Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

Account Information: When you create an account, we collect your name, email address, username, and profile photo.

Extended Profile Information: You may optionally provide additional personal details through the Extended Profile section of the App. This includes demographic information (age, gender, education level, and employment status), political issues and preferences (top issues, policy stances, favorite media outlets), and additional information such as skills/expertise and issues that would change your vote. All extended profile information is voluntary and can be updated or removed at any time. We do not collect sensitive personal information such as income, salary, home address, phone number, or political event attendance through the Extended Profile.

User-Generated Content: Posts, comments, debate participation, and other content you create within the App.

Content Moderation Data: When you report another user's content, we record your user ID, the content you reported, the reason you selected, and any optional description you provided. When your content is reported, we maintain a record of the report count and status of the review. Individual reporter identities are never disclosed to content owners.

Dispute Information: If your content is hidden or removed and you choose to submit a dispute (counter-notice), we store the text of your dispute alongside the associated report record so that an admin can review it.

In-App Notifications: We store notification records linked to your account to inform you of moderation actions affecting your content (e.g., a report being filed, content being temporarily hidden, or content being cleared).

Device Information: We may collect device type, operating system version, and unique device identifiers for app functionality and diagnostics.

Camera & Microphone: With your permission, we access your camera and microphone for video debate features. This data is not stored beyond the session unless you explicitly save it.

Photo Library: With your permission, we access your photo library so you can upload profile photos and images for posts.

2. How We Use Your Information

• To provide, maintain, and improve the App's features
• To enable social features such as posts, debates, and messaging
• To personalize your experience by suggesting relevant posts, debates, and content based on your profile information, interests, and activity
• To generate and display aggregated election odds, polling trends, and political analytics using anonymized and aggregated user data
• To show you ads and sponsored content that are more relevant to you (see Section 3 below)
• To measure the effectiveness and reach of ads shown within the App
• To process transactions through our payment provider (Stripe)
• To send important service-related notifications
• To moderate content and enforce our community standards, including automated scanning of user-generated text for prohibited content and processing reports submitted by other users (see Section 4 below)
• To ensure the safety and integrity of the platform

3. Advertising

To ensure a more satisfying experience, Middleton uses the information you provide to deliver ads and sponsored content that align with your interests, while filtering out irrelevant or unwanted advertising. Rather than showing you random ads from any party, we use your profile details, activity, content you interact with, demographic information, and general location (such as state) to recommend ads that are actually useful and relevant to you.

How ads are personalized:

• Advertisers describe their intended audience (e.g., users in a certain state, age range, or with certain political interests), and we match their ads to users who are most likely to find them relevant. We do this without sharing your personal information directly with advertisers.
• We use your profile data, the posts you engage with, debates you participate in, and your stated political preferences to determine which ads best match your interests, and to prevent ads from unwanted or irrelevant parties from reaching you.
• We may use aggregated and anonymized user data to provide advertisers with reports on the performance of their ads (e.g., how many people saw or interacted with an ad).

What we do NOT do:

• We do not sell your personal information to advertisers.
• We do not share your name, email, or other directly identifying information with advertisers without your consent.
• We do not use the content of your private messages to target ads.

You may see labels such as “Sponsored” or “Ad” on advertising content within the App.

4. Content Moderation & Reporting

Middleton operates a hybrid content moderation system to keep the platform safe and compliant with Apple App Store guidelines and applicable law. This involves both automated checks and human review.

Automated moderation:

• All user-submitted text (posts, comments, bios) is checked at the moment of submission against a word and pattern filter that catches profanity, slurs, URLs, and spam patterns. Content that fails this check is rejected immediately and never stored.
• Content that passes the initial check may be sent to the OpenAI Moderation API for a secondary scan. This scan evaluates text for hate speech, harassment, violence, self-harm, and sexual content. The text of your posts and comments may be transmitted to OpenAI for this purpose. OpenAI processes this data solely to return a moderation score; it is not used to train OpenAI models. See OpenAI's Privacy Policy for details.
• Media uploads (images and videos) are validated for file type, file integrity, and duration before being accepted. Files that fail validation are deleted from our servers immediately.

User reporting:

• Any user can report a post or comment they did not author. When you submit a report, we record your user ID, the content reported, your chosen reason (spam, inappropriate, false information, copyright, or other), and any optional description you add.
• Your identity as a reporter is never revealed to the owner of the reported content. Owners see only the aggregate number of reports and the reasons selected.
• Reported content is placed in an admin review queue. If it is not reviewed within 23 hours, it is automatically hidden from public feeds as a precautionary measure until an admin makes a final decision.

Copyright (DMCA) reports:

• Selecting “Copyright (DMCA)” as the report reason triggers immediate global removal of the content in compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The content owner is notified and may submit a counter-notice (dispute) through the App.

Admin review:

• Flagged content is reviewed by Middleton administrators, who may restore, permanently delete, or dismiss the report. Permanently deleted content is removed from our database and cannot be recovered.

You can view content you have reported and content reported against you at any time via Settings → Reports in the App.

5. Data Sharing

We do not sell your personal information. We may share data with:

• Service Providers: Third-party services that help us operate the App (e.g., hosting, payment processing via Stripe, real-time communication via LiveKit, media storage via Cloudinary).
• Content Moderation (OpenAI): The text of user-generated posts and comments may be transmitted to the OpenAI Moderation API for automated safety scanning. Only the content text is sent; no account information or identifying data is included in these requests.
• Advertising Partners: We may share anonymized, aggregated data with advertising partners to help them understand the reach and effectiveness of their campaigns. We do not share personally identifiable information with advertisers without your explicit consent.
• Analytics Providers: We may share anonymized usage data with analytics services to help us understand how the App is used and improve our services.
• Legal Requirements: When required by law, regulation, or legal process.

6. Data Security

We implement industry-standard security measures including encryption, secure authentication (JWT), rate limiting, file integrity validation, and upload rate controls to protect your data. All user-supplied text is sanitized before being stored to prevent injection attacks. However, no method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure.

7. Data Retention

We retain your data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we will permanently delete all data associated with it, including your profile information, extended profile details, posts, and any other content you have created. This deletion is irreversible. You may delete your account at any time through the App or by contacting us.

Content that is permanently removed by an administrator following a moderation review is hard-deleted from our database, along with all associated comments, reactions, and relations. Report records and dispute text associated with removed content may be retained for a reasonable period for audit and compliance purposes before being deleted.

8. Children's Privacy & Child Safety

The App is not intended for children under 17. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 17. If we learn that a user is under 17, we will immediately terminate their account and delete all associated data.

Middleton has a zero-tolerance policy for Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation (CSAE). We strictly prohibit all content or conduct that sexually exploits or abuses minors, including child sexual abuse material (CSAM), grooming, solicitation of minors, and any other form of child sexual exploitation. Any such content discovered on the platform will be immediately removed, the responsible account permanently terminated, and the content reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) CyberTipline and relevant law enforcement as required by 18 U.S.C. § 2258A.

For our complete child safety standards and all prohibited content policies, see our Terms of Service, Section 3.

9. Your Rights

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, or export your personal data. To exercise these rights, contact us at the email below.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of material changes through the App or via email.

11. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:

You can also report a problem directly within the App via Settings > Report a Problem.