Privacy Policy

DebateMe is operated by DebateMe Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (Company No. 16595958). We are the data controller for the personal data we collect through DebateMe.

For any privacy-related questions, contact us at: debatemeteam@gmail.com

Account information: When you sign up, we collect your email address and any profile information you provide (such as a display name). Authentication is handled through our database provider, Supabase.

Debate content: During a live debate, your video and audio are streamed to your opponent via Twilio’s video infrastructure. Your speech may be transcribed in real time using your browser’s built-in Web Speech API (this processing happens locally on your device). Transcripts are sent to our AI scoring system (powered by Anthropic’s Claude API) to generate scores and coaching feedback.

Debate records: We store debate results, scores, AI feedback, round data, and associated metadata (such as timestamps and participant identifiers) in our database.

Debate results and feedback: Your debate results, scores, AI coaching feedback, and round summaries are stored for as long as your account is active. This allows you to review your previous debates and track your improvement over time. If you delete your account, this data will be deleted or anonymised within 30 days.

Video and audio retention: Debate video and audio may be recorded and stored for up to 30 days for the purposes of safety review, quality assurance, and moderation. If a report is filed against a participant, the recording of the relevant debate may be retained beyond 30 days until the review is complete. Recordings are not used for any other purpose and are not shared with third parties. After the retention period, recordings are automatically deleted. Debate transcripts (the text generated from your speech) are retained alongside your debate results to support your review and the AI scoring system.

Live-streamed debates: You may choose to make your debate visible to other users as a live spectator stream. This requires both participants to opt in — your debate is never streamed without your explicit consent. Live streams are not recorded separately from the standard moderation recordings described above.

Puzzle activity: We track your daily puzzle completions and streak data.

Usage data: We collect standard usage information such as pages visited, features used, and your online presence status (used to show live user counts). We use Supabase Realtime Presence for the online status feature.

Reports: If you submit a report about another user, we store the report category, any details you provide, and identifiers for both the reporter and the reported user.

Device and browser data: We may collect your IP address, browser type, and device information through standard server logs and our hosting provider (Vercel).

We use your data to:

• Provide the service: run debates, generate AI scores and feedback, track puzzle streaks, show live user counts
• Maintain safety: review reports, enforce our Terms of Service, detect and prevent abuse
• Improve the platform: understand how features are used, diagnose technical issues, improve AI scoring quality
• Communicate with you: send account-related emails (e.g. password resets), and in the future, service updates

We do not sell your personal data. We do not use your data for advertising.

We process your data under the following legal bases:

Contract: Processing your account data, debate content, and scores is necessary to provide the service you signed up for.

Legitimate interests: Usage analytics, safety and moderation, and service improvement. We balance these interests against your rights and do not use data in ways you would not reasonably expect.

Consent: Where required (for example, optional communications), we will ask for your explicit consent. You can withdraw consent at any time.

We use the following third-party service providers to operate DebateMe. These providers process data on our behalf and are bound by their own privacy and security commitments:

Your debate video and audio are transmitted directly to your opponent via Twilio. Debate transcripts (text derived from your speech) are sent to Anthropic’s API for scoring. We send only the transcript text needed for scoring — we do not send your email, name, or other identifying account information to Anthropic.

We may also disclose data if required by law, regulation, or legal process.

Some of our service providers (Supabase, Twilio, Anthropic, Vercel) are based in the United States. Where data is transferred outside the UK, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses or the provider’s participation in recognised data protection frameworks. You can contact us for more detail on the safeguards in place.

We retain your account data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we will delete or anonymise your personal data within 30 days, except where we are required to retain it for legal or safety reasons (e.g. records of serious misconduct reports).

Debate results, scores, AI coaching feedback, transcripts, and round summaries are retained for as long as your account is active so you can review your debate history. Video and audio recordings are automatically deleted after 30 days unless a report requires extended retention.

Under UK GDPR, you have the right to:

• Access your personal data — request a copy of what we hold about you
• Rectification — ask us to correct inaccurate data
• Erasure — ask us to delete your data (“right to be forgotten”)
• Restrict processing — ask us to limit how we use your data
• Data portability — receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format
• Object — object to processing based on legitimate interests
• Withdraw consent — where processing is based on consent, withdraw it at any time

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at debatemeteam@gmail.com. We will respond within one month.

If you are not satisfied with how we handle your request, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at https://ico.org.uk.

We use essential cookies and browser local storage for authentication (keeping you logged in) and core functionality. We do not currently use analytics cookies or third-party tracking cookies.

If we introduce non-essential cookies in the future, we will update this policy and implement a consent mechanism.

DebateMe is not intended for anyone under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 16. If we become aware that a user is under 16, we will suspend their account and delete their data.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you via the platform or by email. The “Last updated” date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision.

For privacy-related questions or to exercise your data rights:

DebateMe Ltd
debatemeteam@gmail.com