Legal

Privacy Policy

Effective date: September 14, 2026 · Last updated: September 14, 2026

            Short version: Debatbl is a public debate platform about politics and current events. We collect what you give us and what the app generates about you — your account details, your debates, the sides you take, your scores and how you use the service. Debates are public. We use that information to run and improve Debatbl, to contact you, and, as described below, we may share or sell it, including to partners in politics, research and advertising. You can opt out of sale and of marketing email at any time. We use OpenAI to moderate and score debates and Stripe to take payments.
        

1. Who We Are

Debatbl ("Debatbl", "we", "us") operates the website and application at debatbl.com (the "Service"). This policy explains what we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices you have. It applies to everyone who visits or uses the Service. Questions go to hello@debatbl.com.

2. What We Collect

Information you give us

Account details — your email address, the handle you choose or that we generate for you, your country, and, if you sign in with Google, the name, email address and profile picture Google provides.
Debate content — every message you post in a debate, the topics you pick, the side you take on each topic, proposals to end or pause a debate, and concessions.
Ratings, polls and surveys — ratings you give to debates, and answers to any polls, surveys or questions we may ask you in the Service or by email.
Payments — your credit balance and purchase history. Card details go directly to Stripe and never touch our servers.
Correspondence — anything you send us by email or through the Service.

Information the Service generates

Scores and results — the round-by-round scores, notes and results our AI judge produces for your debates, and the leaderboard statistics derived from them.
Usage data — pages and topics you view, debates you watch, when you are active, which features you use, links you click in our emails, and similar activity, together with device and browser type, IP address, and approximate location derived from it.
Inferences — characteristics we derive from the above, for example the positions you tend to take, the issues you engage with, how persuadable you appear to be, and how you compare with other users.

We do not ask for, and you should not post, government identifiers, financial account numbers, health information, or other people's personal information.

3. Political Opinions Are the Point

Debatbl is about politics. The sides you take and the arguments you make necessarily reveal political opinions, and that information is central to the Service. By using Debatbl you understand that we collect it, that your debate content is public, and that we use and share it as this policy describes. Some laws treat political opinions as sensitive information and give you extra rights over it; those rights are described in sections 9 and 10.

4. How We Use Your Information

Operate the Service: create and secure your account, sign you in by email link or Google, run and display debates, moderate messages, score debates, keep leaderboards and statistics, and process payments.
Communicate with you: sign-in links, notifications about your debates, challenges and matches, receipts, and service announcements.
Send you marketing: news about Debatbl, new topics, polls and surveys, and offers from us or from partners we think will interest you. Every marketing email has an unsubscribe link.
Understand and improve the Service: analytics, research, testing, and developing new features such as polls, surveys, rankings and personalised content.
Train and evaluate the AI systems we use: our judge, coach, moderation and AI debaters may be improved using debate content and scores.
Build audiences and insights: analyse how people who hold particular positions argue, engage and change their minds, in aggregate and at the individual level.
Protect Debatbl and others: detect abuse, fraud and misuse, enforce our Terms of Service, and comply with law.

5. Debate Content Is Public

Debates are public by design. Your handle, the side you took, your messages, the scores and the result of every debate you take part in can be seen by anyone, may appear on the Debates page, the leaderboard, topic pages and share images, may be indexed by search engines, and may be quoted, embedded or shared by us or by others. Finished debates stay available indefinitely. Do not put anything in a debate message that you would not say in public under your handle.

6. How We Share Information

We share personal information in the following ways:

Publicly, as described in section 5.
With service providers that process data for us: OpenAI (moderation, scoring, coaching, AI debaters and topic generation — debate messages and topics are sent to OpenAI's API), Stripe (payments), Amazon Web Services (hosting, database and email delivery), Google (sign-in), and analytics and email tools we may adopt.
With partners, for value. We may share, license, rent or sell information about you — including your email address, handle, country, the positions you have taken, your debate content and scores, your usage data and our inferences — to third parties such as political campaigns, parties and committees, advocacy and issue organisations, pollsters and researchers, media organisations, data and marketing companies, and advertisers, for their own purposes. This may count as a "sale" or "sharing" of personal information under some state laws. You can opt out at any time as described in section 9, and we will not sell or share information about anyone we know to be under 18.
In aggregate or de-identified form, such as "62% of debaters on this topic opposed the measure", without restriction.
In a business transfer, if Debatbl or substantially all of its assets are acquired, merged or financed, in which case your information is among the assets transferred.
For legal reasons: to comply with law or legal process, to enforce our terms, or to protect the rights, property or safety of Debatbl, our users or the public.

7. Google Sign-In

If you sign in with Google we receive your name, email address and profile picture from your Google account. We use them to create and identify your account and treat them like any other account details under this policy. We do not access your Gmail, contacts, calendar or any other Google data. Our use of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including its Limited Use requirements.

8. Cookies, Local Storage and Tracking

We store a sign-in token and a visitor identifier in your browser's local storage so that you stay signed in and so that we can count visitors and understand how the Service is used. We may use cookies, pixels and similar technologies, including in our emails, and may add third-party analytics and advertising tools; where we do, this policy covers them. We do not currently respond to browser "Do Not Track" signals. We honour Global Privacy Control signals as an opt-out of sale and sharing where the law requires it.

9. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

You have the right to opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information. To do so, email hello@debatbl.com with the subject "Do not sell or share" from the address on your account, or send a Global Privacy Control signal from your browser. We will stop selling or sharing your personal information with partners for their own purposes within 15 business days and confirm by email. Your debates remain public, and we may still use your information to operate the Service. You can opt back in at any time by writing to the same address.

10. Your Other Choices and Rights

Marketing email — unsubscribe with the link in any marketing message or the notifications setting in your profile. We will still send sign-in links, receipts and essential service messages.
Limit use of sensitive information — where the law gives you this right you may ask us to use your political opinions and other sensitive information only to provide the Service. Because the Service consists of public political debate, exercising this right means we may need to close your account.
Access, correction, portability and deletion — you may ask what personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, receive a copy, or ask us to delete your account. We will delete your account details; your debate messages will be kept under an anonymised handle, or deleted where the law requires, because removing one side of a public debate destroys the other side's record.
No discrimination — we will not deny you the Service or charge you more for exercising these rights, though some features may not work without the information they need.

We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request, usually by writing to the email address on your account. You may authorise someone to make a request for you. If we decline a request you may ask us to reconsider. Residents of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Utah and other states with privacy laws have the rights those laws provide; we honour them as described here.

11. Data Retention

We keep your account information for as long as your account exists and for a reasonable period afterwards. We keep debate content, scores and results indefinitely because they are part of a public record. We keep usage data, inferences, correspondence and payment records for as long as we need them for the purposes above and as the law requires.

12. Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your information, including encrypted connections, sign-in by one-time links or Google rather than passwords, and restricted access to production systems. No system is perfectly secure, and you use the Service at your own risk.

13. Where Your Data Lives

Debatbl is operated from the United States and its servers are in the United States. If you use the Service from elsewhere, your information is transferred to and processed in the United States, where privacy laws may differ from those where you live. The Service is intended for users in the United States.

14. Age

You must be at least 18 to use Debatbl. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18 and will delete it if we learn we have. If you believe a minor has an account, contact us.

15. Changes to This Policy

We may change this policy as the Service evolves. We will post the new version here and update the dates at the top, and for material changes we will notify you by email or a notice in the Service. Using Debatbl after a change takes effect means you accept the new policy.

16. Contact

Questions, requests and complaints: hello@debatbl.com.