This policy covers the WattaWatt website (“WattaWatt”, “we”, “us”). There are no accounts, so we only have what you give us while you use the site, and a little technical information that any website handles.
What we collect
The bill or screenshot you upload
To find your monthly usage, we send the file you upload to OpenAI, the AI service that reads it for us (see who we share it with). Before sending it, we may shrink an image, keep only the first three pages of a PDF, and make a picture of each of those pages.
We hold your file in memory only while it’s being read, which takes a few seconds. We don’t save it to disk, to our database or to our logs.
Your bill may show your name, address and account number. We ask the AI service for only three things: your monthly usage, the price you paid, and the ZIP code of the address that gets the electricity, which tells us which utility delivers it. We don’t keep anything else from the bill.
For each upload we also note how reading it went: whether it was a PDF or a picture, how many months were read, how sure the AI service was, how long it took, or why it failed. That note holds nothing from the bill itself.
The numbers you confirm
Before we price any plans, you check your 12 months of usage and your ZIP code. You can also add your current price, the month your contract ends and your early termination fee. When you press Price every plan, we save these numbers, note whether they came from a bill, a screenshot or your typing, and give your results their own link. When you first see your results, we also save which plan we recommended and what it would cost you, so we can check our recommendations over time.
These numbers are also part of the confirm page’s web address, so they’ll appear in your browser history.
Your name and email, if you ask for a reminder
If you ask us to remind you before your contract ends, we save your first and last name, email address and contract end month with your results. We use them only for that reminder, and note when we sent it. We don’t add you to a mailing list, and we don’t give them to anyone else.
A scrambled form of your IP address, when you upload or send a form
To stop automated abuse, we limit how many files one connection can upload in a day, and how often it can look up ZIP codes, ask for reminders or send complaints. For that, each of these saves a scrambled (hashed) form of your IP address and the time. We don’t save the address itself, and we delete these records after about two days.
What you write in a complaint
If you send a complaint through our complaints page, we keep your name, email address, phone number if you give one, and your message, along with our notes on how we resolved it.
Records of our disclosures and enrollment clicks
We record when we showed you our disclosures (before pricing your plans, with your results, and before an enrollment link) and when you continued to a provider’s enrollment page: which plan, which provider, whether it pays us, and the time. If the provider or a referral partner later tells us you enrolled, we note that against the click, with any commission paid to us. These records hold no name or contact details.
What our hosting company records
Like any website, the company that hosts WattaWatt records basic details of each visit in its logs, such as IP address, browser type and the pages requested. It keeps them for a limited time, to run and protect the service.
What stays on your device
We don’t use cookies, analytics or advertising trackers. Your browser remembers three things for WattaWatt: light or dark theme, whether you paused the home page’s animations, and the link to your latest results with a one-line summary (your year’s kWh and delivery area), so the home page can offer “Back to your results” for 60 days. They stay on your device and are never sent to us. The × beside “Back to your results” forgets the link, and so does clearing your browser’s site data.
How we use it
- To read your usage, price every plan on it, and show your results at their link.
- To send the contract reminder you ask for.
- To keep WattaWatt working and secure, for example with the daily upload limit.
- To improve WattaWatt, for example by checking how often usage is read correctly.
- To meet our legal obligations.
We don’t sell your information, and we don’t use it for advertising.
Who we share it with
- OpenAI reads the file you upload. Under OpenAI’s terms for its API, what we send isn’t used to train its models. OpenAI may keep it for up to 30 days to check for abuse, longer only where the law requires, and then deletes it. We ask OpenAI not to keep a copy of its answer.
- The companies that host our website and database, and that deliver our email store, serve and send it for us, and may use it only to provide that service. The email company sees the name and address a reminder goes to.
- Electricity providers, only if you choose to go to one. When you click a link to sign up for a plan, you leave WattaWatt for the provider’s own website. We don’t send the provider your usage, your ZIP code or anything else about you. What you give the provider is covered by its own privacy policy.
- Others, only when we must. We’ll share information if the law requires it, or to protect the rights and safety of our visitors, the public or WattaWatt. If WattaWatt is ever sold or merged, the information would pass to the new owner, still covered by this policy.
How long we keep it
- Your uploaded file: only while it’s being read. OpenAI may keep it for up to 30 days, as described above.
- Your confirmed numbers and results: as long as WattaWatt runs, so your results link keeps working, unless you ask us to delete them.
- Your reminder name and email: with your results, until you ask us to delete them.
- Scrambled IP addresses: about two days.
- Notes on how each upload was read: as long as WattaWatt runs. They hold nothing from your bill.
- Complaints and our disclosure and enrollment records: at least two years, as Texas requires of electricity brokers.
Your choices
- You don’t have to upload a bill. You can type your 12 monthly numbers instead, and nothing is sent to the AI service.
- Anyone with your results link can see your results. Share it only with people you want to see them.
- You can ask us to show you, correct, give you a copy of, or delete the information we have about you. Since there are no accounts, send your results link, or the email you used for a reminder, so we can find it.
Email requests to support@wattawatt.com. We’ll answer within 45 days. If we can’t do what you ask, we’ll tell you why, and you can ask us to reconsider. If you’re still not satisfied, you can file a complaint with the Texas Attorney General.
Security
We keep as little as we can. Your file is read in memory and not saved, IP addresses are stored only in scrambled form, and pages are served over encrypted connections. No system is perfectly secure, so we can’t promise your information will never be accessed without permission. If that happens, we’ll tell you as the law requires.
Children
WattaWatt is for adults managing a home’s electricity. It isn’t meant for children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect their information. If you think a child has given us information, contact us and we’ll delete it.
Changes to this policy
When we change this policy, we’ll post the new version here and update the date at the top. If a change affects how we use information we already have, we’ll point it out on the site before it takes effect.
Contact us
Questions about this policy or your information: support@wattawatt.com. See also our terms of use.