How 716 Ventures LLC handles information in connection with HowAffordable.com and its calculators — read alongside our Terms of Service and Calculator Disclaimers.
716 Ventures LLC ("we," "us," or "our") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we handle information in connection with your use of howaffordable.com (the "Site") and its associated financial affordability calculators (the "Services"). Our core principle is user anonymity; we are dedicated to collecting as little information as possible.
The short version: every calculator works fully with no account, no name, and no email address. Nothing you type into a calculator is sent to our servers unless you check the optional "Save my data" box described in Section 2 — and even then, what's stored is anonymized and never includes your name or email.
By default, we do not collect, store, transmit, or process any personal financial information you enter into our calculators. This includes your income, debts, down payment, credit score, or any other data point. All calculations are performed locally within your web browser, and when you close or refresh the page without saving, the information you entered is permanently gone. We do not require user registration or accounts.
Some calculators include an optional, unchecked-by-default "Save my data" checkbox. If — and only if — you check that box and click Save, an anonymized snapshot of your results is transmitted to and stored on our server so it can appear, in aggregate, on our public Data Hub. For the Home and Car Affordability calculators, that snapshot is: your 5-digit ZIP code (and the city/state we look up from it — never a street address); the price you searched, your down payment, interest rate, and loan term; your monthly payment (Home) or whether you're financing new or used, the loan amount, and whether you're trading a vehicle in (Car); your debt-to-income ratio; and the dollar amount (not the description) of up to your three largest monthly debts, sorted into broad categories like "Credit card" or "Car loan" rather than saved as whatever you typed. Other calculators save the figures specific to that tool (e.g. needs/wants/savings percentages and grade for the Budget Calculator). That record is never linked to your name, email address, phone number, IP address, or any other identifier that could trace it back to you, because we don't collect anything alongside it that would let us — and your ZIP code is stored on its own, never combined with anything more specific than that.
Separately, every calculator's report-card result screen sends a single, minimal signal to our server the moment it's generated — which calculator, and when — so we can track overall usage. This happens whether or not you use "Save my data," and holds nothing else: no location, no figures, no consent checkbox, because there's nothing in it capable of identifying you or your results.
Separately, if you use the "Email this report" option on a calculator, the email address you type is sent to our email delivery provider solely to send that one report to you. We do not add it to a mailing list, store it in our database, or use it for any purpose beyond that single delivery. Neither the "Save my data" nor "Email this report" feature is required to use any calculator.
Like most website operators, we collect information that your browser sends automatically whenever you visit our Site ("Log Data"). This Log Data is non-personally identifying and may include information such as your computer's Internet Protocol ("IP") address, browser type, browser version, the pages of our Site that you visit, the time and date of your visit, and the time spent on those pages. This information is used for website administration, security, and to analyze trends to improve the user experience.
We use "cookies" to collect information and improve our Services. A cookie is a small data file that we transfer to your computer's hard disk.
The limited information we collect (Log Data, cookie information, and anything you opt in to save per Section 2) is used for the following purposes:
We take reasonable measures to protect the limited information we collect from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. However, no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
We retain Log Data and cookie-related information only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy, including website administration, security monitoring, and legal compliance. We do not retain any calculator inputs or personal financial data by default, as these are processed locally in your browser and are not transmitted to our servers.
If you opt in via "Save my data" (Section 2), we retain the resulting anonymized report-card snapshot indefinitely to power the Data Hub, since nothing in that record can be tied back to a specific person — or until you contact us to request its removal. The lightweight "a report card was generated" usage signal described in Section 2 is retained the same way, for the same reason. If you use "Email this report," we do not retain the email address you provided beyond what's needed to send that one message.
Our Services are not directed to individuals under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under 13. If we become aware that a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, we will take steps to delete such information from our files immediately.
You have certain rights regarding your information, including:
If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), as amended by the CPRA, provides you with specific rights regarding your personal information.
a. Right to Know: You have the right to know what personal information we have collected about you, including the categories of personal information, the sources from which it is collected, and the purpose for collecting it.
b. Right to Delete: You have the right to request the deletion of your personal information, subject to certain exceptions.
c. Right to Opt-Out of Sale/Sharing: We use third-party advertising services (Google AdSense) that may constitute a "sale" or "sharing" of personal information under the CCPA. You can opt out of this by visiting the Google Ads Settings page, or the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page.
d. Right to Non-Discrimination: We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights.
e. How to Exercise Your Rights: To exercise your Right to Know or Right to Delete, please contact us at contact@howaffordable.com or through the contact information provided in Section 12 below.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Effective Date" at the top. You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us:
716 Ventures LLC
418 Broadway, Suite R
Albany, NY 12207
Email: contact@howaffordable.com