Privacy Policy
Effective October 14, 2026
The short version
- We only collect what you give us, and we use it only to send you what you asked for.
- Only the site's operator can see your information. We never sell, rent or share it with campaigns, organizations, legislators or anyone else.
- Your bill votes, watchlist and quiz answers stay in your own browser unless you sign up.
- Climb the Ladder saves your answers anonymously, and what you write only if you choose to share it. You can turn this off on that page.
- Every email has an unsubscribe link, and you can ask us to delete everything at any time.
Who we are
Beehive Bills (beehivebills.com) is an independent, nonpartisan tracker of the Utah Legislature. It is not affiliated with the Utah State Legislature or any campaign, party or advocacy organization. Questions about this policy go to [email protected].
What we collect
| When | What | Where it's kept |
|---|---|---|
| You sign up | Name, email, ZIP code, your House and Senate districts and legislators, and anything optional you choose to share: phone number, how you describe yourself, political views, issues and organizations you follow, and how often you want email. | A private Google Sheet |
| You look up your legislators by address | The address you enter, the districts it falls in, and your legislators. | If you're signed up, with your profile in the private Google Sheet. If not, only in your own browser. |
| You turn on alerts for a bill | Your email, the bill, your districts if you've saved them, and when you signed up, confirmed or stopped alerts. | A separate private Google Sheet for alerts |
| You use the site without signing up | Your bill votes, watchlist, saved legislators, quiz answers, the bills you said you contacted legislators about, and settings. | Only in your own browser. They aren't sent to us. |
| You finish a challenge on Climb the Ladder | Which prompt or bill, its topic, where you said you lean, how sure you were before and after, the date, and a random code made by your browser so repeat answers can be counted once. What you wrote, only if you tick "Share what I wrote, anonymously." No name, email or address is attached. | A separate private Google Sheet, unless you turn saving off on the Climb page |
| Anyone visits | Pages viewed, approximate location (city level), device and browser type, collected by Google Analytics with cookies. Our host also keeps standard technical logs. | Google Analytics and Cloudflare |
We don't ask for your full address unless you use it to find your legislators, and we never ask for passwords, payment details or government ID.
Messages you write in "Contact your legislators" are sent from your own email or phone. We never see them.
How we use it
- Email you asked for: your digest, confirmations, and alerts for bills you chose: when a bill is scheduled for a hearing, its hearing moves or is pulled, or it gets a floor vote, including how your own legislators voted.
- Showing you your legislators and how their votes compare with yours.
- Improving the site, using visit counts and which pages are used.
- Reporting how Utahns think about issues, using Climb the Ladder answers. We only publish totals, never single answers, and never a breakdown so small that someone could be picked out.
- Text messages and push notifications: we're building these. If you gave us a phone number, we won't text you until you separately turn texts on, and you'll be able to reply STOP at any time. Push notifications only come if your browser or phone asks you and you say yes.
Who can see it
Only the site's operator. No one else has access to the sheets that hold your information. These services store or process it for us, under their own privacy terms:
- Google: stores the private sheets, runs the signup and alert forms, and provides Google Analytics.
- Proton: sends our email from [email protected].
- GitHub: runs the daily update that checks for bill changes. It reads the alert list automatically to send alerts; no person reviews it there.
- Cloudflare: hosts the website.
- Utah Geospatial Resource Center (UGRC): the state's mapping service. When you look up your legislators, it receives the street address and ZIP you typed so it can tell us your districts.
- Google Firebase: stores statements legislators post about their bills, and the email address a legislator uses to sign in to post them.
We never sell, rent or trade your information, and we don't share it with campaigns, parties, advocacy organizations, legislators or data brokers. We would only disclose it if the law required us to.
Your choices
- Stop emails: every email has a link to stop it. Bill alerts can also be turned off from the bill's page.
- See, change or delete your information: email [email protected] from the address you signed up with. We'll do it within 30 days.
- Browser data: your votes, watchlist, settings, the bills you said you contacted legislators about, Hive Ladder results and Climb progress are stored only in this browser. or . Clearing your browser's site data also removes it.
- Climb the Ladder: use "Turn off" under Your Progress on the Climb page to stop saving answers from that browser. Because saved answers aren't linked to you, we can't look them up to delete them.
- Analytics: you can block cookies or use Google's opt-out add-on.
How long we keep it
We keep your profile and alert settings until you ask us to delete them. When you stop alerts, we keep a record that you stopped them, so we don't email you again by mistake.
Keeping it safe
Your information is stored in private, access-restricted accounts. Sign-up and alert requests go over encrypted connections. No system is perfectly secure, but we collect as little as we can so there's less to protect.
Children
The site is meant for adults and teens learning about government. We don't knowingly collect information from children under 13. If you believe a child has signed up, email us and we'll delete it.
Changes to this policy
If we change what we collect or how we use it, we'll update this page and the date at the top. If a change affects people who signed up, we'll email them before it takes effect.