Privacy Policy

Effective date: July 12, 2026

Spotlight ("the App") is a global chat room where one person is randomly selected to speak every 60 seconds. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your information when you use the App.

1. Information We Collect

1.1 Authentication Data

When you join Spotlight, you are assigned an anonymous identifier via Firebase Authentication. We do not collect your email address, phone number, real name, or any personally identifiable information (PII). The only identifier associated with your account is an anonymous user ID generated by Firebase.

1.2 Display Name

You may choose a display name when joining. This display name is stored in our database and is publicly visible alongside any messages you send. You can change your display name at any time from within the App.

1.3 Messages

When you are selected as the speaker and choose to send a message, the text content of that message is stored in our database along with your anonymous user ID and display name. Messages are publicly visible in the global chat feed.

1.4 Usage Data

We maintain a counter of how many draw cycles you have participated in (occurrences) and whether you are currently on a cooldown period after winning. This data is used solely to operate the speaker-selection algorithm.

1.5 Automatically Collected Information

We do not collect IP addresses, device identifiers, advertising IDs, location data, or browsing history. We do not use analytics SDKs or crash reporting services that collect device-level data.

2. How We Use Your Information

Operating the service: Your anonymous ID, display name, and occurrence count are used to run the weighted random speaker selection. Your messages are displayed to all users.
Moderation: Messages submitted through the App are sent to OpenAI's Moderation API for automated content filtering. If a message is flagged as harmful (hate speech, harassment, violence, etc.), it is replaced with "[message removed]" and discarded from public view. OpenAI does not retain data submitted via the Moderation API for training.
Improvement: We do not use your data to train machine learning models, build user profiles, or serve advertisements.

3. Third-Party Services

Spotlight relies on the following third-party services to operate:

Google Firebase (Firebase Authentication, Cloud Firestore, Cloud Functions) — provides authentication, database, and serverless compute infrastructure. Firebase's privacy practices are described at firebase.google.com/support/privacy.
OpenAI (Moderation API) — used to detect and filter harmful message content. OpenAI's data usage policy for the API is described at openai.com/policies/api-data-usage-policies.

We do not sell, rent, or share your personal information with any other third parties.

4. Data Retention and Deletion

Messages: Messages are retained indefinitely in the global feed unless removed by moderation or upon request.
User records: Your user profile (anonymous ID, display name, occurrence count) is retained while you remain active. Inactive data may be removed as part of routine maintenance.
Deletion requests: You may request deletion of your data by contacting us (see Section 7). We will remove your user record and associated messages within 30 days.

5. Children's Privacy

Spotlight is not directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us so we can delete it.

6. Security

We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your data:

All data is transmitted over HTTPS/TLS.
Database access is restricted to authorized server-side functions only; no direct client write access to the database is permitted.
Firebase Authentication tokens are verified on every server-side request.

7. Contact

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or wish to request deletion of your data, please contact us at:

Email: privacy@spotlight-chat.app

8. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify users of material changes by posting the updated policy within the App. Continued use of the App after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.