Privacy Policy

PaycheckForge is operated by Sertunç Özgüneş, an individual based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He is the data controller for any personal data described in this policy. There is no company, no accounts system and no customer database behind the site. You can reach the operator at hello@paycheckforge.com.

• Calculations run in your browser. The optional “Explain this result” feature sends your calculated breakdown and relevant assumptions to our explanation service and Anthropic only when you request it.
• Analytics and personalized advertising are off until you turn them on.
• The newsletter (Kit) and the contact and reader feedback forms (Formspree) only receive what you type into them.
• The web server keeps standard access logs for a short period for security.
• PaycheckForge does not sell personal information.

Optional analytics and personalized-ad storage are separate choices and both default to denied. Your selection is saved in local storage on this device so the site can remember it. You can change either choice at any time.

Every calculator on this site produces its estimate in your browser. Calculating a result does not send your salary, deductions, savings assumptions or other financial values to PaycheckForge or a third party. These values are never included in analytics events or automatically attached to newsletter, contact or feedback submissions. If you choose to copy or share a result, you control where that copy goes.

If you press Explain this result, the result breakdown and the assumptions needed to explain it are sent to our explanation service, which passes them to Anthropic's Claude API to write a short plain-language summary. Depending on the tool, this includes pay, tax and deduction amounts; filing status, state and pay frequency; employer costs and benefits; or savings balances, contributions, time horizon and the growth rate you entered. Some values therefore match your original inputs. No name, email address or free-text prompt is included. Sending this information is optional and happens only when you press the button. The explanation does not change your calculated results. Its numbers are checked against the submitted breakdown and permitted derived amounts; a response that fails that check is not shown. PaycheckForge does not use these requests for advertising or profiling and does not store the request body. Network infrastructure processes IP addresses as described in the server-logs section. Anthropic processes the request under its API terms and privacy policy.

PaycheckForge does not require an account. The site uses Google Analytics 4 (measurement ID G-0TWSTE4QTH) through Google Consent Mode. The Google tag loads with analytics_storage set to denied, so no analytics cookies are written and no usage events are sent unless you enable analytics in the banner.

If you allow analytics, the site records only a short allow-list of actions, such as starting or completing a named calculator, copying a result summary, submitting a feedback category, or opening a methodology or related-tool page. Calculator inputs and results — including salary, state, filing status, pay frequency and deductions — are never included in analytics events. The site does not configure a User-ID or any other identifier of its own. Google states that Google Analytics 4 does not log or store individual IP addresses.

Google processes analytics data under its own terms. See the Google Privacy Policy and How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services. You can also install the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.

This site may display advertising served by Google AdSense (publisher ID ca-pub-4795702444906186). Calculator values are processed locally and are not sent to PaycheckForge as part of the calculation. The advertising consent signals (ad_storage, ad_user_data and ad_personalization) default to denied. If you allow personalized ads, Google and its partners may use cookies, web beacons, IP addresses, device identifiers and similar technologies to personalize and measure advertising. Learn how Google uses data on sites that use its services and manage ad personalization in Google Ads Settings. Contextual or limited ads may still appear when personalized-ad storage is denied.

This on-page control updates Google Consent Mode. It does not itself configure a Google-certified consent management platform or US-state privacy message. Those regional requirements must be configured and verified separately in Google AdSense Privacy & messaging.

The first-party storage the site itself writes is the paycheckforge-consent-v2 entry in your browser's local storage, which remembers your consent choices, and a pf-theme entry that remembers whether you chose light or dark mode (absent if you have not chosen — the site follows your system setting by default). Neither contains personal data, and you can clear either at any time through your browser settings.

If you choose to subscribe to PaycheckForge updates, the email address you enter is sent to Kit, which manages subscription confirmation and future email delivery for PaycheckForge. Kit uses double opt-in: you will receive a confirmation email and are not subscribed until you click the link in it. Kit stores your email address and delivery data on PaycheckForge's behalf. Calculator inputs and results are not included, and your email address is never sent to analytics. Every email contains an unsubscribe link; unsubscribing removes you from future messages, and you can also ask for your address to be deleted by emailing hello@paycheckforge.com.

Site search runs entirely inside your browser. The search index is a static file downloaded like any other page asset, your query is matched on your own device, and the search itself does not send your query to a server.

If, and only if, you have turned analytics on (see "Your privacy choices" above), two anonymous events are sent to Google Analytics so we can see which searches find nothing and fix the gap: site_search with recognized calculator topics or state names and the number of results, and site_search_no_results when nothing matched. Only words on a fixed topic-and-state list may be sent; arbitrary text and words containing financial values are removed. Queries containing an email address, URL or phone-like number are not measured. The resulting topic text is limited to 64 characters. If no allowed topic remains, or analytics is off, no search event is sent.

When a search finds nothing you can use the "Tell us what you were looking for" box. That is a normal form submission: the words you searched for and the note you write are sent through Formspree to the operator's inbox (hello@paycheckforge.com), exactly like the contact and reader feedback forms described below. It is only sent when you press the button.

The contact form and the reader feedback form on blog and newsroom pages are both powered by Formspree. When you submit either form, what you typed is sent to Formspree, which processes and stores the submission on PaycheckForge's behalf and forwards it by email to the operator's inbox (hello@paycheckforge.com). Nothing else on the page — and no calculator value — is attached.

Contact form. The purpose is responding to your inquiry. It sends:

• your name and email address, so a reply can be sent to you;
• the topic you select and the message you write;
• the page URL you optionally enter (or that is pre-filled from the link you followed, with any query string removed).

Reader feedback form. It sends:

• the feedback type you select and the note you write;
• your name and email address, only if you choose to enter them;
• the page title and page address the form was submitted from, so the note can be checked in context;
• your acknowledgement of this policy.

Formspree also receives the usual technical details of an HTTP request, such as your IP address. Submissions are read privately and are never published automatically. Please do not include a Social Security number, bank or card details, a full pay stub, tax documents or any other sensitive financial data in a contact or feedback message.

The "Was this estimate useful?" prompt on salary pages is different: it sends only the category you pick, and only as an analytics event when analytics is enabled. It never collects free text, contact details or calculator values.

Like almost every website, the web server that delivers PaycheckForge keeps standard access logs. A log entry records the IP address, the page requested, the time, the referring page and the browser's user-agent string. It is the operator's practice to use these logs only for security, abuse prevention and troubleshooting, and to keep them for up to 30 days before they are deleted or rotated away. They are not combined with analytics data or used to build profiles.

Some calculators offer a "Copy result summary" button. It places the displayed estimate on your clipboard as plain text and includes only the clean calculator page address. It does not create a URL containing your financial scenario. Once you paste or share that text, the destination app or recipient controls the copy.

• Calculator values: processed in your browser. If you request an AI explanation, the submitted breakdown and relevant assumptions are processed by our explanation service and Anthropic; PaycheckForge does not store the request body. Anthropic's retention terms apply to its processing.
• Consent choice: stored in your browser's local storage until you clear it or change it.
• Analytics events: retained by Google Analytics for the property's event-data retention setting (the standard GA4 options are 2 or 14 months); aggregated reports may be kept longer.
• Advertising cookies: lifetimes are set by Google; see Google's cookie documentation and Ads Settings linked above.
• Newsletter address: kept in Kit until you unsubscribe or ask for deletion; unconfirmed sign-ups expire under Kit's rules.
• Contact and feedback submissions: kept in Formspree and the operator's inbox while the message is being answered or reviewed and for a reasonable period afterwards (normally no more than 12 months), then deleted on request or during periodic clean-up.
• Server logs: up to 30 days.
• Emails you send to hello@paycheckforge.com: kept for as long as needed to answer you and handle any follow-up.

PaycheckForge does not sell personal information and does not share it with anyone except the service providers named in this policy, each of which acts under its own privacy policy and contractual terms:

• Google — analytics and advertising, only after consent.
• Kit — newsletter delivery.
• Anthropic — optional AI explanations of calculated results, only when requested.
• Formspree — contact and feedback form processing.

The operator is located in the United Arab Emirates and these providers are headquartered in the United States, so any personal data you provide may be processed outside your own country, including outside the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom. Each provider relies on its own recognised safeguards for international transfers, such as the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, the UK International Data Transfer Addendum and, where applicable, the EU–US Data Privacy Framework; details are in their privacy policies linked above.

• Consent — analytics and personalized advertising, and the newsletter.
• Legitimate interests — server logs for security, and answering contact-form messages, feedback or emails you send.

Where processing is based on consent, you can withdraw it at any time: use the "Manage privacy choices" button above for analytics and ads, or the unsubscribe link for the newsletter. Withdrawing consent does not affect processing that already took place.

If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, the GDPR and UK GDPR give you the right to access the personal data held about you, to have it corrected (rectification) or erased, to restrict or object to its processing, to receive a copy in a portable format, to withdraw consent, and to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority.

If you are a California resident, the CCPA/CPRA gives you the right to know what personal information is collected and how it is used, to delete it, to correct it, and to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information. PaycheckForge does not sell personal information. Allowing personalized ads may count as "sharing" for cross-context behavioural advertising under California law; declining personalized ads in the consent banner — the default — functions as your Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information opt-out. The site does not currently read the Global Privacy Control browser signal, so please use the banner to record your choice. You will not be treated differently for exercising any of these rights.

Residents of other US states and other countries with similar laws have comparable rights, and the same process below applies.

Email hello@paycheckforge.com or use the contact form (topic "Privacy request") and say what you would like done (for example, "delete my newsletter address" or "send me any feedback submissions linked to this email"). Because PaycheckForge holds almost no data, the request will usually be handled by asking the relevant provider (Kit or Formspree) to act on it. You may be asked to confirm that you control the email address the request concerns. Requests are answered within 30 days; if more time is needed, you will be told why.

PaycheckForge is not directed to children under 13 and does not knowingly collect personal information from them. The newsletter, contact and feedback forms are intended for adults. If you believe a child has provided personal information, contact the operator and it will be deleted.

The site is served over HTTPS, is fully static, and has no login, database or server-side calculation, which keeps the amount of data that could be exposed very small. The providers named above are responsible for the security of the data they hold.

This policy will be updated when the site's practices change, for example when a service provider is added or replaced. The effective date at the top shows the current version. Material changes will be noted on this page.

Privacy questions can be sent to hello@paycheckforge.com.