Privacy Policy

Hanakoi ("we", "us", "our") operates an AI character companion platform at hanakoi.com, where you can chat with AI-generated characters that remember your conversations, develop relationships and share interactive stories. This Privacy Policy explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how we use and share it, and the choices and rights you have.

By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to the practices described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.

We collect the following categories of information:

• Account information: your email address, display name, profile photo (if you sign in with Google, the identifier and profile data provided by Google), and authentication credentials managed by Firebase Authentication.
• Age declaration: to comply with minor-protection laws, we ask you to self-declare your year of birth before chatting. We store only the declared year — never your full date of birth.
• Chat content: the messages you exchange with AI characters, character memories derived from those conversations, and the characters you create or interact with.
• Usage and technical data: device and browser information, IP address, approximate location derived from IP, log data, and in-product events such as pages viewed and features used.
• Analytics data: aggregated usage measurements collected through Google Tag Manager / Google Analytics 4 (see Section 8).
• Transactional data: if you purchase a subscription, the purchase is processed by RevenueCat and the app store (Apple App Store or Google Play); we receive subscription status and entitlement information, but we never receive or store your full payment card details.

AI-generated content statement: characters on Hanakoi are AI-generated and entirely fictional. Their replies are produced by third-party AI language models using your conversation as context (see Section 6).

We use your personal data to:

• provide, operate and improve the Service, including maintaining your account and chat sessions across devices;
• generate AI character replies and maintain conversation memory so characters stay consistent with your shared story;
• keep the Service safe — every message is screened by automated content moderation before an AI reply is generated (see Section 5);
• comply with legal obligations, including minor-protection and record-keeping requirements;
• diagnose bugs, prevent abuse, and protect the security and integrity of the platform;
• understand how the Service is used through analytics, so we can improve features and content (see Section 8);
• communicate with you about your account, service changes, and legal notices.

Your conversations with AI characters are the core of the Service. We use them to generate replies, to build the character memories that make conversations feel continuous, and for safety review. We do not sell your chat content, and we do not use your private conversations to train our own foundation models.

We retain chat content and derived memories for as long as your account is active, because deleting them would break your characters’ memories. If you delete your account, your chat content and character memories are deleted with it, except where we must retain limited records to comply with legal obligations.

Safety and compliance records (for example, records that a moderation or crisis-response event occurred) are retained for at least 180 days. These records store a hash of the triggering text rather than the original message content wherever technically possible.

Messages are screened by automated moderation systems to detect content that violates our policies, including content involving minors, violence, or self-harm. When a crisis signal (such as expressions of self-harm intent) is detected, the Service inserts a referral to professional crisis hotlines. These safety mechanisms cannot be disabled and their events are logged as described in Section 4.

We do not sell your personal data. We share data only with service providers ("processors") that help us operate the Service, each bound by contractual obligations to process data only on our instructions:

• Google (Firebase Authentication, Cloud Firestore, Google Cloud Run): account authentication, data storage, and application hosting.
• Third-party AI providers (such as OpenAI): receiving your chat context to generate AI character replies.
• Automated content moderation provider: screening messages and character personas for policy violations.
• RevenueCat: subscription status management for in-app purchases.
• Google Analytics / Google Tag Manager: product analytics (see Section 8).
• Apple App Store / Google Play: if you use our mobile apps, purchases are governed by their terms and privacy policies.

We may also disclose personal data if required by law, to enforce our Terms of Service, or to protect the rights, property or safety of Hanakoi, our users or the public. If such disclosure involves access to user conversations by our administrators, it is logged in an immutable audit trail.

Hanakoi and its processors operate globally, and your personal data may be processed in the United States and other countries where our providers operate. Where required by law (for example under the GDPR), such transfers rely on appropriate safeguards, including the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses.

We use Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics 4 to understand how the Service is used — for example which pages are visited and which features are engaged with. These tools may set cookies or use similar identifiers and may collect your IP address and device information. You can learn more and exercise opt-out options in Google’s privacy policy and via the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. See our Cookie Policy for details of the cookies involved.

Hanakoi is intended for users aged 13+ (or the higher minimum age required by your local law). Before chatting, you must declare your year of birth. Users we determine to be minors are subject to additional protections: periodic AI-disclosure reminders that characters are not real people, usage break reminders, and disabling of image and video generation features. Content intended for adults is not accessible to minor accounts, and characters are never permitted to generate romantic, sexualised or otherwise harmful content involving minors.

If you are in the European Economic Area or the UK, we process your personal data on the following legal bases:

• Performance of a contract: operating your account, generating chats and maintaining character memories you requested.
• Legitimate interests: service security, abuse prevention, and product analytics (where balanced against your rights).
• Consent: specific uses such as marketing communications, where applicable, which you can withdraw at any time.
• Legal obligation: minor-protection measures, safety record-keeping, and responses to lawful requests.

Subject to applicable law, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, export (data portability) or object to the processing of your personal data, to restrict processing, and to withdraw consent where processing is based on it. You may also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. To exercise any of these rights, contact us at privacy@hanakoi.com; we will respond within the timeframe required by applicable law.

We use encryption in transit (TLS), restrict access to personal data to authorised personnel, and encrypt particularly sensitive fields at rest. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security, but we review our practices and the protections offered by our providers on an ongoing basis.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Material changes will be announced in the Service before they take effect, and the "Last updated" date above will always reflect the current version. Continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Questions about this Privacy Policy or your personal data: privacy@hanakoi.com.