Terms of Use & Privacy Notice

1. Introduction

The Change Dialogues program (the "Program") is operated by Change.org, PBC ("Change.org," "we," or "us"). The Program invites participants to share and vote on ideas concerning civic issues through an embedded tool. By accessing or using the Program site, you ("you" or "participant") agree to these Terms of Use and our privacy practices outlined below.

This Program processes limited personal data (defined below) solely for civic‑engagement and research purposes and does not sell or "share" personal information for cross‑context behavioral advertising (including for participants under 16). Pol.is, Vercel (hosting & runtime logs), and Amplitude (website analytics) act as our service provider/processor for this Program.

2. Eligibility

Age Restriction. Participation is open to individuals 16 or older. Individuals under 16 may not participate. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 16.

No Account Creation. You may participate without registering for a Change.org account. By submitting comments or votes, you consent to processing as described below.

3. Acceptable Use

Lawful and Respectful Conduct: You must comply with all applicable laws and respect the rights of others. Do not post unlawful, defamatory, harassing, or infringing content. We reserve the right to remove content or terminate participation for violations. In addition to the requirements below, you must comply with Change.org's Community Guidelines.

Public Nature of Content: All statements and votes you submit may be publicly visible and may be viewed by other participants, Change.org staff, and municipal partners. Your submissions are not confidential; do not include personal information about yourself or others that you do not wish to be public. Do not include home addresses, school names, or contact details in any submission. You may not submit content that includes other people's personal data (e.g., names, phone numbers) without their consent.

4. User Submissions and License

You retain ownership of the content you submit, but you grant Change.org a worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free license to host, copy, publicly display, and create derivative works from your submissions for purposes related to civic engagement, research, and reporting. This license is non‑exclusive, and you retain moral rights where applicable. We may aggregate and anonymize submissions and share them with third parties, including municipal authorities, for evaluation and public reporting.

5. Disclaimer of Affiliation

This Program is facilitated by Change.org. It may not necessarily be endorsed by or affiliated with any city government. References to a city name indicate the geographic focus of the deliberation, not necessarily an official partnership.

6. Privacy Notice

6.1 Information Collected

Pol.is Data. When you vote or submit statements through the embedded Pol.is tool, Pol.is collects your IP address, browser/device information, cookie or local‑storage identifiers, timestamps, and the content of your statements and votes, and processes this data on our behalf. Pol.is's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy apply to your use of the tool.

Optional Survey Data (Contact and Demographics). If you complete our optional surveys to express interest in participating in events, we collect your contact information (e.g. name, email address, phone number) and demographics (e.g., age range, city). You may choose not to answer. We do not sell or "share" this information for cross-context behavioral advertising and do not link it to your public statements/votes.

Website Analytics. Change.org collects limited analytics (e.g., page views, time of access, referral links) to ensure service stability and understand usage patterns. We do not use cross‑context behavioral advertising cookies for this Program.

6.2 How We Use Your Information

We use the information described above to:

• Facilitate the civic discussion, display your submissions, and allow voting;
• Analyze and summarize responses for research, reporting, and presentation to the general public and municipal stakeholders;
• Maintain security and detect misuse or technical issues;
• Understand usage patterns of the program to improve reliability and user experience;
• Comply with legal obligations.

We may share aggregated or anonymized data with government bodies or the public but will not share your optional contact information or demographic responses in identifiable form without your consent or as required by law.

6.3 Data Retention

We retain submissions and associated data for as long as necessary to complete the Program, produce reports, and comply with legal obligations. We may store anonymized summaries indefinitely for research and archival purposes.

6.4 Your Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to request access to, correct, or delete personal data we hold about you. To exercise these rights, contact us at: civic-dialogue@change.org with the subject line "Change Dialogues Program – Data Request". We will respond consistent with applicable law. Due to the anonymous nature of participation, we may not be able to identify or retrieve your specific contributions. Data rights requests will be handled to the extent technically feasible. Residents of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Utah and other jurisdictions may also request to opt‑out of sale/sharing or profiling; we do not engage in those practices for this Program, but we will honor applicable requests.

6.5 International Users

Your data may be processed in countries other than your own, including the United States. This includes processing by our third-party service providers: Pol.is, Vercel, Amplitude. By participating, you consent to the transfer of your information to the United States and other jurisdictions that may have different data protection laws. If you are in the EEA/UK, our lawful basis is legitimate interests to run the Program; for optional demographics we rely on your consent.

7. Disclaimers and Limitation of Liability

No Official Decisions: The Program is an experimental civic engagement exercise. Participation does not guarantee any specific governmental action.

No Warranty: We provide the Program "as is" without warranties of any kind. We are not liable for any indirect or consequential damages arising out of your use of the Program.

8. Changes to These Terms

We may modify these terms and privacy notice for this Program from time to time. If we make material changes, we will update the date at the top of this document and, if feasible, provide additional notice. Continued participation constitutes your acceptance of the revised terms.

9. Contact Information

For questions about these Terms, this Privacy Notice, or your data, contact: civic-dialogue@change.org or write to: Change.org, 548 Market Street, #29993, San Francisco, CA 94104-5401, USA.