RetireFinderRetireFinder

Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-10-20

Information We Collect

RetireFinder collects minimal personal information. When you subscribe to our newsletter, we collect your email address. When you use our retirement quiz, we collect your quiz responses to generate personalized results. When you sign in to My RetireFinder, we store your email address and what you save there (see below). We do not sell, rent, or share your personal information with third parties for marketing purposes.

How We Use Your Information

We use collected information to:

  • Send newsletter emails you have subscribed to
  • Generate personalized retirement destination recommendations
  • Keep your saved shortlist, favourites and move plans in My RetireFinder
  • Improve our website content and tools
  • Respond to your inquiries

My RetireFinder (your account)

My RetireFinder is a free, optional personal area. You sign in with your email address only: we send a one-time sign-in link that works once and expires after 15 minutes. There is no password.

When you use it, we store:

  • Your email address, your language and when you last signed in
  • Your saved quiz answers (the shortlist is recalculated from them)
  • Your favourite countries
  • If you agreed to preference cookies: the last article you were reading and how far you got ("Continue reading"), deleted as soon as you withdraw that consent
  • Your move plans: monthly income you entered, budget changes, checklist progress and your notes
  • Your sign-in links and sessions, stored only as one-way hashes so they cannot be read back

Signing in does not subscribe you to our newsletter. We use this data only to show your roadmap back to you. Nobody else can see your plans or notes, and we never pass your email address to a partner. Partner links on the site lead to the partner's own website; you decide there what you share.

Partner links pass through a short redirect on our site (/go/) that counts clicks: which partner, on which page, in which language and when. We store no IP address, no cookie and no account information with a click, so a click cannot be traced back to you, even when you are signed in. The redirect adds utm_source=retirefinder to the partner's address so the partner knows the visit came from us. How we choose partners is explained on How we vet providers.

You can delete your account at any time ("Delete my account") in the Account section. Deleting removes your account, plans, notes and sessions immediately. If you would like a copy of your data, email us at contact@retirefinder.com and we will send it to you.

Cookies and tracking

We use cookies for four purposes:

  1. To make the site work: recording your cookie choice so we don't ask you again.
  2. To keep you signed in to My RetireFinder, only after you sign in.
  3. To remember your preferences: which countries you've been looking at, your budget range, where you're moving from. This lets us show relevant content and pre-fill forms. You can decline this in the cookie banner.
  4. To link your subscription to your browsing: if you sign up for the newsletter, we set one anonymous ID cookie so emails can be tailored to what you've been reading. This cookie is set only when you submit a signup form, and the form tells you this will happen.

We do not use Google Analytics or any other third-party analytics service.

A full list of cookies, their purpose, lifetime, lawful basis, and provider is in our Cookie Policy. You can change your cookie choices any time using "Cookie settings" in the footer.

Lawful basis

  • Strictly necessary cookies: legitimate interest.
  • Sign-in cookies and My RetireFinder data: contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR), because you asked us to provide the account.
  • Preference cookies: your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR, § 25(1) TDDDG), which you can withdraw at any time in the cookie settings.
  • Subscriber data (rf_sid + subscription): contract + consent given by submitting a form that discloses the use.

Data we collect when you subscribe

When you submit an email signup form, we save:

  • Your email address
  • Your name (if you provided one)
  • The page you signed up from
  • Anything you told us in our tools or forms: destination interest, budget range, household type, life stage, top concerns
  • Any preference cookies you allowed us to keep (see Cookie Policy)

We use this data to send emails that match what you're interested in. We never sell it. You can unsubscribe at any time via the link in every email, which immediately removes you from future sends and deletes your linking cookie.

Service providers

We use these service providers to run the site:

  • Contabo GmbH (Germany): hosts our server and database.
  • Brevo (Sendinblue SAS) (France): sends our emails, including sign-in links, and stores newsletter subscribers.

Data Storage and Security

Your data is stored on secure servers. We use industry-standard encryption for data in transit (HTTPS/TLS) and implement appropriate security measures to protect against unauthorized access.

Your Rights

You have the following rights with respect to your personal information:

  • Access the data we hold about you
  • Correct anything that's wrong
  • Delete your data
  • Object to or restrict processing
  • Withdraw consent you previously gave
  • Port your data to another service
  • Opt out of any sale or sharing of personal information

These rights are recognised under the EU/UK GDPR and similar privacy laws including California's CCPA/CPRA, Canada's PIPEDA (with CASL governing email consent specifically), Brazil's LGPD, and the PDPAs of Singapore and Thailand. The exact rights and procedures differ between these laws, so we offer the superset to all users regardless of where you live. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection authority.

Third-Party Links

Our website may contain links to third-party websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these external sites. We encourage you to review their privacy policies.

Contact and controller

  • Data controller: Validag Solutions Ltd, operator of RetireFinder
  • Registered office: Agias Zonis 60, Karaolis Imperial Court, Office 1002, 3090 Limassol, Cyprus
  • Company number: HE 488187 · VAT number: CY60316265I
  • Privacy contact: contact@retirefinder.com
  • Data Protection Officer: DPO not appointed; see Privacy Contact above

For privacy-related questions or data subject requests (access, correction, deletion), email contact@retirefinder.com. We respond as soon as reasonably possible, and always within 30 days.