Privacy Policy

The Listening Project is a service provided by PulseIQ Labs, Inc. ("PulseIQ Labs," "The Listening Project," "we," "us," or "our"). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and protect your personal information when you visit our website or apply to take part in a conversation.

We try to be plain here rather than lawyerly. If anything below is unclear, write to us and we will explain it.

1. Who this policy applies to

This policy applies to people who visit listening-project.org and to people who apply to take part in a conversation with us ("applicants").

We are building the conversation experience itself now. Where this policy describes how conversations are handled, we say so and we mark it clearly. Nothing in this policy describes a program that is already collecting recordings from members of the public.

2. What information we collect

When you apply to take part, we collect what you type into the application form:

• Your name. First name, and last name if you give one.
• Your postal code. So we can understand whether the people we hear from reflect the country as a whole.
• Your contact details. Your email address, your phone number, or both. We ask for at least one so we can reach you.

We also collect a small amount of information automatically:

• How you found us. The campaign, source, referring website, and page you arrived on. This tells us which outreach is working and nothing about you personally.
• Usage information. Standard technical data such as browser type, approximate location derived from IP address, and which pages you viewed.

We do not ask for, and you should not send us, sensitive information such as Social Security numbers, financial account details, or health records.

3. How we use your information

We use this information to:

• Review your application and decide whom to invite.
• Contact you about taking part, by email or text message.
• Understand whether the people applying reflect the range of American experience, so we can correct for gaps.
• Understand which outreach reaches people and which does not.
• Operate, improve, and secure our website.
• Comply with applicable laws.

How AI fits in. Artificial intelligence plays no part in reviewing your application. When conversations begin, they will be led by an AI moderator, and AI will be used to transcribe and analyze what people say. We will tell you that plainly and get your consent before any of it happens. AI is never used to make decisions that significantly affect your rights or opportunities.

4. Who is responsible for your data

The Listening Project is operated by PulseIQ Labs, Inc., a Delaware corporation that also operates the Corvus research platform. PulseIQ Labs is the controller of the information described in this policy, which means we decide what is collected and why, and we are accountable for it.

We intend to operate The Listening Project as an independent non-profit with a non-partisan funding base and a bipartisan advisory board. That structure is not in place yet. We are not currently a 501(c)(3) organization, and we would rather say so here than let you assume otherwise. If and when the operating entity changes, we will update this policy and tell applicants.

5. How we share your information

We may share your information with:

• Service providers who help us operate the project. See Section 6 for the full list and what each one handles.
• Legal authorities, if required by law or subpoena.

We do not sell your personal information. We never have and we do not intend to.

We do not share identifiable information with any political party, campaign, candidate, or advocacy group. This is not a preference. It is the condition on which the whole project rests, and it applies without exception.

When we publish findings, we publish them de-identified, and we publish our methodology alongside them.

6. Third-party service providers

To operate The Listening Project we rely on a number of service providers that may process your personal data on our behalf. Each is contractually required to protect your data and may use it only to deliver services to us.

In use today

Once conversations begin

The providers below support the conversation experience. They do not process applicant data today, and they will not process anything of yours until you have been invited to a conversation and have consented to take part.

We review these providers periodically and will update this list when it changes. If you have a question about a specific provider, write to privacy@listening-project.org.

7. How long we keep your data

We keep your information for as long as reasonably necessary to consider your application, to contact you about taking part, to comply with legal obligations, or to enforce our agreements. When it is no longer needed for any of those, we delete it.

You can ask us to delete your information at any time by writing to privacy@listening-project.org. We will do it.

8. Your rights

You may ask us to:

• Tell you what categories of personal information we hold about you and how we use it.
• Give you a copy of your personal data.
• Correct information that is wrong.
• Delete your personal information, subject to legal exceptions.
• Stop contacting you.

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) gives you these rights specifically, along with the right to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information (we do not sell personal information) and the right not to be discriminated against for exercising any of them.

How to make a request. Write to privacy@listening-project.org. Please include your name and what you would like us to do. We will respond within 45 days, and if we need more time we will tell you before that deadline passes. You may designate an authorized agent to make a request for you.

9. Where we operate

The Listening Project is a project about the United States, and we collect information from people in the United States. Your information is processed in the United States by us and by the service providers listed in Section 6.

10. Security

We use industry-standard security measures, including encryption in transit and at rest, access controls, and secure infrastructure. Applicant records are stored so that they cannot be read by our public website; only our server can reach them. No system is completely secure, but we take this seriously and we work to minimize risk.

11. Children's privacy

The Listening Project is not intended for anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has given us information, write to privacy@listening-project.org and we will delete it.

12. Cookies and similar technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies to keep the site working, to understand how it is used, and to improve it. These may collect technical data such as device identifiers, browser type, IP address, and which pages you visited.

We use:

• Strictly necessary cookies, required for the site to function.
• Analytics cookies, which help us understand how people move through the site so we can improve it.

Our analytics run through PostHog. We configure PostHog to record activity anonymously unless and until you identify yourself to us, and we route analytics requests through our own domain rather than a third-party one. We do not use advertising cookies and we do not run third-party ad trackers on this site.

You can refuse or delete cookies through your browser settings. Disabling them may affect how parts of the site work.

13. Updates to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we will post the change here and update the effective date above. If a change materially affects how we handle information we already hold about you, we will tell you directly.

14. Contact us

Questions about this policy or your data? Write to us anytime.

The Listening Project
PulseIQ Labs, Inc.
privacy@listening-project.org

For anything else: contact@listening-project.org