Last updated: June 2026
✓ We do not sell your personal information. Ever.
✓ We do not use your data for advertising or political targeting.
✓ All politician data we display comes from public government records.
1. About This App
Ranked Choice ("we," "our," or "the app") is a nonpartisan civic accountability tool that helps voters research elected officials and candidates. We aggregate publicly available government records — voting records, campaign finance filings, lobbying disclosures, financial disclosures, stock trades, and more — and present them in a readable format.
This privacy policy explains what information we collect from you as a user, how we use it, and your rights regarding that information. It does not apply to the information we display about politicians, which is public government data.
2. Information We Collect
If you create an account:
- Email address — used for login, password reset, and optional vote alerts.
- Name — optional display name you choose.
- Password — stored as a one-way encrypted hash (bcrypt). We cannot read your password.
- Watchlist — the politicians you choose to follow, stored to your account.
- Alert preferences — whether you want vote alerts and how often (daily/weekly).
- Saved searches — optional searches you save for quick access.
- Subscription status — if you subscribe to a paid plan, your Stripe customer ID and subscription status are stored. We do not store credit card numbers (Stripe handles all payment processing).
If you use the app without an account:
- No personal information is collected or stored.
- Browsing is anonymous.
Location information:
- If you use "My Ballot," "My Reps," or "Find my polling place," we request your location or address to identify your representatives and polling locations.
- Your address is sent to the Google Civic Information API to retrieve your election data. It is not stored on our servers.
- Location access is always optional — you can type your address manually or skip these features.
Usage data:
- We track which app features are used (e.g., how many times a page is visited) in aggregate to understand what tools are most useful.
- We do not track individual users' browsing history or build profiles of your political interests.
- API rate limiting tracks the number of requests per IP address per hour to prevent abuse. This data is not stored beyond the rate limit window.
Automatically collected:
- Standard server logs (IP address, browser type, pages visited, timestamps) retained for up to 30 days for security and debugging purposes.
3. Information We Do Not Collect
- Political party affiliation or voting history
- Race, ethnicity, religion, or other demographic characteristics
- Social Security numbers or government ID numbers
- Financial account information (credit card numbers, bank accounts)
- Contacts, photos, or other device content
- Biometric data
- Children's information — this app is not directed at users under 13
4. How We Use Your Information
| Purpose | Data used |
|---|
| Creating and managing your account | Email, password hash, name |
| Sending vote alerts you signed up for | Email, alert preferences, watchlist |
| Restoring your watchlist when you log in | Watchlist, saved searches |
| Locating your representatives and polling place | Address (passed to Google Civic API, not stored) |
| Processing payments for Pro subscriptions | Stripe customer ID (Stripe handles card data) |
| Preventing abuse and rate limiting | IP address (temporary) |
| Improving the app | Aggregate feature usage (not tied to individuals) |
We do not use your data for political advertising, voter targeting, persuasion campaigns, or any purpose beyond operating and improving this app.
5. How We Share Your Information
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to any third party.
We share limited data only with:
- Google Civic Information API — your address when you use location-based features. Governed by Google's Privacy Policy.
- Stripe — payment processing for Pro subscriptions. We never see your full card number. Governed by Stripe's Privacy Policy.
- Railway.app — our backend hosting provider. Data is stored on Railway's servers in the United States.
- MongoDB Atlas — database hosting provider. Data is encrypted at rest and in transit.
- Vercel — frontend hosting provider. Serves the web app.
We may also disclose information:
- If required by law, court order, or valid legal process
- To protect the rights, property, or safety of our users or the public
- In connection with a merger or acquisition (you would be notified)
6. Data Retention
- Account data — retained as long as your account is active. You can delete your account at any time, which permanently removes your email, watchlist, and preferences.
- Server logs — retained for 30 days, then automatically deleted.
- Vote alert history — retained while your account is active.
- Payment records — Stripe retains billing history per their legal obligations. We retain subscription status.
7. Your Rights and Choices
- Access — you can view your account information and watchlist at any time.
- Correction — you can update your email and name in account settings.
- Deletion — you can delete your account. This permanently removes your email, password, watchlist, and preferences from our systems.
- Alerts — you can unsubscribe from all email alerts at any time via account settings or the unsubscribe link in any alert email.
- Location — location access is always optional. You can deny it and type your address manually.
- No account — you can use most app features without an account. No personal data is collected.
California residents (CCPA): You have the right to know what personal information we collect, to delete it, and to opt out of its sale. We do not sell personal information. To exercise your rights, contact us at the address below.
EU/UK residents (GDPR): You have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict processing of, and port your personal data. Our legal basis for processing is contract performance (account management), legitimate interests (security/abuse prevention), and consent (marketing emails). To exercise your rights, contact us below.
8. Security
We take reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your information:
- All data transmission is encrypted via HTTPS/TLS
- Passwords are hashed using bcrypt (never stored in plain text)
- Database access is restricted and credentials are not shared
- Payment data is handled entirely by Stripe and never touches our servers
No system is 100% secure. If you discover a security vulnerability, please contact us immediately at the address below rather than disclosing it publicly.
9. Children's Privacy
This app is not directed at children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.
10. Third-Party Links
The app contains links to external websites including congress.gov, opensecrets.org, govtrack.us, fec.gov, and others. These sites have their own privacy policies and we are not responsible for their practices. Links to external sources are provided for verification purposes — we encourage you to review each site's privacy policy.
11. Changes to This Policy
We may update this privacy policy as the app evolves. Material changes will be announced in the app and by email to registered users at least 14 days before taking effect. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page reflects the most recent version. Continued use of the app after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.
12. Contact Us