Legal
PRIVACY POLICY
This Privacy Policy describes how Voices of History Foundation (“Voices of History,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, discloses, and protects information in connection with DebateHero, available at debatehero.com and related subdomains. By creating an account you acknowledge this Policy and agree to the Terms of Service.
1. What We Collect
Your email address, and — if you sign in with Google — the name and profile picture Google shares with us. We also keep your account's access settings and a record of the date, time, and version of your acceptance of our Terms of Service and this Policy.
If you buy a plan or voice minutes, we keep your plan, its status and renewal date, and your remaining voice minutes. You enter your payment details on Stripe's checkout page; we do not receive your card number.
Your conversations and debates with the figures: the messages you write or speak, the topics you pick, the transcripts, scores, judgments, and summaries those sessions produce, and any suggestions or feedback you submit.
When you use a voice feature (dictation, voice chat, or a live voice session), audio from your microphone is captured and processed in real time to transcribe your words and run the conversation. We store the resulting text transcripts as part of your session history. We do not use your voice to create voice clones, voiceprints, or biometric identifiers of any kind. When you share a debate, an AI-synthesized voice reading of your words (a stock voice, not yours) may be stored with the share until you delete your account.
We record live debates (your voice and, when your camera is on, your video) so you can get a replay video and clips of your debate. Before each live debate you agree to the recording by pressing “Agree and join” (“Start debate” against a figure), and we keep a record of that agreement: your account or guest ID, the version of this Policy and the time. Quick match, where you debate a stranger, uses your camera and microphone and is for users 18 and older; before your first quick match you confirm that you are 18 or older, and we store the time you confirmed. We delete the recordings 24 hours after the debate ends. The replay video and clips made from them are kept until the debate is deleted, which happens when either player deletes their account; a copy you download is not affected. Either player can share a debate's replay as a watch page. Anyone with the link can watch it without an account until the video is deleted; watch pages are hidden from search engines. In a debate between two players, the replay, its clips and its watch page show your camera only if you turn on “Show my camera in duel videos” in Settings; otherwise they show your avatar, including in the replay you download yourself. If you turn the setting off later, videos that show your camera are removed, but a video link handed out before then can keep working for up to one hour. Our staff can access recordings to run and fix the service and to review reports.
A clip from a live debate is posted to the public Clips feed only if every player in the debate agrees, and only after our review. Any player can withdraw their agreement later, which takes the clip down. If you comment on a clip, your comment is shown publicly with your username.
If you report or block another player in a live debate, we store the report (the debate, the reason you chose and any note you write) and the block. Our staff read reports and may watch the debate's recordings and read its transcript to review one. A blocked player is not matched with you again.
Some features can be tried without signing up. A temporary anonymous account is created so the session works; it carries no name or email and is subject to this Policy like any other account data. A guest who joins a live debate from an invite link agrees to the Terms of Service and this Policy by pressing “Agree and join”.
Product analytics through PostHog: pages visited, clicks, features used, and errors in your browser, including on public pages such as a shared page someone sent you. PostHog also records session replays: a reconstruction of what happened on the screen, with all on-screen text and all form inputs masked, together with your browser's console log. Error reports from your browser and from our servers also go to PostHog. Our hosting providers keep standard technical logs (IP address, browser type, device information) for security and reliability. Some share links carry a random share ID that contains no personal data; we use it to see how shares spread.
When you are signed in, including in a guest session, your analytics are linked to a PostHog profile that includes your account ID, your email address (guest sessions have none) and your plan. Signed-out visitors get an anonymous profile with no account ID, email address or other personal data.
Each time a figure answers, we send PostHog a record of that AI call: the figure's instructions and session context, your messages, and the model's reply, with the model name, token counts and timing, linked to your account ID. We use it to find and fix bad replies and to track cost and speed.
We do not buy data about you from data brokers, and we do not collect data from your device beyond what is described here.
2. How We Use It
To run the product: generate the figures' responses, judge and score debates, transcribe and speak voice turns, keep your session history, and let you resume where you left off.
To improve the platform: conversation data may be used to make the figures, judging, and product better. To secure it: we use logs and rate limits to prevent abuse, fraud, and attacks. To communicate: transactional email about your account (sign-in links, account notices).
To comply with law, enforce our Terms of Service, and protect the rights, safety, and property of our users, the public, and ourselves. We do not sell your personal data, we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we do not run ads.
3. AI Processing
The figures are powered by large language models. The content of your sessions — your messages, your spoken words (as real-time audio and as transcripts), and session context — is forwarded to our AI service providers to generate responses, scoring, and speech: Anthropic and OpenAI for language generation and evaluation, Deepgram for speech-to-text, ElevenLabs and Fish Audio for text-to-speech, and Perplexity or OpenAI for optional topic research. These providers process your content to provide the service under their own data-processing terms. A copy of each AI call, including your messages and the figure's reply, also goes to PostHog (see “Conversation analytics” in Section 1).
Everything a figure says is machine-generated. It is not the words, views, or endorsement of any real person, living or dead, and it may be wrong. Do not put sensitive personal information (health, financial, government identifiers) into a debate. The product does not need it and is not designed to receive it.
4. Who Touches Your Data
Authentication and database hosting.
Application hosting, delivery, and request logs.
Generates the figures' responses.
Evaluation, scoring, and auxiliary generation.
Speech-to-text for voice input.
Text-to-speech when voice is on.
Real-time audio and video infrastructure for live voice sessions and the figure's video in a live debate.
Generate a figure's animated video from the figure's synthesized speech in voice sessions and live debates.
Relays the encrypted audio and video of a live debate between two players when the players' devices cannot connect directly.
Runs the computers that turn debate recordings into replay videos and clips.
Optional topic-research search for debate briefs.
Product analytics, session replay, error reports, and conversation analytics, as described in Section 1.
Payment processing when you buy a plan or voice minutes. We send Stripe your email address and account ID.
Transactional email (sign-in and account notices).
This is the complete list of our service providers as of the date at the top of this Policy. Each provider processes data only to provide its service to us. We do not use data brokers or ad networks.
7. Retention & Deletion
We keep your account and session data while your account is active, because your history is part of the product. Server and security logs are retained for shorter operational periods. To delete your account and its data, or to request a copy of it, use the account-deletion option in Settings or email support@debatehero.com. We act on verified requests within 30 days, subject to any legal obligation to retain specific records, and residual copies may persist in backups for a limited period thereafter.
8. Security
We protect your information with industry-standard safeguards, including encryption in transit and access controls. No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
9. Children
DebateHero is for users 13 and older, and quick match is for users 18 and older. We do not knowingly collect data from children under 13; if you believe we have, contact us at support@debatehero.com and we will delete it.
10. Your Rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, or receive a copy of your personal information, to object to or restrict certain processing, and to complain to a supervisory authority. Because we do not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, there is nothing to opt out of under laws like the California Consumer Privacy Act; we honor the access, deletion, and correction rights those laws provide. To exercise any right, email support@debatehero.com; we will verify your request, respond within the time required by applicable law, and never discriminate against you for exercising your rights.
11. International Users
The service is operated from the United States and your information is processed on servers that may be located in the United States or other countries, whose data-protection laws may differ from your home jurisdiction's. By using the service you understand your information will be transferred to and processed in those jurisdictions as described in this Policy.
12. Changes & Contact
We will update this Policy when our practices change and change the “last updated” date at the top. For material changes, we will notify you and ask you to accept the updated Policy before you continue using the service. Send questions about this Policy to support@debatehero.com.
Voices of History Foundation · See also the Terms of Service.