Privacy Policy

Information We Collect

No account, ever. GovLense does not ask you to create an account, sign in, or provide a name, email address, or phone number to use the app or browse this website. We do not run our own analytics, and we do not set advertising cookies.

Preferences stored on your device

The bills, members, and committees you follow, the topics you choose, and the state or ZIP you set for the "find my representatives" feature are saved locally on your device. They are never transmitted to or stored on our servers, and they are deleted when you delete the app or clear its storage.

Connection data when the app talks to our API

GovLense displays live data — bills, votes, members, committees, amendments — from our own API service. Like any internet request, fetching that data sends routine technical information to our servers, including your IP address, the date and time, and which item you requested. We use this only to deliver responses and keep the service reliable and secure. It is held briefly in standard server logs, is not used to build a profile of you, is not linked to your identity, and is never sold or shared for advertising.

The "Find My Representatives" Feature

GovLense can show you the senators and House member for your area. This feature is optional and only runs when you use it. You can choose either method:

• Type an address or ZIP code. We send what you type to our API to look up the matching congressional district.
• Use your device location. If you grant the permission, the app reads your GPS coordinates and sends them to our API to find your district. You can decline this and type a ZIP instead.

To turn an address or coordinates into a district, our API forwards them to mapping and geocoding providers — the U.S. Census Bureau Geocoder and Photon (operated by komoot) for address suggestions. The result is cached for a short time to keep the feature fast. We do not store your address or coordinates in a database, we do not keep a history of your lookups, and we do not link them to your identity. Your chosen state or ZIP is saved only on your device so you don't have to enter it again.

Information We Do Not Collect

To remove any ambiguity, GovLense does not collect, store, or have access to:

• Your name, email address, phone number, or other contact details
• Account credentials — there are no accounts
• Your contacts, calendars, photos, microphone, or camera
• Advertising identifiers (IDFA, AAID) or device fingerprints
• A stored history or profile of the bills and members you view
• Your location, except the single, optional district lookup described in Section 02 — we never track your location in the background
• Payment information — the app is free

We do not use third-party analytics or advertising SDKs, and we never sell, rent, or trade personal information. The limited technical and location data described above is used only to operate the app, never to profile you.

Third-Party Services We Use

We keep our list of service providers short, and we share only what each one needs to do its job. None of them receive a name, email, or account — because we don't have those.

• Fly.io — hosts our API. It processes connection data (such as IP addresses) to route requests, as described in Section 01.
• Neon — hosts our database, which contains only public congressional data, not personal information.
• U.S. Census Bureau Geocoder and Photon / komoot — turn an address or coordinates into a congressional district for the optional feature in Section 02.
• Apple App Store and Google Play — distribute the app and may collect standard install, crash, and device telemetry under their own terms; we do not receive identifying data from it. See the Apple and Google privacy policies.
• Google Fonts (this website only) — serves typefaces from fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com; your browser's request may let Google log routine connection data such as your IP and user-agent.

The underlying legislative data comes from authoritative public sources — Congress.gov, the unitedstates/congress project, congress-legislators, and Voteview — which we ingest into our database. Your device does not contact those sources directly, and no information about you is sent to them.

Children's Privacy (COPPA)

GovLense is a general-audience civic information app and is not directed to children under the age of 13. Consistent with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. Because the app has no accounts and no analytics, we have no means of identifying or profiling any user, including a child. If you are a parent or guardian and have questions, please contact us using the details in Section 10.

California Privacy Rights (CCPA / CPRA)

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act and California Privacy Rights Act give you certain rights regarding your personal information. Because we collect so little, the practical impact is limited, but for completeness:

• Categories collected in the past 12 months: internet/network activity (IP address and request logs) and, only if you use the representatives feature, geolocation data — both as described in Sections 01 and 02.
• Categories sold or shared: none. We have never sold or "shared" (as the CCPA defines it for cross-context advertising) personal information, and we never will.
• Sources: directly from your device when it connects to our API.
• Business purpose: to deliver, secure, and maintain the app. We do not retain this data to build profiles.

You retain the right to know, delete, correct, limit the use of sensitive information, and opt out of sale or sharing. Because we keep no account and no profile, there is little for us to act on, but you may contact us to exercise any right. We will not discriminate against you for doing so.

European Privacy Rights (GDPR / UK GDPR)

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, the General Data Protection Regulation gives you rights over personal data that controllers process about you. The only personal data GovLense processes is the limited technical and (optional) location data described in Sections 01 and 02. Our lawful basis is our legitimate interest in delivering and securing the app; for the representatives feature, you provide that data voluntarily when you choose to use it. You may exercise your rights — access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, or objection — by contacting us, and you have the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority.

Data Security & Retention

The strongest privacy guarantee is to hold as little as possible. We store no accounts and no personal profiles, so there is almost nothing on our side to breach. Our website and API are served over HTTPS, and your preferences live in your device's protected app storage.

Retention: on-device preferences remain until you delete the app or clear its storage. Server connection logs are kept only briefly for operations and security. District-lookup results are cached for a short period (and address suggestions for minutes) before they expire automatically. We do not maintain long-term records that identify you.

Changes to This Policy

If we make material changes to this policy — for example, if we ever introduce a feature that requires processing personal information — we will update the effective date at the top of this page and clearly highlight the change. We will not change this policy retroactively to authorize new data collection on data we previously promised not to collect.

Contact

GovLense is operated by GovLense LLC, a Virginia limited liability company, which is the data controller for the limited information described in this policy. Questions, concerns, or requests about this policy or your privacy can be sent to:

privacy@govlense.app

We read every message. If your question is about a specific bill, vote, or member rather than privacy, the in-app feedback link is the better place to send it.