Terms & Privacy Policy

Data Handling & AI Ethics Summary

• What we collect: When you sign in with Google and submit a release for review, Aetier processes the authentication identifier associated with your Firebase account, your email address, your available profile information, the title of your track, its listening URL, submission timestamps, review status, and relevant administrative records. Security and infrastructure providers may also process technical information needed to operate, authenticate, protect, and troubleshoot the service.
• What the submission form requests: The certification submission form requests a track title and a listening link. It does not ask you to upload a raw audio master, provide a separate Aetier password, or submit payment-card information. Your Google account supplies the authentication and profile information needed for the submission workflow.
• Why we process it: To authenticate users, associate submissions with their owners, receive and evaluate releases, communicate with creators, administer reviews and certification records, enforce submission limits, prevent abuse, maintain platform security, and respond to legitimate support and data protection requests.
• Security & AI protection: Aetier uses Firebase Authentication, Cloud Firestore security controls, and Firebase App Check with reCAPTCHA Enterprise to help protect the submission workflow. These technologies support authentication, access control, and automated-abuse prevention. They do not certify a track, guarantee that every malicious request will be blocked, or independently establish a person's civil identity. Aetier does not sell personal information and does not intentionally use creative submissions to train external generative AI models.
• Human review: Aetier's certification decision is based on human evaluation under the published Aetier standards. Automated technical services may support authentication, security, submission administration, and record-keeping, but App Check risk assessment is not a music-quality assessment.
• Your rights: Where GDPR or another applicable data protection law applies, you may have rights to access, correct, erase, restrict, or object to certain processing of your personal data, and to data portability where applicable. These rights are subject to the conditions and exceptions established by applicable law.

I. Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of Terms

By accessing or using Aetier, signing in, or submitting a release for consideration, you acknowledge that these Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy apply to your use of the platform, subject to applicable law. You should not use the submission service if you do not agree to the applicable terms. Nothing in these terms removes mandatory rights or protections that apply to you under applicable law.

2. About Aetier & The Certification Standard

Aetier is an independent music certification project focused on production quality, technical integrity, musical execution, artistic direction, originality, consistency, and overall creative impact. Aetier evaluates completed releases against its own published standards and methodology.

Aetier's certification is a private recognition issued within the scope of the Aetier project. It is not represented as governmental approval, regulatory accreditation, academic accreditation, or universal recognition by the music industry.

Aetier may modify, improve, suspend, restrict, or discontinue features, submission availability, security measures, review processes, or other platform functionality where reasonably necessary for operational, security, technical, or quality reasons, subject to applicable law.

3. Access, Google Sign-In & Submissions

The public certification submission workflow requires users to sign in with Google through Firebase Authentication. Users do not need to create a separate Aetier password. Firebase Authentication maintains an account record and a unique authentication identifier (UID) so that a session and its submissions can be associated with the authenticated user.

Depending on the information provided by the Google account, Aetier may display the user's name, email address, and profile photograph in the account interface. An optional display-name change made through Aetier updates the display name stored in the Firebase Authentication profile; it does not itself change the user's Google account name.

Signing in is an authentication step, not a certification decision or a guarantee that a submission will be accepted. Aetier may open, pause, limit, or close submissions depending on review capacity, service availability, security requirements, or other reasonable operational considerations.

A submission receipt, successful sign-in, pending status, or communication from Aetier does not constitute certification, guarantee a positive review result, or promise any commercial, professional, or artistic outcome.

4. User Conduct and Prohibited Activities

When using Aetier, you agree not to engage in any of the following activities:

• Submitting malicious code, automated requests, fraudulent submissions, or attempts to compromise the security, availability, or integrity of the platform.
• Attempting to impersonate another person, use another user's identity, misrepresent ownership of a release, or submit information that is materially false or misleading.
• Submitting material or links that infringe third-party copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, intellectual property, or other legal rights.
• Flooding the platform with spam, abusive requests, or duplicate submissions, or attempting to circumvent authentication, submission limits, App Check, or access controls.
• Attempting to access other users' submissions, administrative data, review functions, or restricted resources without authorization.
• Attempting to manipulate, pressure, impersonate, or improperly influence a reviewer or certification result.

5. Submissions, Ownership & Asset Protection

You retain ownership and applicable intellectual property rights in your music, recordings, artwork, lyrics, and other creative material, subject to rights that already belong to third parties. Submitting a listening link does not transfer ownership of the underlying creative work to Aetier.

You authorize Aetier to access the submitted listening link and process the submission information to the extent reasonably necessary to receive, administer, review, evaluate, document, communicate about, and maintain records relating to the submission and any resulting certification.

The submission workflow ordinarily uses a listening URL rather than an uploaded raw audio master. You remain responsible for ensuring that you have the necessary rights to submit the release and that the listening link is valid, accessible for review, and consistent with the information you provide.

Aetier does not acquire ownership of a release merely because a creator submits it. No transfer of copyright, recording ownership, publishing rights, or royalty rights is implied by submission or certification.

6. Review Independence, Confidentiality & Double-Blind Limitations

Aetier aims to evaluate the release itself rather than a creator's popularity, follower count, streaming performance, marketing budget, or commercial profile. Reviewers apply the published criteria in the context of the release's genre, style, production approach, and artistic intent.

Access to submission records is intended to be controlled through Firebase Authentication and Cloud Firestore Security Rules. A user should be able to access only the records permitted by the applicable access rules, while designated administrator access supports review and moderation. Technical access controls do not eliminate every possible operational or security risk.

Submission records may contain review status, administrative notes, and timestamps. Information recorded in a submission should not be assumed to be confidential from the submitting user unless the relevant access controls actually restrict that information to authorized administrators.

7. Infrastructure, Authentication & Security Data

Aetier uses third-party infrastructure to operate its website and submission workflow. This includes Firebase Authentication for Google sign-in, Cloud Firestore for submission and administrative records, and Firebase App Check using the reCAPTCHA Enterprise provider to help protect supported resources against unauthorized clients and automated abuse.

Firebase Authentication associates the signed-in user with a unique UID and provides account information made available through the configured Google sign-in flow. Cloud Firestore stores submission records and the limited metadata needed to associate records with their owner, manage submission limits, and administer reviews. Access to those records is governed by the applicable Firestore Security Rules.

Firebase App Check and reCAPTCHA Enterprise may process technical, browser, device, and interaction signals used to assess whether requests appear to originate from a legitimate application. When App Check enforcement is enabled for a supported service, requests without a valid App Check token may be rejected. These technologies are intended to reduce abuse, not to establish civil identity or guarantee that all automated or fraudulent activity will be prevented.

Where applicable, submission limits and security controls are used to reduce spam and maintain operational capacity. These controls may include limits on the number of submissions per authenticated user and on overall submission volume. Security thresholds and enforcement settings may change as the platform evolves.

Technical information such as timestamps, request metadata, browser information, and IP addresses where available may be processed by infrastructure providers for security, abuse prevention, authentication, diagnostics, service delivery, and technical administration. The precise information processed depends on the services involved and their configurations.

Further information about the relevant providers is available through the Firebase Privacy and Security documentation, the Google Privacy Policy, and the Firebase App Check documentation.

8. Intellectual Property Rights

Unless otherwise stated, Aetier's original branding, visual identity, page design, text, software, layouts, graphics, certification materials, naming, and other original project assets are owned by the Aetier project owner or used under applicable licenses. Unauthorized reproduction, impersonation, scraping, redistribution, or commercial exploitation of protected materials may be restricted by applicable law.

9. Modifications to Service and Terms

Aetier may revise these Terms and its Privacy Policy to reflect changes in the submission workflow, technology, security controls, review standards, services, or applicable legal requirements. The version published on this page applies from its stated effective date, subject to mandatory legal requirements and rights.

10. Limitation of Liability

The platform is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability or consumer rights that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.

Subject to those mandatory protections, Aetier is not responsible for losses arising solely from temporary service interruptions, third-party infrastructure failures, changes in the availability of external listening links, user misuse of the platform, changes to a release after review, or events outside Aetier's reasonable control.

II. Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

Aetier aims to collect and process information reasonably necessary to authenticate users, receive and evaluate releases, communicate with creators, administer review records, protect the service, and respond to legitimate requests. The specific information depends on how you interact with the platform.

• Google and Firebase Authentication information: The Firebase Authentication UID associated with your account, email address, and available Google profile information, such as display name and profile photograph. The profile information available may depend on your account and the sign-in flow. An optional display-name change made within Aetier is stored in the Firebase Authentication profile.
• Submission information: The track title, listening URL, submission timestamp, status, and the UID and email address associated with the authenticated user who submitted the release.
• Submission-limit records: Limited counter information used to manage submission frequency and overall intake capacity. This can include a count, a time-window start, and an identifier associated with the most recent submission.
• Review and administration information: Review status, review timestamps, and administrative annotations associated with a submission where these are recorded. Such data supports review management and the maintenance of submission records.
• Technical and security information: Timestamps, request metadata, browser information, and IP addresses or other connection information where available through the website, hosting, authentication, cloud, and security services used to operate Aetier.
• Google profile images: If a profile photograph is available and displayed, the browser may request that image from a Google image-hosting domain. The photograph is used for account-interface presentation and is not a required field for a music submission.
• Support correspondence: Information you choose to include when contacting hello@aetier.com or artists@aetier.com, and records reasonably necessary to respond to a submission, privacy, administrative, or certification-related request.

The current certification submission form requests a track title and a listening link after Google sign-in. It does not require uploading a raw audio master, entering a separate Aetier password, providing a postal address, or supplying payment-card details. This description applies to the certification submission workflow and does not necessarily describe every third-party service or every future feature of the website.

2. Purpose, Lawful Basis & Data Protection

Personal information is processed for defined purposes, including authenticating users, associating submissions with their owners, receiving and evaluating releases, maintaining review records, communicating with creators, enforcing submission limits, preventing abuse, maintaining technical security, and responding to requests concerning personal data.

Where GDPR applies, each processing activity must have an appropriate lawful basis. Depending on the activity and circumstances, this may include taking steps at the individual's request before providing a requested service, performance of an applicable agreement, legitimate interests such as platform security and abuse prevention, compliance with a legal obligation, or consent where consent is the appropriate required basis. The lawful basis must be determined for the particular activity rather than assumed to be the same for every use of information.

Where Aetier relies on legitimate interests, those interests may include protecting the submission workflow, maintaining service integrity, preventing spam, preserving reliable review records, and protecting the rights and security of users and the project. Applicable rights and safeguards remain in place.

3. Google Sign-In, Firebase App Check & reCAPTCHA Enterprise

Google sign-in is provided through Firebase Authentication. When you choose to sign in, Google and Firebase process the information necessary to authenticate the selected account and provide the resulting authentication information to the Aetier web application. Firebase associates the authenticated user with a unique UID. Aetier uses this identifier to link submissions to the authenticated user and to apply access controls.

You do not need a separate Aetier password for the current Google sign-in workflow. However, Firebase Authentication maintains an authentication user record so that the application can recognize a returning user, maintain their authenticated session according to the configured persistence settings, and associate later submissions with the same UID.

Aetier uses Firebase App Check with the reCAPTCHA Enterprise provider as a security and abuse-prevention measure. The provider evaluates signals associated with the interaction and helps establish whether requests appear to originate from the registered web application. This is an application security mechanism, not a guarantee that a human's civil identity has been verified.

Where App Check enforcement is enabled for Cloud Firestore, requests without a valid App Check token may be rejected. App Check complements, but does not replace, Firebase Authentication and Cloud Firestore Security Rules. Authentication identifies the signed-in account; security rules control access to records; App Check helps protect the resource against requests from unauthorized clients and automated abuse.

Google and Firebase may process technical and interaction information in providing authentication, reCAPTCHA, risk assessment, and security services. The details of Google's processing are also governed by the relevant Google terms and privacy information. For further details, consult the Google Privacy Policy and the Google Cloud Fraud Defense and reCAPTCHA documentation.

Google documents that reCAPTCHA may set the _GRECAPTCHA cookie when the service runs for risk analysis. The cookies and similar technologies actually used by a deployed site depend on the active configuration and other services loaded by the browser. Such technologies must be assessed and disclosed as required by applicable law.

4. Data Use Restrictions & Generative AI Policy

This policy does not prevent Aetier from using ordinary authentication, hosting, storage, database, security, anti-spam, communications, and administrative software needed to operate the service. Those providers may process information as necessary to provide their services and under their applicable terms and privacy practices.

Security technologies, including reCAPTCHA Enterprise, may use automated analysis to assess the legitimacy of application interactions. This security function is separate from the human evaluation of musical quality and is not used as a substitute for the published certification criteria.

5. Data Storage, Cloud Infrastructure & Security

Submission and account information may be stored and processed through Firebase and other infrastructure providers used to operate Aetier. Firebase Authentication maintains authentication records, while Cloud Firestore stores submission data, relevant counters, and review-related records.

Access to Firestore records is subject to the security rules configured for the project. The intended access model is that a signed-in user can access their own permitted submission records and that designated administrator access is restricted to the configured administrator account. The actual protection depends on the rules deployed at the time of access and their correct configuration.

Technical and connection information, including IP addresses where available, may be processed by hosting, cloud, authentication, or security providers to protect services, detect suspicious activity, troubleshoot faults, maintain availability, and prevent abuse. Aetier does not claim that every provider collects identical information or applies identical retention practices.

Personal information is retained for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this policy, including receiving and reviewing submissions, maintaining certification records, administering the service, preventing abuse, handling disputes, and complying with legal obligations. The applicable retention period or criteria depend on the category of information and the purpose for which it is held. Information should be deleted or anonymized when it is no longer needed, subject to applicable legal and operational exceptions.

The use of technical safeguards, authentication, App Check, and security rules reduces certain risks but cannot guarantee that every attempt at unauthorized access, fraud, or abuse will be prevented.

6. Operator Information & Project Structure

Aetier is presented as an independent project and is not represented through this website as a separate incorporated company or legal entity. This description of project structure does not remove any applicable legal obligations that arise from operating the service or processing personal data.

For privacy, administrative, or project-related communication, the public contact point is hello@aetier.com. Artist-specific support is available at artists@aetier.com. Requests concerning personal data may be submitted through these addresses.

Where data protection law requires identification of a specific controller and additional contact details, those details must be supplied by the person or entity responsible for determining the purposes and means of the processing. A project name or email address should not be treated as a substitute for legally required controller information.

7. Your Rights and the Data Request Process

Where GDPR or another applicable data protection law applies, you may have the right to request access to your personal data, rectification of inaccurate information, erasure, restriction of processing, objection to certain processing, and portability where applicable. You may also have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent data protection supervisory authority.

These rights are subject to applicable legal conditions and exceptions. For example, some records may need to be retained to comply with legal obligations, address disputes, protect security, or establish or defend legal claims. A request will be assessed according to the applicable rules and the specific circumstances.

Requests may be sent to hello@aetier.com or, for artist-related matters, to artists@aetier.com. We may request information reasonably necessary to verify the requester and process the request securely. Valid requests will be handled within the time limits established by applicable law.

8. Governing Law

These Terms and the operation of the Aetier website are subject to applicable law. Nothing in this document is intended to exclude, waive, or reduce mandatory data protection rights, consumer rights, or other protections that cannot lawfully be excluded.

III. Evaluation Standards & Certification

8. Independent Quality Evaluation

Aetier evaluates completed music releases through a structured human review. As submissions are made through listening links, the review focuses on the release that is actually available through the submitted URL and the qualities that can be meaningfully assessed from that recording.

The framework considers technical integrity, production quality, musical execution, artistic direction, originality, consistency, and overall creative impact. Certification is intended to recognize the specific release reviewed rather than an artist's popularity, audience size, streaming numbers, label affiliation, or commercial reach.

The full published criteria are available on the Aetier Submission Standards page.

9. Eligible Submissions & Production Quality

The submitted link must identify one complete, playable music release and correspond to the title and artist information provided. Snippets, previews, playlists, incomplete versions, broken links, inaccessible private links, or multiple tracks submitted as one application may be rejected before review.

The release should represent the finished recording intended for public listening. Review may consider clipping, distortion, unwanted noise, clicks, pops, dropouts, harshness, excessive processing, unstable low end, uncontrolled frequencies, and other technical defects that materially affect the listening experience. Ordinary platform encoding or normalization is not automatically treated as a defect.

Mix evaluation may consider tonal balance, low-frequency control, midrange clarity, high-frequency balance, lead-element placement, stereo image, depth, separation, and the relationship between major elements. Severe masking, unstable imaging, or persistent loss of clarity may affect eligibility.

10. Dynamics, Musical Execution & Creative Merit

Loudness is evaluated in context rather than against one universal loudness target. Aetier considers whether dynamics, transients, limiting, compression, and overall level have been handled intentionally. Audible pumping, excessive limiting, flattened transients, distortion caused by excessive level, or listening fatigue may negatively affect the technical evaluation.

Technical quality is only one part of the standard. The recording is also evaluated for musical execution, arrangement, structure, artistic direction, originality, hook strength, emotional communication, and overall creative impact. A technically polished release may still fail to meet the certification standard if its creative execution is not sufficiently developed.

Aetier does not apply one universal production formula to every genre. Loudness, dynamics, tonal balance, arrangement, vocal treatment, instrumentation, stereo presentation, and other choices are considered in the context of the work's style and intended artistic direction.

11. Internal Scoring & Certification Threshold

The current Aetier framework uses an internal 0–10 evaluation system. Certification requires an overall result of at least 8.5 / 10 and no individual review area scoring below 7 / 10. The internal review areas include technical integrity, mix quality, tonal balance, dynamics, musical execution, arrangement, originality, and overall creative impact.

Internal scores, category results, weighting, reviewer notes, and scoring calculations are used for internal evaluation and consistency. They are not generally displayed as public scoring breakdowns. A release may fail to qualify even if it is complete, professionally mixed, or artistically promising if it does not meet the applicable quality threshold.

12. Human Review

Certification decisions are made through human judgment within the Aetier review process. Software and automated utilities may support submission intake, authentication, anti-abuse protection, administration, communications, and record-keeping, but these operational functions do not by themselves constitute the music-certification decision.

Aetier aims to apply a consistent evaluation framework while recognizing that musical quality contains subjective elements. The framework is intended to support disciplined review, not to claim that artistic value can be reduced to a universally objective formula.

13. Aetier Certification

An Aetier Certificate represents an independent recognition that the specific submitted release met the applicable Aetier standards at the time of review. Certification applies to the version that was reviewed and does not automatically extend to later remixes, remasters, edits, alternate masters, arrangements, or materially changed versions.

14. Verification, Records & Public Presentation

Where Aetier issues a certificate or verification record, that record relates to the specific release and review under which it was approved. A verification record confirms the existence and scope of the corresponding Aetier recognition to the extent indicated by the published record.

Aetier may maintain or update certification records to preserve accurate historical information. Verification of an Aetier record does not guarantee commercial performance, future recognition, or acceptance by an unrelated organization.

15. Independence & Fair Review

Aetier aims to apply its published standards consistently across submissions. Certification does not depend on audience size, streaming numbers, genre, follower counts, previous recognition, label affiliation, or marketing budget.

Reviewers consider genre, style, production approach, and artistic intent within the same underlying framework. The criteria remain consistent while their application is understood in the context of the individual release.

16. No Guarantee of Commercial, Career or Platform Success

Aetier certification is a quality recognition, not a promise of commercial success. Certification does not guarantee increased streams, revenue, sales, playlist placement, chart performance, social growth, media coverage, label interest, publishing opportunities, management representation, booking opportunities, audience growth, awards, virality, or any other present or future commercial, professional, or artistic outcome.

A release may be certified and still perform below expectations in the market, while an uncertified release may succeed commercially or culturally. Aetier does not control platforms, audiences, algorithms, distributors, labels, media outlets, or other third parties that may influence the future performance of a release.

17. Ownership of Creative Work

Certification does not transfer ownership of the underlying music, artwork, lyrics, recordings, or other creative material submitted by the creator. Rights remain with the creator or the applicable rights holders, subject to the limited permissions reasonably necessary to administer and review the submission.

IV. Physical Collection, L’Origine & Internal References

1. Aetier Physical Editions

Aetier may maintain physical editions or collectible project references, including editions identified as L’Origine and L’Origine Black. These physical collection items are separate from music certification decisions and do not change the underlying certification standard.

Possession of an Aetier physical card does not itself constitute music certification. Music certification does not automatically create a right to purchase, receive, or transfer a physical collection item unless Aetier expressly states otherwise.

2. Internal Reference Data

Where Aetier displays an internal reference for a physical edition, that reference is an informational, synthetic estimate produced according to Aetier's internal methodology. It is not a sale price, market price, appraisal, transaction price, quoted offer, investment valuation, or guarantee of value.

Aetier does not represent that an internal reference reflects the price at which any physical card can be sold or purchased. Reference values may increase, decrease, or remain unchanged from one update cycle to another. Past reference values do not predict future values.

3. Third-Party Transactions

Aetier does not sell, purchase, broker, arrange, or facilitate third-party transactions involving its physical collection items unless expressly stated otherwise. Any private transaction between third parties is independent of Aetier, is not conducted at an Aetier-established market price, and remains subject to the parties' own terms and applicable law.

V. Final Project Statements

1. Independent Project Status

Aetier is an independent project established in 2026. Its published standards describe a private framework for recognizing specific music releases that satisfy the applicable criteria. Aetier's purpose is to provide structured recognition without presenting itself as a universal authority on artistic value.

The independent-project description does not exempt Aetier or the person responsible for operating it from applicable legal obligations, including any obligations that apply to handling personal data.

2. Work First, Recognition Second

Aetier's certification philosophy is based on the work itself. Audience size, visibility, commercial momentum, and previous recognition are not intended to substitute for the qualities assessed under the published framework.

3. Contact

For general inquiries, privacy matters, administrative questions, or project-related communication, contact hello@aetier.com. For artist-specific support, contact artists@aetier.com.