Privacy Policy — NetWage
About this app
NetWage estimates take-home pay and tax across nine countries (United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Canada, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore). It includes a per-country payslip calculator, a side-by-side cross-country comparison, pay-rise / bonus / hourly tools, a plain-English guide and glossary, and an optional AI explainer. Everything except the AI calls and ads runs entirely on your device. There is no account and no sign-in.
What we collect
| Data | Collected? | Stored where |
|---|---|---|
| Salary amount, pay period, country and option selections | You enter them locally to drive the calculator | App memory only — never sent to our servers |
| Free-text questions you type into the AI explainer | Sent to the AI provider (after PII auto-redaction — see below) | Not stored on our servers |
| National insurance / social-security numbers, card numbers, phone, email | Never — the app auto-redacts these patterns from any AI prompt before it leaves your device | — |
| Crash logs / analytics SDK | No | — |
| Name, email, account creation | No — the app has no accounts or sign-in | — |
| Location / GPS | No — the app never requests location | — |
AI explainer (Pollinations) & PII protection
The optional “Ask about your pay” tool sends your typed question over HTTPS to Pollinations, our text-generation provider. Before sending, the app automatically scrubs:
- US Social Security number patterns (e.g.
123-45-6789) - UK National Insurance number patterns
- Credit-card-length digit sequences
- Email addresses and phone numbers
We do not attach your name, device ID, advertising ID, or any account identifier to the AI request. We have no servers; we do not keep a copy of the prompt or the response. AI responses are streamed back to your device and displayed in-app only.
System prompt: the AI is instructed to (a) explain in plain English with examples in the relevant country’s currency, (b) always note the answer is a general estimate and the user should confirm with the official tax authority, (c) never invent exact personal figures, and (d) refuse to help with tax evasion, hiding income, or misleading any tax authority.
How the estimates work
NetWage runs small tax formulas entirely on your device. For each country it applies the latest published resident income-tax schedule plus the main employee social contributions (for example FICA in the US, National Insurance in the UK, the Medicare levy in Australia, pension/health/care contributions in Germany, CPP/EI in Canada, USC/PRSI in Ireland, ACC in New Zealand and CPF in Singapore). These are deliberately simplified: they ignore many individual reliefs, regional variations, salary sacrifice, personal tax credits, employer-side costs and in-year rate changes. The cross-country comparison uses approximate, fixed reference exchange rates for illustration only — it is not a live currency conversion. Output is shown as a rounded estimate, not an official figure.
Permissions the app requests
- Internet / network state — required for the optional AI explainer and for ad serving.
The app does not request location, contacts, microphone, camera, notifications, SMS, or storage.
Advertising
NetWage shows ads provided by Google AdMob. Google’s advertising SDK collects and processes limited data — for example, your device’s advertising identifier and approximate IP-based location — to serve and measure ads. This is governed by Google’s policies:
If you live in a region where consent is required (the EEA, UK, Switzerland, or a US state with applicable privacy law), the app uses Google’s User Messaging Platform (UMP) to gather consent, and sets npa=1 (non-personalized ads) by default so it stays compliant with GDPR / UK GDPR / CCPA. You can re-open the privacy-options form any time from the Guide tab.
Children
This app is not directed at children under 13 and is not classified as a “family” app on Google Play.
Disclaimer (repeated, because it matters)
NetWage provides educational estimates only. Nothing in the app is official tax advice, financial advice, or a guarantee of any take-home amount. The developer is not a tax authority, accountant, or licensed adviser. Tax rules change and differ by individual circumstances and region. Always consult the relevant official tax authority or a qualified adviser before relying on any number — especially for big decisions like moving country or negotiating pay.
Contact
If you have questions about this policy, contact the developer through the Google Play listing.