1. Overview

Can We Afford It? ("we", "us", "our") is committed to protecting your privacy in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use it, and your rights under Australian law.

By using our website at canweaffordit.com.au ("the Site"), you consent to the practices described in this Policy.

2. Calculator Inputs

Our calculators work out their figures in your browser. What you type into them, such as salary, savings, expenses, property prices or tax inputs, is not sent to us, except in these cases:

If you sign in and save a calculation, its inputs and results are stored with your account.
If you sign in and save your goal, state and income, they are stored in your account profile.
If you sign up for Suburb Watch, the yearly rent budget worked out from the income or weekly budget you entered is stored with your email address (section 3). No account is needed for this.
A shared calculation link carries its figures in the page address, and our analytics records page addresses (section 3).

An account is optional. The rest of the Site works without one.

3. Information We Collect

Accounts: If you create an account, we store your email address, your name if you give it, and what you choose to save: your goal, state, income, saved calculations, and any properties you add to the property tracker (address, purchase price, current value, loan balance, interest rate, loan term and weekly rent). Your password is held by our authentication provider, Supabase, in hashed form; we cannot see it.

Newsletter: If you subscribe, we store your email address and send our emails through Resend. Every email has an unsubscribe link.

Suburb Watch: If you sign up for weekly rent updates on a suburb, we store your email address, the suburb and state, and the rent budget worked out from what you entered, and send a weekly email through Resend comparing the suburb's median rent with that budget. Every email has an unsubscribe link.

Local insights: If you sign in and post an insight on a suburb page, it is shown publicly with your name, or the part of your email address before the @ if you have not given a name.

Enquiry forms: If you voluntarily submit your name, email address, or phone number via the "Contact" form, we collect and store that information, and are notified by email, in order to respond to your enquiry. Until 08/11/2026 the broker, buyer's agent and insurance pages also had enquiry forms. Those forms have been removed; details already sent through them are kept only to answer that enquiry, and we delete them on request.

Business listings and advertising: If you apply to be listed or ask about advertising, we store the business and contact details you give (including a name, email address and phone number) to assess and answer the application.

Analytics: We use PostHog to see how the Site is used. It records the pages you view (including the page address), the links and buttons you click, your browser and device type, and an approximate location worked out from your IP address. It does not record what you type into fields. It keeps a random identifier in your browser's local storage to tell visits apart, which we do not link to your name or email. PostHog stores this data in the United States. Blocking requests to posthog.com in your browser, for example with a tracker blocker, stops it. We do not use cookies for analytics.

Outbound link measurement: When you click a link to a partner service, we record which partner was clicked, the page you clicked from, and whether that link was a paid referral. We attach a random identifier that lasts only for your current browsing session, so we can tell repeat clicks apart from separate visitors. This identifier is generated at random: it is not derived from you, your device or your IP address, and it cannot be used to identify you or linked to anything else we hold. We record no name, email, IP address or device fingerprint against these clicks.

Advertising cookies: We may display advertisements via Google AdSense or similar platforms. These services may place cookies on your device for ad personalisation. You can manage ad preferences at Google Ad Settings or by adjusting your browser's cookie settings.

Storage in your browser: The Site keeps some things in your own browser's local and session storage, not on our servers: your calculator answers and home page progress, so pages pre-fill; your personalisation answers; that you have read a disclaimer; the date of your last visit, so the home page can list what has changed since; cached suburb photos; your sign-in session, if you sign in; and the analytics and outbound-click identifiers described above. Clearing this site's data in your browser removes all of it.

4. How We Use Your Information

To respond to your enquiries submitted via our contact form
To answer an enquiry sent through the former broker, buyer's agent or insurance forms
To send the newsletter and Suburb Watch emails you sign up for
To improve the functionality and user experience of the Site using aggregated analytics
To display relevant advertising where applicable
To comply with our legal obligations

We will not sell, rent, or share your personal information with third parties for their own marketing purposes without your explicit consent.

5. Affiliate and Referral Disclosure

The Site contains links to third-party services including mortgage brokers, buyer's agents, conveyancers, and other property-related businesses. We may earn a referral fee when you engage with a linked partner. This referral relationship does not influence our calculator results, suburb data, or editorial content. All referral relationships are disclosed where applicable.

6. Third-Party Services

PostHog: site usage analytics, stored in the United States. See PostHog's Privacy Policy.
Supabase: accounts, saved calculations, the property tracker, newsletter and Suburb Watch addresses, insights and form submissions, stored in Sydney, Australia. See Supabase's Privacy Policy.
Resend: sending our emails, based in the United States. See Resend's Privacy Policy.
Google AdSense: advertising. See Google Advertising Policy.
OpenStreetMap, OpenTopoMap and CARTO: map tiles, which your browser requests from their servers directly. Map data is subject to the Open Database Licence.
Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons: suburb photos, which your browser requests from their servers directly.

7. Data Retention

Personal information submitted via forms is retained for up to 2 years or until you request its deletion, whichever occurs first. Account data, including saved calculations, is kept until you ask us to delete your account. Newsletter and Suburb Watch addresses are kept until you unsubscribe. Insights stay published until you ask us to remove them. Analytics data is retained in accordance with PostHog's data retention policies.

8. Data Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against loss, unauthorised access, and disclosure. Form submissions are transmitted over HTTPS. Calculator inputs stay in your browser except in the cases listed in section 2.

No method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security of information transmitted over the internet.

9. Your Rights Under the Privacy Act 1988

Under the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), you have the right to:

Access the personal information we hold about you
Request correction of inaccurate or outdated information
Request deletion of your personal information (subject to our legal obligations)
Make a complaint about how we have handled your personal information

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at the email below. We will respond within 30 days. If you are unsatisfied with our response, you may lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Material changes will be notified by updating the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Continued use of the Site after changes are published constitutes acceptance of the updated Policy.

11. Contact

For privacy-related enquiries or to exercise your rights, contact us at:
privacy@canweaffordit.com.au