Information we collect

Account information

When you create an account, we collect:

Email address (required for authentication)
Account creation date

Design data

When you save designs, we store:

Power converter topology configurations
Component selections and parameters
Analysis results and calculations
Design names and descriptions

Design activity (signed-in users)

When you are signed in and working on a design, we record design-activity events: which components you evaluate, compare, and commit to your designs, together with the electrical operating point (voltages, currents, switching frequency, temperature) and the computed results (losses, efficiency, thermal figures). These events are recorded under a random pseudonym rather than your identity. See “Aggregated Industry Insights” below for how they are used and protected.

When you open the part search for a position in your design, we also record what it showed you: the filters and search terms you applied, the position’s electrical operating point, and the ranked list of parts returned, up to the top 10 — including a search that returned few or no matches. This is recorded under the same pseudonym as the rest of your design activity, and used the same way.

Service integrity

This collection does not depend on your analytics consent choice. When a small set of specific failures happen (most importantly, one of your own designs failing to save), we record enough to diagnose it, regardless of whether you have accepted or declined analytics. Design saves go directly from your browser to our database, so a failed save leaves no other record anywhere we control. Without this, the failure, and the work you lost, would be invisible to us, including for the privacy-conscious engineers who are the ones most likely to decline analytics in the first place.

We record:

Which of six failures occurred: a design failing to save, the background calculation engine unable to start or stops working partway through (analysis then runs directly in your browser tab instead), an analysis calculation failing outright, an analysis calculation hanging without ever completing, a saved or loaded design not matching the format we store designs in, or a design referring to a part that could not be loaded back with it
For those last two, where the check ran (loading or saving), the design format version, how many problems were found, and the location and type of the first one, such as “the current on the second node is the wrong type”. Never the values in your design, its name, or which design it was
A short excerpt of the underlying error message, capped at 500 characters. This is meant to be technical detail about the failure, but since it comes from the underlying system it could in principle include a fragment of data related to what failed
A few technical details about where in the app the failure happened, such as which screen or calculation step was involved
The app version you were using
A random identifier for your current browser tab, so a single repeated failure can be told apart from many separate ones
Your account id, if you are signed in

This is not analytics: it is never used for product measurement or to understand how the app is used. Records are kept for 30 days. If you delete your account, any records referencing it are immediately disconnected from your account, and are removed along with the rest within that window.

Newsletter & contact information

When you sign up for our newsletter or waitlist, we collect:

Email address
User type (if provided, e.g. power electronics engineer, student)
Referral source (how you found us)
Approximate location (country, region, city, derived from IP address by our hosting provider)

Analytics data

With your consent, we also collect anonymous usage analytics to improve our service:

Pages visited and features used
Analysis runs and results (anonymized)
Error logs (anonymized)
Device type and browser information

Page visit counts

This count does not depend on your analytics consent choice. When your browser loads a page on switchmode.io, our server counts that page load, whether you have accepted analytics, declined it, or not answered the cookie banner. Without it we could not tell how many people reach the site or how they find it, because most visitors never answer the banner.

The count uses no cookies and runs no code in your browser: it is taken from the request your browser already sends to load the page, and nothing is stored on your device or read from it. For each page load we record:

The page address, without anything after the “?” except campaign tags
The website that linked you here, as its address only (for example, www.google.com), not the page or search you came from
Campaign tags in the link you followed, if any (the utm_ parameters)

We do not record your IP address, your location, your browser or device, any cookie, or your account. Each page load is recorded under a new random identifier, so two page loads cannot be linked to each other or to you. Requests from search engine crawlers and other automated tools are not counted. These counts are sent to PostHog and kept as anonymous analytics data.

How we use your information

We use your information to:

Authenticate and manage your account
Save and sync your designs across devices
Improve our analysis algorithms and user experience
Respond to support requests
Send important account-related notifications
Send a welcome email when you subscribe to our newsletter

We do notsell your personal information or share it with third parties for advertising purposes. We do share aggregated, pseudonymous design-activity statistics with component manufacturers, under the protections described in “Aggregated Industry Insights” below. Never your identity.

Aggregated industry insights

switchmode.io is free for engineers because component manufacturers pay for aggregated insight into how their parts perform in real designs. We believe this only works if it never compromises you, so it is built on three hard rules:

You are pseudonymous. Design-activity events carry a random identifier, not your name or email. The single table linking that identifier to your account is destroyed when you delete your account, making your historical events permanently anonymous.
Every number stands on at least ten engineers. Manufacturers only ever see aggregated statistics, and no statistic is shown unless at least 10 distinct engineers contributed to it. Below that floor, the data is suppressed entirely.
Your identity is shared only when you ask for it. The only way a manufacturer ever learns who you are is if you explicitly request contact about a specific part (for example, requesting a sample). That request shares only the details relevant to that part, with that manufacturer, once.

No manufacturer payment ever affects what you see, which parts are recommended, or how results are ranked.

Third-party services

We use the following third-party services to operate switchmode.io:

Supabase

Authentication and database storage. Supabase privacy policy

PostHog

Privacy-focused analytics. Usage analytics are collected only with your consent; anonymous page visit counts (described above) are collected for every visitor. PostHog privacy policy

Vercel

Web hosting and deployment. Vercel privacy policy

Resend

Transactional email delivery (welcome emails, account notifications). Resend privacy policy

Cookies

We use cookies for the following purposes:

Essential cookies

Required for authentication and basic site functionality. These cannot be disabled.

Analytics cookies

Used by PostHog to collect anonymous usage data. These are only activated if you consent. You can change your preference at any time in Account settings.

Data retention

We retain your data for as long as your account is active. When you delete your account, your personal data is permanently removed within 30 days. Design-activity events are retained in permanently anonymised form: the link between those events and your identity is destroyed at deletion and cannot be restored. Anonymous analytics data may be retained indefinitely for statistical purposes.

Your rights

You have the following rights regarding your data:

Access: View all data we have about you
Export: Download your data in a portable format
Deletion: Request permanent deletion of your account and all data
Correction: Update or correct your information
Opt-out: Disable analytics tracking at any time

You can exercise these rights from your Account settings page.

Security

We implement industry-standard security measures to protect your data:

All data is transmitted over HTTPS (TLS 1.3)
Passwords are never stored in plain text
Database access is restricted with row-level security
Regular security audits and updates

Changes to this policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. We will notify you of any significant changes by email or through a notice on our website.

Contact

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or how we handle your data, please contact us at privacy@switchmode.io.