Know Your Reps Privacy Policy

Effective Date: August 30, 2026
Last Updated: August 30, 2026

1. Introduction

Volatile Apps ("we", "us", or "our") built the Know Your Reps application ("the App") as a civic engagement and educational utility. This Privacy Policy outlines our policies regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of information when you use our App on Android and iOS devices.

By using Know Your Reps, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy.

2. Government Data Disclaimer & Source Attribution

Important Disclaimer:
Know Your Reps is an independent civic utility developed by Volatile Apps. It is NOT an official government application, and is NOT affiliated with, authorized, maintained, sponsored, or endorsed by the United States Government, any state government, municipality, political party, or political campaign.

All civic and legislative data displayed within the App is aggregated from public, official, and open datasets, including:

• Congress.gov v3 API (Library of Congress): https://api.congress.gov
• OpenStates.org v3 API (State legislative data): https://openstates.org
• U.S. Census Bureau Geocoding Services: https://geocoding.geo.census.gov
• @unitedstates Public Dataset (Congressional contact information): https://theunitedstates.io
• The Guardian Open Platform (News coverage): https://open-platform.theguardian.com
• Wikipedia REST APIs (Biographical portraits and background): https://en.wikipedia.org

3. Information We Collect and How We Use It

A. Location Information (GPS & ZIP Code)

• What We Collect: When you grant location permissions, the App temporarily accesses your device's approximate or precise GPS coordinates (latitude and longitude), or you may manually input a 5-digit US ZIP code.
• How It Is Used: Location data is used strictly to identify your Congressional District, state legislative districts, and elected officials via the U.S. Census Bureau and OpenStates APIs.
• Storage & Sharing: Your coordinates are processed in real time and are never sold, tracked for advertising purposes, or shared with data brokers.

B. User Account & Authentication Information

• Google Sign-In: You may optionally choose to sign in using your Google account to sync your favorite representatives and saved preferences across devices. If you sign in, we receive your basic profile information (name, email address, and unique user ID) via Firebase Authentication.
• Guest Mode: You may use the App completely anonymously without creating an account or signing in.

C. On-Device Storage & Local Caching

• SQLite & Preferences: The App stores cached legislative data, news articles, and your starred representatives locally on your device in an encrypted SQLite database and SharedPreferences to enable fast offline access and minimize network usage.
• On-Device AI Processing: If you download the optional on-device AI model, processing and text synthesis occur 100% locally on your device. No prompts, phone scripts, or civic queries are transmitted to external AI servers.

D. Device & Diagnostic Data

• If enabled, anonymous crash reports and system diagnostic logs may be collected through standard platform services (Google Play Services / Apple App Store) to help us diagnose bugs and improve app stability.

4. Third-Party Services & Subprocessors

The App integrates with third-party service providers to support authentication, database synchronization, and data delivery. Each service operates under its respective privacy policy:

1. Google Play Services & Firebase (Google LLC)
   • Used for Firebase Authentication and Cloud Firestore cloud synchronization.
   • Google Privacy Policy
2. U.S. Census Bureau & Congress.gov
   • Used for non-commercial public civic data queries.
3. OpenStates & The Guardian
   • Used for legislative summaries and news article headlines.

5. Data Retention and Deletion

• Local Data: You can delete all locally cached data and saved favorites at any time by clearing the App's storage in your device Settings or uninstalling the App.
• Cloud Account Deletion: If you signed in with a Google account, you can sign out via the in-app profile menu. To request the complete deletion of your Firebase user record and associated cloud preferences, contact us at jarod@volatileapps.com with the subject line "Delete My Account", and we will purge your data within 30 days.

6. Children’s Privacy

Know Your Reps does not knowingly collect or solicit personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13. If you are a parent or guardian and believe that your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us at jarod@volatileapps.com so we can immediately delete the information.

7. Security

We value your trust in providing your information. The App utilizes industry-standard Transport Layer Security (TLS/HTTPS) to encrypt data in transit between your device and public APIs, and applies strict Firebase Security Rules to protect authenticated user data.

8. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated "Last Updated" date. Continued use of the App following any modifications indicates your acceptance of the revised policy.

9. Contact Us

If you have questions, concerns, or feedback regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us:

• Developer: Volatile Apps
• Email: jarod@volatileapps.com
• Website: https://www.volatileapps.com