Data Clean-up Policy

Attachment: 3801/COS_Data_Clean-up_Policy_20230404.pdf

COS Data Clean-up Policy Version 1.2.1 Revised 20230404

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COS Data Cleanup Policy and Procedures

Introduction

Convention of States protects the data of its users. To ensure that user data is protected,

all individuals who will have access to user data must have signed a confidentiality

agreement with COS. The agreement guarantees that each individual will protect the

privacy of such information before the state leaders grant access to the data. The

Convention of States Action Privacy Policy

and national, international, and state laws

limit how state leaders may process user data.

While the policy permits us to receive information about supporters from outside

sources to deliver petitions to legislators correctly, we must consider the person's intent.

If it appears that a person did not intend to give us certain information, then leaders

must respect the intention of the supporter.

Please comply with the following policies and instructions to help ensure that we are

correctly respecting the privacy of our users.

General Data Cleanup Policies

●

Except as noted below, do not fill in information not entered by the user, such as
missing name, email, phone number, or street address.

●

With the help of the CitizenBuilder Address Lookup, the USPS Zip Code Lookup

tools, or other public information sources, you may fill in information directly
derived from the user's submitted information.

o

You may add the zip code if the user provides their street address and state.

o

If the user provided their zip code, you may add the city/state.

o

You may add the city/zip if the user provides their name, street address, and

state.

●

You may update information if they have voluntarily given us this information
through another source.

COS Data Clean-up Policy Version 1.2.1 Revised 20230404

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o

For example, if the user provides us with conflicting data through two sources: a

petition form and another form. In that case, you may determine which data is

correct and update the user profile appropriately.

●

You may correct obvious technical errors, such as a mistyped name, address or
address information entered in incorrect fields, or address variations identified with
address and zip code lookup tools.

o

You may use the information in address line 1 if it contains information that

belongs in address line 2, city, state, or zip.

o

You may update variations in city name designation or road name abbreviation

variations like Blvd vs. Boulevard, Hwy 1 vs. Highway 1 vs. US 1, or St vs. Ln vs.

Rd, etc., as identified through address and zip code lookup tools.

●

Except as noted above, if address information is missing or otherwise seems
incorrect, use the US-US Address Correction Template available in both the District
Dashboard and the Follow-up Tools (See the Appendix). You may contact
supporters by telephone or text to confirm addresses or other information.

Data Item Cleanup

Document the change in the profile's Dashboard tab Notes and Comments section

(Action Type – Note) if data items are added or replaced. Add a custom tag to find

and revisit the profile later.

●

Name

o

Correct capitalization.

o

Correct repeat letters at the beginning.

o

Do not alter the name, including translation of non-English characters (Note:

You may remove non-text characters, icons, emoji, etc.)

o

For two people in the name field, do not change the names. Contact the supporter

to determine if the user can submit an additional petition with one name retained

on the original petition. With paper petitions, if one person signed, you may only

use the name of the person that signed. You may create two petitions only if both

people have signed the paper (use the submitted email for one petition and no

email for the other).

o

You may adjust the parts of the name as needed to use the Middle Name field.

●

Email Address

o

Do not add an email that the supporter did not provide.

o

Correct obvious repeat letters.

o

Correct obvious misspelled domain names (gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc.).

COS Data Clean-up Policy Version 1.2.1 Revised 20230404

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o

Correct missing or misspelled top-level domain name (.com) or missing @

symbol. You can find a list of top-level domain names at

https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db

.

●

Phone Number

o

Do not add a phone number that the supporter did not provide.

o

You may correct a phone number with public information sources if the number

has a simple transposition or a single incorrect digit.

●

Address 1

o

Correct capitalization.

o

Correct repeat letters at the beginning of an address.

o

Move a PO Box number to Address 2 if it is part of the complete street address;

otherwise, leave it in Address 1.

o

If t

h

e street address is present, you may temporarily remove or ignore a PO Box

number to verify the correct District Lookup for the profile, then paste it back in.

o

It is recommended, but not required, to leave an apartment, unit, or lot number

that is part of Address 1 or Address 2 in their original location (related to Address

Lookup and District Lookup processing).

o

Add missing spaces, such as changing “123Main” to “123 Main,” and remove

extra spaces or punctuation.

o

Remove Zip Code, city name, or state if repeated as part of Address 1.

●

Address 2

o

Correct capitalization.

o

Correct repeat letters at the beginning.

o

Remove Zip Code, city name, or state if repeated as part of Address 2.

●

City

o

Correct capitalization.

o

Correct repeat letters at the beginning.

o

Remove Zip Code or state if repeated as part of the city.

o

If District Lookup results in a city name different from the city provided by the

supporter, use the supporter-supplied city.

●

State

o

Correct capitalization.

o

Correct repeat letters at the beginning.

o

Can be added when the user provides a Zip.

o

You may correct the state based on the street address and zip if the supporter has

entered a technical error in the address.

●

Zip

o

If blank, it can be added when the user provides the street address/State

or the

State/City.

COS Data Clean-up Policy Version 1.2.1 Revised 20230404

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o

You may obtain the ZIP+4 from the District Lookup and update it if only five

digits are present. If the District Lookup does not return a ZIP+4, it does not

exist, or the current search engine did not find it. Please use

Profile: Edit:

Notes

to document when a +4 is unavailable. There are areas in the US where

the +4 is unnecessary to deliver the mail.

o

ZIP+4 should not contain letters. If Address Lookup provides a ZIP+4 with

letters, correct using District Lookup or other outside sources.

●

Voting Districts

o

If blank, the district information can be added where the address information is

sufficient to determine the correct districts.

o

If no zip +4 is found, determine the district from the address zip.

Special Cases

●

Change of Address – If an address change appears to have occurred, or the lookup
tools suggest a change of address to a new state, use the US-US Address Correction
Template to attempt to obtain corrected information from the supporter. If there is
no response to the template, the state team should contact the supporter by phone
or text to verify the new address. If the state team verifies the new address directly
with the supporter, they should document the change in the supporter profile and
then update the address. If the address is in another state, the current state team
must notify leadership in the new state of the change by COSAction email, taking
care also to make the new state aware of any leadership roles held by the supporter.
If the new address cannot be verified with the supporter, do not change the address.

●

Ban – Use the blue Ban Person button on the profile Ban tab to ban a person whose
views or actions are unfriendly or hostile to COS. Banning will opt the person out of
email/message updates and block access to the dashboard. It will remove the
person's roles and assignments and preserve the email address so that it cannot be
used again to create a profile in CitizenBuilder. Enter a Help Desk ticket to have the
petition revoked.

●

Delete (Profile Delete tab) – Note: This action will destroy the person's profile and
all the associated data (Emails, Petition, Leadership applications, etc.) and cannot
be undone. Deletion also revokes the petition.

ο

Use the blue Delete Person and Add Emails to Ban List button when the

supporter has a valid email address and they have bogus, vulgar, or

inappropriate language as part of their name, address, or email. This action

preserves the email address so that it cannot be used again to create a profile in

CitizenBuilder.

COS Data Clean-up Policy Version 1.2.1 Revised 20230404

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ο

Use the blue Delete Person button when the supporter does NOT have a valid

email address and they have bogus, vulgar, or inappropriate language as part of

their name or address.

ο

Use the blue Delete Person button to delete profiles with no contact information

besides a PO Box.

●

Deceased – Mark a supporter as Deceased when you have sufficient information
regarding their demise. Include the URL with the newspaper obituary or a link to
the funeral home or church proving the final arrangements in the Notes section of
the profile Edit tab. They will appear in the filter summary using the People tool to
locate a profile.

The deceased supporter will remain on the legislator's petition list with an indicator
that the supporter is deceased.

●

Non-United States addresses – Legislative districts cannot be determined for non-
United States addresses, including military APO/FPO/DPO addresses. Attempt to
determine a voting address by sending the Address Correction template asking for
the address of where they are registered to vote. With

a military address and a valid

email, the Veterans Coalition< (>

rhuckleberry@cosaction.com

<,> Veteran Coalition

National POC, o<r >

Brian.thomason@cosaction.com

<,> National Associate Veterans

Coalitions Coordinator)

may be able to help contact active military personnel. If you

cannot determine a voting address, add a non-US Address tag to the profile.

Documentation

●

Documentation – Please document in the Dashboard Notes and Comments section
(Action Type – Note) any change you make to a supporter's profile citing why you
made the change.

●

Tags – Add a custom tag to find and revisit the profile later. For example, you may
add a tag for futile efforts to clean up data in a profile. For example, several states
use the

ST

Clean Up tag with ST as the state initials.

COS Data Clean-up Policy Version 1.2.1 Revised 20230404

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Appendix: US-US Address Correction Template

●

This email template is available in the District Dashboard and the Follow-up. You

can quickly get to the District Dashboard by using the link in the People: User:

Profile Dashboard.

●

You should use the Address Correction Template if there is evidence that a

supporter has a change of address. You need to confirm address changes with the

supporter before any address changes are made to a supporter's account.

●

See the

HelpDesk KnowledgeBase

for documentation on the Address Correction

Template.

●

When the template is used, all replies are routed to a mailbox monitored by a

special team

. They will:

ο

Add the following tag to the profile “Address Correction Template

Received.”

ο

Make any changes required to the account.

ο

Document those changes in the Notes field in the User Profile Edit tab and

the Profile Dashboard Notes.

ο

If the address is in another state, the special team must notify leadership in

the new state of the change by COSAction email, taking care also to make

the new state aware of any leadership roles held by the supporter.

COS Data Clean-up Policy Version 1.2.1 Revised 20230404

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Revision History

Date

Description

By

5/26/2020

Initial Draft

Anne Aycock

Review Initial Draft

Seth Jeacopello

Revisions

Rita Dunaway

Revisions

Robert Kelly

Review

Bud Cornwell, Randy Regnier, Mike Cassidy

Approval

Robert Kelly

6/26/2020

Final Release – Version 1.0

Anne Aycock

2/22/2021

Release Revisions Version 1.1

Anne Aycock

3/2022

Release Revisions Version 1.2

Anne Aycock

1/9/2023

Review

Martin Nolan, Anne Aycock

1/12/2023

Meeting to review COS Privacy Policy

Robert Kelly, Martin Nolan, Anne Aycock

1/22/2023

Document Revision Draft

Martin Nolan

1/31/2023

Review

Bill Wiltschko, Mike Cassidy, Anne Aycock

3/17/2023

Approval

Robert Kelly

3/21/2023

Release Revisions Version 1.2

Anne Aycock

—-

====== Document Outline ======

* Introduction
* General Data Cleanup Policies
* Data Item Cleanup
* Special Cases
* Documentation
* Appendix: US-US Address Correction Template
* Revision History

Page Metadata
Login Required to view?	No
Created:	2023-10-30 18:43 GMT
Updated:	2024-10-31 03:00 GMT
Published:	2023-10-30 05:00 GMT
Converted:	2025-11-11 12:28 GMT
Change Author:	Kristen Stanciu
Credit Author: