We at SWTCH Energy Inc. (“we”, “us”, “our”, “SWTCH”) created this Privacy Policy ("Policy") because we know that you care about how information you provide to us is used and shared. We understand that privacy is important to our users, who use our website, including all subpages and successor pages (“Website”) and mobile applications, including iOS and Android applications (“App”).
SWTCH provides an application and website as well as associated media and support that help charger and parking providers (“Providers”) (i) assign guests (“Guests”) temporary parking licenses to permit Guests to charge Guests’ electric vehicles (“EVs”) using EV supply equipment owned, leased or licensed by the Provider (the “Parking License”); (ii) bill Guests according to the terms of the Parking License; and (iii) receive an alert when Guests’ parking time has expired for the purposes of parking enforcement (collectively, the “Service”)
SWTCH will handle all Personal Information it receives in accordance with this Policy and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), S.C. 2000, c.5.
1. What does this Privacy Policy apply to?
This Policy applies to the SWTCH Website and also applies to the SWTCH App. This Policy does not apply to any website, product or service of any third-party company even if the website links to (or is linked from) our Website. SWTCH does not operate or control those websites, products or services. Please always review the privacy practices of a company before deciding whether to provide any information (Please see section 7. Use of Third Parties for more information).
By using our Website or App, you consent to and accept the practices described in this Policy. If you do not agree with this Policy, please delete all cookies from your internet browser cache after visiting our Website and do not visit or use our Website or App. Your continued use of our Website or App indicates your acceptance of this Policy.
2. Information collection and use
We collect information (1) when you provide it directly to us, (2) when we obtain verification information about you through trusted third parties (e.g. online payment platforms, banks), (3) when our cameras collect License Plate Data (as defined below) and (4) through packets of data that a website stores on your computer “cookies”. The types of information that we collect and our use of that information will depend on whether you are a Visitor, Guest, or Provider, as described below. Our collection of this information helps SWTCH operate the Website and App, support Providers in providing parking and billing services and expand and market our services.
Personal Information
The term “Personal Information”, as used in this Policy, refers to information that can be used to identify a specific person, their vehicle or any anonymous information (e.g., IP Address) that is linked to a specific person’s internet account. Personal information does not include aggregated anonymous information that can no longer be reasonably associated with a specific person.
You have a right to view your Personal Information.
We will keep your Personal Information accurate, complete and up-to-date with the information that you provide to us. If you request access to your Personal Information, we will inform you of the existence, use and disclosure of your Personal Information as allowed by law, and provide you access to that information. We will always ask for your consent before using your Personal Information for a purpose other than those described in this Privacy Policy.
License Plate Data
License Plate Data means the information on a license plate captured by the OpenALPR service (as defined below) in an image when a Guest parks with a Provider as well as other information captured including vehicle details (such as model, make and color), the video/image data itself, and other related data. License Plate Data we collect is primarily used to display license plate information back to the Guest. It is also used by OpenALPR personnel to answer questions that Guests may have about their SWTCH account and to develop and improve our products.
Cookies
Similar to many commercial marketplaces, we use cookies and other technologies to collect non-personally-identifiable information from our Website. Cookies are a feature of web browser software that allows web servers to recognize the computer used to access a website. Information gathered through cookies may include information such as the date and time of visits, the pages viewed, IP addresses, links to/from any page, and time spent at a site. We use cookie data to measure web traffic and usage activity on our Website for purposes of improving and enhancing the functionality of our Website, to look for possible fraudulent activity, and to better understand the sources of traffic and transactions on our website and the websites of merchants that use our Website. You can choose to disable cookies for our Website but this may limit your ability to use our Website.
Web Server Logs
Web Server Log files are used to monitor, measure, analyze, improve, and troubleshoot our Website. The information may include the time and date of your visit to our website, pages viewed, links clicked and other non-personally identifying information.
Visitors
To simply browse our Website, you are not required to provide any Personal Information. However, we may gather non-personally-identifiable information, as described directly above, just for the purposes of monitoring and improving our Website. We will not share this information with third parties except as a necessary part of providing our Website and App, nor will we use it to target any advertisements to you.
Guests
When you register for a SWTCH account, we collect Personal Information when you voluntarily provide it to us, including but not limited to your name, company name, location, email address, and phone number, and account password, to set up your account. We will also collect information on your IP addresses, devices, and locations used to access SWTCH, which will be linked to your account for fraud detection and prevention purposes. We may also offer you the option of collecting information required to be provided at the time of parking, such as your vehicle license plate information, to expedite the parking process. With your consent, we may also collect additional Personal Information in other ways including emails, surveys, and other forms of communication. Once you begin using the Service through your SWTCH account, we will keep records of your transactions and collect information of your other activities related to SWTCH.
When you use SWTCH as a Guest, we will gather and store your payment card information, email address, mobile phone number, billing and shipping address, license plate number and vehicle make, model and year. We will use this information to complete transactions that you choose to make on our Website and App, but only in accordance with our Terms of Service. We may also share your contact information, but not your card information, with merchants as part of your transaction. We will not share this information with other third parties except as a necessary part of providing services for our Website and App. You should carefully review third party services privacy policies in section 7 to better understand how each uses your information. (Please see section 7. Use of Third Parties for more information).
Location Data
When you use certain features of SWTCH, in particular the App, we may receive, store and process different types of information about your location, including general information (e.g. IP address, postal code, zip code) and more specific information (e.g. GPS-based functionality on mobile devices used to access the Website or App). If you access the Website or App through a mobile device and you do not want your device to provide us with location-tracking information, you can disable the GPS or other location-tracking functions on your device, provided your device allows you to do this, but this may limit your ability to use our Website or App. See your device manufacturer’s instructions for further details.
Device Information
We may collect information about your mobile device, including, for example, the hardware model, operating system and version, software and file names and versions, preferred language, unique device identifier, advertising identifiers, serial number, device motion information, and mobile network information.
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act
Our Website and App are directed to the general public aged 18 years of age or older. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13 years of age or have any reasonable grounds for believing that children under the age of 13 are accessing our Website or using our App. If we learn that we have inadvertently collected Personal Information from a child under age 13, we will delete that information as quickly as possible.
3. Sharing and disclosure of information
SWTCH does not sell or rent your Personal Information to marketers or third parties. We may share your Personal Information with trusted third parties who are integral to the operation of our Website and App, including but not limited to financial institutions, payment processors, verification services and credit bureaus, Providers and their parking enforcement personnel or subcontractors as well as any third parties that you have directly authorized to receive your Personal Information. We may store your Personal Information in locations outside the direct control of SWTCH, for instance, on servers or databases co-located with Providers. If we offer links to third party service through SWTCH (SWTCH Connect) and you choose to access these services, you authorize the third party service to access your SWTCH account using SWTCH Connect, you acknowledge that we may share payment transaction data and related information with the third party that provides the authorized application. The use of your information by such third parties will be subject to their applicable privacy policy, which you should carefully review before accessing the service.
If SWTCH undertakes or is involved in any merger, acquisition, reorganization, going-public event, sale of assets or bankruptcy, insolvency or any similar event, then we may sell, transfer or share some or all of our assets, including your Personal Information. In this event, we will notify you before your Personal Information is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.
4. Choice and data retention
We are required to collect certain Personal Information to confirm your identity and comply with our obligations. If you elect not to provide Personal Information in optional fields it may limit your ability to use SWTCH. You can update your account information by signing on to our Website or App with your SWTCH account. We may occasionally email you with information about offers or new services. You can opt out of these email communications via an unsubscribe link included in such communications. However, you will continue to receive certain email communications related to your account including information regarding transactions and your relationship with SWTCH.
SWTCH has a variety of obligations to retain the data that you provide us, both to ensure that transactions can be appropriately processed, settled, refunded or charged back, to identify fraud, and also to comply with laws applicable to us and to our banking providers and credit card processors. Accordingly, even if you close your SWTCH account we will retain certain information as necessary to meet our obligations.
SWTCH retains and destroys personal information in accordance with its data retention policy. We may retain personal information to provide you with information about your past account usage for tax and accounting purposes and for business purposes. If you close your account, we will make best efforts to delete or anonymize all of your personal information that is not required to be kept under our data retention policy within a reasonable time.
5. Protection of information
Although no data transmission can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, we take reasonable steps to protect Personal Information and prevent its misuse, loss, or unauthorized access or disclosure. Access to information is limited (through user/password credentials and software systems) to those employees who require it to perform their job functions. We use industry-standard Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption technology to safeguard the account registration process and sign-up information. Other security safeguards include but are not limited to data encryption, IP whitelisting, firewalls, and physical access controls to building and files.
6. Changes and notifications
We reserve the right, in our sole and absolute discretion, to make changes to this Policy. Please review this Policy periodically to check for updates. SWTCH will provide you with disclosures and alerts regarding this Policy by posting them on our Website or by sending an email to the email address listed in your SWTCH account.
It’s important that you review any changed or modified privacy policy. If you do not wish to agree to the changed privacy policy, then we will not be able to continue providing the Website and App to you, and your only option will be to stop accessing the Website and App and deactivate your SWTCH account.
7. Use of Third Parties
SWTCH uses a number of third party platforms that store data on how you interact with the site, including Auth0, Inc. and Stripe Inc. Use of those services is governed by the respective terms of use and privacy policies of those services as detailed below.
SWTCH will not submit your data to any third parties not stated in this agreement without your permission.
Use of Auth0, Inc: We use a third-party authentication services to authenticate, identify and grant access to SWTCH. In particular, we require you to submit a limited amount of your information (such as your email address and name) to Auth0, Inc. (“Auth0”) and to allow SWTCH to utilize Auth0 to authenticate and identify you when you visit our Website or App. For more information on the privacy practices of Auth0, please visit https://auth0.com/privacy. Auth0’s services are governed by Auth0’s terms of use which can be found at https://auth0.com/terms.
Use of Stripe Inc: We use a third-party payment platform to handle receipt of payment for transactions at SWTCH. In particular, we require you to submit payment information to Stripe Inc. (“Stripe”) and utilize Stripe to process payments on our behalf. For more information on the privacy practices of Stripe, please visit https://stripe.com/privacy.
Stripe’s services are governed by Stripe’s terms of use which can be found at https://stripe.com/checkout/terms.
Use of OpenALPR, Inc. (“OpenALPR”): We use a third-party automatic license plate recognition platform to identify license plate data for SWTCH. In particular, we collect image data from IP security cameras of license plates and vehicles (such as model, make, color, etc.) to allow SWTCH to enforce scheduling and payment of charging transactions. For more information on the privacy practices of OpenALPR, please visit https://cloud.openalpr.com/account/privacy. OpenALPR’s services are governed by OpenALPR’s terms of use which can be found at https://cloud.openalpr.com/account/terms.
8. Unlawful activities
We reserve the right to co-operate with local, provincial, national and international authorities in investigations of improper or unlawful activities, and this may require the disclosure of personal information. We may also report to other organizations about improper or unlawful user activities on the Website or App, and this reporting may include disclosure of personal information relating to those individuals conducting such improper or unlawful activities.
9. Contact us
Please also review our Terms of Service agreement with SWTCH, which shall govern in the event of any inconsistency with this Privacy Policy.
If you have any questions, suggestions, or complaints about this Privacy Policy or any of our privacy-related practices, please contact us.
Last Updated: September 7, 2017 Version 1.1