Alliant Energy
Utilities
33
out of 100. Number 362 of 512, counting from the worst.
Where Alliant Energy does well
- Arbitration 2 of 20. Few problems found.
- No forced arbitration or class-action waiver was found in the website Terms of Use; core utility disputes route to the state utility commission (Iowa Utilities Commission / Wisconsin PSC), a public regulator.
- Granular smart-meter usage data (hourly/daily readings) is explicitly excluded both from data sales and from advertising-partner sharing.
- As a regulated utility, actual electric/gas rates cannot change unilaterally — they require commission approval.
- Vendor contracts are required to restrict personal data to work performed for Alliant and to return or destroy granular usage data when no longer needed.
- Third-party marketing sharing is opt-in by default outside the stated exceptions.
Alliant admits it sells your name, mailing address, and what kind of energy service you buy to third parties for their own direct marketing.
The fine print
6 clauses and findings from the draft archive, dated 1 October 2026. The plain English comes first; the small print is the company's own words. None of these has been checked yet.
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Alliant admits it sells your name, mailing address, and what kind of energy service you buy to third parties for their own direct marketing. Your actual smart-meter usage data is carved out, but everything else can be sold. Iowa residents get a right to opt out of the sale.
We may sell personal information, including name, mailing address and type of service (but excluding granular usage data) to third parties for their direct marketing purposes.
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They can rewrite the website terms whenever they want, with only a date-stamp change as notice, and simply continuing to use the site counts as you agreeing to the new terms.
Alliant Energy reserves the right to revise and update these Terms at any time and in its sole discretion. If we make changes to these Terms, we will notify you by revising the date above and, in some cases, we may provide you with additional notice... Your continued use of the Site and the services described will confirm your acceptance of the revised Terms.
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Anything you upload to their site — photos, videos, even your name and likeness — they can use forever, anywhere, sublicense to others, and modify, without paying you. You keep ownership in name only.
You grant Alliant Energy and its subsidiaries and affiliates a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully paid and sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, copy, transmit, distribute, create derivative works from, publicly perform and display your User Content and any name, username or likeness provided in connection with your User Content in all media formats and channels now known or later developed without compensation to you.
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No matter what goes wrong with their website — including negligence — the most you can ever recover is $100.
In no event shall the aggregate liability of Alliant Energy... arising out of or relating to the use of or inability to use the Site or to these Terms exceed one hundred U.S. dollars ($100.00).
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Signing up for an online account auto-enrolls you in paperless billing via a pre-checked box; you have to notice and opt out to keep getting paper bills.
When you enroll in My Account, you'll automatically be signed up for Paperless Billing. Prefer a paper bill? Just uncheck the box.
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In the Community Solar subscription contract (a voluntary 20-year program), you give up your right to a jury trial for any dispute; disputes that can't be resolved in 30 days go to the state utility Commission instead.
Each Party hereby irrevocably and unconditionally waives any right to a trial by jury for the resolution of any dispute arising under this Contract.
Alliant Energy Community Solar Contract Terms and Conditions
How these were found
Documents read directly via browser_open on 2026-10-01: Privacy Policy (last updated August 27, 2025) at alliantenergy.com/privacy and Website Terms of Use (last updated July 17, 2023). UGC Terms and Community Solar contract terms read from their public pages; no mirrors needed, no blocking encountered. The fetched Terms of Use page is a condensed summary format (67 lines); no arbitration clause appeared in it. Only public documents were reviewed — actual utility service is governed by state-approved tariffs (not examined), which constrain much of what could otherwise be sneaky. Alliant is a regulated monopoly utility, so many standard sneakiness categories (auto-renew traps, unilateral price hikes) are inherently limited; scored accordingly modest.
These notes come from the original draft and are not independent verification.