Security & Data Handling

How Athena handles data

Athena is a credibility infrastructure platform. We document public claims from public sources. This page describes what data we collect, how we store it, who has access, and what we commit to.

Data Sources

Athena processes publicly available content only. We do not collect private messages, non-public posts, or data requiring user login to access.

YouTube

Public videos, titles, descriptions, and captions via YouTube Data API v3.

Speech transcription

Audio extracted and transcribed via Deepgram and GCP Speech-to-Text for public videos.

Market price data

Historical price data sourced from Coinbase and Binance public APIs for outcome verification.

Claim extraction

Structured claims extracted from transcripts via Google Gemini. No personal data is sent to LLM providers.

Retention Policy

Claims, scores, and dispute records are retained indefinitely to preserve the integrity of the credibility ledger. Score history is append-only and is never deleted or modified.

Data typeRetention
YouTube video metadataIndefinite
TranscriptsIndefinite
Extracted claimsIndefinite (append-only)
Credibility scoresIndefinite (append-only history)
API keysUntil revoked by user or admin
Dispute recordsIndefinite
Email preferencesUntil user deletes account

API Key Handling

API keys are hashed before storage. We never store plaintext keys after initial issuance.

  • Keys are scoped to read-only access by default.
  • Keys can be revoked at any time from your account settings.
  • Failed authentication attempts are rate-limited.
  • Key metadata (creation date, last used) is logged for audit purposes.
  • We do not share API keys with third parties.
Authorization header: X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY

Subprocessors

Athena uses the following third-party services in its data processing pipeline. Listed for transparency — not indicative of partnership or endorsement.

SubprocessorRole
VercelFrontend hosting and edge delivery
Google Cloud RunBackend API and microservices
Google Cloud SQLPrimary database (PostgreSQL)
DeepgramSpeech-to-text transcription
Google GeminiClaim extraction AI
Coinbase / BinanceMarket price data for outcome verification
WebshareProxy infrastructure for data collection
Redis / CeleryTask queue for async pipeline jobs

Independence Commitments

Athena does not sell score adjustments or accept payment to influence credibility scores.
Athena does not sell 'verified' badges or endorsement placements.
Advertising and sponsorship are clearly separated from scoring and methodology.
All corrections are logged permanently and visible in the entity's public record.
Score history is append-only. Historical scores are never silently modified.

Dispute & Correction SLA

Any subject, viewer, or researcher can file a dispute if they believe a claim was extracted incorrectly, an outcome was verified against wrong data, or a factor was computed from bad inputs.

Acknowledged
3 business days
Evidence review
5–7 business days
Correction visible
24 hours after confirmation
View the full dispute process →

Security Contact

For security disclosures, data questions, or deletion requests, contact us at:

contact@athenaindex.com

We follow industry-standard security practices for a cloud-hosted SaaS platform. We are not yet SOC 2 certified.