Privacy Policy

Defensia ("we", "us", "our") is committed to protecting your personal data. This policy explains what data we collect, how we use it, and what rights you have.

• Account data — your email address and, optionally, your full name and viva date.
• Thesis documents — PDF files you upload are stored securely in your account. We process them to create vector search indexes used during your practice sessions.
• Session data — we do not record or store audio. Audio from your practice sessions is processed in real time, purely to run the conversation and generate a text transcript. That transcript, along with session metadata (duration, date, scores) and your feedback, is stored in your account so you can review it later.
• Usage data — anonymous analytics to understand how the product is used. No personally identifiable information is included.

• To provide and improve the Defensia service.
• To generate AI-powered practice sessions and feedback specific to your thesis.
• To send essential account communications (password resets, purchase receipts).

We do not sell your data. We do not use your thesis content or session transcripts to train AI models.

Your data is stored using Supabase infrastructure hosted in the EU. All data is encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest. Authentication is handled by Supabase Auth; passwords are never stored in plaintext.

Your account data and thesis documents are retained until you delete them. You can delete a thesis document at any time from your account — this immediately and permanently deletes that document along with every session, transcript, and feedback record linked to it.

You can also delete your entire account at any time from Settings within the app — this immediately and permanently deletes your account, thesis documents, session transcripts, and feedback, without needing to contact us. We retain purchase and refund records after account deletion, as required for tax and accounting purposes, but these are no longer linked to your identity. If you'd prefer we delete your account on your behalf, contact [email protected].

We use the following third-party processors:

• Supabase — database, file storage, and authentication (EU region).
• LiveKit — real-time audio infrastructure that relays your session audio live. We do not configure LiveKit to record or store sessions.
• Deepgram — converts your speech to text in real time during a session, so we can generate a transcript.
• Cartesia — converts the AI examiner's text responses to speech in real time during a session.
• OpenAI — embedding generation for thesis indexing and feedback generation.
• Anthropic — AI model inference for examiner behaviour and feedback generation.
• Google Analytics — anonymised usage analytics, only if you accept analytics cookies.
• Google Ads — conversion tracking for our advertising, only if you accept marketing cookies.

Where a service processes audio or text as part of running a live session (LiveKit, Deepgram, Cartesia), that data passes through their infrastructure transiently to perform the task described above. We do not instruct any of these providers to retain recordings on our behalf, and Defensia's own systems never store audio. Each provider's own data processing terms govern how they handle data in transit.

Under UK GDPR, you have the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict processing of, and export your personal data. To exercise any of these rights, contact us at [email protected]. We will respond within 30 days.

We use essential cookies required for authentication and session management. With your permission, we also use analytics and marketing cookies to understand how Defensia is used and to measure our advertising. Non-essential cookies are only set once you accept them, and you can change your choice at any time using "Cookie preferences" in the footer.

We may update this policy from time to time. We'll notify you of significant changes by email. Continued use of the service after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

For privacy questions or data requests, contact us at [email protected].