Data Protection and Privacy

Introduction

When you use judge.vexaus.live, you're trusting us with your information and judging materials. We understand this is a big responsibility and are committed to protecting your privacy and handling all judging materials with the utmost confidentiality.

This policy explains what information we collect, why we collect it, and how you can control your data and judging materials.

Information We Collect

We do not collect analytics or usage data. This application contains no third-party analytics or tracking, and no usage data is sent anywhere for the purpose of measuring how the application is used.

The only information the server holds is what a Judges' Room needs in order to work: your event setup, teams, judges, rubrics and deliberation data. That information exists so the devices in your judging room can share it with each other, it stays within the room that owns it, and destroying the room destroys it.

Administrator Access

The people who operate this service can see a list of the events that exist on it, in order to support and maintain it. For each event this shows:

  • The event name, program, grade level, division and event code
  • The names of the judges, and which judge group each is in
  • The names of the Judge Advisors
  • How many teams and devices are involved, and when the event was created

No judging content is visible to administrators. Rubrics, scores, notes, award nominations, rankings, team photos and notebook links are not readable through this, by design.

Administrators can also delete an event, and add or remove judges from one, in order to resolve support requests. Access is protected by a separate password held by the operator and is not available to event participants.

Information We Store and Process

When you use judge.vexaus.live, you upload information about your event and create judging materials during the competition process. We store and process such data to provide the judging functionality:

  • Event Information: Event name, competition structure, award lists, and team lists
  • Judging Materials: Links to team engineering notebooks, evaluation scores, rubrics, and award rankings
  • Judge Notes: Observations, comments, and evaluations that may contain team member names or other personal information
  • Award Deliberations: Nominations, rankings, and final award decisions
  • Judge Email Addresses: Optional. A Judge Advisor may record an address for a judge so the system can email that judge their own access link. An address is used for nothing else — no newsletters, no notifications, no sharing with anyone — and is stored in the event's own database, so it is deleted when the event is destroyed. A judge who would rather not have their address stored can ask their Judge Advisor to leave the field empty and hand the link over in person instead; the QR code exists for exactly that.
  • Team Interview Photos: Pictures of robots or interview context captured by judges during team interviews. Photos may incidentally include people or team identifiers visible in the frame.

Keeping the Information Secure

We treat all data stored in the judges' room as highly sensitive information that must be protected at all times.

judge.vexaus.live runs on infrastructure we operate directly. Each Judges' Room is stored in its own separate SQLite database on the server, and team interview photos are stored inside that same database rather than in any shared or public storage. One room cannot read another's data, and destroying a room deletes its database file outright — the judging data, the access links and the photos all go together, with nothing left behind in a second system.

All communications between your browser and our servers are encrypted over TLS/SSL (HTTPS) to protect your data from being intercepted or tampered with. Server backups are held by us and are not shared with any third party.

The software behind judge.vexaus.live is open source and can be run independently by anyone who prefers to keep their judging environment entirely under their own control. This privacy policy applies only to judge.vexaus.live. A separately operated installation is the responsibility of whoever runs it, including its data handling, privacy compliance and security.

Data Access and Control

Who Can Access Your Data

When you join a judges' room, all individuals who can access the judges' room will have access to your input information, including any data you upload or create during the judging process.

Confidentiality

Each person is given their own access link, and Judge Advisors additionally set a PIN that is required before any room data is shown. An access link identifies the person holding it, so anyone who has it can enter the room as that person. To protect the confidentiality of judging material, judges and Judge Advisors should not pass their link on to anyone else.

Modifying Your Data

You can modify your data at any time while the judges' room is active. This includes updating your evaluations, notes, and any other information you've contributed to the judging process.

Deleting Your Information

To delete your information, you can ask your judge advisor to remove your name from the Event Setup page, or request that the entire judges' room be destroyed. Each judges' room is a single database file, holding its judging data, its access links, any recorded email addresses and its interview photos. Destroying the room deletes that file outright, and the data cannot be restored.

A room that is created but never used is discarded automatically. A room that holds real judging data is not, so a Judge Advisor should destroy the event once the results are final rather than leaving it in place.

Compliance

In accordance with the Global Robotics & Science Foundation (GRSF) VEX Competition judging guidelines confidentiality principles, all judging materials are strictly confidential. We treat all data stored in the judges' room as highly sensitive information that must be protected at all times.

Confidential Materials Include:

  • Links to team engineering notebooks
  • Submitted rubrics and evaluation scores
  • Judge notes and observations
  • Award rankings and deliberations
  • Award nominations and finalist selections
  • Final award winners
  • Team interview / robot photos
  • Any other judging-related documentation

While we do store and process your judging materials as necessary to provide the service functionality, we maintain strict confidentiality protocols. Your judging data is never shared with third parties or external services beyond our secure infrastructure. We do not maintain logs or records of judging content for purposes other than providing the judging system functionality. When the Judge Advisor confirms to destroy the data at the end of the event, all judging materials are permanently deleted and cannot be restored.

This approach ensures complete compliance with the judging confidentiality requirements outlined in the Confidential principle for judges and the Secure materials step of judging deliberations in the GRSF judging guidelines. judge.vexaus.live is designed to fully comply with GRSF requirements, particularly regarding confidentiality, impartiality, and proper handling of judging materials.

Updates to This Privacy Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or applicable regulations. Any significant changes will be communicated through the application interface. We encourage users to review this policy periodically.

Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns about this privacy policy, our data handling practices, or the judge.vexaus.live application, please contact us at CONTACT@EXAMPLE.COM.

Last updated: August 2026

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