Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

This website and the AI Retirement Income Planner are made by Paul Hankin, an individual doing business as WebNomad Studio ("WebNomad Studio", "we", "us", "our"), based in Missouri, United States. Paul Hankin is the data controller for the personal information described in this policy. If you have any question about privacy or your data, email Email us — a real person reads it.

This policy covers the website at this domain and the planner application you may purchase and download. It does not cover third‑party sites or services we link to, which have their own privacy policies (see Section 7).

2. The planner app: your data stays with you

The planner is a single, self‑contained file that runs entirely in your own browser. We want to be very clear about what this means for your privacy:

• Nothing is uploaded to us. The figures you enter — income, savings, ages, scenarios — are stored only in your browser's local storage on your own device, or in backup files you choose to export. We have no server that receives, stores, or sees your plan.
• No account, no sign‑up. You don't create a login, and we don't hold a profile about you.
• No bank or brokerage connections. The planner never links to your financial accounts.
• Optional AI features run under your own key. If you choose to use the AI co‑pilot, it is called directly from your browser using an AI provider key that you supply. Those requests go from your browser to that provider under their privacy terms — they do not pass through us. The AI features are entirely optional and the planner works fully without them. What is sent is your plan, not your identity: the figures you entered and the results calculated from them, plus your question. The planner has no field for a name, email address, postal address, phone number, employer, or any account, policy or Social Security number, so none can be included; there is no login, so no user id or profile is attached; and your plan notes are excluded. The full detail of what does and does not leave your computer is set out here.
• You're in control of your files. Exporting a JSON backup or a PDF report creates a file on your device. What you do with that file — where you store it or who you share it with — is up to you.

3. Information we collect on this website

This marketing website collects a small amount of information, in three ways:

a. When you contact us

If you use the contact form, you provide your name, email address, an optional subject, and your message. We use this only to reply to you and to keep a record of our correspondence. The message is delivered to us by email through our email‑sending provider, and a confirmation copy is sent back to your address. You can also email us directly instead of using the form.

b. When you request a free download

If you sign up for one of our free downloads — the eBook, a checklist or a guide — you provide your email address and, optionally, your first name. We use these to send you the download you asked for and occasional related emails about the planner. Your details are stored with our email marketing provider, and every email carries an unsubscribe link that removes you immediately. We never sell or rent the list.

c. Checking a form submission is genuine

Both forms above attract automated submissions — scripts that sign up fake addresses or send junk messages. To tell those apart from real people, when you submit either form we record the submission alongside your IP address, your browser's user‑agent string, the country our host derives from your IP, your browser's language setting, the page the form was on, and how long the form was open before you submitted it. When you click the confirmation link in a signup email, we record that click's time, IP address and browser too. We do this because we have a legitimate interest in keeping our mailing list and inbox free of automated abuse, and because a filter that rejects people has to be one we can check and correct. These records are used only for that purpose — never for advertising, never to build a profile of you, and they are deleted automatically after 90 days. If you'd like to know what we hold about a submission of yours, or want it deleted sooner, email Email us.

d. Analytics and usage data

Like most websites, we use analytics tools to understand how visitors find and use the site — for example, which pages are popular and which features people are interested in. These tools collect technical and usage information such as your approximate location (derived from your IP address), device and browser type, the pages you view, and how you arrived. This data is aggregated and used to improve the site; we don't use it to identify you personally.

e. When you use site search

When you search this website, we record the words you searched for and how many results they returned. We do this for one reason: a search that finds nothing tells us we are missing a page people want, and it is the most useful signal we get for deciding what to write next.

We store only the search words and the number of results. We do not store your IP address, your browser, a cookie, or any identifier — there is nothing in these records that links two searches to the same person, or to you. Searches that look like they contain an email address or a long run of digits are discarded entirely rather than stored, in case something personal was typed into the box by mistake. If your browser sends a "Do Not Track" or Global Privacy Control signal, we record nothing at all.

f. When you use the assistant

Some pages offer an AI assistant you can ask questions about the planner. It is clearly labeled as an AI, and it is optional — the site works exactly the same if you never open it.

What is sent while you use it. Your question, along with text from this website's own pages, is sent to Anthropic, who provide the AI model that writes the reply. Nothing else about you goes with it: not your name, not your email address, not your IP address, and nothing from the planner app. Anthropic process it to produce the answer and do not use it to train their models.

What we keep. We store the conversation — both your questions and the assistant's replies — so we can check the answers are accurate and see what people wanted to know. We store no identifier alongside it: no IP address, no browser details, no cookie value, nothing that links two conversations to the same person or to you. If a message looks like it contains an email address or a long run of digits, that message is replaced with a placeholder rather than stored, in case something personal was typed into the box. Conversations are deleted automatically after 90 days. The one exception: if a conversation becomes the subject of a complaint or a dispute, we keep that conversation while the matter is open, because it is the only record of what was actually said.

Keeping it fair. Each visitor gets a limited number of questions a day. To count them we set one small cookie when you send your first question (see section 5), and we also store a one‑way cryptographic hash of your IP address for the rest of the day, so that clearing the cookie does not simply reset the allowance. The hash cannot be turned back into your address, it is never used for anything else, and it is deleted daily.

If you ask us to email you the conversation. You can ask for a copy of your own conversation by email. If you do, we store your address with that conversation for 30 days, which is how long the link works — that is the only case in which a conversation is connected to an address. The email contains a link rather than the text itself, and asking for a copy does not subscribe you to anything.

The assistant gives general information about the software. It is not financial, tax or legal advice, and it cannot see or receive anything from the planner app.

g. Server and security logs

Our hosting provider automatically records standard technical information (such as IP address, timestamp, and requested page) for security, performance, and abuse‑prevention purposes.

4. How we use your information

• To respond to your enquiries and provide support.
• To operate, secure, and maintain the website.
• To understand traffic and improve our content and products.
• To comply with legal obligations where they apply.

We do not sell your personal information, and we don't share it with third parties except the service providers we rely on to run the site (listed below) or where required by law.

5. Cookies and tracking technologies

This website uses cookies and similar technologies for two purposes: to remember your display preferences (such as dark mode and your chosen color theme, which are stored locally in your browser), and — only with your consent — to power the analytics described above.

You're asked first. When you first visit, a cookie banner lets you accept or decline analytics cookies. Google Analytics and the Meta Pixel are not loaded unless you accept; if you decline, they never run. Your display preferences and other strictly necessary functions don't rely on consent. You can change your mind at any time using the "Cookie settings" link in the footer of any page.

You can also control or delete cookies through your browser settings, and most browsers let you block them entirely — though some site preferences may not be remembered if you do.

The assistant sets one cookie — only if you ask it something. When you send your first question to the AI assistant described in section 3f, we set a single cookie that counts how many questions you have asked, so everyone gets a fair share. Reading a page, or even opening the assistant and closing it again, sets nothing at all. The cookie holds no personal information, cannot be read by the page itself, and expires after a day. It is strictly necessary to provide the assistant you asked for, so it does not sit behind the consent banner — and it is never used for analytics or advertising. If your browser blocks cookies, the assistant still answers, but it can only manage one question before it has to stop.

Two exceptions, stated plainly. The first: when you deliberately submit a signup form for a free download, our own server tells Meta that a signup happened. We do this so we can tell which articles and adverts actually lead people to the download, and it happens whether or not you accepted the cookie banner — because it is triggered by an action you chose to take, not by browsing. What we send is the fact of the signup, your IP address, your browser type, and your email address only as an irreversible cryptographic hash, which lets Meta match the signup without us handing over the address itself. If — and only if — you accepted the cookie banner, we also include the two identifiers Meta's own pixel stores in your browser (which browser this is, and which advert you clicked to get here), so we can tell which advert actually led to a signup. If you declined the banner those identifiers don't exist and nothing takes their place. Simply reading this site still sends Meta nothing at all unless you accept the banner. If you would rather we did not do this, email Email us and we will stop and delete what we can.

The second: when you buy something. After a completed purchase, our own server tells Meta that a sale happened, so we can tell which adverts actually pay for themselves rather than guessing. What we send is the fact of the purchase, the order reference, the amount and what was bought, and your email address, first name, last name and country only as irreversible cryptographic hashes — never in readable form. We do not send your IP address or browser details with it, and no card or payment information is involved at any point (we never see it — see section 6). Like the signup event, this happens whether or not you accepted the cookie banner, because it is triggered by a transaction you chose to make. If you would rather we did not do this, email Email us and we will stop and delete what we can.

6. Purchases are handled by Stripe

Checkout on this site is provided by Stripe, acting as the merchant of record for your purchase. Your payment is processed entirely by Stripe — we never see or handle your card details — and your transaction is governed by Stripe's own privacy policy. Stripe also calculates and remits any applicable sales tax or VAT, and emails your receipt. We only receive the information needed to fulfill and support your order (such as your email address and what you bought), and your download page verifies your purchase with Stripe each time it is used.

7. Third‑party services we use

To run this site we rely on a small number of reputable service providers, each with its own privacy policy:

• Our hosting and analytics platform — serving the website and providing privacy‑oriented traffic analytics.
• Google Analytics — website usage analytics.
• Meta (Facebook) Pixel and Conversions API — measuring the effectiveness of any advertising and understanding visitor interest, including the server‑side signup and purchase events described in section 5.
• Our email delivery provider — delivering contact‑form messages and confirmations.
• Our email marketing provider — storing the free‑download mailing list and sending the downloads and newsletter.
• Anthropic — providing the AI model behind the site assistant described in section 3f. They receive your question and text from this site's own pages, and do not use it to train their models.
• Stripe — payments, checkout, receipts and order fulfillment, as described above.

These providers process data on our behalf or as independent controllers under their own terms. We encourage you to review their policies if you'd like more detail.

8. How long we keep information

We keep contact‑form correspondence for as long as needed to handle your request and for a reasonable period afterwards for our records, then delete it. The anti‑abuse records described in section 3c — including IP addresses — are deleted automatically after 90 days. Conversations with the site assistant (section 3f) are deleted after 90 days, except one that is the subject of a complaint or dispute, which we keep while the matter is open; if you asked us to email you a copy, the address stored with that conversation is deleted after 30 days. Analytics data is retained according to our analytics providers' standard retention settings. You can ask us to delete correspondence you've sent us at any time.

9. Your privacy rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights over the personal information we hold about you — typically including the right to access it, to ask us to correct or delete it, to object to or restrict certain processing, and to opt out of analytics or marketing cookies. Because the planner stores your financial data only on your own device, you can exercise full control over that data yourself simply by editing, exporting, or clearing it in your browser.

To make a request about any personal information we hold (for example, contact‑form messages), email Email us and we'll respond.

10. Children's privacy

Our products and this website are intended for adults planning their finances. They are not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

11. Security

We take reasonable measures to protect the limited information we handle, and we deliberately minimize what we collect. The strongest privacy protection in the planner is by design: your financial plan stays on your device and is never transmitted to us. No method of storage or transmission is ever completely secure, but keeping data local removes most of the risk.

12. Links to other websites

Our site links to external sites such as Stripe (our checkout) and our social media profiles. We're not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites; please review their policies before sharing information with them.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time — for example, if we add a feature or change a service provider. When we do, we'll revise the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Significant changes will be made clear here.

14. Contact us

Questions, concerns, or requests about your privacy? Email Email us or use our contact form. We aim to reply within one business day.