The short version
- You can use every calculator on this site without giving me anything. No account, no email.
- The numbers you type into a calculator are sent to the server to be calculated, and are not saved.
- If you ask for a guide PDF, I keep your name, email and the scenario you were looking at, so I can send it and follow up.
- I use Google Analytics to count visits. It sets cookies.
- I do not sell your information, rent it, or hand it to a realtor. There is no advertising on this site.
- Email hello@marketgem.ca and I will delete everything I hold about you.
Who is responsible for this site
MarketGem.ca is an independent publisher of property calculators and research guides for Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada. It is operated by Philip Breton. For anything in this policy, including a request to see or delete your information, contact hello@marketgem.ca.
This policy is written to meet Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). It covers marketgem.ca and everything under it.
What is collected, and when
Nothing here is collected silently in the background beyond ordinary analytics. What is gathered depends entirely on what you do.
1. Using a calculator, without submitting anything
The calculators do their maths on the server rather than in your browser, so the values you choose with the sliders and fields are sent to marketgem.ca to be calculated and returned. They are not written to any file, log or database, and they are not emailed to anyone. Once the answer is sent back, they are gone.
To stop one person hammering the calculation endpoint, the server keeps a short-lived counter keyed to a one-way cryptographic hash of your IP address. The hash cannot be turned back into your IP address, it holds nothing else about you, and it is discarded automatically.
2. Asking for a guide PDF
The guides are free to read in full on this site with no form at all. Only the printable PDF asks for an email. If you fill in that form, this is recorded:
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| First name | To address the email that carries your download link. |
| Email address | To send you the guide, and to follow up about it. |
| Municipality and project type | To know which parts of Niagara the tools are actually being used for. |
| A snapshot of the figures you entered | So that if you reply with a question, I can see the scenario you were looking at instead of asking you to type it again. |
| Your IP address and the page you submitted from | Spam and abuse prevention, and to know which tool produced the enquiry. |
| The date and time | Ordinary record keeping. |
That record is stored in a file on the web server that is not reachable from the web, and a copy is emailed to me so I see the enquiry. Do not put anything confidential in the form. It is a lead form, not a secure channel, and the figures you enter travel to me by ordinary email.
3. Subscribing from the homepage
If you use the subscribe box, I record your email address, which section of the page you subscribed from, your IP address, the page URL and the time. Same storage, same treatment.
4. Analytics on every page
This site uses Google Analytics 4 (measurement ID G-ZSY1HKEEMW) to count visits
and see which tools people use. Google receives your IP address, the pages you view, rough
location, and details about your device and browser, and it sets cookies in your browser to
recognise a returning visit. I see this only as aggregate reports. I do not connect analytics
data to any email address collected through the forms above.
Cookies
The only cookies this site sets are Google Analytics cookies, typically named
_ga and _ga_<id>. They distinguish one visitor from another and
normally expire about two years after your last visit. There are no advertising cookies, no
tracking pixels and no social media trackers.
You can refuse them. Any of these works:
- Block or delete cookies for marketgem.ca in your browser settings.
- Install Google's Analytics opt-out add-on.
- Use your browser's private or incognito window, which discards cookies when you close it.
The calculators and the guides work normally with cookies blocked. Nothing on this site is gated behind accepting them.
Other companies involved
To keep the site fast and free of a build step, some code is loaded from public content delivery networks. Loading a file from any of these means your browser contacts that company and it can see your IP address and which page requested the file.
- Google (Analytics and Tag Manager) — visit measurement.
- Cloudflare cdnjs, jsDelivr and unpkg — open-source JavaScript libraries.
- Tailwind CDN — the stylesheet.
- The web host that runs marketgem.ca, which keeps standard server logs.
These companies process data on their own servers, which are generally outside Canada, including in the United States. Information held in another country can be accessed by that country's courts and law enforcement under its own laws. If that is a concern for you, do not submit the form, and block cookies and scripts as described above.
What is never done with your information
- It is not sold, rented or traded.
- Your email address is not passed to a realtor, broker, lender or contractor. If a partner ever licenses a calculator for their own website, leads from their site go to them and are covered by their privacy policy, not this one. Leads from marketgem.ca stay with me.
- There is no advertising on this site, so nothing is shared with ad networks.
- No automated decision is made about you, and nothing here is credit scoring or screening.
How long it is kept
- Calculator inputs: not kept at all.
- Rate-limiting hashes: minutes, then discarded.
- Guide requests and subscriptions: kept until you ask me to delete them, or until I decide the enquiry is stale and clear it out. Either way, one email from you removes it.
- Analytics: retained by Google under the retention period set on the property, which is at most 14 months for user-level data. Aggregated reporting totals are kept longer.
- Server logs: kept by the host on their normal schedule, usually a few weeks.
How it is protected
The whole site is served over HTTPS, so what you submit is encrypted in transit. Stored enquiries sit in a directory that is blocked from web access and is not linked from anywhere. That said, this is a small independent site, not a bank. No website can promise perfect security, and I would rather say so plainly than imply otherwise.
Your rights
Under PIPEDA you can, at any time and at no cost:
- Ask what personal information I hold about you and get a copy of it.
- Ask me to correct anything inaccurate.
- Withdraw your consent and ask me to delete everything I hold.
- Ask how it has been used and who it has been shared with.
Email hello@marketgem.ca. I will reply within 30 days, which is the period PIPEDA allows, and in practice much sooner. I may need to confirm you control the email address in question before I delete or disclose anything, so that someone else cannot use this process against you.
If you are not satisfied with how I handle it, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
Children
This site is aimed at property owners and buyers and is not directed at children. I do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has submitted a form here, email me and I will remove it.
Changes to this policy
If this changes, the updated version will be posted here with a new date at the top. Material changes to how existing information is used will be sent to anyone on the list before they take effect. There is no archive of earlier versions, so if a specific wording matters to you, keep a copy.
Not advice
Unrelated to privacy, but worth repeating where people read it. The calculators and guides are estimating tools for orientation and budgeting. They are not appraisals, and they are not financial, tax, legal or planning advice. Municipal fees and rules change. Verify anything you intend to rely on with the municipality, a licensed contractor, a mortgage broker or an accountant.
Contact
hello@marketgem.ca
MarketGem.ca · Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada