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Benefits Navigator

This tool provides estimates for educational purposes only. We are not accredited by the Department of Veterans Affairs and do not file claims, provide legal advice, or represent veterans before the VA (38 U.S.C. § 5904). For official assistance, contact a VSO, CVSO, or VA-accredited attorney.

Privacy and Data Handling

Based on VBN is a static, client-only web app. This page is a plain-English inventory of everything the site stores and everything it does not store. This page is a free community resource. We are not VA-accredited and do not file claims or provide legal advice (per 38 U.S.C. § 5904).

Last reviewed: April 2026 · Next review: October 2026

Maintained by: Veterans Benefits Navigator editorial team. Every citation links to a primary federal or state source. See editorial standards and our privacy posture.

Veterans Benefits Navigator is designed to be usable entirely anonymously. This page is the plain-English version of how that works and what controls you have.

What VBN does not do

  • Does not ask for a name, email, phone, or address.
  • Does not capture Social Security numbers, claim numbers, medical records, school enrollment or GPA, loan amounts, or property addresses.
  • Does not transmit any profile data to a server. The entire app runs in your browser.
  • Does not use third-party analytics, ad networks, heat-mapping, session recording, or trackers.
  • Does not file VA claims, submit forms on your behalf, or contact any VA system.
  • Does not sell, share, or broker data with anyone, ever.

What VBN stores (and where)

VBN uses your browser’s localStorage to save the inputs you give it. Nothing is transmitted off your device. The storage keys are:

KeyWhat it holdsSet by
vbn-profileSaved plan: service summary, conditions, dependents, and the sections of the profile you have engaged.Using “Save to Plan” on any tool.
vbn-wizard-draftIn-progress intake wizard state. Lets the wizard survive a refresh or tab close.Starting the intake wizard.

These keys live only in this browser. Opening VBN on a different device will not see them unless you use the QR or “transfer to another device” feature to explicitly encode the data into a URL you move yourself.

Share links and transfer URLs

When you use “Share” on a tool, VBN encodes the inputs into the URL itself (after #share= or #transfer=). The data lives in the URL, not on any server. Anyone who has the URL can see the encoded data and load it into their browser.

Two implications worth naming clearly:

  • A share link is not authenticated. Treat the URL the way you would treat a photo of the same data: share it only with people you trust. Verify the origin of any share link you receive before saving it to your plan.
  • Transfer links are size-capped.VBN rejects transfer payloads larger than 64 KB before decoding, and validates the shape of the decoded data before accepting it. Malformed or oversize links are silently ignored.

Offline behavior and cached files

VBN installs a service worker so the site keeps working on poor connections (useful for rural veterans and for VSO offices with patchy Wi-Fi). The service worker caches the static assets of the site: HTML, CSS, JavaScript bundles, and images. It does not cache your profile data or any inputs.

Clearing the cache, uninstalling the service worker, and removing localStorage are all offered by the button below.

What you do not have to trust us on

Because the entire app is client-side and the source is public, every claim on this page can be verified directly:

  • Open the browser developer tools, go to the Network tab, and watch for requests to any third-party domain. Aside from static asset loads from the same origin, there are none.
  • Search the repository for fetch( or XMLHttpRequest. The only runtime calls are to the same origin (the site itself).
  • Inspect the Application tab → Local Storage. The two keys listed above are all that is written.

Clear all VBN data from this browser

This button removes the two localStorage keys above, clears sessionStorage, unregisters the service worker, and wipes the service worker cache. It is the digital equivalent of closing the book and returning it to the shelf.

Accounts and cross-device sync

VBN does not currently offer accounts. If accounts are added in a future release they will be strictly opt-in, use email-only login (no social logins), store no Protected Health Information server-side, offer one-click account-plus-data deletion, and separate veteran-facing data from any commercial adjacency behind a hard firewall.

Non-accreditation

VBN is not accredited by the Department of Veterans Affairs and does not provide legal advice, file claims, or represent veterans before the VA (38 U.S.C. § 5904). For official claims assistance, contact a VSO, CVSO, or VA-accredited attorney. The VA.gov representative directory lists every accredited representative.

Corrections and questions

If you find an error on this page or anywhere else, please tell us via the project repository. Substantive corrections are acknowledged in the commit message for the affected page. For more on editorial standards, see the About page.