Privacy policy

AVOCO at www.avocousa.us is operated by AVOCO USA ("we"). We decide what personal data this site collects and how it is used, so we are the controller in the sense of the European and British data-protection laws, and the business in the sense of the Californian ones.

The voice-analysis technology ("AVOCO", the vocal psychotyping system) is developed by Voxera and licensed to us. Voxera computes the scores from a recording on our behalf and receives no information about who you are; see "Where your data goes".

Questions, requests and complaints about your data: support@avocousa.us. We answer within 30 days, usually much sooner.

Only what the service needs to work. In detail:

• Account data. When you sign up, our sign-in provider (Clerk) collects your email address, your name if you give one, the sign-in method you chose (a password or a Google or similar account) and when you signed in. We see your email, name and an account number.
• Voice recordings. The audio you record in the browser or upload: 30 seconds to 5 minutes of speech. If you upload a video, its voice track is extracted on your device; the video itself never leaves your computer or phone.
• The consent you gave. The date and time you ticked the consent box are stored with each recording, as proof that the analysis was requested.
• Analysis results. Your scores on eight personality types and fourteen emotional-state scales, and the fields of work the platform calculates from them. Together they are your report.
• Names you give reports. If you record someone else on your account and name the report, we keep that name with it, only to show it to you and to keep that person's reports together. Deleting the report deletes the name.
• Company workspaces. When someone creates a workspace: its name, industry, its members' account numbers, its groups, and for every person the company records, the name and optional email the company typed in, their recordings and results. Companies with API access also get a key, of which we keep only a fingerprint.
• Purchases. When you buy report credits: the pack, the amount, the currency, a Stripe reference and the running credit balance. Card numbers never reach us: Stripe takes the payment on its own pages.
• Technical data. Like every website, our hosting keeps short-lived server logs with your IP address, browser type and the pages requested, for security and troubleshooting.
• Visit statistics. When you open a page, we note the page, the link or ad that brought you (for example a campaign on Instagram or TikTok), your type of device, your language and your approximate town, state and country as our host derives them from your IP address, under a random number kept in a cookie of our own. For each page we also note how long it was on screen, how far it was scrolled and, on the public pages, which buttons or links were tapped, by their labels; never anything you type. We do not store your IP address. Where the law requires your consent, this happens only after you give it.
• Session replays. With analytics allowed, PostHog records how the public pages are used (the landing page, sign-up, the recorder, credits): where the pointer moves, what is clicked and scrolled. Anything typed is masked, the pages of your reports are never recorded, and the replay is tied to the same random visitor number as our statistics, not to your name.
• Analytics and advertising tags. We load Meta's pixel for our Facebook and Instagram ads and, through Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics and the measurement tags of the other platforms we advertise on, such as Google, TikTok and X. They set their own cookies and learn which of our pages you visit and whether you signed up, recorded your voice or bought something, so that we can tell which ads work. Meta's pixel runs with its automatic reading of pages switched off: it learns only the page views and those steps. When you sign up, record or buy, our server also reports that step to Meta directly, with only what the pixel itself sends about your browser (its address, its type and Meta's own cookies), so the step still counts when a browser blocks the pixel. Where we switch on Meta's advanced matching, the pixel also sends Meta the email address you enter in our sign-up form, scrambled in your browser into a one-way code (hashed) before it leaves, so Meta can tell which of its users took the step; this, too, happens only if you allow advertising cookies. They never receive your recordings or your results.
• Anonymous statistics. For every finished report, one row saying which type led and which field came first, without any link to a person. These help us see the product being used and cannot be traced back to you.

What we do not collect: a transcript of your words, a voiceprint that could identify you, your precise location, or your contacts.

Each use has one purpose, and where the law asks for a legal basis, this is it:

• To analyse your voice and build your report: your explicit consent, given by ticking the box before each analysis. You withdraw it by deleting the report; the analysis itself cannot be undone, but its results and the recording are gone.
• To run your account, keep your reports, and show them to you: performance of our agreement with you (the terms of service).
• To take payments, email you a receipt for each one, keep accounts and answer support questions: performance of the agreement and our legal obligations to keep accounting records.
• To keep the service secure and prevent abuse (rate limits, logs, blocking misuse): our legitimate interest in running a safe service, which does not override your rights.
• To understand how the site is used, in aggregate: our legitimate interest, using anonymous statistics.
• To count visits and measure which of our ads and links bring people, sign-ups and purchases: your consent in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland; elsewhere our legitimate interest in measuring our own marketing, which you can refuse at any time under "Your privacy choices".
• Nothing else. We do not use your recordings to train models and we do not sell or rent personal data. The advertising platforms we measure with may use what they learn about your visit to show our ads to people like you; some US state laws call this "sharing", and you can refuse it under "Your privacy choices".

The analysis measures acoustic properties of the recording: tempo, pitch and its movement, dynamics, pauses, timbre. It compares them with reference patterns and returns numbers from 0 to 100 for eight personality types and fourteen emotional-state scales. The words are not recognised, and the result is not a diagnosis.

Because a voice is personal, we treat every recording as sensitive data regardless of what the law of your country calls it: no analysis runs without your ticked consent, the recording is never shown to anyone but you (and the company that invited you), and you can delete it at any time.

The analysis does not identify you. No voiceprint or template for recognising you is created or kept, and the same recording could not be used to find you among other people. We keep the recording only as the source of your report; delete the report and the recording goes with it.

We make no decisions about you with legal or similarly significant effects. A company that uses reports is bound by our terms not to make hiring, promotion, grading or dismissal decisions on a report alone.

We use a small number of service providers, each for one task, and each receives only what that task needs. None of them may use your data for their own purposes.

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, this means your data is transferred abroad. We rely on the providers' standard contractual clauses and equivalent commitments for those transfers, and on your explicit consent for the recording sent to the analysis provider. Write to us if you want a copy of the safeguards.

We disclose data beyond this list only when the law requires it, to protect someone's safety or our rights, or if the business is sold, in which case this policy continues to apply to your data.

Companies use AVOCO to understand candidates, teams, sales people, agents, students or clients. If you received a link from a company, this is how it works:

• The company decides why you are recorded and is responsible for that decision under the law that applies to it. We process your recording on the company's behalf and on the basis of the consent you give on the recording page.
• The company sees your name and the email it entered, your recording and your report. Other participants never see your data. The company may hide the emotional-state part for everyone in a workspace, and in some settings must.
• Your link stays yours. From it you can read your report and delete your recording and report for good; the company then loses them too.
• Our terms oblige the company not to use a report as the sole basis for a decision about you and to tell you so where such decisions are made. If a company breaks that, tell us at support@avocousa.us.
• A person under 18 can take part only where the company has confirmed that a parent or guardian agreed.

Nothing is kept "just in case". This is the schedule:

This site uses a few cookies of its own and, as you allow, cookies set by Meta's pixel and by the analytics and advertising tags that Google Tag Manager loads. The necessary ones keep you signed in and remember your choices; everything else can be switched off under "Your privacy choices" at the foot of every page. Fonts are served from our own site, so no font provider sees your visit.

In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, analytics and advertising cookies stay off until you allow them. Elsewhere they are on until you turn them off. A browser that sends the Global Privacy Control signal is treated as a refusal of advertising cookies and of any "sale" or "sharing"; you can change your choices at any time under "Your privacy choices".

Wherever you live, you can see, download, correct and delete what we hold about you. Most of it you can do yourself, right now:

• See and download: every report has a "Download report" button that gives you the complete report as one file, and "Save as PDF" a version for paper.
• Delete: "Delete report and audio" removes the report and the recording for good. To close the whole account, write to support@avocousa.us.
• Correct: your name and email are edited in your account menu.
• Withdraw consent: deleting a report withdraws the consent for that recording.

If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, you also have the rights to restrict or object to processing, to data portability, and to complain to your data-protection authority. We would rather hear from you first, but that right is yours regardless.

If you live in California or another US state with a privacy law, you have the rights to know, to access, to correct, to delete, and to opt out of sale or sharing. We do not sell personal data for money. Measuring our ads with advertising platforms can count as "sharing" for cross-context advertising under Californian law: you can opt out under "Your privacy choices" at the foot of every page, or with the Global Privacy Control signal, and we never treat you differently for using your rights. You may authorise someone to act for you; we will verify the request through your account email.

If you live in a state with a biometric-privacy law (such as Illinois, Texas or Washington): we do not create voiceprints or any identifier from your voice. Even so, we obtain your written consent through the consent box, we keep this retention schedule public, we never sell recordings, and we delete a recording on request.

To use any right, write to support@avocousa.us from the email on your account. We reply within 30 days (45 for Californian requests where the law allows), and we never charge for it.

Everything travels over encrypted connections. Recordings are stored under long random addresses that appear nowhere but in your own report, reports are tied to your account number and every request checks that the report belongs to the person asking. Passwords are handled by Clerk and never stored by us; keys and secrets on the server are stored encrypted.

No system is perfectly secure. If a breach ever affects your data, we will tell you and the authorities as the law requires, without undue delay.

You must be 18 or older to create an account. A person under 18 can be recorded only through a company workspace whose setting requires the company to confirm that a parent or guardian agreed. If you believe we hold a child's recording without that agreement, write to support@avocousa.us and we will delete it.

When we change this policy, the date and version at the top change with it, and we keep the previous version available on request. If a change reduces your rights or adds a new use of your data, we tell you inside the app or by email before it takes effect.

AVOCO USA, the operator of AVOCO at www.avocousa.us. Email: support@avocousa.us.