Privacy Policy

Effective Date: September 10, 2026

miinari (the “Service,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) is a community platform that helps exchange students in Korea share practical notes and ask questions. This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, how we use and share it, and the choices and rights you have. Please read it together with our Terms of Service.

1. The Short Version

• miinari is a public community. Posts, comments, and profile information you choose to make public can be seen by anyone, including people without an account.
• You can browse without an account, and you can post anonymously using a delete code instead of a permanent profile.
• We collect the minimum information needed to run the Service — we don’t require your real name, and we don’t sell your personal information to third parties.
• We use a small number of service providers (listed in Section 5) to run authentication, storage, email, hosting, and advertising. We don’t control what those providers do outside of the services they provide to us.
• You can request access to, correction of, or deletion of your information at any time. See Section 10.

2. miinari Is a Public Community

Most content on miinari — posts, comments, poll results, and the profile information you choose to display — is visible to any visitor, with or without an account, and may be indexed by search engines. Consider this before you post. Do not include phone numbers, passport or ARC (Alien Registration Card) numbers, precise home addresses, financial information, or other sensitive information in a public post, reply, or profile field.

miinari also supports anonymous posting. When you post or reply anonymously, your content is shown without a link to your permanent profile, and you set a delete code instead of relying on your account to remove it later. Delete codes are stored only as a one-way cryptographic hash (bcrypt) — we cannot recover the original code, and we cannot use it to identify you. Anonymity from other users does not mean the content is technically unlinkable from your account where that link is necessary for security, abuse prevention, moderation, or legal compliance.

3. Information We Collect

3.1 Information You Provide

• Account information. An email address and password, or a Google account identifier if you sign in with Google. We don’t require your real name.
• Profile information. A nickname, university, country, and an optional profile photo. You can edit or remove this at any time from Profile Settings.
• Content you submit. Posts, comments, poll options and votes, images you attach to a post or a contact message, and (for anonymous content) a delete code.
• Communications. If you contact us through the Contact form, we collect the email address, subject, message, and any image you provide so we can respond to you.

3.2 Information We Collect Automatically

• Usage and interaction data. Likes, saved (“scrapped”) posts, notification read status, and similar interactions with the Service.
• Device and log data. Our hosting provider (Vercel) automatically processes standard web request data, such as IP address, browser and device information, and request timestamps, to serve the Service and keep it secure.
• Cookies and local storage. We use browser storage to keep you signed in, remember your language preference, save drafts you haven’t published yet, and remember dialogs you’ve dismissed. See Section 6.
• Advertising data. If Google AdSense is active on the page you’re viewing, Google may use cookies or similar technologies to select, personalize, limit, and measure the ads shown to you. See Section 6 for how to manage this.

3.3 Information From Third Parties

If you sign in with Google, we receive the account information you authorize through that sign-in flow (such as your email address). We never receive your Google password.

4. How We Use Information

We use the information above to:

• Create and secure your account, and keep you signed in;
• Publish, display, and organize the content you submit;
• Provide community features such as likes, saves, polls, and notifications;
• Send you service-related email, such as sign-up confirmation, password reset, and replies to your contact messages;
• Moderate content and enforce our Terms of Service, including reviewing reports and hiding content that violates our policies;
• Display and measure advertising, where applicable;
• Diagnose problems, prevent abuse, and improve the Service.

5. How We Share Information

We don’t sell your personal information. We share information with the following categories of service providers, only as needed for them to provide their service to us:

• Supabase, Inc. — authentication, database, and backend infrastructure.
• Cloudflare, Inc. — storage for post images and profile photos (via Cloudflare R2).
• Resend — delivery of account emails (sign-up confirmation, password reset) and Contact form emails.
• Vercel Inc. — website hosting, content delivery, and security logging.
• Google LLC — Google Sign-In and, where active, Google AdSense advertising. Google may act as an independent controller of advertising data under its own privacy terms.

We may also disclose information: when required by law, legal process, or a lawful request from a competent authority; when we reasonably believe it is necessary to protect the rights, safety, or security of a user, the public, or the Service; or in connection with a merger, acquisition, or transfer of all or part of our business, subject to applicable law.

6. Cookies and Similar Technologies

We use cookies and browser storage for essential functions (keeping you signed in, remembering your language and drafts) and, where Google AdSense is active, for advertising. You can manage personalized advertising through Google Ads Settings, and you can learn more in Google’s Privacy Policy. You can also delete or block cookies and local storage through your browser settings, though this may prevent sign-in, drafts, or language preferences from working correctly.

7. Data Retention

We keep your information only for as long as it is needed for the purpose it was collected, unless a longer period is required by law. In general:

• Account and profile information is kept while your account is active.
• Content you post is kept until you delete it or delete your account, subject to Section 8. Copies made independently by other users (such as screenshots) may remain outside our control.
• Contact form messages are kept for as long as reasonably necessary to respond to and document the request.

8. Account Deletion and the 14-Day Cooldown

You can permanently delete your account at any time from Account Settings. When you do, we permanently delete your profile and the content tied to your account (posts, comments, likes, saves, votes, and notifications) from our active database.

To prevent immediate recreation of a deleted account, we keep a one-way cryptographic hash of the email address(es) associated with a deleted account for 14 days and use it only to block a new signup with the same email during that window. We cannot reverse this hash back into an email address.

9. International Data Transfers

Because our service providers operate internationally, your information may be processed or stored outside of Korea, including in the United States. Where required, we rely on the necessity of the transfer to provide the Service to you, your consent, or another legal basis permitted by applicable law.

10. Your Rights and Choices

Subject to applicable law, you may request access to, correction of, deletion of, or restriction of processing of your personal information. You can edit your profile directly in Profile Settings, and delete your account directly in Account Settings. For any other request, please reach us through the Contact Us page. We may ask you to verify your identity before completing a request, and we will respond within the time required by applicable law.

11. Children’s Privacy

The Service is not directed to children under 14, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 14. If you believe a child under 14 has provided us with personal information, please reach us through the Contact Us page and we will take steps to delete it.

12. Security

We use reasonable administrative and technical safeguards appropriate to the information we process, including restricting access to authorized systems and personnel and using secure connections for data in transit. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so please also protect access to your own email account and devices.

13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to the Service or applicable law. We will post the updated policy on this page with a new effective date, and where a change is material, we will provide additional notice.

14. Contact Us

For privacy questions or requests, please reach us through the Contact Us page (available in the site footer). Operator: Miinari.