Last updated 6 November 2026. This is a template written for a site that collects nothing itself. Have it reviewed against your own jurisdiction before launch, and replace the operator details below.
1. Who we are
Solar Math (“we”, “the site”) operates payback.solar. For any privacy question, write to privacy@payback.solar.
Replace with your legal operating name, registered address and a working email before publishing.
2. What we collect ourselves
Nothing. There is no account, no sign-up, no contact form and no database. The calculator runs entirely in your browser. Your coordinates, your electricity bill, your appliance list and your results are never sent to us and never stored anywhere. Close the tab and they are gone.
3. What your browser sends to others
To do its job, the page asks your browser to contact four third parties. We do not control them and their own policies apply.
| Who | What they receive | Why |
|---|---|---|
| NASA POWER (power.larc.nasa.gov) | The latitude and longitude you selected, rounded to four decimal places | To return the solar irradiance and temperature record for that point |
| OpenStreetMap (tile servers) | The map tiles your view requires, and your IP address | To draw the map |
| Nominatim (OpenStreetMap) | Your search text, or the coordinates you clicked | To turn a place name into coordinates, or the reverse |
| Google (AdSense, Fonts) | Your IP address, browser details, and the page you are on | To serve advertising and the page typeface |
Your coordinates go to NASA and OpenStreetMap only. They are not sent to the advertising network, and they are not attached to any identifier of you.
4. Location permission
The “Use my location” button asks your browser for your position. Your browser will prompt you, and you can refuse — the search box and the map work perfectly well without it. If you allow it, the coordinates are used in the page and sent to NASA POWER as described above. They are not stored and not transmitted to us.
5. Cookies
We set no cookies of our own. We use no analytics.
Google AdSense sets cookies and may read device identifiers to serve and measure advertising. Specifically:
- Google and its partners use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this and other websites.
- Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to this site and other sites on the internet.
- You may opt out of personalised advertising at google.com/settings/ads, or opt out of third-party vendor cookies at aboutads.info/choices.
- Google's own policy is at policies.google.com/technologies/ads.
6. If you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland
Where required, a consent notice appears before any advertising or personalisation cookie is set, and you can refuse or withdraw consent at any time through the same notice. Advertising cookies are set on the basis of your consent; nothing else on this site requires a lawful basis because nothing else is collected.
You have the right to access, correct, erase, restrict and port personal data, and to object to processing. Because we hold no personal data about you, there is nothing for us to produce or erase — for data held by Google as an advertising provider, exercise those rights with Google directly.
A Google-certified Consent Management Platform is required to serve ads to EEA and UK users. Install one before launch if you intend to serve those regions.
7. If you are in California
We do not sell or share personal information as the CCPA/CPRA defines those terms. Advertising partners may nonetheless process identifiers for cross-context behavioural advertising; opt out through the Google settings linked above or by using a Global Privacy Control signal, which our advertising partners honour where legally required.
8. Children
This site is not directed at children under 13 and we knowingly collect nothing from anyone, children included.
9. Security and retention
We hold no personal data, so there is nothing for us to retain, breach or leak. The site is served over HTTPS.
10. Changes
If this policy changes materially we will update the date at the top. Continued use after a change means you accept the revised policy.