The short version: our calculators run entirely inside your browser. Nothing you type into them is sent to us, stored by us, or sold to anyone. This page explains that properly, and covers the one thing that does involve cookies — advertising.
SproutHub is a free collection of business calculators and checklists for people running or starting a UK business. It is built and maintained by Atlas Digital.
For anything in this policy — including a request to exercise your data rights — use the contact form on our homepage.
Under UK GDPR, Atlas Digital is the "data controller" for this website. In practice there is very little data to control, for the reasons set out below.
Every calculator on this site runs in your browser. The figures you enter — turnover, salaries, loan amounts, margins, invoice values — are processed by JavaScript on your own device. They are never transmitted to a server, never written to a database, and are gone the moment you close the tab.
Specifically, we do not:
Some tools let you download your results as an Excel file. That file is generated in your browser and saved directly to your device. No copy is sent to us.
This site is hosted by Netlify. Like every web host, Netlify's servers process standard technical request data (IP address, browser type, the page requested) to deliver the site and protect it from abuse. We don't have access to identifiable logs and don't use them to build a profile of you. Netlify acts as our processor; see the Netlify privacy policy.
We set no cookies of our own — no analytics cookies, no tracking pixels, no session cookies. There is nothing to track, because there are no accounts.
The one exception is advertising. SproutHub is free and stays free because of a small amount of advertising served by Google AdSense. Google may set cookies to measure ad performance and to personalise which ads you see.
Being straight with you: there is currently no consent banner on this site. The Google AdSense script loads on every page as it opens, before you've been asked anything. We're in the middle of switching on Google's own consent tool, which will ask before any advertising cookie is set. Until that's live, if you'd rather not be tracked by Google advertising, use the controls in the next section — they work today.
| What | Why | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Google AdSense cookies | Set by Google to serve and measure ads and limit how often you see the same one. Currently set on page load, without asking first. | Set by Google — see their policy below |
SproutHub itself sets no cookies and stores nothing in your browser. Everything in the table above belongs to Google, not to us.
Until the consent tool is live, these all work right now:
When Google's consent tool is switched on, this section will be replaced with a proper "manage your choices" control, and this page will be updated to describe it.
Three categories of third party are involved in this site. None of them receive anything you type into a tool.
Serves the adverts. Google acts as an independent data controller for what it collects. See How Google uses information from sites that use its services and Google's privacy policy. You can control ad personalisation across all Google services at My Ad Center.
Our typefaces (IBM Plex Mono and IBM Plex Sans) are loaded from Google's font CDN, which means your browser makes a request to Google and your IP address is visible to them as part of that request. Google states it does not use font requests to build advertising profiles. If you'd rather avoid this entirely, a browser extension that blocks third-party font loading will do it — the site remains fully usable, it just falls back to your system fonts.
Some links to third-party services — business banking, accounting software, company formation agents, insurance — are affiliate links. If you click one and go on to sign up, we may be paid a commission at no extra cost to you. Those links are always clearly labelled, and we only include services that are actually relevant to the tool you're using.
Clicking an affiliate link takes you to that company's own website, at which point their privacy policy applies, not ours. They will typically use a cookie or tracking parameter to record that you arrived from SproutHub. We never pass your calculator inputs to them — we couldn't, since we don't have them.
Affiliate commission never changes what a tool tells you. If the honest answer is "don't borrow this money" or "don't register for VAT yet", that's what the tool says.
Under UK GDPR you have the right to access your personal data, correct it, have it erased, restrict or object to its processing, and to data portability.
In our case these rights are mostly moot: because we hold no personal data about you, there is nothing to access, correct, or erase. If you believe we hold something about you, send us a note via the contact form on our homepage and we'll respond within one month.
For data held by Google as a result of advertising, you'll need to exercise those rights with Google directly, using the links in section 04.
If you're unhappy with how we've handled a privacy matter, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
SproutHub is aimed at people running or starting a business and isn't directed at children. We don't knowingly collect data from anyone — including children — because we don't collect data at all.
If we add anything that changes the picture — analytics, a newsletter, an account system — this page will be updated before that change goes live, and the "last updated" date at the top will change with it. Once the consent tool described in section 03 is live, material changes to how advertising works will reset your choice, so you'll be asked again rather than opted in silently.