Privacy Policy

When you use Citizen Reporter, we collect the following types of information:

We use the information we collect to:

• Process your complaints: Draft formal letters and send them to city councils on your behalf
• Provide customer support: Respond to your questions and help resolve issues
• Improve our service: Analyze usage patterns to enhance features and user experience
• Secure your data: Protect your personal information with industry-standard encryption
• Send notifications: Update you on complaint status and important service announcements
• Display anonymized data: Show complaint trends on our public map (without personal details)

We share your information only in the following circumstances:

• City Councils: Your complaint, including your name, contact info, and uploaded evidence, is sent to the relevant city council
• Payment Processor: Stripe processes your payment information securely; we do not store your credit card details
• Service Providers: We use trusted third parties for email delivery, cloud storage, and analytics
• Legal Requirements: We may disclose information if required by law or to protect our rights and safety

We take data security seriously and implement industry-standard measures:

• All data is encrypted in transit using HTTPS/TLS
• Sensitive data is encrypted at rest in our databases
• Photos and videos are stored securely in cloud storage with access controls
• We use secure authentication and access management
• Regular security audits and vulnerability assessments

We retain your data according to the following policies:

• Complaint Data: Retained for up to 3 years after submission, or until you request deletion
• Account Information: Retained as long as your account is active
• Photos/Videos: Retained for up to 3 years or until the complaint is resolved and closed
• Payment Records: Retained as required by law for tax and accounting purposes
• Analytics Data: Aggregated and anonymized data may be retained indefinitely

You have the following rights regarding your personal data:

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us through our platform or email support.

We use cookies and similar technologies to:

• Essential Cookies: Required for the website to function (authentication, security)
• Analytics Cookies: Help us understand how visitors use our site
• Preference Cookies: Remember your settings and preferences

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Note that disabling certain cookies may affect website functionality.

Citizen Reporter is not intended for use by children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we have collected information from a child under 13, please contact us immediately.

If you are a California resident, you have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA):

• Right to know what personal information is collected and how it's used
• Right to delete personal information (with certain exceptions)
• Right to opt-out of the sale of personal information (we do not sell your data)
• Right to non-discrimination for exercising your privacy rights

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of significant changes by posting a notice on our website and updating the "Last updated" date. Your continued use of the service after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or want to exercise your privacy rights, please contact us through our platform or reach out to our support team.