Do you share my personal data?
Our privacy policy is simple: We never store, share, or sell any data that you provide us. We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization funded by donations from the public. We do not “monetize” your data. We never will.
How do you protect my secret ballot?
The technology is designed specifically so that we don't know which piece of legislation you are voting on. When a voter is registered on the app, they are issued an electronic voting token which is used to submit their votes. This token is used to record votes on the Blockchain. Anyone can see the Blockchain because it's available to the public, but the owner of the token is anonymous so that nobody can see who voted for a given piece of legislation. This allows us to have confidence that all votes cast are real, and that the Blockchain itself cannot be manipulated, while still protecting the secret ballot.
Why do you need my personal data?
There are two key points where we need your personal data to ensure the security of our mobile voting system. First, we must verify that you are a real human being, not a bot or hacker. We do this by asking you to take a selfie and upload a photo ID. Once verification is complete, we delete your images. Second, we must check that you are a US citizen and a resident of the State by matching you to the state voter database. We will ask for your name, birth date, and zip code to do this. Once verification is complete . . . we delete.
Who funds this project?
Startup resources for the Digital Democracy Project have been provided by generous contributions from our leadership team and members of the Board, all of whom are volunteering their time, talents, and personal funds to get this launched. Our goal is to be entirely funded by small individual donations from members of the public. We use the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organization behind Wikipedia, as our ideal growth model. This will allow the project to work as a public resource, not beholden to individual wealthy donors, foundations, politicians or corporations.
What is your relationship with Voatz?
Voatz is a Boston-based software company with whom we have partnered to launch the Digital Democracy Project. Voatz provides the mobile app itself, which has been trusted by several states for its high level of security, transparency, and reliability. Voting Rights Brigade, being a 501(c)(3) focused on voter access, has been granted authority by the State of Florida to check voters against the voter file. We also provide all of the legislative content that goes into each ballot. In summary, Voatz provides the software while we validate voters and curate the content.
Do you conduct independent security audits?
We chose to partner with Voatz, because they have been selected by several states and municipalities to run elections for military overseas voters and for voters with disabilities who can't get to the polls. As such, they always follow stringent rules for cyber security, privacy, and auditing. Voatz has already submitted to several third-party audits, and they publish the results on their website: https://new.voatz.com/audits/
Do you allow algorithms to choose which bills the voters can see?
No. Although there are many bills that move through the legislature during each session, we currently do not algorithmically show bills to voters based on a machine learning model that predicts their preferences (e.g., a recommendation engine). We prioritize bills based on three simple factors:
The bill affects the whole State of Florida.
The bill has a high likelihood of coming to a floor vote, so that all legislators will vote on it.
(Tiebreaker) The bill is receiving a lot of coverage in the press.