Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

The information the Service collects and stores from users is limited to the following:

• Google account identifier (Google sub / providerId) (used solely for authentication and identifying the user)
• Nickname (for display within the Service; the Google display name is not used, and the nickname is entered by the user at registration; real names are prohibited)
• Bio (optional), favorite plant tags (optional), avatar image (optional)
• Posted content (photos and text, including plant names and shop associations in "Purchased" records)
• Likes, saves (bookmarks), and replies to posts, and follow/follower relationships
• Notification history (notifications of follows, likes, replies, prefecture badge acquisitions / Silver upgrades / Gold upgrades / Nationwide Completion, and the like)
• My Calendar records (shops and dates of plant-activity posts)
• Watering records (date and time of each record)
• "Daily Survey" answers (a choice among visiting a garden shop / watering / adding to the plant shelf; optional free-text comments on the watering survey are publicly displayed within the Service together with your nickname)
• Visitor surveys (votes on plant categories spotted at a shop)
• My Plant Shelf entries (plant names and optional photos, notes, and shop of purchase)
• Search keywords (stored in a form that does not identify individuals, for aggregating "Top Community Searches")
• Location information (only when you allow "Show current location" in the map feature; not stored on our servers)
• Check-in location information (added in v0.7): The latitude and longitude at the moment a check-in is performed are stored in association with the target (shop or event). They are used for fraud prevention (check-ins are only possible within a 100 m radius of the venue) and for displaying your check-in history. This latitude and longitude are not disclosed to other users. Check-ins are limited to once per day for the same target (calculated from 0:00 JST; v0.8).
• First-sign-in tutorial completion status (added in v0.8): A flag indicating that the tutorial screen has been viewed is stored in the localStorage of the browser on your device so that it is not shown again. It is not sent to our servers.
• Shokuyoku Badge progress (growth stage based on the number of sign-in days)
• Access logs (IP address, browser information, and the like, retained for up to 90 days to detect unauthorized access)
• Referral source at registration (added in v0.8): For statistical purposes to improve the Service, we may record the referrer (domain of the referring site) at your first visit and inbound URL parameters (such as utm_source) at the time of new account registration. This does not include any information that identifies individuals, such as names. It is not provided to third parties and is not used for behavioral targeting advertising.

When photos are uploaded, Exif metadata (such as shooting location and camera model) is automatically removed on the server side.

2. Information We Do Not Collect

The Service does not collect or store the following information:

• Real name, address, telephone number, date of birth, gender, or occupation
• Email address (although it can be obtained from Google during Google authentication, the Service does not persistently store it)
• Password (authentication is delegated to Google OAuth, and the Service never manages passwords)
• Payment information such as credit card numbers (the Service does not offer paid billing or payments)
• Smartphone device information such as contacts (address book)
• Third-party advertising cookies or tracking information for behavioral targeting purposes

3. Authentication Method

The Service authenticates users via Google Sign-In (and Sign in with Apple on the iOS app). We do not offer our own email/password authentication. As a result, the Service bears no password-management risk, and users can take advantage of security features such as two-step verification provided by their respective accounts.

The only information obtained from Google is the Google account identifier (sub) and, optionally, the avatar image. The Google display name and email address are provided by Google during authentication, but the Service does not store them and discards them each time.

When using Sign in with Apple on the iOS app, we obtain only the Apple user identifier (sub). The email address and name that may be provided by Apple are not stored by the Service.

4. Purposes of Use

• Providing, operating, and improving the Service
• User authentication and prevention of unauthorized use
• Providing SNS features (posts, follows, likes, replies, timeline, and notifications)
• Providing recording/aggregation features such as My Calendar, watering records, the plant shelf, and plant-activity reports
• Granting prefecture badges and displaying collections (determined automatically from check-in and plant-activity post records; no new personal information is collected)
• Aggregating and displaying "Daily Survey" results (free-text comments on the watering survey are publicly displayed together with the nickname of the poster)
• Displaying aggregated search keywords that do not identify individuals, such as "Top Community Searches"
• Managing Shokuyoku Badge progress
• Displaying nearby shops on the map
• Notifying users of announcements and maintenance information regarding the Service
• Sending newsletter emails (only if you opt in)
• Statistical analysis in a form that does not identify individuals (for the purpose of improving the Service)

4-2. Information Visible to Other Users

Because the Service has the nature of a social networking service, the following information can be viewed by other users. Please keep this in mind when posting or recording.

• Nickname, bio, avatar, favorite plant tags, and Shokuyoku Badge
• Posts (photos and text), like counts, and follows/followers (provided that posts for which you select "Private" at posting time are visible only to you and are not disclosed to other users)
• My Plant Shelf (plants set to public)
• Free-text comments on the watering survey (displayed together with your nickname as "Today's Community Watering")
• Visitor survey category votes (v0.7) (who voted is not disclosed; only aggregated results are displayed on the shop page)
• Prefecture badge acquisition status (v0.7) (prefecture badges earned through check-ins become viewable from your profile)

My Calendar plant-activity post records, the number of watering records, search keywords, and the latitude and longitude at check-in are, in principle, visible only to you (aggregated values and statistics may be used in a form that does not identify individuals).

5. Provision to Third Parties

Except as required by law, the Operator will not provide personal information to third parties without the consent of the user. However, information is provided to the following service providers to the extent necessary for the performance of their services:

• Supabase Inc. (database and storage)
• Vercel Inc. (frontend hosting and CDN)
• Railway Corp. (API hosting)
• Resend, Inc. (email delivery)
• Google LLC (map services)

These service providers may be located outside Japan, and user information may be transferred across borders. Please refer to the official website of each provider for its privacy policy.

6. Use of Cookies

The Service uses only the minimum cookies necessary to maintain authentication sessions. We do not use third-party advertising cookies or tracking for behavioral targeting purposes. You can disable cookies in your browser settings, but doing so will prevent features such as staying signed in.

7. Retention Period

• Account-related information: retained until account deletion
• After account deletion: logically deleted, then physically deleted within 30 days (recoverable from backups for up to 14 days)
• Access logs: retained for 90 days, then automatically deleted

8. User Rights

Users may request disclosure, correction, suspension of use, or deletion of their own personal information. Some operations (changing your nickname, changing your avatar, deleting posts, and deleting your account) can be performed by yourself from the My Page section within the Service. For other requests, please contact us using the contact information below.

9. Minor Users

If the Service is used by a user under the age of 18, we recommend obtaining the consent of a parent or guardian. We do not knowingly collect personal information from users under the age of 13.

10. External Links and External Content

The Service may aggregate and display gardening news and event information from third parties. Such retrieval is performed on the server side, and no information that identifies users is sent to the providers. In addition, the body text of external content is never persistently stored on the Service; only headlines, provider names, and links to the original articles are displayed. Tapping a news or event link takes you to an external site, where the privacy policy of that site applies.

10-1. Instagram Embeds

Event posters published by organizers are displayed using Instagram's official embed feature. We do not store these images on the Service, nor do we redistribute them from the Service. When an embed is displayed, your browser communicates directly with Instagram (Meta), which may involve sending your IP address and request information and storing that company's cookies. Such data is handled under Meta's privacy policy. Embeds are loaded only just before they come into view, so no communication occurs unless you scroll to them. You may also restrict third-party cookies in your browser settings.

10-2. Advertising

To help cover operating costs, the Service may display advertisements. Advertisements include (1) paid sponsor placements by gardening shops and related businesses (clearly labeled "PR"), and (2) affiliate linksfor gardening supplies and the like (clearly labeled "PR / Affiliate Advertisement").

With respect to these advertisements, the Service does not use third-party advertising cookies or tracking for behavioral targeting purposes. Sponsor placements are displayed in the same way as regular content within the Service, and viewing them does not cause any information that identifies you to be sent to advertisers. Tapping an affiliate link takes you to an external site (such as Rakuten Ichiba), and conversion measurement and cookie handling on the destination site are governed by the policies of that site. The Service receives only aggregated commission information and does not receive any information that identifies individual users.

11. Revisions

This Policy may be revised as necessary. In the case of material changes (such as additions to the information collected, changes to purposes of use, or expansion of the scope of provision to third parties), we will announce the changes on the Service and ask users to consent again.

12. Contact

For inquiries regarding the handling of personal information, please contact us viashokuyoku.map@gmail.com.