Privacy policy

Who we are

Saving Optimizer (savingoptimizer.com) is a Canadian guide site run by Andrew in Toronto, Ontario. Andrew is responsible for personal information handled through this site. To reach him about privacy, use the contact page or email contact@savingoptimizer.com.

What we collect

You can read every guide without an account, and we do not run a newsletter or comments. We handle personal information in three ways:

• Analytics. We use Google Analytics to count visits and see which guides are read. It uses cookies and collects information such as pages viewed, approximate location, device and browser type, and how you arrived at the site.
• Advertising. We use Google AdSense to show ads. Google and other ad vendors may use cookies, as described below.
• Messages you send us. The contact form sends your name, email address, topic, and message to our inbox by email. The email also includes your IP address so we can deal with abuse. The message itself is not saved on the website. To limit spam, the server keeps a one-way hash of your IP address with the times of recent submissions so it can cap messages at five per hour.

Our web host, Hostinger, processes technical information such as IP addresses and browser details to deliver and protect the site.

Google advertising cookies

Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to this website or other websites.

Google's use of advertising cookies, including the DoubleClick cookie, enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to this site and/or other sites on the internet.

You can opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google's Ads Settings. You can also opt out of some third-party vendors' use of cookies for personalized advertising at www.aboutads.info or, in Canada, through the Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada at youradchoices.ca. If you opt out, you will still see ads, but they will be less related to your interests.

Ads on this site may come from Google and from other ad vendors and networks that Google works with. Those vendors may also use cookies to serve and measure ads. You can opt out of a vendor's use of cookies for personalized advertising on that vendor's own site, if it offers this, or through the aboutads.info and youradchoices.ca pages above.

Google explains how it uses information from sites that use its services at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

Other cookies and services

• Google Analytics sets first-party cookies (such as _ga). You can block them in your browser or install the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.
• Google Fonts. Pages load the Inter typeface from Google Fonts, so your browser sends a request, including your IP address, to Google's servers.
• YouTube videos. Some guides include a video. Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play; the player then loads from youtube-nocookie.com, and YouTube's privacy terms apply.
• Amazon.ca affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Saving Optimizer earns from qualifying purchases. If you click an Amazon.ca link, Amazon may set cookies on its own site to credit the sale. We do not receive your name, address, or what else you buy. Amazon's privacy notice applies on Amazon.ca.

You can delete or block cookies in your browser settings. The guides still work without them.

Consent

By using the site with cookies enabled, you consent to the uses described here. You can withdraw that consent at any time by changing your browser settings or using the opt-out links above. Where the law requires consent before advertising cookies are used, such as for visitors in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, ads are shown according to the choice you make in the consent message.

Your rights in Canada (PIPEDA)

We follow the principles of Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). We collect only what we need for the purposes above, we do not sell personal information, and we keep contact messages only as long as we need them to reply and to fix any errors you report.

You can ask to see the personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete your messages. Contact us and we will respond within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Where information is processed

Google, Amazon, and our web host may process information on servers outside Canada, including in the United States. When that happens, the information is subject to the laws of those countries.

Children

Saving Optimizer is written for adults managing a household budget. It is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their personal information.

Changes to this policy

If we change how the site handles personal information, we will update this page and the effective date at the top.