Privacy Policy — The Switch

At Selectra SARL, we take great care in ensuring that your personal information is secure and we handle it with the necessary precautions. For this reason, we are letting you know that the personal information you provide us with will be handled by Selectra SARL in compliance with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Information Commissioner's Office in accordance with the following Privacy Policy.

This policy applies to our website(s), product(s) or service(s) that link to this policy or do not have a separate privacy policy. The purpose of this privacy policy is to give you a better understanding of:

Who we are
What information we collect
How we use that information
How this information is handled
How this information is shared
Where we store and handle collected information
How we secure personal data
How long do keep our personal data for
Your rights
How to contact us
Use of cookies and other technologies
Other websites/third party content

We encourage you to read this policy because it is important for you to understand how we collect, store and use your data for the purpose it was collected.

By accepting this privacy policy, you explicitly authorize us to process your information in the manner described herein. This will be done in accordance with the purposes and recipients stated in this document. If you provide information about another person, be aware that by accepting this privacy policy, you confirm that you are authorized to do so.

1. Who we are

Selectra SARL (SELECTRA or the "Company"), being the Data Controller, is responsible for handling your information and determines the purposes for which, and the way in which, personal data is handled. The data processor is the entity that uses your information in order to provide a service. This can refer to Selectra SARL or the third-party you choose to provide you with energy or telecoms services. Selectra SARL with registered offices at 66 rue Sébastien Mercier, 75015, Paris, France under the business registration number 499807147 is the owner and data controller of The Switch and theswitch.co.uk site. If you have any questions related to our privacy policy please send your question(s) or data request to the following email address: [email protected]. The company complies with EU Regulation No. 2016/679, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of May 25, 2018 and the Legislative Decree No. 101 of August, 10 2018.

2. What information do we collect?

a. Personal data may be collected during a telephone call, by sending an email to one of the Selectra SARL services, by filling in a form online requesting information about a Selectra SARL service, by subscribing to the Selectra SARL newsletter or by accepting cookies (which may take place when connecting to the website, submitting a form, or interacting with the website beyond a simple click).

We may also collect information from you if you contact or request information or customer support.

Additional Information collected:

We may collect the following additional information:

Your registered consent to receive marketing correspondence or application specific communications.
Your name and contact details if you contact us.
Details such as metering data, location data and other personal data (including IP address and browser type) collected by your availing of the services the Company provides.
Device information.
Pages visited, and content viewed: links and buttons clicked, URLs visited before and after you use our Service. For more information about cookies and how to manage them please see our Cookie Policy.
Your communication with Selectra SARL including email correspondence or telephone conversations – either to request support to complete service changes or to request status updates regarding applications or other general switching questions.
Your response to marketing campaigns from us or through our third parties.
Information from third party databases to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

Third Party and Publicly Available Sources

Not all the personal information we hold about you will always come directly from you. We may also collect information from third parties such as our partners, service providers and publicly available websites (i.e. social media platforms), to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, offer Services we think may be of interest, to help us maintain data accuracy and enhance the Services we provide.

b. Purposes – Personal data is collected:

Automatically during a visit to our site for statistical purposes, advertising or personalization of your experience.
When filling in a form requesting a quote for a new energy or telecoms service.
During a telephone call if you give consent.
When subscribing to our mailing list.
To analyze your bills and offer another rate.

c. Recipients - In order to provide our services, we need to collect and process some of your personal data. Selectra SARL is the recipient of such data, but may be required to transmit data to third parties such as, for example, its commercial partners in the event of the customer choosing to sign up for a service offered by said partner.

3. How we use that information

Your personal information is handled by the Company for the following purposes:

To offer our services and to be able to communicate with you.
Energy supply application support and correspondence. To arrange the pre-contractual and /or contractual relationship between you, the Company and the service providers you have chosen through our comparison service.
To respond to your queries or requests efficiently and comply with contractual obligations on your behalf. If you do not provide the required personal information needed to provide the service, then no pre-contractual and / or contractual relationship will be entered into.
To accurately compare energy and / or telecommunication services and pricing to help you pick the best offer for you. This is the business mission of Selectra. We will also use your personal information to offer comparisons of any other product or service we offer in the future.
To carry out customer satisfaction surveys in order to improve our services and provide new products for the Company's customers.
Delivering promotional material and communication. To send promotional communications, newsletters and new offers relating to products or services marketed by Selectra SARL and / or related entities, as well as third party partners through several electronic and non-electronic means. These products or services pertain to the energy and telecommunications sectors though the Company may extend these to other sectors in the future.
Personalisation of content and browsing experience.
Whether you choose to accept our offer or not your personal information will be kept in order to handle any future requests you may make and, if necessary, to send you information about more competitive offers. You may exercise your right to refuse that your personal information be handled by the Company.
If you have found this privacy policy in a Selectra SARL, the purpose for handling your personal information is to facilitate and maintain customer service and promotional communications with you.
To help the Company perform quality control checks and for training purposes. For this purpose, Selectra SARL may monitor and / or record communications with its customers.
Meeting internal audit requirements
Calculating supply and switching cost estimates: We use your personal information such as your name, email address, phone number, and other information about you and your supply arrangements to facilitate a supply application. To do this your information may be used by us or passed to a third-party service provider to verify your identity, progress credit checks on you, validate payment information and to communicate to you important Service information or update you in respect to your application status. Customer data will not be collected without consent.
Legal and regulatory obligations. We will also use your personal information to enforce and ensure our compliance with our legal obligations, in accordance with UK law and our Terms of Use as detailed on our website(s).

4. How this information is handled

The legal basis for the handling of your personal information is the following:

The Company's evaluation of market offers (for energy tariffs and telecommunication services) before determining the best offer for you requires you to provide personal information so that Selectra SARL can carry out a comparison. Without your personal information, the Company cannot make recommendations.
Your consent allows us to contact you to send you offers, advertising and promotional communications relating to products or services marketed by Selectra SARL and / or its related entities, as well as by third parties dedicated to the industry sectors in which Selectra SARL works in.
The execution of contracts with the providers of the services in question (energy, telecommunications, security or any other sector). The Company needs you to provide your personal information in order to make comparisons and to offer you a contract. Without your personal information, the Company cannot tailor a comparison to your needs or make a recommendation about which service provider to go with. For example, if you wish to switch your electricity supply through the Selectra SARL comparison service, the Company will need to handle your personal information to manage the contract with the company that you have chosen so that the service can be started.
The Company's legitimate interest in handling your future requests for advice or comparison efficiently.
Selectra SARL or service providers marketed by the Company have a legitimate interest in congratulating you on your birthday, to keep your personal information to send you updated offers and customer satisfaction surveys. The handling of your personal data is necessary so that Selectra SARL can improve its service and increase customer satisfaction. In any case, you can exercise your right to oppose the handling of your personal information by contacting Selectra SARL (registered office: 66 Rue Sébastien Mercier, 75015 Paris, France) over email: [email protected]

5. How this information is shared

In order to offer a comparison service, the Company must be able to send your personal information to the service provider/s to be able to get pricing and product details that constitute the offer presented to you. For example, if an electricity provider is to supply you with power, the Company will need to pass on personal information so that the supply can be set up. The same applies to gas and telecommunications providers. Therefore, it is necessary for the provision of the service that the Company share the personal information to the providers of the products and services that Selectra SARL compares.

Bear in mind that if you wish to receive offers from or contract with a specific provider, Selectra SARL will communicate your personal information with that particular company and no other. You should know that if you provide additional information to the provider in question or if you wish to contract their services, the use of your data will be subject to the provider's privacy policy.

Any sharing of your personal data will be in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for the purposes stated in this privacy policy.

These are the people or entities who may have access and are responsible for handling your personal information:

Third parties who perform various activities to promote and support our advice and comparison service. This includes technical services, data providers, customer service agents, hosting services, marketing and advertising service providers involved in the creation of offers and promotions, Customer Relationship Management software solutions and delivery companies that can deliver products as well as market research companies.
Companies partnering with Selectra SARL (subsidiaries, affiliates, holding companies or brands), who act on behalf of the Company and handle your personal information for the purposes established in this Privacy Policy.
If Selectra SARL enters a joint venture, buys, sells to or merges with another business entity, your personal information may be disclosed or transferred to the new company, business partners, owners or their agents and advisors. Selectra SARL will always inform the corresponding entities that they should only use your personal data for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.
Any government agency, legal court or regulatory body that is entrusted with enforcing the law, government agency or other third party to whom we believe it is necessary to disclose the information (i) to comply with the applicable law or regulation, (ii) to exercise, establish or defend our legal rights, or (iii) to protect your vital interests or those of any other person.
If you request or consent to Selectra SARL communicating your personal information to another person or third party. However, we will not sell, distribute or give up your personal information unless we have your consent or the law requires the Company to do it.

6. Where we store and handle collected information

While Selectra SARL is based in France, the Company's has a UK subsidiary and business partners. This means that when the Company handles your personal information, it can be done in any country within the European Economic Area (EEA). As the data controller, Selectra SARL ensures data is handled according to our privacy policy.

There is currently no plan to transfer information to countries outside of the European Economic Area. If this was to ever be the case, Selectra SARL would ensure that your personal information remains secure and compliant with this Privacy Policy.

7. How we secure personally identifying information

We take online security and data protection very seriously. It is an area of vital importance for all our customers, so we want you to have confidence in the security of your personal details before you use our Services. We are committed to employing security measures to protect your information from access by unauthorised persons and to prevent accidental or unlawful processing, disclosure, destruction, loss, alteration and damage of your personal information. We ensure our technological security solutions keep up with current best practices in the industry. Our approach is focused on risk assessment, prevention and mitigation. In order to help us in this regard, we employ compartmentalization, pseudonymization and encryption whenever possible to protect sensitive information. While complete data security is our goal, there are many outside variables beyond our control that affect the security of your personal information. Therefore we cannot guarantee the security of any information that you disclose using your internet connection. You accept the inherent security implications of using the internet and the Company will accept no liability for any direct, consequential, incidental, indirect, or punitive losses or damages arising out of such an occurrence.

Your personal information will be kept for as long as it is needed to provide you with the comparisons, offers or services that you request. Here the two possible scenarios as to why we would handle your personal information:

If you accept the offer and you sign up through the service provided by Selectra SARL, we will keep your personal information for a period of three years. In this case, you must become acquainted with the privacy and security policies of the service provider you end up going with.
If you do not accept the offer you will not sign up through the service provided by Selectra SARL, your personal information will be kept for a period of three years.

This is necessary so that you can contact the Company or so that the Company can let you know about new offers or services that could be of interest to you.

You can at any time object to Selectra SARL handling your personal information in connection with the reception of promotional communication. The Company will record your preferences and act accordingly to respect your objection.

If either:

The relevant period for personal information handling expires,
You revoke your consent for the Company to handle your personal information,
You request that your personal information be removed.

Selectra SARL will no longer have access to your personal information and therefore will no longer be responsible for it. Beyond this period, personal information is anonymized and stored for statistical purposes only.

9. Your rights

Pursuing Article 17 EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU-GDPR), we respect the right of data subjects to access and control your personal data. You can exercise the following rights regarding your personal information:

The right to access your personal information in order to know what personal information is being handled and for what purposes
The right to correct any errors in your personal information.
The right to suppress your personal information
The right to object or to request that your personal information not be handled for personal reasons.
The right to revoke your consent if the Company has the legal right to handle your personal information.
The right to request a restriction on the handling of your personal information in the following cases:
- While the accuracy of your personal details is being checked.
- If the handling of your personal information is illicit but you object to its suppression.
- Even when the Company does not require handling your personal information, you can use your personal information in case you have a complaint or claim.
- When you've objected to the handling of your personal information on public interest or legitimate interest, while the legitimacy of your claim is being examined.
Lodging a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office

10. How to contact us

To exercise these rights, you must send a request by email to [email protected]. You can also write to Selectra SARL with the registered office in 66 rue Sébastien Mercier, Paris 75015, France. You can get more details about your rights by reaching out to Selectra SARL or by contacting the Information Commissioner's Office.

To exercise your rights, you will have to give your full name and state which right you are exercising with a copy of an ID document (such as a passport or driving license) that certifies your identity.

If you believe that there has been a violation of privacy law relating to how your personal information was handled, you also have the right to make a complaint your local Data Protection Authority. In the UK the authority if the Information Commissioner's Office and contact details can be obtained at https://ico.org.uk.

11. Other websites/third party content

The website may contain links towards third-party sites, social media buttons and/or widgets. These links are established to facilitate access to relevant given the content and services proposed by these websites. The links present on the website do not constitute a recommendation or validation of third-party websites or of their content. It is up to the user to use information on third-party websites wisely and critically. We provide recommendations, advice, information and links on our website on good faith.

All materials displayed or presented on the website (including, but not limited to text, graphics, articles, photographs, images, and illustrations (also known as the "Content") are owned by Selectra SARL, with the exception of brand names, logos, or images belonging to partner authors or partner companies, unless otherwise credited. In all cases, all posted Content is protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property rights.

12. Use of cookies and other technologies

The User recognizes the value of the Company's automatic recording system (cookies), and with the exception of contrary evidence, renounces the ability to contest them in the event of a dispute. It is assumed that the user has the legal capacity to accept these terms of service and use of cookies. The terms and conditions are those in effect on the date of the User's visit. We reserve the right to revise these Terms at any moment as we see fit.

We collect browser and cookie information when you first navigate to our websites. We use cookies and browser information to give you a better customer experience and to ensure content is formatted correctly. This will be monitored by a web server. For more information on the use of cookies, how you can control their use, and information relating to our internet-based and mobile advertising, see our Cookie Policy.

See also: Cookies Policy · Terms & Conditions