Our promises

Why this page exists

In brief: a promise written down nowhere is later nobody's promise. This one is written down, with a date beneath it.

Almost every social network started out with promises like these. Almost none of them ever put those promises down anywhere, so when money got tight there was nothing to break. That is why we are putting ours on a single public page, with a date and a list of changes.

Two things make this something other than a mission statement. Nothing in it describes something we still have to build: every promise below is true today and points to the place where you can check that for yourself. And we cannot quietly adjust it — a change gets a new version number and a line in the list at the bottom, just as with the terms and conditions.

Debaty is built and offered by JGHP B.V., established in the Netherlands. Our formal details are in the colophon.

1. We never sell your data

In brief: to no one, not in bits and pieces either, and not "anonymised".

There is no price for which this is for sale, nor is it a revenue model we can switch on later after all: no advertising profile is built up about you, so there is nothing to sell. An advertiser gets to see numbers — how often their advertisement has been shown — and never a person.

Which companies are involved in making Debaty work is set out, by name and with a reason, on a single list. That list is built up from the components we actually run, so it cannot quietly fall behind.

Check for yourself: How Debaty makes money · Privacy statement · Who else is involved

2. Advertisements go with the topic, never with you

In brief: an advertisement is chosen on the basis of what is on the screen, not who you are or what you did yesterday.

An advertisement is chosen on the basis of the topic of the page, the language, and the country the advertiser is targeting. Not on your age, your click behaviour, your location or your interests: in the screen where an advertiser sets up their campaign, there is no field for the viewer. Not left blank — non-existent.

Every advertisement is marked as an advertisement and has been reviewed by a human before it is shown. No script from another company loads alongside it, and an advertisement places nothing on your device.

Check for yourself: How Debaty makes money · Cookies

3. Your data is yours

In brief: taking everything with you is always possible, and deleting really means deleting.

You can download your complete archive at any time: your bubbles, your replies, your votes, your messages and your settings. No request, no waiting period of weeks, no form that someone has to look at first — you do it yourself in Settings > Account.

In that same place you delete your account. After that you have thirty days to reconsider: if you log back in during that period, everything is back. After that it is gone, and that is not a hidden flag but really gone.

What you post stays yours. We claim no ownership of your texts or your photos.

Check for yourself: Privacy statement · Terms

4. The algorithm explains itself

In brief: every recommended post shows you why you are seeing it, and you can adjust it yourself or skip it altogether.

Next to a post you did not seek out yourself, it says Why am I seeing this?. There you can read which signals were taken into account and how heavily. This is not an after-the-fact explanation: these are the same signals the server uses to determine the order.

You can set each signal heavier or lighter yourself, or to zero. Zero means zero and not "a bit less". And you can skip the recommendations altogether by setting your timeline to chronological — that button sits above the timeline, not tucked away in the settings.

That stays so. A timeline you cannot query and cannot turn off is exactly what we do not want to build here.

Check for yourself: How the timeline works · How a note works

5. Debaty runs in Europe, on our own machines

In brief: your account, your bubbles and your conversations sit on our own server in the Netherlands. We name the exceptions explicitly.

We don't rent space with a large American provider where no one can say exactly where anything is stored. Your account, your bubbles, your conversations and the back-ups sit on our own machines in the Netherlands.

A few components deviate from this, and those are precisely the ones we write down instead of leaving out: where that is the case, it is stated by name, with the reason and with the consequences, on the provenance page. "European" is only worth anything if the exceptions are stated alongside.

Check for yourself: Where your data is stored · Who else is involved

6. No tricks

In brief: nothing here is designed to keep you around longer than you want to be.

Specifically, and all of it already the case today:

• No consent request you have to click away. There are no tracking cookies and no advertising cookies on your device, so there is nothing to ask consent for.
• Leaving works where signing up did. You cancel Debaty+ with the same button you used to take it out, in the app, with no email and no phone call.
• No streak you have to keep up. The daily question counts how many days you have taken part. That number cannot drop, and there is no little flame beside it that goes out if you skip a day.
• An advertisement looks like an advertisement, always, and is never disguised among the posts.
• A moderation decision comes with a statement of reasons and an option to lodge a complaint against a decision, even when it does not suit you.

Check for yourself: Cookies · Moderation policy · Transparency

7. If Debaty ever shuts down, you'll hear about it in good time

In brief: at least thirty days in advance, with the opportunity to take everything with you, and your money back.

We don't think it will happen, but this is exactly the kind of situation in which promises normally fall apart — so here it is. Were we ever to stop, we'll say so at least thirty days in advance and make sure that during that period you can download your data. If you paid for Debaty+, you'll get the unused portion back.

The same applies if Debaty were to pass to another company: you'll hear about it at least thirty days in advance, the arrangements stay the same, and during that period you can leave with your data.

Check for yourself: Terms and Conditions

What we do not promise here

In brief: what we cannot deliver is not written here, and that is precisely why the rest is worth something.

• No guarantee that Debaty is always available. It is an ordinary internet service and it can go down. We announce planned maintenance and tell you afterwards what went wrong.
• No promise that nothing ever changes. Features come and go. What does not change lightly is what is on this page.
• No promise that you will always agree with our moderation. But we do promise that a human decides, with an explanation, and that you can object.
• No promise that Debaty can exist without income. There are advertisements and there is a subscription. That is the price of not selling, and we would rather say that than something nice-sounding.

How you hold us to this

In brief: changes are listed at the bottom of this page. If something is not right, we would be glad to hear about it — and otherwise there is a supervisory authority.

This page carries a version number and a list of changes, just like the terms. If something about a promise changes, a line is added, so that you can see what was adjusted and when. Whatever else changes about Debaty is set out in the changelog.

If you think we are not keeping to this, say so via contact. If we cannot resolve it together, you can turn to the Dutch supervisory authorities or those of your own country; how that works is set out at the bottom of the privacy statement and the terms.

Version and changes

In brief: this is version 1.0 of these promises, adopted on 9 August 2026.

• v1.0 — 9 August 2026. First adopted version of this page.

Language and validity

In brief: the version you read is the one that applies to you — a translation included.

This document is available on Debaty in fourteen languages. The version in your language applies to you, and it binds us too. Where a translation differs from the Dutch text, the reading that is most favourable to you applies: we cannot hold our own translation error against you.

Dutch is the language in which we write changes and against which we check translations. That is a working arrangement inside our company, not a ranking between readers. If a translation lags behind the Dutch text, we say so at the top of the page, with both dates.

Wherever you live, the mandatory consumer law of your own country continues to apply, whatever else is written here.