Privacy Policy

• Account information: email address and (optionally) a display name when you sign up. Required to provide account features (sign-in, following politicians and bills).
• Password hash: never stored in plain text; hashed using bcrypt with unique salt per user.
• Postal code: optionally provided to help you find your local representatives. Normalized (e.g., K1A0A6) and stored on your profile only.
• Language preference: English or French.
• Followed items: the IDs of politicians and bills you choose to follow.
• Server logs: IP address, browser type, and request timestamp are temporarily logged for security and rate-limiting purposes. Logs are retained for no longer than 30 days and contain no other personal information.

• No third-party analytics or tracking pixels.
• No advertising networks.
• No social-media share buttons that track you.
• We do not sell, rent, or share your data with third parties for any purpose.
• We do not track your political views, browsing across the site, or voting intentions.

We use the information we collect only to:

• Authenticate your account and keep it secure
• Show you the representatives for your postal code
• Display content in your preferred language
• Maintain your list of followed politicians and bills
• Investigate abuse, fraud, or security incidents
• Comply with legal obligations when required

Information about politicians, parties, bills, ridings, and voting records is sourced from official public records, including: the Parliament of Canada (parl.ca), Open North's Represent API for postal-code lookups, Elections Canada, and provincial legislatures. This data is publicly available; we do not collect it from you.

Your account data is stored in a managed PostgreSQL database (Neon) located in Amazon Web Services' US East (Virginia) region. The site is served via Vercel's edge network (global). DNS and DDoS protection run through Cloudflare. PIPEDA does not require data residency inside Canada, but we're committed to being transparent about where data physically resides.

We are evaluating a migration to AWS Canada Central (Montreal) for data-residency reasons, which would route through standard cross-border transfer protections in the meantime. When the migration completes we will update this notice.

Connections in transit use TLS 1.2+. Passwords are hashed at rest with bcrypt and a per-user salt; the database provider cannot read them in plaintext. We do not store payment information.

When you use Find Your MP, your postal code is sent to Open North's Represent service (a Canadian non-profit) to look up your riding. We don't store that lookup separately from your profile.

Under PIPEDA and Quebec Law 25, you have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you
• Correct inaccurate or incomplete information
• Delete your account and associated data
• Withdraw consent for any optional use
• Object to specific processing
• Receive a copy of your data in a portable format (JSON)
• Lodge a complaintwith the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (priv.gc.ca) or the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec (cai.gouv.qc.ca)

To exercise any of these rights, email privacy@branchpolitics.ca. We will respond within 30 days as required by law.

Passwords are hashed using bcrypt. All connections are encrypted using TLS 1.2+. We rate-limit authentication endpoints to prevent brute-force attacks. We do not store payment information. In the event of a data breach involving personal information, we will notify affected users and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner as required by PIPEDA's mandatory breach notification regime.

Branch is intended for users 13 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we have collected such information, please contact us to have it removed.

We use only essential cookies and browser local storage:

• Session cookie (httpOnly, secure) — to keep you signed in
• Locale preference in localStorage — to remember EN/FR choice
• Theme preference in localStorage — light/dark/auto
• Recently viewed in localStorage — never leaves your device

We do not use any analytics, advertising, or third-party tracking cookies. There is no cookie banner because there is nothing optional to consent to.

We may update this policy as the service evolves. Material changes will be announced via a notice on the site. Continued use after notice constitutes acceptance.

Privacy questions: privacy@branchpolitics.ca
General inquiries: hello@branchpolitics.ca