Privacy policy
What we collect, why, and how to see, change or delete it.
Last updated: October 16, 2026
Ratehunter compares deposit and mortgage rates from Canadian banks, credit unions and trust companies. You can use every rate page on this site without giving us your name or email address. Apart from the visit information our analytics tools collect (section 2), the only time we collect personal information is when you sign up for rate alerts — and then we collect as little as we can, use it only to send the alerts you asked for, and never sell it.
This policy explains what we collect, why, where it's kept, who helps us handle it, how long we keep it, and how to see, change or delete it. It's written to meet Canada's federal privacy law (PIPEDA), British Columbia's Personal Information Protection Act, Quebec's Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector (Law 25), and Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL).
1. Who we are
Ratehunter
8621 201 St #400, Langley Twp, BC V2Y 0G9, Canada
ratehunter.ca
Person responsible for privacy: Jeremy Whittingstall, Site Admin, reachable at privacy@ratehunter.ca or by mail at the address above. This person is accountable for how Ratehunter handles personal information and answers every privacy question and request.
2. Browsing the site: no account needed
You don't need an account to use Ratehunter, and you never have to give us your name. To understand how people use the site, though, we do use analytics tools that collect information about your visit.
- Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager. We use Google Analytics to count visits and see which pages and rate tables people find useful. Google Tag Manager is the tool that loads it. Google Analytics uses cookies and collects things like the pages you view, how you arrived (for example from a search engine), your device and browser type, your general location (city or region, worked out from your IP address) and how long you stay. Google processes this for us and may store it in the United States. We don't send Google your email, postal code or alert settings, we don't use Google's advertising features, and we don't use analytics to identify you. You can opt out on any site with Google's opt-out browser add-on.
- Ahrefs Web Analytics. We also use Ahrefs to measure traffic and how our pages perform in search. Ahrefs collects similar visit information (pages viewed, referring site, device, browser and approximate country). Ahrefs Web Analytics doesn't use cookies or store information that identifies you, and it can't recognise you from one day to the next or across other websites.
- Your choice. Analytics cookies load only after you agree to them in the banner shown on your first visit, and you can change your choice at any time from the "Cookie settings" link at the bottom of every page. Turning them off deletes the Google Analytics cookies already set and doesn't affect anything else on the site.
- What we don't do. No advertising pixels, no session recordings, no selling or sharing of browsing data for advertising, and no tracking across other websites.
- Two preferences stay on your own device. If you pick a light/dark theme or choose your province, your browser remembers that choice in its local storage so the next page shows it. It never leaves your browser and we can't see it. Clearing your browser's site data removes it.
- Server logs. Like every website, the servers that deliver our pages briefly see technical information your browser sends — your IP address, browser type and the page requested. Our hosting provider keeps standard logs for security and troubleshooting. We don't use them to identify you.
- Links to institutions. When you click through to a bank or credit union, you leave Ratehunter and their privacy policy applies. We don't pass them any information about you.
- Sponsored placements are labelled (see our advertiser disclosure). Advertisers receive no personal information about our readers.
3. What we collect when you sign up for rate alerts
| What | Why we need it |
|---|---|
| Your email address | To send your confirmation email and your alerts. |
| The first three characters of your postal code (e.g. "V6E"), and the province we work out from them | So we only show rates you can actually get where you live. You type your full postal code, but we keep only the first three characters — the rest is discarded when you submit. |
| Your hunt criteria — the products, terms and account types you choose, and, only if you enter them, an amount and a maturity or renewal date | To find the rates that match each hunt, and to remind you ahead of a maturity or renewal. |
| Your consent record — the exact consent wording you saw, the page you signed up on, and when you subscribed, confirmed, changed your hunts or unsubscribed | Canadian anti-spam law requires us to be able to prove you asked for our emails. |
| A record of emails we've sent you — which email, when, and the delivery provider's message reference | To avoid sending duplicates and to troubleshoot delivery. |
We don't ask for your name, phone number, birth date, income, bank accounts or anything else. Optional fields are optional — leave the amount or date blank and your hunts still work.
When you submit the form, your IP address is checked briefly to stop someone from flooding the form with sign-ups. It's held in memory only and isn't saved with your subscription.
4. How we use it — and how we don't
We use your information only to:
- confirm that the email address is really yours (we send a confirmation link, and nothing else goes out until you click it);
- send the rate alerts and maturity or renewal reminders you set up;
- confirm changes you make to your hunts (changes also need an email click, so no one else can alter your alerts); and
- keep the records the law requires.
We don't:
- sell, rent or trade your information — to anyone, ever;
- share it with banks, credit unions, advertisers or lenders;
- track whether you open our emails;
- use it for advertising, profiling or automated decisions about you; or
- feed it into AI tools.
If we ever want to use your information for a new purpose, we'll ask you first.
5. Your consent, and withdrawing it
You give consent by submitting the sign-up form and clicking the link in the confirmation email. You can withdraw it at any time:
- One-click unsubscribe in every email takes effect immediately.
- Or email us at privacy@ratehunter.ca and we'll do it for you.
After you unsubscribe, we send you nothing further.
6. Who helps us handle your information
We use a small number of service providers, under contract, to run the service. They may use your information only to provide their service to us.
| Type of provider | What they do | Where the data is |
|---|---|---|
| Database host | Stores subscriber records | United States |
| Website and application host | Runs our website and the service that handles sign-ups and alerts | United States |
| Email delivery provider | Sends our confirmation emails and alerts | United States |
| Google (Analytics, Tag Manager) | Website analytics: visit data only, never your sign-up details | United States and other countries |
| Ahrefs | Website analytics: visit data only, no cookies | Outside Canada |
Your information is stored outside Canada. Because these providers keep data in the United States, it is subject to U.S. law and may be accessed by U.S. courts, law enforcement or national-security authorities under that law. We choose providers that protect data with encryption and access controls.
We may also disclose information if the law requires it (for example, a valid court order), or as part of a sale or merger of Ratehunter — in which case the buyer would have to honour this policy.
7. How long we keep it
- While you're subscribed: we keep your information as long as your alerts are active.
- If you never confirm: a sign-up that isn't confirmed within 30 days is deleted completely.
- When you unsubscribe: 30 days later, we delete your hunt criteria, postal-code and province information. We keep your email address, your consent record and the record of emails we sent you for three years — only to prove what you agreed to and to make sure we never email you again by mistake. After three years, those are deleted too.
- If you ask us to delete your information: we stop all emails and delete your hunts, location details and email history right away. We keep only your email address and consent record, as a note not to contact you, until the three-year limit removes them.
These deletions run automatically every day.
8. How we protect it
Subscriber data is held in a database that is not reachable from the public website; only Ratehunter's own sign-up service can read or write it. Connections are encrypted. Access is limited to the few people at Ratehunter who need it to run the service. If a breach ever created a real risk of significant harm to you, we'd notify you and the privacy commissioners as the law requires.
9. Your rights
You can ask us to:
- see the personal information we hold about you;
- correct it if it's wrong (you can also change your hunts yourself from any alert email);
- delete it; or
- explain how it's been used and who it's been shared with.
Email privacy@ratehunter.ca from the address you subscribed with. We'll respond within 30 days, free of charge. If we can't verify that a request comes from the owner of the address, we may ask you to confirm by email.
If you're not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to:
- the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada — priv.gc.ca
- the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia — oipc.bc.ca
- in Quebec, the Commission d'accès à l'information — cai.gouv.qc.ca
10. Children
Ratehunter is for adults comparing financial products. It isn't directed at anyone under 18, and we don't knowingly collect information from minors. If you believe a minor has signed up, tell us and we'll delete it.
11. Changes to this policy
When we change this policy we'll update the date at the top. If a change affects how we use information you've already given us, we'll email subscribers before it takes effect.
12. Contact
Questions, requests or complaints: privacy@ratehunter.ca, or write to the Person responsible for privacy, Ratehunter, 8621 201 St #400, Langley Twp, BC V2Y 0G9.
See also our terms of service, methodology and advertiser disclosure.