Change.vote Cookie Policy

Cookies are small text files placed on your device by a website. They are widely used to make websites work, or to work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site. Cookies do not give us access to your device and we cannot use them to run programs or deliver viruses.

We also use similar technologies — such as pixels, SDKs, and session replay tools — that may collect data about your interactions with the site. These are described in the sections below alongside cookies.

We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:

• To keep you securely signed in across visits
• To understand how people use change.vote so we can improve it
• To measure the effectiveness of our outreach and marketing campaigns
• To enable session recording features that help us identify and fix usability issues

1. Essential cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary for change.vote to function. They enable core features such as secure authentication and cannot be switched off. They do not track you for advertising purposes.

• elections-auth (change.vote) — keeps you securely signed in. Set after you authenticate via your change.org account using Firebase Auth. HttpOnly and not accessible to JavaScript. Expires in 1 year.

2. Analytics cookies

These cookies help us understand how visitors interact with change.vote. The information collected is aggregated and used to improve the site experience.

• AMP_* / amplitude_id_* (Amplitude) — tracks page views, user interactions, and session data to help us understand how the site is used and measure feature engagement. Also powers session replay (video-like recordings of browsing sessions) at a 10% sample rate, increasing to 100% when an error occurs. User IDs are pseudonymous. Expires in up to 1 year.
• _ga (Google via Google Tag Manager) — distinguishes unique users and sessions for Google Analytics reporting. Expires in 2 years.
• _gid (Google via Google Tag Manager) — distinguishes unique users for Google Analytics reporting. Expires in 24 hours.
• _gat (Google via Google Tag Manager) — limits the rate of requests made to Google Analytics. Expires in 1 minute.

We also use Sentry for error tracking and session replay on a subset of sessions (10% normally, 100% when a JavaScript error is detected). Sentry does not set persistent cookies but may use transient session identifiers to link error events to a recording.

3. Marketing cookies

These cookies are set by our advertising partners and help us measure the reach and effectiveness of our campaigns. They may be used to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant content or ads on other sites.

• _fbp (Meta / Facebook) — used by Meta to identify your browser for ad delivery, attribution, and site analytics, including for retargeting campaigns run by change.vote. Expires in 3 months.
• _fbc (Meta / Facebook) — stores the last click attribution value when you arrive at change.vote via a Facebook or Instagram advertisement. Expires in 3 months.
• ga* / gac* (Google via Google Tag Manager) — used by Google Ads for conversion tracking and ad performance measurement. Expires in up to 2 years.

You can manage your non-essential cookie preferences at any time:

• Use the "Manage cookie preferences" link in the cookie banner on your first visit
• Click "Manage cookies" in the footer of any page on change.vote

You can choose to accept or decline Analytics and Marketing cookies independently. Essential cookies cannot be disabled as they are required for the site to work.

You can also control cookies through your browser settings. Most browsers allow you to refuse cookies or delete them. Note that doing so may affect the functionality of change.vote.

Third-party opt-outs:

• Amplitude: amplitude.com/privacy
• Google Analytics: tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
• Meta ad preferences: accountscenter.facebook.com/ads

If you are a California resident, you have the right under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) to opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information with third parties. Our use of Marketing cookies (Meta Pixel, Google Ads) may constitute "sharing" under CCPA.

To submit a formal opt-out request, email help@change.vote or use the form below. We will action your request within 15 business days as required by California law.

We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "Last updated" date at the top. We encourage you to review this page periodically to stay informed about how we use cookies.

If you have questions about this Cookie Policy or our data practices, please contact us at privacy@change.org.