Spout Privacy Policy

Effective date: September 23, 2025

Spout lets people talk to other people. With clear permission and disclosures, we record those conversations and license the resulting datasets to AI labs and enterprise customers to train and evaluate voice models. This Privacy Policy explains what we collect, how we use and share it, your choices, and your rights.

If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, please do not use Spout.

1) Scope

This Policy applies to:

• Our website (withspout.com) and related pages.
• Our apps, widgets, and conversation experiences.
• Support, marketing, and business development communications.
• B2B relationships with our customers and providers (e.g., AI labs).

It does not apply to third-party services we don’t control, including our customers’ own products or models trained on data we license to them.

2) What we collect

A. Information you provide

• Account & profile: name, display name/handle, email, password or SSO details, preferred language, country/region.
• Conversations & recordings: audio files, transcripts, timestamps, participant metadata (e.g., room ID), and content you upload or share (e.g., prompts, notes).
• Payment & purchases: billing address, the last 4 digits of a card, transaction amounts, and receipts (processed by our payment processor; we do not store full card numbers).
• Support & surveys: messages, feedback, ratings, and content of any communications with us.

B. Information we collect automatically

• Usage data: features used, clicks, session duration, referring/exit pages.
• Device & technical: IP address, cookie identifiers, mobile IDs, browser type, OS, device settings.
• Diagnostics: crash logs, performance metrics.
• Approximate location (derived from IP) for fraud and compliance.

C. Information from third parties

• Service providers (e.g., analytics, payment, hosting) give us aggregated or account-related data.
• Partners & customers may confirm whether data was used to train or evaluate models.
• Public or commercial sources may provide demographic segments or anti-fraud signals.

Sensitive/Biometric Note: Voice recordings may be considered biometric information under some laws if used to identify an individual. Spout does not create or store permanent “voiceprints” for the purpose of uniquely identifying a person, but our customers (AI labs) may extract acoustic features during model training or evaluation. See Section 5 and Section 9 for choices and rights.

3) How we use information

We use personal information to:

1. Provide Spout: enable calls, record audio, generate transcripts, and deliver features you request.
2. Create & license datasets: curate, annotate, transform (e.g., segment, redact, transcribe), and license recordings and transcripts—including derivatives—to AI labs and enterprise customers to train, fine-tune, evaluate, and benchmark voice models.
3. Safety, trust & integrity: detect abuse, fraud, spam, security incidents, and policy violations; protect our users and our services.
4. Improve Spout: debug, test, research, and develop new features; quality control for data and labeling.
5. Marketing & communications: send service messages (e.g., confirmations, changes), product updates, and offers (you can opt out).
6. Legal & compliance: comply with laws, enforce terms, and respond to lawful requests.

Legal bases for EEA/UK/Swiss users: We process data as necessary to perform our contract with you, with your consent (e.g., for recording and licensing datasets), for our legitimate interests (e.g., service improvement, security), and to comply with legal obligations.

4) How we share information

We share personal information with:

• AI labs & enterprise customers: We license recordings, transcripts, and derivative datasets (which may include associated metadata) for voice model training, fine-tuning, evaluation, red-teaming, and benchmarking. We contractually restrict use to permitted purposes and require safeguards; however, once data is integrated into models, it cannot be “untrained.”
• Service providers / processors: hosting, storage, transcription/ASR, analytics, payments, communications, security, content moderation, and labeling/annotation vendors.
• Affiliates & corporate transactions: in the event of a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets.
• Legal & safety: to comply with law, protect rights, or investigate suspected violations.

We do not sell your email address or account credentials to data brokers. We do “sell” and “share” (for cross-context behavioral advertising) personal information as those terms are defined by US state laws when we license conversation datasets to customers and when we use certain ad/analytics cookies. See Section 5 and Section 8 for your choices.

5) Your choices

• Recording consent: By joining or continuing in a Spout conversation after a clear notice (visual and/or audio), you consent to recording and the uses described here. If you do not consent, please leave the conversation.
• Participant notifications: Hosts should ensure all participants are notified and consent where required. We provide in-product indicators.
• Access, correction, deletion: See Section 9 for your rights and how to exercise them.
• Email preferences: Opt out of marketing messages via the unsubscribe link or by emailing hello@withspout.com.
• Cookies & tracking: Manage preferences via our cookie banner or your browser settings (see Section 8).
• Do Not Sell/Share: If you are a US resident in a state with applicable law (e.g., CA), you may opt out of “sale” or “sharing” of your personal information by emailing hello@withspout.com with the subject “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information.” We honor Global Privacy Control (GPC) signals where technically feasible.
• Limit use of sensitive information (CA): You may request that we limit use/disclosure of sensitive personal information to certain permitted purposes (see Section 10).

Important: Deleting your account or requesting deletion does not remove data already licensed to customers or embedded in trained models. Where feasible, we stop future use and remove data from our active systems and future dataset releases.

6) Data retention

We keep personal information only as long as necessary for the purposes in this Policy (e.g., to provide services, comply with law, resolve disputes, and enforce agreements). Dataset customers may retain licensed data per their contracts. Where possible, we use aggregation, de-identification, or pseudonymization to reduce retention risk.

7) Security

We implement technical and organizational measures designed to protect personal information, including encryption in transit, access controls, and audits. No system is perfectly secure. If you believe your account or data has been compromised, contact us immediately at hello@withspout.com.

8) Cookies, analytics, and advertising

We use cookies, SDKs, and similar technologies to:

• Remember settings and keep you signed in.
• Measure traffic and usage (analytics).
• Improve performance and fix bugs.
• Show and measure marketing campaigns.

You can manage preferences in the cookie banner, adjust browser settings to block/clear cookies, or use the GPC signal (where supported). Blocking some cookies may affect Spout functionality.

9) Your rights (EEA/UK/Swiss & certain US states)

Depending on your location, you may have rights to:

• Access: know whether we process your data and obtain a copy.
• Correction: fix inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Deletion: request we delete your data (subject to legal/contractual limits).
• Portability: receive certain data in a portable format.
• Restriction/objection: limit or object to certain processing, including profiling or processing based on legitimate interests.
• Consent withdrawal: when processing is based on consent (e.g., recordings licensed for training), you may withdraw it prospectively.
• Opt-out of sale/sharing/targeted advertising (US state laws).
• Non-discrimination: we will not discriminate against you for exercising a right.

How to exercise: Email hello@withspout.com. We may ask for information to verify your request. Authorized agents may submit requests as allowed by law.

Appeals (US state laws): If we deny your request, you may appeal by replying to our decision. If you are in the EEA/UK/Switzerland, you may lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority.

10) California “Notice at Collection”

We may collect the following categories (CA Civ. Code §1798.140), and we disclose/sell/share them as indicated:

Retention: See Section 6.
“Sale”/“Sharing”: We “sell” conversation datasets and “share” personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, as those terms are defined in the CPRA.
Your rights: See Section 5 and 9 to opt out or limit use.

11) Children’s privacy

Spout is not for children under 13 (or older age where applicable). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child used Spout, contact hello@withspout.com and we will take appropriate action.

12) International transfers

We are headquartered in the United States and may transfer personal information to the US and other countries that may not offer the same data-protection level as your home country. Where required, we use appropriate safeguards (e.g., Standard Contractual Clauses) and assess local laws to protect transferred data.

13) Data controller; roles

Panels Research, Inc. is the controller for your personal information collected via Spout. When we engage service providers, they act as our processors under written agreements. Our customers (e.g., AI labs) are independent controllers of the licensed datasets they receive and their resulting models. Their use is governed by their policies and contracts.

14) Automated decision-making & profiling

We use automated systems to operate the service (e.g., transcription, fraud and abuse detection, dataset quality scoring). We do not make decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects solely by automated means without human review where required by law.

15) Third-party links and services

Our site and communications may include links to third-party sites or services. Their privacy practices are governed by their own policies.

16) Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy from time to time. We will post the updated version and change the “Effective date.” If changes materially affect your rights, we will provide additional notice (e.g., via email or in-product). Your continued use of Spout after changes means you accept the updated Policy.

17) How to contact us

Panels Research, Inc. (d/b/a “Spout”)
2261 Market Street, STE 85337
San Francisco, CA, US, 94114
Email: hello@withspout.com