Privacy policy

Who we are

Seats & Swings is a Brisbane-based election analysis site. We publish forecasts, polling, data, and commentary, and we host a discussion forum. This policy explains what personal information we collect on seatsandswings.com, why we collect it, and how you can ask us about it.

Questions about privacy can be sent to info@seatsandswings.com.

What we collect

We only collect what we need to run the site. That usually means:

• Accounts. If you create an account we store your email address, a hashed password, your chosen username, and your public icon colour. Your username and icon are visible to other people on the forum. Your email and password are not.
• Forum posts. Threads and comments you publish are public, together with your username and the time you posted.
• Newsletter. If you subscribe from the homepage we store the email address you give us, when you signed up, and that the signup came from the site.
• Contact messages. The contact form collects your email address, an optional name, and your message. We use that to reply to you.
• Technical records. Our systems may see an IP address, browser type, and the page requested when you use the site, send a form, or hit a rate limit. We use this to keep the site reliable and to stop abuse.

You can read forecasts, polling, and articles without an account. Custom forecast tools may keep a draft in your browser only. We do not receive that draft unless you later attach it to a public forum post.

How we use it

We use personal information to:

• create and maintain your account, and let you sign in
• show your username and posts on the forum
• send newsletter editions you asked for
• reply to contact messages
• send account emails such as sign-up confirmation or password reset
• understand how the site is used, find bugs, and prevent spam or abuse

We do not sell personal information, and we do not use it for advertising.

Cookies

If you sign in, we set a session cookie so the site can remember you. That cookie is needed for the account to work. We do not set advertising or tracking cookies.

You can block cookies in your browser. If you do, signed-in features such as the forum and account page will not work.

Analytics and errors

We use Plausible to see which pages are visited. Plausible is designed not to use cookies and not to collect personal profiles or cross-site advertising data.

We use Sentry to record crashes and other errors so we can fix them. An error report can include the page you were on and limited technical details from the browser or server. We do not use Sentry to build marketing profiles.

Who else sees it

We use a small number of services to host and operate the site. They only get what they need to do that job:

• our database and sign-in provider (Supabase), which stores accounts, forum posts, and newsletter addresses
• our email provider (Resend), which delivers contact messages and account emails
• our hosting, analytics, and error-reporting providers

Some of those providers store data outside Australia. We still treat it as our responsibility. We may also disclose information if the law requires it, or if we need to protect the site or other people from serious harm.

How long we keep it

Account details stay while your account is open. Forum posts stay public unless you delete them or we remove them because they break the rules. Newsletter addresses stay until you ask us to remove them. Contact messages are kept long enough to reply and follow up. Technical and error logs are kept only as long as we need them for security and debugging.

Your choices

You can:

• change your username and icon colour on your account page
• edit or delete forum posts and comments you wrote, where the site allows it
• ask us to unsubscribe your email from the newsletter, or to delete your account and the personal information we hold about you
• ask us what personal information we hold about you, or to correct it if it is wrong

Email info@seatsandswings.com and we will help. We may need to confirm it is you before we change or delete anything.

Public discussion

The forum is public. Do not post information you would not want others to see. We may remove content that is unlawful, abusive, or that exposes someone else's personal information.

Children

The site is written for a general audience interested in elections. It is not aimed at children under 16. If you think we have collected information from a child, contact us and we will delete it.

Changes

If we change how we handle personal information, we will update this page and the date at the top. If a change is significant, we will say so more clearly on the site.

Contact

Seats & Swings
Brisbane, Australia
info@seatsandswings.com

You can also use the contact form.