Last updated: 18 August 2026. Benchmark Money is operated from Vancouver, British Columbia. This policy explains what we collect, why, and what you can do about it. We have written it in plain language rather than legalese.
The short version
- We have no accounts, so we never ask for your name, income, or financial details in order to use the site.
- Everything you type into a calculator stays in your browser. Your salary, mortgage balance and spending figures are never sent to us and never stored anywhere.
- We use Google Analytics to see which pages people visit.
- Some links to credit cards pay us a referral fee. Clicking one hands you over to the bank or an affiliate network, which sets its own cookies under its own policy.
What we collect
Analytics
We use Google Analytics 4, connected through the Google Site Kit plugin. It records pages viewed, roughly where in the world you are (derived from your IP address), your device and browser type, which site referred you, and how long you stayed. Google sets cookies to do this.
Server logs
Our host, Bluehost, keeps standard web server logs: IP addresses, timestamps, and which files were requested. These are ordinary operational records used for security and troubleshooting.
Anything you send us
If you email us or use a contact form, we receive whatever you choose to put in it, including your name and email address. We use it to reply to you and nothing else.
What we do not collect
- Calculator inputs. Every calculator on this site runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter is transmitted to our server, so there is nothing for us to store, lose, or hand over.
- We never ask for a Social Insurance Number, bank account number, or credit card number. If a page ever appears to ask you for one, it is not us — leave it.
- We do not sell personal information to anyone, and we do not buy it.
Cookies and tracking
Cookies currently used on this site fall into two groups:
- Analytics cookies set by Google, used to count visits and understand which pages are useful.
- Affiliate cookies set by a bank or affiliate network at the moment you click through to a card application. These tell the network that the referral came from us. We do not control them, and they are governed by that company’s privacy policy, not ours.
You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. The calculators and comparison tools will keep working normally if you do.
Affiliate links, in detail
Some of the credit card links on this site are affiliate links. If you click one and are approved for the card, the issuer or an intermediary network may pay us a referral fee.
What that means practically: when you click, you leave our site. The destination knows you came from us. We are not told your name, your application details, or whether you were approved as an individual — we typically only see aggregate counts in a partner dashboard. We never receive your application.
Not every card we list pays us anything, and we mark which is which. Whether a card pays us has no bearing on its rating or where it ranks.
Where your information goes
Our web hosting and our analytics provider are both based in the United States, so information described above is stored on and processed by servers outside Canada. While it is there it is subject to the laws of that country, including lawful requests for access by American courts and government agencies. We are telling you this because Canadian privacy law requires that you be able to make an informed choice about it.
How long we keep things
- Analytics data is retained according to Google Analytics settings, currently the default retention period.
- Server logs are held on a short rolling basis by our host.
- Emails you send us are kept for as long as needed to deal with the matter, then deleted.
Your rights
Under Canadian privacy law you may ask us what personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it if it is wrong, and withdraw your consent to our using it. Because we hold very little — we have no accounts and no user database — the honest answer to most access requests will be that we hold nothing tied to you personally beyond analytics data we cannot link back to a named individual.
To make a request, email us using the address below. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
If you live in Quebec
Quebec’s privacy legislation gives residents additional rights, including data portability and the right to ask that information be de-indexed or ceased to be disseminated in certain circumstances. The same contact address handles those requests.
Children
This site is intended for adults making decisions about their own money. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect information from them.
Changes to this policy
If we add advertising, an email newsletter, or any feature that collects more than it does today, we will update this page and change the date at the top before that feature goes live.
Contact
Privacy questions and requests: [email protected]
Benchmark Money, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.