The rules of using 52

In short#

• 52 indexes public records and links to their sources. It is not legal advice.
• Public record pages are free to read without an account.
• The private tools are a paid subscription with a 14-day free trial, no card needed. Paid plans renew until you cancel, and canceling takes effect at the end of the period.
• Accounts have no password. You sign in with a one-time code sent to your email.
• Do not use campaign finance records to solicit anyone, and do not scrape the service.
• Coverage is uneven because the sources are. An empty result is not proof of absence.
• The service is provided as is, with no uptime promise and limited liability.

What 52 is#

52 is a research tool over public records. It indexes legislation from Congress, the 50 states, and the District of Columbia, together with disclosed campaign finance, lobbying positions, and the people and committees around those records, and it links each one back to its official source.

52 is not a law firm and gives no legal advice. Nothing here is an opinion on what the law is, what a bill will do, or what you should do about it. A proposed bill is not enacted law. Statuses, stages, and the automatic estimates shown on a record are triage aids generated from source data, not determinations. Before you rely on anything, open the linked official source and read it.

By using 52 you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use the service. These terms are between you and 52 (“we”, “us”).

Your account and signing in#

Reading the public record pages needs no account. To use the private tools you need an account, a working email address, and you must be at least 13 years old. Keep access to that inbox to yourself; anything done through your session is treated as done by you.

There is no password. Each time you sign in, 52 emails a six-digit code to your address. It works once and expires after 15 minutes. If you lose access to that email address, you lose access to the account, and we cannot move it to another address for you. 52 also sends update emails you enable and team briefings you choose to share. You control those choices in Account and Following; see the privacy policy for details.

You can delete your account at any time from your account page. Deletion is immediate and permanent.

Plans, the free trial, and billing#

52 is a paid subscription. Its private tools — standing questions, briefings, folios, notifications, followed topics, saved reports and organization pages, exports and downloads, and the AI assistant connector — need an active plan. Every new account starts with a 14-day free trial of everything, and no card is needed for the trial. When the trial ends, your saved work stays and you can still read and export it, but creating new work needs a plan. Public record pages stay free to read without an account.

Paid plans renew automatically at the end of each term, monthly or yearly, until you cancel. You can cancel at any time in Manage billing on your account page; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current period, and you keep access until then. We do not refund partial periods, except where the law requires it.

Current website prices are on the pricing page. We may change them with at least 30 days’ notice, and a change takes effect at the start of your next term. Taxes may apply and are added where required. Payments are processed by Stripe. If a payment fails, access may continue for a short grace period while you update your card, and ends if it is not updated.

52 Plus in the iPhone app is a separate consumer subscription for unlimited follows and keyword alerts. Professional research reports remain part of Pro. Apple shows the localized monthly or annual price and renewal terms before purchase, processes the payment, and manages cancellation and refund requests. To change or cancel an Apple subscription, use Apple subscription settings. Cancellation keeps access through the paid period. Deleting the app or your 52 account does not cancel an Apple subscription. Restore purchases does not require a separate 52 account.

On a Team plan, the team owner controls the seats and the membership, and can add or remove members at any time. Removing a member ends their access to the team’s folios immediately; their private work stays theirs. 52 sends no invitations: a person joins by signing in with the email address the owner added.

We may offer discounts, including 20% off for nonprofits and newsrooms. Whether a discount applies is at our discretion.

Acceptable use#

While using 52 you agree not to:

• Use the names, addresses, or employers in campaign finance records to solicit donations, business, or memberships, or to build a marketing or fundraising list. Several states forbid this by statute for the records they publish, and the prohibition travels with the data.
• Harass, threaten, dox, or intimidate any person who appears in these records, or combine records to re-identify or profile individuals for those purposes.
• Scrape, mass-download, or systematically extract the service, defeat rate limits, or run automated agents against it beyond ordinary reading. If you need bulk data, ask us or go to the originating agency, which publishes it.
• Resell, sublicense, or redistribute the service or its compiled output as your own product.
• Probe, disrupt, or attempt to gain unauthorized access to the service, other accounts, or the systems behind it.
• Use 52 in violation of any law, or of the terms attached by the agency that published a record.

Source data and the rules that come with it#

The underlying records are public documents produced by government bodies. 52 does not claim ownership of them. What we do own is the compilation: the indexing, linking, deduplication, wording, and presentation that turns those records into this site.

Some jurisdictions attach conditions to their published data, including restrictions on commercial use and on use for solicitation. Where you take data from 52 and use it elsewhere, those conditions apply to you, and it is your responsibility to check them at the source we link.

Coverage is uneven by design of the sources, not by preference. Some jurisdictions publish far less than others, and a few publish nothing we can lawfully collect. An empty result is not proof that nothing exists.

Accuracy, availability, and change#

52 is provided as it stands. We work to keep it accurate and current, but records arrive late, sources restate themselves, and automated matching makes mistakes. We do not promise that any record is complete, current, or correctly matched.

We may change, suspend, or discontinue any part of the service, and there is no uptime commitment or support obligation. If we retire the service we will try to give reasonable notice so you can export your saved reports.

Disclaimer of warranties#

The service is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and any warranty as to accuracy or completeness of the records shown. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

Limitation of liability#

To the extent the law allows, 52 is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost data, or decisions made in reliance on anything shown on 52.

Our total liability arising out of or relating to the service is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us for the service in the twelve months before the claim arose and one hundred United States dollars (US$100).

Suspension and termination#

We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, abuses the service, or puts the records or other readers at risk. You may stop using 52 and delete your account at any time. The sections on source data, warranties, liability, and governing law survive the end of your account.

Governing law#

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Disputes will be brought in the state or federal courts located in California, and you and 52 consent to that venue. Nothing here waives any right you cannot waive by law.

Changes to these terms#

When these terms change, the date at the top of the page changes with them, and material changes will be announced on the site before they take effect. Continuing to use 52 after that means you accept the revised terms. This version is dated October 28, 2026.

Who to contact#

For questions about these terms, corrections, or legal notices, write to legal@52.report. See also the privacy policy.