Privacy

The short version

We collect as little as we can. We don’t sell your data. We don’t show ads. We don’t track you across other sites.

We never ask about your politics or how you vote.

If you just read

You don’t need an account to read or ask. We store your saved places, recent places, and color theme in cookies on your device. They are there only so the site remembers your choices.

Our server sees your internet address. We use it to limit how many questions come from one place. We also use it to count visits and to guess your city. We keep it no more than a day.

We count the pages people visit, the site that sent them, and the kind of device and browser they use. We keep only totals for each day. They don’t say who you are.

To count how many people visit each day, we mix your address and browser into a code. The code changes every day. So we can’t link your visits from one day to the next.

We guess your city with GeoLite data made by MaxMind. You can find it at maxmind.com.

Your questions

We save the questions you ask, so we can make answers better. We save them without your name, email, or internet address. First we take out any emails, phone numbers, and street addresses.

We delete each question after 90 days. We may keep a few longer to check that our answers stay right.

We send each question to two companies that help us answer it.

Jev, run by TypeSafe AI, sorts the question and checks the answer against the record. TypeSafe does not use your question to train AI. But it may keep a copy to watch for abuse, and it has not set a date to delete it.

OpenAI writes the answer. OpenAI does not use your question to train AI. It keeps a copy for up to 30 days to watch for abuse, then deletes it.

Both companies are in the United States. We never send them your email or your name.

Since copies may be kept, please don’t put private facts in a question.

If you make an account

We keep your email so we can send you sign in links, and emails about what you follow. We never show it to anyone.

We keep what you follow, like a meeting, a bill, or a topic. Only you see it.

We keep the public name you choose. It signs your community notes.

We keep your settings and your notes. Your notes are public, with your public name.

We keep when you last used KeepCouncil, so we can count how many people use it.

A cookie keeps you signed in for up to 90 days. We store only a scrambled copy of it, so a stolen copy of our data can’t sign anyone in.

If you ask for your town

When you ask us to add your town, we keep the town you name. We count how many people ask for each town. Once enough people ask, we show that town’s name on our home page. We never show who asked.

Your email is up to you. If you give it, we use it for one thing. We email you once, when your town is added. Then we delete it. We never show it to anyone.

Want us to forget your email? Write to support@keepcouncil.com.

If you ask for a city workspace

We keep your name, your job title, and who you say can vouch for you. We show your name, title, and email to the city’s contact, so they can say yes or no. If the city has a workspace, we show them to its admins too.

We email the contact the city lists on its own website. We keep that address, and the page we found it on.

We keep a record of who said yes, and when. If you delete your account, we delete your name and title from it.

In a workspace, other members see your public name. Admins also see your email.

Email

We send email through Amazon Web Services, in the United States.

We keep a record of each email we send. It says who it went to, what it was about, and if it got there. We delete each record after 30 days. We don’t keep what the email said.

If an email to you can’t be delivered, or you mark one as spam, Amazon stops our email to you. We also stop what you follow.

Mail you send to support@keepcouncil.com goes through a company called Resend, in the United States. Resend keeps it for 30 days.

We only email you when you ask to sign in, or once when a town you asked for is added. We email you when something you follow changes. And we email you about a city workspace you asked for, or were asked to join. We don’t send newsletters.

Each email about what you follow has a link to stop it.

Our servers

KeepCouncil runs on servers from a company called DigitalOcean, in the United States.

Our status page

Our status page shows if KeepCouncil is working. A company called Better Stack runs it. It is based in the United States and the Czech Republic.

You can sign up there for an email when something breaks. If you do, you give your email to Better Stack, not to us. Its own privacy rules apply.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account at any time from your account page. We then delete your email, your name, your settings, your sign ins, and your place in any workspace.

Your community notes stay up, signed “Former member”, so the record of fixes stays whole. If you want a note gone, take it down before you delete your account.

Children

Anyone can read KeepCouncil. You must be 13 or older to make an account.

Changes and contact

If we change how we use your data, we will update this page and the date at the top.

Questions, or want to see what we keep about you? Email support@keepcouncil.com.