Privacy Policy

1. Scope and campaign identity

This Privacy Policy applies to the website at stoeber4sb.org and its forms, landing pages, text messaging program, and online services, operated by Alexander Stoeber for City Council 2026 (the "Committee," "campaign," "we," "us," or "our"), as well as information the campaign receives through related volunteer, event, donor, voter-contact, and communications activities.

The Site is a political campaign website. It is not a City of Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara County, State of California, or election-administration website.

Campaign data firewall. Campaign contacts, communications, supporter information, voter information, and donor records are maintained separately from Stoeber Agency, Compass, and AbundantSB. We do not use campaign information for commercial real estate marketing, and we do not transfer campaign supporter information into a professional real estate database.

This Policy does not control information collected independently by a government agency, social network, payment processor, website you visit through a link, or other third party.

2. SMS opt-in details and mobile information

3. What information is collected

The information collected depends on how you interact with the campaign. We collect the following categories of personal information:

We ask you not to submit Social Security numbers, account passwords, complete payment-card information, medical details, immigration records, or other highly sensitive information unless a specific lawful campaign process clearly requires it.

4. Where information comes from

We may collect information:

• directly from you, such as when you donate, complete a form, attend an event, volunteer, call, email, text, or speak with campaign staff or volunteers;
• automatically from your browser or device when you use the Site;
• from service providers, including website, CRM, payment, email, text, events, analytics, data-management, and security vendors;
• from public and election sources, including lawfully available voter registration records, campaign filings, property or business records, and other public information;
• from political-data vendors or campaign partners that are permitted to provide information for campaign or election purposes;
• from referrals, event hosts, volunteers, endorsers, or supporters who provide a lawful introduction or information relevant to campaign outreach.

Mobile numbers are an exception. Numbers enrolled in the text messaging program come only from the direct opt-in methods described in Section 2. A number obtained from a voter file, a vendor, a referral, or a public record is never enrolled in the SMS program without that person's own express consent.

If you provide information about another person, please provide only information you are authorized to share and that is reasonably necessary for the campaign purpose.

5. How your data is used

We use the information described above for the following purposes:

• To communicate with you. Respond to questions, requests, and local priorities; send campaign email, text messages, calls, mail, and digital communications in accordance with applicable law and your choices.
• To organize the campaign. Identify and communicate with voters, supporters, volunteers, donors, event participants, endorsers, and community stakeholders; run canvassing, phone banking, relational outreach, supporter identification, and lawful ballot-turnout activity.
• To process contributions. Process and acknowledge contributions, prevent unlawful contributions, issue refunds, maintain records, and file required campaign reports.
• To administer events and volunteers. Register and manage volunteers, events, signs, hosts, and campaign activities.
• To improve the Site and our communications. Evaluate campaign reach, improve content, troubleshoot the Site, measure communications, and understand which messages or channels are useful.
• To keep things secure. Protect Site and campaign security, detect misuse, verify consent, maintain suppression lists, and investigate suspected fraud or violations.
• To comply with law. Meet legal obligations, subpoenas, audits, investigations, election rules, recordkeeping duties, and campaign-finance requirements.
• To protect legal rights. Establish, exercise, or defend legal rights and protect people, property, and campaign operations.
• Any other purpose disclosed when the information is collected or that you authorize.

We never use your data to make money. We do not sell personal information, we do not rent or trade contact lists to commercial marketers, and we do not use campaign data for any commercial or real estate purpose.

Campaign software may help sort, match, segment, score, or prioritize contacts and outreach based on lawful campaign information. The campaign does not determine voting eligibility, ballot validity, government services, credit, employment, housing, insurance, or another comparable legal entitlement through automated decision-making.

6. How we disclose information

We may disclose information to the following categories of recipients for campaign purposes. Mobile numbers and SMS consent data are excluded from every category below except service providers that deliver our messages and legally compelled disclosure — see Section 2.

We may transfer records to a lawful successor committee, post-election committee, records custodian, or service provider as permitted by law and subject to continuing campaign-finance, security, and confidentiality obligations. Any such transfer remains subject to the mobile-information restrictions in Section 2, and a successor may not text you on the basis of consent you gave to this campaign unless permitted by law and by the terms you accepted.

7. Campaign-finance information becomes public when law requires it

Political committees must maintain detailed contribution records and file public campaign statements. California law generally requires itemization of contributions aggregating to $100 or more, including the contributor's name and street address and, for an individual, occupation and employer information. Other information may be disclosed depending on the contributor, amount, timing, source, transaction, and applicable filing rule.

Public filings may be posted, indexed, copied, retained, or republished by government agencies and third parties. The campaign cannot delete or retract information from an official filing merely because a contributor later asks the campaign to delete its internal copy.

Mobile phone numbers are not part of a required public campaign-finance filing and are not included in one by the campaign.

A payment processor may collect payment-card or bank information under its own policy. The Committee generally receives transaction details needed to process, reconcile, report, verify, or refund the contribution rather than the full payment credential.

8. Voter files, field notes, and political outreach

California voter registration information is restricted information that may be made available to authorized persons for permitted purposes such as communicating with voters in connection with an election. The campaign uses voter-file information and derivative field data only for lawful political, election, governmental, or related campaign purposes and not for commercial real estate marketing.

Campaign field records may include contact attempts, issues discussed, support or persuasion status, volunteer or sign interest, language preference, household notes, and follow-up. They may be matched with voter-file or publicly available information to avoid duplicate outreach and direct campaign resources.

Voter-file records may come from a public election source or authorized vendor rather than directly from you. Some requests concerning those records must be directed to the source agency or vendor, and some fields cannot be altered by the campaign. We do not receive or record the contents of a secret ballot.

A phone number appearing in a voter file or vendor record is not treated as consent to receive campaign text messages and is not enrolled in the SMS program.

9. Cookies and tracking information

The Site and its providers use cookies, local storage, pixels, scripts, tags, and similar tracking technologies. A cookie is a small text file placed on your device that allows a site to recognize your browser and remember information about your visit. These tools may support:

• Strictly necessary cookies, which support security, form operation, load balancing, fraud prevention, and session management. The Site cannot function properly without these.
• Analytics and performance cookies, which measure visits, traffic sources, page performance, and campaign-link activity so we can improve the Site.
• Functional and embedded-service cookies, set by video, maps, scheduling, forms, social content, and donation processing tools embedded on our pages.

Third-party tools may collect information directly from your browser and may be able to recognize you across websites or services according to their own settings and privacy policies.

How to control cookies

Most browsers let you refuse, delete, or be alerted about cookies through their settings menu. Blocking strictly necessary cookies may prevent forms, donations, and security features from working. You may also opt out of many analytics and advertising cookies through the tools provided by the relevant third party.

Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control

Some browsers transmit "Do Not Track" (DNT) or Global Privacy Control (GPC) signals. Because no uniform DNT response standard applies, the Site does not currently change its own behavior in response to a legacy DNT signal.

The campaign does not currently authorize cross-context behavioral advertising based on personal information collected through the Site. Because the campaign does not sell personal information for money or knowingly share Site-collected personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, there is no separate "Do Not Sell or Share" link at this time.

The Site currently uses campaign advertising or audience technology. Where applicable law treats that activity as a sale or sharing and requires an opt-out, we will honor a valid GPC signal received through a supported browser and provide a separate privacy-choice mechanism.

No tracking technology on this Site is used to share, sell, or transfer mobile phone numbers or SMS consent data. If actual Site technology changes, this section and any cookie controls will be updated before or when the new tool is enabled.

10. Email, calls, and mail

Text messaging is addressed separately in Section 2.

Email. You may unsubscribe through the link in a campaign email or at the unsubscribe page. We may retain your email address on a suppression list so we can honor the request. A transactional message, such as a contribution receipt or requested event confirmation, may still be sent when necessary.

Calls. Where required, we obtain consent through the form or interaction used to enroll you. Consent to automated campaign calls is not a condition of donating, volunteering, or receiving information through another available method. You may ask to be placed on our internal do-not-call list at any time.

Mail and canvassing. You may ask the campaign to update its internal contact preference. Certain voter-file mail or contact records are maintained by public agencies or vendors, and a campaign preference request may not alter the underlying official record.

11. Stories, photos, endorsements, and public use

Sending a private message, policy idea, story, photograph, or endorsement inquiry does not by itself authorize the campaign to publish your name, likeness, quotation, or personal story.

When we want to use a Submission publicly, we will seek permission through a form, release, email confirmation, or other clear authorization that identifies the intended campaign use. You may ask us to stop future campaign use, but we may be unable to recall materials already printed, mailed, published, archived, or lawfully distributed.

12. How long we retain information

We retain information for the period reasonably necessary for the purpose collected, campaign operation, post-election administration, security, dispute resolution, and legal compliance. Retention varies by record:

Deletion from active campaign systems does not require deletion from a lawful public record, backup awaiting ordinary overwrite, required suppression list, security log, or record that must be retained by law.

13. Data security practices

We maintain reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect personal information against unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. Our practices include:

• Encryption in transit. The Site is served over HTTPS/TLS, and information submitted through our forms is encrypted while it travels between your browser and our systems.
• Access controls. Access to supporter, donor, and mobile-number data is limited by role to the staff, volunteers, and vendors who need it, and is removed when a person's role ends.
• Account security. Campaign accounts require strong, unique credentials, and multi-factor authentication is required on the systems that support it.
• Vendor controls. Service providers are engaged under contracts that limit their use of campaign data to services performed for us and require appropriate security measures.
• Payment isolation. Contributions are processed by a PCI-compliant third-party processor. The campaign does not store complete payment-card numbers.
• Monitoring and maintenance. System updates, backups, logging, and staff and volunteer data-handling guidance.
• Incident response. If a security incident affecting personal information occurs, we will investigate promptly and provide legally required notices to affected people, regulators, or other parties.

No system, transmission, or storage method is guaranteed to be secure. Do not send full payment-card information, Social Security numbers, passwords, or other unnecessary sensitive data by email, text, or an ordinary campaign form.

14. Your rights and choices

You have the following rights and choices regarding your information:

• Unsubscribe from text messages. Reply STOP to any campaign text message at any time. You may also email or call us using the contact information in Section 19.
• Unsubscribe from email. Use the unsubscribe link in any campaign email or visit the unsubscribe page.
• Opt out of calls and mail. Ask us to add you to our internal do-not-call or do-not-mail list.
• Access your information. Ask us to confirm whether we maintain information collected directly from you and to provide a reasonable summary or copy of it.
• Update or correct your information. Ask us to correct inaccurate contact or campaign-participation information, including a wrong or reassigned phone number.
• Delete your information. Ask us to delete information collected directly from you when no legal, security, archival, suppression, public-record, or operational exception applies.
• Withdraw consent. Withdraw a permission for future public use of your name, story, photograph, or endorsement where reasonably possible.
• Object to sale or sharing. We do not sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we never share mobile information for third-party marketing, so no opt-out is necessary — but you may confirm your status with us at any time.

To exercise any of these rights, email [email protected] or call (805) 894-0384. We will respond within a reasonable period and, where a legal deadline applies, within that deadline. Exercising a right will never cause us to treat you differently or deny you campaign services.

To protect you and the campaign, we may verify identity and authority before acting. A request concerning another person may require proof of authorization. We may deny or limit a request when necessary to comply with campaign-finance law, maintain required records, preserve a suppression preference, protect security, complete a requested transaction, exercise legal rights, or retain lawful public or voter-file information. If we deny a request, we will tell you why.

15. California privacy disclosures

CalOPPA-style transparency

This Policy identifies the categories of personal information collected online, categories of recipients, process for requesting review or correction, tracking disclosures, change-notice process, and effective date. The California Online Privacy Protection Act applies by its terms to operators of commercial websites and online services that collect personally identifiable information from California residents. The campaign posts this Policy as a transparency and trust practice without representing that every provision of CalOPPA applies to a political committee.

CCPA

The California Attorney General states that the California Consumer Privacy Act generally applies to qualifying for-profit businesses and generally does not apply to nonprofit organizations or government agencies. The Committee does not represent that it meets the CCPA's definition of a covered business. Where the CCPA or another privacy law applies to a particular activity, we will honor the rights and disclosures required for that activity.

Regardless of statutory coverage, the campaign does not sell personal information, does not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, does not transfer it into Alexander's professional real estate business, and offers the practical request process described in Section 14.

Third-party collection over time

Website, analytics, embedded-content, social-media, payment, and other providers may collect information about your activity over time and across different websites or services according to the technologies enabled and the provider's own policy. The current campaign policy on DNT, GPC, and advertising technology appears in Section 9.

16. Children

The Site is intended for a general audience and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information online from a child under 13. If you believe a child under 13 provided information through the Site, contact us so we can review and take appropriate action.

The text messaging program is restricted to individuals 18 years of age or older. We do not knowingly enroll anyone under 18 in the SMS program, and we will remove a number promptly on request or on learning that the subscriber is a minor.

A minor's volunteer activity should be supervised by a parent or guardian when appropriate. Political contributions, contracts, event participation, and access to campaign systems remain subject to applicable law and campaign policy.

17. Third-party sites and services

The Site may link to or embed payment services, video, social networks, maps, scheduling, event registration, forms, or other services. A third party may collect information directly and may place its own cookies or identifiers. Review that provider's privacy policy and settings.

The campaign is not responsible for a third party's independent privacy, security, content, or data-retention practices, except to the extent responsibility cannot be excluded under applicable law.

Current named providers:

18. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy to reflect changes in law, campaign operations, vendors, forms, cookies, security practices, or data uses. The "Last updated" date identifies the current posted version.

For a material change, we will provide a reasonable notice through the Site, a collection form, email, or another appropriate channel before or when the change takes effect. A material change will apply prospectively unless law permits or requires otherwise. We will not materially reduce the mobile-information protections in Section 2 with respect to numbers already enrolled without obtaining fresh consent.

19. Contact us