Privacy policy

First-party analytics

Every page loads a small script, /t.js, served from this domain. It sends visit data to a program on the same server (/api/collect.php), which writes it to a database kept outside the public web folder. No analytics company receives it. The script records:

• each page view: the page address and title, the referring page, your screen and window width, whether the device looks like a phone, tablet or desktop, and your browser's language setting;
• clicks on links and buttons, identified by the element's text and position in the page;
• how far down the page you scrolled and how long the page was in view;
• campaign tags in the address you arrived on (the utm_ parameters) and ad click identifiers, if there were any.

On the server, the record also gets the time, your browser's user agent string, the country Cloudflare reports for the connection, and a one-way hash of your IP address made with a secret salt. The IP address itself is not stored. Visits from known bots are dropped.

What is stored in your browser

To tell a returning visitor from a new one, the script keeps a random visitor id, tmt_vid, for two years. It is written to local storage and also to a first-party cookie of the same name, so it survives if one of them is cleared. Short-lived session items are stored the same way, in local storage and in a cookie that expires after a day: tmt_sid (the current session), tmt_seen (when you were last active) and tmt_attr (the referrer and campaign tags of the session's first page). None of them contain your name, email or anything you typed.

If you switch between the light and dark themes, your choice is saved in local storage as tmt-theme. The calculators and course quizzes store nothing: your inputs and answers stay in the page and are gone when you leave it. Clearing your browser's site data removes all of these.

The publisher's traffic dashboard

Another script, loaded from maxboard.finx.live, sends a similar set of events to Maxboard, the dashboard the publisher uses to follow traffic across its own sites. It records the page address and title, the referring page, campaign tags in the link you arrived by, your window width and device type, the text and address of links and buttons you click, how far down the page you scroll, and how long the page is actively in view. It skips browsers that identify themselves as automated.

It keeps a random visitor id, mb_v, in local storage and in a first-party cookie of the same name that lasts 400 days, a note of your last activity (mb_la) in local storage, and session items (mb_s, mb_u) that your browser deletes when you close the tab.

On a page with a form that asks for an email address, the script also records when the form is shown and started, and on submission sends a one-way SHA-256 hash of the email, never the address itself. No page on this site currently has such a form. Maxboard is run by the publisher and is not an advertising network.

Google Analytics

This site also loads Google Analytics. It is the one measurement tool here that is not the publisher's own, and the data goes to Google rather than to a server we control. It records the pages you view, roughly where in the world you are, your device and browser, and how you arrived. Google processes it under its own privacy policy.

It sets two cookies on this domain, both holding a random id used to tell a returning visitor from a new one: _ga, which lasts two years, and _ga_WSQKNVR259, which lasts two years and belongs to this site's data stream. Through the feature Google calls enhanced measurement, it also records scrolls, clicks on links that lead off the site, file downloads and site searches, alongside page views.

If you would rather it did not run, Google publishes a browser opt-out add-on, and any content blocker will stop it.

Advertising

Pages carry advertising served by Google AdSense. Google and its partners are third-party vendors that use cookies to show ads, including ads based on your earlier visits to this site and to other sites. Google's advertising cookies let it and its partners serve ads based on those visits. On this domain the ad code can set cookies such as __gads and __gpi, and Google sets others on its own advertising domains. They are used to choose which ads to show, to limit how often you see the same one, and to measure how ads perform.

You can turn off personalized advertising in Google's Ads Settings, and you can opt out of personalized ads from many other vendors at www.aboutads.info. How Google uses data from sites that show its ads is set out at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

For visitors in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, the page starts with ad storage and ad personalization switched off, and they stay off unless consent is given. Ads shown there without consent are not personalized.

Ads are chosen by Google, not by the publisher. An ad on a page is not a recommendation of the product, the firm or the offer in it.

The ticker tape

The strip of prices under the header is a widget from FinPubMax, the publisher's own quote service. Your browser loads its script and requests quotes directly from finpubmax.com while the page is open, so that server sees an ordinary web request from you, including your IP address and browser details, as any website does. The widget does not set cookies or write to your browser's storage.

Hosting and delivery

Pages are delivered through Cloudflare and hosted on a web server in the United States. Both keep standard server logs of requests for security and troubleshooting. Fonts, images and scripts are served from this domain, except the Maxboard script, the Google tag, the Google ad code and the ticker tape described above.

How long data is kept

First-party analytics records are deleted after 400 days. The collection program removes older records itself as new visits arrive, so the code enforces the limit.

What is not done

No social media pixels run on these pages, and Google AdSense, described above, is the only advertising network. Of the three measurement scripts, two belong to the publisher and the third is Google Analytics; Google receives the analytics and advertising data listed above. The publisher does not sell visit data or share it with anyone else. What is collected is used to see which pages are read, how people arrive at them and where they stop reading.

Your choices and contact

You can block the scripts with any content blocker, or clear the stored items at any time. To ask what is held about your visits or to have it removed, write to [email protected]. Because records are keyed to a random id and a hashed address, you may need to send your tmt_vid value, which you can find in your browser's developer tools under local storage.

See also the terms of use and the risk disclaimer.