Your data & privacy

is my conversation recorded?

No. Voice conversations are transcribed in real time; the audio is never saved — not by us, and not by our voice provider (audio storage is disabled at the account level). What exists after an interview is the written transcript, nothing else. For interviews at physical venues, location is checked once at the start — only the yes/no verification result is kept, never coordinates.

what happens with interview data?

The business that runs an interviewer is responsible for the interviews it collects and is the controller of that data. Proust is the processor: we run the conversation, transcribe it, and analyze it on the business’s behalf and on its instructions. The business controls how long transcripts are kept and can delete them at any time. Deleted data is removed from the live database immediately; short-lived backup copies expire on a fixed schedule.

Businesses see transcripts, themes, and quotes — never a participant’s name, email, phone number, or payout details.

how do you use personal data?

Proust is the controller of two narrow things: merchant account data (your login email, billing) and participant reward data (the email, or the Venmo phone number or PayPal email a participant gives us to get paid). We use reward data to pay rewards and prevent fraud — nothing else. We do not sell personal data, and we do not use it for advertising.

Neither we nor our AI providers use your conversations to train AI models.

how long do you keep things?

• Audio — never stored.
• Location — checked once at interview start (physical venues only); only the verified-or-not result is kept, never coordinates, and location is never accessed again.
• Transcripts — kept as long as the business keeps them; deleted when they delete them or close their account.
• Our voice provider’s transcript copy — deleted automatically after 30 days (our database holds the canonical copy).
• Participant reward details — kept for up to 12 months after the last payout for fraud prevention, then de-linked, unless the participant opts into the Proust panel to receive future paid-interview invitations.
• Merchant account data — kept while the account is active; deleted on account closure (billing records as required by tax law).

do you have a data processing agreement?

Yes. By agreeing to our terms when creating a Proust account, businesses also agree to our Data Processing Agreement. It is not necessary to sign a separate document.

subprocessors

These are the services Proust runs on. The column that matters: whether a vendor reads or hears conversations. We give 14 days’ notice before adding a vendor that does.

security

All data is encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest. Interview links are single-session tokens — the printed QR contains an opaque identifier, never data. Access to production systems is limited to the founders. The website uses no analytics scripts and no tracking cookies.

how do i delete my data?

Businesses: delete interviews or your whole account from the dashboard, or email us. Participants: email privacy@proust.dev from the address you used to claim a reward and we’ll delete your data within 45 days. See also the participant page.