Chicago Politics Privacy Policy

Last modified: October 22, 2026

Matics Lab INC, together with its representatives, contractors, employees, officers and directors (collectively "Matics Lab INC," "we," "us" or "our"), operates the website at www.chicagopolitics.org (the "Site"), the email alerts and newsletters sent from it, accounts on it, the dashboard for alderperson offices and organizations, and its public API, MCP server and data files (together with any related features, the "Services"). Chicago Politics is part of a network of city politics sites operated by Matics Lab INC that share one software platform and, for reader comments, one account system (see section 6).

Chicago Politics tracks a city legislature from public records: its members, their votes, the legislation they file, committees and meetings, campaign money and lobbying. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect from people who use the Services ("you"), how we use it, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and the choices and rights you have. It applies to everyone who visits the Site, whether or not they create an account.

By using the Services, you agree to this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Services. This policy is written in English, and the English version controls if a translation of any page of the Site says something different.

Summary

The short version, in a table. We do not sell personal information for money. The rest of this policy explains each line.

1. Information we collect

1.1 Information you give us

• Account information. To create an account you give us your email address. We sign you in with a one-time link or a 6-digit code sent to that address; there is no password. The links expire after 15 minutes and the codes after 10 minutes, and only a hashed copy of each is stored.
• What you do with your account. The alderpersons, committees and legislation you follow; your home ward; your email settings (the weekly digest, the Sunday recap); and, if you choose to share them, your positions on legislation ("How would you vote?"). Positions are only ever shown publicly as totals, by ward.
• Newsletter. If you tick "subscribe" when you sign in, we record that choice on your account.
• Ward alerts. To get email when your alderperson votes or when something in your ward is up for a vote, you give us your email address, your ward (or an address we turn into a ward in your browser), which alerts you want, and where on the Site you signed up. No account is needed.
• Reader comments. To comment on an On My Block article you sign in with your email address (a link or a 6-digit code) and pick a display name. Your comments, your display name and the article are public. Your email address is never shown. If you report a comment, we record that you reported it.
• On My Block reader profile. You can tell us your neighborhood, what fits you (for example renter, homeowner, small business owner) and how you would vote on an article's legislation, so articles can be written for readers like you. Section 1.3 explains what we record about what you read.
• The contact form. Your name, email address, the topic you pick, your message, the page you sent it from and the language of the page. See "How contact messages are handled" in section 3.
• Offices and organizations (the dashboard). If you use the dashboard as a member of an alderperson office, advocacy group or other organization, we store your name, email address, role, team, invitations, and what your team puts into the dashboard: notes, saved views, follows, stances on legislation, alert rules, charts and dashboards, shared links, casework records and their constituents' contact details, and campaigns (including the names, email addresses, wards and messages of people who take action on a campaign page). Your organization decides what it stores there; questions about a constituent's or supporter's information are best sent to that organization.
• API keys, apps and agents. If you create an API key, connect an app through OAuth, or let an AI agent register on your behalf, we store the key's or app's name, a hash of the credential, its permissions, and how much it is used. Agent registration asks for your email address and the agent's name, and we email you to approve it.

1.2 Information collected automatically

• Sessions and anonymous accounts. When you first visit, the Site creates an anonymous account for your browser and keeps a session cookie, so what you have read and the neighborhood you picked follow you between visits. It has no name or email address. If you sign in later, it is merged into your account and deleted. Anonymous accounts nobody has used for 90 days are deleted automatically.
• Sign-in sessions (yours, if you sign in): when they were created, the IP address and the browser (user agent) they came from. Sessions last up to 30 days.
• Log data. Like most websites, our hosting provider processes your IP address, browser type, the pages you request, the referring page and the time, to deliver the Site, keep it secure and stop abuse. Where we count requests to enforce limits (sign-in emails, the contact form, comments), we keep the IP address only for as long as the limit needs it, or as a salted hash.
• Analytics. We use Google Analytics 4 (through Google Tag Manager) to measure which pages are read, how people arrive and how the Site performs. See section 5.
• Advertising. Public pages carry Google AdSense and Adsterra ads, which may set or read cookies and collect device and usage data. See section 5.

1.3 What we record about reading On My Block

When you read an On My Block article we record, against your reader account (anonymous or signed in): the article, which version of it you were shown, the perspective and neighborhood section it showed, how long it was on screen and how far you scrolled. Articles may be published in more than one version (a headline, lead or structure); a cookie keeps you on the same version for 30 days, and the results are kept as daily totals per article, version and neighborhood. Nothing from other websites is added, and we never guess at anyone's politics.

1.4 Information we do not collect

• The addresses you look up. "Find your alderperson" turns an address into a ward. As you type, the text is sent to our server and on to Mapbox to suggest addresses; when you pick or submit one, the lookup runs in your browser (OpenStreetMap's geocoder, or the U.S. Census Bureau's) or through our server without JavaScript. We do not store or log the addresses people look up.
• Your precise location. "Use my location" asks your browser for your location and uses it in your browser to find your ward. It is not sent to us.

1.5 Public records about people

Most of what the Site publishes is public records about public officials and the people who deal with them: alderpersons and other officials, their votes and statements in meetings, legislation, campaign contributions and expenditures (donors' names, employers, city and state, as the State Board of Elections publishes them), lobbyists, their clients and what they report. We keep donors' street addresses from the State's files for research only; no page, file, API or tool publishes them. We do not remove accurate public records on request, but we correct errors (see our corrections policy).

1.6 Payments

Paid plans for offices and organizations can be paid by card or by invoice. Card payments are handled by our payment processor, which receives your card details directly; we do not receive or store full card numbers. We keep the plan, its billing contact and the invoices.

2. How we use information

We use the information above to:

• provide the Services: show the pages you ask for, sign you in, keep your follows and settings, send the email you asked for, publish your comments, and answer your messages;
• tailor On My Block articles to the neighborhood and situation you told us about, and learn which version of an article readers find useful;
• keep the Services secure and working: detect and stop spam, abuse and attacks, enforce rate limits, and fix problems;
• measure and improve the Services (which pages are useful, how people find them);
• show ads on public pages (section 5) and run paid plans for offices and organizations;
• comply with the law, respond to lawful requests, and protect our rights and the rights and safety of others.

We do not use your information to decide anything about you that has legal or similarly significant effects, and we do not sell it.

Legal bases (for visitors in Europe or the United Kingdom). We process personal data to perform our agreement with you (providing the Services you ask for), on the basis of our legitimate interests (security, measuring and improving the Services, and showing ads), with your consent where the law requires it (for example, for some cookies), and to comply with legal obligations. You may withdraw consent at any time; that does not affect processing that already happened.

3. Email

• Sign-in email. One-time links and codes, sent only when you ask for them.
• Ward alerts are double opt-in: nothing is sent until you press the button in the confirmation email. Every alert has a link to manage which alerts you get and a one-click unsubscribe link. Addresses that bounce or report spam are stopped.
• The weekly digest and the Sunday recap ("This week at City Council") go to accounts that have them on and to alert subscribers who ticked the recap. Each has one-click unsubscribe, and you can turn them off in My tracker.
• Links in our email to our own pages carry campaign tags (utm_source=email) so we can count visits from email in aggregate. We do not use tracking pixels to see who opened an email.
• The contact form. We use your message and email address only to read and answer it.

How contact messages are handled

A message sent with the contact form is stored with its site, topic and language, and emailed to our team's inbox with your email address as the reply-to address, so we can answer you directly. To stop spam we keep a salted hash of the sender's IP address and count recent messages per address; a hidden field that people never see discards automated submissions.

4. Cookies and similar technologies

You can block or delete cookies in your browser's settings. If you block our session cookie, you will not be able to stay signed in. Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control: see section 5.

5. Analytics and advertising

• Google Analytics 4 and Google Tag Manager. Google receives information about your visit (pages viewed, the page you came from, your browser and device, an approximate location derived from your IP address, and an identifier stored in a cookie) and reports it to us in aggregate. One Analytics property covers every site in the network, so a visit that moves between our sites can be counted as one. Learn more, or opt out with Google's browser add-on, at Google's privacy site.
• Google AdSense. Public pages carry Google AdSense ads. Google and its partners use cookies to serve ads based on your visits to this and other websites, where the law and your settings allow it, and to measure them. You can turn off personalized ads at Google's Ad Settings and learn more at aboutads.info. We do not give Google your name or email address.
• Adsterra. Some pages (On My Block articles and ward, vote and meeting pages) also carry banner and native ads from Adsterra, served through its ad domains. Adsterra and its partners may set cookies and collect device and usage data (such as your IP address, browser, device and the pages where ads appear) to serve, measure and limit fraud on ads. See Adsterra's privacy policy.
• Your choices. Under some U.S. state laws, letting advertising partners use cookies for targeted advertising can count as "selling" or "sharing" personal information even though no money changes hands for the data. You can opt out by turning off personalized ads as described above, by blocking third-party cookies, or by sending a Global Privacy Control signal, which we treat as a request to opt out where the law requires it. We do not otherwise respond to "Do Not Track" signals.

6. How we share information

We do not sell your personal information for money. We share it only as follows:

• Publicly, when you choose. Your comments and display name are public on the article. Positions on legislation are only ever published as totals by ward; we never show who took which position.
• Within your team. In the dashboard, what you add is visible to the members of your team according to their roles, and to anyone you share a link with.
• Across the network. Reader accounts used for comments are one account system across the sites operated by Matics Lab INC, so the same email address and display name work on each, and each site keeps its own sign-in cookie.
• Service providers that process information for us under contracts that limit their use of it: see section 7.
• For legal reasons, when we believe in good faith that the law requires it, or to investigate or prevent fraud, abuse or threats to anyone's safety, or to protect our rights.
• In a business transfer, if Matics Lab INC or the Site is part of a merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets. The successor must keep to this Privacy Policy for the information it receives, and we will tell you of the change on the Site or by email.
• In aggregate or de-identified form, which does not identify anyone (for example, how many readers in a ward took a position).

7. Service providers and third-party services

Links to other websites (the City's records, the State's, news sites) take you to sites with their own privacy policies, which we encourage you to read.

8. How long we keep information

• Sign-in sessions: up to 30 days. Sign-in links and codes: 15 and 10 minutes.
• Anonymous reader accounts: deleted after 90 days without a visit.
• Your account, follows, settings, positions and reader profile: until you delete them or your account.
• Ward alert subscriptions: until you unsubscribe; we keep a record of an address that unsubscribed or bounced so we do not email it again, and a log of what was sent.
• Comments: until you delete them (the text is removed and the comment shows as deleted) or we remove them under our Terms of Use.
• Contact messages: as long as we need to answer them and keep a record of our correspondence.
• Server logs and rate-limit counters: briefly, typically days, as our hosting provider keeps them.
• Dashboard data: for as long as your organization keeps its plan, then deleted on request or after the plan ends, except where we must keep billing records.
• Backups may hold copies for a limited time after deletion.

9. Your choices and rights

Deleting your data yourself. From My tracker you can delete your account and all of its data at any time. "Forget me" on On My Block deletes your reader profile and what we recorded about your reading. You can delete your own comments. Every alert and recap email has unsubscribe and manage links.

Your rights. Depending on where you live, including under the privacy laws of several U.S. states, you may have the right to:

• know and access the personal information we hold about you, its sources, why we use it and who we share it with, and get a copy in a portable format;
• correct inaccurate personal information;
• delete personal information, subject to exceptions the law allows (for example, to complete a transaction, keep the Services secure or comply with the law);
• opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information and of targeted advertising (section 5);
• limit the use of sensitive personal information (we do not collect any);
• appeal if we decline your request; and
• not be discriminated against for exercising these rights.

We give these rights to every user, wherever you live in the United States. To use them, contact us through the contact form or email hello@chicagopolitics.org. We will verify your request by confirming you control the email address it concerns, and may ask for more information if needed. You may use an authorized agent, who must show us that you authorized them. We aim to answer within 45 days and will tell you if we need more time (up to 90 days in total). We do not charge for requests unless they are manifestly unfounded or excessive. If we decline your request, you may appeal by replying to our answer; if you remain unsatisfied, you may contact your state attorney general.

In Europe and the United Kingdom you also have the right to object to processing based on our legitimate interests, to restrict processing, and to lodge a complaint with your data protection authority.

10. Children

The Services are not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. Accounts, comments and ward alerts are for people 13 and older. If you believe a child under 13 has given us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

11. Security

We protect information with technical and organizational measures suited to its sensitivity: encrypted connections (HTTPS) everywhere, sign-in without passwords, sign-in links and codes stored only as hashes, optional two-factor sign-in for dashboard teams, API keys stored only as hashes, access limited to the people who need it, and rate limits against abuse. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee security. If a breach affects your personal information, we will notify you as the law requires.

12. Where information is processed

Matics Lab INC is in the United States, and the Services are intended for people in the United States. Our providers, including Cloudflare, may process information in the United States and other countries where they operate. If you use the Services from outside the United States, you understand that your information will be processed in the United States, where privacy laws may differ from those where you live.

13. Changes to this policy

We will post any change on this page and update the "Last modified" date. If we make a material change to how we treat personal information, we will also tell you through a notice on the Site or by email to the address on your account before it takes effect. Continuing to use the Services after a change takes effect means you accept the updated policy.

14. Contact us

Questions, requests or complaints about this Privacy Policy or your information: use the contact form or email hello@chicagopolitics.org. The operator of Chicago Politics is Matics Lab INC.

See also our Terms of Use.