Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

We collect information to support local calculator tooling, secure community accounts, and maintain platform integrity.

• Local Calculation Data: Inputs used for SSI/SSDI calculators are processed temporarily in memory to return results and are discarded immediately on page refresh.
• Account Registration & Authentication: We support both traditional email registration and third-party login via Google OAuth. When you register or log in using Google, Google provides us with your email address, full name, and profile picture URL. For traditional credentials registration, we collect your full name, email, and a password (which is securely hashed). This information is required to establish user accounts, display profile avatars, and authorize your login.
• Community Platform Content: If you submit posts, replies, likes, or flags, we store this content alongside your user ID, creation timestamp, and activity indicators in our database.
• Technical Logs & Bot Mitigation: To prevent denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, spam bots, and abuse, we log client IP addresses, User-Agent strings, rate-limiting tokens, and interaction metrics out-of-band.
• Usage Analytics: We use Google Analytics to monitor traffic patterns and button click events to improve calculator accuracy and speed. Analytics data is collected in aggregated or pseudonymized form where possible.

2. Community Platform & Anonymity

Our community feed is designed to allow members to share advice and ask questions securely. You have the option to post anonymously:

• Anonymous Postings: When you check the "Post Anonymously" option, your name and email are not displayed publicly on the feed. Other users will only see "Anonymous Member."
• Internal Moderation: To protect our community from spam, abuse, and illegal activity, our system maintains a link between anonymous posts and your user ID in our secure database. This association is never visible to the public or other members.
• Data Deletion: If you delete your account, your community contributions may be scrubbed, or anonymized permanently by removing your account link, depending on active community moderation guidelines.

3. Advertising & Cookies (Google AdSense)

We use third-party advertising companies, including Google AdSense, to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you.

• Third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to your website or other websites.
• Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to your users based on their visit to your sites and/or other sites on the Internet.
• Users may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Ads Settings.

4. Data Storage & Security

We employ industry-standard security measures to safeguard account credentials and database entries:

• Password Hashing: We never store passwords in plaintext. All account passwords are hashed using bcrypt before storage.
• Token Protection: Password reset and email verification tokens utilize secure cryptographic token storage before saving, preventing replay or manipulation in case of storage breaches.
• Session Management: We utilize secure session cookies to manage user sessions. Sessions expire automatically after periods of inactivity.
• Transport Security: All data transmitted between your device and our servers is encrypted in transit using Transport Layer Security (TLS/HTTPS).

5. Bug Reports & Feedback Data

When you submit a bug or problem report through our ticketing system, we collect:

• Your name, email address, and associated account ID (if logged in).
• The description of the issue, severity indicators, and any details or reproduction steps you submit.
• Technical context details, including the page URL, screen dimensions, and browser User-Agent to assist in debugging.

This data is stored securely in our database and is only accessible to authorized developers and administrators.

6. Data Retention

We retain your data according to the following guidelines:

• Account data: Retained until you delete your account.
• Community posts: Retained indefinitely unless you request deletion or account removal.
• Bug reports: Retained for 12 months, then permanently deleted.
• Rate limit violation logs: Automatically deleted after 30 days.
• IP address logs: Automatically deleted after 5 minutes.

After account deletion, we will process your request within 30 days.

7. Your Rights

You have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Right to Access: Request a copy of the data we hold about you.
• Right to Correction: Ask us to correct inaccurate information.
• Right to Deletion: Request that we delete your account and associated data. Community posts will be anonymized.
• Right to Export: Request your data in a portable format.
• Right to Opt Out: Opt out of analytics tracking at any time by using browser Do Not Track settings.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at retiregrid@gmail.com. We will respond within 30 days.

8. Children's Privacy

RetireGrid is not directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we become aware that a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, we will delete it immediately.

9. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or wish to exercise your data rights, please contact us:

Email: retiregrid@gmail.com

Website: retiregrid.com

We aim to respond to all privacy inquiries within 30 days.