Privacy Policy

State is operated by Collective Thinking Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales. We are the data controller for the personal information described in this policy.

If anything here is unclear, email contact@state.com.

• Account information, including your name, email address, and password. Passwords are stored hashed, never in plain text.
• Postcode and constituency, to match you to your UK parliamentary constituency and connect your contributions to the right elected representatives.
• Profile information you choose to add, including username, profile picture, and anything you write in your profile.
• Your contributions, including discussions you start, contributions and replies you post, your reactions, and your answers to Quick Questions.
• Your conversations with the Oracle, including the questions you ask and the responses we provide, so you can return to them in "Recent Chats".
• Technical information, including your IP address, device type, browser, and approximate location derived from IP, collected for security and debugging.
• Usage information, including which pages you visit, which features you use, and how long you spend on the platform, so we can improve the product.

Some of this information can reveal your political views. If you choose to share other sensitive information in a contribution, such as your health or religion, it will be visible to anyone who can see that contribution, so please think before you post.

• We do not buy data about you from third parties.
• We do not track you across other websites.
• We do not use cookies for advertising.
• We do not sell your data to advertisers, ever.
• We do not share your data with campaigns, parties or political organisations.

Under UK GDPR, every piece of data we collect needs a legal basis. Ours are:

• Contract, to provide the service you signed up for, including your account, discussions, contributions, reactions, and Oracle conversations.
• Explicit consent, for processing information that may reveal your political views. You give this when you sign up, and can withdraw it by deleting your account.
• Legitimate interests, to keep the platform secure, prevent abuse, and improve the product.
• Legal obligation, to meet our online safety duties and respond to valid legal requests.
• Consent, for any optional analytics or communications you opt into.

You can withdraw optional consents, such as analytics, at any time in Settings.

Public, including to people without an account:

• Discussions you start and contributions you post, shown with your username.
• Your reactions appear as part of aggregate counts; individual reactions are not attributed to you by name.

Visible to elected representatives in their dashboard:

• Aggregated counts of how their constituents are engaging with discussions.
• The text of discussions and contributions relevant to their constituency.
• That contributors are constituents, but not your real name, email, or postcode.

Never shown to anyone:

• Your email address.
• Your full postcode. Only the constituency it resolves to is used.
• Your password.
• Your IP address or device information.
• Your private chat history with the Oracle.
• Your individual Quick Question answers. Only anonymous totals are shown.

• Account data is kept for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we delete your account data within 30 days.
• Discussions and contributions you have published stay live by default while your account is active. If you delete a contribution, the text is removed. Aggregated reaction counts may persist anonymously.
• Oracle chat history is kept while your account is active. It is deleted when you delete your account, and you can clear individual chats yourself.
• Deleted data may persist in encrypted backups for up to 90 days before being purged.

We share data only with companies that help us run the service, under strict contracts that prevent them from using it for their own purposes.

• Cloud hosting: Amazon Web Services in the London region hosts our database and infrastructure.
• AI providers: Anthropic and/or OpenAI process your Oracle conversations to classify and respond to them, process contributions to create discussion summaries, and help flag content that may break our rules. Your data is not used to train their models.
• Email: Postmark sends transactional emails, including sign-up confirmations and notifications you have opted into.
• Analytics: we use privacy-respecting analytics that do not identify you individually.

We do not share data with advertisers or data brokers.

We only share information with the police, regulators or courts when the law requires it, or in an emergency to protect someone's life or safety.

Your data is stored in the UK and EU. AI processing may happen in the United States under the UK's approved safeguards for international transfers.

You have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you.
• Correct anything that's wrong.
• Delete your account and the data attached to it.
• Object to processing or restrict it in certain circumstances.
• Port your data. We will give you a machine-readable export of your contributions.
• Withdraw consent for anything you previously consented to.
• Complain to the Information Commissioner's Office if you think we have handled your data badly.

Most of these you can do directly in Settings. For anything else, email contact@state.com and we will respond within 30 days.

State is for people aged 13 and over. If you're under 13, please don't sign up. If we learn that someone under 13 has an account, we'll delete it and its data. If you're a parent or guardian and think your child under 13 has signed up, email us.

• We only collect what we need to run State, like your name, email and the area you live in (not your full address).
• We never sell your information or show you adverts.
• What you post in public discussions can be seen by other people.
• You can see, download or delete your information at any time in Settings.
• Worried about something? Use Report, talk to an adult you trust, or email us at contact@state.com.

If we change anything material in this policy, we will let you know by email and put a notice on the platform. The last updated date at the top will always reflect the most recent change.

Data protection: contact@state.com. We will route it to the right person.

Information Commissioner's Office: ico.org.uk / 0303 123 1113.