Privacy policy

Effective 2026-09-03. Operated by Ikan Media Inc. ("we," "us"). CalculateBenefits is a privately owned, for-profit information service. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the United States Government or any government agency.

1. The short version

Browsing our program pages, guides, housing data, and office directory requires no account and no personal information.
If you choose to use our benefits questionnaire (at go.calculatebenefits.com), you give us contact and household information, and we share it with marketing partners who may contact you about products and services. That is how this free service is paid for.
You can stop at any time, and you never have to give a phone number to use the questionnaire.
Applying for government benefits is always free. We are not an application service and cannot approve, deny, or expedite any benefit.

2. Information we collect

When you browse

Standard server logs (IP address, browser type, pages requested, referring URL, timestamps), and analytics and advertising measurement data — including click identifiers passed in links from our ads (for example a Google Ads gclid or our own tracking click ID) and campaign parameters (UTM values). We use these to measure which ads and pages work.

When you use the questionnaire

Only what you enter: first and last name, email address, ZIP code, optionally a mobile phone number, and your answers to eligibility questions (for example housing situation, age range, employment status, and debt range). We also record technical evidence of the consent you gave: the exact disclosure text shown to you (stored as a cryptographic hash), the wording of the button you clicked, your IP address, browser user-agent, timestamp, and a third-party lead-certification token (Jornaya LeadiD) that independently records the session.

We do not ask for and do not want Social Security numbers, financial account numbers, government-issued ID numbers, health or medical information, or benefit case numbers. Never send those to us.

When you use an estimator

Our benefit estimators send the figures you type — your state, the ages of people in your household, and an income amount — through our server to PolicyEngine, a nonprofit that maintains an open-source model of US tax and benefit rules, which calculates the estimate and returns it. We pass along no name, no contact details, and no account information, because we never ask for them on an estimator, and the endpoint rejects any request carrying extra fields. Because the request goes through our server rather than directly from your browser, your IP address is not shared with PolicyEngine. We do not store what you enter — the figures are used for the calculation and discarded. Estimator results are estimates, never an eligibility determination.

3. How we use it

To show you assistance programs and offers relevant to your answers.
To share your information with marketing partners as described below.
To email you about programs, updates, and offers (you can unsubscribe from any message).
To keep records proving what you consented to, and to comply with law.
To measure and improve our advertising, site, and questionnaire.

4. How we share it — read this part

When you submit the questionnaire, your information is transmitted to our lead-management system and made available to marketing partners, which may include lead buyers, advertisers, networks, and service providers in categories such as debt relief, insurance and Medicare-related products, education, employment services, and housing-related services. Those partners may contact you by email, phone, or text using the consent you provided, and each partner's own privacy policy governs what they do with your information. We do not control their practices.

Under California and several other state privacy laws, this activity is considered a "sale" or "sharing" of personal information. You can opt out at any time — see Your Privacy Choices.

We also use service providers who process data on our behalf (hosting, database, email delivery, analytics, lead certification, and fraud prevention). We may disclose information if required by law, to enforce our terms, or in connection with a sale or transfer of the business.

We never sell or share information about a person we know to be under 16. This service is for adults; do not use it if you are under 18.

5. Phone calls and text messages

Providing a phone number is optional and is never required to use the questionnaire. If you check the box giving consent, you agree that we and our marketing partners may call and text you at that number — including with automated technology and prerecorded or artificial voice messages — even if the number is on a Do Not Call registry. Consent is not a condition of any purchase. Message and data rates may apply; message frequency varies. Reply STOP to any text to stop, or contact us to revoke consent for all channels. If you skip the phone step, we do not store a phone number for you at all.

6. Global Privacy Control

We honor the Global Privacy Control (GPC) browser signal. If your browser sends GPC when you use our questionnaire, we treat it as an opt-out of sale/sharing: your information is not transmitted to marketing partners. We show an on-screen confirmation when we detect the signal.

7. Your rights

Depending on your state, you may have the right to know what personal information we hold, to get a copy, to correct it, to delete it, to opt out of sale/sharing and targeted advertising, and to not be discriminated against for exercising these rights. Submit a request by emailing [email protected] or writing to us at the address below. We will verify your request by matching the information you gave us, respond within the time your state's law requires, and you may appeal a denial by replying to our response.

8. Retention and security

We keep questionnaire submissions and consent records for as long as needed to run the service, prove consent, and satisfy legal recordkeeping obligations — including suppression records we must retain to honor opt-outs (in some states up to ten years). Data is stored with access restricted to service accounts and encrypted in transit. No system is perfectly secure.

9. Cookies and tracking

We use limited first-party storage to carry your click ID and campaign parameters through the questionnaire, plus analytics and advertising measurement. Your browser controls can block or clear this storage; the questionnaire still works, but our attribution will be incomplete.

Google advertising cookies

Third-party vendors, including Google, may use cookies or similar technologies to serve and measure ads on CalculateBenefits. Google's use of advertising cookies enables Google and its partners to serve ads based on a visitor's prior visits to this site and other sites on the Internet. Other authorized advertising vendors or networks may also use cookies to serve and measure ads.

You can control personalized advertising through Google Ads Settings. You can also use the Digital Advertising Alliance opt-out tool to manage participating companies' use of cookies for personalized advertising. Where required, we use consent and privacy-choice messages to collect or communicate your choices before personalized advertising is used.

10. Changes and contact

If we change this policy we will update the effective date above and, for material changes affecting how we share your information, post notice on this page before the change takes effect.

Questions or requests: [email protected] · General: [email protected]
Ikan Media Inc., 390 NE 191st St, STE 62202, Miami, FL 33179