Cookie Policy

What Are Cookies and Tracking Technologies

Cookies are small text files that websites place on your device when you visit them. Think of them as digital sticky notes that help websites remember information about your visit. At Teach Bend, we use various tracking technologies including cookies, web beacons, and similar tools to enhance your experience on our financial planning platform.

These technologies work behind the scenes to remember your preferences, keep you logged in, and help us understand how our website performs. We're committed to transparency about how we collect and use this information, especially given the sensitive nature of financial planning services.

Types of Tracking We Use

We categorise our tracking technologies into four main types, each serving different purposes in delivering our financial planning services. Understanding these categories helps you make informed decisions about your privacy preferences.

Functional Cookies enhance your user experience by remembering your preferences and settings. For example, they'll remember if you prefer to view your financial projections in monthly or yearly formats, which planning tools you use most frequently, and your preferred dashboard layout. These cookies make your return visits more personalised and efficient.

Analytical Cookies help us understand how you interact with our platform so we can improve our services. We track which financial planning resources are most helpful, where users spend time learning about investment strategies, and which tools generate the most engagement. This data is anonymised and helps us develop better educational content.

Marketing Cookies are used to deliver relevant content and measure the effectiveness of our educational campaigns. They help us understand which financial topics interest you most, so we can provide more targeted resources about retirement planning, investment strategies, or debt management that align with your needs.

How Tracking Enhances Your Experience

Our tracking technologies directly improve your financial planning journey in several meaningful ways. When you return to our platform, cookies remember where you left off in your financial assessment, maintain your risk tolerance settings, and keep your preferred communication methods active.

For instance, if you're working through our retirement planning module over several sessions, our tracking ensures you don't lose progress and can pick up exactly where you stopped. Your dashboard preferences, notification settings, and saved financial scenarios all persist thanks to these technologies.

We also use tracking to provide personalised educational content recommendations. If you've been exploring investment diversification strategies, our system might suggest related articles about portfolio rebalancing or risk management techniques that complement your learning path.

Analytics data helps us identify common pain points in our user interface and continuously improve the platform. For example, if we notice many users struggle with a particular step in our budgeting tool, we can redesign that section to be more intuitive and helpful.

Data Retention and Your Control

We maintain different retention periods for different types of data, always keeping your privacy and the utility of our services in balance. Essential cookies typically expire when you close your browser or log out, while preference cookies might last up to 12 months to maintain your customised experience.

Analytical data is aggregated and anonymised, stored for up to 24 months to help us identify long-term trends in how our platform serves users. Marketing cookies generally expire after 90 days, though you can clear them at any time through your browser settings.

Keep in mind that blocking essential cookies may limit your ability to access certain features of our platform, particularly those requiring secure authentication or session management. However, blocking analytical or marketing cookies won't affect your core financial planning experience.

We respect your choices and provide clear options for managing your data preferences. Our commitment to transparency means we'll always inform you about significant changes to our tracking practices and give you opportunities to adjust your preferences accordingly.