Privacy Policy

The short version

We run a free calculator for aged care costs. We collect the absolute minimum information needed to understand how people use the site. We don't sell your data, we don't run advertising, and we don't ask for personally identifying information to use the calculator.

Who we are

Aged Care Cost Estimator is a website published and operated in Australia. For any privacy-related enquiries, you can contact us at our contact page.

What we collect

When you use the calculator, the numbers you enter (age, income, assets, care preferences) are processed entirely in your browser. They are never sent to our servers, and we have no way of knowing what you entered.

We do collect anonymised usage data through Google Analytics 4 (GA4), including:

• Pages you visit and how long you spend on them
• How you arrived at the site (search engine, direct link, referral)
• General location (country and city level, derived from IP address — your IP address itself is anonymised by Google before we see it)
• Device and browser type (e.g. "Chrome on iPhone")
• Anonymous events such as which buttons you click and whether you complete the calculator flow

This data is aggregated and cannot be used to identify you individually.

Cookies

We use a small number of cookies, all of which are either essential for the site to work or anonymised analytics:

• Google Analytics cookies (names begin with _ga) that help us understand site usage. These expire after 24 months.
• Essential cookies set by our hosting provider (Netlify) to serve the site. These do not track you.

You can disable cookies in your browser settings. The site will still work without them. You can also opt out of Google Analytics tracking across all sites by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.

Third-party services we use

• Google Analytics 4 (analytics) — governed by Google's privacy policy.
• Netlify (hosting) — governed by Netlify's privacy policy.
• Google Fonts (web fonts) — Lora and Figtree are served from Google's font CDN.

What we don't do

• We don't sell your data to anyone.
• We don't run advertising on the site.
• We don't require account creation to use the calculator.
• We don't store or transmit the financial details you enter into the calculator.
• We don't share data with aged care providers, financial advisors, or any third party.

Your rights under the Privacy Act

Australian privacy law (Privacy Act 1988) gives you the right to:

• Ask what personal information we hold about you
• Ask us to correct inaccurate information
• Ask us to delete information we hold about you
• Lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner if you believe we have breached your privacy

Because we don't collect personally identifying information through the calculator itself, there is usually nothing for us to show, correct, or delete. Analytics data is anonymised and cannot be linked back to you individually.

Data security

The site is served over HTTPS (TLS) with certificates from Let's Encrypt. All data transmitted between your browser and our servers is encrypted in transit.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, we'll update the "Last updated" date at the top of the page. Significant changes will be noted on the landing page.