GOVSPENDING.ORG
    Privacy

    Privacy Policy

    Effective May 14, 2026.

    GOVSPENDING.ORG (“the site”) is an independent, nonpartisan public-finance tracker. We do not run user accounts, do not collect personally identifying information at registration (there is no registration), do not process payments, and do not accept comments. The only data we collect about visitors is aggregate, anonymous web analytics, and only when the visitor has opted in.

    What we collect

    When (and only when) you accept the consent banner, two third-party analytics services begin recording aggregate, anonymous data about your visit:

    • Google Analytics 4 (measurement ID G-7M9S1VNLGF) — page views, referrer, approximate geographic region, device type, browser, session duration. IP addresses are anonymized at the network edge (anonymize_ip enabled). Google’s Consent Mode v2 is used, so no GA cookies are dropped before consent.
    • Ahrefs Web Analytics — same general data (page views, referrer, device, browser). The Ahrefs script is loaded dynamically only after you accept the banner; it is not present on the page at all if you reject or have not chosen.

    What we do NOT collect at any point: name, email, phone number, mailing address, payment information, government identifiers, account credentials. The site has no account system.

    Why we collect it

    Analytics tell us which pages are useful, which queries our SEO is actually serving, and where users get stuck. We use that data to decide which series to add to the catalog, which dashboards to improve, and which long-tail topics deserve their own pages. It is read-only data that informs editorial and product decisions.

    Who we share it with

    The analytics data is held by Google and Ahrefs respectively, under their own privacy policies (Google, Ahrefs). We do not sell, rent, or trade any data with any third party. We do not run advertising on the site, and we do not embed advertising trackers, retargeting pixels, social-network share widgets, or any other third-party scripts that would receive visitor data.

    How long we keep it

    Google Analytics user-level and event-level data retention is set to 14 months (the maximum GA4 offers is 14 months for the standard property). This is the retention window for the analytics data itself. Note this is a separate concept from the lifetime of the GA cookies in your browser (the _ga cookies last up to 2 years by Google’s default — see the cookie list); deleting your cookies or withdrawing consent stops collection regardless. Ahrefs retention follows their policy. We do not store any visitor data on our own servers — there is no “our servers” component in this regard, since GOVSPENDING.ORG is served as static files from GitHub Pages.

    Your rights

    Legal basis. Under the GDPR and UK GDPR, our legal basis for analytics processing is your consent (Art. 6(1)(a)), given through the cookie banner; no analytics runs until you opt in. Operating the site itself (serving static pages, remembering your consent choice) relies on our legitimate interest in providing the service, and involves no tracking.

    Depending on your jurisdiction (GDPR, UK GDPR, California’s CCPA as amended by the CPRA, and similar US state laws), you have the right to:

    • Withdraw your consent to analytics at any time (controls below).
    • Request a copy of the data Google / Ahrefs hold via their dashboards.
    • Request deletion of that data via the same dashboards.
    • Object to specific processing. Since we only run aggregate analytics and no profiling or automated decision-making, the practical effect of withdrawing consent stops all data flow for you.

    Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

    We do not sell or share your personal information as those terms are defined under the CCPA/CPRA, and we never have. We run no advertising, no cross-context behavioral advertising, and no data brokering — there is nothing to opt out of being sold.

    We honor the Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal. If your browser or an extension sends a GPC signal, we treat it as a binding opt-out: analytics is forced off and the Ahrefs script is never loaded, even if you click “Accept” on the banner. The banner will tell you when a GPC signal is detected.

    Your current consent

    Status: Not yet decided — the banner will reappear.

    Your choice is stored in this browser’s localStorage under the key gs_consent_v1. Clearing site data in your browser resets it.

    Changes to this policy

    We update the effective date at the top of this page whenever the policy materially changes. Material changes — new data flows, new third parties, retention changes — trigger a fresh consent request via the banner.