Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 15, 2026

This Privacy Policy describes Our policies and procedures on the collection, use and disclosure of Your information when You use the Service and tells You about Your privacy rights and how the law protects You.

We use Your Personal Data to provide and improve the Service. We collect, use, and disclose Your information as described in this Privacy Policy and, where required by applicable law, only where We have a valid legal basis to do so, including Your consent (where consent is required).

Interpretation and Definitions

Interpretation

The words whose initial letters are capitalized have meanings defined under the following conditions. The following definitions shall have the same meaning regardless of whether they appear in singular or in plural.

Definitions

For the purposes of this Privacy Policy:

• Account means a unique account created for You to access Our Service or parts of Our Service.
• Company (referred to as either "the Company", "We", "Us" or "Our" in this Privacy Policy) refers to orate-app, an independent project operated by its creator.
• Cookies are small files that are placed on Your computer, mobile device or any other device by a website, containing the details of Your browsing history on that website, among its many uses.
• Country/State refers to: California, United States.
• Device means any device that can access the Service, such as a computer, a cell phone or a digital tablet.
• Personal Data (or "Personal Information") is any information that relates to an identified or identifiable individual. We use "Personal Data" and "Personal Information" interchangeably unless a law uses a specific term.
• Service refers to the Website.
• Service Provider means any natural or legal person who processes the data on behalf of the Company. It refers to third-party companies or individuals employed by the Company to facilitate the Service, to provide the Service on behalf of the Company, to perform services related to the Service or to assist the Company in analyzing how the Service is used.
• Speech Content means the audio You record through the Service, the text transcript produced from it, and the scores and written feedback generated for it.
• Usage Data refers to data collected automatically, either generated by the use of the Service or from the Service infrastructure itself (for example, the duration of a page visit).
• User means any individual who accesses or uses the Service.
• Username means the public display name You choose when creating an Account.
• Website refers to orate-app, accessible from orate-app.com.
• You means the individual accessing or using the Service, or the company, or other legal entity on behalf of which such individual is accessing or using the Service, as applicable.

Collecting and Using Your Personal Information

Types of Data Collected

Personal Data

While using Our Service, We may ask You to provide Us with certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify You. Personally identifiable information may include, but is not limited to:

• Username: the display name You choose. See Your Username below.
• Password: stored only as a cryptographic hash. We never see or store Your password itself.
• Speech Content: audio recorded during a session, the transcript produced from it, and the resulting scores and feedback.
• Activity data: the topics You were given, the side You argued, preparation and speaking times, ELO and its history, and Your position on the leaderboard.

We do not ask for Your email address, telephone number, real name, date of birth, postal address, or payment details, and We do not collect them.

Your Username

Your Username is the only name We hold for You, and it is the element of Your Account that other people can see. Please read this section before choosing one.

• It is public. Your Username is displayed on the global leaderboard alongside Your ELO, and can be seen by anyone visiting the Service, including people who are not signed in and search engines that index the page. It is also visible to every member of any party You join.
• Choose one that does not identify You. Because a Username is public, We recommend You do not use Your full name, school or workplace, email address, phone number, or any other detail that could identify You or another person. If You choose to include such information, You are making it public by Your own choice.
• It must be unique. Usernames are 3–20 characters, using letters, numbers and underscores. They are compared without regard to capitalization, so two accounts cannot differ only by letter case.
• It is used internally as an identifier. Our authentication provider is built around email addresses, so Your Username is mapped internally to a placeholder address in the form yourname@users.speakup.local. This address is not real, cannot send or receive mail, and is never displayed to other Users. It exists only so the sign-in system can function.
• It is how We identify You to Ourselves. Because We hold no email address, Your Username is the only way We can recognize Your Account. If You ask Us to delete or export Your data, We will ask You to identify the Account by Username.
• Changing it. The Service does not currently offer a way to change a Username from within the Account. You may contact Us to request a change; Your existing speeches, ELO and rank will follow the Account.
• Unacceptable Usernames. We may change or remove a Username that impersonates another person, is unlawful, or is abusive, hateful or obscene.
• Lost passwords. Because We hold no email address, We cannot send You a password reset link. If You lose Your password, contact Us and identify Your Username.

Camera and Microphone

Your browser will ask Your permission before either is used. What happens to each is different, and We state it precisely:

• Camera. The video is shown back to You on Your own screen so You can see Yourself while speaking. It is never recorded, uploaded or transmitted. It exists only within Your browser and ends when You finish the session.
• Microphone. Audio is recorded in Your browser during Your speech. When You finish, the recording is uploaded to Our server, passed immediately to Our transcription provider, and then discarded. We do not store audio files. Only the resulting text transcript is retained.

You may refuse either permission in Your browser. Refusing the microphone means a speech cannot be transcribed or scored.

Automated Processing of Speech Content

Your speech audio is sent to Groq, which transcribes it, and Your transcript is sent to Groq, which generates scores and written feedback. If Groq is unavailable or has reached its daily limit, Google’s Gemini API is used instead for either step. Scoring itself is automated, and no person at the Company reads Your transcript in the ordinary course of operating the Service. That does not mean no human ever reads it. Please read the notice below carefully.

What Our AI providers do with Your speech. ORATE has turned on Groq’s zero data retention setting, so Groq does not keep Your audio or transcript after processing them, including for troubleshooting or abuse monitoring. When Google’s Gemini API is used, the Service uses its free tier. For that tier, Google’s API terms state that “human reviewers may read, annotate, and process your API input and output,” and that Google uses the content submitted “to provide, improve, and develop Google products and services and machine learning technologies.” This applies to any speech audio or transcript sent to Gemini. Do not say anything in a speech that You would not want a stranger at Groq or Google to read, and do not include personal, confidential, or sensitive information in a speech.

Usage Data

Usage Data is collected automatically when using the Service.

Usage Data may include information such as Your Device’s Internet Protocol address (e.g. IP address), browser type, browser version, the pages of Our Service that You visit, the time and date of Your visit, the time spent on those pages, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data. When You access the Service by or through a mobile device, We may collect certain information automatically, including the type of mobile device You use, Your mobile operating system, the type of mobile Internet browser You use, and other diagnostic data.

Tracking Technologies and Cookies

We use a small number of technologies to operate the Service and to understand how it is used:

• Necessary / Essential Cookies. Type: Session and Persistent Cookies. Administered by: Us. Purpose: these Cookies keep You signed in and prevent fraudulent use of Accounts. Without them, the sign-in service You have asked for cannot be provided. We use them only for that purpose.
• Local storage. We store small values in Your browser to remember which questions You have recently been shown, to hold a session in progress, and to remember that You have dismissed a notification. These remain on Your Device and are never sent to Us.
• Analytics. We use Vercel Web Analytics to count page views and visitors. It is cookieless, does not build a profile of You, and does not follow You to other websites. We see aggregate figures only.

We do not use advertising cookies, web beacons, tracking pixels, or third-party advertising networks. You can instruct Your browser to refuse Cookies, but if You do, You will not be able to sign in.

Use of Your Personal Data

The Company may use Personal Data for the following purposes:

• To provide and maintain Our Service, including to monitor the usage of Our Service.
• To manage Your Account: to manage Your registration as a User of the Service. The Personal Data You provide can give You access to different functionalities of the Service that are available to You as a registered User.
• To transcribe and score Your speeches and to show You Your history, progress charts and feedback over time.
• To operate the leaderboard, which displays Your Username, ELO and speech count publicly, and within any party You join.
• To manage Your requests: to attend and manage Your requests to Us.
• For business transfers: We may use Your Personal Data to evaluate or conduct a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of Our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which Personal Data held by Us about Our Service Users is among the assets transferred.
• For other purposes: such as data analysis, identifying usage trends, and evaluating and improving Our Service and Your experience.

Because We do not collect an email address or telephone number, We cannot and do not send You marketing communications of any kind.

We may share Your Personal Data in the following situations:

• With Service Providers: We may share Your Personal Data with Service Providers to operate, transcribe, score, host and analyze the use of Our Service.
• For business transfers: We may share or transfer Your Personal Data in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of Company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of Our business to another company.
• With other Users: Your Username, ELO and speech count appear on the public leaderboard and to members of any party You join, and may be publicly distributed outside the Service. Members of a party also see Your party points, round record, and, once a party round is decided, each player’s score for that round. Your transcripts and feedback are never shown to other Users, and neither are Your other speech scores.
• With Your consent: We may disclose Your Personal Data for any other purpose with Your consent.

Our Service Providers

We do not sell Your Personal Data, and We do not share it for advertising or cross-context behavioral advertising.

Retention of Your Personal Data

The Company will retain Your Personal Data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. We will retain and use Your Personal Data to the extent necessary to comply with Our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce Our legal agreements and policies.

Unless otherwise stated, the retention periods below are maximum periods ("up to") and We may delete or anonymize data sooner when it is no longer needed:

• Audio recordings: discarded within moments of transcription. They are never written to long-term storage.
• Account information, transcripts, scores and feedback: retained for the duration of Your Account, and for up to 24 months after closure to resolve any post-termination issues or disputes.
• Analytics data: up to 24 months from the date of collection.
• Server logs (IP addresses, access times): up to 24 months, for security monitoring and troubleshooting.

We may retain Personal Data beyond these periods where:

• We are required by law to retain specific data;
• data is necessary to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims;
• You ask Us to retain specific information;
• data exists in backup systems scheduled for routine deletion.

When retention periods expire, Personal Data is removed from Our systems. Residual copies may remain in encrypted backups for a limited period consistent with Our backup schedule and are not restored except where necessary for security, disaster recovery, or legal compliance. In some cases We convert Personal Data into anonymous statistical data that cannot be linked back to You; such data may be retained indefinitely.

Transfer of Your Personal Data

Your information, including Personal Data, is processed at the Company’s operating locations and in any other places where the parties involved in the processing are located. Our database is hosted in the United States, and Our Service Providers may process data in other countries. This means that this information may be transferred to and stored on computers located outside of Your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ from those of Your jurisdiction.

Where required by applicable law, We will ensure that international transfers of Your Personal Data are subject to appropriate safeguards. The Company will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that Your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Delete Your Personal Data

You have the right to delete or request that We assist in deleting the Personal Data that We have collected about You.

The Service does not currently provide a self-service delete button. To delete Your Account, email Us at security.orate@gmail.com and tell Us Your Username. We will delete Your Account, speeches, transcripts, scores, ELO and party memberships. This cannot be undone. You may also ask Us for a copy of everything We hold about You, to correct it, or to remove Your entry from the leaderboard while keeping Your Account.

Please note that We may need to retain certain information when We have a legal obligation or lawful basis to do so.

Depending on where You live, You may have additional rights over Your Personal Data, including to access, correct, delete, or object to its use, and to be free from discrimination for exercising them. Write to Us and We will honor them.

Disclosure of Your Personal Data

Business Transactions

If the Company is involved in a merger, acquisition or asset sale, Your Personal Data may be transferred. We will provide notice before Your Personal Data is transferred and becomes subject to a different Privacy Policy.

Law Enforcement

Under certain circumstances, the Company may disclose Your Personal Data if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g. a court or a government agency).

Other Legal Requirements

The Company may disclose Your Personal Data in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to:

• Comply with a legal obligation
• Protect and defend the rights or property of the Company
• Prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Service
• Protect the personal safety of Users of the Service or the public
• Protect against legal liability

Security of Your Personal Data

The security of Your Personal Data is important to Us, but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. Traffic is encrypted in transit, passwords are stored only as hashes, and database rules restrict each Account to its own speeches. While We strive to use commercially reasonable means to protect Your Personal Data, We cannot guarantee its absolute security. The Service is a small independent project rather than an audited enterprise product, and You should weigh that when deciding what to say in a speech.

Children’s and Minors’ Privacy

The Service is for adults aged 18 and over. It is not directed to, and We do not knowingly collect Personal Information from, anyone under the age of 18.

This limit is set by one of Our AI providers. Google’s Gemini API terms state that “You must be 18 years of age or older to use the APIs.” We therefore cannot offer the Service to minors, including secondary-school students, regardless of parental consent.

If You are a parent or guardian and You believe Your child has provided Us with Personal Information, please contact Us. If We become aware that We have collected Personal Information from anyone under the age of 18, We will take steps to remove that information from Our servers as soon as reasonably possible.

Some countries and states set a higher age at which an individual can consent to the processing of their own Personal Information. Where We rely on consent as a legal basis and the law applicable to a User sets an age higher than 18, We may require the consent of that User’s parent or guardian before We collect and use their Personal Information.

Links to Other Websites

Our Service may contain links to other websites that are not operated by Us. If You click on a third-party link, You will be directed to that third party’s site. We strongly advise You to review the Privacy Policy of every site You visit.

We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third-party sites or services.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update Our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify You of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last updated" date at the top. Because We do not hold Your email address, We cannot notify You by email; material changes will be announced by a prominent notice on the Service.

You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.

Contact Us

If You have any questions about this Privacy Policy, You can contact Us:

• By email: security.orate@gmail.com