Privacy policy
Last updated: October 2026. MyTownVote (townvote.com) is operated by Starting Line Consulting (Randall Sanborn), 2 McKay Rd, Hopkinton, MA 01748. Questions: privacy@mytownvote.com.
What we collect
- Account: your email address and the display name you choose. Optionally a real name and phone number, which only MyTownVote administrators can see.
- Residency check: to confirm you live in your town, the address on your membership payment is checked once a year. We keep only your street name and ZIP code, plus a one-way code of the full address that prevents duplicate accounts. Your address is never shown to anyone.
- Payments: handled by Stripe. We never see or store your card number; we keep your membership status and renewal date.
- What you do here: your poll votes, comments, reactions, petitions you start or sign, groups, messages, the topics you star or hide, neighbors you follow, reports you send us (such as “Does this seem one-sided?”), and your notification settings.
- Phone and browser alerts: if you turn them on, your browser gives us a push address and keys for that device, and we keep a short device name (like “iPhone”). Remove a device any time in your account; signing out removes it too.
- How you found us: if you joined through a neighbor's invite link we note who brought you (for their badge), and if you arrived from one of our own campaign links (for example a library flyer) we note which one, so we know which outreach works. We don't track you on other websites.
- Document views: we count how many town documents each member opens per day, only to prevent bulk copying.
How we use it
- To run your account, verify residency, show your posts under your display name, and count resident votes.
- To send the emails and alerts you chose (replies, messages, vote reminders, the morning and weekly updates, petition updates). Every email has a one-click unsubscribe, and each kind of alert can be turned off.
- To keep the discussion civil: comments and photos are screened automatically before they appear, and residents can report posts to moderators.
- To find which local issues matter most, we may read public news and public forums about town decisions. That research is about issues, never about individual residents.
- We do not sell your personal information, and we do not show advertising.
Who processes it for us
- Amazon Web Services hosts the site, its data and its email.
- Stripe processes membership payments.
- Apple, Google and Mozilla deliver phone and browser alerts to your device, if you turn them on. Alerts say who or what, never the text of a message.
- Anthropic (an AI provider) processes public town documents and public news to write topic summaries and analysis, and processes comments and photos to screen them for the discussion rules. They are not used to train AI models.
What others see
Other residents see your display name, your posts, your town influence badge, and a “resident” mark. Never your email, real name, address or phone number. Petition signers can choose not to show their name. Reports you send us are seen only by our editors.
Cookies and storage
We use cookies and your browser's storage only to keep you signed in, remember your town, remember a neighbor's invite link (30 days) or a campaign link (90 days), and remember choices like dismissing the alerts prompt. No advertising or tracking cookies.
Your choices
- Change your notification and alert settings, devices, or display name on your account page.
- Delete your account at any time from your account page: your profile, votes, comments, messages and alert devices are removed.
- Email privacy@mytownvote.com to ask what we hold about you.
Children
MyTownVote is for adult residents. It is not intended for anyone under 18.
Changes
If we change this policy in a way that matters, we'll update the date above and tell members by email.