Last updated September 24, 2026.
This page lists what the site collects about visitors, who receives it, and how to stop it.
What we collect
The site uses Google Analytics 4, loaded on every page through Google’s Site Kit plugin for WordPress, to count visits. The Analytics section below says what it collects and how to block it. The site shows no ads and does not fingerprint browsers.
If you sign up for renewal alerts, we store your email address and the location you asked about. We use it only to send the alerts you requested. Every email includes an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing deletes you from the list. We never sell, rent, share, or trade email addresses.
Forms
If you submit a tip or correction, we store what you send us. An email address included with a submission is used only to follow up on that submission and is never published.
Requests from third parties
Apart from the Analytics data described below, which Google receives, we do not share visitor or subscriber information with anyone. If we ever receive a legal demand for user data, we will seek to notify affected users unless legally barred from doing so.
Changes
Changes to this policy are listed here with dates.
September 24, 2026. The policy now names Google Analytics 4 and Site Kit, says what Analytics collects and how to block it, and drops earlier sentences that called the analytics aggregate and said nothing on the site tried to identify a visitor.
Analytics
Google Analytics 4 runs on every page for visitors who are not logged in to the site. It loads a Google script from googletagmanager.com, so Google receives each page view with the page address, the referring page, the browser, the device type, the screen size, the language setting and an approximate location that Google works out from the IP address. Google states that Analytics 4 does not log or store IP addresses. Enhanced measurement is on, which lets Analytics also record events such as scrolls, clicks on outbound links and file downloads.
Analytics sets first-party cookies on this domain, named _ga and _ga_ followed by an ID. They hold a random ID that lets Google count repeat visits from the same browser. The site does not link that ID to a name or an email address. Like any web server, the host also records requests in access logs, which include IP addresses.
To block Analytics, use a browser or extension that blocks trackers, block cookies for whoapprovedthis.org, or install Google’s Analytics opt-out browser add-on. Every page works with Analytics blocked. No reader data is sold.
Alerts data
The alerts list keeps 2 things: an email address and the place asked about. That pairing exists to send the alert and nothing else. Unsubscribing removes the record. The list is never rented, sold, or handed to a campaign, and no alert email carries a tracking pixel or a click-tracked link.
Exports, embeds, and record pages
The CSV and JSON exports carry contract facts and public officials’ names as they appear in government documents. They carry nothing about site visitors. The per-record embed loads a small page from this site that carries no Google Analytics; your readers’ browsers request it from this site’s server the way they request any web page.
What the tracker publishes about people
Only public acts by public officials: the votes they cast, the offices they hold, and statements they made in a public meeting or an official release. No home addresses, no private contact details, no personal information about residents who speak at meetings. Names enter a record only when a government document lists the name and the tally together.
If you would rather stay invisible
The exports, the calendar feed and every record page work with no account and no email address. Alerts are the only feature that asks for anything, and they are optional. Blocking Google Analytics, as described above, keeps your visits out of the site’s analytics.
Messages you send us
A correction or a submission arrives with whatever you put in it. Those messages are read by a person, kept while the record they concern is being checked, and not used for anything else. You do not need to give a name to send one, and a correction backed by a document works exactly the same whether it is signed or not. If you ask to be credited on a record, that is the only case where a name gets published, and only with your say-so.
Searches and filters
There is no reader login and no reader account. Filtering the tracker runs in the page without loading a new address. A search sent from the home page opens the tracker with the search words in the address, and Analytics records page addresses.
Why this page exists
This site documents systems that log where people drive, often without a vote. This page states what the site logs about its own readers: the Analytics data above, the alert list, and the messages sent through its forms.