Website Privacy & Cookie Policy

Effective October 22, 2026

The Debt Free Empire website at debtfreeempire.com, including the blog, is covered by this policy. Our apps are not covered, because they have their own policies: the Empire Life Dashboard privacy policy and the Paper & Prosperity privacy policy. Our apps do not contain advertising or analytics, and nothing on this page changes that.

Analytics

To see which pages are visited and which links are clicked, this website uses Vercel Web Analytics and HeyCatch analytics. They count page views and clicks (for example, clicks from an article to one of our apps or to an app store), how far down the home page, the Empire Life Dashboard page and the Paper & Prosperity page you scroll and which sections you reach, how often the Empire AI chat is opened and used (counts only), where a visit came from (such as a search engine, social media or another page on this site), and your general device type and operating system (such as "iPhone" or "Windows"). They may store a random identifier in your browser, and they do not collect your name or email address. They never record what you type into forms or into the Empire AI chat.

Optional question on our app pages

On the Empire Life Dashboard and Paper & Prosperity pages we may ask one optional question: "What are you hoping to get help with?" You can pick an option, add a few words if you choose "Something else", or close it. We ask once, after you have been on the page for a short while.

We store your answer with the page it was asked on, your general device type and operating system, and the kind of site you came from (such as search or social media). We do not store your name, email address or IP address. Answers are deleted automatically after 90 days. We use them to understand what visitors need and to improve those pages. Please do not put personal information in the optional note; notes that look like contact details are discarded.

Comments on blog posts

Comments on blog posts are provided by Giscus, which stores them as public discussions in a GitHub repository. To comment, you sign in with your GitHub account. GitHub, and not us, handles that sign-in under its privacy statement, and we never see your GitHub password. Comments, your GitHub username and your profile picture are public. The comment box loads from giscus.app when a blog post opens.

Empire AI chat

Every page has an optional chat assistant called Empire AI. If you use it, the question you type and the last few messages of the conversation are sent to our server, which passes them to Anthropic's Claude to write a reply. Please do not type passwords, account or card numbers, Social Security numbers or other personal or financial details into the chat. The chat checks for obvious examples such as these and will not send or save them.

We save your questions and Empire AI's answers so our team can read them, improve the assistant and reply to you. If you choose to message our team, or Empire AI flags a question for a person, our team may reply inside your chat window the next time you open it. We keep a conversation for 30 days after its last message, and then it is deleted automatically. A conversation is tied together only by a random ID stored in your browser. We do not collect your name or email for the chat, so we cannot contact you any other way. You can delete your conversation yourself at any time with "Delete this chat" in the chat window.

When you choose "Message the team", you can optionally enter your email address so we can reply to you by email. If you do, we keep it with your conversation and it is deleted with that conversation after 30 days. If you also tick the box to receive occasional updates, we add your email address to our updates list. It stays on that list until you unsubscribe, and every email we send has an unsubscribe link. Deleting your chat does not remove you from the updates list, so use the unsubscribe link or send us a message through the contact form to be removed.

Our server also uses your IP address to count how many questions you have asked today and keeps that counter for about a day. The IP address is not saved with your conversation. Your browser stores the daily counter, your conversation ID and your chat choices (such as turning Empire AI off) in local storage on your device. You can turn Empire AI off from the chat window at any time and turn it back on again.

Fonts

The Debt Free Empire website loads its fonts from Google Fonts. When a page loads, your browser requests the fonts from Google, which receives standard request information such as your IP address.

Messages and sign-ups

If you write to us through the contact form, we use your email address and message only to reply to you. If you join our newsletter, we use your email to send you a welcome message with the free printable and then occasional updates. If you join the iPhone list for Empire Life Dashboard, we use your email to send a welcome message and to tell you when the iPhone version arrives, including any launch pricing. Every email has an unsubscribe link, and anyone who unsubscribes is removed from both lists. We never sell or rent your email address.

Advertising

We do not currently show advertising on this website. We may begin showing ads on our blog pages through Google AdSense. If we do, Google and its advertising partners may use cookies and similar identifiers to serve and measure ads, and, where the law allows and you agree, to personalize them. Visitors in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland will be asked for consent before ads that use cookies appear.

You can manage ad personalization in Google Ads Settings and learn more about how Google uses information from sites that use its services on Google's partner-sites page. We will update this page before any ads are turned on. We will never put ads inside our apps.

Your choices

• You can block or delete cookies and similar identifiers in your browser settings. The site will still work, and some features, such as comments, may not.
• You can read every page without signing in or giving us any information.

Children

The Debt Free Empire website is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, we will update this page and its effective date.

Contact

Questions about your privacy? Send us a message through our contact form. We reply within 48 hours.