Privacy Policy

1. What we collect

When you create an account we collect:

• Name and email — to identify your account and contact you
• Password — stored hashed, never readable in plaintext
• Phone number — for account recovery
• Street address, town, state, and (optional) district — used only to match you with your elected officials
• Optional bio — shown on your public profile

As you use Heard we also store the content you create (posts, comments, follows, opt-in bill alerts) and basic account-activity metadata.

2. What we do with it

• Match you to your representatives — your address is used to look up your federal, state, and local officials. It is not shown to other users.
• Operate the platform — display your public profile, posts, and votes; send password resets and verification email; deliver alerts you opt into.
• Improve the platform — anonymous aggregate stats only (e.g. how many users in a district), never tied back to your identity in any publicly-visible way.

3. What we don't do

• We do not sell your data — not now, not ever.
• We do not share your address with other users or with elected officials.
• We do not share your data with advertisers, data brokers, or political campaigns.
• We do not run third-party advertising trackers on the site.

4. What's public

Heard is a public-discourse platform. These are visible to other users:

• Your display name and (optional) bio
• Posts, comments, and reactions you create
• Bills you follow and reps you follow
• For elected officials: voting record, posts, and office info

Your email, phone, password, and street address are not shown publicly.

5. Minors

Heard is not intended for users under 13. We require an age confirmation at signup and do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. If you believe a child has registered, email us and we'll delete the account.

6. Your rights

You can, at any time:

• View and edit your profile in settings
• Delete individual posts or comments
• Delete your entire account, which removes your personal data and content
• Email us to request a copy of the data we hold about you

State laws like the CCPA give California residents additional rights (to know, to delete, to opt out of sale — though we don't sell). Email us to exercise them.

7. Retention

We keep your account data until you delete your account. Public posts may persist in others' conversation threads in anonymized form. We retain minimal audit logs (login times, consent acceptance) as required for security and to handle disputes.

8. Cookies

We set a single first-party authentication cookie when you sign in. We do not use third-party tracking cookies or advertising pixels.

9. Changes

If we change this policy in a meaningful way, we'll bump the version and ask you to re-confirm on your next sign-in.

10. Contact

Privacy questions or requests: privacy@heard.one.