Privacy Policy

Last updated: November 12, 2026

Publius Engine is a service of Sentinel Engine LLC, a Texas limited liability company ("we", "us"). This policy explains what personal information we collect, why, who we share it with, and the choices you have.

In short: we collect what we need to send you alerts and run your workspace. We do not sell personal information, we do not show ads, and we do not use advertising or analytics trackers.

1. Whose information this covers

• People an organization gives access to. Most of our users are members, leaders, and staff of an organization that has an agreement with us. That organization decides who has access and gives us their details. For this information we act on the organization's behalf.
• Visitors to our website, including people who send us a briefing request.
• Public officials whose names and contact details appear in public records we read.

2. What we collect

From your organization

• your name, email address, and title or role;
• the area you follow (states, counties, or districts) and which alerts and briefs you receive; and
• what you are allowed to do in the workspace (for example, whether you can manage other people).

When you use the service

• Sign-in and security records: when you sign in, your IP address, and your browser and device type. We use these to keep accounts secure and to stop abuse.
• Activity in the workspace: changes made to settings, people, and alert pages, and who made them, so your organization can see its history and undo mistakes.
• Usage needed to run features: for example, when you last opened your meeting map, and when your calendar link was last read by your calendar app.
• What you send us: links and notes about districts, requests for more coverage, and wording or images you add to alert pages.
• Authenticator: if you turn on an authenticator app, our sign-in provider stores what is needed to check your codes.

From our website

• If you request a briefing, the details you enter: your name, email, phone number (optional), organization, role, the area you are interested in, how you heard about us, and your message. These are sent to us by email so we can reply.

From public records

• Agendas, packets, minutes, and other documents that public bodies post, including the names, roles, and contact details of public officials as published there.

3. How we use it

• to provide the service: send alerts, briefs, and digests; show your workspace and map; and sign you in;
• to support your organization: let its admins manage people and see activity;
• to keep the service secure and working, and to fix problems;
• to answer briefing requests and messages; and
• to meet legal obligations.

We do not use your information for advertising, and we do not sell it or share it for others' marketing.

4. Artificial intelligence

We use AI models, currently through Google's Gemini API, to read public records and write summaries for your organization. What we send to the model is the public documents, the public officials' details published with them, and your organization's instructions about what to watch for. We do not send the names or contact details of the people in your organization to the model.

5. Who we share it with

• Your organization. Its admins can see the people in their area, their settings, whether they have signed in, and the workspace's activity history.
• Service providers that run parts of Publius Engine for us, under contracts that limit their use of the information:

• Services your browser contacts. Some pages load fonts from Google Fonts, map tiles from Esri (ArcGIS Online), and the map library from Cloudflare. As with any web request, those services receive your IP address and browser details.
• When the law requires it, or to protect people's safety or our rights.
• If our business changes hands, the information may pass to the new owner, under this policy.

6. Pages anyone with the link can see

Alert pages and share images are published at web addresses that anyone with the link can open. They show the alert and your organization's branding, not information about the people in your organization. Anything your organization adds to them can be seen by anyone with the link.

7. Cookies and browser storage

We use a small number of cookies, all needed for the service to work:

• a cookie that keeps you signed in;
• a cookie for older administration pages; and
• for our staff and your organization's admins only, cookies that remember when they are viewing the workspace as another person, which is view-only.

The workspace also saves a few preferences in your browser, such as whether the side menu is folded. We do not use advertising or analytics cookies.

8. Email

You receive alerts and briefs because your organization added you. You can choose what you receive in the workspace under Settings, or ask your organization's admin to change it. Our emails do not contain tracking pixels, and we do not track opens.

9. How long we keep it

We keep personal information while your organization uses Publius Engine and as long as needed to provide the service, keep it secure, and meet legal obligations. Sign-in sessions end after a set time, and you are signed out after a period without activity.

When your organization removes you or its agreement ends, or when you ask us to delete your information, we delete it from the live service within 30 days, except where we must keep it longer, for example for security or legal reasons. Copies in backups are replaced on the backup schedule.

10. Your choices and rights

• See, correct, or delete your information: ask your organization's admin, or write to us. If you write to us about information your organization gave us, we may involve your organization.
• Stop receiving email: change it under Settings, or ask your organization's admin.
• Depending on where you live, you may have further rights under privacy law. We will respond to requests as that law requires, and we will not treat you differently for making one.

11. Security

We protect information with encryption in transit, sign-in by email link and one-time code instead of passwords, authenticator apps for administrators, and access limited to the people who need it. No system is perfectly secure, and we will tell affected organizations promptly if we learn of a breach that affects their people.

12. Children

Publius Engine is for adults. It is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18.

13. Where information is stored

We store and process information in the United States.

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. When we do, we change the date at the top. If a change is significant, we will tell organizations' admins before it takes effect.

15. Contact

Questions or requests about privacy: brian@publiusengine.com.

See also our Terms of Use.