Privacy Policy
This policy explains what personal information SolarRatings.org collects, how we use and share it, and the rights available to you under federal and state law.
1. Summary of Key Points
Do we sell or share personal information? Yes. Connecting homeowners with solar companies is the core function of our business, and we are direct about that. See Section 4.
Do we collect sensitive personal information? No. We do not knowingly collect data such as government ID numbers, health information, biometric data, or precise device geolocation.
How do you exercise your rights? Use our privacy request form or email privacy@solarratings.org. See Sections 11 and 14.
This policy applies to all visitors and users of solarratings.org and any sub-domains we operate. It does not apply to the websites of Service Professionals to whom we refer you.
Who we are
SolarRatings.org is owned and operated by Direct Home Holding Company LLC, a Utah limited liability company. SolarRatings.org is a website and brand (d/b/a) of Direct Home Holding Company LLC, which also operates other home-services brands, including DirectSolar. References in this policy to “we,” “us,” or “our” mean Direct Home Holding Company LLC acting through SolarRatings.org.
The marketing companies and solar installers who may contact you after you request quotes are listed by name on our Marketing & Installer Partners page.
2. Information We Collect
Information you provide directly
When you use our solar savings estimator or request quotes, we collect: first and last name, email address, phone number, property address, ZIP code, estimated monthly electric bill amount, roof information (age, type, ownership status), and optional financing or purchase-timeline preferences. If you consent to be contacted, we record the consent timestamp and the page URL where consent was given. All information you provide must be true, complete, and accurate.
Information collected automatically
Our servers and third-party analytics tools automatically collect: IP address, browser type and version, operating system, referring URL, pages visited and time spent, device identifiers, and general geographic location inferred from your IP. We use cookies and similar technologies — see Section 6.
Information from other sources
We may receive information about you from advertising platforms (e.g., Facebook Lead Ads, Google Lead Form Extensions) when you submit your information through an ad. We may also receive basic property-record data from public permit databases and third-party enrichment services to verify or supplement what you provide.
Inferences we create
We may combine the information above to create inferences about your property and your quote request — for example, an estimated roof age, an estimated solar-savings figure, or a score reflecting how ready your home appears to be for solar. These inferences are used to match you with appropriate Service Professionals and may be shared with them alongside your quote request.
3. How We Use Your Information
- To fulfill your quote request: match your property and preferences with licensed solar installers in your area.
- To communicate with you: send a confirmation, follow-up information about your estimate, or educational solar content you have opted into.
- To improve the service: analyze aggregate trends, measure page performance, and refine our installer-review methodology.
- To fulfill legal obligations: respond to privacy rights requests, comply with applicable law, and maintain records required by consumer-protection regulations.
- To prevent fraud and abuse: detect spam submissions and protect the integrity of the quote-matching process.
- To establish or defend legal claims: maintain consent and transaction records needed to respond to complaints, investigations, or litigation.
5. Consent to Be Contacted (TCPA)
By submitting a quote request, you provide your prior express written consent (within the meaning of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. § 227) to be contacted by SolarRatings.org, our affiliates, and the Service Professionals to whom we refer your information. Contact may include calls, text messages, and emails, including calls placed using an automatic telephone dialing system or prerecorded/artificial voice messages, to the phone number(s) you provide. This consent applies even if your number appears on any federal, state, internal, or corporate Do Not Call list. Consent is not a condition of any purchase or receipt of services. Message and data rates may apply; message frequency may vary.
You may revoke consent to calls and texts at any time by: (a) replying STOP to any text message, (b) telling any caller that you revoke consent, or (c) sending a written revocation to privacy@solarratings.org. Revoking consent does not delete previously shared data; if you also want us to delete your data, see Section 11.
Call recording
Calls between you and us may be recorded and monitored for quality assurance, training, compliance, and dispute-resolution purposes, as permitted by law. You should assume that Service Professionals may also record their calls with you in accordance with their own policies and applicable law.
7. How Long We Keep Your Information
Lead records (the information submitted through our estimator) are retained for up to five (5) years from the date of collection, unless you request deletion or a shorter retention is required by law. Consent records are retained for the minimum period required by applicable TCPA guidance, and we may retain records for the duration of any applicable statute of limitations to enable us to defend against actual or potential claims. Analytics and server log data are retained for up to 26 months.
When data is no longer needed, we delete or anonymize it. Copies held by Service Professionals are subject to their own retention policies.
8. How We Keep Your Information Safe
We use industry-standard technical and organizational measures including encryption in transit (TLS), access controls limited to authorized personnel, and regular security reviews. However, no method of electronic transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot warrant or guarantee that unauthorized third parties will never defeat our security measures. Transmission of personal information to and from our site is at your own risk. We will notify you of a breach as required by law.
9. Children and Minors
This site is not directed at persons under 18 years of age, and we do not knowingly collect, sell, or share personal information from anyone under 18. Consistent with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a minor has submitted information to us, contact us at privacy@solarratings.org and we will promptly delete it.
10. International Data Transfers
SolarRatings.org is operated in the United States and is intended for US residents. If you are located outside the US, your information will be transferred to and processed in the US, where privacy laws may differ from those in your country.
11. Your Privacy Rights
Depending on your state of residence, you may have some or all of the following rights:
- Access / Know: request a copy of the personal information we hold about you and the categories of third parties with whom we share it.
- Correction: request that we correct inaccurate personal information.
- Deletion: request that we delete your personal information, subject to certain exceptions.
- Portability: receive a copy of your personal information in a portable, readily usable format.
- Opt out of sale / sharing: direct us to stop selling or sharing your personal information with third parties. Use Do Not Sell My Personal Information.
- Opt out of targeted advertising: request that we stop using your data for cross-context behavioral advertising.
- Non-discrimination: we will not deny you service, charge different prices, or provide a lesser-quality experience because you exercise your privacy rights.
- Appeal: if we deny your request, you may appeal by contacting us at privacy@solarratings.org with the subject line “Privacy Rights Appeal.” If your appeal is denied, you may submit a complaint to your state attorney general.
To exercise any right, visit our privacy request form or email privacy@solarratings.org. We will verify your identity before processing requests and respond within 45 days (extendable by an additional 45 days with notice). You may designate an authorized agent to submit a request on your behalf; we may deny a request from an agent who does not submit proof of authorization.
Opting out of marketing communications
You can unsubscribe from our marketing emails at any time using the unsubscribe link in any email, or stop marketing texts by replying STOP. We may still send you transactional or service-related messages (for example, a confirmation of a privacy request).
12. Global Privacy Control (GPC) & Do-Not-Track Signals
We honor the Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal. GPC is a browser- or extension-based setting that tells websites you wish to opt out of the sale and sharing of your personal information. Consistent with the California CCPA/CPRA regulations effective January 1, 2026, when we detect a GPC signal — sent as the Sec-GPC request header and/or the navigator.globalPrivacyControl browser property — we automatically treat it as a valid opt-out of sale/sharing for that browser. No account or form submission is required, and a GPC opt-out does not require us to verify your identity.
When a GPC signal is detected, we (a) record the opt-out through the same process as a manual Do Not Sell My Personal Information request, (b) suppress ad and analytics data sharing for that browser session, and (c) display a visible on-screen confirmation so you can see that your opt-out was recognized and processed. This confirmation satisfies the CCPA/CPRA requirement to notify you that your opt-out preference has been honored. Because a GPC signal is tied to your browser, it applies to the device and browser that sent it; if you would also like us to associate the opt-out with your name and contact record, submit a request on our Do Not Sell page.
Some older browsers transmit a legacy Do Not Track (DNT) signal. DNT was never finalized as a standard, so we do not rely on it; GPC is the supported opt-out mechanism. The opt-out rights described in Section 11 are available regardless of whether your browser sends a GPC or DNT signal.
13. US State Privacy Rights
A growing number of states — including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Montana, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Virginia — have enacted comprehensive consumer privacy laws. Residents of these states are entitled to the rights described in Section 11. We handle all requests regardless of state residency.
| State | Law | Applicable rights (summary) |
|---|---|---|
| California | CCPA / CPRA | Know, delete, correct, opt out of sale/share, opt out of sensitive data use, non-discrimination, appeal |
| Colorado | CPA | Access, delete, correct, portability, opt out of sale and targeted advertising, appeal |
| Connecticut | CTDPA | Access, delete, correct, portability, opt out of sale and profiling, appeal |
| Virginia | VCDPA | Access, delete, correct, portability, opt out of sale and targeted advertising, appeal |
| Utah | UCPA | Access, delete, portability, opt out of sale and targeted advertising |
| Texas, Oregon, Montana, Florida, Delaware, and others | Various 2024–2026 enactments | Substantially similar rights — see our privacy request form for details |
Categories of personal information collected (CCPA categories), and whether each is sold or shared:
| Category | Examples | Collected | Sold / Shared |
|---|---|---|---|
| Identifiers | Name, email, phone, IP address | Yes | Yes — to Service Professionals |
| Customer records | Address, property details, electric bill | Yes | Yes — to Service Professionals |
| Commercial information | Quote-request details, purchase-timeline preferences | Yes | Yes — to Service Professionals |
| Internet / network activity | Browse history on our site, cookie data | Yes | Limited — analytics and advertising providers only |
| Geolocation | Property address, ZIP code (not precise device GPS) | Yes | Yes — to match local installers |
| Audio / electronic information | Call recordings made in connection with our business | Yes (when calls occur) | No |
| Inferences | Estimated roof age, savings estimate, solar-readiness score | Yes | Yes — to Service Professionals |
| Sensitive personal information | None intentionally collected | No | No |
| Financial information | Estimated monthly electric bill (not bank/credit data) | Yes (self-reported estimate only) | Yes — to Service Professionals |
California “Shine the Light” law
California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits California residents to request, once a year and free of charge, information about the categories of personal information (if any) we disclosed to third parties for their direct-marketing purposes and the names and addresses of those third parties in the preceding calendar year. Submit your request in writing to privacy@solarratings.org with the subject line “Shine the Light Request.”
14. How to Exercise Your Rights & Contact Us
To submit a privacy rights request — opt out of sale/sharing, request a copy of your data, or ask us to delete your information — use our Privacy Request Form or email privacy@solarratings.org with the subject line “Privacy Rights Request.”
We will verify your identity (typically by matching the email address you provide against our records), acknowledge your request within 10 business days, and complete the request within 45 calendar days. We may extend this period by an additional 45 days if needed, with advance notice.
Privacy Officer
Direct Home Holding Company LLC (d/b/a DirectSolar)
SolarRatings.org / DirectSolar.ai
Email: privacy@solarratings.org
Disputes relating to this Privacy Policy — including any claim relating to the contact consents in Section 5 — are governed by the dispute-resolution provisions of our Terms of Use, including binding arbitration and a class-action waiver, which are incorporated here by reference.
This policy may be updated periodically. Material changes will be announced by posting the new policy with an updated “Last updated” date. Continued use of the site after changes constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.