Privacy policy

Scope

This policy covers the Chart People website and Chicago Data dashboard on this site. Chart People is an independent project, not a City of Chicago service. You do not need an account to use the dashboards.

The separately hosted historical COVID-19 site and other linked websites have their own notices and practices. Your cookie choice here does not control those sites.

Information we process

• Website requests. Delivering pages and data requires processing network information such as your IP address, requested URLs, request times and browser details. Hosting systems may retain operational and error logs to maintain and secure the service.
• Dashboard selections. Filters and date selections may appear in URLs and data requests sent to our server. Shared links include their selected state. Do not put personal or sensitive information in URLs.
• Browser preferences. Your analytics choice is stored locally in your browser. See the cookie policy for storage names and controls.
• Messages. If you email us, we receive your email address, message and information you choose to include. We use these to respond and handle your request. There is no contact-form submission service on this site.
• Published records. Dashboard counts come from public data sources. These are distinct from visitor information. Public records can contain errors or later corrections; the source publisher controls its original records.

Optional analytics

Where configured, we use Google Analytics 4 only after you choose “Allow analytics.” Declining does not limit dashboard access or downloads. The same analytics controller serves Chart People and Chicago Data.

Our controller sends page views and chart-download events, including page titles, a cleaned page URL, the referring website’s origin, the site name and, where relevant, dataset, chart period, view and export format. It excludes arbitrary query strings, URL fragments, community-area and crime-type selections, exact counts and report contents from those event payloads.

When analytics is enabled, your browser also communicates technical information to Google, including its IP address and browser/device information. Google may use technical information to derive approximate location and usage statistics. Our tag configuration disables advertising storage, ad personalization and Google signals. We do not use this implementation to serve advertising.

Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track signals override permission in this implementation. You can withdraw permission through Cookie settings. Turning analytics off stops this controller’s event collection and attempts to remove accessible analytics cookies; it does not delete information previously received by Google.

Service providers and linked websites

Railway hosts this application. Google provides optional analytics and receives email sent to our Gmail contact address. Providers process information to deliver their services and may process it outside your country. Their own privacy terms also apply to their services.

Read Railway’s privacy policy and Google’s privacy policy. Following a source or external website link makes a request to that provider. We do not control its tracking, retention or content.

Retention and security

The local analytics preference remains until you change it or clear this site’s browser storage. Google cookie lifetimes and analytics-data retention are different things; see the cookie policy for browser storage details.

Messages, operational records and analytics may be retained for responding to requests, operating and securing the site, and applicable legal obligations. Retention also depends on provider settings. You can ask us about information connected to your interaction with the site.

No internet service can guarantee absolute security. Please do not send passwords, identification documents or other sensitive information in an initial email.

Your choices and requests

You can decline analytics, change your choice later, block cookies in your browser or clear site storage. Analytics is off if its configuration cannot be loaded. If browser storage is blocked, a choice can apply for the current page but may not persist after navigation.

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete or restrict processing of personal information, withdraw consent, or complain to your local privacy authority. Use the footer’s contact link for a privacy request. Describe the interaction and request without sending sensitive identification; we may need limited information to verify and answer it.

We cannot directly amend a source publisher’s records or erase information from independent websites. We can review a concern about how information is displayed here.

Changes to this policy

We will update this page and its date when our practices change. A policy update does not grant analytics permission on your behalf. Review the terms of use for dashboard and content limitations.