1. Who we are
SolTicker is a trading name of Searchex Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales. When this policy says "we", "us", or "our", it means Searchex Ltd operating as SolTicker.
If you have any privacy questions, contact us at [email protected].
2. What data we collect
We collect only what is necessary to provide the service:
- Account data — your name and email address when you register.
- Inverter credentials — your Growatt username, password, inverter serial number, datalogger serial, and plant ID. These are stored encrypted and used solely to read and write settings on your inverter via the Growatt cloud API.
- Solar system configuration — panel count, tilt, azimuth, and location (postcode or coordinates). Used to fetch a solar forecast tailored to your roof.
- Energy readings — battery state of charge, solar generation, grid import/export, and house load, polled every 5 minutes from your inverter. Stored in our database to power your savings dashboard and improve charge decisions.
- Billing information — handled directly by Stripe (card payments) or GoCardless (direct debit). We do not store card numbers or bank account details; we receive only a customer reference and subscription status from these processors.
- Notification preferences — whether you have opted in to push, email, or Telegram notifications and which events you want to be notified about.
- Usage logs — server logs (IP address, browser, page visited, timestamp) retained for 30 days for security and diagnostic purposes.
3. How we use your data
- To connect to your inverter and automate overnight battery charging decisions.
- To display your savings, energy history, and battery performance in the app.
- To send you notifications you have opted in to (charge complete, free electricity, nightly plan).
- To process your subscription and send receipts.
- To diagnose faults, improve the service, and respond to support requests.
We do not sell your data, use it for advertising, or share it with third parties except as described in section 5.
4. Legal basis (UK GDPR)
- Contract performance — processing your inverter credentials and energy data to deliver the service you have subscribed to.
- Legitimate interests — server logs and security monitoring to protect the platform.
- Consent — push and email notifications, which you can withdraw at any time in the app.
5. Third parties we share data with
- Growatt — your inverter credentials are used to authenticate with the Growatt cloud API (server.growatt.com) on your behalf. This is inherent to the service.
- Open-Meteo — your solar system location is sent to Open-Meteo to fetch a GTI solar forecast. No personal identifiers are included.
- Amazon Web Services — our servers run on AWS Lightsail in the EU. AWS processes data on our behalf under a Data Processing Agreement.
- Stripe — payment processing for card subscriptions. Stripe's privacy policy.
- GoCardless — payment processing for direct debit subscriptions. GoCardless's privacy policy.
- Resend — transactional email delivery (receipts, notifications). Resend processes your email address on our behalf.
- Xero — accounting and invoicing. Invoices contain your name and email address.
6. Data retention
- Energy readings are retained indefinitely to build your historical savings record.
- Account and inverter credential data is deleted within 30 days of account closure on request.
- Billing records (invoices) are retained for 7 years to meet legal accounting requirements.
- Server logs are retained for 30 days.
7. Your rights
Under UK GDPR you have the right to:
- Access — request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
- Rectification — ask us to correct inaccurate data.
- Erasure — ask us to delete your data (subject to legal retention requirements).
- Portability — receive your energy data in a machine-readable format.
- Objection — object to processing based on legitimate interests.
- Withdraw consent — turn off notifications at any time in the app under Alerts.
To exercise any right, email [email protected]. We will respond within 30 days. If you are unhappy with our response you may complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
8. Cookies
We use a single session cookie to keep you logged in. We do not use advertising, analytics, or tracking cookies. No third-party cookies are set by the SolTicker application.
9. Security
Inverter credentials are encrypted at rest. All data is transmitted over HTTPS. Access to production systems is restricted to authorised personnel.
10. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as the service evolves. Material changes will be communicated by email. The "last updated" date at the top of this page always reflects the current version.