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Privacy Policy

Last updated: April 2026

Humanist Venture Studio (“Humanist,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) operates Socrates, an AI-powered oral defense platform for educators. We are committed to protecting the privacy of teachers, students, and schools who use our service. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and safeguard your information.

This Policy is designed to support schools' FERPA and COPPA compliance obligations, and to comply with applicable privacy laws including the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CCPA/CPRA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

1. What We Collect

Socrates collects only the data necessary to conduct AI-powered oral defenses:

  • Student email addresses — entered by the teacher during assignment creation, not by the student
  • Essay text — pasted or uploaded by the student for the defense
  • Voice audio and transcript — recorded during the oral defense conversation

We do not collect passwords from students, social security numbers, home addresses, phone numbers, or any other personal information beyond what is listed above.

2. How We Use Your Data

All data is used exclusively to provide the oral defense service:

  • Essay text and voice transcripts are processed by AI to generate evaluation reports
  • Evaluation reports are made available to the student and their teacher
  • Teacher calibration scores are used to improve AI evaluation accuracy for that teacher's assignments

We do not sell, rent, or share personal data with advertisers or data brokers. We do not use student data for marketing purposes. We do not train AI models on student data, and our third-party processors do not use student data for model training.

3. Third-Party Processors

To provide the service, we use the following third-party processors:

  • Supabase (database hosting) — stores all application data including essays, transcripts, and scores
  • ElevenLabs (voice AI) — processes the real-time voice conversation during oral defenses
  • Anthropic (AI evaluation) — analyzes transcripts and essays to generate evaluation scores
  • Vercel (application hosting) — serves the web application

Each processor handles data only as needed to provide their specific service. We do not send data to any processors beyond those listed above.

4. Data Retention

Defense links expire 30 days after creation. Session data (essays, transcripts, evaluation reports) is automatically deleted no later than 12 months after creation. Teachers may request deletion of assignment data at any time by contacting us.

5. FERPA Compliance

When used by a school, Socrates operates under the school's direction as a “school official” with a legitimate educational interest under FERPA. Student education records are accessible only to the teacher who created the assignment. We do not disclose student data to any other parties without school authorization. Schools may request a Data Processing Agreement by contacting us directly.

6. COPPA

Socrates is designed for use with students aged 13 and older. We do not knowingly collect data from children under 13. Student access is managed by teachers — students do not create accounts or provide personal information directly to Socrates beyond their essay submission.

7. Data Security

All data is encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest. Access to student data is restricted through row-level security policies — teachers can only view data from their own assignments. We do not store student passwords because students do not have accounts. All data is stored in the United States.

Voice audio is used solely to generate real-time conversation transcripts. We do not store voice recordings, create voiceprints, or use voice data for identification purposes. Only text transcripts are retained.

In the event of a data breach, affected schools will be notified within 72 hours of discovery.

8. Your Rights

Teachers and school administrators may request access to, correction of, or deletion of data associated with their assignments at any time. To exercise these rights, contact us at the email below.

Students and Parents. Parents of students under 18 have the right to review, correct, or request deletion of their child's data under FERPA. Students who are 18 or older may exercise these rights directly. Because students do not create accounts, requests should be made through the teacher or school administrator who created the assignment, or by contacting us directly.

9. Contact

Questions about this privacy policy or data practices? Contact us at karen@humanist.xyz.