1. Who We Are
SwitchPilot ("we", "us", "our") is an energy comparison service that helps UK households find better energy deals. We show tariffs from multiple suppliers so you can compare and switch. Our registered address is 128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX. For data protection queries, contact us at team@switch-pilot.com.
2. What Data We Collect
2.1 Waitlist and Signup Data
When you join our waitlist via the homepage or tariff tracker, we collect:
- Email address
- Postcode and property address (house number, street, city)
- Annual energy usage (kWh), fuel type, and regional information used to personalise tariff recommendations
- The source you arrived from, where available (UTM parameters or browser referrer)
We do not collect your bank account details. If you switch through a supplier link on our site, you set up your account directly with the supplier. SwitchPilot never sits in the payment flow.
2.2 Switch Interaction Data
When you use our energy tariff tracker and click a "Switch Now" link to visit a supplier's website, we log:
- The supplier and tariff you clicked
- A timestamp
- Your email address, where you have already signed up on our site
This helps us understand which tariffs our users find most relevant, improves our recommendations, and allows us to confirm referrals for cashback. You can disable this tracking by blocking local storage in your browser.
2.3 Website Analytics and Marketing Cookies
When you visit our website, we use:
- Google Analytics 4 (property ID G-WEQ6VBT567) - anonymised usage data including pages visited, approximate location, and device type. No personally identifiable information is collected by analytics.
- Meta Pixel (ID 1468513154931300) - conversion tracking across our pages, used to measure the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns on Meta platforms (Facebook and Instagram). This uses cookies set by Meta.
- Local storage - a small piece of browser storage used to remember your email address while you browse our tracker, so you are not asked to sign up twice.
Standard web server logs also record your IP address, browser type, and pages visited.
2.4 SwitchInsights Comments and Reactions
If you leave a comment on a SwitchInsights article, we collect your name and comment text. Comments are publicly visible once approved. Reactions (thumbs-up) are anonymous - we record a count only, with no personal data attached.
2.5 Web Chatbot Conversations
When you use the SwitchPilot or SwitchInsider chatbot on our website, we log your questions and the chatbot's responses to improve our service. These logs are anonymous - we do not attach your name, email, or any account identifier to them. We record only the message text, which page you were on, and a random session identifier so we can group a single conversation together. Please avoid sharing sensitive personal information (such as bank details or account numbers) in the chatbot. Chatbot logs are retained for up to 12 months, then deleted.
2.6 WhatsApp Conversations
If you message our WhatsApp business number (+44 7862 139584), we collect:
- Your WhatsApp phone number (used to identify you across messages)
- The full text of the messages you send and the chatbot's replies
- Timestamps for each message
We store recent conversation history so the chatbot can respond in context. Messages are routed and delivered through Twilio (our WhatsApp messaging provider) and processed by Anthropic's Claude API to generate replies. Please avoid sharing sensitive personal information (such as bank details, full account numbers, or passwords) over WhatsApp. WhatsApp conversation data is retained for up to 12 months, after which it is deleted. You can ask us to delete your WhatsApp conversation history at any time by emailing team@switch-pilot.com with the phone number you messaged us from.
3. Why We Collect Your Data (Legal Basis)
We process your data on the following legal bases under UK GDPR:
- Contract performance (Article 6(1)(b)) - to provide you with our energy comparison and switching service once you have signed up
- Consent (Article 6(1)(a)) - where you explicitly consent, for example to receive marketing communications from us
- Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)) - to measure and improve our service, to track referrals so we can process cashback, and to communicate with you about the progress of any switch and any cashback owed
4. How We Use Your Data
We use your personal data to:
- Compare available energy tariffs and provide you with personalised recommendations based on your postcode and usage
- Track which supplier links you click on our tariff tracker, so we can confirm referrals and process any cashback owed
- Communicate with you about the status of any switch and any cashback owed
- Send you our newsletter and energy market updates (only with your consent)
- Measure and improve our service using anonymised analytics
SwitchPilot never processes your payments and never stores your bank account details. All account setup - including your direct debit - happens between you and your chosen energy supplier.
5. Who We Share Your Data With
We share your data with:
- Energy suppliers - when you click a "Switch Now" link on our tariff tracker, the supplier may receive a referral identifier so we can track the switch and process your cashback. From that point, your data on the supplier's site is subject to their own privacy policy.
- Supabase - our database provider, used to store signups, switch interaction logs, SwitchInsights comment data, and WhatsApp conversation history. Data is hosted in the EU.
- Google - Google Analytics processes anonymised usage data.
- Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd - Meta Pixel processes anonymised conversion events for our advertising campaigns. Data is subject to Meta's own privacy controls. Meta also operates WhatsApp; if you message our WhatsApp business number, your messages pass through WhatsApp's infrastructure and are subject to its own privacy terms.
- Twilio - our WhatsApp messaging provider, used to route messages between you and our chatbot. Twilio processes your phone number and message content to deliver messages.
- Anthropic - provider of the Claude AI model used to generate chatbot replies (web and WhatsApp). Message text is sent to Anthropic's API for inference and is not used to train their models.
- Vercel - our website hosting provider.
We do not sell, rent, or share your personal data with any third parties for their own marketing purposes.
6. How We Store and Protect Your Data
Your data is collected via encrypted forms (256-bit SSL, RSA-2048 encryption at rest) and stored on EU-based servers. Access to your data is restricted to authorised SwitchPilot personnel only.
7. How Long We Keep Your Data
- Waitlist data (email, postcode, address) - retained until you unsubscribe or request deletion
- Switch interaction logs (tariff clicks) - retained for up to 12 months, then aggregated and stripped of the personal identifier
- SwitchInsights comment data - retained for the life of the article unless you request deletion
- Web chatbot logs - retained for up to 12 months, then deleted
- WhatsApp conversation data (phone number and message history) - retained for up to 12 months, then deleted, or sooner on request
8. Your Rights
Under UK GDPR, you have the right to:
- Access - request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
- Rectification - ask us to correct any inaccurate data
- Erasure - ask us to delete your data (subject to any legal obligations)
- Restrict processing - ask us to limit how we use your data
- Data portability - request your data in a machine-readable format
- Withdraw consent - withdraw consent for processing at any time (this does not affect the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal)
- Object - object to processing based on legitimate interests
- Unsubscribe - unsubscribe from emails at any time using the link in any email we send
To exercise any of these rights, email us at team@switch-pilot.com. We will respond within 30 days.
9. Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk or by calling 0303 123 1113.
10. Cookies and Local Storage
We use cookies and browser local storage for three purposes:
- Strictly necessary - to remember your email while you browse our tariff tracker, so you are not asked to sign up twice
- Analytics - Google Analytics 4 cookies measure anonymised site usage (pages visited, device type, approximate location)
- Advertising and conversion tracking - Meta Pixel cookies measure the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns on Meta platforms (Facebook and Instagram). This is the only advertising technology we use.
You can block non-essential cookies using your browser settings. Blocking analytics or Meta Pixel cookies will not affect your ability to use our service. We do not sell your data to advertisers and we do not use ad-retargeting networks beyond Meta.
11. Cashback Claims
When you claim cashback via SwitchPilot, we collect and process the following:
- Your email address, to identify your claim, match it against our records, and contact you about payment
- A screenshot or copy of your switch confirmation from your new energy supplier, to verify your switch was completed and initiated through SwitchPilot
- Payment details necessary to send your cashback
We cross-reference the information in your claim against our own system records to verify that the switch was initiated through SwitchPilot. We may reject claims where the details provided do not match our records or where there is evidence of tampering or fraud.
We retain this data for a minimum of 12 months for tax and fraud prevention purposes, after which it is deleted unless you have opted in to ongoing marketing.
You can request deletion of your data at any time under UK GDPR by emailing us at team@switch-pilot.com, subject to the retention period above.
12. Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated date. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.
See also our Terms of Service.