Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

CYNSUS LLC ("CYNSUS," "we," "us," or "our") does not ask you for personal information unless we truly need it to provide the Platform. This Privacy Policy explains what we collect, how we use and share it, and the choices you have. It applies to all CYNSUS websites, applications, and services that link to it, and should be read together with our Terms of Service and Cookie Policy.

The Platform is intended for a United States audience and is governed by United States privacy laws. Your information is hosted and processed in the United States.

2. Information We Collect

We collect the following categories of information:

• Account Information: When you create a CYNSUS account, we collect your name, email address, and password (stored in hashed form by our authentication provider). If you sign in with Google, we receive your name and email address from Google, which processes your login under its own privacy policy.
• Residential Address: To match you with your elected officials, districts, and ballot information, we collect the residential address you provide. Address autocomplete suggestions are provided by Smarty (an address-lookup service) as you type, and your standardized address is matched to legislative districts using U.S. Census Bureau geocoding services.
• Civic Profile and Activity: Information you add or generate through use of the Platform, such as policy interests, tracked legislation, followed officials, saved searches, and alert preferences. This information can reflect your political views; we treat it accordingly, and we never sell it or use it for advertising.
• Payment Information: When you purchase a subscription or credits, payment is processed by Stripe. Stripe collects your payment card details directly; CYNSUS does not receive or store complete card numbers. We receive limited billing information (card brand, last four digits, transaction status) needed to manage your subscription.
• AI Interactions: When you use our AI features ("Cynthia"), we collect the prompts you submit, the outputs generated, and associated credit usage. See Section 4.
• Usage and Device Information: Information collected automatically, such as pages viewed, searches performed, browser type, operating system, and IP address, used for security, rate limiting, error monitoring, and aggregate analytics.
• Communications: Information you provide when you contact us for support or provide feedback.

3. How We Use and Share Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Provide, maintain, and improve the Platform
• Match you with your officials, districts, legislation, civic events, and ballot information
• Personalize the civic information shown to you
• Process transactions and send receipts and transaction notifications
• Send you the alerts and updates you have chosen to receive
• Respond to support requests
• Protect against fraud, abuse, and security threats
• Monitor errors and performance, and conduct aggregate research to improve the Platform
• Comply with legal obligations

We will not sell, rent, or lease your personal information to anyone. We do not share your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, we do not use it for targeted advertising, and we do not disclose it to data brokers. We share information only:

• With your consent or at your direction;
• With service providers who process it on our behalf under confidentiality and data-protection obligations, and who may not use it for their own purposes (listed below);
• For legal reasons — when reasonably necessary to comply with law, subpoena, or legal process, to investigate abuse, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of CYNSUS, our users, or the public;
• In a business transfer — if CYNSUS is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, user information may be transferred, subject to commitments at least as protective as this policy.

Service Providers We Use

Legislative, official, civic-event, and ballot data shown on the Platform comes from government and licensed third-party sources (such as LegiScan and Democracy Works); those are data sources, and they do not receive your personal information from us.

Public Profile Visibility

Sections of your profile that you mark as public are visible to other verified individual CYNSUS users, and you control those settings at any time. The systematic collection, aggregation, or redistribution of other users' public profile data is expressly prohibited under our Terms of Service.

4. AI Features (Cynthia)

Our AI features are operated using large-language-model services provided by Anthropic, which processes your prompts on our behalf. We do not use your data to train AI models, and under our arrangement with Anthropic, your inputs and outputs are not used to train or improve Anthropic's models. We retain your AI interactions and credit usage to provide the feature, show you your history, and administer credits. Do not submit sensitive personal information (such as government ID numbers, health, or financial account information) to AI features; it is not needed for any Platform feature.

5. Cookies and Analytics

We use cookies and similar technologies to keep you signed in, remember your preferences, and understand aggregate usage. We use Vercel Analytics (cookieless, aggregate) and Sentry (error monitoring). We do not use advertising cookies or cross-site tracking, and we do not permit third parties to track you on the Platform for their own purposes. For the full inventory and your controls, see our Cookie Policy.

6. Data Security

We implement industry-standard security measures, including encryption of data in transit and at rest, row-level access controls, rate limiting on authentication endpoints, and secure password hashing. However, no method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and there is no guarantee against unauthorized access to information you provide. You are responsible for keeping your account credentials confidential. If we become aware of a breach of security affecting your personal information, we will notify you and the relevant authorities as required by applicable law.

7. Data Retention

We retain your information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this policy — generally, for as long as your account is active. When you delete your account, we delete your personal information within 90 days, except where a longer retention period is required or permitted by law (for example, billing records retained for tax compliance). Aggregate or de-identified information that does not identify you may be retained.

8. Your Privacy Rights

We extend the following rights to all CYNSUS users, regardless of the state you live in:

• Access / Know: Request confirmation of what personal information we hold about you and a copy of it
• Correction: Request correction of inaccurate information (much of it can be corrected directly in your account settings)
• Deletion: Request deletion of your personal information and account
• Portability: Request a copy of your data in a portable, machine-readable format
• Opt-Out of Marketing: Unsubscribe from non-transactional email at any time using the link in each message

Sale, sharing, and targeted advertising: CYNSUS does not sell your personal information, share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, or use it for targeted advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of. For the same reason, browser signals such as Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track do not change how we process your data. We do not use your personal information for profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects.

How to exercise your rights: Email privacy@cynsus.org from the email address associated with your account. We will acknowledge your request within 10 business days, verify it using your account email, and respond within 45 days (extendable once by 45 days where reasonably necessary, with notice to you). You may authorize an agent to act for you; we will require proof of authorization and verification of your identity. If we decline a request, you may appeal by replying with the subject line "Privacy Appeal," and we will respond within 60 days. We will never discriminate against you for exercising a privacy right.

9. Children's Privacy

CYNSUS welcomes users 13 and older. The Platform is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from children under 13. If we learn we have collected personal information from a child under 13, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. Users under 18 may not purchase paid subscriptions. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us personal information, contact us at privacy@cynsus.org.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will post the updated policy with a revised "Last Updated" date and, for material changes, provide notice by email or through the Platform before the changes take effect. Your continued use of CYNSUS after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

11. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please contact us at:

Email: privacy@cynsus.org
Address: CYNSUS LLC, 1075 Peachtree St. NE, Ste 6 #570068, Atlanta, GA 30309, United States