Privacy Policy

How CheckMyWatts handles your data.

Privacy-First Design

CheckMyWatts does not collect, store, or sell your personal information. All electricity calculations happen in your browser, nothing is sent to our servers. The site displays third-party advertisements served by Google AdSense to help cover operating costs. These ads may use cookies to serve relevant content. You can opt out of personalised advertising via your Google account settings or by adjusting your browser cookie preferences.

What data we collect

Personal information: none

CheckMyWatts does not collect any personally identifiable information (PII). We do not ask for, store, or transmit your name, email address, phone number, physical address, account credentials, payment details, IP address, or device identifiers.

Calculator inputs: processed locally only

When you use the rate checker, the following data is processed entirely in your browser and never leaves your device:

  • Suburb or postal code searches
  • Monthly electricity usage (kWh)
  • Token amounts and kWh received
  • Rate calculation results

Browser storage (local storage)

We use your browser's local storage — not server-side storage — to remember:

  • Your disclaimer acceptance (so we do not show it on every visit)
  • Your language preference
  • Cookie consent choice

This data lives only on your device. It is never transmitted to CheckMyWatts or any third party. You can clear it at any time by clearing your browser's site data.

Cookies and tracking

CheckMyWatts uses two categories of cookies:

Strictly necessary cookies

These are essential for the site to function. They store your disclaimer acceptance, language preference, and cookie consent choice. They do not track you across websites and cannot be switched off. No personal information is stored in these cookies.

Advertising cookies (Google AdSense)

CheckMyWatts displays advertisements served by Google AdSense. Google may set cookies on your device to serve ads that are relevant to your interests, to limit how often you see a particular ad, and to measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. These cookies may collect your IP address, browser type, device type, and browsing behaviour across websites that use Google advertising services.

CheckMyWatts does not control the cookies placed by Google AdSense. Google's use of advertising cookies is governed by Google's Privacy Policy, available atpolicies.google.com/privacy.

You can opt out of personalised advertising at any time viagoogle.com/settings/ads, or by visiting theNetwork Advertising Initiative opt-out page. You can also disable all cookies in your browser settings, though this may affect site functionality.

Advertising

CheckMyWatts is a free, independent educational resource. To cover operating costs — including hosting, domain registration, and ongoing development — the site displays third-party advertisements served by Google AdSense.

Who serves the ads: Google AdSense (Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA). Google AdSense is a third-party advertising service. CheckMyWatts does not directly control which ads are displayed.

What data Google may use: Google may use cookies, device identifiers, and browsing data to serve relevant ads. This data is processed in accordance with Google's Privacy Policy and Google's EU User Consent Policy where applicable.

No advertiser influence: Advertisers do not influence the editorial content of CheckMyWatts. Tariff data, rights information, and calculator results are produced independently and are not influenced by advertising relationships.

Revenue use: All advertising revenue is used exclusively to cover site operating costs. CheckMyWatts is not a commercial enterprise and does not distribute profits.

Ad content: CheckMyWatts does not endorse products or services shown in advertisements. If you see an ad that you believe is inappropriate or misleading, you can report it directly to Google AdSense.

How we use your data

CheckMyWatts processes data only for the following purposes:

  • Searching for your municipality based on suburb or postal code (in your browser)
  • Calculating your electricity rate from token receipt information (in your browser)
  • Comparing your rate against official municipal tariffs (in your browser)
  • Remembering your language preference and disclaimer acceptance (local storage)
  • Serving advertisements via Google AdSense (Google's systems)

CheckMyWatts does not use your data for marketing, profiling, or any purpose beyond those listed above. We do not sell data to any party.

Data sharing and third parties

CheckMyWatts does not share personal data with third parties, because we do not collect personal data. The only third-party service integrated into CheckMyWatts is Google AdSense, which operates under its own privacy policy as described in the Advertising section above.

No analytics tracking: We do not use Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, Hotjar, or any other behavioural analytics service.

No social media pixels: We do not integrate Facebook, TikTok, Twitter/X, or any other social media tracking pixels.

No data brokers: We do not sell, rent, or share any data with data brokers or marketing companies.

Feedback submissions: If you submit feedback via the Feedback page, your message is transmitted to our email inbox via Web3Forms. Only the content you type and your email address (if provided) are transmitted. Web3Forms does not store your data beyond message delivery.

Data security

Because CheckMyWatts does not collect or store personal data on servers, there is no central database that could be compromised. Security is ensured by:

  • Client-side processing: All calculations run in your browser
  • HTTPS: The site is served over encrypted HTTPS
  • No server storage: Searches and calculations are never stored server-side
  • Minimal data collection: We cannot lose data we do not hold

Your rights under POPIA

The Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA) is South Africa's primary data protection legislation. It governs the collection, storage, use, and sharing of personal information of South African residents.

CheckMyWatts is committed to compliance with POPIA. Because we do not collect or store personal information, the majority of POPIA's subject rights are not engaged. However, the following applies:

Lawful processing

All data processing by CheckMyWatts occurs in your browser with your knowledge. We do not process personal information without a lawful basis.

Purpose limitation

Data (such as cookie preferences stored in local storage) is used only for the purpose for which it was collected — site functionality and preference memory.

Advertising and POPIA

Google AdSense, as a foreign entity processing data of South African residents, is required to comply with POPIA where applicable. Google LLC is a registered operator under applicable international data processing frameworks. Users who wish to exercise data rights related to Google's advertising data should do so directly via Google's privacy controls atmyaccount.google.com/data-and-privacy.

Right to access

CheckMyWatts holds no personal information about you to access. Your local storage data (disclaimer acceptance, language preference) is stored on your own device and is accessible to you directly through your browser settings.

Right to deletion

You can delete all locally stored preferences at any time by clearing your browser's site data for checkmywatts.co.za (Settings → Privacy → Clear browsing data → Cookies and site data). This resets your disclaimer acceptance, language preference, and cookie consent choice.

Information Officer

For any POPIA-related queries, contact us via the Feedback page on this website. We will respond within a reasonable time and in accordance with our obligations under POPIA.

Children's privacy

CheckMyWatts is not directed at children under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from minors. The site contains no content unsuitable for general audiences, but the subject matter (electricity billing and consumer rights) is primarily relevant to adults responsible for household finances.

Changes to this policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, or legal requirements. Any material changes will be reflected with an updated "Last Modified" date below. We encourage you to review this policy periodically. Continued use of CheckMyWatts after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Contact

For questions about this privacy policy, data handling, or POPIA-related requests, please contact us via the Feedback page on this website. We do not publish a direct email address to limit spam, but all Feedback submissions are reviewed and responded to.

Last Modified: 25 March 2026

Effective Date: 25 March 2026

Summary

  • ✓ All calculations happen in your browser — nothing sent to our servers
  • ✓ We do not collect personal information
  • ✓ We do not use analytics tracking
  • ✓ We do not sell data to any party
  • ✓ Ads are served by Google AdSense — Google's privacy policy applies to ad cookies
  • ✓ You can opt out of personalised ads via your Google account settings
  • ✓ POPIA compliance: we hold no personal data about you