Privacy Policy

What This Policy Covers

This policy applies to the pages and tools hosted on USGovShutdown, including the home page, shutdown guides, contact tools, email and phone-script generators, the live status tracker, and the news section.

It describes what information the site receives, how that information is used, and when data may be shared with third-party services that help the site function.

Information We Collect

We try to keep collection to a minimum. The site does not have user accounts, paid subscriptions, or a comments system. In normal use, the site does not ask you to give us a name, phone number, address, or email address.

• Automatic technical information. When you visit the site, your browser and hosting provider may automatically receive standard technical data such as your IP address, browser type, device type, pages visited, date and time of access, and referring page.
• Analytics data. Google Analytics may collect page views, session information, approximate location, device and browser information, and cookie-based identifiers so we can understand how the site is used.
• Browser-stored settings. The contact checklist on the contact toolkit uses browser localStorage to remember which boxes you checked on that device.
• Outbound information you choose to send elsewhere. If you use the House ZIP lookup or visit official government links, any information you send goes directly to that third party, not to USGovShutdown.

How We Use Information

We use the limited information described above to keep the site working, improve content, understand which pages are useful, and maintain basic security and troubleshooting logs.

• Measure overall traffic, popular pages, and general usage trends.
• Remember checklist state in the browser so you do not have to re-check items each visit.
• Serve page content, charts, and news data.
• Diagnose technical problems and protect the site from abuse.

Cookies, Local Storage, and Similar Technologies

The site itself does not currently use a cookie banner. Google Analytics and any future ad services may use cookies or similar identifiers. Browser localStorage is also used by some tools to save settings locally on your device.

• Google Analytics cookies. Analytics uses cookies and related identifiers to understand returning visits and site performance.
• LocalStorage. The contact checklist saves state only in your browser. We do not receive the checklist selections on our servers.
• Clipboard access. Copy buttons on the email and phone tools can copy generated text to your clipboard when you click them. The copied text stays on your device unless you paste it somewhere else.
• Browser cache. Your browser may cache fonts, scripts, images, and charts from our site and from third-party CDNs.

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors use the site and to improve content and navigation. Google may process information such as page views, session duration, approximate location, browser and device details, and cookie-based identifiers.

We do not use Analytics to intentionally identify you by name, and we do not combine Analytics data with a user account system because the site does not have one.

Advertising

At the time of this policy, USGovShutdown does not run display advertising. If we add Google AdSense or another ad network later, we will update this policy to disclose the ad partners we use, the types of cookies or similar technologies they may set, and the opt-out choices available to users.

If ad personalization is enabled in the future, the advertising network may use cookies or similar identifiers to serve ads based on visits to this site and other sites. Any such change will be reflected here before the ads are broadly deployed.

Third-Party Services and Links

The site relies on several third-party services and external links to function. Those services have their own privacy policies and terms.

• Google Tag Manager / Google Analytics. Used for analytics and measurement.
• Google Fonts. Used to load the site fonts.
• jsDelivr. Used to load Chart.js and the chart data-labels plugin on the home page.
• Google News RSS via /api/news. Our server fetches a public Google News RSS feed to power the news section. We do not send your personal message text or checklist data to Google News.
• House.gov and Senate.gov. The contact toolkit sends you to official congressional lookup and contact pages. If you enter your ZIP code into the House lookup form, that ZIP code is sent directly to House.gov.
• Other official sources. Many pages link to Congress.gov, govinfo.gov, OMB, OPM, SSA, DHS, and other official sources. When you click those links, you are subject to their policies and the normal data handling that happens on those sites.

Forms and Tool Inputs

The site has a few interactive tools, but they are designed to keep data local unless you choose to send it to another site.

• Contact toolkit ZIP lookup. The ZIP code you enter is submitted directly to House.gov so that House.gov can locate your representative.
• Email template and phone script tools. The text you type into these tools stays in your browser while the page is open. It is not sent to us automatically.
• Senate selector. Choosing a state in the Senate tool changes the outgoing link in your browser. It does not submit personal data to us.
• News refresh button. Refreshing news makes a browser request to our own site, which then fetches a public RSS feed from Google News.

Data Retention and Security

We keep only the minimal information needed to operate the site and to review aggregate analytics and server logs. Browser-stored checklist data remains on your device until you clear it or use the clear button provided by the tool.

No online system is perfectly secure, but we try to limit data collection, use standard hosting controls, and avoid collecting sensitive information we do not need.

Your Choices

• You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings.
• You can clear localStorage for this site by clearing site data in your browser.
• You can avoid using the House ZIP lookup if you do not want to send your ZIP code to House.gov.
• You can use browser or network-level tools to limit Analytics or advertising-related tracking, where available.

Children

This site is intended for a general audience and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

Changes to This Policy

If the site adds new features, tracking tools, or advertising partners, we will update this policy so that it stays accurate. The date at the top of this page will reflect the latest revision.

Contact

If you have a question about this policy or the site, email usagovshutdown@gmail.com.