Privacy,
in plain words.

Last updated and effective: October 24, 2026

The short version

We collect only what Go to Zero needs to work: your account details and the debt and plan information you enter.
We never sell your personal information, and we don’t use it for ads.
We don’t connect to your bank. We never ask for bank logins, Social Security numbers, or credit reports.
Our website analytics (Umami) run on our own server and don’t use cookies. We use cookies only to keep you signed in.
If you share a household, the other members see its shared debts and plan. You can leave a household or delete your account at any time.

1. Who runs Go to Zero

Go to Zero is a free personal project run by one individual (“we,” “us”). This policy explains what we collect through gotozero.app, the Zero Date calculator, and our emails (together, the “Service”), and what choices you have. Questions: hello@gotozero.app.

2. What we collect

Information you give us

Account: your name, email address, and password. We store your password only as a one-way hash, so we can’t see it.
Debts and plans: the debts you add (such as a name or nickname, type, balance, interest rate, minimum payment, and loan terms), payments and extra payments you record, balance changes, mortgage and HELOC details, payoff strategies, plans, notes, and related settings.
Household: the household name, its members and their roles (owner or member), and invitations, including the email address of the person you invite.
Preferences: your email settings, such as check-in reminders, the debts you muted, and whether you want product updates.
Messages: what you send us when you email us.

Please don’t enter full account numbers, Social Security numbers, passwords, or other details we don’t ask for, including in notes.

Information collected automatically

Sign-in sessions: when you sign in, we store a session record with your IP address and browser type. This keeps you signed in and helps us spot suspicious sign-ins. A session lasts up to 30 days.
Bot check: we use Cloudflare Turnstile when you sign up and when you ask for a password reset, to tell people from bots. Cloudflare processes technical signals from your browser for that purpose.
Analytics: we run Umami, a privacy-focused analytics tool, on our own server (stats.gotozero.app). It counts page views and a few events, such as a click on a sign-up button or on a link to another site. Umami doesn’t use cookies. We don’t use Google Analytics, ad pixels, or session-recording tools.
Server logs: our server keeps standard technical logs (such as IP address, time, and page requested) to run and secure the Service.

The Zero Date calculator

The Zero Date calculator works without an account. It runs in your browser, and we don’t receive or save what you type in it. Analytics and server logs (above) still apply to the page visit.

What we don’t collect

We don’t collect bank or card logins, Social Security numbers, credit reports or scores, precise location, contacts, or photos. We don’t buy data about you from anyone.

3. How we use information

To run the Service: create your account, sign you in, store your plans, and calculate estimates.
To support households: share a household’s debts and plans with its members, and send invitations.
To send email: account emails (verification, password reset, email change, invitations, and deletion confirmation), important notices about the Service, check-in reminders you leave on, replies to your messages, and product updates only if you opt in.
To keep the Service secure and stop fraud, spam, and abuse.
To improve the Service, using cookie-free analytics in aggregate.
To follow the law and protect rights.

We don’t use your debt information for advertising. We don’t make automated decisions about you that have legal or similar effects.

4. Cookies

We use only cookies that are strictly necessary to keep you signed in and secure. We don’t use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. Because we don’t track you across sites, we don’t respond differently to “Do Not Track” signals.

5. Who we share information with

We never sell your personal information, and we never share it for targeted advertising. We share it only:

With members of your household. See section 6.
With the services that run the Service, which may use it only to provide their service to us:
- Hosting: Hostinger, for the server and database in the United States.
- Email delivery: Resend, which sends our emails.
- Email inbox: Porkbun forwards email you send to hello@gotozero.app to a Google Gmail inbox.
- Bot check: Cloudflare (Turnstile).
For legal reasons: if the law, a subpoena, or a court order requires it, or to protect the safety, rights, or property of our users, the public, or us.
In a transfer: if the Service moves to a new owner, such as a company we form, your information moves with it. The new owner must follow this policy, or tell you and give you a choice before a material change.
With your permission in any other case.

Partner links. Some pages contain labeled links to partner products. Partners get none of your personal or debt information from us. When you click a partner link, the partner can see that you came from Go to Zero, and its own privacy policy applies on its site.

We may publish statistics in aggregate (for example, “users have planned $X of payoff”) that can’t reasonably identify you or your household.

6. Shared households

What other members see. Every member of a household can see and edit its shared debts, payments, balance changes, mortgage and HELOC details, strategies, and plans. Members can see each other’s name and email address. Your email settings are your own.
Invitations. When you invite someone, we use their email address only to send the invitation and link their account.
Leaving. A member can leave a household from the household menu in the app. The owner can remove a member from Account settings. After that, the former member can no longer see the household. We can’t take back what they already saw or copied.
Deleting an account. If the owner deletes their account, the household and all its records are deleted for every member, and we email the other members. If a member who is not the owner deletes their account, the household and its debts stay with the owner.
Safety. If you need help to leave a shared household safely, email hello@gotozero.app.

7. How long we keep information

We keep your account and household data while your account is active.
When you confirm a deletion, we delete your account and sessions from our live database. For an owner, we also delete the household and its records.
Deleted data can stay in backup copies for a time. We keep backups only to recover from a disaster. Our server deletes its daily backups after 7 days.
We may keep a small record where security or the law requires it, such as a note that a deletion happened, or an entry that stops us from emailing you again.

8. Your choices and rights

Wherever you live, you can:

See and change your profile in Account settings.
Delete your account in Account settings. We send a link to your email to confirm, and nothing is deleted until you click it.
Get a copy of your data: email hello@gotozero.app.
Turn off check-in reminders and product updates in Account settings, or use the unsubscribe link in a product update. Account and security emails still arrive while you have an account.
Ask a question or make a privacy request at hello@gotozero.app. We confirm the request from the email address on your account and answer within 45 days. We won’t treat you differently for using these rights.

Some U.S. states, such as California, give residents more privacy rights. Those laws apply only to businesses above certain size thresholds, which this project doesn’t meet today. We still give every user the rights in this section, and we’ll update this policy if such a law starts to apply.

9. Security

We use reasonable safeguards for a service of our size: encrypted connections (HTTPS), hashed passwords, email verification, a bot check, a database that isn’t open to the internet, and limited administrator access. Our administrator screens show account facts only, not your balances, rates, payments, or notes. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your personal information, we’ll tell you as the law requires.

10. Age

Go to Zero is for adults 18 and older. It isn’t meant for children, and we don’t knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you think a minor has signed up, email hello@gotozero.app and we’ll delete the account.

11. Where data is stored

We store data in the United States. The Service is meant for people in the United States.

12. Changes to this policy

If we make an important change, such as a new type of data or a new kind of sharing, we’ll tell you by email or in the app before it takes effect. The date at the top of this page shows the current version.

13. Contact

Email hello@gotozero.app. See also our Terms of Service.