Privacy Policy

PlainInfluence is transparent about political money, and equally transparent about how we handle visitor data.

Information We Collect

PlainInfluence is transparent about political money, and equally transparent about visitor data. Analytics use Umami, a platform engineered to work without cookies and without personal data collection. Traffic is measured only as anonymous aggregates across the site.

Cookies & Tracking Technologies

PlainInfluence does not set first-party cookies. However, third-party services used on this site may set cookies:

  • Google AdSense uses cookies to serve ads based on your visits to this and other websites.
  • Cloudflare may set security cookies to distinguish humans from bots.
  • Google Analytics (GA4) uses cookies to measure website traffic and usage patterns.

Your browser's light/dark theme preference is stored in localStorage, which never leaves your device.

Advertising

We display advertisements through Google AdSense. Google's DoubleClick cookie enables Google and its partners to serve ads based on your visits to this and other websites. You can opt out of personalized advertising at Google Ads Settings or aboutads.info. For a full list of Google's ad technology providers, visit Google's ad technology providers page.

Data Sources

All data displayed on this site comes from the Federal Election Commission, Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings, and USAspending.gov. No private or proprietary data is used.

Editorial Independence

Content on PlainInfluence is compiled by our editorial team: raw data from federal and state regulatory agencies is transformed into readable profiles by our continuous editorial pipeline, validated against the source before publication. The PlainInfluence editorial team is responsible for editorial standards and corrections.

We do not accept payment, sponsorship, or promoted placement from licensed providers, operators, or any covered entity. Our only revenue source is contextual display advertising served by Google AdSense, advertisers do not influence which entities we cover or how we present data, and they do not receive preferential placement.

Third-Party Services

  • Cloudflare - CDN, security, and hosting
  • Google AdSense - advertising
  • Google Analytics - traffic measurement
  • Umami - privacy-focused, cookie-free analytics

Data Retention

PlainInfluence does not maintain a user account system and does not store personal information on our servers. Anonymous analytics aggregates collected via Umami are retained for up to 24 months to support trend analysis and performance measurement; they contain no personal identifiers. Cloudflare security logs, which may include anonymized IP-address ranges for bot-detection purposes, are retained according to Cloudflare's standard data retention policy (typically 30 days for free-tier edge logs). Any email correspondence sent to our contact addresses is retained only as long as necessary to address the inquiry and is deleted when no longer needed. We do not sell, rent, or share retained data with third parties except as required to operate the services described in this policy or as required by applicable law.

Your Choices and Opt-Out Options

You have several options to limit data collection when visiting PlainInfluence. Most modern browsers support a "Do Not Track" signal; while we cannot guarantee that all third-party services honor DNT headers, our analytics respects the signal where technically feasible. You can block or limit cookies at the browser level through your browser's privacy settings -- note that blocking Cloudflare security cookies may affect your ability to access the site during active threat mitigation events.

For Google AdSense personalized advertising, you can opt out through the Google Ads Settings panel, the Digital Advertising Alliance opt-out at aboutads.info, or the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out tool. Opting out of personalized advertising means you may still see contextual ads based on page content rather than interest-based ads based on browsing history.

If you are located in the European Union, United Kingdom, or a jurisdiction with similar data-subject rights, you may request access to, correction of, or deletion of any personal data we hold by contacting privacy@plaininfluence.com. Because PlainInfluence does not collect identifiable personal data through the site itself, most such requests can be satisfied by confirming that no personal record exists.

Third-Party Advertising and Cookies

Google AdSense may use cookies and web beacons to serve ads based on your previous visits to this site and other sites on the web. These cookies are set by Google's advertising domain and are subject to Google's Privacy Policy. PlainInfluence does not have access to or control over the specific cookies set by Google's advertising infrastructure. Advertising revenue from Google AdSense is PlainInfluence's primary revenue source. Ad content is selected by Google's algorithms based on the page topic and, where applicable, your interest categories. PlainInfluence does not sell advertising placements directly, does not accept sponsored content, and does not allow advertisers to influence editorial coverage. The display of an advertisement does not imply endorsement of the advertiser's products or services by PlainInfluence or PlainInfluence.

Your Rights

Under GDPR, CCPA, and similar privacy regulations, you have the right to know what data is collected, request deletion, and opt out of personalized advertising.

Children's Privacy

PlainInfluence does not knowingly collect information from children under 13.

Contact

Questions about this privacy policy can be directed to privacy@plaininfluence.com.