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.
The SWITCHBOARD browser button
The browser extension reads the product or cart on the store page you are looking at, in your browser. It sends those product details (name, brand, SKU, model, UPC, price, picture link and page address) to your SWITCHBOARD account only when you press its button. It does not read other pages, your browsing history or anything you type. It is connected to your account with one click in SWITCHBOARD (or a one-time code), using a single-use key that lasts two minutes; we keep only a fingerprint (hash) of that connection, and you can disconnect it at any time in SWITCHBOARD (Find parts > Connect your stores) or from the extension.
In the SWITCHBOARD phone app
The SWITCHBOARD app for iPhone and Android is the same service as the website, for the office and for techs in the field. On the phone it uses these, each only for the reason given:
- Location. Only while a tech is on the way to a job (from Dispatch or On my way until Arrived), so the customer can see them coming and the trip is recorded, and while a visit the tech is on is running, so crew time on the job is right. While it runs the phone shows a notice ("Trips and visits" on Android, the location indicator on iPhone). It stops on its own when the tech arrives or the visit ends, and is never collected at any other time. A single reading is also taken when a tech taps Arrived or I'm here, to confirm they are on site. Location is shared with the business the tech works for and, during a trip, with that job's customer on their live map. It is never sold or used for advertising.
- Camera and photos. Only when you take or pick a photo for a job, a receipt or a task. The photo is saved to that record. With no signal, a photo or video you took is kept in the app's own storage on your phone until there is signal, then uploaded to that record and removed from the phone's queue. It stays on the phone if you sign out, and goes the next time you sign in.
- Face ID, Touch ID and fingerprint. If you choose to save your login, it is kept in your phone's own secure storage (the iPhone Keychain or the Android Keystore), locked behind Face ID, Touch ID or your fingerprint, and the app locks itself after a minute away until you unlock it the same way. Your face or fingerprint never leaves your phone: the phone only tells the app "it's them" or "it's not". SWITCHBOARD never receives, sees or stores any biometric data. Turn App lock off in the app (Me, or More > This phone), and remove a saved login by signing in with your password and choosing Not now, or by deleting the app.
- The number on the app icon. How many new or changed jobs today and unread messages are waiting for you (or, for the office, unanswered Inbox items and things that need you). It is counted on our servers from your own account and shown only on your phone.
- Microphone. Only while you record a voice note or talk to Switch.
- Notifications. If you allow them, we keep your phone's notification token so we can tell you about a new job, a task, a message or a change to your day. What shows on the lock screen is a plain sentence such as "You have a new job." It never includes a customer's name, an address or an amount; the details open behind your sign-in. Turn notifications off at any time in your phone's settings.
- Signing in. The app keeps you signed in on your phone until you sign out.
The app has no advertising, no advertising ID and no third-party tracking. Notifications are delivered through Google Firebase Cloud Messaging (and Apple's push service on iPhone), which receive only the notification token and that plain sentence.
Information collected automatically
We collect basic technical information needed to operate and secure the service: log data, device and browser information, and usage activity.
Our website and the sandbox
On theswitchboard.io and the sandbox at theswitchboard.io/try we count visits ourselves, with no outside analytics or advertising trackers. A visit is anonymous: a random visitor id kept in your browser, the kind of device, whether you use the day or night look, the page or ad that sent you, and what you did on the page - which sections you looked at, which demo steps you tried, and which parts of the sandbox you used. We never record what you type into the demo or the sandbox. If you ask Switch a question, we keep the question to improve our answers, with any email address, phone number or street address removed first. A visit is connected to you only if you book a walkthrough. If your browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control, we record nothing at all. These records are deleted after 13 months.
When you ask for a demo at theswitchboard.io/demo, your answers are kept only if you book a call or join our updates list; if you leave part way, nothing you answered is saved. To start the "Where do you work?" question on the right town, we use the approximate city of your internet connection as our network provider (Cloudflare) sees it. We never ask your browser for your location and do not store that guess - only what you send with your booking.
2. Google user data
Connecting a Google account is optional. SwitchBoard works without it. There are three separate Google connections, each asked for only when you choose to connect that feature, and each disconnected on its own: Calendar and email (Scheduling → Connect calendar), Google Business Profile and Google Drive (both under Social Media → Accounts). 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 canceled. 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. |
.../auth/business.manageSee, edit, create and delete your Google business listings |
Used only if you connect your Google Business Profile. SwitchBoard lists the business locations your Google account manages so you can choose which one belongs to your business (nothing is saved for the ones you do not choose); reads that location's reviews so you can see them in SwitchBoard and answer them; publishes the reply you write or approve to a review; and publishes the update posts (text and a photo) that you create or approve. The reviews, your replies and your posts are stored with your business records. If you ask Switch to draft a reply, the review's text and rating are sent to our AI provider to write the draft, which you then edit or approve. SwitchBoard does not change your listing's details (name, hours, address, categories) and does not delete reviews or locations. |
.../auth/drive.fileSee, edit, create and delete only the specific Google Drive files you use with this app |
Used only if you connect Google Drive. You pick a photo or video in Google's own file picker; SwitchBoard downloads that one file and copies it into your business's media so it can be used in a social media post you are making. Before you post, the picture is checked by our AI provider for things that should not be published (a face, a license plate, a house number). SwitchBoard cannot see, list or search any other file in your Drive, and it never changes, uploads to or deletes anything in your Drive. |
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, the identifier of each calendar event we created, the Business Profile location you chose with its reviews, replies and posts, and a copy of each Drive photo or video you picked for a post. 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 user-facing features described in Section 2;
- use Google user data, or let any AI provider use it, to develop, improve or train generalised or non-personalised artificial intelligence or machine learning models. Where a feature described in Section 2 uses AI, the data is sent only to produce that result for you, under terms that do not allow the provider to train on it.
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, and revoked at Google. 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, with one exception: to show Google's file picker, your browser is given a short-lived Google Drive access token (it expires within an hour) that can reach only the files you pick.
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.
- Delete your login. In the app or on the web: the Techs Portal's Me tab or Settings → Account → Delete my account, or app.theswitchboard.io/delete-account (works signed out too). Your login, your phone registrations and your app settings are deleted straight away. The business you work for keeps the work records you were part of (jobs, visits, time and pay), which it may be required to keep, with your name but no login. The only owner of a business must make someone else an owner first, or ask us to close the business account.
- 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].