Generac – California Contractor Privacy Notice

Last Updated: June 20, 2024

Introduction. We want you to be familiar with how we collect, use, and disclose information (including “personal data” as defined below). This California Contractor Privacy Notice (“CA Contractor Notice”) describes how Generac Power Systems, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates (“Generac”, “our”, “we”, or “us”) collects, uses, discloses, or otherwise processes personal information of California residents who are independent contractors or consultants engaged by Generac (each a “Contractor”; “you” or “your”).

Notice at Collection. The following sub-sections below, read together, are intended to comply with our obligations for Notice at Collection under the CCPA: “Categories of Personal Information We May Collect or Disclose”, “Purposes of Collection, Use, and Disclosure”, “Sales and Sharing of Personal Information”, and “Retention”.

Scope and Relation to Other Notices. This CA Contractor Notice applies to “personal information”, as defined by the CCPA, whether collected online or offline, in our capacity as a business. This CA Contractor Notice is intended to satisfy the requirements of the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act, and its implementing regulations (collectively the “CCPA”).

This section does not address or apply to our handling of publicly available information or personal information that is otherwise exempt under the CCPA. This CA Contractor Notice does not apply to job applicants, employees, similar staff, or Generac officers, directors or owners employed by Generac; different notices apply. In addition, this section does not apply to individuals who visit our websites or apps or otherwise interact with us as consumers, customers, or commercial entities; please review our Global Privacy Notice.

We may provide Contractors additional notices about our information practices, including our monitoring practices (e.g., electronic monitoring, background checks, drug tests, etc.).

Our information practices may vary depending upon the circumstances, such as the location of the engagement as well as the associated qualifications and responsibilities. In addition, if you visit one of our offices or locations, we may collect information as part of our onsite security. Also, in some cases (such as where required by law), we may ask for your consent or give you certain choices prior to collecting or using certain personal information.

Who We Are. The Generac entity that is responsible for the processing of your personal data as described in this CA Contractor Notice and acts as the business that determines “why” and “how” your personal data is collected, used and disclosed is the Generac entity that is indicated as your contracting entity in your engagement contract. A list of the Generac entities that may act as the controller can be found here.

A reference to “Generac”, “we”, “our”, or “us” is a reference to the relevant Generac entity that is your contracting entity.

How We Collect Your Personal Information. We collect much of the personal information concerning you directly from you, for example, from the onboarding process and continually over the course of the engagement.

If you do not provide us with your personal information, we may not be able to process amounts owed to you, comply with our legal obligations, or manage our business. We will tell you when we ask for information what information is necessary for a statutory or contractual requirement or needed to comply with our legal obligations.

Personal Information We May Collect or Disclose. The table below sets out generally the categories of personal information (as defined by the CCPA) about Contractors that we may collect and disclose to others for a business or commercial purpose (in the last twelve (12) months). Our collection and disclosure of personal information about Contractors will vary depending upon the circumstances and nature of our interactions or relationships.

Sources of Personal Information. In general, we may collect the categories of Contractor personal information identified in the table above from the following categories of sources:

• Directly from you;
• Automatically from you or your device(s) as you use our networks;
• Recruiters and referrals;
• Service providers, representatives, and agents (such as for our IT and security purposes).

Purposes of Collection, Use, and Disclosure.  Subject to applicable legal restrictions, generally we collect, use, disclose, and process Contractor personal data as reasonably necessary for the following general purposes:

• Recruiting and evaluating Contractors: recruit, consider or otherwise evaluate Contractors, including:
• scheduling and conducting interviews;
• identifying Contractors, including by working with external recruiters;
• reviewing, assessing, and verifying information provided, and evaluating Contractors’ qualifications, suitability, and relevant characteristics;
• negotiating contracts and terms of payment with Contractors; and
• satisfying legal and regulatory obligations.
• Business operations and client services: relating to the organization and operation of our business and our performance of services to clients, including related to:
• operating our business by developing, producing, marketing, selling, and providing goods and services;
• providing after-sales services to customers;
• auditing and assessing performance and business operations, including client services and associated activities;
• training and quality control;
• satisfying client reporting and auditing obligations;
• facilitating business development opportunities, as relevant; and
• facilitating communications in furtherance of the foregoing.
• Security and monitoring: to monitor and secure our resources, network, premises, and assets, including:
• to detect, prevent, investigate, and respond to suspected or alleged misconduct or violations of any applicable law or relevant policy;
• to detect, prevent, investigate, and respond to security and privacy incidents;
• managing physical and technical access controls;
• maintaining and reviewing access and activity logs and records in order to ensure the security and functioning of our systems and assets; and
• to ensure the security and functioning of our systems and assets, and secure our offices, premises, and physical assets, including through the use of electronic access systems and video monitoring.
• Health and safety: for health and safety purposes, such as contact tracing or conducting appropriate screenings of Contractors prior to entering or accessing certain locations or premises.
• Auditing, accounting, and corporate governance: relating to financial, tax and accounting audits, and audits and assessments of our business operations, security controls, financial controls, or compliance with legal obligations, and for other internal business purposes.
• M&A and other business transactions: for planning, due diligence, and implementation of commercial transactions and business transformation, e.g., mergers, acquisitions, asset sales or transfers, bankruptcy, reorganization, or other similar business transactions.
• Defending and protecting rights: to protect and defend our rights and interests and those of third parties, including to manage and respond to Contractor and other legal disputes, to manage and respond to legal claims or disputes, and to otherwise establish, defend, or protect our rights or interests, or the rights, interests, health, or safety of others, including in the context of anticipated or actual litigation with third parties.
• Complying with legal obligations: relating to compliance with applicable legal obligations (such as hiring eligibility, responding to subpoenas, and court orders) as well as assessments, reviews, and reporting relating to such legal obligations, including under independent contractor laws and regulations, social security and tax laws, environmental regulations, workplace safety laws and regulations, and other applicable laws, regulations, opinions, and guidance.

Your personal information may be disclosed in the following circumstances:

• Your personal information will be disclosed to Generac employees where it is necessary for them to undertake their duties with respect to your engagement contract.
• We may disclose your personal information to Generac group companies to fulfill the terms of the engagement contract and for purposes consistent with this CA Contractor Notice.
• We may also disclose your personal information for the purposes described above to:
• external service providers that assist us in administering your engagement and general business operations;
• professional advisors who perform functions on our behalf, such as lawyers, bankers, auditors; and
• government, regulatory authorities, and other organizations (such as the police or other law enforcement agents) as required or authorized by law or other regulatory requirements in jurisdictions in which we operate.
• We may also disclose your personal information to third parties involved in a business transaction where we engage in a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, dissolution, reorganization, sale of some or all of our assets or stock, financing, public offering of securities, acquisition of all or a portion of our business, a similar transaction or proceeding, or steps in contemplation of such activities.
• We may disclose your personal information: (i) at your direction or with your consent or (ii) in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) comply with a legal obligation, (b) protect or defend our rights, interests or property or that of our employees, agents, members, customers and other third parties, (c) prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with our business operations, (d) act in urgent circumstances to protect the personal safety of you, other individuals or the public, or (e) protect against legal liability.

Sales and Sharing of Personal Information. The CCPA defines “sale” as disclosing or making available personal information to a third party in exchange for monetary or other valuable consideration; “sharing” includes disclosing or making available personal information to a third party for purposes of cross-context behavioral advertising. While we do not disclose personal information to third parties in exchange for monetary compensation, we may be considered as “selling” or “sharing” personal information under the CCPA because of our use of third-party ad or analytics cookies and other tools. We “sell” or “share” the following categories of personal information: (i) identifiers, and (ii) Internet or other electronic network activity information. We disclose these categories to third-party advertising networks, analytics providers, and social networks for purposes of marketing and advertising. We do not sell or share personal information about individuals we know are under the age of sixteen (16).

Retention. To the extent permitted by applicable law, we retain the personal information we collect about you in order to manage the engagement contract and store it in accordance with our internal policies, and only as reasonably necessary for the purposes described above or otherwise disclosed to you at the time of collection.

If you believe that certain personal data we retain is in need of update or correction, please contact us using the details provided in the Contacting Us section below. Please note, however, that we may retain some information if required by law or as necessary to protect ourselves from legal claims.

Sensitive Personal Information. We may use and disclose sensitive personal information as described above under Personal Information We May Collect or Disclose only as reasonably necessary (i) to perform our services requested by you, (ii) to help ensure security and integrity, including to prevent, detect, and investigate security incidents, (iii) to detect, prevent, and respond to malicious, fraudulent, deceptive, or illegal conduct, (iv) to verify or maintain the quality and safety of our services, (v) for compliance with our legal obligations, (vi) to our service providers who perform services on our behalf, and (vii) for purposes that are not for inferring characteristics about you. We do not use or disclose your sensitive personal information other than as authorized by the CCPA (pursuant to Cal. Civil Code § 1798.121 and § 7027(m) of the CCPA regulations).

Deidentified Information. For deidentified information that we collect or use, we will maintain and use deidentified information in that form and not attempt to re-identify it, except to test and analyze our deidentification processes, as required by the CCPA.

Security. We use appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, and unauthorized disclosure or access. Such measures take into account the nature of the personal information and the processing and the threats posed. Where we disclose your personal information with service providers, we instruct them in writing to hold your data securely and in line with the requirements of applicable law. Service providers must implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to ensure the security of your data.

While we endeavor to implement generally accepted security measures, no method of storage or transmission is 100% secure. In the event of a security incident, we will notify regulators and/or you as required by applicable laws and regulations. Such notice may come in the form of an email, postal mail, in-office notice, or electronic notice posted online.

California Privacy Rights. The CCPA grants Contractors specific rights regarding personal information. Subject to certain conditions and exceptions, California residents have the following rights concerning their personal information: 

• Right to Know. You have the right to request: (i) the categories of personal information we collected about you; (ii) the categories of sources from which the personal information is collected; (iii) our business or commercial purposes for collecting, selling, or sharing personal information; (iv) the categories of third parties to whom we have disclosed personal information; and (v) a copy of the specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you.
• Right to Delete. You have the right to request that we delete the personal information we have collected from you.
• Right to Correct. You have the right to request that we correct inaccuracies in your personal information.
• Right to Opt Out of Sales and Sharing. You have the right to opt out of “sales” and “sharing” of your personal information, as those terms are defined under the CCPA. To exercise this right, please follow the instructions below under Submitting CCPA Requests.
• Right to Limit Use and Disclosure of Sensitive Personal Information. You have the right to limit the use and disclosure of your sensitive personal information. We do not use or disclose Contractor sensitive personal information beyond the purposes authorized by the CCPA; thus, this right is not available to Contractors.
• Right to Non-Discrimination. You have the right not to be subjected to discriminatory treatment for exercising any of the rights described in this section.

Submitting CCPA Requests. Contractors may exercise their CCPA privacy rights as set forth below: 

• Right to Know, Delete, and Correct. Contractors may submit these requests by:
  • Emailing us at privacy@generac.com; or;
  • Calling us toll-free at 1-888-GENERAC (1-888-436-3722).
• Right to Opt Out of Sales and Sharing. To exercise these rights, please contact us as indicated above.

When you submit a request, we will take steps to verify your identity and request by matching the information provided by you with the information we have in our records. In some cases, we may request additional information in order to verify your identity, or where necessary to process your request. If we are unable to verify your identity after a good faith attempt, we may deny the request and, if so, will explain the basis for the denial.

You may also designate someone as an authorized agent to submit requests and act on your behalf. Authorized agents will be required to provide proof of their authorization in their first communication with us, and we may also require that the relevant Contractor directly verify their identity and the authority of the authorized agent.

Changes to this Notice. From time to time, we may update or modify this CA Contractor Notice, in our sole discretion, to reflect changes in legal and regulatory requirements and our practices. The updated CA Contractor Notice will be posted to the company intranet with a change to the “Last Updated” date (located at the top of this CA Contractor Notice). We encourage you to review this notice periodically to stay informed, especially before you provide personal information. In circumstances where we make updates or modifications to this CA Contractor Notice that materially alter your privacy rights, we will provide additional notice, such as via email or publication, as required by law. The updated CA Contractor Notice will take effect immediately after being posted or as otherwise notified by us.

Contacting Us. If you have questions or concerns relating to this CA Contractor Notice or privacy-related issues, please email us at privacy@Generac.com.