Start here
Privacy policy
What this site collects (very little): the calculator works in your browser, and nothing you type about your household is sent to us or saved.
Last updated: October 31, 2026
This policy explains what information benefitscalculator.app collects and how it is used. The site is published by PVV Media Technologies, 102 N 2nd Avenue E, Newton, IA 50208, United States. Questions: contact@benefitscalculator.app.
In short
- You can use the calculator without an account, and it never asks for your name, Social Security number, address or bank details.
- The calculator works in your browser: what you type about your household, your pay and your costs is not sent to us or to anyone else.
- We don’t add analytics or advertising to our pages, and we don’t set tracking cookies.
- We don’t sell personal information, and we don’t share it for advertising.
The calculator runs in your browser
When you fill in the calculator, the answer is worked out by a script in your browser tab. The boxes are never sent anywhere: they are not part of any form that goes to our server, and they never appear in a page address. Nothing is stored in your browser either, so when you close the tab, what you typed is gone.
To work out your answer, your browser downloads the rules from this site, the same way it downloads a page or a picture: a file of federal figures; when you choose your state, that state’s file of figures; and, on the pages with the deadline calculator, the renewal planner and the checklists, or when you try a raise, a file of deadline and reporting rules. These files are the same for everyone and hold nothing about you. Our server can tell that a file was asked for, as it can tell which page was, but it keeps no log of it (see below).
The deadline calculator and the renewal planner can each make a calendar file, and the deadline calculator, the planner and the checklists can each be printed. The calendar file is made inside your browser from the dates you type and saved only where you choose to save it; a printout goes only to your own printer. Nothing about either is sent to us.
What our server receives
Like every website, ours receives what your browser sends with each request: your IP address, your browser type, the page or file you asked for and the page you came from. We use it only to deliver the page and to keep the site safe. For example, the sign-in page for editors counts failed sign-ins and password-reset requests from each IP address and, after six, refuses that address for 15 minutes, to stop password guessing.
Our own server keeps no log of who visits which pages. When a request fails, the server’s error log keeps a record of it, with the IP address, the address asked for and what the browser sent, so that we can fix the problem. These records are deleted after 14 days at most.
Services we use
- DigitalOcean hosts the site’s server.
- Cloudflare delivers the site and protects it from attacks. Your requests pass through Cloudflare, which processes your IP address to do this. Its dashboard shows us traffic totals and samples of single requests, each with its IP address, country, browser and the address asked for; Cloudflare keeps these for about a month.
Apart from what Cloudflare adds to protect the site and keep it fast, pages on this site don’t load anything from other companies: no ad networks, no analytics, no social media buttons, no outside fonts.
Cookies
This site doesn’t set cookies for readers, and our pages don’t store anything else in your browser either. Editors who sign in to manage the site get WordPress’s sign-in cookies. Cloudflare may set a strictly necessary security cookie, for example to tell people from bots; it is not used for advertising or tracking.
Do Not Track
We don’t track visitors across websites, or let advertisers do so through our pages, so the site works the same whether or not your browser sends a Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal.
Links to government websites
Our pages link to the government websites where you can apply and where each rule comes from. Those websites have their own privacy policies; once you follow a link, what you do there is between you and that agency.
If you email us
We use your email address and message only to reply to you and to act on what you told us. We don’t add you to any mailing list. Please don’t send us your Social Security number, case numbers or any document about your benefits.
Children
This site is meant for a general audience and is not directed at children under 13. We don’t knowingly collect information from children.
Your choices
You can ask us what information we hold about you, which is usually only emails you sent us, and ask us to delete it, by writing to contact@benefitscalculator.app.
Changes
If we change how the site handles information, we will update this page and the date at the top. If we ever add analytics, advertising or an email list, this page will say so before they start.