Privacy Policy

Last Updated: September 11, 2026

1. Data We Collect, Transmit, and How We Use It

Photo Data

To generate summaries and narratives for your photo captions, photos you take or select are sent to external generative AI services. How data is handled after transmission is governed by each service's privacy policy.

• MimiSeka Scia: Generated summaries and narratives are embedded as metadata in the photo and saved to your device's photo library (in the "MimiSeka" album). This feature can be disabled in Settings.

Conversation, Diary, and Note Text (Scia)

The text you type or speak while talking about a photo, any note you attach to a photo, and the material used to write a diary entry are sent to third-party generative AI services in order to produce the writing. Once transmitted, that data is handled according to each service's own privacy policy.

The conversation record itself is kept on your device (see 3. Data Stored on Your Device).

Initial Survey

On first launch, the app asks for the following information:

• Vision status
• Age
• Narrative mode preference
• Auto-read-aloud setting

This information is used to optimize app settings and is also stored in anonymized form on our servers to improve the service. It is never used to identify any individual.

Device Identifier

To maintain stable service operation (daily request rate limiting), a device-specific identifier assigned by Apple (identifierForVendor) is sent to our server. This identifier changes when the app is reinstalled and is not used for cross-app tracking or advertising purposes.

Location Data (Optional)

Location data is only collected when you grant the app location access through your device's iOS system settings. When enabled, location data is used for:

• Adding location metadata to photos (when saving to album in Scia)
• Providing contextual information for narrative generation
• Showing where a photo was taken on a map inside the app
• Building an on-device register of the prefectures and municipalities you have visited
• Retrieving place and venue names for the capture point via Apple Maps
• Retrieving the weather at the capture point and time via Apple WeatherKit

Precise location data (latitude and longitude) is sent to our servers only if you use the "leave a story at this place" feature described below. Otherwise, a coarse location name (city or municipality level) may be sent to generative AI services as contextual information for narrative generation. Place names, venue names, and weather are retrieved through Apple's services and do not pass through our servers.

Content You Publish as a "Listenable Photo" (Optional)

MimiSeka Scia lets you turn a story or diary entry into a link or QR code so that people without the app can listen to it. Only when you use this feature, the following is stored on our servers (AWS Tokyo region) and becomes accessible to anyone who has the link:

• Text — the story or diary entry, its title, capture date, and other display information
• Narration audio — the synthesized audio file
• Photo — stored only if you explicitly choose to publish with the photo. The JPEG with the story embedded is stored as-is

Publication is time-limited, and you choose the period when you publish. Expired content becomes unreadable and is deleted automatically. Before expiry, you can revoke publication at any time from "Disable QR" in the app; once revoked, the link no longer opens.

Our servers count how many times published content has been played or viewed and report that count back to you. We do not record who viewed it.

"Leave a Story at This Place" (Optional)

MimiSeka Scia lets you leave a story at the place where the photo was taken. If you use this feature, your story (text, narration audio, capture date, and capture coordinates) is stored on our servers and shown anonymously to other users who visit that place, as "a story someone left here." The publication period is one year.

Your name and display name are never shown alongside a story you leave. You can withdraw it at any time from within the app. Withdrawing stops new deliveries, though it may remain on devices that already received it.

When you place a story, its text is sent once to an automated content check (OpenAI's Moderation API) before it is published. Text judged inappropriate is neither stored nor published. Photos are never stored on our servers by this feature (what is stored is the text, the narration audio, the capture date, and the capture coordinates).

Stories left at a place can be reported. A reported story stops being delivered immediately, and we then review it and decide whether to restore or delete it. The reason selected by the reporter, and any note they choose to write, are stored on our servers for up to 400 days for audit purposes.

For this feature only, we store a pseudonymised identifier for the author and for the reporter. It is derived from the publishing identifier held on your device (a value unrelated to your name or email address) by a salted, irreversible hash, and it is used for two purposes only:

• To exclude an author's stories from delivery when a recipient chooses "stop receiving stories from this person"
• To identify people who repeatedly post inappropriate content

This identifier is never displayed, and never passed to other users or apps. Authors and reporters are hashed with separate domains, so the two cannot be matched against each other. Block records (who does not want to receive from whom) are likewise stored as a relation between pseudonymised identifiers.

Push Notifications (Optional)

If you use "letters from MimiSeka," we deliver notifications through Apple's Push Notification service (APNs). You can revoke notification permission at any time in iOS Settings.

iCloud (CloudKit) Storage and Sync

The story text and titles, capture notes, emotion tags, and narration audio collected on your shelf are stored and synced in your own iCloud. The photo images themselves are not sent — they stay in your device's photo library, and only an identifier for each photo is stored in iCloud. This happens entirely within Apple's services and does not pass through our servers. Data held in iCloud is governed by Apple's privacy policy.

In-App Purchases

If you buy a subscription or a ticket pack, we verify the signed purchase receipt issued by Apple on our servers and record the resulting allowance against your device identifier. We never receive your payment details, such as credit card numbers.

Usage Data

To improve the app, the following usage data is recorded on your device:

• Number and completion rate of narrative generations
• Feature usage frequency
• Error occurrences
• Accessibility feature usage (VoiceOver, etc.)

This data is anonymized and stored on our servers solely for the purpose of service improvement. It is never used to identify any individual.

Data Retention

Content published as a "listenable photo" is retained until the period you chose when publishing (30 days by default), after which it is deleted automatically. A story left at a place is retained for one year. Report records are retained for up to 400 days, and block records until they are removed. In both cases, revoking publication in the app makes the content unreadable from then on. Usage data and device identifiers are retained for the duration of service operation and deleted when the service is discontinued. Initial survey data is retained as anonymized statistical information for the duration of service operation.

2. Third-Party Services

Generative AI Services

The following generative AI services are used for photo analysis and narrative generation. All communications are routed through our server over encrypted connections (HTTPS).

• OpenAI — Photo analysis, text generation
• Anthropic (Claude) — Text generation

How data is handled after transmission is governed by each service's privacy policy:

• OpenAI Privacy Policy
• Anthropic Privacy Policy

Text-to-Speech Services

The following services may be used to convert generated text to audio. Only text generated within the app is sent; no photos or user-identifying information is included.

• OpenAI — Speech synthesis for summaries and narratives
• Aivis Cloud — Speech synthesis for summaries and narratives (when using the natural Japanese voice)

• OpenAI Privacy Policy
• Aivis Cloud Privacy Policy

X (formerly Twitter)

Posting to X is optional. If you choose to use this feature, you connect your account via X's secure account authorisation. The app only requests posting (write) permission; it does not access your timeline, followers, or any other read permissions. Authentication credentials are securely stored in the device's secure credential storage (Keychain) and deleted upon logout.

3. Data Stored on Your Device

Scia

Generated summary and narrative text can be embedded as a description field stored inside the photo file (IPTC caption) and saved to the "MimiSeka" album in your device's photo library. This feature can be toggled on or off in Settings. Saved photos may include the following embedded data:

• Summary/narrative text (as ALT text)
• Emotion tags (if selected)
• Vision level and narrative mode
• Location data (if location services are enabled)

We also store, on your device, the record of your conversations about photos and the profile notes distilled from them (how you speak and what you tend to care about). These are never synced to iCloud and never leave your device. You can review and delete them from the app's settings.

Voice Recordings Attached to Photos

In Scia you can record your own voice and attach it to a photo (before or after taking it, or later from the chapter screen). Recording your voice is the only feature that uses the microphone.

Recorded audio files are stored in the app's own storage on your device. They are never transmitted to our servers, and they are never transcribed or analyzed. Audio is not included when you publish a story as a QR code or link, when you share it with someone, or when you leave a story at a place.

Because these recordings are part of your device backup (such as an iCloud backup), they carry over when you move to a new device. You can remove the audio from an individual chapter inside the app, and "Erase all data" in Settings deletes all of them.

4. Data Security

• All external communications are encrypted via HTTPS
• Service credentials are managed on our server, not stored in the app
• Apple's App Attest framework is used to verify that requests come from genuine, unmodified copies of the app
• Authentication credentials and device identifiers are securely stored in the device's secure credential storage (Keychain)

5. Sharing with Third Parties

Except for the external services described above, we do not sell, rent, or otherwise provide your data to third parties. We do not sell or share your personal information as defined under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA).

6. International Data Transfers

Your data may be processed by third-party generative AI and speech synthesis services in countries outside your country of residence. All transfers are conducted over encrypted connections (HTTPS) via our server. By using the app, you acknowledge that your data may be transferred to and processed in countries that may have different data protection standards from your own.

7. Children's Privacy

This app is not directed at children under the age of 13, but it may be used by children with visual impairments. In compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), all survey responses and usage data are collected exclusively as anonymous, non-personally identifiable information for all users regardless of age. Device identifiers are sent to our server solely for request rate limiting and are not linked to any personal information. Core app features (photo analysis, narrative generation, and read-aloud) remain fully available regardless of age.

That said, publishing a "listenable photo" and leaving a story at a place are features where what you write can be seen by other people. If a child uses the app, a parent or guardian should review these features first. Any publication can be revoked.

If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child under 13, we will take steps to delete such information promptly. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, please contact us at privacy@mimiseka.jp.

8. Your Rights and Choices

You can control your data through the following means:

• Disable location services, album saving, and other features at any time from the in-app Settings
• Disconnect X integration by logging out, which deletes your authentication credentials
• Revoke a published "listenable photo" at any time via "Disable QR" in the app; once revoked, the link no longer opens
• Withdraw a story you left at a place at any time via "stop leaving it" in the app
• Delete all on-device data at any time via "Erase All Data" in Settings
• Delete all on-device data by uninstalling the app (excluding photos already saved to your photo library). Revoke anything you have published as a "listenable photo" or left at a place before uninstalling

For California Residents

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA), California residents have the right to:

• Right to Know — Request disclosure of the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected
• Right to Delete — Request deletion of personal information we hold about you
• Right to Correct — Request correction of inaccurate personal information
• Right to Opt-Out of Sale/Sharing — We do not sell or share your personal information, so no opt-out is necessary
• Right to Non-Discrimination — We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights

To exercise these rights, please contact us at privacy@mimiseka.jp. We will respond to verifiable requests within 45 days.

9. Do Not Track

This app does not track users across third-party websites or services. We do not respond to Do Not Track (DNT) signals because the app does not engage in such tracking.

10. Changes to This Policy

If we make changes to this policy, we will notify you through the app or our website. For significant changes, a notification will be displayed when the app launches.

11. Contact Us