Privacy

how2vote is built to know as little about you as possible. There is no account and no login. Your answers are worked out and kept on your own device, and the tool works fully offline. The one exception is optional, opt-in analytics, described below — you decide, and your choice never changes your card.

Your answers stay on your device

Your ballot selection and answers are saved only in your browser's local storage, so you can close the tab and come back. Nothing about your answers is sent to us. Clearing the site's data, or choosing “start again”, removes it.

Sharing a card

When you share your card, your answers are packed into the part of the link after the # — the URL fragment. Browsers never send the fragment to a server, so your answers are not transmitted or logged when a link is opened; the card is recomputed on the recipient's own device. Anyone with the link can see the card it encodes, so share it only with people you choose.

Cards you save

On your card you can choose Save on this device to keep it for later. Saved cards are stored only in this browser's local storage — the same place your answers live — and are never uploaded to us or anyone else. Each saved card is just its shareable link plus the electorate name and the date you saved it; because the answers already travel inside the link, nothing extra about them is stored. Saving is always your choice — nothing is kept unless you ask for it. You can delete any saved card, or clear them all, from the Saved cards page at any time, and clearing the site's browser data removes them too.

Analytics (optional, off by default)

We'd like to understand, in aggregate, how the tool is used — how many people reach the quiz and how many how-to-vote cards are generated — so we can make it better. To do that we use Google Analytics 4. It is off until you turn it on. When you first visit, a banner lets you accept or reject; you can change your mind at any time.

We use Google Consent Mode, so before you grant analytics consent Google Analytics sets no cookies and only Google's aggregate, cookieless measurement applies. If you accept, it sets the cookies listed below to measure returning visits. We do not collect your name or contact details, we do not use analytics for advertising, and the data is only ever reported to us in aggregate — it is never used to identify you.

Change your privacy preferences

Protecting the forms from spam

The feedback widget and contact form are protected by Google reCAPTCHA v3, which helps us tell real people from bots so we're not buried in spam. It is invisible — there is no puzzle to solve — and it runs only when you submit one of those forms, never just from browsing the site. At that point it sends technical signals about the request to Google to score it, and Google may set a _GRECAPTCHA cookie. Your use of reCAPTCHA is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. We use it purely as a security measure and never for advertising.

Third-party services we use

The list below is generated automatically from our internal service registry, so it always reflects exactly what this site can load, the category each service falls under, and the cookies it may set. Fonts and everything else the app needs are served from our own domain, so they are not third parties.

The optional research survey

After your card you may answer up to eight optional demographic questions. These never affect your card. If you choose to answer, the responses — plus your electorate and answers, with no name or contact details — are sent to a separate, dedicated research service to study how views map to voting records in aggregate. Every question has a “prefer not to say” option, and skipping the survey entirely changes nothing about your card. When the research service is live, its full data schema and retention policy will be published here.

Works offline

Because the quiz, the scoring and the card all run on your device, the tool works with no network connection — including opening a shared link in a polling place with no signal. Analytics needs a connection, so nothing is sent while you are offline; it never blocks the tool.

The vote data

Parliamentary voting data is sourced from They Vote For You (OpenAustralia Foundation) under the Open Database Licence and is about elected representatives, not about you.