CICERO
Legal
Privacy Policy
The short version
- We collect what Cicero needs to work: your sign-in details, your postal code (to find your representatives), the topics and chambers you follow, and your notification settings.
- We don't sell your data, show ads, or use third-party analytics or advertising trackers.
- Your postal code is sent to Open North's Represent service to look up your representatives. We never use your device's GPS location.
- AI summaries are made from public legislative text. If you use “Write to your representative”, the details you enter are sent to our AI provider to draft the message.
- Our servers are in the United States.
- You can ask us to delete your account and data at any time.
IWho we are
Cicero is an independent civic information app based in Ontario, Canada. We're responsible for the personal information described here and handle it in line with Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). Questions go to support@appcicero.ca.
IIWhat we collect
| Information | Details | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Account | Name and email address from Sign in with Apple or Google (with Apple, this may be a private relay address), and the account identifier Apple or Google gives us. | To create your account and sign you in. |
| Postal code | Your full postal code, if you provide it. When you change it, we keep a record of the first three characters (the area, not your street). | To find your representatives, ridings and wards. |
| Your representatives | The representatives matched to your postal code. | To show “your” MP, MPP or MNA, and councillor. |
| Interests and life situation | Topics you pick, how familiar you are with politics, and life situations you choose to tell us about (for example: renter, parent, student, senior, business owner). | To personalize your feed and the “how this affects you” notes on bills. |
| What you follow and do | Chambers and petitions you follow, petitions you start, sign or report, and your 0–10 ratings of bills. | To run those features, and to compare your ratings with how your representative voted. |
| Concern check-ins (optional) | If you opt in: the issues you're concerned about, how strongly, an optional short comment, your language and postal area. Before we store a comment, we strip out email addresses, links, phone numbers and postal codes. | To show you, and in aggregate the community, what people care about. You can delete your check-ins at any time. |
| Notifications | Your push notification token, device model, time zone, preferred time and day, which alerts you want, and a record of the notifications we've sent you. | To send the alerts you asked for, when you asked for them. |
| Activity | The date you open the app, and when you tap to email a representative. | To track your civic engagement streak and level in the app. |
| Technical logs | Our servers record requests (such as which screen's data was loaded and when). These logs can include details you submitted, like a postal code. | To keep Cicero running, fix bugs and prevent abuse. |
We don't collect your precise location, contacts, photos, date of birth, gender or income.
IIIHow we use it
- To provide Cicero: sign-in, matching you to your representatives, your feed, petitions and ratings.
- To personalize: your life situations and interests decide which “how this affects you” notes you see. These notes are prepared in advance for each life situation. Your personal details are not sent to an AI to make them.
- To notify you, on the schedule you choose.
- To keep Cicero safe: to review reported content, prevent abuse and fix problems.
We don't sell personal information, and we don't use it for advertising.
IVAI features
Cicero uses an AI service (currently Google's Gemini) to summarize bills and debates. Only public legislative text is sent for summaries.
Write to your representative. If you ask Cicero to draft a message to a representative, we send the AI service:
- your name
- your riding, if it's your own representative
- the life situations you've chosen
- your position on the bill and any reason you typed
- the bill's title and summary
We don't store the draft. It opens in your own email app, and nothing is sent to the representative unless you send it yourself.
Topic labels. We use TypeSafe, a classification service, to tag bills and petitions with topics. For community petitions this means the petition's title, description and category are sent to TypeSafe. No information that identifies you is sent with them.
VWho we share it with
We share personal information only with the service providers that run Cicero, and only what each one needs:
| Provider | What for | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Railway | Hosting our servers and database (United States) | All the information described in this policy |
| Open North (Represent) | Looking up representatives | Your postal code |
| Google (Gemini) | AI summaries and message drafts | Public text; for message drafts, the details listed above |
| TypeSafe | Topic labels | Public text and community petition text |
| Expo | Delivering push notifications and app updates | Your push token and the notification text |
| Apple and Google | Sign-in; maps shown in the app | What you authorize when signing in; map requests from your device |
When a community petition reaches its goal, Cicero sends it to the representative it's addressed to. That message includes the petition, its signature count, and the creator's name and email address, so the representative can reply to the creator. Signers' identities are never included.
We may also disclose information if the law requires it, or to protect the safety of people or the service.
VIWhat other people can see
- If you start a community petition, its title and text, and your display name as the creator, are visible to everyone.
- Who signed a petition is never shown. Only the total count is public.
- Bill ratings are only ever shown as an average and a count.
- Concern check-ins are only ever shown in aggregate. Your comment is never shown to anyone.
VIIWhere it's stored
Cicero's servers and database are in the United States, and some of the providers above process data outside Canada. While your information is there, it's subject to the laws of that country, and authorities there may be able to access it.
VIIIHow long we keep it
We keep your account information while your account exists. You can remove parts of it at any time: clear your postal code or life situations, unfollow, unsign, or delete your concern check-ins. When you delete your account, we delete your personal information as described below. Server logs are kept for a limited time by our hosting provider, then discarded.
IXDeleting your account
To delete your account, email support@appcicero.ca from the email address on your account (or tell us which Apple or Google account you signed in with). We'll confirm and delete your account within 30 days.
Deletion removes:
- your profile, postal code and representatives
- your interests, follows and notification settings
- your push tokens, signatures, ratings, check-ins and activity
Community petitions you created are removed, or kept with your name taken off if others have signed them. We may keep a minimal record where the law requires it.
If you signed in with Apple, you can also stop sharing with Cicero from your Apple ID settings (Sign in with Apple).
XYour choices and rights
- Access and correction. You can see and edit most of your information in the app. For a copy of everything we hold about you, email us.
- Notifications. Turn them off, or change how often they come, in the app or in your device settings.
- Optional features. Postal code, life situations and concern check-ins are optional. Cicero works without them, just less personally.
- Withdrawing consent. You can withdraw consent at any time by removing the information or deleting your account.
XISecurity
Information travels between the app and our servers over encrypted connections (HTTPS). Sign-in sessions use short-lived tokens, and the long-lived ones are stored only in hashed form on our servers. Access to production systems is limited to the people who run Cicero. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach creates a real risk of significant harm, we'll notify you and the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, as the law requires.
XIIOn your device
The app stores your sign-in session, preferences, theme, followed chambers and cached public data on your device so it opens quickly. Deleting the app removes this data.
XIIIChildren
Cicero isn't intended for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their information. If you believe a child under 13 has created an account, contact us and we'll delete it.
XIVThis website
appcicero.ca doesn't use cookies, analytics or trackers, and it loads nothing from third parties. It's hosted by Cloudflare, which processes standard request data (such as IP addresses) to deliver and protect the site.
XVChanges
If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top. If a change is significant, we'll let you know in the app before it takes effect.
XVIContact and complaints
Questions, requests and complaints: support@appcicero.ca. If you're not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.