates to the quantity, technical configuration, type, destination, location, and use of the voice services we provide to you as our customer and includes information about what voice services you subscribe to, how you use them, and the bills you get. CPNI does not include our published directories that may include your name, address, or telephone number, and this section does not apply to our directories.

How does Brightspeed use and share CPNI?

We use CPNI primarily to provide services to you, including to:

  • Bill and collect for our services and process payments;
  • Set up your account and provide our services;
  • Market our services that are similar to services you already use; and
  • Fix a service issue, provide customer support, and troubleshoot.
     

To provide our services, we may share CPNI with our affiliates and with third-party service providers. In addition, we share CPNI with other third parties, such as law enforcement, to comply with the law, protect our rights, and protect both our customers and users of other carriers’ services.

We will share your CPNI with you upon request after verifying your identity. Brightspeed may use, share, and allow access to CPNI in other ways, with your approval, as explained in other parts of this Notice.

What are Your Rights Regarding your CPNI?

Under the law, you have certain rights related to your CPNI. In some cases, we must ask for your approval before we can use, share, or allow access to your CPNI. This is called an “opt in” approval. When we ask for this approval, we will tell you how we want to use, share, or allow access to your CPNI, and who we will provide your CPNI to, if you approve.

You also have the right to “opt out” of our use of CPNI to market types of communications service(s) to you that you are not already using, and our sharing of CPNI with our agents and affiliates to do this marketing. For example, if you use our local voice services, we might use your CPNI to market our long-distance voice services to you, unless you choose to opt out.

How to opt-out of use of your CPNI?

You can opt out by sending an email to privacy@brightspeed.com. Please include this in the subject line of the email: CPNI Data Opt-Out Request.

Your choices will apply until you change them, and you can change your mind at any time by emailing us at this same email address.

Opting out of our use and sharing of CPNI for marketing purposes will not affect how you can use our services that you subscribe to, but if you do not opt out then we can offer you more services to meet your communications needs. If you do opt out, we may still market to you, but the marketing will not be based on your CPNI.

What are the Rules about accessing my CPNI?

Calls to Brightspeed's Customer Service:

When a call is made to the Brightspeed Customer Service line, a caller must be authenticated prior to receiving any CPNI information. The customer must be able to authenticate by: (1) providing the pre-established CPNI password; (2) calling the customer back at the number of record on the account; or (3) sending the information via postal service to the address of record on the account. The call center representative will not be able to discuss any details of CPNI over the phone unless the caller provides call details or has the pre-established password.

In Person Access to Account Information:

Customers seeking in person access to their account need to have a valid Government-issued photo ID, and the name on that identification matches the name of the account holder.

Online Access to Account Information:

Customers seeking online access to their account must have their account username, password or security access code established before they are granted access.

What About Business Accounts and CPNI?

Where Brightspeed and a business have a contractual relationship, and the business has access to a dedicated account representative, the authentication processes used by the parties may be different and notifications may not be sent. Customers seeking online access to their account must have their account username, password or security access code established before they are granted access. Otherwise, our practices with respect to CPNI access and required notifications remain the same.

Business accounts may also have designated Authorized Users. The primary account holder may designate other Authorized Users to access and manage the account.

We take the security of our customer information seriously. We do several things to protect it:

  • We have administrative, physical and technical controls to safeguard it.
  • We train our employees in the importance of protecting it.
  • We require businesses that act on our behalf and have access to our information to keep information about you confidential and secure.

 

Like most companies, while we have security measures and policies in place to protect against the unauthorized access, misuse and disclosure of information under our control, we cannot guarantee that your information will never be disclosed in a manner inconsistent with our policies and practices or that our safeguards will prohibit all attempts to defeat these measures. If you think information about you or others has been disclosed without proper authorization, please contact our Privacy Office at privacy@brightspeed.com or by mail to: Chief Privacy Officer, Brightspeed, P.O. Box 1330, 717 McGilvary Street, Fayetteville, NC 28301.

Brightspeed services are intended for a general audience and are not directed to children less than 13 years of age. Brightspeed does not collect personal information as defined by the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) in a manner that is not permitted by COPPA.

At Brightspeed, we want you to know how we collect, use, and share personal information. This Privacy Notice applies to California residents who work for or apply to work for Brightspeed. We collect, retain and process information about you when you apply to work, during the work relationship, and after the work relationship ends. We collect this information directly from you, from internal sources such as a manager, supervisor, or colleagues, or from external sources such as a former or current employer, references, a government agency, or service provider. Some of the information we collect is Personal Information that identifies, relates to, describes, can be associated with, is linked to, or could be linked to an identified or identifiable individual or household, either directly or indirectly.  

We use this information for our business purposes as we describe in more detail in the table below.  Brightspeed does not sell applicant or worker Personal Information or share it for purposes of cross-context behavioral advertising. To run our business, we may share Personal Information with our affiliated companies, third-party service providers, and government agencies. These service providers are under contract to protect your information, to use it only to perform their contractual obligations, and to access only the Personal Information needed to provide the services. The table below lists the categories of Personal Information collected by us in the last 12 months, the purpose of its collection and use, and if it is shared, the category of party it is shared with and the purpose of sharing.   

If you are not a resident of California who works for or has applied to work for Brightspeed, please see our general Privacy Notice at https://www.brightspeed.com/privacy-notice/.

Click Here for the Categories of Personal Information Collected in the Last 12 Months

Your Privacy Rights and Choices

California law gives its residents certain rights when it comes to their personal information. California residents that apply to work for or work for our company can exercise these rights by submitting a Data Subject Request using the form at the link, by emailing the Privacy Office at privacy@brightspeed.com or by mail to: Chief Privacy Officer, Brightspeed Legal Department, P.O. Box 1330, 717 McGilvary Street, Fayetteville, NC 28301.

We must verify your identity before we can fulfill your request and will request identification documents or clarifying information from you to help us do so. If we cannot verify your identity, we will not be able to process your Data Subject Request. We will notify you to explain if that applies to your request and to provide you with feedback on if and how your request will be fulfilled.

The rights are:

1. The right to know what personal information about you we have collected, from what sources, whether it was sold or shared, and the right to access Personal Information.

• You may submit a Data Subject Request to request the categories of personal information collected, the categories of sources from which it was collected, the categories of third parties to whom it is disclosed, and the specific pieces of personal information collected.

2. The right to correct a perceived error in your data.

• We will ask you to provide documentation supporting your request for correction.

3. The right to delete information.

• The law permits us to retain certain data that is necessary to run our business or comply with laws so we may not delete all your data. We will inform you if this applies to your request.

4. The right to request that your information not be sold or shared.

• Brightspeed does not sell personal information. The law permits us to share certain data and you may not be able to restrict our ability to share it. We will inform you if this applies to your request.

5. The right to limit use and disclosure of Sensitive Personal Information.

• The law permits us to use and disclose certain data and you may not be able to limit its use or disclosure. We will inform you if this applies to your request.

6. The right to not be retaliated against for exercising these rights.

• You will not be disadvantaged in any way for exercising your rights.

Authorized Agents

You may designate an authorized agent to submit data subject requests on your behalf. Your agent will need a valid power of attorney or written permission signed by you. If the agent relies on written permission, we will need to verify the agent’s identity, as well as your identity. We may also contact you directly to confirm the permission. Your authorized agent can submit your Data Subject Request or other written request to Brightspeed’s Privacy Office at the contact details listed below.

Data Retention of Your Personal Information

We keep Personal Information for different lengths of time depending on the following criteria: how long federal and state laws require us to keep it; and what is required to comply with our contracts; run our business; to preserve data relevant to ongoing litigation, comply with government orders or investigations. 

Changes to the Privacy Notice

We will update this notice when necessary to reflect changes in the law, regulations, our information practices, to reflect feedback we receive, and to keep it accurate and complete. Please check this page for updates.

Contact Brightspeed

If you have questions about this privacy policy or about how your Personal Information is processed, please contact us:

  • By email to privacy@brightspeed.com 
  • By mail to the Chief Privacy Officer, Brightspeed Legal Department, P.O. Box 1330, 717 McGilvary Street, Fayetteville, NC 28301.
  • By calling 833-MYBRSPD.

If you have questions, comments, or concerns about this privacy policy, please contact us:

Chief Privacy Officer
Brightspeed
P.O. Box 1330
717 McGilvary Street
Fayetteville, NC 28301

We will update this Privacy Policy when necessary to reflect changes in our information practices, to reflect feedback we receive and as necessary to keep it accurate and complete. When we post changes to this Privacy Notice, we will revise the date at the beginning of this Privacy Policy. We encourage you to visit this page from time to time to learn about any updates.

Was this page helpful?

Footer logo

About Brightspeed  |  Careers  |  Newsroom  |  Legal   |  Privacy Notice  |  Tariffs  |  Customers with Disabilities  |  Site Map 
| Privacy preference center | Accessibility
Residential  |  Small Business  |  Enterprise
©2024 Connect Holding LLC. All Rights Reserved. Third party marks are the property of their respective owners.