Terms of Service

Last updated: May 2, 2026

1. Acceptance of Terms

By creating an account or using 12 Points (the "App", available at 12points.science and as native iOS and Android applications), you agree to these Terms of Service ("Terms"). If you do not agree, please do not use the App. These Terms form a binding agreement between you and the 12 Points team (the "we", "us", or "operator" of the App).

The App is also used to support an academic research study run by the University of Southern Denmark ("SDU"). Your relationship with SDU as a research participant is governed by a separate Informed Consent Form, which you will be asked to review before any research data is collected. These Terms govern your use of the App; the Consent Form governs your participation in the research.

2. Description of Service

12 Points is a Eurovision Song Contest rating and citizen science platform. The App allows you to:

Watch and rate Eurovision entries on a 1–10 scale, build a personal top 12, and view aggregated community statistics.
Optionally post comments on entries and form friend connections with other participants (subject to Section 7 below).
Optionally contribute your ratings, demographic answers, comments, and friend-network activity to academic research on music preferences and social influence.

3. Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to create an account or use the App.
Research participation requires you to be at least 18 years old. If you indicate that you are under 18 in the demographic questionnaire, the App will automatically place you in local-only mode (see Section 7) and no research data will be collected from your account, regardless of any consent selection.
By using the App you represent that you meet the applicable age requirements and that the information you provide about yourself is accurate.

4. Account Registration

You may register using an email address and password, or via Google or Apple sign-in.
You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality and security of your account credentials, and for all activity under your account.
You must provide accurate information when creating your account, and keep it up to date.
You may not create multiple accounts to circumvent restrictions in these Terms (including the irreversibility of research-consent withdrawal described in Section 7), share your account with others, or impersonate another person.
We may use Cloudflare Turnstile or similar bot-protection mechanisms during sign-up and login to deter automated abuse.

5. User Conduct

When using the App, you agree not to:

Post offensive, abusive, hateful, harassing, defamatory, sexually explicit, or otherwise unlawful content in comments or any other public area of the App.
Impersonate any person or entity, or misrepresent your identity, age, or affiliations.
Manipulate, inflate, or otherwise distort ratings, rankings, leaderboards, or voting outcomes.
Use automated tools, bots, scrapers, or scripts to interact with the App, or attempt to reverse engineer, decompile, or otherwise probe its non-public interfaces.
Interfere with or disrupt the App's infrastructure, security mechanisms, or other users' experience.
Collect, harvest, or store other users' personal information beyond what the App publicly displays.
Use the App in any way that violates applicable laws, third-party rights, or the policies of the platforms (Apple App Store, Google Play, Firebase, OneSignal, etc.) that distribute or support the App.

We may, at our discretion, remove content or suspend accounts that we reasonably believe violate this Section.

6. User Content

You retain ownership of the content you create in the App, including comments, ratings, top 12 selections, and profile information ("User Content").
By submitting User Content, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, display, reproduce, and distribute that content within the App and as part of features that depend on it (for example, surfacing your comments on the relevant song page or showing your top 12 to friends).
If you have provided research consent, you additionally grant SDU and its collaborating researchers a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to use your User Content for research and open-science purposes, on the terms described in the Consent Form.
We reserve the right to remove or restrict access to User Content that violates these Terms or is otherwise inappropriate, without prior notice where we reasonably believe immediate removal is necessary.
The treatment of your User Content when you delete your account, or when you withdraw research consent, is described in Sections 7 and 12.

7. Research Participation

The App supports a research study, but you are not required to participate in research in order to use it. Participation is entirely voluntary. Your status with respect to research is always in one of three states:

7.1 The three research states

Never consented. You have either declined consent during onboarding, or have not yet been asked. Your activity is stored on your device only (see Section 7.2).
Currently consenting. You have granted research consent. Your ratings, top 12, demographic answers, comments, and friend-network activity are stored on our servers and may be used for research as described in the Consent Form.
Withdrawn (terminal). You previously consented and have since withdrawn. New activity is stored on your device only, and you cannot grant research consent again on the same account (see Section 7.5).

7.2 Local-only mode (non-consenting users)

If you have not granted research consent — whether because you declined, you have been routed there automatically because you are under 18, or because you have withdrawn — the App operates in local-only mode. In this mode:

Your ratings, top 12, preference rankings, and any demographic answers you provide are saved only on the device you are using. They are never uploaded to our servers.
You can rate songs, build a top 12, save it, and share an image of it.
Commenting and the friend-network features are not available to you. Tapping a comment box or a friend-related button will open an explanation sheet rather than performing the action.
A persistent indicator in the App identifies that you are in local-only mode.

Important about device storage. Local-only data is stored using your device's standard browser or app storage. It can be lost without warning if you uninstall the App, clear browser data, switch browsers or devices, use a private browsing window, or if your operating system reclaims storage from inactive sites (Safari, in particular, may clear site data after about a week of inactivity). We have no way to recover data that has been lost in this way. Local-only data also does not synchronise between your devices.

7.3 Why comments and friends are limited to consenting users

The App is, in part, a study of how social interactions shape people's ratings — what users see their friends rate, what they read in comments, and so on. If non-consenting users participated in those public-facing features, their behaviour would influence consenting users' ratings without leaving any trace in the research dataset. Restricting comments and the friend graph to currently-consenting users keeps the analysis well-defined. The restriction is symmetric: consenting users also cannot send friend requests to non-consenting or withdrawn users.

7.4 Granting consent later

You can grant research consent at any time from the profile settings, provided you are not in the withdrawn state. When you grant consent:

Your locally-stored ratings, top 12, preference ranking, and demographic answers (from the device you are using) are uploaded to our servers in a single transaction. Either everything is uploaded successfully or nothing is — if the upload fails, your local data is preserved so you can try again.
Once the upload succeeds, the corresponding local data is cleared from that device.
You become a "currently consenting" participant and gain access to commenting and the friend graph from that point forward.

7.5 Withdrawing consent — one-shot and permanent

If you have granted research consent, you can withdraw it at any time, either from the App's profile settings or by emailing the contact in the Consent Form. Withdrawal is irreversible. Once you withdraw research consent, you cannot grant it again on the same account, and the App will hide the option to do so. Both the App and our servers enforce this restriction.

This irreversibility exists to protect the integrity of the research dataset: without it, repeated cycling between consent and withdrawal could be used to introduce inconsistencies in the data. You will be asked to acknowledge this irreversibility before the withdrawal is processed.

When you withdraw, the following happens on our servers, in a single transaction:

Your demographic answers, top 12 / scorecards, and preference rankings are permanently deleted.
Your ratings and friendship history are anonymised: a fresh pseudonymous identifier replaces your account reference, the rating scores are discarded, and only the timestamps and items you rated are retained as exposure stubs (used to study the timing of social influence). The mapping between this pseudonymous identifier and your account is destroyed at the moment of withdrawal — we keep no copy of it in our database, application code, or backups.
Your comments are scrubbed in place: the text is replaced with "[deleted]" so reply chains stay intact, your displayed name on those comments becomes "[Withdrawn user]", and your comment votes and follows are deleted.
Your profile is anonymised: display name becomes "[Withdrawn user]", avatar and bio are cleared, and you are removed from user-search results.
Your account itself is preserved — your email and login still work — so that you can continue to use the App in local-only mode if you wish.

The legal basis for retaining anonymised exposure stubs and friendship-history rows after withdrawal is the GDPR research exception (Article 17(3)(d) read with Article 89(1)). The Consent Form describes this in more detail.

7.6 Withdrawing consent vs. deleting your account

These are two different actions, and they are intentionally distinct:

Withdrawing research consent (Section 7.5) ends your participation in the study but keeps your account so you can keep using the App in local-only mode.
Deleting your account (Section 12) terminates your relationship with the App entirely and removes your personal data as described in that Section.

8. Aggregated Statistics and Public Display

Some features of the App display aggregated statistics computed from participating users' ratings (for example, average scores per song or per country). Aggregated outputs are not personally identifying and may continue to be displayed even after individual contributors have withdrawn or deleted their accounts. The same applies to anonymised data that has been included in a public dataset release pursuant to the Consent Form — once such data is published, it cannot be recalled.

9. Intellectual Property

The App, its design, source code, original content, branding, and the structure of the questionnaires are owned by the 12 Points team (and, where applicable, by SDU and its researchers). Eurovision Song Contest is a trademark of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). 12 Points is an independent project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the EBU. Where the App embeds third-party content (such as official song videos or country flags), all rights remain with the original owners, and your use of that content is limited to viewing it within the App.

10. Third-Party Services

The App relies on a number of third-party services (including Convex, Firebase, Google and Apple sign-in, SendGrid, Cloudflare Turnstile, and OneSignal) which process limited data on our behalf. The list of services and the data each one processes is set out in our Privacy Policy. Your use of those services through the App is also subject to their own terms.

11. Availability and Modifications

We strive to keep the App available, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted access.
We may modify, suspend, or discontinue the App or any feature at any time, with or without notice. Where reasonably practical, we will give advance notice of material changes through the App or by email.
We may update these Terms from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page indicates the most recent revision. Continued use of the App after a change becomes effective constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms. If you do not agree to a change, your remedy is to stop using the App and, optionally, delete your account.

12. Account Termination and Deletion

You may delete your account at any time from Settings → Delete Account within the App, or via our account deletion page.
When you delete your account, your personal data on our servers is removed in accordance with our Privacy Policy. Comments you have posted are anonymised in place ("[deleted]" text, "[Withdrawn user]" displayed name) so that reply chains remain intact. Aggregated statistics and any anonymised research data that has already been published cannot be recalled.
If you have research consent active at the time of account deletion, deleting the account also ends your research participation and triggers the withdrawal cascade described in Section 7.5.
We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that materially violate these Terms, with or without notice depending on the severity of the violation. Where suspension or termination is the result of a violation, anonymisation rules in Section 7.5 still apply if you had previously consented to research.

13. Disclaimer of Warranties

The App is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including (without limitation) warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the App will be error-free, secure, or available at all times, that defects will be corrected, or that the App or the servers that make it available are free of viruses or other harmful components. We do not warrant the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of any community statistics or user-generated content displayed in the App.

14. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the 12 Points team, its contributors, and SDU shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill, or other intangible losses, arising out of or in connection with your use of (or inability to use) the App. Our total aggregate liability for any direct damages arising out of these Terms or your use of the App is limited to the greater of (a) the amount you have paid to us for use of the App in the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to the liability, or (b) ten euros (€10).

Nothing in this Section limits any liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law (including, where applicable, liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, or your statutory consumer rights).

15. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless the 12 Points team and its contributors from any claim, demand, loss, or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising from User Content you submit, your use of the App in violation of these Terms, or your violation of any law or third-party right.

16. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Greece, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Disputes arising out of or in connection with these Terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent courts of Athens, Greece, except where mandatory consumer-protection laws in your country of residence give you the right to bring proceedings in your local courts.

Where you participate in research, the relationship between you and SDU is additionally governed by Danish law and by the GDPR, as described in the Consent Form. Nothing in these Terms limits your rights under the GDPR, including the right to lodge a complaint with your national data-protection authority.

17. Severability and Entire Agreement

If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect. Our failure to enforce any right or provision is not a waiver of that right or provision. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and (for research participants) the Consent Form, constitute the entire agreement between you and the 12 Points team with respect to the App.

18. Contact

For questions about these Terms, contact us at contact@12points.science. For privacy questions, contact privacy@12points.science. Research-related questions should be directed to the principal investigator named in the Consent Form.

19. Related Policies

Please also review our Privacy Policy (how we collect, use, and protect personal information) and, if you are participating in research, the Informed Consent Form you accepted at onboarding.