Privacy Policy — Audio Battles

1. Who We Are

Audio Battles ("we", "us", "our") operates the Audio Battles platform accessible at this website. We are the data controller for the personal data described in this policy.

Contact: info@audiobattles.com

Jurisdiction: Germany (Munich)

2. Data We Collect

We collect the following categories of personal data:

Account data: username, email address, hashed password, account type (Rapper/Singer or Producer).
Profile data: biography, website URL, profile picture (optional).
Activity data: battle participations, audio submissions, votes cast, comments posted, private messages sent and received, friend connections.
Technical data: session cookie (strictly necessary, expires when you close your browser), remember-me cookie (7 days, only set when you explicitly choose "Remember me"), and a localStorage.theme entry that stores your dark/light mode preference on your own device.

We do not collect IP addresses in our database, use analytics services, or share your data with any third-party advertising or tracking services.

3. Legal Basis for Processing

We process your personal data under the following legal bases (GDPR Art. 6):

Contract (Art. 6(1)(b)): Processing necessary to provide you the Audio Battles service — account management, battle participation, audio streaming, voting.
Consent (Art. 6(1)(a)): Optional profile data (bio, profile picture, website URL) which you may update or remove at any time.
Legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)): Security measures (rate limiting, honeypot spam prevention), platform integrity, and service improvement.

4. How We Use Your Data

To create and manage your account.
To enable participation in battles, submission of audio files, voting, and community features.
To send transactional emails (account confirmation, battle notifications).
To display your public profile and ranking on the platform.
To protect the platform against spam and abuse.

5. Data Sharing

We do not sell, rent, or share your personal data with third parties for marketing purposes. Your data may be disclosed only:

To our hosting and infrastructure providers acting as processors under appropriate data processing agreements.
If required by law, regulation, or valid legal process.

6. Data Retention

We retain your personal data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, all associated personal data is permanently erased from our systems within 30 days. Audio files are deleted immediately upon account deletion.

Certain aggregated or anonymised records (e.g. battle results) may be retained indefinitely as they no longer identify you.

7. Your Rights

Under GDPR (if applicable in your jurisdiction) you have the following rights:

Right of access (Art. 15): Request a copy of your personal data. Use the Export My Data feature in your account.
Right to rectification (Art. 16): Correct inaccurate data via Edit Profile.
Right to erasure (Art. 17): Delete your account and all associated data via Edit Profile → Delete Account.
Right to data portability (Art. 20): Download your data in JSON format via the Export My Data feature.
Right to object (Art. 21): Object to processing based on legitimate interests by contacting us.
Right to restrict processing (Art. 18): Request restriction of processing in certain circumstances.

To exercise any right, contact us at info@audiobattles.com. We will respond within 30 days.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection supervisory authority.

8. Cookies and Local Storage

Please see our Cookie Policy for full details. In summary, we use only strictly necessary cookies — no advertising or analytics cookies.

9. Security

We implement appropriate technical measures to protect your data, including password hashing (bcrypt), encrypted HTTPS transport, session isolation, and rate limiting. No system is completely secure; if you believe your account has been compromised, contact us immediately.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Significant changes will be communicated via a notice on the platform or by email. Continued use of Audio Battles after changes constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

11. Contact

For any privacy-related questions or to exercise your rights, contact us at: info@audiobattles.com