Privacy

Weigh In™ runs public engagements on behalf of governments, agencies, and newsroom partners. We collect only what is needed to run those engagements well and report the results back to the community.

What we collect

When you use a simulation. We store your submission — your budget choices, your answers to the ballot questions, the demographic questions you answer, and any comment you leave. Participation is anonymous by default. We do not require an account.

When you use a tax receipt. The figures you enter are used to work out what you see on screen. We do not store them. Your income and the other details you provide are not kept.

Technical information. We log your IP address, browser, and timestamps to keep the platform secure and prevent abuse. This is kept separately from your responses and is not used to identify you.

If you register for a live deliberation. We collect the name and email address you provide so we can send you the meeting link and reminders.

If you sign up for a newsletter. Where a partner newsroom offers a newsletter signup inside the tool, the email address you give goes to that newsroom. This is optional and separate from participating.

We do not sell your information. We do not share it with advertisers or data brokers.

What partners see

The organisation whose logo appears at the top of the page can see the responses their audience gave: budget choices, answers to the ballot questions, demographic answers, and comments. They can filter and compare those responses.

They cannot see your name, your email address, or your IP address, and nothing they see is connected to your identity.

If you sign up for that newsroom's newsletter, your email address goes to them for that purpose. It is not connected to your responses.

To protect against identification in small communities, the reporting dashboard suppresses any group smaller than ten responses. Partners are also asked not to publish results for groups that small.

If you leave a comment, a partner newsroom may read it and may quote it in their reporting. Please do not include anything in a comment that you would not want published, including your own name.

Live deliberations

Deliberations are online sessions where participants appear on video with each other in small groups, with an expert on the wider call.

Sessions may be recorded so that we can evaluate how the process works and improve it. Recordings are never given to partner newsrooms and are never published. You will be told before a session begins whether it is being recorded, and you can take part without appearing on camera.

We delete the name and email you gave at registration 60 days after the final session, unless you have asked us to stay in touch. Your responses in the simulation are kept without that contact information attached, so before-and-after comparisons remain possible without identifying you.

At the end of a session we ask two optional questions:

• Whether you would be willing to speak with a newsroom covering the project. If you say yes — and only if you say yes — we pass your name and email to a participating newsroom so a reporter can contact you.
• Whether you would like us to stay in touch, to tell you what the results showed and to let you know about future sessions. If you say yes, we keep your name and email for that until you ask us to stop. Every email includes a way to unsubscribe.

Short excerpts from the discussions, with names and identifying details removed, may be given to partner newsrooms and quoted in their reporting. We select which excerpts are shared; anything not selected is not distributed.

The full terms for taking part are in our participant guidelines.

Project partners

The University of Colorado Denver School of Public Affairs is a partner on this project and may receive results for high-level analysis. It receives the same information a partner newsroom would. It does not receive names, email addresses, or IP addresses.

How long we keep things

• Registration names and emails: deleted 60 days after the final session, unless you have asked us to stay in touch.
• Recordings: kept while we review the sessions, then deleted.
• Simulation responses: retained without identifying information for research and public reporting.
• Technical logs: retained only as long as needed for security.

When the tool is embedded on another site

Where a partner has embedded the tool in their own page, this policy governs what happens inside the tool. The site around it is governed by that organisation's own privacy policy, which may involve cookies or analytics we do not control.

Your rights

Colorado law gives you the right to access, correct, delete, or obtain a copy of personal data we hold about you, and to opt out of its sale or use for targeted advertising or profiling. We do not sell data or use it for targeted advertising.

We honour universal opt-out signals sent by your browser.

To exercise any of these rights, email hello@weigh.in. If we decline a request, you may appeal by replying to our response, and we will review it. If you are not satisfied, you may contact the Colorado Attorney General's office.

Because most participation is anonymous, we may be unable to locate your specific responses without additional information from you.

Contact

Questions about your data, or requests for its removal: hello@weigh.in