Privacy Policy
What is collected, why, where it lives, and how to get it back or get rid of it.
Who runs this site
Finance Fundamentals is operated by an individual based in India, who is the data fiduciary for the purposes of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. For any question or request about your data, write to [email protected].
What is collected
You can use the calculators without an account. Nothing you type is stored anywhere unless you choose to sign in and save it.
If you create an account
- Email and password, or — if you sign in with Google — your name, email address and profile picture from that Google account. Passwords are handled by Google Firebase Authentication and are never visible to this site.
If you save a calculation
- What you called the purchase, its price, and the figures you entered: liquid savings, essential monthly expenses, take-home income, existing debt payments, monthly savings target, and the purchase horizon.
- The resulting score and its classification, and when you saved it.
- The need-or-want reflection written for that purchase, if one was generated, so the saved entry still carries it when you open it again.
If you save a Future Expense calculation
- What you called the product, its sticker price, and the ownership horizon in years you entered.
- Each charge line item you kept or added — its name, category (one-time, monthly, or periodic), how often it recurs if periodic, and the amount you typed in.
- The resulting true-cost total and when you saved it.
- Whether the product was classed as usually gaining or losing value, and the one-line explanation shown with it, so a saved entry still carries them when you open it again.
If you save details to your profile
- The recurring figures you choose to store — savings, expenses, income, debt payments and savings target — so they can be filled in for you next time.
If you send feedback
- Your message, any star rating, the page you sent it from, your email address and your account identifier. Sending feedback requires an account.
- So that it is actually read, your message, star rating and the page are also posted to a private Slack channel of ours. Your email address and account identifier are not — they stay in our database, where deleting your account can reach them.
If you use the need-or-want reflection
- The name of the thing you are pricing — just the words you typed, such as "car" or "laptop" — is sent to our own server, which passes it to Cloudflare Workers AI to generate the reflection. None of your figures are sent: not your income, savings, expenses, debts, or the score. The request is not tied to your account.
- Because the reflection depends only on that word or two, our server keeps a shared copy so the same everyday item — "car", "laptop" — is not sent to Hugging Face over and over. The stored key is a one-way hash, not the text you typed, and an unusual or personal-sounding phrase is never added to it: the shared copy is only kept once two people have independently asked about the same common item. Nothing in it is linked to you or your account.
- The reflection that comes back is also kept in your browser so the same item is not asked about twice, and — if you are signed in and save the calculation — it is stored with that saved entry, and deleted with it.
If you use the Future Expense charge suggestions
- The name of the product you are pricing — just the words you typed, such as "car" — is sent to our own server, which passes it to Cloudflare Workers AI to suggest likely charges beyond the sticker price. No amount is ever sent or received — the model only suggests which charges are likely, roughly how often they recur, and whether that kind of thing usually gains or loses value while you own it, never a price. Every amount is typed by you and stays in your browser unless you sign in and save the calculation. The request is not tied to your account.
- Because the suggested list depends only on the product name, our server keeps a shared copy so the same everyday item — "car", "laptop" — is not sent to the model over and over. The stored key is a one-way hash, not the text you typed, and an unusual or personal-sounding phrase is never added to it: the shared copy is only kept once two people have independently asked about the same common item. Nothing in it is linked to you or your account.
Automatically
- Google Analytics records page visits, approximate location derived from your IP address, and general device and browser information. It also records that a calculation was run, that a suggestion or reflection was requested, and that a result was shared — together with which calculator, the affordability band the answer fell into, the number of charge rows and the ownership horizon. None of your figures are sent, and neither is the product name. A band such as “Affordable” is a bucket thousands of people land in; your income, savings, debts, prices and what you are buying stay in your browser. This is used to understand how the site is used in aggregate.
- Error reports. When something fails in your browser that you
cannot see — a saved calculation that did not save, a suggestion request that
never arrived — the page tells our own server so we find out. It sends three
things: a fixed label for what failed (such as
history_save_failed), the error code behind it (such aspermission-denied), and which page you were on. No figures, no product name, no account or personal details, and never the error's own text — a message can quote whatever caused it, so only the code is sent. The report is not tied to your account. - Your browser's local storage keeps your light/dark theme choice, your display name and picture so the page does not flicker while loading, the need-or-want reflections you have already seen, and which site announcement you have dismissed so it is not shown again. This stays on your device.
- The hosting provider, Cloudflare, keeps standard server logs.
What is never collected
Your financial figures are never sent to any third party — they stay in your browser unless you sign in and choose to save them, in which case they go only to Firebase. No bank account numbers, card details, PAN, Aadhaar or other government identifiers, and no connection to any bank or financial institution. The figures you enter are numbers you type — this site cannot see your actual accounts. Your data is not sold, rented, or shared for advertising.
Why it is collected
Account data exists so you can sign in. Saved calculations and profile details exist only to provide the features you asked for — history and prefilled inputs. Feedback is used to improve the site. Analytics is used to understand usage in aggregate. Where the law requires consent, your act of creating an account and saving data is that consent, and you may withdraw it at any time by deleting your account.
Where it is stored
Account information and saved data are held in Google Firebase (Authentication and Cloud Firestore). Analytics is processed by Google Analytics. The site is served by Cloudflare. The need-or-want reflection and the Future Expense charge suggestions are both generated by a model running on Cloudflare Workers AI, each reached through its own small server of ours also running on Cloudflare. These providers may process and store data on servers outside India.
How long it is kept
Saved calculations and profile details are kept until you delete them or delete your account. Deleting your account removes them immediately and permanently. Feedback messages are kept separately so they remain useful after an account is gone; ask at [email protected] if you want yours removed. Analytics data follows Google's own retention period.
Your rights
Under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 you may ask for access to your data, correction of anything inaccurate, and erasure. In practice:
- Access and correction — your saved calculations and details are visible and editable while signed in, on the calculator and My details pages.
- Erasure — delete individual calculations from your history, or delete your entire account and everything attached to it from My details. This cannot be undone.
- Anything else — including a copy of your data or a complaint — write to [email protected].
Security
Traffic is served over HTTPS, authentication is handled by Google Firebase, and access rules restrict each account's saved data to that account. No service can promise perfect security, and this one does not.
Children
This site is not intended for anyone under 18, and accounts should not be created by or for children. If you believe a child has created an account, write to [email protected] and it will be removed.
Changes
This policy may change as the site does. The date at the top always reflects the current version.