Privacy policy
Last updated 17 October 2026
Find Your Bearing helps you research and compare places to retire. This page explains, in plain language, what we collect, why, who else handles it, and how to have it deleted. Questions go to findyourbearinghelp@gmail.com.
What we collect
- Your account: your name, email address and password. Passwords are stored only in scrambled (hashed) form; we can't read them.
- What you add to the app: the towns you track, your scores and category weights, notes, journal entries, visit notes and photos, saved links, contacts you enter (such as a realtor's name and phone number), and the planning figures you type in, like income, home values and costs.
- Your quiz answers: the quiz runs without an account. If you start a free trial from your results, your answers come with you to set up your account.
- Billing status: whether you're on a trial or a paid plan. Card details are entered on Stripe's secure page and are never stored by us.
- Basic visit records: which of our pages are visited (a quiz-results address includes the answers you chose), the referring page, any campaign tags in the link (for example, which ad you clicked), and your browser type. We don't store your IP address; we keep only a scrambled version of it, so we can count unique visitors without knowing who they are.
Cookies
Our public pages (the homepage, the quiz and the sample towns) set no cookies. When you sign in, we set one cookie that keeps you signed in for up to 30 days. Your browser also remembers a few display choices, like dark mode, on your own device. We don't use advertising cookies or tracking pixels.
How we use it
- To run the app: show your towns, scores, research and plans, and save what you change.
- To send account emails: setting your password, trial reminders and password resets.
- To see how people find us and use the site, in totals, so we can improve it.
We don't sell your information, rent it out or use it to advertise to you.
Who else handles it
We use a small number of service providers, each only for the job below:
- Stripe processes payments and manages subscriptions.
- Hosting and storage providers run the app and its database, and store visit photos you upload.
- An email delivery service sends account emails.
- AI providers research towns and write summaries. They receive town names and, when you ask for a summary or a suggestion, the relevant scores and planning notes. Your name, email and payment details are not sent to them.
- Public data services (such as the U.S. Census Bureau and map data services) receive town names and locations only.
We may also share information if the law requires it.
Keeping and deleting your information
We keep your account and everything in it while your account exists, including after a trial or plan ends, so you can come back and pick up where you left off. To have your account and its contents deleted, email findyourbearinghelp@gmail.com from the address on your account, and we'll delete it and confirm. You can also ask us for a copy of your information. Billing records kept by Stripe follow Stripe's own retention rules.
Security
The site uses encrypted connections (HTTPS), passwords are hashed, and each account can see only its own information. No system is perfectly secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect what you share.
Children
Find Your Bearing is for adults. It isn't intended for anyone under 18, and we don't knowingly collect information from children.
Changes
If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top, and for significant changes we'll let account holders know by email.