Legal

Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-08-30 · Version 1.0

Plain-English summary. We collect the minimum we need to run Accent Studio (your email if you join the waitlist; anonymous analytics on the site). If you play the app, your voice is treated as biometric data and stored separately from your identity. You can request access, correction, or deletion of anything we hold about you, at any time, by emailing privacy@accentstudio.io.

1 · Who we are

Accent Studio ("we", "us", "our") is a voice-data foundry operating at accentstudio.io. This Privacy Policy describes how we handle personal information collected from visitors to our website and, in due course, from users of the Accent Studio application.

2 · The data we collect

2.1 · When you join the waitlist

Your email address (required)
Anti-spam metadata (approximate IP address, submission timestamp)

2.2 · When you request a sample corpus (for labs)

Your full name, work email, company/lab, role
Use case, target languages, timeline, and free-text notes you provide

2.3 · When you visit the site

Anonymous, aggregated analytics (pages viewed, referrer, approximate country, device class). We do not use cross-site tracking cookies.
A single functional preference (light / dark theme) stored in your browser's local storage.

2.4 · When you use the Accent Studio app (once launched)

Voice recordings you make while playing scenes. Voice is treated as biometric personal data under GDPR, POPIA and NDPA. Recordings are stored in an isolated, encrypted database indexed only by cryptographic UUIDs — never by your name, email, or account identifier.
Your gameplay metadata (scenes played, peer ratings given and received, editor QC actions, payout events).
Payout details you provide (mobile-money number, bank account, wallet address) — stored encrypted, used only to pay you.

3 · How we use it

To send you waitlist updates, product launches, and (for labs) to answer your sample-corpus request.
To operate the app: match you with partners, credit you for accepted scenes, process payouts.
To license anonymized, aggregated voice datasets to third-party AI labs — always with identity fully decoupled from audio.
To meet legal obligations, prevent fraud, and enforce our Terms.

4 · Legal bases (GDPR, POPIA, NDPA)

We rely on the following lawful bases:

Consent — for waitlist emails, marketing communications, and (in the app) processing of your voice as biometric data. Consent can be withdrawn at any time.
Contract — to deliver the app services you sign up for and to pay you.
Legitimate interest — for anti-spam, fraud prevention, and product analytics that do not identify individuals.
Legal obligation — where we must retain records to comply with tax, financial, or dispute-resolution law.

5 · Voice as biometric data

Voice is special-category personal data under GDPR Article 9, POPIA §26, and the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023. We handle it accordingly:

Explicit consent is captured before your first recording, in plain language, with the ability to withdraw at any time.
Identity decoupling — your name, email, and payout details live in a separate encrypted database from your voice recordings.
Cryptographic UUIDs — audio is indexed only by non-reversible identifiers, so a buyer of a licensed dataset can never trace a voice back to you.
Automated PII redaction — transcripts are scanned by a Named-Entity Recognition model before storage to remove any stray real names, numbers, or addresses.
Shipped, licensed datasets are considered anonymized under GDPR Recital 26 — they no longer identify an individual.

6 · Who we share it with

Processors we rely on to operate the site and app: our hosting provider, waitlist backend, email service, analytics tool, and payout rails (Paystack, Flutterwave, M-Pesa, Stripe, PayPal, on-chain USDC). Each is bound by a Data Processing Agreement.
Enterprise buyers of our licensed datasets — receive only anonymized audio and metadata, never PII.
Legal / regulatory authorities where compelled by law.

We do not sell your personal information.

7 · International transfers

Where data is transferred outside your region, we rely on Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs), adequacy decisions, or comparable regional safeguards (POPIA §72, NDPA Part V). Regional data-residency options are available to enterprise buyers.

8 · How long we keep it

Waitlist and lab-lead information — until you unsubscribe or request deletion.
Voice recordings and gameplay metadata — for as long as you keep an active account, plus a short retention window afterwards for dispute resolution.
Anonymized shipped datasets — retained indefinitely under the commercial license, as they no longer identify you.
Payout records — retained for the period required by applicable tax and financial-regulation law.

9 · Your rights

Under GDPR, POPIA, NDPA, and other applicable privacy laws, you have the right to:

Access the personal information we hold about you
Correct any inaccuracies
Request deletion of your account and identifiable data
Object to or restrict processing
Withdraw consent at any time (without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing)
Data portability — receive a copy of your data in a machine-readable format
Lodge a complaint with your local data-protection authority

Email privacy@accentstudio.io and we will respond within one calendar month.

How access and deletion requests work

Verification first. We re-check your identity before any personal data leaves our systems, so nobody can request your data on your behalf.
What a copy contains. Your profile, consent records, earnings ledger and payouts, transcripts, session metadata, and your recordings in a listening-quality, watermarked format. Studio master files stay in our vault.
Frequency. One copy per 90 days. We may decline requests that are manifestly repetitive, as the law allows. Every fulfilment is logged in your consent record.
Your copy is for your records. Recordings made in Accent Studio are assigned to Accent Studio under the Voice IP Assignment you signed. A copy does not carry a right to sell, license, or publish it.
What deletion does. Erasure removes your identity vault, severs the link between you and your recordings, and stops all future use. It cannot recall pseudonymous datasets already delivered to buyers under contract, which no longer identify you.

What buyers may never do

Every dataset licence prohibits attempts to re-identify speakers, linking speakers to outside identity data, building speaker-identification or voice-authentication systems from the data, and cloning the voice of any individual speaker. Buyers acknowledge the audio may be biometric data and must protect it accordingly. Buyers receive pseudonymous speaker IDs only, never the identity vault.

10 · Cookies

We use only functional cookies (theme preference) and privacy-preserving analytics that do not require cross-site tracking. Full detail in our Cookie Policy.

11 · Children

Accent Studio is not directed at anyone under 16. We do not knowingly collect data from children. If you believe a child has provided information, contact privacy@accentstudio.io and we will delete it.

12 · Security

We apply the technical and organizational measures described in our security whitepaper, including AES-256 at rest, TLS 1.3 in transit, Write-Once-Read-Many (WORM) primary audio storage, air-gapped identity decoupling, and SOC 2 Type II trust-principle tracking.

13 · Changes to this policy

When we make material changes, we will notify waitlist subscribers by email and post the updated policy here with a new "Last updated" date at least 14 days before the change takes effect.

14 · Contact

Data Protection Officer
privacy@accentstudio.io
Accent Studio · Delaware C-Corporation

Note: This document is a template drafted in good faith to reflect standard practice under GDPR, POPIA, and NDPA. It is not a substitute for legal advice from qualified counsel in each jurisdiction where Accent Studio operates. Please have this reviewed by a privacy lawyer before launching to the public.