Privacy policy
401k.loans is an independent website ("we"). This page says what we collect when you use the site or send us a form, what we do with it, and what you can ask us to do about it. Contact us through the form on /contact/.
The short version
The calculators run in your browser and send nothing. If you send a form, we store what you typed and a person on our side reads it and replies by email. We don't sell or share what you send. If that ever changes, we will update this policy first and ask for your consent on the form before sharing anything.
What we collect
The contact form (on /contact/) collects what your message is about (question, correction, privacy request or legal notice), your name, your email and your message.
The business question form (on /robs/ and /start-a-business/) collects what you're doing (starting, buying or growing a business), the rough total cost of the project, a range for the retirement savings you could roll over, your state, your question, your name and your email.
With either form we also receive, in hidden fields: the page you sent it from, the consent sentence shown beside the button, which form it was, and, if your visit started from a link with campaign tags or from another website, those tags and the referring page's address. The campaign tags and referrer are kept in your browser's session storage for that visit only, so they can be attached if you send a form; they are deleted when you close the tab. We record the time the form arrived. We don't ask for and don't want account numbers, Social Security numbers, dates of birth or tax documents; please leave them out.
The calculators do their arithmetic in your browser. Nothing you type into a calculator is sent to us or anyone else. Calculator pages ask our own server for the latest published prime rate; that request carries no information about you or your inputs.
When you browse, our hosting provider, Cloudflare, processes technical information such as your IP address, browser type and the pages you request, to deliver the site and protect it from abuse. The site itself sets no cookies.
We don't use third-party analytics, advertising pixels or session recording.
How we use it
To read and reply to what you sent, to keep the site running and secure, to understand which pages are useful (from the page and referrer fields), and to meet legal obligations. We don't use what you send for advertising.
Who we share it with
We don't sell your personal information, and we don't share it for advertising or with lenders, ROBS providers, brokers or marketing partners. It goes only to the service providers that run the site for us, under their own confidentiality and security terms: Cloudflare, which hosts the site, stores form submissions in its database service and delivers the email that tells us a form arrived. We may also disclose information when the law requires it, to respond to a valid legal request, or to protect the site and its users. If the site is ever sold, what we hold may pass to the buyer, who would be bound by this policy for it, and we will post a notice here first.
How long we keep it
We delete form submissions 24 months after they arrive, sooner if you ask. Cloudflare keeps its own technical logs for shorter periods under its policies.
Your rights
You can ask us what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, ask us to delete it, or ask for a copy, by sending a privacy request through the contact form (choose "Privacy request"). We reply by email to the address you give, and will answer within 45 days. Residents of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Texas, Oregon and other states with consumer privacy laws have these rights under those laws to the extent they apply to us, plus the right to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information and of targeted advertising. We don't do either, and we treat a Global Privacy Control signal from your browser as an opt-out request anyway. We won't treat you differently for using any of these rights. If we turn down a request, you can appeal by replying to our answer, and we will reply to the appeal within 45 days.
Children
This site is meant for adults. It isn't directed at anyone under 18, and we don't knowingly collect information from children under 13. If you think a child has sent us information, tell us through the contact form and we will delete it.
Security
The site is served only over HTTPS, and form submissions are stored in an access-controlled database. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure, which is one reason we ask you not to send sensitive financial details.
Changes
When this policy changes, we update this page and the date at the top. If a change would let us share what you send with anyone new, we will ask for your consent on the form before it applies to you.
Contact
401k.loans: use the contact form for questions, privacy requests and legal notices.