Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

Information you provide directly

• Email address — collected at the time of payment for two purposes: (1) Stripe uses it to send you a payment receipt; (2) we use it to deliver your registration link. See Section 3 for retention details.
• Name — first and last name are collected at checkout for payment processing context. Not stored beyond what Stripe retains in its own systems.
• Financial inputs — the planning data you enter (birth year, income estimates, asset balances, pension amounts, spending goals, etc.) are approximations you provide voluntarily. We do not collect, access, or verify actual account numbers, Social Security numbers, tax records, or any data from third-party financial institutions.
• Username and password — chosen by you during account creation. Passwords are stored as one-way cryptographic hashes; we cannot recover them.

Technical information collected automatically

• IP address — logged when you visit the Service, used for security monitoring and abuse prevention. Stored with visitor activity records.
• Browser session data — Django session tokens are stored in your browser (as a cookie) and in our database to maintain your planning session across page loads. Sessions expire after inactivity.
• Usage activity — which planning steps you visited and when. Used to monitor for abuse and to understand how the tool is used (in aggregate). We do not use this to build advertising profiles.

2. How We Use Your Information

• To process your payment via Stripe and deliver your registration link
• To create and maintain your account
• To store your planning scenario so you can return to it across sessions
• To operate, maintain, and improve the Service
• To monitor security and prevent abuse
• To respond to your requests or support inquiries

We do not use your information for behavioral advertising, interest-based targeting, or sale to data brokers. We do not send marketing email without your explicit opt-in.

3. Data Retention

• Anonymous track accounts: Your email address is permanently deleted from our database after your account is created (typically within minutes). Once deleted, nothing in our systems links your account to your purchase or identity. We cannot recover this association.
• Verified (email) track accounts: Your email address is retained for the duration of your account to support password recovery. It is not used for marketing. You may request deletion at any time (see Section 6).
• Planning scenario data: Your entered financial inputs and saved scenarios are stored in your account for the duration of your 12-month access period and are deleted when your account is closed or upon your request.
• Session logs and IP records: Retained for up to 90 days for security and abuse monitoring purposes, then purged.
• Payment records: Stripe retains payment transaction records in accordance with its own retention policy. Black Tupelo, LLC does not store your card number, CVV, or full payment details — these are handled exclusively by Stripe.

4. Service Providers (Subprocessors)

We share limited information with the following service providers solely to operate the Service:

• Stripe, Inc. — payment processing. Stripe receives your email address, name, and payment details to complete your transaction. Stripe operates under its own Privacy Policy. We do not store your card details.
• Twilio SendGrid — transactional email delivery. SendGrid receives your email address and the content of your registration email. SendGrid operates under its own privacy policy. We do not use SendGrid for marketing campaigns to existing users.
• Microsoft Azure — cloud hosting and managed database. Our application and database run on Azure infrastructure in the United States. Microsoft's data processing terms apply to infrastructure-level operations.

We do not sell, rent, license, or share your personal information with any party for marketing, advertising, or analytics resale purposes.

5. Security

The Service is hosted on Microsoft Azure and is served exclusively over HTTPS (TLS encryption in transit). Passwords are stored as one-way cryptographic hashes (never in plaintext). Access to the production database is restricted to application-level connections; no direct external database access is permitted. However, no system is completely secure — if you believe your account or data has been compromised, contact us immediately at privacy@the-retirement-modeler.com.

6. Your Rights and Choices

Depending on your location, you may have certain rights regarding your personal information, including:

• Right to access — request a copy of the personal information we hold about you
• Right to deletion — request that we delete your account and associated data
• Right to correction — request that we correct inaccurate information
• Right to opt out of sale — we do not sell personal information; this right is not applicable

To exercise any of these rights, email us at privacy@the-retirement-modeler.com with the subject line “Privacy Request.” We will respond within 30 days. Note: for anonymous-track accounts, we cannot identify your account without either your username or your Stripe payment receipt, as your email was deleted at account creation.

7. California Privacy Rights (CCPA/CPRA)

California residents have the following additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA):

• The right to know what personal information is collected, used, shared, or sold
• The right to delete personal information (with certain exceptions)
• The right to opt out of the sale of personal information — we do not sell personal information
• The right to non-discrimination for exercising privacy rights

Categories of personal information collected: identifiers (email, name, IP address); commercial information (payment transaction via Stripe); and internet activity information (pages visited). All uses are described in Section 1–2 above. To submit a CCPA request, use the contact information in Section 6.

8. Children

The Service is not directed to children under the age of 13 and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we have inadvertently collected such information, contact us at privacy@the-retirement-modeler.com and we will delete it promptly.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the effective date at the top of this page. Continued use of the Service after any update constitutes your acceptance of the revised policy.

10. Contact

Privacy inquiries, data requests, and deletion requests:
Black Tupelo, LLC — Privacy
57 Pleasant Hill Rd., Falmouth, ME 04105
privacy@the-retirement-modeler.com

General inquiries:
info@the-retirement-modeler.com