Debaty
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About us

About Debaty

Debaty is a social network for real conversation. It is made in the Netherlands, it runs in Europe, and it earns nothing from you.

Who makes this

Debaty is a product of JGHP B.V., a Dutch company. No investor demanding growth, no parent company in another jurisdiction. One party you can hold to account, with an address and an email that are genuinely ours.

JGHP B.V.
Kapitein Luidingaflat 26, 3333 CM Zwijndrecht
Chamber of Commerce
81817312
VAT number
NL862231000B01
Email
info@debaty.com

Why Debaty exists

Debaty earns nothing from you. No advertising profile, no data sales — we live off the people who choose to pay or to advertise on a topic. That is why your timeline does not need to hold on to you, and that changes what happens on your screen.

The big networks cannot do that, because there your attention is the product. The longer you stay and the more they know about you, the better it works for them — and the less room there is for a conversation in which someone still changes their mind.

The discus fish in our logo blows bubbles and swims in schools. That is how Debaty is meant too: start small with one light question a day, and still never be on your own.

What Debaty does not do

Four things we do not do, with what we do instead. Every one of them is checkable.

  • We do not sell your data and we do not build a profile of you

    No behavioural targeting, no measurement scripts from other companies, no reselling to third parties. We count visits cookielessly on our own servers in the EU. Ads attach to the topic you are reading at that moment.

    Who processes your data →

  • We do not design to keep you here

    No countdown clock, no artificial scarcity, no notification that makes something look urgent when it is not. The question of the day is one question a day, and then you are done. If you leave, that is fine.

    How the timeline works →

  • There is no hidden algorithm

    For every bubble you can ask why it is in front of you. What counts towards it is listed by name on a page, you adjust the weighting yourself, and what you set to zero really does weigh zero. Want no ranking at all? Then you read by time.

    What counts towards it →

  • Taking part does not cost money

    Reading, writing, replying and debating are all in the free account. Debaty+ is comfort and extra room, never access to the conversation itself.

    How Debaty earns money →

How we earn money

From people who choose it themselves. Two sources, and there is no third.

  • Debaty+ — a voluntary subscription, never a condition for taking part.
  • Ads next to a topic — tied to what you are reading, not to who you are.
  • And that is it. No data sales, no behavioural targeting, no source we are not naming here.
How Debaty earns money →

Where Debaty sits

Servers, database and storage run inside the European Union, under European law. One thing honestly belongs with that: images and video live in Cloudflare's European storage, and Cloudflare is an American company. So "in the EU" is not the same as "out of American reach", and we would rather say that ourselves than have you read it elsewhere.

Who processes your data →

Where we are now

Debaty is heading into alpha. A lot is already here, some things are still missing, and now and then something breaks. That is not an apology but the reason to be here now: whoever is early helps decide which conversations become normal here.

Check it yourself

Everything above is written out in full somewhere.

Have an account? Then What we have about you shows exactly what is stored about you, with your own figures. You do need to sign in for that — it is about you, after all.

Fancy joining in?

Start with today's question — it is on the welcome page, and you can read along without an account.

To the welcome page