Privacy

What we collect

• Email list. If you join the free email list, we keep your email address, the page you signed up from, and the date. We pass your address, that page, and your browser’s IP address to our newsletter provider, Buttondown, which sends the briefing. The IP address is sent only so Buttondown can block spam and fake signups.
• Vote alerts. If you tick “also email me a short summary after each new scored vote”, we note that with your signup in our own database. Buttondown isn’t told. We send those short emails ourselves through Cloudflare, only to people who ticked the box and are still subscribed to the briefing. Every vote alert has a one-click “turn off vote alerts” link that works right away and keeps your weekly briefing. We keep a record of each alert we send (the address, the vote, and the date).
• How you found us. When you sign up, we record the page you signed up from and, if the link you followed had one, its campaign tags (for example utm_source=x and utm_campaign=founding). We store these with your signup in our database and use them only to see which posts and channels bring readers. We don’t record the full address of the site that sent you.
• Signup tags. We may tag your list record with how you joined, such as “press access” or the page you signed up from. Some of these can hint at what interests you. They stay inside Incumbent and our email provider, and we never share them with campaigns, PACs, or other license holders.
• Email opens and clicks. Our briefing emails record whether an email was opened and which links were clicked, so we can see what’s useful. Most email apps let you block this by turning off remote images.
• Your members in the briefing. Paying members can turn on “your members first” on the account page. If you do, we keep the ZIP code or House district you give and use it to name your representative and senators at the top of your briefing email. For each briefing we send Buttondown that short block of text (which can include your ZIP code) and a “supporter” tag on your subscriber record, which shows Buttondown that you are a paying member. Turning the setting off stops the block, and it is cleared from Buttondown at the next briefing sync; to have the saved ZIP code and district deleted, write to us.
• Paid plans. When you buy a plan we keep your name, email, organization (for Campaign and PAC licenses), plan, and billing status, and a hashed password so you can open the membership on another device. For Newsroom, Campaign, and PAC licenses we also keep the email addresses the buyer invites, a hashed password for each invited person, and a record of each person’s acceptance of the license agreement (date, version, and the exact text shown). Card details are entered on Stripe; we never see or store card numbers.
• Downloads on paid plans. When someone on a paid plan downloads an export (the roll-call or roster file, a PAC scorecard CSV) or the briefing pack, we record the account, the email of the person who downloaded it, what was downloaded, and when. We use this record only to apply the refund terms, which depend on whether anything was downloaded, and to support your account.
• Press access. If you request free press access, we keep your name, outlet, work email, its domain, and a one-way hash of your IP address (not the address itself) to verify the request and prevent abuse. The verification email is sent through Cloudflare. A short daily list of new requests and activations (name, outlet, and work email only) is shared inside our team so we can support reporters using the ledger. After your free access ends, we may email you once about paid Newsroom plans, and we won’t email you about plans again if you tell us not to.
• Account and billing emails. We send one-to-one emails, such as press verification and the reminder before a yearly plan renews, through Cloudflare’s email service.
• Sustainer names. Sustainers can choose to have a name they type listed on the About page. It is off unless they turn it on, only that name is made public (never an email, plan amount, or billing detail), and removing it on the account page takes it off the site right away. It also comes off when the Sustainer membership ends. We may decline or remove a name that is offensive, impersonates someone, or is not the Sustainer’s own name or nickname.
• Embedded vote cards. When a licensed vote card is shown on another website, we check the address of that page, as the browser sends it, to confirm the card is licensed there. Embedded cards set no cookies and we do not keep a log of the people who view them. Our hosting provider keeps short-lived technical logs (which can include IP addresses) for security and reliability.
• Messages. If you email us or use the contact form, we keep the message so we can answer it.
• Site usage. We measure page views in aggregate with Vercel Web Analytics and Cloudflare Web Analytics, neither of which uses cookies or tracks you across sites. They record the page visited (Vercel also records any campaign tags in the link), the general referring site, your browser and device type and country, and how fast the page loaded, and they don’t identify you. The Cloudflare script loads from Cloudflare, so your browser sends its IP address to Cloudflare when a page loads. Your browser stores your compare list locally, and signing in sets a secure, signed session cookie so the site knows your plan. Our pages load typefaces from Google Fonts, so your browser sends its IP address to Google when a page loads.

How we use it

To send the newsletter or briefing you asked for, provide the plan you bought, send account and billing notices, answer your messages, keep the site secure, and understand which pages are read. We use campaign tags and signup tags only to count which channels bring readers. We don’t use them to build profiles or to target anyone, and we don’t combine them with other tracking data. We do not sell or rent personal information about our readers, members, or subscribers, and no campaign, party, or PAC can buy access to it. Campaign and PAC licenses cover data about members of Congress and their public votes, not data about you.

Who processes it for us

• Stripe — payments, billing, and the Manage billing page.
• Vercel — hosting and aggregate, cookie-free analytics.
• Neon — our database.
• Buttondown — the email list and the briefing email.
• Cloudflare — domain name service, cookie-free site analytics, receiving mail sent to our addresses, and sending one-to-one emails such as press verification, renewal reminders, and vote alerts.
• Google Workspace — email we send and receive from our team addresses, such as press@incumbent.vote.
• Google Fonts — the typefaces our pages load.

Each one handles information only to provide its service to us.

How long we keep it

• Email list: until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete it. Buttondown keeps its own record of the unsubscribe so you are not emailed again.
• Accounts and billing: while you have an account, and up to 7 years after it ends for tax and legal records. License acceptances and the download record are kept for the same period.
• Your-members ZIP code and district: until you ask us to delete them or your account ends.
• Press-access requests: up to 12 months.
• Campaign and signup tags: as long as your list record.
• Daily press-access lists shared inside our team: deleted after 12 months, with the press-access request.
• Messages: up to 2 years.
• Sign-in links and password-reset tokens expire within days; checkout and rate-limit records are deleted automatically within a day of expiring.

Your choices

Every newsletter email includes an unsubscribe link. You can turn off “your members first” and remove a Sustainer name on the account page. Wherever you live, you can ask to see, correct, or delete the information we hold about you, or cancel a plan, by writing to hello@incumbent.vote.

Do Not Track. The site doesn’t change how it works in response to browser Do Not Track signals. We don’t use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies, and we don’t let third parties track you across sites from our pages.

Children

The site is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their information.

Contact

Incumbent, LLC, 726 Ohio Ave, Ste A #3005, Lynn Haven, FL 32444 · hello@incumbent.vote

Legal notices: legal@incumbent.vote

Changes

If this policy changes, the date at the top of this page changes with it.