Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Welcome to selfpaycheck.com (“the Site,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). We are committed to protecting your privacy and being transparent about how we handle information when you use our free financial calculators, tools, and educational content.

This Privacy Policy explains:

• What information we collect and why
• How we use that information
• Who we share it with
• Your rights and choices
• How to contact us

Please read this policy carefully. By using this Site, you agree to the practices described below. If you do not agree, please do not use the Site.

This Site is intended for users who are 18 years of age or older. We do not knowingly collect information from minors.

2. Information We Collect

We collect two types of information: information you provide voluntarily, and information collected automatically when you visit the Site.

2.1 Information You Provide Voluntarily

Contact Form: If you use our contact form, we collect your name and email address solely to respond to your message. We do not add you to any mailing list without your explicit consent.

Calculator Inputs: When you use our financial calculators (such as the Self-Employment Tax Calculator or the Freelance Rate Calculator), you enter numbers into the tool. These inputs — income figures, deductions, filing status — are processed entirely within your browser. We do not collect, store, or transmit the numbers you enter into our calculators. Your financial data stays on your device.

2.2 Information Collected Automatically

When you visit our Site, certain information is automatically collected by us and by our third-party service providers. This may include:

• IP address — Your internet protocol address, which may indicate your general geographic location (city or region level)
• Browser type and version — For example, Chrome, Safari, or Firefox
• Device type — Whether you are visiting on a desktop, tablet, or mobile phone
• Operating system — For example, Windows, macOS, iOS, or Android
• Pages visited — Which pages and tools on this Site you viewed
• Time spent on pages — How long you spent on each page
• Referring URL — The website or search engine that brought you to our Site
• Date and time of your visit
• Cookies and similar tracking technologies — Described in detail in Section 4 below

This information is collected using cookies, web beacons, and standard server log files. It is used to understand how visitors use the Site, improve our tools and content, and serve relevant advertisements.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information collected for the following purposes:

To operate and improve the Site. We analyze traffic patterns, popular tools, and user behavior to improve the quality and usefulness of our calculators and content.

To display advertisements. We participate in the Google AdSense program, which displays targeted advertisements on our Site. Google uses cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this Site and other websites. This is described in detail in Section 5.

To respond to your messages. If you contact us via the contact form, we use your name and email address to reply to your inquiry.

To monitor for abuse and security threats. We use certain automatically collected data to detect and prevent fraudulent traffic, bots, and other security issues.

To comply with legal obligations. We may use or disclose information to comply with applicable law, legal proceedings, or government requests.

We do not sell your personal information to third parties. We do not use your information for automated decision-making that would produce legal or similarly significant effects on you.

4. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

4.1 What Are Cookies?

Cookies are small text files placed on your device by websites you visit. They are widely used to make websites work efficiently and to provide information to website owners. Cookies cannot access or read other files on your device.

4.2 Types of Cookies We Use

Strictly Necessary Cookies
These cookies are essential for the basic functioning of the Site (for example, security and session management). They do not require your consent under most privacy laws because they are necessary for the service you have requested.

Analytics Cookies (Google Analytics)
We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors use our Site — which calculators are most popular, where visitors come from, and how long they stay. Google Analytics places cookies that collect anonymized behavioral data. This data is sent to Google’s servers.

You can opt out of Google Analytics tracking by:

• Installing the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-on
• Adjusting your cookie preferences through our cookie consent banner

Advertising Cookies (Google AdSense)
We display advertisements served by Google AdSense. Google uses cookies to serve ads based on your interests, including your prior browsing activity on this Site and other websites across the internet. These are third-party cookies placed by Google, not by us directly.

Google’s advertising cookies include:

• DSID, FLC, AID, TAID — Used for ad targeting
• __gads, __gpi — Used by Google AdSense to track ad impressions and frequency

You can control Google’s use of your data for advertising purposes at:

• Google Ad Settings
• Google’s Privacy Policy
• Network Advertising Initiative Opt-Out

Preference Cookies
These cookies remember choices you have made on the Site (such as your cookie consent preferences) so we do not have to ask you again on your next visit.

4.3 Managing Cookies

You can control and delete cookies through your browser settings. Please be aware that disabling cookies may affect the functionality of this Site and other websites you visit.

• Chrome cookie settings
• Firefox cookie settings
• Safari cookie settings
• Edge cookie settings

5. Google AdSense and Third-Party Advertising

This Site participates in the Google AdSense program. Google AdSense is an advertising service operated by Google LLC (or Google Ireland Limited for users in the European Economic Area and UK).

How it works: Google uses cookies and your browsing history to determine which ads are most relevant to you. When you visit this Site, Google may serve you ads based on your interests as inferred from your activity across websites that use Google’s advertising services.

What Google collects: Google may collect data including your IP address, browser information, cookie identifiers, and browsing behavior when ads are served on this Site. This data is processed by Google under their own Privacy Policy.

Our role: We receive a share of the advertising revenue from Google when ads are displayed on our Site. We do not directly control which ads are shown, and we do not have access to the personal data Google collects through its advertising system.

Third-party vendor disclosure: As required by Google’s AdSense Terms of Service and applicable privacy laws, we disclose that:

• Google is a third-party vendor that uses cookies to serve ads on this Site
• Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads based on your visits to this Site and other sites on the internet
• Third-party vendors, including Google, use first-party cookies (such as Google Analytics cookies) and third-party cookies together to inform, optimize, and serve ads based on your past visits to this Site

Opt out of personalized advertising:

• Visit Google Ad Settings to opt out of personalized ads from Google
• Visit aboutads.info to opt out of interest-based advertising from participating companies
• Visit NAI opt-out page for additional opt-out options

When you opt out of personalized advertising, you will still see ads — they will just be less relevant to your interests (non-personalized ads).

6. Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google LLC. Google Analytics collects information about your use of this Site through cookies and similar technologies and sends that information to Google servers.

The information Google Analytics collects on our behalf includes:

• Pages visited and time spent on each page
• The website or search engine that referred you
• Your approximate geographic location (country/region/city level)
• Device, browser, and operating system information
• How you interact with our calculators and tools (aggregated, not individual inputs)

We use this data only to understand overall traffic patterns and improve the Site. We do not combine this data with personally identifiable information.

Data retention: We retain Google Analytics data for 14 months, after which it is automatically deleted from Google’s servers.

Data processing: We have entered into a Data Processing Agreement with Google as required under the GDPR. Google acts as a data processor on our behalf for Analytics data.

Opt out: You can prevent Google Analytics from collecting your data by installing the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-on.

Google’s privacy practices for Analytics are described at: https://policies.google.com/privacy

7. How We Share Your Information

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. We share information only in the following limited circumstances:

With Google: For advertising (AdSense) and analytics (Google Analytics) as described in Sections 5 and 6.

With our web host: Our hosting provider (Hostinger) processes technical data (IP addresses, server logs) to operate and secure the Site. Hostinger acts as a data processor under a Data Processing Agreement.

With our contact form provider: If you submit our contact form, your message and email address are processed by our contact form plugin. This data is stored in our WordPress database and is not shared with other parties.

When required by law: We may disclose information if required by law, court order, or governmental authority, or if we believe disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, property, or safety or that of others.

In the event of a business transfer: If this Site is sold or transferred to another party, information collected from users may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify users of any such transfer via a notice on this Site.

We require any third party that processes data on our behalf to do so only under our instructions and in compliance with applicable privacy laws.

8. Your Privacy Rights

Depending on where you are located, you may have certain rights regarding your personal information.

8.1 For Users in the European Economic Area (EEA) and United Kingdom (GDPR)

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you have the following rights:

• Right of access — You have the right to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Right to rectification — You have the right to request correction of inaccurate personal data
• Right to erasure (“right to be forgotten”) — You have the right to request deletion of your personal data in certain circumstances
• Right to restrict processing — You have the right to request that we limit how we use your data
• Right to data portability — You have the right to receive your personal data in a structured, machine-readable format
• Right to object — You have the right to object to processing based on legitimate interests, including for direct marketing purposes
• Right to withdraw consent — Where processing is based on your consent, you may withdraw consent at any time (this does not affect the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal)
• Right to lodge a complaint — You have the right to lodge a complaint with your national data protection supervisory authority

Our legal bases for processing (GDPR):

• Legitimate interests — Operating and improving the Site, analytics
• Consent — Advertising cookies (you can withdraw consent via our cookie banner or browser settings)
• Legal obligation — Compliance with applicable law

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details in Section 12. We will respond within 30 days.

8.2 For California Residents (CCPA/CPRA)

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), California residents have the following rights:

• Right to know — The right to know what personal information we collect, use, disclose, or sell about you
• Right to delete — The right to request deletion of your personal information, subject to certain exceptions
• Right to correct — The right to request correction of inaccurate personal information
• Right to opt out of sale or sharing — The right to opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising
• Right to limit use of sensitive personal information — We do not collect sensitive personal information as defined by the CPRA
• Right to non-discrimination — We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights

Categories of personal information we collect (CCPA):

Categories of third parties we share with: Google (for advertising and analytics purposes).

Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information: To opt out of the sharing of your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising through Google AdSense, you may:

• Use our cookie consent banner to decline advertising cookies
• Visit Google Ad Settings to opt out of Google’s personalized ads
• Enable the Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal in your browser — we honor GPC signals from California residents

To exercise your CCPA rights, contact us using the details in Section 12. We will respond within 45 days (with a possible 45-day extension if needed).

8.3 For All Other Users

Regardless of your location, you may:

• Opt out of advertising cookies via our cookie consent banner or your browser settings
• Opt out of Google Analytics via the browser add-on linked in Section 6
• Contact us to request access to or deletion of information associated with your email address (contact form submissions only)

9. Data Retention

We retain information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes described in this Policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.

Calculator inputs are never stored — they exist only in your browser for the duration of your session.

10. Data Security

We take reasonable and appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect information against unauthorized access, loss, misuse, and alteration. These measures include:

• SSL/TLS encryption for all data in transit (indicated by the padlock in your browser’s address bar)
• Secure hosting infrastructure with regular security updates
• Limited access to contact form data (accessible only to site administrators)
• Regular backups of site data

No method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to protect your information, we cannot guarantee absolute security. In the event of a data breach that is likely to result in risk to your rights and freedoms, we will notify affected users and relevant authorities as required by applicable law.

11. International Data Transfers

This Site is operated from Turkey. If you are visiting from the European Economic Area, United Kingdom, or other regions with laws governing data collection and use, please be aware that your information may be transferred to and processed in countries that may not have the same data protection laws as your jurisdiction.

Where we transfer personal data from the EEA or UK to third countries (such as the United States, where Google’s servers are located), we rely on the following transfer mechanisms:

• Google LLC participates in the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, which provides appropriate safeguards for such transfers

By using this Site, you consent to the transfer of your information as described in this section.

12. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, wish to exercise your privacy rights, or want to report a concern, please contact us:

By email: info@selfpaycheck.com
By contact form: https://selfpaycheck.com/contact

We will respond to all requests within 30 days (or 45 days for CCPA requests, with a possible extension).

If you are located in the EEA and are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

13. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or for other operational reasons. When we make changes, we will:

• Update the “Last Updated” date at the top of this page
• Post the revised policy on this page

We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your information. Your continued use of the Site after any changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy.

14. California “Shine the Light” Law

California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. We do not share personal information with third parties for their own direct marketing purposes. If you have questions about this, please contact us at the email address in Section 12.

15. Disclaimer on Financial Calculations

All financial calculators and tools on this Site are provided for informational and educational purposes only. They use publicly available IRS tax rates and standard calculation formulas to produce estimates. Calculator inputs are processed entirely within your browser — we do not see, store, or transmit the numbers you enter.

The results produced by our calculators are estimates only and do not constitute tax, legal, or financial advice. For guidance specific to your situation, please consult a qualified tax professional or CPA.

This Privacy Policy was written specifically for selfpaycheck.com and covers all data collection activities of this Site as of the Last Updated date above. It is designed to comply with Google AdSense requirements, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) as amended by the CPRA, and other applicable privacy laws. This policy does not constitute legal advice. If you have specific legal questions, please consult a qualified attorney.