Privacy Policy

Effective date: to be set at launch · Last updated August 9, 2026

1. 1. Who we are and what this covers
2. 2. Information processed on your device
3. 3. Information that reaches service providers
4. 4. Information we collect ourselves
5. 5. Recording other people
6. 6. Voice and biometric law
7. 7. Your controls
8. 8. The website and waitlist
9. 9. Data retention
10. 10. Security
11. 11. Your rights
12. 12. International transfers
13. 13. Children
14. 14. Changes to this policy
15. 15. Contact

1. Who we are and what this covers

This policy covers the Debunked desktop application for Windows ("the app") and the website at de-bunked.com ("the site"). "We" refers to the developer of Debunked ("Debunked", "we", "us"). It describes what information the app processes, where that information goes, and the choices you have. It is written to be read; if anything in it is unclear, ask us at the address in section 15.

2. Information processed on your device

Debunked's design principle is local processing. The following is created and handled on your computer and, except as described in section 3, does not leave it:

• Audio. When listening is on, the app captures the audio your computer is playing, or a microphone you select, and converts it to text using a speech-recognition model running on your device. Audio is processed in memory, is never written to disk, and is never transmitted — except under the optional cloud transcription setting in section 3.
• Transcripts. The text of what was heard is held in memory for the current session and shown to you. Transcript lines may also appear in the app's local log file (see "Logs" below).
• Screen captures. If you use the screen-checking feature, the region you select is captured. Where on-device reading is available it stays on your machine; otherwise the image is sent to Anthropic to be read. Nothing is captured unless you invoke the feature.
• Remembered verdicts. Completed fact checks can be stored locally so that a repeated claim is answered from memory instead of being re-checked at your expense.
• API keys. Your Anthropic key, and your Deepgram key if you add one, are stored on your device encrypted with the Windows Data Protection API (DPAPI), scoped to your Windows user account.
• Settings. Your preferences — appearance, audio source, budgets and similar — are stored locally.
• Logs and cost records. The app writes a local, size-limited diagnostic log, which can include transcript lines, and local records of what each model call cost so you can audit your own spending. These files exist for your benefit, stay on your device, and are covered by the deletion controls in section 7.

3. Information that reaches service providers

Debunked has no servers of its own. When data leaves your device it goes directly from your computer to one of the providers below, only for the purpose stated, and in most cases only after you act.

Each provider processes data under its own privacy policy. The app is built so that no provider receives more than this table states.

4. Information we collect ourselves

Nothing from the released app. No account, no sign-in, no telemetry, no analytics, no crash reporting. We do not receive your audio, your transcripts, your claims, your verdicts, your keys, or any record that you use the app at all.

One exception, in private beta builds only. A beta key has to work on one computer, and nothing on your machine can enforce that, so activating a beta key makes a single request to de-bunked.com containing the key and a hashed identifier derived from your computer's name, architecture and processor description. We store the tester number, that hash, and the dates it was used.

We are being specific about this because a hash is not anonymous. It cannot be read back to recover your computer's name, and we hold nothing linking it to your identity beyond the tester number we issued you — but under the GDPR and several US state privacy laws it is still personal data, and calling it otherwise would be wrong. It is deleted when the beta ends, or sooner on request. None of this applies to the public release, which contains no beta key mechanism at all.

The update check. On start-up, a released direct-download build requests a single static file from de-bunked.com to see whether a newer version has been published. It is an ordinary web request for a file: it sends no account, no identifier, no query string and no body — nothing beyond what your browser sends fetching any page (your IP address, as with any request, which we do not log against you). We learn nothing about who made the request or what version they run. Nothing is downloaded or installed automatically; the app only shows you a notice with a link. Beta builds and Microsoft Store builds do not make this request at all.

5. Recording other people is your responsibility

Debunked listens to your computer's audio by default, which is normally your own media. It can also listen to a microphone, and that is where the law changes.

Nothing in this policy is legal advice.

6. Voice, speaker separation, and biometric law

With local speech recognition — the default — Debunked does not distinguish between voices at all. Every utterance is treated as coming from one unlabelled speaker, and cards never name who spoke. That is enforced in the app, not merely a default: speaker naming stays switched off and unavailable unless a backend that separates speakers is running.

If you switch to Cloud speech, Deepgram separates the audio by speaker so the transcript can show who said what. You may then optionally turn on speaker naming.

This matters legally. Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act treats a voiceprint as a biometric identifier, and courts have accepted that separating speakers by their vocal characteristics can amount to creating one. Comparable rules exist in Texas and Washington. So, precisely:

• Debunked does not create, store, or transmit voiceprints itself. It stores a speaker number, and a display name only if you type one.
• The separation is performed by Deepgram, on audio you chose to send, under Deepgram's own terms and privacy policy.
• It is off by default and requires explicit confirmation.
• If you enable it while recording other people, the consent obligations in section 5 apply with extra force — and in Illinois in particular, the safe course is written consent from everyone recorded.

If you would rather none of this happen, do nothing: local speech recognition is the default and separates nothing.

7. Your controls

• Pause stops audio capture from having any effect: while paused, captured audio is discarded before transcription.
• Clear transcript removes everything heard this session from the app and every open panel.
• Forget remembered verdicts deletes the local verdict store.
• Delete everything removes your keys, remembered verdicts, transcript, cost records and logs in one action. Downloaded speech models are kept so that using this control never costs you a re-download; they contain no personal data and can be removed from the data folder.
• Speech recognition can be switched back to local at any time, which stops audio leaving your device.
• Your data folder is one click away in Settings, so you can see for yourself exactly what is stored.

8. The website and waitlist

If you join the early-access list, we collect the email address you submit, and the word "hero" or "footer" recording which form you used so we can see which part of the page works. We use it solely to contact you about Debunked's availability and related product news. We do not sell it or share it with third parties for their own purposes. Every email we send includes a working unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing removes you from the list. The site sets no advertising or analytics cookies.

This site is hosted by Netlify, which also receives and stores the early-access form when you submit it, and which acts as a processor of that address on our behalf. As the host, Netlify additionally processes ordinary web-server request data — including your IP address — in the course of serving these pages. If we later move the list to a dedicated email service, this section will name that provider before the change takes effect.

9. Data retention

• On your device: transcripts are held in memory for the current session; remembered verdicts, keys, settings, logs and cost records persist on your disk until you delete them using the controls in section 7 (or remove the app's data folder). Uninstalling the app leaves your data folder in place, so reinstalling does not lose your settings; delete it via the in-app control or manually if you want it gone.
• Waitlist email: kept until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete it.
• Beta redemption records: kept for the duration of the private beta and deleted when it ends, or sooner on request.
• With providers: data sent to the providers in section 3 is retained under their policies, associated with your own account with them where applicable (your Anthropic key is your Anthropic account).

10. Security

API keys are encrypted at rest with Windows DPAPI and are readable only from your Windows user account. All traffic to the providers in section 3 uses encrypted connections (HTTPS/WSS). The app's local web interface is bound to your own machine and protected against access by other software and websites with a per-session token and origin checks. No security measure is absolute, but the most effective one here is architectural: data that never leaves your device, and never touches our servers, cannot leak from either.

11. Your rights

Because the app collects nothing, there is usually nothing for us to give you, correct, or delete — the controls in section 7 already put all of it in your hands. Where we do hold something about you, which means your waitlist email and, in the private beta, your redemption record, you have the right to ask us to access, correct, delete, or provide a copy of it, and to object to our using it. Email the address in section 15 and we will answer within 30 days. You will never be treated differently for asking.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising, as those terms are used in California and other US state privacy laws. We have never done so.

If you are in the UK or EEA: our lawful basis for the waitlist is your consent, which you may withdraw at any time by unsubscribing; for beta redemption records it is our legitimate interest in preventing one beta key being used on many computers. You also have the right to complain to your data protection authority.

12. International transfers

We are based in the United States, and the providers in section 3 may process data in the United States and elsewhere. If you are outside the US, information you choose to send — a claim to Anthropic, audio to Deepgram if you enable Cloud speech, your waitlist email — will be processed in countries whose data protection law may differ from your own. Where those transfers require a safeguard, we rely on the providers' own standard contractual clauses.

13. Children

Debunked is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. The app collects no personal information from anyone, and the waitlist is intended for adults. If you believe a child has given us an email address, tell us and we will delete it.

14. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy in a way that matters — above all, anything new leaving your device — the app will tell you before the change takes effect, and the site will show the revised policy with a new effective date. We will not retroactively apply a weaker policy to data handled under a stronger one.

15. Contact

Questions, requests, or concerns about privacy: sam@de-bunked.com.