Privacy policy

Last updated: 3 September 2026

The short version

The Big Mac Time Machine is a free static website. There are no accounts, no logins and no server that receives your inputs. Every calculation runs inside your own browser. We do not ask for, collect or store personal information about you.

The site is supported by advertising. Our advertising partner, Google, may set cookies or similar identifiers in your browser. That is described in full below.

Information we collect

Explorer inputs. The year, product, basket and income you enter are processed by JavaScript on your device. To make views shareable they are written into the page URL, and the income figure is also saved in your browser's local storage so it is remembered on your next visit. Nothing is transmitted to us. Clearing your browser's site data removes it. Be aware that a URL you share with someone else contains whatever income you typed.

Accounts and contact details. None. There is no sign-up, newsletter or contact form.

Server logs. The site is served as static files by Cloudflare. Like any web host, Cloudflare processes standard technical request data (IP address, user agent, requested URL, timestamp) to deliver pages and protect against abuse. We do not use this data to identify individuals. Cloudflare's handling of it is governed by its ownprivacy policy.

Cookies and advertising

The Big Mac Time Machine itself sets no cookies and runs no analytics.

Advertising is provided by Google AdSense. Google and its partners may use cookies and similar technologies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this and other websites, and to measure ad performance. You can opt out of personalised advertising in Google's ad settingsor at aboutads.info. How Google uses data from sites that use its services is described atpolicies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

Visitors in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland are shown a consent message before any advertising cookies are set, and can change their choice at any time from that message.

Children

The site is not directed at children under 13 and we knowingly collect no information from them.

Changes

Any change to this policy will be posted on this page with a new "last updated" date.

Contact

Questions about this policy can be raised as an issue on the project'sGitHub repository.