Privacy Policy

Last Updated: March 13, 2025

Free Our Vote, Inc. (“Free Our Vote,” “our,” “us,” or “we”) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) that develops innovative solutions to restore voting rights and dignity for people with past felony convictions and their families (“System-Impacted People”).  We are committed to protecting the privacy and security of our website visitors’ information and the System-Impacted People we interact with (“you”).  We want you to understand how we collect and use information from our website, freeourvote.org, and all affiliated websites and subdomains (the “Site”), as well as from third parties, commercially available sources, publicly available sources, and our related services, to provide information and resources to System-Impacted People (together with the Site, the “Services”) so you can interact with us with confidence.  By interacting with us and using the Services, you accept and agree to the practices described in this Privacy Policy.  If you do not agree to any of the terms in this Privacy Policy, you should not use the Services.  If at any time you would like to opt out of data collection or communications from us, please see the below information on your choices for opting out. 

Information We Collect

In short, Free Our Vote collects information relevant to an individual's voter eligibility, criminal history, and any associated court fees in order to further our mission of restoring voter rights and supporting System-Impacted People.  To do so, we collect publicly available information from government databases, voter rolls, and court records; commercially available information from our partners; and information directly from you when you share your information with us or use our Services. 

Accordingly, we may collect, store, and process various kinds of data, including Personal Information about you.  “Personal Information” refers to information about you that can be used to identify you, such as your name, address, telephone number, email address, credit card (or donation payment) information, voter registration status, and criminal record history.

In general, we obtain information in the following ways:

• From Commercially and Publicly Available Sources.  For example, we may obtain information about you from publicly available records, like public court and voting records, and combine it with information we receive, directly or indirectly, from you. We may also purchase information from third parties, including physical addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, etc.   

• From Service Providers. For example, third-party vendors that monitor and analyze the use of our Service or other third-party vendors that we use to contact you with helpful information and resources, or to otherwise provide our Services.

• Directly from you. For example, when you sign up for and voluntarily submit information on our Services.

• Indirectly from you.  For example, from observing your activity on our Services.

Specifically, we may collect, store, or process information from you when you:

• Register on or submit a form on our Site;

• Contact us with inquiries, including via email;

• Subscribe to our newsletter or otherwise sign up to receive communications;

• Make a donation;

• Visit our Site and/or use our Services; and/or 

• Voluntarily provide information.

We may also collect details of your visit to our Site and the pages you access, including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs, and other communication data, as well as your IP address, browser type, the date and time you accessed or left the Site, and which pages you viewed.  Some parts of our Site use cookies and other technologies to collect this information about your general internet usage.  See the “How We Use Tracking Technologies” section below to learn more.

How We Use Your Information

Any Personal Information collected by us will be exclusively used for voter education, registration, and participation; conviction expungement; connecting System-Impacted People with reintegration efforts, resources, and other benefits; processing donations; and otherwise supporting these efforts.  Free Our Vote is non-partisan.  In compliance with non-partisan guidelines, we will not use any Personal Information for any political advocacy or party-affiliated activities.

Specifically, we use your information for the following purposes:

• To contact you.  For example, to enable us, our affiliates, and our third-party nonprofit partners to contact and support System-Impacted People via text, mail, email, phone, etc., with information regarding voter education, registration, and participation; conviction expungement; services, benefits, and resources to support reintegration, as well as news, updates, or related information, etc.  To communicate with our current and potential donors, academic and research affiliates, and nonprofit partners, we may send periodic texts, mail, and emails relating to donations or other opportunities, as well as occasional news, updates, related information, etc.; 

• To process donations. We believe that you should have control over who receives the Personal Information you provide to us as a donor. We do not rent, trade, sell, or share Personal Information received in connection with donations with third parties other than in the circumstances described herein.  We do not send donor mailings on behalf of other organizations; 

• To provide, maintain, and improve our Services; 

• To personalize your experience;

• To provide you with information or services that you request from us;

• To fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it;

• To notify you about changes to the Services we offer;

• To allow you to participate in any interactive features of our Services;

• In any other way, we may describe when you provide the information;

• To perform analytics to learn about the behavior of our Service users; 

• With your permission, to send you emails about our Services, relevant news, and other updates; 

• For any other purpose with your consent;

• To enforce this policy or other legal requirements; and/or

• To evaluate or conduct a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by us about our Site visitors is among the assets transferred.

How We Use Tracking Technologies

We use cookies (small text files stored in your browser) and other techniques such as web beacons (small, clear picture files used to follow your online activities) (“Tracking Technologies”). Tracking Technologies collect information that tells us how you use our Site, web-related Services. The use of Tracking Technologies does not give us access to the rest of your computer.

This, in turn, helps us make our Services relevant to your interests and needs.  We use a number of different Tracking Technologies, including functional, performance, advertising, and social media or content cookies.  

“Do Not Track” Requests

Our Site currently does not respond to “do not track” or similar signals.

How We Share Your Personal Information

Free Our Vote only shares information when necessary or helpful to further our mission of restoring voting rights and dignity for System-Impacted People.  For example,  Free Our Vote may share certain relevant data with other nonprofit partners pertaining to individuals with past felony convictions and their voter eligibility status.  We only share data with nonprofit partners and affiliates who sign a partnership agreement with responsible data practices outlined.  In such instances, shared data may only be used by the nonprofit partner to assist with or to provide information on voter education, registration, and participation; conviction expungement; connecting System-Impacted People with reintegration efforts and other benefits; to facilitate donations; and to otherwise support those efforts.

Specifically, we may disclose your Personal Information as follows:

• With affiliates, contractors, service providers, and other third parties used to support our Services, including our nonprofit partners;

• To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it.

• With third-party affiliates, as necessary, to contact you and/or to provide you information, resources, and Services;

• For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information;

• For any purpose with your consent.

• To a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which Personal Information held by us about the Website users is among the assets transferred;

• To enforce any agreement, including any applicable terms of service;

• To establish or exercise our right to defend against legal claims;

• In very limited and specific circumstances, and only if we reasonably believe that it is necessary, to law enforcement and other government authorities such as legislatures, courts, agencies and litigants to: (a) comply with the law and the reasonable requests of governmental authorities; (b) comply with legal process; (c) respond to requests from public or government authorities, including public or government authorities outside your country of residence; (d) protect the security or integrity of the Services’ information systems; and/or (e) exercise or protect our rights, privacy, and safety or those of affiliates, clients, you, or others; and/or

• If we reasonably believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect our rights, property, or safety or that of others.

Payment Information

When you make a donation on our Site, you may be taken to the website of one of our third-party payment processors, including, but not limited to, Stripe. The third-party payment processor will either collect or have access to your first and last name, zip code, postal address, email address, payment amount, billing information, and payment card information. In order to facilitate donation processing, some third-party payment processors may share certain information necessary for payment processing with other third-party payment processors, including credit card data. Please review the terms of service and privacy policies of those third-party payment processors to learn how they protect your information.  

How Do We Protect Your Information?

To protect your Personal Information, we take commercially reasonable precautions and follow industry best practices to make sure it is not inappropriately lost, misused, accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed. However, no data protection procedures are entirely infallible. As a result, while we strive to protect your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee that it will be 100% secure. The transmission of your information to us thus is done entirely at your own risk.

Your Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information (Opt-Out Options)

We strive to provide you with choices regarding the personal information you provide to us. We have created mechanisms to provide you with the following control over your information:

• Text and Email Communications.  You can opt out of receiving text and email communications from us by clicking the unsubscribe link or following the unsubscribe instructions in the text or email.
  
  

• Request Removal/Deletion/Correction.  If you wish to request that we delete or correct your Personal Information or to be removed from our mailing lists, pursuant to applicable laws and regulations requiring such deletion, you may make such a request by emailing info@freeourvote.org or by using the contact information at the end of this Privacy Policy.  More information regarding the rights to deletion and/or correction under the California Privacy Rights Act is included below.  Please note that the rights to deletion and/or correction are not absolute, and we may be entitled to refuse requests, wholly or in part, where exceptions under applicable law apply. 
  
  

• Tracking Technologies. Most browsers accept cookies automatically. You may be able to set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies or to alert you when cookies are being sent. For instructions, check your browser’s technical information. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this Site may be inaccessible or not function properly.  However, you can still place orders over the telephone or by contacting customer service.  Please note that cookie-based opt-outs must be performed on each device and browser you wish to have opted out of. 
  
  

• Disclosure of Your Information to Nonprofit Partners. If you want us to stop including your Personal Information in the data we share with our nonprofit partners, you can send an email to info@freeourvote.org.  If you would like our nonprofit partners to delete information they have already received, please contact those organizations  directly.              
  
  

• Google Analytics. We may use Google Analytics to improve our Site’s functions.  You can choose not to be included in Google Analytics by visiting https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Third-Party Websites and Social Media

Our Site may contain links to other sites, including those of third parties or partners.  While we seek to link only to sites that share our high standards and respect for privacy, we cannot be responsible for the privacy practices other websites use.  By accessing other third-party websites or applications through our Site, you are consenting to the terms and privacy policies of those websites.  It is possible that other parties may collect personally identifiable information about your online activities over time and across different websites when you use our Site.

Our Site may include social media features, including without limitation, Instagram, LinkedIn, Bluesky, and X.  These social media features may require cookies to be set to function properly.  These features may also collect Personal Information, such as your IP address.  These features are governed by the Privacy Policy of the social media platform.  Please review the Privacy Policy of the social media platforms to learn how they protect your information.

Users Only of Legal Age of Majority

Our Services are not intended for children under 18 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18. If you are under 18, do not use or provide any information on these Services or on or through any of its features, register on the Services, or provide any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, email address, or any screen name or username you may use. If we learn we have collected or received Personal Information from a child under 18 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 18 without verifiable parental consent, please contact us at info@freeourvote.org.

Review and Correction of Your Information

You may review and edit the information we collect about you at any time by contacting us at the addresses listed at the end of this Privacy Policy.  If your information has been shared with a third party, as described elsewhere in this Privacy Policy, then that third party has received its own copy of your data.  If you have been contacted by one of these third parties and wish to correct or delete your information, please contact them directly.

International Visitors

Our Site is hosted and operated in the United States (“US”).  By using this Site, you consent to transferring your Personal Information to the US.  If you are accessing our Site from outside the US, please be advised that US law may not offer the same privacy protections as the law of your jurisdiction. 

California Visitors

California’s “Shine the Light” law (Civil Code Section § 1798.83) permits California residents who use our Website to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please send an email to info@freeourvote.org. 

The following disclosures apply to those who reside in the State of California (“you” or “Consumer”) and are made by us to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CCPA), and any terms defined in the CCPA have the same meaning when used in this Policy. 

Collection of Personal Information

We collect the Personal Information and Sensitive Personal Information categories listed below:

Personal Information does not include publicly available information lawfully made available from government records, deidentified or aggregated consumer information, or information excluded from the CCPA.

Use of Personal Information

We may use or disclose the Personal Information as discussed in this Privacy Policy. 

We will not collect additional categories of Personal Information or use the personal information we collect for material different, unrelated, or incompatible purposes without providing you with notice. 

Retention

We maintain your Personal Information and Sensitive Personal Information for as long as necessary to fulfill our business purpose, as discussed in the Section “How We Use Your Personal Information” in our Privacy Policy.  

Your California Rights

Residents of the California have certain rights.  Please note that the below rights are not absolute, and we may be entitled to refuse requests, wholly or in part, where exceptions under applicable law apply. 

Right to Access

You have the right to access Personal Information that we may collect or retain about you.  If requested, we shall provide you with a copy of your Personal Information that we collected as permitted by the CCPA.

You also have the right to receive your Personal Information in a structured and commonly used format so that it can be transferred to another entity (“data portability”). 

Right to Know

You have the right to request that we disclose the following about your Personal Information, as defined by the CCPA:

• The specific Personal Information we may collect;

• The categories of Personal Information we may collect;

• The categories of sources from which we may collect your Personal Information;

• The business purpose(s) for collecting or sharing your Personal Information;

• The categories of Personal Information we may disclose for business purposes; and

• The categories of third parties with whom we may share your Personal Information. 

Right to Opt Out/Do Not Sell My Personal Information

You have the right to opt out of sharing your Personal Information with third parties for some purposes, including sharing that may be defined as a sale under applicable laws.  You can opt out of this sharing by emailing info@freeourvote.org and discontinuing use of the Services. 

You also may have a right to opt out of the use of curtained automated decision-making technology.  

Do Not Share or Disclose My Sensitive Personal Information

You have the right to limit how your Sensitive Personal Information is used or disclosed to third parties.  You can opt out of this sharing by emailing info@freeourvote.org and discontinuing use of the Services. 

Right to Deletion

In certain circumstances, you have the right to request that we delete any of your Personal Information that we collected and retained, subject to certain exceptions. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable consumer request (instructions and description below), we will delete and, as applicable, direct our service providers to delete your Personal Information from our records unless an exception applies.

We may deny your request to delete your Personal Information if retaining the information is necessary for us or our service providers, subject to certain exemptions in the CCPA.

Right to Correct/Right to Rectification

In certain circumstances, you have the right to request correction of any inaccurate Personal Information.  Upon verifying the validity of a valid consumer correction request, we will use commercially reasonable efforts to correct your Personal Information as directed, taking into account the nature of the Personal Information and the purposes of maintaining your Personal Information. 

Right to Non-Discrimination

We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your rights under the CCPA.  Unless permitted by the CCPA, we will not: 

• Deny you goods or services;

• Charge you different prices or rates for goods or services, including through granting discounts or other benefits or imposing penalties;

• Provide you with a different level or quality of goods or services; or

• Suggest that you receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services. 

Exercising Your Rights

If you are a resident of California, you can exercise any of your rights as described in this Policy and under the CCPA by emailing info@freeourvote.org or by using the contact information at the end of this Privacy Policy. Except as provided for under applicable privacy laws, there is no charge to exercise any of your legal rights.  However, if your requests are manifestly unfounded or excessive, in particular, because of their repetitive character, we may (as permitted under the CCPA):

• Charge a reasonable fee, taking into account the administrative costs of providing the information or taking the action requested, or 

• Refuse to act on the request and notify you of the reason for refusing the request. 

What Personal Information Do I Provide to Verify My Identity?

We take the privacy of your Personal Information seriously and want to ensure that we provide only you or your authorized agent with your Personal Information. Applicable law also requires that we verify the identity of each person who requests to know what Personal Information we have about you or to delete the Personal Information we have about you.  To verify your identity, we may ask you to provide your:

• First name*

• Last name*

• Middle initial

• Email address*

• Phone number

• *required field

How Do You Verify My Identity?

We may verify your identity in a few different ways to balance CCPA requirements and our obligation to keep your information private.  When you make your request, you may be asked to answer a few questions about yourself to help us validate your identity. This is a two-step process using information unique to you, such as an address, email address, etc. 

In some instances, we may ask you to provide other documentation to verify your identity.  If this happens, we will reach out to you directly with this request.

What If You Can’t Verify My Identity?

If we can’t verify your identity, we will not be able to process your request to know what Personal Information we have about you or delete the Personal Information we have about you.  If we are unable to verify your identity with a high degree of certainty, we will only be able to provide a report with category-level information and we may not be able to delete some of your information.

How to Submit a Request Using an Authorized Agent

An authorized agent is a person or business who has authorization to request to know what Personal Information we have about you, to delete the Personal Information we have about you, or to opt out of the sale of Personal Information on behalf of a California resident. Authorized agents use the same links described above to submit requests.

If you submit a request on behalf of another person, we require a valid power of attorney or other documentation demonstrating your authority to submit this request.  This can be a letter or other documentation signed by the California resident authorizing you to submit this request. You can download a sample letter from the request form.

How To Send Documentation

If you submit a request via email at info@freeourvote.org or by using the contact information at the end of this Privacy Policy, you must include the appropriate documentation listed above in order for us to act on your request. 

Response Timing and Format

We will aim to confirm receipt of a request within ten (10) days and provide information about how we will process the request. We endeavor to substantively respond to a verifiable consumer request within forty-five (45) days of receipt.  If we require more time (up to ninety (90) days), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing.  If you have an account with us, we will send our written response to that account. If you do not have an account with us, we will deliver our written response by mail or electronically at your option. Any disclosure we provide will only cover the twelve-month period preceding the receipt of the verifiable consumer request. Our response will also explain the reasons we cannot comply with a request, if applicable. For data portability requests, we will select a readily usable format to provide your Personal Information, which should allow you to transmit the information from one entity to another without hindrance.

We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your verifiable consumer request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded.  If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide a cost estimate before completing your request.

If you wish to appeal our decision, please submit your appeal to the email address above (info@freeourvote.org).  Please clearly denote that the email is an appeal.

European Union Visitors

For our customers residing in the European Economic Area (EEA), the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) may be applicable.  The GDPR provides a framework for organizations to protect the personal information of European citizens and gives European citizens certain rights. 

Legal Basis for Processing

If you are an individual located in the EEA, United Kingdom, or Switzerland, our legal basis for processing your personal information will depend on the personal information concerned and the specific context in which it is collected.  However, we will normally collect or process personal information from you only where:

• We have your consent to do so, or

• We need the personal information to perform a contract with you (e.g., to deliver services).

In some cases, we may also have a legal obligation to process your Personal Information from you or may need the Personal Information to protect your vital interests or those of another person.  If we rely on your consent to process the Personal Information, you have the right to withdraw or decline your consent at any time in writing or as otherwise permitted.  Please note that this does not affect the lawfulness of the processing based on consent before withdrawal, nor will it affect the processing of your Personal Information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent.

Retention

We will retain your Personal Information for as long as needed to fulfill the purposes for which we collected it, including satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law. 

Rights to Access and Control Your Personal Data

Individuals residing in the European Economic Area, United Kingdom, and Switzerland have certain rights to access and control their personal data.  These rights include:

• The right to be informed;

• The right of access;

• The right to rectification;

• The right to erasure;

• The right to restrict processing;

• The right to data portability;

• The right to object; and

• Rights in relation to automated decision-making and profiling.

For a full list of rights, please visit www.gdpr.eu.

Privacy Policy Updates

We update the Privacy Policy from time to time, so please review it regularly.  If we materially change our Privacy Policy, we will notify you by posting a notice on our Site. Your continued use of our Site will be deemed your agreement that your information may be used in accordance with the new policy.  If you do not agree with the changes, you should stop using the Site and notify us that you do not want your information used in accordance with the changes. 

Contacting Us

We welcome any questions, comments, or complaints you may have regarding this Privacy Policy.  Please do not hesitate to contact us by email at info@freeourvote.org or by writing to us: 

6900 Wisconsin Ave
PO. Box #41024 
Bethesda, MD, 20824