Every petition gets its own privacy policy
When you collect names and email addresses, you are responsible for explaining what happens to them. Your petition gets its own privacy policy, generated from the choices you make while creating it, and it is linked from the signature form. If you already have a policy of your own, you can point to that instead.
The two choices
| Setting | What happens |
|---|---|
| Generate automatically | We build the policy from your choices on the create page, together with the Terms of Service and the Data Processing Agreement you accepted. |
| Use my own URL | You give the web address of your own privacy policy and the signature form links there. |
The setting is called Privacy policy for processing the personal data of the signatories and it sits in the step Signatories on the create page.
What the generated policy says
- Who the data controller is: your name as the petition author, your country, and for an organization its registration number. There is a link for signatories to contact you.
- What is collected: exactly the fields your signature form asks for, nothing else. A field you turned off does not appear.
- What it is used for: the purposes you defined, with the legal basis stated as the signatory's consent. Decision-makers you named are listed by name.
- How long it is kept: your retention choice, with the date by which the personal data is deleted.
- Who processes the data: this service, as your data processor, under the Data Processing Agreement.
- Disclosures: if a decision-maker has downloaded the list of signatories through this site, that recipient is listed.
- The rights of signatories, including the right to withdraw consent at any time.
Why it is generated instead of written
A privacy policy that does not match the form is worse than none: it says you collect something you do not, or stays silent about something you do. Because this policy is built from the petition's live settings, it cannot drift. Add a phone number field or a new purpose, and the policy says so the same minute. Remove one, and it stops claiming it.
The policy also states that it reflects your choices and will change with them, so a signatory who returns can see the current version rather than a snapshot.
Who it helps
Anyone who is not a lawyer and still has to act as a data controller. A parent collecting signatures for a crossing, an association asking for a change in a bylaw, a group of neighbors who will hand a list to a council. All of them need a policy that a signatory, and if necessary a supervisory authority, can read. None of them should have to draft one.
Limits and good to know
- The generated policy covers the processing that happens through this service. It does not cover what you do with a signature list after you have downloaded it.
- Your own privacy policy address has to point to a specific policy page, not to the front page of a website, and it cannot point to a page on this site.
- If you give your own address, your retention choice is not shown in a policy generated by us, because your own page is the policy.
- The generated policy relies on your settings being honest. It describes what you chose, not what you intended.
Questions and answers
Do I have to write the privacy policy myself?
No. Choose "Generate automatically" and the policy is built from your own choices on the create page.
Who is the data controller?
You, the petition author. You decide what is collected, why and for how long. We act as the data processor and handle the data on your instructions.
Can I use my own privacy policy?
Yes. Choose "Use my own URL" and give the web address of the page. It has to be a specific policy page, not the front page of a website, and it cannot be a page on this site.
What happens if I change what the form asks?
The policy follows the change immediately. It is generated from the petition's current settings, not stored as a copy.
Can signatories see it before they sign?
Yes. The signature form links to the petition's privacy policy.