USGovExplained.org, also called We The People, is an independent, nonpartisan civic education website created by David Strickland and built by DCSS Web Development LLC. It is free to use and has no advertising.

This policy explains, in everyday language, what information the site receives, why, who helps us run it, and the choices you have. When this policy says "we" or "us," it means the people who run USGovExplained.org.

You can read every page of this site without giving us any personal information. There are no user accounts, no sign-ins, no advertising networks, no social media tracking pixels, and no visitor profiles. Anonymous visit counting runs only if you allow it, as explained below.

We only receive personal information when you decide to send it to us in one of these three ways:

If you subscribe, your email address is stored with Resend, the email service we use to send the newsletter and the one-time confirmation email you receive when you sign up. We use your address only to send the newsletter.

Every newsletter includes an unsubscribe link. When you unsubscribe, you stop receiving email from us. You can also ask us to delete your address completely through the contact page.

We never sell, share, or rent the subscriber list, and we don't use it for anything other than this newsletter.

Messages sent through the contact form are delivered by Formspree, a form-processing service, which forwards them to us by email and keeps a copy in its system. We use what you send only to read and answer your message.

To keep out spam without making you solve puzzles, the form uses Cloudflare Turnstile, which checks that a real person is sending the message. Turnstile looks at technical signals from your browser for that check only; it is not used for advertising or tracking.

If you want your message deleted, ask us through the contact page and we will remove it from our email and from Formspree.

When you search the site, your search words are sent to our own search service, which runs on Cloudflare, to find matching pages. When the AI summary feature is turned on, the same words and the matching page excerpts are also processed by Cloudflare Workers AI to write a short summary.

We don't save your search history, and searches are not tied to your name or to any profile. To stop abuse, the search service briefly keeps a count of recent searches from each IP address in memory, and that count disappears within minutes.

If you turn on Analytics in the cookie settings, the site loads Cloudflare Web Analytics, a privacy-focused tool that counts page visits. It tells us which pages are read, which websites sent visitors here, the general country and type of device, and how fast pages load, so we know what helps people most and what to improve.

Cloudflare Web Analytics sets no cookies, stores nothing in your browser, and does not identify you, build a profile of you, or follow you to other websites. We only ever see totals, never individual visitors.

It is off unless you choose Accept All or switch Analytics on, and you can turn it off again at any time from the Cookie settings link. When you turn it off, the page reloads so nothing more is counted.

A cookie is a small piece of text a website stores in your browser. This site keeps its use of cookies and browser storage to the minimum, and none of it is used for advertising or to follow you around the web.

The table below lists everything the site may store or load. Strictly necessary items are always on because the site cannot work properly or stay secure without them. The two optional categories, Preferences and Analytics, stay off unless you allow them.

You can change your choice at any time with the Cookie settings link at the bottom of every page, or the button below. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, we treat it as a request to turn optional storage off, and the Preferences setting starts switched off.

The site is hosted on Cloudflare's global network. Like every website, the servers that deliver our pages receive basic technical information with each request, such as your IP address, the type of browser you use, and the page you asked for. This is needed to send you the page and to protect the site from attacks.

Cloudflare keeps technical logs for a short time for security and troubleshooting. We don't use them to identify visitors or to build profiles, and we don't combine them with anything else.

Keeping this site private is a promise, not a setting. We never:

We rely on a small number of trusted providers. Each one only handles information needed for its job, and each has its own privacy policy, linked below.

Our pages link to outside sources such as the National Archives, Congress.gov, and other government and reference websites. When you follow one of those links, you leave USGovExplained.org, and that website's own privacy policy applies.

Many of our readers are students, and every page can be read without sharing any personal information. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13, as required by the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

The newsletter and contact form are meant for people 13 and older. If you are a parent or teacher and believe a child under 13 has sent us personal information, contact us and we will delete it promptly.

You can ask us what personal information we have about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time, and you can change your cookie choice whenever you like.

Depending on where you live, laws such as the California Consumer Privacy Act and the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation give you these rights formally. We honor them for everyone, wherever you live. We do not sell or share personal information as those laws define it. To learn more about privacy law in the United States, see our page on privacy and government surveillance.

To make a request, use our contact page. We will respond within 30 days, and you will never be treated differently for using your rights.

The whole site is served over an encrypted HTTPS connection. We keep as little information as possible, only work with providers that protect what they handle, and only keep what you send us for as long as it is needed.

If the way the site handles information changes, we will update this page and the effective date at the top. If a change affects the choices you have made, we will ask for your cookie choice again.

If you have any question about this policy or your information, please reach out through our contact page. A real person reads every message.