Privacy Policy

POLISCOPE turns government records into civic information. You can browse and complete setup without an account. We do not sell personal information, run behavioral advertising, or use your private reading activity to train shared AI models. Account sync is optional, and a signed-in user can permanently delete an account in the product.

Information you provide

• Account details such as email address, display name, password hash, and optional profile settings.
• Optional civic setup choices, including resolved jurisdiction, topics, political perspective, follows, saved items, ballot choices, alerts, notes, and reading preferences.
• Location lookup input, such as a ZIP code, address, or device location, when you ask us to resolve districts or a ballot. Typed address queries are sent to geocoding providers to return matches; when Google-powered address autocomplete is active, your queries and your selected suggestion are processed by Google as described in the Google Privacy Policy. Anonymous onboarding keeps the resulting public jurisdiction on the device and clears the typed lookup. A signed-in ballot flow permanently stores only the coarse result — ZIP code, county, and state — on your account; the exact street address and coordinates are never stored, and the typed input is discarded once your districts are resolved. You can change or delete the saved location at any time in your settings.
• Content and communications you submit, including community activity, corrections, support requests, and professional workspace material.
• Subscription and donation records. Stripe processes payment card details; POLISCOPE receives provider identifiers, status, amount, and billing history rather than full card numbers.

Information generated through use

• Device or anonymous identifiers, app version, platform, push token, network and security logs, approximate location derived from network information, and error diagnostics.
• Requests, viewed or read records, search and Ask activity, feature interactions, and delivery history when needed to operate, secure, or personalize a feature you chose.
• Authentication-provider identifiers and profile fields returned by Google, Apple, Meta, or X when you choose that sign-in method. POLISCOPE does not retain Apple access tokens; an encrypted Apple refresh credential may be held only so deletion can revoke Apple authorization.

Government records and other sourced public-interest material are part of POLISCOPE's public corpus. This policy distinguishes that source material from private account and device data.

• Provide the feed, ballot, search, Ask, alerts, saved work, account sync, and professional tools you request.
• Resolve jurisdiction, rank relevant records, preserve user choices, and maintain continuity across devices.
• Authenticate users, prevent abuse, investigate failures, protect public data integrity, and enforce access boundaries.
• Process subscriptions or donations, send requested service communications, and answer support or rights requests.
• Measure reliability and aggregate product use. Personalization and behavior tracking controls are available in Settings where implemented and default to the product's disclosed state.

We disclose information only to operate the service, follow your direction, protect the service, or comply with law. Processors may include cloud hosting and database providers, Stripe for payments, Resend for service email, Sentry for diagnostics, push-delivery providers, social sign-in providers you select, address search and geocoding providers (Google Places when Google-powered autocomplete is active, Photon, OpenStreetMap Nominatim, and the U.S. Census Bureau geocoder), and AI providers used for a requested analysis. They receive only the information needed for that task under their applicable contracts and terms.

Public contributions are public by design and are labeled with the identity or organization you choose to publish. Private reading, ballot, note, support, and workspace state is not made public merely because the underlying government record is public.

We may disclose information when reasonably necessary to comply with law, respond to valid legal process, prevent harm or fraud, or complete a business transfer subject to this policy. We do not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

We retain account and feature data for as long as the account or requested feature needs it, and operational records for as long as needed for security, delivery, dispute, audit, or legal obligations. Retention differs by record because a login credential, a security event, a payment receipt, and a published government source serve different purposes.

A signed-in user can choose Settings → Data Rights → Delete account. Deletion starts immediately, cancels connected paid service where applicable, revokes Sign in with Apple authorization when a revocation credential exists, removes credentials and personal consumer state, invalidates issued sessions, and clears native account data. Limited billing, security, or professional audit facts may remain only with a non-identifying account tombstone when deletion would break a required record or another member's work.

• Use core public browsing and setup without creating an account.
• Change local scope, interests, appearance, notification, personalization, and privacy controls in Settings.
• Disconnect optional social accounts and revoke push permission through POLISCOPE or device settings.
• Delete a signed-in account in product. You may also send an access, correction, portability, objection, or deletion question through Support. Applicable law determines the scope of each request.

POLISCOPE uses access controls, hashed passwords and tokens, encryption for retained provider credentials, transport security, and account-aware data boundaries. No system is perfectly secure; report a suspected security or privacy problem through Support.

POLISCOPE is not directed to children under 13 and does not knowingly collect their personal information. If you believe a child provided personal information, contact us for removal.

The service is operated from the United States. If you use it elsewhere, information may be processed in the United States and other locations used by our processors, subject to applicable safeguards.

We will update the date above when this policy changes. Material changes may also be announced in the product when appropriate. Questions and privacy requests can be submitted at poliscope.vote/support.