Privacy for the Bill Commons MCP plugin
GDACS operates the public Bill Commons MCP service at mcp.billcommons.org/mcp. This notice explains how that service handles information when you use it through ChatGPT or another MCP client.
Updated October 2, 2026
What this notice covers
This notice covers the Bill Commons MCP service and its public legislative-research tools. It does not describe separate Bill Commons website, account, billing, REST API, or email services. ChatGPT or another client you choose handles your conversation and the returned information under that client's own policies and settings.
Information the service receives
You can use the public MCP tools without a Bill Commons account, email address, or API key. The service receives the requested tool and its arguments, such as a state, bill identifier, search keywords, or an optional question for an evidence brief. It uses those arguments to return public legislative records. Search terms and questions can appear in the response sent back to your client.
The connecting IP address or forwarded address is held in process memory for request limiting. Hosting and application logs can contain network and request information such as an IP address, user agent, path, time, response status, and operational error details.
A separate operational-usage table stores the call time, tool name, success or error outcome, error category, duration, and an optional client-family label. That table has no fields for IP addresses, search text, evidence questions, bill identifiers, or authentication credentials.
How information is used and handled
Tool arguments are used to answer the legislative-research request. IP-based limits protect service availability. Operational usage and logs support reliability, error diagnosis, and an aggregate view of which tools are used.
The service is hosted on Railway and reads indexed public records from its configured PostgreSQL database. The MCP tools do not send your search terms or questions to a separate search engine, model provider, official legislative website, or other upstream research service. GDACS operators and Railway may handle operational records as needed to run and secure the service. The result is returned to the MCP client you selected.
Retention
Bill Commons does not archive generated evidence packets. A packet's snapshot identifier detects changes in its facts; it is not a stored conversation or a retrievable historical packet. Your client, or anyone with whom you share a response, may retain its own copy.
IP-based request-limit entries remain in process memory until the service restarts or entries are evicted to keep the limiter within its size cap. They do not have a time-based expiry.
Operational-usage records have no fixed expiry and the application has no automatic deletion job for them. Railway's current Pro plan makes 30 days of log history viewable, but that viewing window is not a guarantee that every log or provider backup is deleted after 30 days. Hosting logs and backups follow Railway's provider-defined handling.
Your choices and requests
You control which requests your MCP client sends. Avoid including credentials, private notes, or sensitive personal information in a legislative-research request. Disconnecting or uninstalling the connection stops future tool requests; it does not erase records already created or copies retained by a client.
For a privacy question or request, email alberto@gdacs.net. GDACS reviews requests manually using the information available. Because the operational-usage table does not contain an account, IP address, query, or bill identifier, GDACS may be unable to link an aggregate record to a particular person. What GDACS can do depends on whether a record can be identified and on operational and provider limits; no automated erasure process exists.
Changes
Changes to this notice will appear here with an updated date. For help using the service, see Bill Commons support.