Rules
Part of Top smart irrigation companies for 2027, reviewed
Your smart irrigation company: what it probably knows, and who else sees it
What a smart irrigation company holds about your property, who else receives it, and the privacy questions to settle in the contract before work begins.
By the end of a normal irrigation job, a supplier holds a plan of your property, photographs of it, and a list of what is buried and where. It also has your utility account details and often the controller login that reports when the system runs.
Collecting that is not unreasonable. Ask about all of it before you sign the contract, not after the company is sold or a laptop is lost.
What to take away
- Ask what is collected, who else receives it, how long it is kept, and what happens if the business changes hands.
- Subcontractors and software vendors are separate holders of your data, so name them in the contract.
- Marketing use is a distinct question from operational use. Answer it separately.
- Privacy duties come from state law and from your contract, not from any efficiency program.
What a supplier typically holds
| Category | Examples | Question to ask |
|---|---|---|
| Site information | Plan, depths, buried services, access notes | Who receives a copy, and for how long? |
| Imagery | Photographs, sometimes aerial or drone survey | Can these be used in marketing? |
| Account data | Utility account, rebate paperwork, payment details | What is stored, and where? |
| Operational data | Run times, flow, faults, remote access credentials | Who can log in after handover? |
| Correspondence | Emails, messages, call recordings | What is the retention period? |
Program participation is a separate decision
Where a company belongs to a promotional or partner program, some information about the work may travel further. EPA describes its partner program as a national brand-building effort: a partners directory searchable by type, state, or name, partner awards, and a section on how partners make a difference in communities.
Participation is a legitimate and public thing for a company to do. It also means projects can end up described in program material, fine when the client agreed and awkward when they did not. Ask whether your job may be submitted anywhere, and say yes or no explicitly.
Where the actual rules come from
Not from a federal efficiency label. Data protection duties in the United States are set mainly by state law, and requirements vary considerably by state. The pattern is familiar in water work.
EPA's regulations explorer for water reuse gathers summaries of state reuse rules, searchable by water source and end use. It notes the summaries are not legally binding and are current only as of a stated date.
Readers should refer to their state for the latest information. Treat any national summary of privacy obligations the same way, including this one, and check your own state.
What to put in the contract
- A retention period for site plans, photographs, and access notes.
- A named list of subcontractors and software vendors who will receive data.
- Explicit consent, or refusal, for marketing and program use of images and results.
- A handover clause transferring or deleting remote access credentials.
- A clause covering what happens to your records if the business is sold or closes.
Those sit alongside the system-side questions in our note on privacy and smart irrigation, and belong in the same file as the twenty supplier checks.
Common questions
Can I refuse photographs? You can ask that they be for internal record only. Some documentation is needed for warranty work, so refusing entirely may not be practical.
Who owns the controller account after handover? Whoever the terms say. Ask for it to be transferred to you in writing at handover, and change the password.
Is a drone survey a problem? It may raise local rules about flight and about imaging neighboring property. Ask what will be captured and what is retained.
Does a national efficiency program regulate this? No. Those programs cover product and service performance. Privacy comes from your contract and your state's law.
