Cookie & Tracking Policy

What Are Cookies and Tracking Technologies?

Cookies are small text files stored on your device when you visit unionflare.com. We also use similar tracking technologies like web beacons and local storage to understand how you interact with our financial planning tools.

These technologies help us remember your budget preferences, analyze which features are most helpful, and improve our annual budgeting guidance. Think of them as digital bookmarks that make your return visits smoother and more personalized.

Types of Tracking We Use

How Tracking Improves Your Experience

Personalized Budget Guidance

By understanding your browsing patterns, we can suggest relevant budgeting strategies. If you frequently visit our debt management sections, we might highlight tools for debt consolidation or repayment planning.

Feature Development Insights

Analytics data shows us which calculator tools get the most use and where people encounter difficulties. This helps us prioritize improvements to features like our annual budget planner and expense tracking systems.

Content Recommendations

We track which educational articles resonate with different user segments to recommend similar content. Someone interested in investment planning might see more content about portfolio diversification and retirement planning.

Third-Party Tracking Services

We partner with several analytics and marketing platforms that may place their own tracking technologies on your device:

• Google Analytics: Provides detailed insights about site usage and user behavior patterns
• Facebook Pixel: Helps us reach people with relevant budgeting content on social media
• Hotjar: Shows us how users navigate our budgeting tools through heatmaps and session recordings
• Mailchimp: Tracks email engagement to improve our financial education newsletters

Each of these services operates under their own privacy policies, and you can opt out of their tracking through their respective websites or industry opt-out tools.

Data Retention and Your Control

How Long We Keep Data

Most tracking data is automatically deleted after 26 months. However, some aggregated analytics data may be retained longer for historical trend analysis. Personal preferences and functional cookies typically expire after 12 months of inactivity.

Managing Your Preferences

Beyond using the rejection button above, you have several options for controlling tracking:

• Browser settings: Most browsers let you block or delete cookies entirely
• Privacy extensions: Tools like uBlock Origin or Privacy Badger can prevent tracking scripts
• Industry opt-outs: Visit optout.networkadvertising.org for broader marketing cookie controls
• Individual service opt-outs: Each tracking service we use provides its own opt-out mechanism

Browser Configuration Guide

Chrome Users

Go to Settings > Privacy and Security > Cookies and other site data. Here you can block all cookies, block third-party cookies, or manage exceptions for specific sites like unionflare.com.

Firefox Users

Access Preferences > Privacy & Security. The Enhanced Tracking Protection settings let you choose between Standard, Strict, or Custom protection levels. Custom gives you the most granular control.

Safari Users

In Safari Preferences, go to Privacy tab. You can prevent cross-site tracking, block all cookies, or manage website data on a site-by-site basis.