Privacy Policy
Last updated: 2026-05-20
1. Who we are
First Bond is a free South African home loan calculator built to help first-time buyers understand what they can afford, what their repayments will look like, and what the upfront costs of buying property involve. We are not a bank or a financial services provider — we just do the maths for you.
For anything privacy-related, you can reach us at privacy@firstbond.co.za.
2. What we collect and why
We keep things minimal. Here is exactly what gets collected and the reason for it:
Session UUID cookie
When you visit the site we set a random session ID in a cookie. This is a strictly necessary cookie — it lets us enforce fair usage limits on our AI features so one person cannot exhaust the quota for everyone else. No consent banner is required for this cookie under POPIA because it is essential to the service. You can delete it at any time by clearing your browser cookies.
IP address hash, browser, and country
When you use the AI "Explain my results" feature, we store a truncated SHA-256 hash of your IP address (not the IP address itself — the hash cannot be reversed), along with your browser user agent and country. This is used for operational auditing and abuse prevention only.
Calculator inputs
If you press "Explain my results", the numbers you entered (income, purchase price, expenses, etc.) are sent to our AI service so it can give you a meaningful explanation. These inputs are stored server-side and automatically deleted after 30 days.
Google Analytics 4 events
Only if you give analytics consent: we send anonymous usage events to Google Analytics 4. These events do not include any financial amounts — we only track things like which calculator you used and whether you clicked the explain button. Google processes this data in the US under standard contractual clauses.
Google Ads cookies
Only if you give analytics consent: Google may set advertising cookies to show you relevant ads. We do not share your calculator inputs with Google Ads.
3. How long we keep it
| Data | Retention |
|---|---|
| Calculator inputs | Deleted automatically after 30 days |
| AI usage logs (IP hash, browser, country) | Retained for operational auditing — no fixed expiry |
| Session UUID cookie | Until you clear your browser cookies |
| Google Analytics / Ads data | Governed by Google's own retention policy |
4. Your rights under POPIA
South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) gives you the following rights over your personal information:
- →Access — you can ask us what personal information we hold about you.
- →Correction — you can ask us to fix inaccurate information.
- →Deletion — you can ask us to delete your personal information.
To exercise any of these rights, email privacy@firstbond.co.za and we will respond within a reasonable time.
5. We do not sell your data
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to any third party. Full stop.
6. Third-party services we use
Running this site requires a few external services. Here is who they are and what they do:
AI processing
When you press "Explain my results", your calculator inputs are sent to Anthropic's Claude API to generate the explanation. Anthropic processes this data under their own privacy policy.
Analytics + Ads
If you consent, Google Analytics 4 receives anonymous usage events and Google Ads may set advertising cookies. No financial amounts are shared.
Hosting
The site is hosted on Vercel. All web traffic passes through Vercel's infrastructure. Vercel may log request metadata for operational purposes.
Database
Calculator inputs and AI usage logs are stored in a Turso (libSQL) database. Data is stored in the region closest to you for performance.
Questions?
Email us at privacy@firstbond.co.za — we are a small team and will get back to you.