AI and Data Use Disclosure

Which tools in the app use AI

All six tools in the app use AI for their main job. Four of them can also run a live web search as part of answering, because the information they need changes often and is not in any fixed database.

• Officials & Contacts. Uses AI, and searches the web.
• Meeting Agendas & AI Analysis. Uses AI. Searches the web when it is finding a meeting. Analysing an agenda item you already have does not search.
• Public Records Request Builder. Uses AI. Searches the web when it is working out which records law applies. Drafting the request itself does not search.
• Public Comment Generator. Uses AI. Does not search the web.
• Document Analyzer. Uses AI. Does not search the web.
• Representative Profile Builder. Uses AI, and searches the web when building the profile. Reading through meeting minutes you supply does not search.

What works without AI in the app

Not everything in the app is AI, and it is worth knowing which parts are simply software:

• Reading a PDF. When you choose a PDF, the text is pulled out of it inside your browser. No AI, and nothing leaves your device at that point.
• Looking up a meeting in a public meeting system. This is a direct request to the system a jurisdiction publishes its calendar in. It returns what that system holds, with no AI in the path.
• Exporting a Word document. Formatting a profile you already have into a file is ordinary software.
• Saved records requests. Requests you have built are kept in your own browser.

What information is sent for AI processing

When a tool needs AI, the app sends the text of the request to the Citizen Playbook server, which passes it to the AI provider and hands the answer back. Depending on the tool, that text can include:

• The location, official, or topic you asked about.
• The answers you gave to the questions the tool asked.
• The text pulled out of a document you chose, when you ask for an analysis.

The Citizen Playbook server does not keep the text of your request or the answer. It records that a request happened, which tool it was, how long it took and how much it cost, and nothing of what was in it.

Why AI is used at all

Local government information is scattered across thousands of separate websites, in different formats, with different rules in every state. No fixed database covers it. AI is used to read what is there and put it in plain language, not because it knows the answer but because it can work through the material quickly.

What AI gets wrong

This is the part worth reading twice. AI can:

• State something confidently that is simply not true.
• Miss an item in a long agenda packet, or misread a table.
• Describe a records law or a deadline that applies somewhere else.
• Give you a contact that has changed or an official who has left office.
• Summarize a document in a way that loses the detail that actually mattered.

None of that means the tools are not useful. It means the output is a first draft of your understanding, not the record itself.

What you are responsible for

Check anything you are going to act on. Before you file a request, speak at a meeting, send an email, or repeat a claim in public, confirm the specifics against the jurisdiction's own published record. If a result and an official document disagree, the official document is right.

How your documents are handled

• The file you choose is read inside your browser. The app does not upload the file.
• The text that was pulled out is sent for analysis when you ask for one.
• The extracted text and the results are saved inside your own browser so a refresh does not lose them. Clearing site data removes them.
• Nothing about the document is stored on the Citizen Playbook server.

Because the text is sent for analysis, please do not put confidential, legally protected, or highly sensitive material into the app.

Whether the app sends anything for you

It does not. The app can draft a public comment, an email, a question, or a records request. It hands the draft to you. You review it, change it, and send or present it yourself using your own email or your own voice. Nothing is transmitted to an official on your behalf.

The role of official government sources

Citizen Playbook helps you find and read public information. It does not replace it. An AI result is not a government record, not a legal opinion, and not proof of anything. The agenda, the minutes, the ordinance, and the clerk are the authority.

The providers involved

AI requests currently go to Anthropic. What Anthropic does with them is governed by Anthropic's own terms, so the right thing is to link them rather than paraphrase:

• Anthropic Privacy Policy (opens in a new tab)
• Anthropic Commercial Terms of Service (opens in a new tab)
• Anthropic data retention article (opens in a new tab)

Two points from those pages, in their own terms: Anthropic's Commercial Terms of Service say Anthropic may not train models on customer content from the services, and Anthropic's retention article says API inputs and outputs are automatically deleted on its backend within 30 days of receipt or generation, with the exceptions listed there.

Telling us a result looked wrong

The App Privacy Policy covers what happens to the information itself.

If a tool tells you something that turns out to be wrong, and especially if it was wrong in a way that could mislead someone, please say so. It is the most useful feedback there is. Send it to support@citizenplaybook.com.