Welcome to PUBLIC VOTE ("us", "we", or "our"). We are committed to protecting your personal information and your right to privacy. If you have any questions or concerns about this privacy notice, or our practices with regards to your personal information, please contact us at [email protected].

This Privacy Policy governs the privacy policies and practices of our Website, located at https://public.vote. Please read our Privacy Policy carefully as it will help you make informed decisions about sharing your personal information with us.

1. Information We Collect

We collect information that you provide to us directly, information we collect automatically when you use our Services, and information we collect from other sources.

Information You Provide to Us:

• Account Information: When you register for an account, we collect your full name, email address, and password. You may optionally provide an avatar URL, mobile number, address, city, and country.
• User-Generated Content: We collect information you provide when you create reviews, polls, petitions, or company profiles. This includes text, ratings, and any other content you submit.
• Interactions: When you vote on polls, sign petitions, or suggest options, we record your user ID and the timestamp of the interaction.
• Communications: If you contact us directly (e.g., via email or the contact form), we may receive additional information about you such as your name, email address, phone number, the contents of the message and/or attachments you may send us, and any other information you may choose to provide.
• Review Reports: If you report a review, we collect your user ID, the ID of the review being reported, your reason for reporting, and the timestamp.

Information We Collect Automatically (Activity Logging):

When you visit or use our Website, we automatically collect certain information from your device and about your usage. This information may include:

• Visitor ID: A unique identifier generated and stored in your browser's local storage.
• Log and Usage Data: IP address, user-agent string (browser type, version, operating system, device model), page URL visited, referrer URL, date/time of access, screen resolution, and timezone.
• Geolocation Data: If you grant permission, we may collect your approximate latitude and longitude. If permission is denied or unavailable, this will be recorded as "Unknown" or "Unsupported".
• Cookies: We use cookies for session management (e.g., to keep you logged in). Our login process sets an HttpOnly cookie containing your user ID.

This automatically collected information is primarily needed to maintain the security and operation of our Website, and for our internal analytics and reporting purposes.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect in various ways, including to:

• Provide, operate, and maintain our Website
• Improve, personalize, and expand our Website
• Understand and analyze how you use our Website
• Develop new products, services, features, and functionality
• Communicate with you, either directly or through one of our partners, including for customer service, to provide you with updates and other information relating to the Website, and for marketing and promotional purposes (with your consent where required)
• Process your transactions and manage your orders (if applicable)
• Send you text messages and push notifications (if applicable and with consent)
• Find and prevent fraud
• For compliance purposes, including enforcing our Terms and Conditions, or other legal rights, or as may be required by applicable laws and regulations or requested by any judicial process or governmental agency.

3. Sharing Your Information

We may share the information we collect in various ways, including the following:

• With Service Providers: We may share your information with third-party vendors and service providers that perform services for us or on our behalf, such as hosting, data analysis, payment processing (if applicable), email delivery, customer service, and marketing assistance.
• User-Generated Content: Your reviews, created polls, petitions, company profiles, and suggestions (unless created anonymously where the option is provided) will be publicly visible along with your chosen display name (or "Anonymous").
• For Legal Reasons: We may share information about you if we believe that disclosure is reasonably necessary to comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request; to enforce applicable user agreements or policies; to protect the security or integrity of our services; and to protect us, our users or the public from harm or illegal activities.
• Business Transfers: We may share or transfer your information in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business to another company.

4. Data Storage and Security

Your information is stored on servers managed by MongoDB (our database provider). We use administrative, technical, and physical security measures to help protect your personal information. While we have taken reasonable steps to secure the personal information you provide to us, please be aware that despite our efforts, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable, and no method of data transmission can be guaranteed against any interception or other type of misuse.

5. Your Data Protection Rights

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights regarding your personal information:

• The right to access – You have the right to request copies of your personal data.
• The right to rectification – You have the right to request that we correct any information you believe is inaccurate or complete information you believe is incomplete.
• The right to erasure – You have the right to request that we erase your personal data, under certain conditions.
• The right to restrict processing – You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
• The right to object to processing – You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
• The right to data portability – You have the right to request that we transfer the data that we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us at [email protected]. We will respond to your request within [Timeframe, e.g., one month].

Note: While users can edit their profiles and some content, full data erasure or export functionalities are not yet fully implemented through the user interface. Please contact us for such requests.

6. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies (like local storage for `visitorId` and `userId`) to track the activity on our Service and hold certain information. Cookies are files with a small amount of data which may include an anonymous unique identifier. You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of our Service (e.g., staying logged in).

7. Third-Party Websites

Our Service may contain links to other websites that are not operated by us. If you click on a third party link, you will be directed to that third party's site. We strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of every site you visit. We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third party sites or services.

8. Children's Privacy

Our Service does not address anyone under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under 13. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your child has provided us with Personal Data, please contact us. If we become aware that we have collected Personal Data from children without verification of parental consent, we take steps to remove that information from our servers.

9. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page. We will let you know via email and/or a prominent notice on our Service, prior to the change becoming effective and update the "Last updated" date at the top of this Privacy Policy.

You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.

10. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us:

• By email: [email protected]
• By visiting this page on our website: https://public.vote/contact