Ourobard — Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-07-13 · Beta

Ourobard ("Ourobard", "we", "us") is a Discord companion that turns live table top games like Dungeons & Dragons into an illustrated, ongoing chronicle. This Privacy Policy explains what we process, why, how long we keep it, who we share it with, and the controls you have. It applies to the Ourobard bot and the ourobard.com/ourobard.gg websites.

By adding Ourobard to a Discord server or using it, you acknowledge this Policy. If you do not agree, do not use Ourobard.

1. Who is responsible

For a server running Ourobard, the server's admin decides which channels are monitored and whether voice capture is enabled, and is a controller of that server's data alongside us. Contact the server admin, or the Ourobard maintainer at the address on the project home page, for any request.

2. What we process

• Text in monitored channels — only the designated Ourobard channels. Used to detect events, build the story chronicle, answer @-mentions, and generate art.
• Direct messages to Ourobard Direct messages to Ourobard and @mentions.
• Voice audio — only with per-speaker consent. Voice processing is off until a server enables it. No user's audio is processed until that user acks the voice recording terms. Every captured utterance is stamped at collection with the consent version it was gathered under. No consent → no capture for that speaker.
• D&D Beyond campaign data — character sheets and dice-roll/VTT events, when an admin connects a campaign, used to keep characters and rolls accurate.
• Discord identifiers — usernames/handles and message IDs needed to attribute content, route replies, and honor corrections. Discord identities are never surfaced in the story (player handles and the DM's handle never appear in-fiction).
• Website data — if you join a waitlist or contact us, the email/details you submit. Basic, privacy-respecting request logs may be kept for security.
• Operational telemetry — timing, quality, and error signals used to keep the service healthy. Not sold; not used for advertising.
• Matchmaking profile & play style — only if you opt in. Matchmaking (finding players and campaigns across servers) is off unless you choose to join it. If you opt in, we process the preferences you provide and data signals derived from your play — cadence, style, preferences. Nothing about your play is used or shared for matchmaking without your opt-in grant, and matchmaking is restricted to adults 18+ (Section 9).

We do not intentionally collect special-category personal data, and ask that you not enter it into monitored channels.

3. How we use it, and our legal bases

We use data for these specific purposes (and, for EEA/UK users, on these GDPR Article 6 legal bases):

We do not use your data for advertising, and we do not sell data that identifies you.

Matchmaking data is identifiable and consent-based — not the de-identified bucket. If you opt into matchmaking, the profile and play style used are personal data about you, processed only under your consent, and are fully deletable (Sections 5 and 6). This is expressly *not* part of the de-identified / aggregated data described in the next paragraph, and is never retained indefinitely.

De-identified data may be used for commercial purposes — indefinitely. We may use de-identified and aggregated data (e.g. gameplay text, generated content, and usage patterns) to operate, improve, develop, train, and commercialize Ourobard, and may retain it with no time limit. When we de-identify data we take reasonable measures to ensure it cannot be linked back to you, do not attempt to re-identify it (except to test the de-identification itself), and require recipients to keep it de-identified — the standard the CCPA/CPRA sets for treating information as "deidentified." To the extent such data is truly anonymized it falls outside the GDPR; where it remains pseudonymized it keeps the protections in this Policy.

Audio and voice data is used to provide this service to your table and for product research and development on your consent, and is retained/purged per Section 5.

4. Sharing and subprocessors

We share the minimum necessary with providers that operate the service:

• Discord — the platform Ourobard runs on.
• LLM / media providers — currently Google — receive the text/prompts (and, when enabled, audio) needed to produce narration, art, and transcription, under their own terms. We do not sell data that identifies you. Voice audio is sent to these providers only to transcribe and power the features you enabled, never for their model training beyond what those providers' APIs entail.
• Hosting/infrastructure providers that run the service.
• Other users — matchmaking only, and only with your consent. If you opt into matchmaking, the profile and play style you've chosen to share are shown to other users to evaluate fit — a DM considering you for a seat, or you considering a table — and contact is exchanged only on a mutual match. This is the only case in which we share your information with other end users, and it happens solely under your matchmaking grant; revoking it stops the sharing (Section 6).

We may also disclose data if required by law or to protect the service, users, or the public.

5. Retention and deletion

We keep each category only as long as needed for its purpose:

• Derived canon (the chronicle, character facts, art) persists so the campaign is continuous.
• Consented audio clips are retained for an interim window and swept on schedule. Audio and voice data is used to provide the service and for product research and development, on your consent (Section 3).
• De-identified data (Section 3) is no longer linkable to you and may be retained and used indefinitely, including after you or your data are purged from the identifiable stores below.
• Purge on request. You may request that we purge your voice data and other data that identifies you. On a purge, an admin: deletes your archived voice audio; de-identifies that speaker's transcript lines (replaced with a consistent pseudonym, never left linkable); and severs the player↔character binding. A recording-consent revoke stops *future* capture; leaving the table is not a revoke and does not alter prior data.
• De-identified data cannot be recalled. A purge does not — and cannot — reach de-identified or aggregated data (Section 3): because it carries no identifiers, we cannot locate "your" contribution within it to delete it. That data was already not personal data about you, and it stays in use.

6. Your rights and choices

Depending on where you live (e.g. the EEA/UK under GDPR, or California under the CCPA/CPRA), you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or port your data, to object to or restrict processing, and to withdraw consent. In Ourobard you can, directly:

• correct how your character is depicted or what's remembered by replying to the bot;
• exclude a line from the record ("that was out of character");
• ask an admin to purge your voice data and identifiable data (Section 5);
• withdraw recording consent (stops future capture);
• withdraw matchmaking consent (stops future use and removes what was shared) and delete your matchmaking profile and its derived play-style data (Section 5).

Scope of deletion. These rights apply to data that identifies you (voice audio, transcript lines tied to you, identity bindings). They do not extend to de-identified or aggregated data (Section 3), which is not personal data about you and cannot be traced back to delete — a limit expressly permitted under the GDPR (which does not apply to anonymous data) and the CCPA/CPRA (which exempt de-identified and aggregate information).

To exercise a formal request, contact the server admin or the maintainer. We do not sell or "share" personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we do not discriminate against you for exercising your rights.

7. Security

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect data (access controls, encryption in transit, consent provenance on captured audio). No system is perfectly secure; we cannot guarantee absolute security.

8. International transfers

Ourobard and its providers may process data in countries other than yours, including the United States. Where required, we rely on appropriate safeguards for such transfers.

9. Children

Ourobard is not directed to children under 13 (or the minimum age of digital consent in your jurisdiction), consistent with Discord's own age requirement. Do not use Ourobard, or enable voice capture for anyone, under that age.

Matchmaking is 18+. Because matchmaking connects you with people outside your own table, it is restricted to adults 18 or older, and we do not knowingly enable it for anyone under 18 — a stricter limit than the general age requirement above.

10. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy as the product evolves. Material changes are announced in-server and/or on the website, and the "last updated" date above is revised. Continued use after a change means you accept the updated Policy.

11. Contact

Questions or a data request: contact your server's admin, or the Ourobard maintainer at the address published on ourobard.com.

This is a good-faith privacy policy, not legal advice. Operators deploying Ourobard for their own community should review it against their obligations.