Overview
Polity AI helps people understand public policy, including legislation, ballot measures, and government documents, through plain-English, AI-generated summaries. We built Polity AI around a simple commitment: understanding how policy affects you shouldn't require handing over your personal data. We collect the minimum information necessary to operate the service, and we do not sell, rent, or monetize the data we collect.
Information We Collect
Polity AI does not require an account to use the core service. Depending on how you use the site, we may collect:
- ZIP code or address. Entered voluntarily to show you relevant local legislation, ballot measures, districts, or representatives. If you're just looking something up, this is used only for the duration of your session and is not retained or linked to any other data we hold about you. If you turn on personalized alerts (see below), your ZIP code is stored and linked to your email so we can keep matching you with relevant bills and representatives.
- Followed representatives and policy interests. Features like the Personal Impact Engine and Discover let you follow specific representatives or select policy topics. We store those selections, linked to your email if you've provided one, so we can personalize your feed and send the alerts you've opted into. We do not use this information to infer your political affiliation, ideology, or voting behavior, and we do not share it with advertisers.
- Content you choose to share. Our share feature lets you add your own commentary to a bill, vote, or excerpt. When you create a share, we store what you wrote on our servers, together with the item you shared and the platform you picked, and we publish it at a link on our site that anyone holding the link can open. Please treat anything you write there as public. We also record when a share link is opened, so we can see how shared items travel; those records are not linked to the person clicking.
- Queries and interactions. If you ask Polity AI a question or request a summary, we process that input to generate a response. Query content may be temporarily logged for abuse prevention, debugging, and quality purposes, and is not used to build a profile of your political views.
- Aggregated usage data. Anonymized, aggregated analytics, such as which features are used and how often, help us improve the product. This data is not tied to an individual identity.
- Email address. If you create an account, join a waitlist, subscribe to updates, or turn on alerts for a followed representative or topic, we collect your email address to communicate with you about the service. You can unsubscribe at any time.
- Account information. If you create an account (e.g., to save summaries or track legislation), we collect the minimum information needed to operate that account, such as an email address and authentication credentials.
What We Do Not Do
- We do not sell your data to third parties, data brokers, or advertisers.
- We do not show targeted or behavioral advertising.
- We do not build a profile of your political affiliation, voting behavior, or ideology. The representatives and topics you choose to follow are used only to power the personalization and alerts you've opted into, not to infer your politics.
- We do not require an account to access core summaries and search features.
- We do not use your individual queries to train models that are shared outside Polity AI without your consent (see "AI Processing" below).
AI Processing
Polity AI uses artificial intelligence models, including third-party AI providers, to generate summaries and answer questions about policy documents. When you submit a query:
- Your input may be sent to a third-party AI model provider for processing. These providers are contractually bound to handle data securely and are not permitted to use your queries to train their own models unless you opt in separately.
- AI-generated output is based on patterns in training data and source documents, and may contain errors (see our Terms of Service for more on this).
- We do not knowingly use AI processing to infer or store sensitive personal characteristics (e.g., political affiliation, religion, health status) beyond what is incidentally present in a query you choose to submit.
Cookies and Tracking
We use minimal, privacy-respecting analytics to understand product usage. We do not use third-party advertising cookies or cross-site tracking technologies. Ad blockers and tracker blockers will not interfere with your experience on Polity AI.
Third-Party Services
Polity AI relies on a limited set of third-party service providers to operate, including hosting, infrastructure, and AI model providers. These providers are selected for strong data practices and are bound by their own privacy and security commitments. We share only the information strictly necessary for these providers to deliver their function, and we do not share personally identifiable information beyond that scope.
Data Retention
- ZIP codes and location data are not retained beyond your active session, unless you've opted into personalized alerts, in which case they're retained until you turn alerts off or request deletion.
- Followed representatives, policy interests, and alert preferences are retained until you remove them or request deletion.
- Query logs are retained for a limited period (typically no more than 90 days) for abuse prevention and quality assurance, then deleted or fully anonymized.
- Email addresses are retained until you unsubscribe or request deletion.
- Shares — the link, the item you shared, and any commentary you wrote — are retained indefinitely, so that links you have already sent to other people keep working. Deleting your account does not take them down: your commentary stays published, but we sever the connection between it and your account, so it is no longer attributed to you. If you want a share removed, email us before you delete your account — once the account is gone we can no longer tell which shares were yours.
- Aggregated, anonymized usage data may be retained indefinitely for product improvement, as it cannot be linked back to an individual.
You can delete your account yourself at any time from the Profile tab in the app. Doing so permanently removes your account and the personal data attached to it — saved location, interests and groups, the representatives and topics you follow, your alert rules, and your notifications — immediately and irreversibly. Shares are the one exception; see the note above. You may also request deletion of any personal data we hold about you by contacting us at the address below.
Your Rights
Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you, and to object to or restrict certain processing. This includes rights available under frameworks such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), where applicable.
To exercise these rights, email us at maekyla@polityai.co. We will respond within 30 days, or sooner where required by law. You can also delete your account and its associated data yourself, at any time, from the Profile tab in the app.
Children's Privacy
Polity AI is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, contact us and we will delete it.
Data Security
We use industry-standard technical and organizational measures to protect the information we collect. No system is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security of data transmitted to or stored by Polity AI.
International Users
If you access Polity AI from outside the United States, your information may be transferred to and processed in the United States or other countries where our service providers operate. By using Polity AI, you consent to this transfer.
Changes to This Policy
If we make material changes to this policy, we will update the date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, provide additional notice. We encourage you to review this page periodically. Continued use of Polity AI after a change constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.
Contact
Questions or concerns about this policy? Reach out at maekyla@polityai.co.