Privacy policy

Scope

This notice explains how Policy Helper handles information when you browse, describe your interests, save interests, request analysis, or subscribe to updates. Features that depend on a configured provider may not be available in every instance of the service.

Information you provide

• Interests and drafts: the last description you apply is kept in this browser’s local storage until you choose Forget interests, sign out of the account that applied it, or clear site data. Draft edits, matching results, and your place in the results are kept in browser session storage or temporary tab memory for the tab session; restored browser sessions may retain them.
• Matching requests: finding relevant bills sends your description to the application server. When semantic matching is available, the description is also sent to Google Gemini to compute a search embedding. Keyword fallback processes the description on the application server.
• Account saving: when you explicitly save, the server stores the description, label, account identifier, revision, and creation/update times. Applying an edit without saving does not create a saved account record.
• Sign-in: Google sign-in through Firebase provides an account identifier and available profile information such as name, email address, and profile image. Authentication providers use their own storage and policies. The application does not receive your Google password.
• Followed bills: anonymous follows store bill identifiers and follow times in this browser’s local storage until removed or site data is cleared. If storage is unavailable, they remain only in page memory. Viewing Following sends the selected identifiers to the application server to retrieve those public bills. While signed in, explicit follow actions save the identifiers, timestamps, and your account identifier on the server. Browser follows are imported only when you choose that action; following does not subscribe you to email.
• Email updates: an explicit subscription stores your verified email address, account and interest identifiers, consent and subscription state, and delivery records. Resend processes the recipient address and message content to deliver configured updates.
• Additional analysis and contributions: requested personalized scoring can store the supplied profile and analysis inputs and send them to the configured AI service. Research notes submitted to public bill pages are public content. Do not put confidential information in them.

Browser storage and analytics

Recently viewed bill records and your last 8 bill searches are stored in your browser’s local storage and can be cleared on the Recently viewed page. Authentication and analytics may also use cookies or local storage.

When analytics is enabled, PostHog receives page visits and interaction information and may record heatmaps and session replay. Signed-in activity can be associated with your Firebase account identifier. The application does not send your account email address to PostHog as an identity property. Form inputs are masked and designated private interests/following/results areas are excluded from capture; other page content and interactions may be recorded. Ordinary search text in a page URL may be included in analytics.

Browser controls can clear site storage or restrict tracking. Clearing storage may remove local interests, drafts, followed bills, viewing and search history, and sign-in state. The application does not currently provide a separate analytics-preferences control.

How information is used and shared

Information supports requested searches, saved interests, authentication, analysis, optional email delivery, service operation, and usage analysis. Service providers include Google/Firebase for authentication, Google Gemini for configured search embeddings, PostHog for configured analytics, Resend for configured email, and the hosting and configured AI services used to operate the application. The provider for additional AI analysis depends on the service configuration and is not necessarily OpenAI.

Requests to the service and its infrastructure also involve technical information such as network addresses, browser information, and operational logs. Public bill pages contain information from legislative and campaign-finance records. Opening an external source follows that site’s own privacy practices.

Storage and retention

The anonymous matching cache stores a hash of the query and its embedding, not the raw description, for a ten-minute reuse window; entries are bounded and removed on later cache writes or process restart. This is separate from the temporary request sent to the server and any provider’s processing or retention.

Saved interests and account follows remain on the server until deleted. Use Following in Bills to remove individual follows or clear the collection. Optional personalized scoring has a separate stored analysis history that can include the submitted profile; deleting a saved interest does not automatically erase that history. Subscription, consent, unsubscribe, suppression, and delivery records may remain after email is stopped. The application does not currently enforce a single automatic deletion schedule for all these records. Service-provider and infrastructure retention are separate.

Your choices and requests

Use Your interests to edit or delete saved descriptions and manage available email updates. Unsubscribing stops future eligible deliveries; it does not itself delete your account or all historical records. A message already in delivery may still arrive.

Sign out and clear browser site data to remove local state. A public channel for access, correction, or deletion requests beyond the available controls has not yet been confirmed. Identity verification may be needed to protect your information, and legal requirements may limit what can be deleted. Do not assume that deleting browser data removes server or provider records.

Reports and sensitive information

Report a problem shows the exact report for your review before submission. If you choose to submit, the service stores the report and returns a receipt only after storage succeeds. It does not promise human review or a reply. You may instead copy it without submitting. The default report excludes your interest description, account information, search text, and browsing history. Details you type into the report are included if you submit; reports do not have a fixed automatic deletion schedule.

The service is intended for general policy research, not collecting sensitive personal information or information from children. Do not submit passwords, identity numbers, confidential client records, or personal details about children. No transmission or storage method can be guaranteed completely secure.

Updates

This notice will be updated when practices change, with a revised date above. The Terms of Service explain the conditions for using the service.

Contact

A public contact address has not yet been confirmed. The service currently has no contact channel for privacy requests beyond the controls described above.