Privacy Policy
This page explains exactly what the Site measures, what it does not measure, which cookies are involved, and how you can control them. It describes the Site as it operates today.
The short version
- The calculator runs entirely in your browser. The numbers you type are not sent to us, and are not sent to our analytics provider as events.
- We use two analytics tools to count visits and see which pages are useful: Google Analytics 4 and Cloudflare Web Analytics.
- Google Analytics 4 sets cookies, so it is not loaded at all in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, where those cookies need prior consent we do not currently ask for.
- Cloudflare Web Analytics runs everywhere and sets no cookies.
- We do not run advertising, we do not sell data, and we do not build profiles of individual visitors.
- You can block or delete these cookies at any time. The calculator keeps working.
1. What happens to the numbers you type
Every calculation — your monthly expenses, the number of children, the annual cost per child, your one-time goals, your current assets, the withdrawal rate and the return assumption — is processed in your browser’s memory by a local script. The Site has no backend, no database and no user accounts, so there is nowhere for those values to be stored on our side.
Specifically, the values you enter are:
- never transmitted to a server we control;
- never written into the page URL, so they are not carried along if you copy or share the link;
- not sent to Google Analytics as custom events, event parameters or user properties — we do not attach your financial figures to any analytics hit;
- not used to build a profile, and not used for advertising.
If you choose to download the result card or copy your results, that happens locally in your browser. A file is only saved, or a message only shared, when you take that action yourself.
One clarification, because it matters: the statement above is about the values you type. It does not mean the Site collects nothing. Like any website, it receives ordinary technical information about a visit — such as which page was requested, the IP address the request arrived from, and the browser used. The next section describes what is measured and what is done with it.
2. Analytics we use
2.1 Google Analytics 4 (measurement ID G-LM0YEE4VTM)
Provided by Google LLC (and Google Ireland Limited for users in the European Economic Area). It helps us understand which pages people read, how they arrive, and whether the Site works on real devices.
It is not loaded for visitors in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland. Section 6 explains how that is decided and what it means in practice.
Where it does run, Google Analytics 4 typically records:
- the page path and page title viewed, and the time of the visit;
- the referring page or campaign that led here;
- approximate location — city level, derived from the IP address. Google does not store the full IP address in Google Analytics 4;
- device type, operating system, browser, language and screen size;
- interactions that its default “enhanced measurement” collects, such as scroll depth, outbound link clicks and site search.
We have not enabled Google Signals, not enabled advertising personalisation, and not linked Google Analytics to any advertising account. We do not use it to make automated decisions about you.
2.2 Cloudflare Web Analytics
Our hosting provider, Cloudflare, Inc., adds a small measurement script when a page is served. It is cookieless: it does not store identifiers in your browser, does not fingerprint devices, and does not follow you across other websites. It gives us page-view counts and basic performance and reliability data. It runs independently of Google Analytics, so the two tools will not report identical numbers, and it keeps running in the regions where Google Analytics is switched off.
2.3 What we do not use
No Google Tag Manager, no advertising or remarketing tags, no social media pixels, no heatmaps or session recording, no A/B testing platform, and no tool that records what you type into form fields.
3. Cookies and similar technologies
Where Google Analytics 4 is loaded, it sets first-party cookies on this domain. They are used only to count visits and keep a session together — not for advertising. These cookies are not set in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, because the tag is not loaded there.
| Name | Set by | Purpose | Typical lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|
_ga |
Google Analytics | Distinguishes one browser from another so a visit can be counted once rather than repeatedly. | Up to 13 months |
_ga_LM0YEE4VTM |
Google Analytics | Keeps session state for this specific measurement ID. | Up to 13 months |
| — | Cloudflare Web Analytics | No cookies are set. Measurement is cookieless. | — |
We do not set advertising cookies, and we do not use cookies to identify you personally. If you delete these cookies, the next visit starts a new, unconnected session.
4. Why we measure, and what we do with it
Analytics is used for one purpose: to understand, in aggregate, whether the Site is useful and working — which pages are read, which are ignored, where people leave, and whether pages load properly on phones. We look at aggregated reports, not at individual visitors.
We do not sell analytics data, we do not share it with advertising networks or data brokers, and we do not combine it with other data to identify you.
5. Your choices: how to manage cookies
You are in control of the analytics cookies described above. Any of the following works, and none of them breaks the calculator:
- Browser settings — block third-party cookies, block all cookies, or clear existing ones. Every major browser lets you review and delete cookies per site.
- Google’s opt-out add-on — the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on stops Google Analytics from using your data across all sites that use it.
- Content blockers — blocking
googletagmanager.comandgoogle-analytics.comwith an extension prevents the analytics script from loading at all. - Private browsing — cookies are discarded when the window closes.
We do not currently respond to browser “Do Not Track” or Global Privacy Control signals automatically. If you want analytics off, the controls above are the reliable way to do it, and we would rather say so plainly than claim a capability we have not built.
6. Visitors in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland
In these regions, analytics cookies need your prior consent, and the Site does not have a consent banner. Rather than ask and then risk defaulting to “yes”, the Site takes the stricter route: Google Analytics is not loaded at all. No request is made to Google, no _ga cookie is set, and nothing about the visit reaches Google Analytics.
Cloudflare Web Analytics keeps working there. It sets no cookies and does not identify you, so it is not affected by the restriction.
How the region is decided. Before loading anything, the page asks Cloudflare — the network that already serves the request — which country the request came from, using the IP address the request already carries. The lookup is same-origin: it is not a third-party service, sets no cookie and creates no new identifier.
It is best-effort, not identification. The answer can be wrong: VPNs, corporate networks, privacy relays and satellite connections can all place a visitor in the wrong country. We describe it as a country estimate, not as accurate geolocation.
If the lookup fails, analytics stays off. A failed, blocked or timed-out lookup, an unrecognised answer, or a browser without the needed features all end the same way: Google Analytics is not loaded. The default is off, not on.
What this is not. It is not a consent management platform. There is no banner, no consent record and no withdrawal flow, because no consent is being collected — the tag is simply absent. If you are outside those regions and want analytics off, use the controls in section 5.
7. Who processes the data
Two service providers process data on our behalf, under their own terms and data protection agreements:
- Google LLC / Google Ireland Limited — Google Analytics 4, outside the regions listed in section 6. See Google’s privacy policy and Google’s data processing terms.
- Cloudflare, Inc. — hosting, content delivery, the country lookup described in section 6, and Cloudflare Web Analytics. See Cloudflare’s privacy policy.
We may also disclose information if we are legally required to, or to protect the rights and safety of the Site and its users. Beyond that, we do not pass analytics data to anyone.
8. How long data is kept
Google Analytics user-level data is retained for up to 14 months and then deleted automatically; aggregated reports that contain no individual identifiers may be kept longer. Cloudflare retains its analytics data according to its own retention schedule. We do not hold calculator inputs at all, because they are never transmitted to us.
9. International transfers
Google and Cloudflare are US-headquartered companies, and data may be processed in the United States and other countries. Those transfers rely on the providers’ own safeguards, such as standard contractual clauses and, where applicable, certification under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework. Because Google Analytics is not loaded in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, the data at issue there is limited to Cloudflare’s cookieless measurement and the country lookup.
10. Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete or restrict the processing of your personal data, to object to processing, to receive a portable copy, and to withdraw consent. Visitors in the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland may also complain to their local supervisory authority. California residents have the right to know, delete and correct personal information, and to opt out of its sale or sharing — we do not sell personal information and do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising.
Because the Site has no accounts and never receives your calculator inputs, most requests will concern the analytics identifiers described in section 3, and those identifiers are only created outside the regions listed in section 6. The opt-out controls in section 5 are usually the fastest route.
11. Children
The Site is a general-audience financial calculator and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided information to us, please use the contact route in section 14.
12. Security
The Site is served over HTTPS and is made of static files: there are no accounts, no passwords and no database to breach. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, but the amount of data involved here is deliberately small.
13. Changes to this policy
If we change what we measure or how, we will update this page and move the effective date at the top. Material changes — for example introducing a consent banner, changing the analytics provider, or changing how the country lookup works — will be reflected here before or when they take effect.
14. Contact
Questions about this policy, or about analytics on the Site, can be sent to danfengzheng9@gmail.com.
This is the contact address for privacy matters. If you are writing about a specific visit, please include the date and the page you were on — the Site keeps no account records, so that is usually all we need in order to look into it.