Privacy Policy

1. Personal Information We Collect and Why

When the Services handle users' personal information or input data (text, images, etc.), the Operator as a rule only processes it temporarily on the server, and stores data only where persistence is essential to providing the service. Data that could identify an individual, such as account information, is anonymised and encrypted to the greatest extent possible and stored only in a form whose contents cannot be read as they are.

As a rule, the Services do not collect or store information that can identify you, such as email addresses, names or postal addresses. Even on services that require an account, entering an email address is not mandatory, and where sign-in through an external service is offered, we obtain only the identifier used to verify the sign-in, not your email address or name. What you enter in the contact form (name, email address and message) is used only to reply to you and is not stored in our database (it is sent by email and to the Slack workspace described in Section 6 so that we are notified of it). Files attached to an enquiry are kept in the Cloudflare storage described in Section 6 and discarded after the Operator has reviewed them (only a viewing link, not the file itself, is sent by email and to Slack). To prevent spam and other abuse, we may store your IP address converted into a form from which it cannot be recovered (a salted hash).

However, as described in the following sections, the Services use an analytics tool (Google Analytics) and advertising and affiliate programs, and these third-party tools collect information through cookies and similar technologies. Section 4 lists the information sent from your device to third parties, and Section 6 lists the providers we entrust with processing.

On services that accept submissions, the text and images you post are published so that third parties can view them. Submissions and the information that accompanies them (display name, date and time of posting, etc.) are stored for the purpose of publication. They are subject to the automated processing described in Section 3.

If you register a score on a game's leaderboard, we store the nickname and score you enter together with a record of the play (such as the time each question was answered, used to verify the score), and publish the nickname and score on the leaderboard. Registration is optional; if you do not register, the record of your play never leaves your device. To prevent fraudulent registrations, we also store your IP address converted into a form from which it cannot be recovered (a salted hash).

2. Optional Email Address Registration

As the sole exception to the previous section, users who would like a way to recover a lost password may register an email address as an optional extra. Registration is not required, and all features of the Services remain available without it.

Registered email addresses are stored encrypted, so that even if data were to leak they could not be used to identify you as they are. They are used only to verify your identity, for example when resetting a password. We never send advertising or promotional email, and never provide or sell addresses to third parties.

For operational reasons, the Operator is technically able to decrypt these addresses. We state this openly rather than conceal it, but the Operator will not read email addresses for any purpose other than the one above. They are stored encrypted to keep the damage to a minimum should an incident ever occur, which is a necessary precaution for the Operator, an individual developer, as well.

If you would like your registered email address deleted, please contact us through the contact form.

3. Automated Processing of Submissions (AI)

On services that accept submissions (those where you can publish diary entries, posts, photos and the like), the text and images you post are processed automatically by machine-learning models. Processing runs automatically when a submission is saved or edited, for the following purposes:

• Detecting inappropriate submissions: content that breaks the law, infringes rights, is obscene, and so on is flagged automatically; suspected cases are hidden and queued for review by the Operator.
• Generating titles and summaries: a title and summary are generated from the body text (anything you enter yourself is not overwritten).
• Generating a look back at your trends: only when you explicitly request it, a summary of your own past submissions is generated.

All of this processing applies only to submissions that are published for third parties to view. It runs on the infrastructure of the cloud providers we entrust with processing (Section 6), and the Operator never sells or provides your submissions to third parties. The Operator reads individual submissions only when the automated screening above has flagged them, when a report has been received, or when required by law.

4. Information Sent from Your Device to Third Parties

To provide the Services we use the following external services, and your browser sends information directly to each provider. The information sent and the purpose are as follows (the scope varies by service).

• Google Analytics (GA4 / Google LLC): the pages you view, the date and time, the referrer, your approximate region, device and browser type, IP address and so on, sent using cookies and similar technologies. The purpose is to understand how the site is used and to improve its content.
• Google Fonts (Google LLC): because font files are loaded from Google's delivery network, your IP address, browser type and referrer are sent. The purpose is consistent rendering.
• Cloudflare Turnstile (Cloudflare, Inc.): on submission forms, the contact form and similar, your IP address, browser type and information about your interaction with the browser are sent. The purpose is to prevent automated abuse of the forms.
• Map tile delivery (OpenFreeMap): on services that display a map, your IP address and the area of the map being displayed are sent. The purpose is to display the map.
• Content delivery networks (jsDelivr, cdnjs, unpkg, etc.): to load program components used by tools that run in your browser, your IP address, browser type and referrer are sent. The purpose is to provide those features.
• Sign-in through external services (Google LLC, etc.): only if you choose to link an account, you are taken to that provider's sign-in screen. The Operator receives only the identifier used to verify the sign-in, not your email address or name.

If you do not want analytics data collected, disable cookies in your browser settings or use the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on provided by Google. For how each provider handles information, see their own policies, such as Google's Privacy Policy. On some services, when a visit is judged to come from the EU, EEA or the United Kingdom, analytics is loaded only after asking for consent.

5. Advertising and Affiliate Programs

The Services display advertisements delivered by third parties (including advertising networks such as Google AdSense). These advertising providers may use cookies to show advertisements for products and services matched to your interests.

The Operator also participates in a wide range of affiliate programs, including the Amazon Associates Program, Rakuten Affiliate and those offered by various affiliate service providers. Through these programs we recommend products and services, and may earn referral fees or other income when a purchase or sign-up is made through a link. These programs may also use cookies, for example to measure results.

Regarding the Amazon Associates Program: the Operator is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn referral fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.jp. These cookies can be disabled in your browser settings.

6. Service Providers and Where Data Is Stored

To the extent necessary to provide the Services, the Operator entrusts processing to the following providers. In every case they handle data only within the scope of the Operator's purposes; this is not provision (such as sale) to third parties.

• Cloudflare, Inc. (United States): delivering the websites, storing submitted photos and files attached to enquiries, and running the automated processing described in Section 3
• SAKURA internet Inc. (Japan): the server on which the databases run
• Resend (United States): sending password-reset email to the addresses described in Section 2
• Google LLC (United States): analytics, font delivery, and verifying sign-in through external services
• Slack Technologies (Salesforce, Inc. / United States): notifications of contact form submissions

As listed above, some of the data the Operator handles is stored and processed on servers outside Japan (in the United States). The Operator selects these providers after reviewing, on the basis of the information each publishes, the personal data protection regime of the country in which they are located.

7. Acceptance of This Policy

By viewing or using the Services, you are deemed to have agreed to this Privacy Policy and to the use of cookies for the analytics, advertising and affiliate programs described above. If you do not agree to this handling, please disable cookies in your browser settings or refrain from using the Services.

8. Special Note on Data Management and Passwords

On the private services the Operator provides, databases are strongly encrypted to protect users' privacy. As a result, if you lose your password or otherwise cannot sign in, for users who have not registered an optional email address, recovery or rescue of data by the Operator is physically impossible. Please be aware of this in advance. Only if you have registered an email address as described in Section 2 can you regain access by resetting your password.

9. Enquiries and Deletion Requests

For questions about this Policy, requests to disclose, correct, suspend the use of or delete personal data we hold, and requests to delete a registered email address, please use the contact form. We will review your request and respond in accordance with the law.

If you are requesting the removal of a submission, using the "Report" link on the submission's page or the "Request removal" channel of the relevant service lets us identify the content and review it faster. If you cannot find such a channel, or do not know which page is involved, contact us through the form above. Details are set out in Article 8 of the Terms of Service.

10. Disclaimer

If you move to another site through a link, banner or the like on the Services, the Operator accepts no responsibility for the information, services or anything else provided on that site.