Privacy policy
vote.factionlabs.org is run by Faction Labs. It helps Chicago voters find where and how to vote. This page explains what we collect when you use it, why, and who else sees it.
What we collect
- The address you look up, plus what the lookup finds: the matched address, its map coordinates, your ward and precinct, and whether we could answer.
- Your location, only if you tap "Use my current location": it is used once to find the nearest street address, which then works like a typed address. We don't save the location itself.
- Your email address, only if you ask us to email you your voting plan or a reminder, along with the voting site and day you picked.
- How you got here: the link you arrived from (for example, which ad or post), including campaign tags and ad click IDs in that link, and the referring website.
- Basic device and location information: the type of device and browser, whether you opened the site inside an app like Instagram, and an approximate city and region based on your internet connection. We don't store your IP address.
- How you use the site: pages viewed and buttons used (for example, picking a voting site or tapping Directions), collected with cookies and similar technology (see below).
How we use it
- To show you your voting information, and to send the emails you asked for.
- To understand which outreach brings people to the site and helps them vote, so we can improve it.
- To contact voters about the election. Faction Labs may use the addresses entered here, together with public voter records, to reach voters with election information and messages.
We don't sell your personal information.
Who else receives it
To answer a lookup, your address is sent to:
- the US Census Bureau, to find the location of your address;
- the City of Chicago's data portal, to find your ward and precinct;
- Google, for address suggestions, the map, directions and travel times, election information from Google's Civic Information API, and turning your location into an address if you use "Use my current location".
We also use service providers to run the site: Cloudflare (hosting), Google Workspace (where lookups and reminder sign-ups are stored), and Resend (which sends the emails and tells us whether they were opened or their links clicked).
Analytics, ads and cookies
We use Google Analytics and the Meta Pixel to measure visits and which steps people take, and to measure and improve our ads on Facebook and Instagram. They use cookies and similar technology, and receive information such as pages viewed, buttons used, your browser and device, and the ad you came from. Google and Meta may use this information under their own privacy policies, including for advertising.
We never send your address or email address to Google Analytics, Meta, or any other analytics or ad platform.
To limit this, you can block or clear cookies in your browser, use Google's Analytics opt-out add-on, and manage your ad settings on Facebook and Google.
Keeping and deleting your information
We keep this information for as long as we need it for the purposes above. To ask what we hold about you, or to have it deleted, email privacy@factionlabs.org.
Reminder emails are only sent because you asked for them: one confirmation and, at most, one reminder before the day you picked.
Not an election authority
Faction Labs is not an election authority and is not affiliated with the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners. Voting information can change; always confirm with chicagoelections.gov.
Changes
If we change how we handle your information, we'll update this page and the date at the top.
Contact
Questions about this policy: privacy@factionlabs.org.