Privacy Policy

mediaquery.info (represented by Tomoaki Tsuchiya, hereinafter “we” or “us”) sets out below how information about users is handled in the mobile application “CardTalk” (hereinafter “the App”) and on this website. This document is referred to as “this Policy”.

1. Our basic position

The App helps people who find it hard to speak to communicate. The cards may carry photographs of the person using the App or of their family, and the content of the cards may include information that calls for care. We understand this. The App is therefore designed around one principle: data is kept on the device, and anything sent outside it is kept to the minimum the feature requires.

2. Information stored only on your device

The following is stored only on your own device. It is never sent to our servers or anywhere else, and we do not receive it.

• Photographs and images used on cards
• Audio you record, and audio that was generated automatically and downloaded
• The content of the cards: the text shown, the text read aloud, the categories, and so on
• The App’s settings, and the name of the person using the App if you chose to enter one

A file written out by the backup feature is created by your own action, on your device or in a location you choose. It is not sent to us. Keeping and sharing that file is your responsibility.

3. Information sent when speech is generated

Only when you use the feature that generates the audio for a card automatically, the following is sent through our server (which runs on infrastructure operated by Cloudflare, Inc.) to a speech synthesis service (Google Cloud Text-to-Speech, provided by Google LLC).

• The text to be read aloud (up to 100 characters)
• The voice and language you selected
• A randomly generated, anonymous user identifier (not tied to a name, an email address, or anything similar)

This is used only for the following purposes.

• Generating the audio to be read aloud
• Checking purchase status (deciding the limit on the number of cards you make yourself)
• Limiting the number of requests, to prevent abuse

Photographs, images and recorded audio are never sent. The text that is sent is used only to generate the audio, and its content is not stored on our server (we keep only the counts needed to limit the number of requests). We use the speech synthesis service under a setting that does not allow the text sent to it to be used for machine learning or similar purposes.

Where there is no connection, the App falls back on the speech synthesis built into the device. In that case nothing leaves the device.

4. Information about purchases

Payment for in-app purchases is handled by Apple Inc. (App Store) or Google LLC (Google Play). We never receive payment details such as credit card numbers.

We use the service of RevenueCat, Inc. to manage purchase status. The anonymous user identifier, the purchase history (date, product, price and so on), and information such as the operating system and the version of the App are sent to that service. These are used only to check and restore purchase status.

5. Information we do not collect

The App does not use or collect any of the following.

• Account registration (we do not ask for a name, an email address or a telephone number)
• Analytics or behaviour-measurement tools
• Advertising, or advertising identifiers
• Location, contacts, or any other data on the device that does not belong to the App

6. Permissions the App may ask for

The App may ask the operating system for permission to use the following. Each is used only for the purpose stated, and the rest of the App keeps working if you decline.

7. Information that calls for care

The content of the cards, and the fact that the App is being used at all, may allow inferences about a user’s disability or health. As stated in section 2, all of this is stored only on the device and we never receive it.

8. Children’s privacy

The App is designed so that a parent, carer or teacher sets it up and a child uses it. The App does not collect personal information from children. Everything that involves a connection, including generating audio automatically, sits behind the parental gate in the settings and is carried out under the supervision of an adult.

9. Third parties and processing we entrust to them

We do not provide the information we receive to third parties, except where the law requires it. We use the services of the following companies to provide the App’s features.

10. How long information is kept, and how it is deleted

What we hold, and for how long, is as follows.

• Data on the device (cards, images, audio, settings) is deleted when the App is uninstalled, except for any backup file you wrote out yourself
• Our server does not store the content of your cards, your images or your audio. Nor does it store the text sent to it to be read aloud
• The records used to limit the number of requests (counts per anonymous user identifier or per IP address) are deleted automatically on the day after they are recorded. Only the record that prevents the same device from being counted twice is kept longer, and it is deleted automatically after at most 180 days
• Purchase history (held by RevenueCat, Inc.) is kept until you ask us to delete it, so that purchase status can be checked and restored

Requesting deletion

If you would like your purchase history deleted, please make the request as follows. If you have not made a purchase, there is nothing we hold that could be deleted.

1. Find the order ID in the receipt email that Google or Apple sent you at the time of purchase (on Google Play it begins with “GPA.”)
2. Write to admin@mediaquery.info with the subject line “CardTalk data deletion request”, quoting the order ID

We will delete the purchase history in question within 30 days of your request and reply to confirm. Because the only identifier we hold is anonymous, we verify who you are by matching the order ID. Once it is deleted, purchases can no longer be restored. Please bear this in mind if you are planning to change devices. We do not hold the data on your device; you can delete that by uninstalling the App.

11. About this website

This website uses no analytics tools and no cookies. It uses Google Fonts to display type, so your browser communicates with a server operated by Google LLC when a page is displayed. Access logs (IP address, date and time, page viewed, and so on) may also be recorded for a period of time as part of running the server.

12. Changes to this Policy

This Policy may be revised as the law changes or as features are added. If we make an important change we will announce it on this website or within the App. A revised policy takes effect when it is published on this page.

13. Contact

For questions about this Policy or about how information is handled, please write to us.

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