Privacy policy

• Enquiries: company, name, email address and the content of your enquiry
• Community members: email address, display name, profile and posts. Passwords are stored only in a form that cannot be reversed (a hash)
• Access records: to prevent abuse, IP addresses are recorded only in a form that cannot be reversed

• To answer your enquiry and contact you about it
• To run the community (confirming sign-ups, password resets, notices)
• To prevent spam and abuse, and to review posts
• To improve the service (only aggregates that identify no one)

We use it for no other purpose — not for advertising or sales lists.

We use AI to classify enquiries, draft replies and review posts. The AI only proposes; our staff check and decide on sending replies or hiding posts.

• Email addresses are never given to the AI
• We only use AI services whose terms exclude using your data for training
• Before using an AI service of a provider outside Japan, we will announce on this page the country and its personal-data protection system

Except as required by law, we do not give your information to third parties without your consent. To run the service we entrust handling to the following providers and supervise them properly.

• Database: TiDB Cloud (PingCAP) — data stored in a data centre in Japan (Tokyo)
• Sending email: SAKURA internet Inc.

• Enquiries: 1 year after the enquiry is closed (30 days for spam)
• Member data: until you leave. Your email address is erased 30 days after leaving; posts remain, shown as "former member"
• Bodies of sent emails and operational records: erased after 30 days to 1 year

• All traffic is encrypted (TLS); passwords are stored only as hashes
• The admin console is limited to one person, with two-step sign-in and network restrictions
• Every admin operation is logged and reviewed regularly
• We set rules for handling personal data and train the staff

Cookies are used only to keep you signed in. We use no advertising or behaviour-tracking cookies or tags. To display pages, information is sent to the following external services.

You can change your display name, profile and password, or leave, at any time from "My page" in the community. For other requests (disclosure, correction, suspension of use, deletion), contact us below. We will respond without delay after confirming your identity.

When we change this policy we will announce it on this page. Important changes are also emailed to members.