CapitolLens - Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 27, 2026

Overview

CapitolLens ("the App") is a US Congress tracker that lets you follow bills, members, and votes using publicly available data from the Congress.gov API. Your privacy is important to us. This policy explains what data the App collects and how it is used.

Data Collection

CapitolLens does not collect, transmit, or share any personal data with the developer or any third party.

• No analytics - We use no analytics or crash-reporting service.
• No accounts - No sign-up or login is required.
• No advertising - The App shows no ads and contains no advertising SDK. It does not use your device's advertising identifier.
• No purchases - Every feature is free. The App has no in-app purchases.
• No personal data sent - The App does not send any personal information to any server.

Network Requests

CapitolLens connects to the Congress.gov API (api.congress.gov) to fetch publicly available legislative data including bills, member information, and vote records. These requests:

• Contain only search queries and pagination parameters — no personal data.
• Are cached locally on your device to reduce network usage and enable offline browsing.
• Are made directly to a US government API operated by the Library of Congress.

The Trades tab also downloads a public file of congressional financial disclosure data from griswoldlabs.com. That request contains no personal data; like any web request it reaches the server with your IP address, which we do not use to identify you.

No other network requests are made by the App. The App does not contact any analytics, advertising or data collection service.

Data Stored on Your Device

The App stores the following data locally on your device only:

• Followed bills - Bills you choose to follow for your personalized feed.
• Followed members - Congress members you choose to follow.
• State & district - Your selected state and congressional district for "My Reps" feature.
• Cached API data - Temporarily cached bill, member, and vote data for offline access.
• App preferences - Theme and display settings.

This data stays on your device and is never transmitted to the developer or any third party.

Permissions

The App uses the following permissions:

• Internet access - Required to fetch legislative data from the Congress.gov API and the trades file. No personal data is transmitted.
• Notifications and alarms - Optional. Used only to show reminders and updates you turn on in Notification Settings. They are scheduled on your device; nothing is sent to a server.

Third-Party Services

The App connects to the Congress.gov API, a public US government service, to fetch public legislative data. The Congress.gov API privacy policy is available at congress.gov/privacy-policy.

No advertising, analytics, billing or other third-party SDK is integrated. The App does not ask to track you on iPhone or iPad.

Children's Privacy

The App does not knowingly collect any information from children under 13. The App does not collect any personal information from anyone.

Data Deletion

All data is stored locally on your device. To delete all App data:

• Clear the App data in your device's application settings, or
• Uninstall the App.

Changes to This Policy

If we update this privacy policy, the changes will be posted on this page with an updated date.

Contact

If you have questions about this privacy policy, contact us at: [email protected]