Terms of Service

Last updated: October 15, 2026

1. Acceptance of Terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of ORATE, including orate-app.com (the "Service"). ORATE is an independent project operated by its creator ("ORATE", "we", "us").

ORATE is a public speaking practice platform. You get a debate question, pick a side, prepare for up to ten minutes, and give a recorded speech. An AI judge scores your argument. Ranked speeches raise or lower your ELO, which decides the leaderboard. Practice speeches are scored but don’t change ELO.

By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

When you create an account, we record which versions of these Terms and the Privacy Policy you accepted, and the date and time you accepted them. If we make material changes to either document, we may ask you to review and accept the new versions before you continue using the Service.

2. Age Requirement

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account or use the Service.

This requirement comes from one of our AI providers. The Service uses Google’s Gemini API as a backup to transcribe and score speeches, and Google’s terms for that API require users to be 18 or older. The Service is not available to anyone under 18, including with a parent’s or guardian’s permission.

By creating an account, you confirm that you are at least 18. We do not independently verify your age. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 18, we will delete the account and its data. Misrepresenting your age is a breach of these Terms.

3. AI Processing and Your Consent

Speeches on ORATE are transcribed and scored by an AI system. By using the Service, you consent to the following:

• Your speech audio is sent to Groq to be transcribed. We do not keep the audio after it is transcribed.
• Your transcript is sent to Groq to be scored and to generate written feedback. We store the transcript, scores, and feedback with your account.
• If Groq is unavailable or has reached its daily limit, Google’s Gemini API is used instead for either step.
• If transcription fails and you type or paste your speech instead, that text is processed the same way.
• Your camera is used only as an on-screen mirror. Video is never recorded or uploaded.
• Scores and feedback are generated automatically and can be wrong. They are practice feedback, not a professional assessment.

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. When Google’s Gemini API is used, the Service uses its free tier, under which Google may use submitted content to improve its products and human reviewers at Google may read it. Do not include personal, confidential, or sensitive information in a speech.

You can withdraw this consent at any time by stopping use of the Service and asking us to delete your account at security.orate@gmail.com.

4. Fair Play and Conduct

The leaderboard only works if scores are earned honestly. You agree not to:

• Submit a speech written by someone else or generated by an AI tool, whether by reading it aloud or pasting it in.
• Use the text box that appears when transcription fails to submit anything other than the speech you just gave.
• Try to manipulate the AI judge, for example with instructions hidden in a speech.
• Use bots, scripts, or other automated tools to create accounts, submit speeches, or gain ELO.
• Create multiple accounts to raise your own rank or anyone else’s.
• Choose a username or party name that is abusive, hateful, sexually explicit, impersonates someone, or infringes someone else’s rights.
• Interfere with the Service, get around its security, or access data that is not yours.
• Use the Service to harass, threaten, or harm anyone, or for anything illegal.

If we believe you have broken these rules, we may remove the affected speeches, ELO changes, or leaderboard position, rename or remove a username or party, or suspend or delete your account. The Service is free, so there are no fees to refund.

5. Your Account

• You are responsible for keeping your password secure and for everything that happens under your account.
• ORATE does not collect an email address, so we cannot send password reset links. If you lose your password, we may not be able to restore your account.
• Tell us right away at security.orate@gmail.com if you think someone else has accessed your account.
• Usernames are public. If you want to stay anonymous, do not use your real name.

6. Your Content and How We Use It

You own your speeches and transcripts. You give ORATE a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to store, process, and display that content only as needed to run the Service, including sending it to our AI provider as described in Section 3.

What other people can see

• If you are in the top 100, your username, ELO and rank appear on the public leaderboard, which anyone can view without signing in.
• Members of a party you join can see your username, rank, party points (from rounds since you joined), and round record on that party’s leaderboard. When a party round is decided, they can also see each player’s score for that round, but not the transcript or feedback.
• If you hold the record for the highest-scoring speech, your username and that score may be shown to other users.
• Your transcripts and feedback are visible only to you, and so are your speech scores, except the score of a party round speech as described above.

We will not use your speeches, transcripts, or username in advertising or marketing without your separate permission. This license ends when your content is deleted, except for copies kept in backups for a limited time or where the law requires us to keep them.

7. Our Content and Prohibited Uses

The Service, including its design, code, scoring rubric, question bank, and leaderboard data, belongs to ORATE and is protected by copyright and other laws. Without our written permission, you may not:

• Scrape, crawl, or bulk-collect content or data from the Service, including to train AI models or build a competing product.
• Copy, reverse-engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Service or its scoring.
• Copy or redistribute the question bank or other Service content.
• Use automated tools to access the Service in ways we have not authorized.

8. Changes to the Service and These Terms

We may change, suspend, or stop any part of the Service at any time, including its features, its scoring, and how scores and ELO are calculated.

We may update these Terms. When we do, we will change the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Because we do not collect your email address, we will announce material changes on the Service, and we may ask you to accept the updated Terms before you continue. If you keep using the Service after a change takes effect, you accept the updated Terms.

9. Suspension and Termination

You can stop using the Service at any time. To delete your account and its data, email security.orate@gmail.com with your username.

We may suspend or delete your account if you break these Terms, if the law requires it, or if it is needed to protect the Service or other users. Sections that by their nature should continue after your account ends, including Sections 7, 10, 11, 13, and 14, continue to apply.

10. Disclaimers and Limitation of Liability

Disclaimer

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available." To the fullest extent permitted by law, ORATE disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, the accuracy of scores or feedback, and uninterrupted or error-free operation.

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, ORATE will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss of data, rank or ELO. ORATE’s total liability for any claim relating to the Service will not exceed one hundred U.S. dollars ($100).

Some jurisdictions do not allow these exclusions or limits, so some of them may not apply to you.

11. Copyright Complaints

If you believe content on the Service infringes a copyright you own, send a notice to security.orate@gmail.com that includes:

• your name and contact details;
• a description of the copyrighted work;
• where the material appears on the Service;
• a statement that you believe in good faith the use is not authorized by the copyright owner or the law;
• a statement, under penalty of perjury, that your notice is accurate and that you are the owner or authorized to act for the owner; and
• your physical or electronic signature.

12. Export Controls

The Service is subject to United States export-control laws and to economic sanctions administered by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). By using the Service, you confirm that you are not located in a country subject to comprehensive U.S. sanctions, and that you will not use the Service to violate those laws.

13. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules.

Before filing any claim, you agree to first try to resolve the dispute informally by emailing security.orate@gmail.com. If it is not resolved within sixty (60) days, either party may bring a claim in the state or federal courts located in California. Nothing in these Terms waives any right or remedy that cannot be waived under California law, including public injunctive relief.

14. General Provisions

• Severability: If any part of these Terms is found unenforceable, it will be changed only as much as needed to make it enforceable, and the rest stays in effect.
• Entire agreement: These Terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and ORATE about the Service.
• No waiver: If we do not enforce part of these Terms, we have not given up our right to enforce it later.
• Assignment: You may not transfer your rights under these Terms without our written consent. We may transfer ours if the Service is transferred to someone else.

15. Contact

Questions about these Terms: security.orate@gmail.com