Privacy Policy
Last updated: 2026-04-27
CrowdHum is a live-polling tool operated by CrowdHum LLC. We designed it with minimal data collection in mind: we don't track individuals across sessions, we don't sell data, and facilitators never see who you are. Within a single workshop session we do use an anonymous, session-scoped identifier so the room can't be stuffed and so we can summarize how the room's views shifted across polls — but that identifier is not linkable to you across different sessions and is never tied to your real-world identity. This policy explains what we collect, how we use it, and what rights you have.
1. What We Collect
Voters (anonymous — no sign-in required)
| Data | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Vote choice (or open-text response) | Core functionality — recording your response |
| Timestamp | Ordering and deduplication |
| Session-scoped anonymous identifier (HMAC fingerprint) | Lets the system tell repeat voters apart from new voters within a single session — used for stuffing prevention, one-vote-per-poll enforcement, accurate unique-voter counts, and summarizing how the room's views changed across polls in the same workshop. The identifier is salted per session and is not linkable to you across different sessions or to your real-world identity. |
| Within-session vote correlation | For accounts on Pro, the AI Synthesis Brief looks at the pattern of how the same anonymous voter answered across polls in one session — for example, "voters who picked A in poll 1 leaned toward C in poll 2." The correlation key is the per-session HMAC fingerprint above; it is not a name, email, IP, or device ID and cannot be used to identify you. Correlation is scoped to a single session and is not linked across sessions or to any other CrowdHum activity. |
That's it. No name, no email, no IP address stored alongside your vote, no cross-session tracking, no device fingerprint that follows you around the web. Facilitators see overall response patterns; they never see who you are.
Presenters (signed in via Google)
| Data | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Display name | Shown in the UI |
| Email address | Account identification and communications |
| Profile photo URL | Shown in the UI |
| Account ID | Ownership of polls and sessions |
| Polls created (titles, choices, categories) | User-created content |
| Payment information (if subscribing to Pro) | Processed by Stripe — we never see or store your card number |
Usage data
We collect first-party, cookie-free analytics events (page views, referrer domain, bucketed device/browser/OS, viewport size) to understand how CrowdHum is used and improve the product. Visitors are distinguished by an anonymous random identifier stored in your browser’s localStorage (ch_anon_id) — never an IP address, fingerprint, or third-party cookie. Analytics data stays inside CrowdHum’s own database; nothing is shared with Google Analytics or any other third-party analytics provider.
2. How We Use Your Data
- Service delivery: Displaying polls, recording votes, and showing results to presenters
- Analytics: Understanding product usage to improve CrowdHum
- Communications: Sending transactional emails (poll results, account notifications) to presenters
- Payments: Processing Pro plan subscriptions through Stripe
- AI features (open-text): Open-text poll responses may be processed by AI to group similar answers (e.g., merging synonyms). This processing uses only the poll title and submitted words — no personal data is sent.
- AI features (Synthesis Brief, Pro): When a presenter ends a session, CrowdHum may generate a written summary across all polls in that session ("Synthesis Brief"). The AI sees aggregated, anonymized inputs only: poll questions, choice labels, vote tallies, optional open-text responses, and per-session HMAC fingerprints (so it can describe how the same anonymous voter responded across polls in that session). It never receives names, emails, IP addresses, account IDs, device identifiers, or anything tying a fingerprint to a real person. We use OpenAI as a sub-processor (see §5) and do not allow our content to be used to train their models.
We do not sell, rent, or share your personal data with third parties for marketing purposes.
3. How We Store It
- Infrastructure: Industry-standard cloud services with enterprise-grade security
- Encryption: All data is encrypted at rest and in transit
- Access controls: Strict access controls ensure only authorized systems can read your data
4. Cookies & Local Storage
Cookies: CrowdHum does not set any cookies. We do not use Google Analytics, advertising cookies, or any third-party tracking cookies.
localStorage: We use browser localStorage for strictly-necessary functionality and first-party analytics:
- Anonymous analytics ID (
ch_anon_id) — a random identifier so we can count unique visitors without using cookies or storing your IP address - Vote deduplication flags — prevents you from voting twice on the same poll
- Auth state — keeps presenters signed in between page loads
- UI preferences — sound on/off, coachmark dismissals
5. Third-Party Services
| Service | What it does | Their privacy policy |
|---|---|---|
| Google (Authentication & Hosting) | Sign-in for presenters, anonymous auth for voters, and website hosting | Google Privacy |
| Stripe | Payment processing for Pro subscriptions — we never see or store card numbers | Stripe Privacy |
| Resend | Transactional email delivery (poll results, account notifications) | Resend Privacy |
| OpenAI | AI analysis for open-text polls — synonym grouping (live word-cloud) and post-session Synthesis Brief generation. Inputs are limited to canonicalized open-text responses, choice labels, and aggregate vote counts. Voter identifiers, IP addresses, email addresses, and personal data are never sent. Open-text content is also passed through a PII redaction step before transmission. | OpenAI Privacy |
| QR Code API | Generates QR codes for vote links (api.qrserver.com) |
goQR.me Privacy |
6. Your Rights
You have the right to:
- Access: Request a copy of any personal data we hold about you
- Deletion: Request deletion of your account and all associated data
- Export: Request an export of your poll data in a portable format
- Correction: Request correction of inaccurate personal data
- Objection: Object to processing of your personal data
To exercise any of these rights, contact us at the email below. We will respond within 30 days.
Note for voters: Voting is anonymous — we don't collect names, emails, or any identity data from voters, so there's typically nothing personally identifying to access or delete. The session-scoped identifier described in §1 isn't linkable back to you, which also means we can't single out "your" votes after the fact to retrieve or remove them individually.
7. Data Retention
- Free plan: Poll data is retained for 30 days after the poll ends, then automatically deleted
- Pro plan: Poll data is retained for as long as your account is active
- Anonymous vote data: Retained alongside the poll it belongs to and deleted on the same schedule
- Account deletion: If you delete your account, all associated data is permanently removed within 30 days
8. Children's Privacy
CrowdHum is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 in accordance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us and we will promptly delete it.
9. Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be noted by updating the "Last updated" date at the top. Continued use of CrowdHum after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.
10. Data Controller & Contact
The data controller responsible for your personal data is:
CrowdHum LLC
405 E Laburnum Ave, Ste 3 #539
Richmond, VA 23222, USA
Email: hello@crowdhum.com
Privacy / data-subject requests: privacy@crowdhum.com
Questions or requests? We respond within 30 days of receiving a verified request.