Overview
SwitchBoard ("SwitchBoard", "we", "us") provides field-service management software for trade businesses — plumbing, electrical and general contracting. This policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have. It applies to the SwitchBoard application and related services at theswitchboard.io and app.theswitchboard.io.
By using SwitchBoard you agree to the practices described here. If you do not agree, please do not use the service.
1. Information we collect
Information you provide
When you or your business create an account, we collect information such as your name, email address, phone number, business details, and the records you enter into the application — customers, quotes, invoices, appointments, parts, hours and notes.
Information about your customers
A trade business uses SwitchBoard to keep records about the people it works for: names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, the work done at a property, and what was charged for it. We hold that information as a processor, on behalf of the business that entered it. The business decides what to record, who on its team may see it, and how long to keep it.
Information from connected services
If you choose to connect a third-party account — such as your Google account — we access certain information from it with your permission. Section 2 sets out exactly what, for Google.
Information collected automatically
We collect basic technical information needed to operate and secure the service: log data, device and browser information, and usage activity.
2. Google user data
Connecting a Google account is optional. SwitchBoard works without it. If you connect one, we request only the permissions listed below, and nothing else.
| Permission we request | What we do with it |
|---|---|
.../auth/calendar.app.createdMake a calendar of its own, and manage events on that calendar only |
SwitchBoard creates one calendar in your Google account, called SwitchBoard Jobs, and puts a calendar event on it for each visit assigned to you — updating it when the visit moves and removing it when the visit is cancelled. It appears alongside your other calendars in Google Calendar, and you can hide it, recolour it or delete it like any other. This permission does not let SwitchBoard see your other calendars. Your personal appointments are not readable by us — not as a matter of policy, but because the permission we hold does not extend to them. |
.../auth/gmail.sendSend email on your behalf |
Send the quotes, invoices and messages that you send from inside SwitchBoard, so they arrive from your own address and a reply reaches you rather than us. |
openid, email, profile |
Identify which Google account is connected, and show you that address in the app so you can confirm it is the right one. |
gmail.send permission cannot
read a single existing message — it can only send. The calendar permission reaches only the
one calendar SwitchBoard created, so it cannot read or change anything already in your
Google Calendar. We have deliberately not requested any permission that would let us read a
mailbox or an existing calendar.
Replies from your customers
Because we do not read your mailbox, messages SwitchBoard sends carry a reply address on our own domain. When a customer replies, that reply is delivered to SwitchBoard and filed against the job it relates to. This applies only to replies to messages SwitchBoard sent — email a customer sends you directly goes to your inbox as usual, and SwitchBoard never sees it.
What we store
We store the OAuth tokens Google issues, the email address of the connected account, and the identifier of each calendar event we created. We do not copy your calendar into our database, and we do not store the content of messages sent through your Google account beyond the record of the message you sent from SwitchBoard.
3. Limited Use disclosure
Specifically, we do not:
- use Google user data for advertising, or to build advertising profiles;
- sell Google user data, or transfer it to data brokers or information resellers;
- allow humans to read Google user data, except with your explicit consent for a specific issue you have raised with us, where it is necessary for security or to comply with the law, or where the data has been aggregated and anonymised;
- use Google user data for any purpose other than providing and improving the features described in Section 2.
4. How we use information
- To provide the service: quotes, invoices, scheduling, parts, hours and job costing.
- To send the messages you ask us to send, and to deliver replies back to you.
- To operate, secure, support and improve the service.
- To meter usage for billing.
- To comply with the law.
Some features use AI models to draft text you asked for, to read a document you uploaded, or to check that a picture matches a part. Content sent to those providers is processed to return that result and is not used by us to build profiles about you or your customers.
5. Text messages (SMS)
Businesses that use SwitchBoard can send text messages to their customers: appointment confirmations and reminders, on-the-way notices, estimates, invoices, receipts, and replies to messages the customer sent first. Each business sends from its own number, on its own behalf.
- Consent. A customer receives texts only after giving their mobile number to the business and agreeing to be texted, for example on a booking, estimate or contact form, or by texting the business first.
- Frequency and cost. Message frequency varies with the customer's appointments and jobs. Message and data rates may apply.
- Stopping. Reply STOP to any message to stop receiving texts from that business; one confirmation is sent and nothing after it. Reply HELP for help, or contact the business directly.
- No sharing for marketing. No mobile information will be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. Text messaging originator opt-in data and consent are excluded from every category of sharing in this policy and will not be shared with any third parties.
Mobile carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages. Our service providers that carry the messages (listed below) receive the number and the message only to deliver it.
6. How we share information
We do not sell personal information. We share it only with service providers that operate the product under contracts requiring confidentiality:
- Supabase — database and file storage
- DigitalOcean and Cloudflare — hosting and delivery
- Resend — sending and receiving email
- Twilio — sending and receiving text messages and phone calls
- Meta — Facebook and Instagram messages and posts, for businesses that connect them
- Anthropic — the AI features described above
- Stripe — payments, where enabled
We may also disclose information where required by law, or to protect the rights and safety of users and the public.
7. Data retention
We keep account and business records for as long as the account is active, and for as long afterwards as we need in order to meet legal and accounting obligations. Google tokens are deleted immediately when you disconnect. Calendar events SwitchBoard created are removed from your calendar when you disconnect.
8. Security
Access to business records is scoped to the business they belong to; a signed-in user cannot reach another business's records, and within a business, access follows the role a person is given. Data is encrypted in transit. Credentials and tokens are stored with restricted access and are never returned to a browser.
9. Your choices and revoking access
- Disconnect inside SwitchBoard. Scheduling → Connect calendar → Disconnect. This deletes the stored tokens and revokes our access at Google.
- Revoke at Google. You can remove SwitchBoard's access at any time from your Google account permissions, without asking us.
- Access, correction and deletion. Ask us and we will help you access, correct or delete the information we hold about you. Where we hold information on behalf of a business, we will direct the request to that business.
10. Changes to this policy
If we change this policy we will update the date at the top of this page, and where the change is significant we will tell account holders directly.
11. Contact us
Questions about this policy, or about the information we hold: [email protected].