Privacy Policy

Two things, with a sharp distinction between them.

A. Personal information — contact form only

When you submit the contact form, we receive your name, email address, and message text. That information is saved to our database so we can read and respond to it. This is the only place on this site where we collect anything that can identify you.

B. Anonymous usage statistics — calculator

Every time someone runs the eligibility calculator, we record a single row of aggregate statistics:

• Which state was selected
• The fiscal year used for the calculation
• Whether the simple or detailed mode was used
• Household size (number of people)
• Whether the household includes an elderly or disabled member (yes/no)
• The eligibility outcome (likely eligible, ineligible, borderline)
• A timestamp

What is not recorded: income amounts, deduction figures, IP address, session identifier, or anything else that could connect this row to you. No IP address. No session ID. No user identifier of any kind. There is no way to look at this data and know who ran the calculation. It is aggregate statistical data — the kind that tells us "200 households in Texas used the detailed calculator in April" but not who those households were or what they earned.

We collect this to understand which states and household configurations the calculator actually serves, so we can prioritize improvements and keep the policy data current.

• Contact form submissions — read and responded to. That's it. We don't add you to any mailing list, share your message with anyone, or use your email for anything other than replying to your inquiry.
• Anonymous calculator statistics — used internally to track calculator usage patterns and guide content and development priorities.
• Server logs — our hosting provider records standard request logs (IP address, browser, URL requested, timestamp) as part of normal infrastructure operation. We use these only for security and operations debugging. We do not mine them for behavioral data.

• We do not sell your data to anyone.
• We do not share your data with third parties, except as legally required.
• We do not send marketing emails. There is no newsletter or mailing list signup on this site.
• We do not track you across other websites.
• We do not use behavioral advertising.
• We do not profile users or build user accounts.

This site sets two essential cookies:

• Session cookie — keeps your calculator in progress as you move between steps (household → income → deductions → result). It expires after 120 minutes of inactivity or when your browser session ends. It contains no personal information — just an opaque session ID.
• CSRF token cookie — a standard Laravel security cookie that protects form submissions from cross-site request forgery attacks.

No advertising cookies. No analytics cookies. No third-party tracking cookies.

Note: If we add advertising or analytics in the future, this policy will be updated and a notice will be posted before those cookies go live.

Beyond our hosting provider, this site does not use third-party analytics platforms, error-tracking services, advertising networks, CDNs, or any external service that receives data about your visit. No Google Analytics, no Facebook Pixel, no Sentry, no Cloudflare (unless our host routes through one transparently — we do not control hosting-layer infrastructure decisions).

The contact form currently sends a notification email when a submission arrives. Email delivery is handled by our hosting environment's mail configuration. Message contents travel through that mail path to reach us but are not stored by any third-party email marketing service.

• Contact form submissions — retained for up to two years, then deleted. If you want your submission deleted sooner, use the contact form to request it.
• Anonymous calculator statistics — retained indefinitely as aggregate data. Individual rows contain no personal information and cannot be linked to you.
• Server logs — subject to our hosting provider's retention policy, typically 30–90 days.
• Session data — expires after 120 minutes of inactivity. Calculator session data is not persisted beyond the session lifetime.

This site serves US residents and does not currently meet the thresholds that trigger CCPA or GDPR obligations. We don't run opt-out infrastructure or formal data subject request workflows. That said, if you submitted a contact form message and want a copy of it or want it deleted, just ask us via the contact form and we will handle it.

We cannot retrieve or delete the anonymous calculator statistics because they contain no information that identifies which row belongs to you.

This site is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. If you believe a child has submitted a contact form, contact us and we will delete the submission.

If we make material changes — adding new data collection, new third-party services, or advertising cookies — we will update this page and revise the "Last updated" date at the top. For significant changes (like adding advertising), we will post a notice before they take effect, not after.

Privacy questions, data requests, or anything else: use the contact form.