Privacy Policy

1. Data controller

DanceDuels, Lucerne, Switzerland ("DanceDuels", "we", "us") is the data controller for the DanceDuels mobile application (the "Service"). We process personal data in compliance with the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (nDSG) and, where applicable, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Contact: privacy@danceduels.app.

2. Data we collect

Account

• Name (display name, and — if you sign in with Apple — the legal name Apple returns on first sign-in)
• Email address
• Your account/user ID and the performer identity ("entity") it's linked to
• Age confirmation and your acceptance of these Terms and this Privacy Policy
• Profile information you add: bio, country (self-selected from a list — this is not derived from your device's GPS or IP address), dance styles
• Optionally, who invited you to DanceDuels — a name or Instagram handle you can type in at sign-up. You can leave it empty. It is never shown in the app and is only used by us to understand how people find DanceDuels.

Device / app functionality

• A push-notification token, used only to deliver DanceDuels notifications (see Section 6)
• Basic technical data our servers necessarily generate to run and secure the Service — such as IP address at the time of a request, device/app version, and authentication and security logs
• Basic app interaction data needed to run the Service (see Section 4)

3. User content & social links

• Photos or videos: your profile photo and the dance videos you upload to compete, including the visual content of the performance and any audio contained in the video.
• Other user content: your bio, video captions/descriptions, and any moderation report or support message you submit.
• Social links: Instagram and TikTok handles you optionally add to your profile so fans can find you elsewhere. These are content you choose to publish on your own profile, shown to other users exactly as you enter them.
• Web profile: if you turn on “Profile on the web” in the app’s Settings, a public page at danceduels.app/yourname shows your performer name, profile photo, country, rankings, win rate and number of duels, the Instagram and TikTok handles you added, your applause total, up to three of your live videos and — where it is available to you — your Dance Signature. Anyone with the link can see this page without a DanceDuels account. It is off by default, it only appears once you have a live video, and you can turn it off at any time. We ask search engines not to index it.

When you upload a video, you confirm it is your own performance. Other people who may incidentally appear in the background of a video are not evaluated, profiled, or otherwise processed by DanceDuels as identifiable subjects of the Service.

In addition to the copy stored with our primary video provider for playback (Cloudflare Stream), DanceDuels also keeps a separate, private archived copy of the video file you submitted through the app. See Section 5 for what this archive is, why it exists, and how it relates to possible future uses described in Section 11.

4. Competition activity

Using DanceDuels generates activity data tied to your account, used to run the competition and ranking system:

• Votes you cast as a judge on Musicality, Skills and Expression in a Duel, and the pairwise (video-A/video-B) result those votes produce
• Community Ratings you give when you use Video Rating mode — a per-video score you assign on Musicality, Skills and Expression, separate from Duel voting
• Duels your videos take part in, their style/category context, and their outcomes
• Wins/losses, your Elo rating and per-criterion Elo history
• Your rank and rank history within a style and category
• Who you follow, and rivalry/head-to-head history with other users (this can be hidden from other users via a profile setting)
• Journey highlights and Signature identity data derived from the above (e.g. a recognized dance style/archetype), where that feature is available to you
• Applause given/received, and — if you use it — clicks on your published social links (shown back to you as a simple counter)

Today, this data is used for App Functionality: running duels and ratings, computing rankings, and showing you and other users accurate competition results. It is not used for advertising, and it is not sold to any third party. The combination of a performance video with the human judgments (votes, Community Ratings) and competition context it receives is itself a data category discussed in Section 11.

5. Video storage: Cloudflare & the private archive

DanceDuels stores your uploaded competition videos in two places, for two different reasons:

Cloudflare Stream (playback)

The copy of your video that is actually played back — in Duels, Video Rating mode, and on profiles — is hosted by Cloudflare Stream. This is the video other users see.

The private archive (Backblaze B2)

Separately, DanceDuels keeps a private archived copy of the video file your app submitted, after the app's own on-device compression — not an untouched original camera file, and not a copy anyone can browse, stream, or otherwise access publicly. It is not a second place your video is shown or played back from.

Today, this archive exists for:

• service continuity and disaster recovery;
• preserving the media underlying competition history and results;
• the overall integrity of the Service; and
• recovering content if our primary video provider ever fails or loses data.

The archived file is identified internally by an opaque, randomly generated identifier rather than your name — but it remains personal data for as long as it identifies you or your performance, and we do not describe it as anonymous. Access to the archive is restricted to DanceDuels systems; it is not sold, licensed, or shared with any third party for their own purposes. It follows the retention rules in Section 14, and any possible future relevance to AI/ML/computer-vision development is addressed — not assumed — in Section 11.

6. Push notifications

If you allow notifications, DanceDuels collects and stores a push-notification token, associated with your account and the specific device/app installation that generated it. This token is used only to deliver DanceDuels notifications (for example: someone applauded your video, you're Dancer of the Week, or the Duels have opened) via Apple's push notification infrastructure and Expo's push delivery service, which sits between our servers and Apple. We do not use this token for advertising, and it is not shared with any advertiser. If you sign out on a shared device, the token is re-associated with whichever account is signed in next, so a previous account can no longer receive notifications on that device. The token is permanently deleted from our systems as part of account deletion.

7. Purchases & subscriptions

DanceDuels may offer optional paid subscriptions or in-app purchases for additional features. Purchases are processed entirely by the Apple App Store or Google Play — DanceDuels does not receive or store your full payment card or bank details.

We use RevenueCat, a subscription-management service, to keep track of what you're entitled to. RevenueCat identifies your subscription status using your DanceDuels account ID. We may store purchase-event metadata linked to your account, such as: which product/tier you purchased, the price and currency, which app store the purchase came through, and the transaction/event identifier. This is used for entitlement checks, accounting, and app functionality — never for advertising.

8. Service providers

These providers act strictly as service providers/processors to DanceDuels, under our instructions and for our purposes only — none of them is permitted to use your data for their own independent purposes, including their own advertising or their own AI/ML training. This is distinct from any possible future AI/ML/computer-vision technology partner described in Section 11, which would be a materially different relationship and would be disclosed separately if and when it becomes relevant.

9. No tracking, no advertising

DanceDuels contains no advertising SDK, no attribution SDK, and no analytics SDK. We do not run third-party advertising, and we do not share your data with data brokers. We do not track you across other companies' apps or websites within the meaning of Apple's App Tracking Transparency framework. We do not sell personal data. This is unaffected by the possible future AI/ML/computer-vision uses described in Section 11, which are a separate question from advertising and cross-app tracking.

10. Legal bases

• Contract performance: account, duel, voting, rating and ranking features.
• Legitimate interests: security, abuse prevention, ranking integrity, and — where applicable and proportionate — internal research and development, including early-stage AI/ML/computer-vision work described in Section 11.
• Legal obligation: retention where required by law (see Section 14), and music-rights reporting (see Section 8).
• Consent: used where applicable law requires it, including — where required — for specific future AI/ML processing (see Section 11). You may withdraw consent at any time where processing relies on it, without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

11. Artificial intelligence, machine learning & computer vision

DanceDuels may in the future introduce artificial-intelligence, machine-learning, computer-vision or similar technologies. This section explains how that could relate to the data described elsewhere in this Policy, and what stays true regardless of how that develops.

This is a privacy question, not a content-ownership question

This section addresses personal-data processing under applicable data-protection law — it is separate from the content licence you grant DanceDuels under our Terms of Service, which governs copyright/content-use permissions. A content licence does not eliminate privacy-law requirements, and this Privacy Policy does not itself grant DanceDuels any copyright or content ownership. Neither document substitutes for the other.

What is true today

DanceDuels does not currently use uploaded performance videos, votes, Community Ratings, or other data described in this Policy to train general AI/ML models merely because you created an account, uploaded a video, or judged a Duel. AI is not currently part of our core judging logic — Duel outcomes and rankings are produced from human votes, as described in Section 4. This section describes a possible future direction, not a current practice.

What could become relevant in the future

Depending on the specific application, and subject to necessity, applicable law, appropriate safeguards and the applicable legal basis, data described in this Policy could in the future be processed for AI/ML/CV purposes. This could potentially include, for example:

• uploaded performance video, and visual movement, body-pose or motion information derived from it;
• audio contained in a video, where relevant and legally permitted (see the note on music rights below);
• dance style, category and other context metadata, and Duel relationships;
• Musicality, Skills and Expression votes, Community Ratings, and other judging decisions or community-consensus signals;
• ranking, Elo, rivalry and other competition-history information described in Section 4;
• derived Signature/Journey and other performance-insight data;
• profile/context data, where relevant; and
• technical information described in Section 2, where genuinely necessary.

We do not consider this list a blanket authorization to use "all data for anything" — any specific future use would still need to be necessary and proportionate for its stated purpose, and would be disclosed as described below. Where a future AI/ML/CV use would be a new or materially different purpose from the purposes described elsewhere in this Policy, we will assess whether that use is compatible with the original purpose and, where it is not, address the applicable legal requirements — such as a fresh legal basis or additional consent — before that processing begins.

Possible future purposes

Potential future purposes may include, for example: research and development; computer-vision research; movement and performance analysis; recognizing performance characteristics; developing performance insights; evaluating musicality-, skills- or expression-related signals; training, fine-tuning, evaluating or benchmarking machine-learning models; dataset quality evaluation; model safety and reliability work; fraud, abuse and integrity detection; moderation technology; recommendation or discovery features; matching or competition features; personalized insights; automated or AI-assisted coaching or performance tools; developing new DanceDuels features; internal research; research collaboration where appropriate; and developing models, software, APIs or other AI-enabled products or services. This list is illustrative, not exhaustive — the actual purpose of any future processing will be appropriately disclosed when it is implemented.

Raw data, derived data & model outputs

We distinguish between: (a) raw/personal data such as your video, account/profile data, and votes; (b) derived data such as features, measurements, labels, scores, embeddings or other representations produced from that content; and (c) model outputs such as statistical parameters, trained models, and aggregated learnings. Derived data and model outputs are not automatically anonymous simply because they are computed. Whether any of these actually qualifies as anonymous would need to be assessed case by case — in practice, this means it would need to be very unlikely that a person could be identified from it, directly or indirectly, including by querying a model. Where they still identify or relate to you, they remain subject to this Policy.

If DanceDuels ever introduces AI/ML/CV processing likely to create a high risk to your rights, we will carry out a data-protection impact assessment beforehand, as required by applicable law. We have not carried one out for any hypothetical future use, since none is currently planned or defined.

Human judgment is part of this too

We do not treat only videos as potentially relevant to future AI/ML/CV work. The combination of a performance video with human judgment (Musicality, Skills, Expression votes, pairwise A/B decisions, Community Ratings) and competition context (style/category, Duel outcome, historical results) is itself something we may consider relevant in the future. None of this is anonymous by default.

Music & audio rights are a separate question

Audio may be processed where relevant and legally permitted. Your agreement to this Privacy Policy does not grant DanceDuels any copyright or music-training rights in third-party music that may appear in your video — data-protection permission and music/copyright rights are separate legal questions. See our Terms of Service for music-rights responsibilities.

Automated decision-making

DanceDuels does not currently make solely automated decisions about you that produce legal or similarly significant effects. If future AI processing were to do so, and applicable law requires disclosure or a right to human review, we will provide it.

Additional notice, consent or legal basis before new processing begins

If DanceDuels introduces additional AI/ML/CV processing beyond what is described as current practice above, we will provide appropriate information about it, and — where consent or another specific authorization is required by applicable law — we will obtain it before the relevant processing begins. We do not promise that consent will always be the legal basis used; depending on jurisdiction and purpose, another lawful basis may apply, as explained in Section 10.

Future AI-related purposes could eventually be organized into more specific categories — for example internal product improvement, internal research, research collaboration with outside institutions, technology partnerships, model or API development, or dataset/content licensing. Creating an account or using DanceDuels today does not constitute consent to any of these; this section exists to be transparent about the possibility, not to bundle future permissions into today's registration.

Independent third-party use

DanceDuels does not currently sell or license your videos, votes, or other data for independent third-party AI training, dataset licensing, or other materially different external commercial use. If that were ever to change, we would provide additional disclosure and obtain any consent or authorization required by applicable law before such processing begins.

12. Account deletion

You can delete your account at any time from the app.

If you have no competition history (you've never uploaded a video that took part in a Duel, and never cast a vote as a judge), your account is fully deleted.

If you do have competition history that other users' rankings and records legitimately depend on, we anonymize and deactivate your personal profile rather than deleting everything outright:

• Your name, email, avatar, bio, social handles, country, taste statement and your optional "who invited you" answer are cleared/anonymized on your account record.
• Your videos are removed from public and competitive use — they are no longer matched, ranked, or shown to anyone.
• Your push-notification token is permanently deleted.
• If you were the last remaining member of a Solo or Partner performer identity, that identity's public name and public profile are also anonymized.

See Section 13 for what is retained even after this anonymization, and why.

13. Retained competition history

Certain competition records are not deleted when an account is anonymized:

• Completed Duels and the votes cast in them
• Win/loss results and rivalry history
• Historical Elo and ranking data

These records also form part of other dancers' legitimate competition history and ranking integrity — deleting them would corrupt someone else's real results. Where an account tied to these records has been deleted or anonymized, the identifying personal data described in Section 12 is removed; the retained record no longer functions as an active personal profile, but the underlying competition result remains accurate and intact. We describe this retained record as de-identified from the public-facing profile, not as fully anonymous — a retained record can, in principle, still be traced back internally where necessary (for example, to defend the integrity of a result), so we avoid overstating what "anonymous" means here.

14. Data retention

• Account and content data: retained while your account is active; anonymized or deleted on account deletion as described in Sections 12 and 13.
• The private archive (Section 5): where a video is deleted as part of an unprotected account deletion (Section 12), its archived copy is deleted as well. Where a video's competition history is retained (Section 13), its archived copy is retained under the same conditions. We do not retain an archived copy indefinitely beyond what these rules require, and content removed for violating our content policies is not kept in the archive.
• Purchase/transaction records: certain purchase and subscription event records may be retained after account deletion where necessary for accounting, fraud prevention, transaction reconciliation, or other legal/regulatory obligations. We do not apply a shorter retention period to this data than the law requires.
• Security logs: retained for a limited operational period to protect the Service against abuse.

15. International data transfers

DanceDuels is operated from Switzerland. Some of the service providers listed in Section 8 may process data in other countries, including outside Switzerland or the EEA. Where that happens, we rely on one of two distinct mechanisms recognized under the nDSG and, where applicable, the GDPR: transferring to a country that Swiss and/or EU authorities have recognized as providing an adequate level of data protection, or, where the destination country is not on such a list, putting appropriate safeguards in place before the transfer (such as standard contractual clauses or an equivalent mechanism). We do not make specific claims here about the exact physical storage location of every provider, since this can change over time with normal infrastructure operation — the applicable transfer mechanism is what stays constant.

16. Age requirement

You must be at least 16 years old to create a DanceDuels account. By registering, you confirm you meet this requirement. If we learn an account belongs to someone under 16, we will suspend and delete it.

17. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• access the personal data we hold about you;
• request correction of inaccurate data;
• request erasure (see Sections 12–13 for what this means for competition history);
• object to or request restriction of certain processing;
• withdraw consent at any time, where processing is based on consent (see Section 10), without affecting processing already carried out;
• request a portable copy of your data;
• lodge a complaint with the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) or, if the GDPR applies to you, your local EU data protection authority.

Not every right listed here is available in every jurisdiction — which rights apply, and how, depends on where you live and which law applies to you. To exercise any of these rights, contact privacy@danceduels.app.

18. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time, for example as the Service evolves or as described in Section 11. The "last updated" date at the top of this page reflects the current version. Where a change is material — including before introducing new AI/ML/CV processing that requires it under Section 11 — we will provide appropriate notice and, where applicable law requires it, seek any necessary consent before that processing begins, rather than relying on this general update mechanism alone.

19. Contact

DanceDuels, Lucerne, Switzerland
privacy@danceduels.app