Who we are
Energybench is a trading name of Sterk Digital Limited, a company registered in Northern Ireland, company number NI676988. Our registered office is Unit 1, 212-218 Upper Newtownards Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland, BT4 3ET, and we're registered with the Information Commissioner's Office under number ZC269921.
We decide how and why your personal information is used, which makes us its controller. If you have a question about this notice or your information, email hello@energybench.co.uk or write to us at our registered office.
The short version
- We offer businesses a free check of their energy rates. If you ask for one, we pass your details to Assured Energy, our energy procurement partner, so their specialist can call you. We never sell your details.
- We may have emailed your business because we found its details in public sources: the Companies House register, your business's own website and its listings in Google search results. Ask us to stop at any time and we will.
- Our website sets no cookies, and our analytics don't identify you.
- You can ask to see, correct or delete what we hold about you, or object to how we use it.
When you ask for an energy check
What we collect
- First step: your name, your business's name, your email address, your phone number, and whether you'd like your electricity, gas or water checked.
- Second step, if you fill it in: the best time to call, your contract end date, your site address, a copy of an energy bill if you choose to add one, and anything you write in the "Anything else" box.
- With every form: the page you were on, any campaign tags in the link you followed, the version of the small print you saw, and the time you sent it.
- Your IP address, and how long the form was open before you sent it, which we use only to stop spam. We delete your IP address within 24 hours.
- If you came from a page we made for your business, that page's reference, which links your request to our earlier email.
A bill can include more than we ask for, such as your address, account numbers and how much energy you use, so only add one if you're happy for us and Assured Energy to see it.
How we use it
- To pass your details, and any bill, to Assured Energy, so their specialist can call you about your energy check.
- To email you a confirmation, if you gave us your email address.
- To stop any further emails from us to your business, if we'd been in touch.
- To keep a record of your request, including the small print you saw.
- To protect the form from spam and misuse.
Our lawful basis is legitimate interests: answering your request, introducing you to Assured Energy and keeping records of the introductions we make. You asked us to arrange the call, so we think this is what you'd expect. If you switch supplier through Assured Energy, they pay us a fee; you never pay us.
How we keep bills safe. Bills are stored privately under a random name. We never send them as email attachments, and we only share them through secure links that expire.
Assured Energy
When you ask for an energy check, we send your details and any bill to Assured Energy, our energy procurement partner (Consultus Assured Energy Limited, company number 10017134). They use them to call you about your energy check and, if you choose, to arrange a new contract or other energy services you ask them for. Once they have your details, Assured Energy is responsible for how they use them, under their own privacy notice.
If we emailed your business
We email limited companies, limited liability partnerships and plcs about our free energy check. We don't email sole traders or partnerships.
Where we got your details
- The Companies House register: your company's name, number, registered address and type of business.
- Your business's own website, and its listings in Google search results: the website address, and the business email addresses and phone numbers published there.
Before we use an email address, we check that it can receive mail, using an email checking service and checks with the mail server. Neither sends you an email.
What we hold
Your company's details, the business email addresses and phone numbers we found and where we found them, the emails we've sent and any replies. An email address with a person's name in it is personal information, and this notice covers it.
Our lawful basis is legitimate interests: telling businesses about a free check of their energy contract. We've weighed that against your interests and rights. We only use contact details a business has published itself, we only email incorporated businesses, we keep our emails short and few, and we stop within 2 working days of being asked.
How to stop our emails
Reply "stop" to any of our emails, use the unsubscribe link, or email hello@energybench.co.uk, and we'll stop within 2 working days. We then keep your email address and your business's web domain on a do-not-contact list, so nobody at your business hears from us again unless they get in touch first.
If you replied to us
We may make a private web page for your business, so you can ask for your energy check in one step. It shows your business's name, town and type of business, and your name if you gave it to us. Search engines can't find it, it isn't linked from anywhere, and we remove it after 90 days.
When you visit our website
- Analytics. We use Umami to understand how people use this site: which pages are visited, the site and any campaign link you came from, your browser, device type and rough location (country, region and city). Umami sets no cookies, anonymises what it collects and doesn't collect information that identifies you. Our lawful basis is legitimate interests: improving the site.
- Cookies. We don't use any. While you request an energy check, we keep one temporary reference in your browser so you can add a bill afterwards, and it's deleted when you close the tab. Our cookies page has the details.
- Server logs. Like any website, the servers that deliver our pages record basic technical details, such as your IP address and the pages requested, to keep the site secure and working. Our website host keeps these logs for a limited time.
Our website links to other sites, such as Ofgem and HMRC. We're not responsible for how they handle your information.
Who we share your information with
- Assured Energy, our energy procurement partner, when you ask for an energy check (see above).
- Service providers who work for us, and only on our instructions, under contracts that protect your information: our server and database host, private file storage and backups, our email hosting and delivery services, our website host and analytics, and, for our emails to businesses, the services we use to find business websites, check email addresses and send emails.
- Others where the law requires it, such as HMRC, the police or a court.
- If our business is sold, the new owner, who must use your information as this notice says.
We never sell your information.
Transfers outside the UK
Some of our providers are based in, or reach your information from, the European Economic Area or the United States. The UK recognises the EEA as protecting personal information properly. For the United States and anywhere else, we use the safeguards UK law provides: the UK-US data bridge where the provider is certified under it, or the Information Commissioner's international data transfer agreement or addendum. Email us for details.
How long we keep your information
| What | How long |
|---|---|
| Your energy check request | 2 years from our last contact with you. If you take out a contract through Assured Energy, 6 years, because the introduction is part of our accounts. |
| A bill you add | Deleted 90 days after we pass it to Assured Energy, or 90 days after you added it if we haven't. |
| Your IP address from the form | 24 hours. |
| Details we used to email your business | While your business is part of a current campaign, and for no more than 2 years after our last email. |
| Our do-not-contact list | For as long as we send emails, so we never contact you again. It holds only the email address and web domain. |
| A page we made for your business | Removed after 90 days. |
| Backups | Up to 14 days, then overwritten. |
When the time is up, we delete your information or remove anything that identifies you.
Your rights
You can ask us to:
- give you a copy of the information we hold about you;
- correct anything that's wrong or incomplete;
- delete your information;
- limit how we use it, for example while we check something you've told us;
- stop using it, if you object to how we use it. If you object to our emails, we always stop.
To ask, email hello@energybench.co.uk. We'll reply within one month. It's free, and we may ask you to confirm who you are first.
You don't have to give us any information, but we need your name, your business's name and a phone number to arrange the call you ask for.
We don't make decisions about you by automated means that have legal or similarly significant effects. Our systems use automated checks to find business websites and check email addresses, but these don't decide anything about you.
Complaints
If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, please tell us first at hello@energybench.co.uk. We'll acknowledge your complaint within 30 days, look into it, and tell you what we found.
You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.
Changes to this notice
We'll update this notice when our use of your information changes, and change the date at the top.