Privacy at OpenPolitical

OpenPolitical is a political intelligence platform for operators, vendors, and researchers. We work with data professionals, and we expect to be held to data-professional standards. This page explains what we collect, what we do with it, and what we never do with it.

What we collect

Account information

Email address, password hash (we never see the plaintext), subscription tier, signup method, and any business-context information you provided during signup or trial review.

Usage data

Pages you view, searches you run, profiles you access, CSV exports you download, time spent on the platform, the device class you use (desktop vs. mobile), and your approximate geographic region derived from IP. We collect this through PostHog (a third-party product analytics service — see below).

Technical data

Browser type, IP address, and the session cookies our authentication system requires to keep you logged in.

What we do with it

• Operate the platform you're using.
• Decide which features are working and which need attention, based on aggregate usage patterns.
• Communicate with you about your account, our weekly briefs, and the platform itself.
• Investigate security and abuse incidents.
• Run editorial review of data feeds (race intelligence, vendor relationships) where human verification matters.

What we never do

• We never sell your data to third parties.
• We never use your data for advertising. There are no ad networks on OpenPolitical.
• We never share individually-identifiable usage data with anyone outside our small team.
• We never publish your search history, profile views, or any other per-user activity, including in anonymized form.

Analytics — PostHog

We use PostHog (a product analytics service) to understand how operators use the platform. PostHog stores data on its servers in the United States. The data we send to PostHog includes your user ID, email, subscription tier, signup method, and the events described above. PostHog operates under its own privacy policy.

If you'd prefer not to be tracked through PostHog, you can install a browser extension that blocks the PostHog SDK (e.g. uBlock Origin) or use a privacy-focused browser. We don't penalize you for opting out — the platform works either way.

Cookies

We use two kinds of cookies:

• Session cookie (op_session). Strictly necessary — this is how we keep you logged in. Lives 30 days; cleared when you sign out.
• PostHog analytics cookie. Maintains analytics continuity across your sessions. You can disable analytics cookies in your browser settings or via a browser extension — see above.

Your data, your control

You can request a copy of your data, or ask us to delete your account, at any time. Email [email protected] and we'll respond within 30 days. Account deletion removes your account record, your activity history, and any business-context information you provided.

Questions

Email [email protected].

Last updated: 2026-05-14