Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Bonfire (“Bonfire,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, shares, and protects personal information when you use the Bonfire mobile app (the “App”) and this website, including the waitlist (together, the “Services”). By using the Services, you acknowledge the practices described here.

1. Summary

• Bonfire records your voice during speaking exercises so it can score your delivery and give you feedback.
• To analyze an exercise, your recording is sent to a third-party speech-to-text service to be transcribed. To produce written feedback, the transcript and your scores are sent to a third-party artificial intelligence (AI) model. Section 4 names these providers. We ask for your permission before either happens.
• Your recordings and reports are saved on your phone. Our servers keep the speech data they need only while scoring it and delivering your feedback, then delete it.
• Bonfire accounts are for people 13 and older.
• We do not sell your personal information or use it for targeted advertising.
• You can delete your account and associated data at any time.

2. Information we collect

Information you provide

• Account information: your email address and password, or the identifier and email address provided by Sign in with Apple or Google if you choose those options. Passwords are handled by our authentication provider and are never stored by us in readable form.
• Profile and social information: your display name, username, friend connections, friend requests, and the people you have blocked.
• Onboarding answers: optional answers about your speaking goals and practice preferences, used to personalize your learning plan.
• Age group: before you create an account we ask your age, only to comply with children's privacy law. We keep whether you are 13 to 17 or 18 and older, not your exact age or birthday.
• Waitlist information (website): your name, email address, and, if you choose to provide it, your phone number.
• Communications: information you include when you contact us.

Voice recordings and speech data

• Audio recordings of your speaking exercises, captured only while an exercise is recording and only after you grant microphone permission. They are saved on your phone. A copy leaves your phone only to be scored, and only if you have allowed it.
• Transcripts and speech analysis derived from your recordings, such as the words you spoke, timing, pace, pauses, filler words, volume, and pitch measurements.
• Performance reports, including skill scores and written feedback, saved on your phone.

We use voice recordings to analyze how you speak. We do not use them to identify you by your voice, and we do not create voiceprints or other biometric identifiers.

Information collected automatically

• Progress and usage data: exercises completed, XP, levels, streaks, and similar in-app progress.
• Technical data: IP address and request details recorded in standard server logs, used for security, debugging, and abuse prevention.
• Website spam protection: the waitlist form uses Google reCAPTCHA, which collects hardware and software information and sends it to Google.

We do not use third-party advertising or cross-app tracking, and we do not access your contacts, photos, or precise location.

3. How we use information

• To create and manage your account and provide the App's features.
• To analyze your recordings and generate scores, feedback, and practice suggestions.
• To save your progress, and to keep your Speech Journal and reports available to you on your phone.
• To operate social features, such as showing your streak, level, and activity to friends you have connected with.
• To send reminders you have opted into and service-related messages.
• To notify waitlist members when Bonfire launches, with an unsubscribe link in every email.
• To secure the Services, prevent fraud and abuse, and fix problems.
• To comply with legal obligations and enforce our Terms.

We do not use your recordings, transcripts, or feedback to train AI models, and our AI providers do not use them to train their models.

Product improvement is opt-in only. We do not use your speech data to improve Bonfire beyond providing the Services to you. If we ever want to, we will ask for your separate permission first, and saying no will not cost you any feature. We will never ask users under 18.

4. AI-generated feedback and third-party AI

Bonfire uses two third-party AI services. Your recording is transcribed by Deepgram, a speech-to-text provider, and Bonfire's written feedback is generated by Claude, an AI model developed by Anthropic, which we access through Amazon Bedrock, a service operated by Amazon Web Services (AWS). Bedrock may process these requests in any of AWS's U.S. regions. When an exercise is scored, and when you request written feedback on it:

• Your audio recording is sent to Deepgram to be transcribed. We opt every request out of Deepgram's Model Improvement Program, so Deepgram does not keep your audio or transcript after processing it and does not use them to train its models. If Deepgram is unavailable, the recording is transcribed on Bonfire's own servers instead.
• The audio itself is not sent to Claude.
• An excerpt of your transcript, your skill scores, and related speech measurements are sent to the AI model to write your feedback. We do not include your name, email address, or account details in these requests.
• Under AWS's terms for Amazon Bedrock, this content is processed to generate a response and is not used to train the models or shared with the model provider for that purpose.

What the feedback is about. Scores and feedback describe your speech and how you delivered it: pace, pauses, filler words, volume, pitch, and what you said. They never infer or comment on your emotions or mood, personality, honesty, health, or traits such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, or disability, and they are never used to identify you. AI feedback is automated and may sometimes be inaccurate. It is for practice only, not professional advice, and must not be used to make decisions about admissions, hiring, grades, or discipline.

Your consent. We ask for your explicit permission in the App before any of your speech data leaves your phone to be scored or to get written feedback. If you do not give permission, or later withdraw it, you can still practice and record exercises: your recordings stay on your phone and are not scored. You can change this anytime in Settings (“Share my speech for scoring”).

5. How we share information

We share personal information only as described below:

• Service providers that process data on our behalf under contractual confidentiality and security obligations, including:
  • Amazon Web Services: hosting, databases, file storage, authentication (Amazon Cognito), email delivery (Amazon SES), and AI model access (Amazon Bedrock, including Anthropic's Claude models, processed in AWS's U.S. regions).
  • Deepgram: speech-to-text transcription of exercise recordings.
  • Apple and Google: optional sign-in and app distribution.
  • Google: reCAPTCHA spam protection on the website.
• Other Bonfire users: friends you connect with can see your display name, username, streak, level, and in-app activity (for example, completing an exercise). Your recordings, transcripts, and feedback are never shared with other users.
• Legal and safety reasons: when required by law or legal process, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Bonfire, our users, or others. Content that is reported to us, or that we otherwise become aware of, may be reviewed for safety. If we find content that appears to involve the sexual exploitation of a child, we report it to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) or to law enforcement.
• Business transfers: in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, subject to this Policy's protections.

We do not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

6. Purchases

Paid subscriptions, if offered, are processed by Apple or Google through their app stores. We do not receive or store your payment card details; we receive only the information needed to confirm your subscription status.

7. Data retention

• Recordings and reports (your Speech Journal) are saved only on your phone. You can delete any recording in the App, and when you sign out you choose whether to keep them on the phone for your next sign-in or remove them. Deleting the App removes them. If your phone backs up app data (for example to iCloud or Google), your backups may include them.
• Audio sent for scoring is deleted from our servers once it has been scored, and within 24 hours of upload at the latest.
• Transcripts, scores, and feedback are kept on our servers only until your written feedback has been delivered to your phone, and never longer than 7 days after scoring.
• Account, profile, and progress (such as XP and streaks) are kept while your account is active. When you delete your account, they are deleted along with any speech data our scoring service still holds for it.
• Waitlist information is kept until launch communications are complete or until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete it.
• Server logs are kept for a limited period for security and troubleshooting.

We may keep limited information longer where required by law or to resolve disputes and enforce our agreements.

8. Your choices and rights

• Delete your account at any time in the App's settings, or by contacting us.
• Microphone access can be turned off at any time in your device's settings.
• Sharing your speech for scoring and AI feedback can be turned off in the App's Settings or by contacting us.
• Recordings can be deleted one at a time in your Speech Journal, or all at once from your phone when you sign out.
• Notifications can be turned off in the App or your device settings.
• Emails can be stopped using the unsubscribe link in any message.

Depending on where you live, including the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and certain U.S. states such as California, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, or receive a copy of your personal information, to object to or restrict certain processing, and to withdraw consent. To make a request, email us. We will respond within the time required by applicable law and will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights. Where applicable, you may also lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

Where the GDPR applies, we rely on the following legal bases: performance of our contract with you (providing the Services), your consent (microphone access, speech scoring and AI-generated feedback, and marketing emails), and our legitimate interests (securing and improving the Services).

9. Security

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect your information, including encryption in transit and at rest, access controls, and per-account authentication. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

10. International transfers

Bonfire is operated from the United States, and our service providers store and process data in the United States. The one exception is Deepgram, which may transcribe a recording outside the United States; it does not keep the recording or transcript afterward. If you use the Services from outside the United States, your information will be transferred to and processed in the United States, where data protection laws may differ from those in your country.

11. Children's privacy

Bonfire accounts are for people 13 and older (or the minimum age required in your country). We ask your age before you create an account, keep only your age group, and do not let anyone under 13 create one. The Services are not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If we learn that someone under 13 has an account, we delete the account and its data. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

When someone else reports an account, we first email its owner and give them 7 days to reply and dispute the report before we delete anything. When we delete an account because its holder is under 13, we keep a one-way fingerprint of its email address (not the address itself) so that it cannot be used to create a new account. Once the person is 13 or older, they can contact us to have it removed.

Teen accounts (13 to 17). We collect the same information described in Section 2, with stricter defaults: teen accounts cannot be found by username search, and people they are not connected to cannot send them friend requests. Friends can connect with a teen through the friend code the teen chooses to share, or by accepting the teen's own request. Speech data from teen accounts is never used for product improvement. A parent or guardian can contact us at the address below to ask us to delete a teen's account and data. If you are 13 to 17, please review this policy with a parent or guardian.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the date below and notify you in the App or by email where appropriate. If a change affects how your speech data is shared with third parties, we will ask for your consent again.

13. Contact us

For questions about this Privacy Policy or to exercise your privacy rights, contact us at hello@trybonfire.app.

Last updated: October 19, 2026