Privacy Policy

Governance Sciences Group, Inc. (“GSG,” “we,” “us”) helps local governments make rigorous, transparent decisions. We ask public agencies to trust us with important work, so we try to be equally straightforward about the information this website collects.

This policy is written in plain language on purpose. If anything here is unclear, email us and we’ll explain.

What this policy covers

This policy applies to this website — our marketing site at governancesciences.com — and the consult-request form on it.

It does not cover:

• The FlashVote survey platform at flashvote.com. If you are a resident responding to a survey from your city, county, or district, that platform’s privacy policy applies to you.
• Information your government holds. If you are a resident of an agency that uses our tools, that agency — not GSG — controls its own records and is subject to its own public-records obligations.
• Other companies’ websites we link to.

Information we collect

Information you give us

The only place this site asks for information is the consult request form. When you fill it out, we collect what you enter — typically your name, work email address, organization, role, and a description of what you’re working on — along with any time you book with us through the scheduling step. We use this to respond to you and to keep a record of our conversations.

If you email us directly, we have whatever you put in that email.

We do not ask for, and you should not send us, sensitive personal information through this site.

Information collected automatically

Like nearly all websites, ours collects some technical information automatically when you visit: your IP address, browser and device type, the page you came from, the pages you view, and the date and time of your visit. This comes from our hosting provider’s standard server logs and from the tools listed below.

Cookies and third-party tools

We use a small number of third-party services on this site. Each one sets cookies or uses similar technologies, and each one receives some information about your visit. Here is the complete list:

About session recordings. We want to be explicit, because “session recording” sounds more invasive than it is: Hotjar reconstructs how a page was used — where a cursor moved, what was clicked, how far someone scrolled. It is not a video of you, your screen, or your camera, and it does not follow you to other websites. Hotjar’s default configuration suppresses the text typed into form fields so that what you type is not captured. We use this only to understand which parts of our site aren’t working and to fix them.

How we use information

We use the information described above to:

• Respond to consult requests and schedule conversations
• Provide the services a client agency has asked us for
• Understand which pages and topics are useful, and improve the site accordingly
• Keep the site secure and working correctly
• Meet our legal and contractual obligations

We do not use this information to make automated decisions about you, and we do not build advertising profiles.

How we share information

We do not sell or rent your personal information.

We share it only in these situations:

• Service providers. The companies listed above, plus our hosting and email providers, process information on our behalf so the site and our business can function. They are permitted to use it only to provide their service to us.
• When you ask us to. For example, connecting you with a colleague at a peer agency.
• Legal requirements. If we are legally required to disclose information — a subpoena, court order, or law-enforcement request we believe is valid — or where disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, safety, or property.
• Business transfers. If GSG is ever involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, information may transfer as part of that transaction. We would give notice before your information became subject to a materially different policy.

How long we keep information

We keep consult requests and business-contact information for as long as we need it to respond, to serve you, and to maintain a normal record of our business relationship — then we delete or de-identify it.

Analytics and session-recording data is kept for a limited retention period configured in each provider’s settings, after which it is deleted automatically by that provider.

Security

We use commercially reasonable safeguards to protect the information we hold, including encryption in transit (this site is served over HTTPS) and limiting internal access to those who need it. No website or company can promise perfect security, and we won’t pretend otherwise — but we take this seriously, and our clients’ trust depends on it.

Your choices and rights

You can decline the tracking on this site. Some options:

• Browser controls. Most browsers let you block or delete cookies, and offer a private-browsing mode. Blocking cookies will not break this site.
• Opt out of Google Analytics using Google’s browser add-on.
• Opt out of Hotjar by turning on your browser’s “Do Not Track” setting. Hotjar checks for that signal before it collects anything, so this opts you out on every site that uses Hotjar, not just ours — see Hotjar’s instructions. Note that Google Analytics does not honor Do Not Track; use the add-on above for that.
• Ask us directly. Email privacy@governancesciences.com to access, correct, or delete the information we hold about you, or to stop hearing from us. We will respond within the time the applicable law allows.

We will not retaliate against you, or refuse to work with you, for exercising any of these rights.

If you are in California

The California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended, gives California residents the right to know what personal information we collect and how we use it, to request a copy of it, to request its deletion, to correct inaccuracies, and to opt out of its sale or sharing. As stated above, we do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined by the CCPA, and we do not use or disclose sensitive personal information beyond what the law permits. To exercise any of these rights, email privacy@governancesciences.com. You may use an authorized agent, and we may need to verify your identity before we act on a request.

If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom

You have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict, or object to our processing of your personal data, to receive it in a portable form, and to withdraw consent where our processing relies on it. Where we process personal data, we do so because it is necessary to respond to your request or to perform a contract, because we have a legitimate interest in understanding and improving our website, or because you have consented. You may lodge a complaint with your national data protection authority.

Children’s privacy

This site is intended for professionals working in and with government. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has given us personal information, email us and we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will update the “last updated” date at the top of the page. If the change is material — a genuinely new use of your information — we will say so clearly rather than quietly revising the text.

Contact us

Questions, requests, or concerns about privacy:

Governance Sciences Group, Inc.
PO Box 3320
Incline Village, NV 89450
privacy@governancesciences.com