Privacy Policy
ChargeMatcher ("we", "us", or "our") operates the website at chargematcher.com and the ChargeMatcher application. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your personal data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and applicable French law.
1. Data Controller
The data controller is ChargeMatcher. For any privacy-related questions, contact us at contact@chargematcher.com.
2. Data We Collect
When you use ChargeMatcher, we may collect the following categories of personal data:
- Account data: email address, name, and password (hashed) when you create an account.
- Vehicle data: your EV model and specifications, which you provide to enable compatible station matching.
- Location data: your approximate or precise location when you submit a charge request, used solely to find nearby charging stations.
- Charging card data: identifiers for MSP cards (Chargemap, Freshmile, etc.) you choose to add, used to apply applicable discounts.
- Usage data: session logs, charge request history, and booking records necessary to provide and improve the service.
- Technical data: IP address, browser type, device identifiers, and analytics data collected via Google Analytics.
3. How We Use Your Data
We use your personal data for the following purposes:
- To provide the ChargeMatcher service — matching your charge requests with nearby stations and processing bookings.
- To authenticate your account and maintain session security.
- To apply charging card discounts when matching you with compatible operators.
- To improve the service through aggregated, anonymised analytics.
- To communicate with you about your account or service updates (no marketing emails without explicit consent).
4. Legal Basis for Processing
We process your personal data under the following legal bases:
- Contract performance: processing necessary to provide the service you've signed up for.
- Legitimate interests: improving service quality through anonymised analytics.
- Consent: location data and any optional data you choose to provide.
5. Data Sharing
We share your data with third parties only as necessary to operate the service:
- Charge Point Operators (CPOs): your anonymised charge request (location, vehicle specs, energy needed) is shared with nearby CPOs to enable them to present you with an offer. We do not share your name or email with CPOs.
- Infrastructure providers: Google Cloud Platform for hosting; Redis for session management.
- Analytics: Google Analytics for aggregated, anonymised usage statistics.
We do not sell your personal data to third parties.
6. Data Retention
We retain your personal data for as long as your account is active. Charging session history is retained for 24 months for billing and dispute resolution purposes. You may request deletion at any time.
7. Your Rights (GDPR)
Under the GDPR, you have the following rights:
- Access: request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
- Rectification: request correction of inaccurate data.
- Erasure: request deletion of your data ("right to be forgotten").
- Portability: receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
- Objection: object to processing based on legitimate interests.
- Withdrawal of consent: withdraw consent at any time for consent-based processing.
To exercise any of these rights, contact us at contact@chargematcher.com. We will respond within 30 days.
8. Cookies and Analytics
We use Google Analytics 4 to understand how visitors interact with our website: pages visited, session duration and device type. The recipient is Google Ireland Ltd, with transfer to the United States covered by Google LLC's certification under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework (July 2023). Data is retained for 14 months.
No measurement cookie is set before you agree. A banner asks on your first visit, with "Accept all" and "Decline all" offered equally; dismissing it counts as declining. The cookies concerned are _ga and _ga_<ID>, both lasting 13 months. Your choice is stored for six months, after which we ask again.
If you decline, no cookie is set and no identifier is assigned to you. An anonymous measurement does remain: a cookieless request is sent to Google containing your IP address and the information your browser transmits, so that overall traffic can be estimated. Nothing is read from or written to your device, and that request cannot recognise you from one page or one visit to the next.
You can change your mind at any time from the cookie banner, which you can reopen below, or by clearing this site's data in your browser settings. You may also object to the anonymous measurement described above by writing to us at the address in section 11.
In-house audience measurement (driver app). The app gives your browser a random identifier (chargematcher_visitor, in its local storage) and sends it only to our own server with each request. It lets us count unique visitors and understand failed searches from one visit to the next. It carries nothing about you, is not linked to your IP address or to any other service, and is shared with no one. This falls under the CNIL audience-measurement exemption: the identifier is renewed after 13 months and the data attached to it is deleted after 25 months. You can switch it off in the app, under Settings.
9. Security
We implement industry-standard security measures including HTTPS encryption, hashed password storage, and access controls. No method of data transmission or storage is 100% secure; however, we are committed to protecting your personal data using reasonable technical and organisational measures.
10. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. For significant changes, we will notify registered users by email.
11. Contact
For any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your data, please contact us at contact@chargematcher.com.