Privacy

Ask questions. Civus’s Ask log keeps each question for 30 days with whether it was answered, then deletes it. The log doesn’t record a name, an account or an IP address, and a request that is turned away, for example for asking too often, is counted there without its text. A question also travels in the page address, so like a search it reaches the request logs below.

Updates sign-up. If you sign up for updates, your name, email address and your answer to the updates question go to Deftform, the form service Civus uses.

Request logs. Like any website, each request reaches Cloudflare, which hosts Civus. Its logs include the page address, your IP address and your browser’s user agent, and are kept for a short time to run and protect the site.

Analytics. Civus counts page views with Rybbit, a cookieless analytics tool it hosts itself. It records the page address, the site that sent you, and your browser, device type and approximate location. Its page-view script doesn’t load on search results, the Ask page, or any page whose address carries a query (the part after a question mark). On every page Civus also sends Rybbit page-speed timings that carry only a fixed page name, such as “search”, never the address, title or referrer, so search words and questions never reach it. It sets no cookies. It can group visits from the same browser under an anonymous visitor ID, which isn’t linked to your name, email or an account.

Donations. Stripe takes the payment on its own checkout page, and Civus never sees your card number. Civus keeps a record of each gift: the name and email address you gave Stripe, the amount, whether it repeats, and Stripe’s reference numbers for it.

Cookies and browser storage. Civus remembers your light or dark theme in your browser. After a monthly or yearly gift, a cookie on the donate pages lets this browser manage that gift for 24 hours. Civus sets no other cookies.

Accounts, when available. Signing in will store your email address, the name your sign-in provider shares, and which way you signed in (Google, GitHub or a code or link sent to your email). The bills, people and properties you follow are stored with your account.

Email alerts, when available. An alert sign-up stores your email address and what you follow. An address you follow is stored as its city parcel number (and the council district it sits in), never as the words you typed.

An address you type to find a property is used to look it up and is not saved in Civus’s records. Search words do appear in the address of a results page, so they reach the request logs above. Smart search also keeps the words of a search, with the result it worked out for them, in Cloudflare’s cache for up to 7 days so a repeated search is faster. An address written into an Ask question is kept with that question for 30 days.

Your searches are not kept as a history tied to your name or an account. Civus sells no data and shows no ads.

Civus sends only email you asked for: updates if you signed up for them, and, when available, a sign-in code, a confirmation, or an alert about something you chose to follow. Every alert has a one-click unsubscribe link. Civus doesn’t track whether you open an email or click its links.

Cloudflare hosts the site and its database and files, runs its AI features, checks forms with Turnstile, and will send its email.

Deftform receives the updates sign-up form.

Stripe handles donations on its own checkout page and sends their receipts.

Google and GitHub confirm who you are when you sign in with them, when accounts are available. Civus receives your email address and name, and nothing from your Google or GitHub data beyond that.

When accounts are available, you can delete your account yourself from your account page. Deleting it removes your sign-in details and what you follow.

Any alert email can stop all your alerts with one click.

For anything else, including the updates sign-up and donation records, email hello@civus.org and say what you want removed. Stripe keeps its own payment records.

Civus republishes public records: hearings, votes, decisions, permits and complaints. They can name people, as the official record does. If a record on Civus names you and you think it is wrong or shouldn’t be shown, email hello@civus.org with a link to the page.

When Civus changes what it collects, this page changes at the same time, and the date at the top moves.