VotePrime Privacy Policy
VotePrime Corporation ("VotePrime," "we," "us," or "our") is a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization dedicated to empowering conservative constitutionalists to participate fully in the American political process through principled engagement, peer accountability, and constitutional governance. We built the VotePrime Platform (mobile and web application, website, and related services) with a core conviction: your personal data and the data of your contacts belong to you, not to us or any third party.
This Privacy Policy explains, in clear language, exactly what information we collect, how we use it, and the strong safeguards we maintain to protect your privacy. We design our data practices to high standards of transparency and accountability, drawing on established privacy principles while remaining fully compliant with applicable U.S. law and tailored to the unique needs of a civic engagement platform.
VotePrime is not available to residents of California, and we do not knowingly collect or process the personal information of California residents, including their contact information.
By using VotePrime, you agree to the practices described below. If you do not agree, please do not use the Platform.
1. Information We Collect
We collect only the minimum data necessary to deliver the core features of VotePrime. You control what is shared. The only information required to create and verify your account is your name, email address, and phone number. All other profile information—including your political affiliation—is optional, and you may use VotePrime without providing it.
A. Information You Provide Directly
- Account and profile: name, email, and phone number (required for account creation and verification); and, at your option, mailing address, self-reported political affiliation, and responses to the onboarding Policy Positions Poll. For political affiliation, "Prefer not to say" is always available.
- User type (Individual or Group).
- User-generated content: messages you draft or send, group creation details, Pledge Tracker selections (Like/Undecided/Dislike), quiz answers, volunteer task selections, and support requests.
B. Contact & Voter Data You Provide or Connect
You may add contacts to VotePrime through several methods, all of which require your explicit action:
- Manual entry, by typing a contact's details directly.
- File import, such as a CSV or vCard (.vcf) file you upload.
- Device contacts, when you choose to grant the app access to the contacts stored on your phone or tablet.
- Connected third-party services, when you choose to connect an account such as Google Contacts (via the Google People API) or another contact provider, authorizing VotePrime to read your contacts from that service.
Regardless of the method, we access this contact information only after you explicitly choose to provide or connect it, and we use it solely to match your contacts against public voter rolls and to provide the contact-management features you use within VotePrime. The information we process consists of the names, phone numbers, email addresses, and mailing addresses present in the contacts you provide or connect.
Where we access contacts through a third-party service such as Google, we request read-only access — the minimum necessary to import and match your contacts — and we do not modify, delete, or write to your contacts on that service.
We only match your contacts against lawfully obtained public voter data for civic purposes, and we do not enrich or resell it.
- A local device file is created showing which of your contacts are registered voters.
- Default Rule: Matched voter-status data remains on your device unless you explicitly enable optional cloud sync.
C. Automatically Collected Information
- Device type, OS version, app version, and IP address (for security and regional content).
- Crash and performance reports.
- Location data only when you enable it for polling locations or relevant events (address-based fallback always available).
We do not use third-party analytics, advertising, or behavioral tracking technologies. See Section 13 (Cookies and Tracking).
D. Information from Third Parties
- Public voter registration data (used only for matching your contacts).
- Public candidate and legislative data for Pledge Tracker, voting records, and position comparisons.
- Map services for polling locations and contact maps.
- When you sign in with Google, we receive your email address and name from Google and store them in our user account record solely to authenticate your VotePrime account.
- When you separately choose to connect Google Contacts (or another third-party contact service), we access your contacts from that service on a read-only basis, solely to match them against public voter rolls and provide VotePrime's contact features. We request only the narrowest access required and never use this access to modify your contacts.
- VotePrime's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs to any other app adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. We do not transfer data obtained through Google APIs to any artificial-intelligence or machine-learning model or service.
E. What We Do NOT Collect
We never collect Social Security numbers, financial data (except secure payment processing), biometrics, precise location history, or the full content of your private messages. We do not scrape or collect data about your contacts without your explicit upload.
F. Google User Data — Limited Use
This section governs all information VotePrime receives through Google APIs — specifically, the names, phone numbers, and email addresses of contacts you import through the Google People API, and the name and email address we receive when you sign in with Google.
We use Google user data for one purpose only: to provide and improve VotePrime's core functionality — matching the contacts you choose to import against the public voter file, so you can see which of your contacts are registered voters and organize and contact your own network — and, for Google Sign-In, to authenticate your account.
We do not use Google user data for any purpose other than the functionality described above. We do not sell or rent it, and we do not share or transfer it to any third party for that party's own purposes. The only third parties that ever process it are the infrastructure providers strictly necessary to provide the app's functionality to you, such as our cloud database, under contracts that forbid any other use.
Specifically, Google user data and the contact data imported through Google are never used, sold, or transferred for any of the following purposes:
- targeted advertising;
- selling data to data brokers;
- providing data to information resellers;
- determining credit-worthiness or for any lending purpose;
- serving advertisements to users, including personalized, retargeted, or interest-based advertisements;
- creating databases; or
- training, developing, or improving any artificial-intelligence or machine-learning model.
VotePrime's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
On-Device Residency Option
You may choose during onboarding and in Settings to keep all personal contact and vote-status data exclusively on your device. In this mode, no matched voter data leaves your phone or tablet.
2. How We Use Your Information
We use the information we collect only to provide and improve the VotePrime features you use:
- Verify voter registration and display accurate "My Vote" information.
- Enable core features: contact-to-voter matching, Friend Stats, contact grouping, and My Vote module.
- Import and match contacts you provide or connect (through manual entry, file upload, device contacts, or a connected service such as Google Contacts) against public voter rolls, on a read-only basis and solely for voter matching and the contact features you use.
- Send relevant notifications (early voting reminders, legislative alerts) based on your chosen engagement cadence.
- Comply with legal obligations and prevent fraud or abuse.
Data you import or connect — including contacts obtained through Google — is used only to provide and improve the VotePrime features you use and for no other purpose. The specific uses we prohibit for this data are listed in Section 1.F and Section 7.B.
3. Legal Basis for Processing
VotePrime Corporation is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization. We design our data practices to high standards of transparency and accountability, drawing on widely recognized privacy principles while fully complying with applicable U.S. law. We process data based on the following lawful grounds:
- Consent: You explicitly consent to contact upload, location access, and cloud sync. If you opt in to receive VotePrime updates, those use your VotePrime account email only — never your imported contacts or data received through Google APIs. You may withdraw consent at any time.
- Performance of Services: Processing necessary to provide the VotePrime services you request.
- Legitimate Interests: Operating, securing, and improving the VotePrime app and preventing fraud and abuse. We do not rely on legitimate interests to use data received through Google APIs for anything beyond the contact features you request (see Section 1.F).
- Legal Obligation: Responding to valid court orders or regulatory requirements.
Because we are a nonprofit operating at a limited scale, with revenues below the thresholds that trigger most U.S. state comprehensive privacy laws, we are generally exempt from or fall below the applicable thresholds of those laws. We nonetheless voluntarily apply the principles described in this policy across all users, for consistency and transparency.
4. Data Sharing and Disclosure
We are extremely restrictive with data sharing. We do not sell, rent, or trade personal data.
We may share data only in these limited cases:
- With service providers (e.g., cloud hosting and mapping) under strict data-processing agreements that require equivalent privacy protections and prohibit any independent use of your data.
- With your explicit consent (e.g., when you join or create a group, or enable cloud sync).
- In aggregated, anonymized form for internal product analytics (never identifiable, and never including data received through Google APIs).
- When required by law (subpoena, court order). We will notify you unless prohibited.
- In the event of a merger or acquisition, with continued protection under this policy.
Group/Organization users receive only data that individual members have explicitly opted to share with that group.
5. Data Retention and Deletion
- Account Data: We retain your information for as long as your account remains active. If you close your account, or if your account remains unused for 24 months, we will delete or anonymize your personal information and the contact data associated with it, except where retention is required by law.
- Contact & Voter Matching Data: Stored locally on your device by default. Cloud-stored matched data is deleted when you revoke sync or delete your account.
- Messages and Content: Retained only as long as necessary for delivery and feature functionality, then automatically purged unless you choose to keep them.
You may delete your account and all associated data at any time via Settings → Notes → Delete Account. We will permanently delete your data within 30 days (subject to limited legal retention requirements).
6. Your Rights and Controls
We provide strong, easy-to-use privacy controls:
- Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
- Correction: Update inaccurate information.
- Deletion: Delete your account and data.
- Opt-Out: Stop processing for specific purposes (e.g., notifications, cloud sync).
- Portability: Receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
- Restriction: Limit how we use your data in certain cases.
- Objection: Object to processing based on legitimate interests.
To exercise any right, go to Settings → Account → Privacy Controls or contact us at the address below. We respond to verified requests within 30 days (or 45 days where legally permitted).
You may also adjust notification frequency and engagement cadence in Settings at any time.
7. Privacy Rights for People in a User's Contact List
If you are not a VotePrime account holder, but a VotePrime user has added you to their contact list, you have rights regarding any information about you that we hold. This section describes what we may have, how we use it, and how to request that we remove it.
A. What We May Hold About You
When a VotePrime user imports their contacts, we may store the following information that they provided to us about you:
- Your name as the user entered it.
- Your phone number, email address, and/or mailing address as provided by the user.
- Notes the user has written about you (e.g., issue priorities, conversation history).
- A link to your public voter registration record, if your information matches an entry in the Texas voter file. The voter file itself is publicly published by the Texas Secretary of State.
- The user's stated support level for you (e.g., supporter, undecided, lean) and a record of when the user last drafted a message to you in our platform.
B. What We Do NOT Hold or Do
- We do NOT hold the content of any messages between you and the user. VotePrime drafts messages on the user's device; the user sends them from their own SMS app or email. The actual messages never pass through our servers.
- We do NOT sell, rent, or trade your information, and we do NOT use, sell, or transfer it for any of the following: targeted advertising; selling to data brokers; providing to information resellers; determining credit-worthiness or for any lending purpose; serving advertisements (including personalized, retargeted, or interest-based advertising); creating databases; or training, developing, or improving any artificial-intelligence or machine-learning model.
- We do NOT contact you directly. Any text or email you receive came from the personal phone or inbox of the VotePrime user who has you in their contacts.
- We do NOT share your information with any third party except the encrypted infrastructure providers (such as cloud hosting) under strict data-processing agreements needed to run the platform. We do NOT provide your information to any artificial-intelligence service.
- We do NOT collect data about you that the user did not provide. We do not scrape, append, or buy data from any vendor to enrich the user's record of you.
C. Your Rights as a Non-User Data Subject
Under applicable U.S. state privacy laws (including the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act, Colorado Privacy Act, and Texas Data Privacy and Security Act), you have the right to:
- Know: Request confirmation of whether we hold information about you, and a copy of what we hold.
- Removal: Request the deletion of all information about you across every VotePrime user's contact list.
- Permanent Opt-Out: Request that you not appear in any future contact list, draft message, or feature, even if a VotePrime user re-imports your contact information. We honor this on a durable basis.
- Object: Object to any specific use of your information.
D. How to Exercise These Rights
Email support@voteprime.org from any address or phone number where you believe you may have been imported as a contact. We will:
- Verify your identity (typically by replying from the address we have on file or by phone call to the number you provide).
- Within 30 days, search our systems for records matching your verified identifier, remove or mark them as opted-out across every user, and confirm completion via email.
- If you choose permanent opt-out, we record your verified identifier in a suppression list so any future re-import by any VotePrime user automatically suppresses your record. Users are not notified that you opted out.
We will not disclose to the requesting party which user or users had you in their contact list, nor will we disclose to any VotePrime user that one of their contacts has exercised a privacy right.
E. If You Received a Message You Believe Came From VotePrime
VotePrime does not send messages on behalf of users. Every text or email you receive in connection with VotePrime came from the personal phone or email of the user who imported you. To stop receiving messages from a specific person, contact them directly. To remove yourself from our systems and prevent future inclusion, follow the "Right to Removal" path described above.
8. Security Measures
We take data security seriously and implement strong protections:
- AES-256 encryption for data at rest and in transit.
- Zero-knowledge architecture where technically feasible (especially for on-device options).
- Secure servers with strict access controls and regular security reviews.
- Privacy-by-design and privacy-by-default principles applied throughout development.
- Ongoing monitoring of our systems.
While no system is 100% secure, we continuously work to protect your information as if it were our own.
9. Breach Notification
In the event of a breach of system security involving sensitive personal information of Texas residents, we will notify affected individuals and the Texas Attorney General as required by Texas Business & Commerce Code § 521.053. We will provide such notifications without unreasonable delay and in accordance with applicable legal timelines.
10. Children's Privacy
VotePrime is not directed to children under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18. If we learn that we have collected such data, we will delete it promptly. Parents or guardians who believe their child has provided information should contact us immediately.
11. International Transfers
VotePrime is based in the United States and intended for use within the United States. When we use service providers that process data, we use appropriate contractual safeguards to ensure your data receives adequate protection.
12. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, or legal requirements. We will notify you of material changes by posting the new policy with a new effective date and, where appropriate, through in-app notification or email. Your continued use of the Platform after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.
13. Cookies and Tracking
VotePrime does not use third-party analytics, advertising, or behavioral tracking technologies. We use only cookies and similar local-storage technologies that are necessary for the Platform to function, such as keeping you signed in and maintaining your session.
Certain third-party services we use load on our pages and may receive your IP address as part of providing their service:
- Google Sign-In: When the "Sign in with Google" option is available, Google's authentication service loads on the page and may receive your IP address. This is governed by Google's privacy policy.
- Google Fonts: We load display fonts from Google Fonts, which may receive your IP address. This is governed by Google's privacy policy.
- Stripe: If you make a payment, our payment processor, Stripe, may set cookies necessary to process the transaction, governed by Stripe's privacy policy.
We do not use cookies for third-party advertising or to track you across other websites.
14. Contact Us
If you have questions, concerns, or wish to exercise your privacy rights, please contact us:
VotePrime Privacy Team
Email: support@voteprime.org
Mailing Address: 14011 FM 2920, Tomball, TX 77377
We designate a Data Protection contact responsible for handling privacy inquiries and complaints. We will respond to all communications promptly and in good faith.