Privacy policy

The short version

Your political answers stay on your phone. ConCensus never sends your party, your stances or your votes anywhere with your name on them. The only public thing about you is the username you pick.

What stays on your phone

Your party, your answers on the issues, your race calls, and your points and coins are stored on this device only. The phone also keeps a list of what you voted for, so it can show it back to you. You can read them in the Me tab and clear all of them in Settings at any time.

What leaves your phone

Posts, replies, polls and takes you choose to publish are shared with other people in the app under your username, or anonymously when you choose that. An anonymous take shows no name to anyone in the app; if it is reported, the person reviewing reports can see which account posted it, so abuse can be stopped. When you vote on a poll, swipe a hot take or check a reply, the vote is sent with a rough lean (left, middle or right), an age range and a state, under a one-way code made from your account, the poll and a secret key that stays on our server. The vote row holds that code, never your account or username, and the code is different for every poll, so your votes can’t be lined up with each other. The app uses the same code to show you your own votes on a new phone. Results show only once at least 10 people have voted (5 on a reply), and age and state splits only once at least 5 people on that side have, so nobody can be picked out. That is how the readouts under each poll are built. Votes stay in the totals if you delete your account, with no account on them.

Anonymous usage

To learn which parts of the app people use, the app counts screens opened and actions taken (reading, voting, posting) under a random number made on your phone. That number is never your account and never your username. With it go only coarse groups: your state, your age range, whether your answers lean left, middle or right, and your topics of interest. Groups smaller than five people are never shown, even to us. It’s off unless you turn it on in Settings under Privacy.

Location

The app asks for your state, and if you like a city or county, so it can show news and events near you. It never asks for your phone’s location.

Accounts

If you create an account, we store the identifier your sign-in provider gives us and your username, so you keep your username and posts on a new phone. Points and coins stay on the phone. Signing in with Apple, Google or an email code gives us an email address; with Apple’s Hide My Email it’s a relay address that forwards to yours. We use it to sign you in. Nobody else sees it, and it never sits next to your answers, which don’t leave this phone. Deleting your account in Settings removes your username, threads, replies, polls and takes. Votes stay in the totals, with no account on them.

Who handles your data

A few companies help run ConCensus. Supabase hosts accounts, posts and vote counts. Apple and Google run their own sign-ins. Cloudflare serves the website at concensus.us. Each gets only what its part needs. We don’t sell anything to anyone.

How long things are kept

Your account, username and posts stay until you delete them. Delete the account and they’re gone that moment. Votes and usage counts stay in the totals with no account attached, so a poll’s result doesn’t shift after you leave. Reports and moderation notes are kept so repeat abuse can be stopped.

The launch list

If you leave your email on concensus.us to hear when ConCensus is out, we keep it only to send that note. It isn’t linked to an app account or to any answers, it isn’t shared, and you can ask us to remove it any time by writing to us.

Coins

Coins are earned in the app and have no cash value.

Ads

ConCensus doesn’t show ads right now. If that changes, this policy will say so first, and ads will never be based on your political answers or follow you across other apps.

Children

ConCensus is for people 13 and older. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone younger.

Questions

Write to [email protected]. We answer every message.