Privacy Policy

The short version

• We collect only what the service needs. We don't sell data and we don't track you for ads.
• Your data is stored mainly in Tokyo, Japan (Supabase).
• Calls are voice only (there is no video at the moment) and never recorded.
• Quit mode is health-related: we ask you first, and the "Quitting · day N" badge can be turned off.
• You can turn off "Usage analytics" in Settings › Privacy & safety.
• Photos are private by default: others see your Mist companion; they see your photos only after you accept their request, and you can take that back anytime.
• Leaderboards show only your nickname and Mist companion, and you can opt out in Settings.
• When you sign up you automatically join the All-Taiwan Circle (the All-Taiwan Quit Circle if quit mode is on); you can leave any time.
• Deleting your account has a 14-day grace period, then it is permanent.

1. Who we are

The Yanyou app is run by an individual developer ("Yanyou", "we"). We are the collector of your personal data and the seller of in-app purchases.

• Contact email: yanyouapp@gmail.com (please also send requests to access, correct or delete your personal data here)
• In the app: Settings › Help › Contact support (replies appear in the app)

2. Notice under Article 8 of Taiwan's Personal Data Protection Act

• Who collects: the operator in section 1.
• Purposes: see the purposes and codes in section 4.
• Categories: identifiers (C001: Apple user ID, email or Apple private relay email, name if Apple provides it, nickname, photos, push token), personal description (C011: date of birth, gender), bio and interests, location while you use the app, messages and support content, quit status, Mist companions and items, levels and achievements, purchase records, report and safety records, usage records. Details in section 3.
• Period: the periods in section 7; anything not listed is kept while your account exists.
• Where: Taiwan, Japan (main storage) and the locations of the providers in section 5 (mainly the United States).
• Who receives it: the operator and the providers in section 5; courts or authorities when the law requires.
• How: processed electronically; reports, appeals, support and suspensions are reviewed by the operator.
• Your rights: see section 9.
• If you don't provide it: sign-in (Sign in with Apple or an email code), date of birth, nickname, gender and at least one photo (used only for moderation, private by default) are required to sign up. Everything else is optional: without location you can't see distances or check in; without push you get no notifications; if you never start quit mode, we never collect quit status.

3. What we collect

Sign-up and account

• Sign-in data: you sign in with Sign in with Apple or an email code. With Apple we receive your Apple user ID, your email (you can choose Apple's private relay address, so we never see your real one) and your name only if Apple provides it. We don't collect phone numbers. One account per person.
• Date of birth: to confirm you are 20+. It is never shown; matched people see your age only.
• Nickname, gender, profile photos: at least 1, up to 3; the first photo is your avatar. One photo is required at sign-up for moderation (to check you are a real person and the photo breaks no rules); photos are private by default (see below).
• Email: used to send sign-in codes and trial and subscription renewal reminders.
• Consent records: which version of the terms and policy you accepted, when, and a hash of your IP address (not the IP itself).

Your profile and who sees it

• Optional bio, interests, region, opener line and prompt cards.
• Photos are re-encoded on our server and location and other camera data (EXIF) are removed before they are published.
• Photos are private by default: on your profile, in lists, chats, calls and questions, others see your Mist companion, not your photos. A match, a chat or an accepted greeting does not show your photos. Someone can send a request to see your photos; only after you accept can they see them. If you don't accept, they never see them.
• Take it back anytime: in Settings › Privacy & safety › Who sees my photos, or on their profile, you can take back someone's access; they can also withdraw their request. Blocking or reporting someone ends photo access both ways at once.
• Photo requests: we record who asked whom, when, and whether it was accepted or declined, to decide who can see your photos.
• In a spot's "here now / here today" list and a circle's member list, strangers see only your nickname (and level title and companion). Your gender shows only after a greeting between you is accepted (or you are friends); your photos still need you to accept a photo request.
• Random calls (the "Calls" tab) are anonymous until you both add each other.
• Photo | Character: once someone lets you see their photos, you can choose whether your screen shows their photo or their Mist companion. This choice is stored only on your phone, and they don't know about it.

Location and check-ins

• Used only while the app is open and only with your permission — no background location.
• Used to show nearby smoking areas and distance, to check you are within 100 m of a spot before you check in, and to measure distance for random matching.
• A check-in stores which spot and when, not your coordinates.
• Check-ins can be Only me, Public in 2 h, or Public now (shown for 1 hour). One-tap check-in defaults to Only me.
• Base map: the map's street and place-name tiles are downloaded from OpenFreeMap's servers. When they are, OpenFreeMap sees your IP address and the map area you are looking at (not your account, check-ins or GPS coordinates). The map itself does no tracking and uses no cookies.

Smoking areas you add

The name, address, coordinates and photos you submit are published on the map for everyone, without showing who added them.

Messages and interactions

• Direct messages, greetings, questions and answers, circle messages, festival cards, spot reviews and live status, friend requests and whether they were accepted.
• To protect you, phone numbers, links and messaging IDs are replaced with "•••" before sending, and objectionable content (sex work, hate, threats, drugs and similar) is blocked.

All-Taiwan Circle and All-Taiwan Quit Circle

• Automatic joining: when you sign up, we add you to the All-Taiwan Circle or the All-Taiwan Quit Circle depending on whether quit mode is on (once per account). You can leave or rejoin any time; after you leave, you are never added back automatically.
• Who sees what: members see your nickname, Mist companion avatar, level and the messages you post there — never your photos. In the All-Taiwan Quit Circle, other members know you are in that circle.
• What we keep: which circle you are in, when you joined, whether you muted it and what you have read; the membership is kept until you leave or delete your account. Messages are kept 30 days and are visible only to that circle's current members.
• Spam and rule-breaking: new accounts have a posting limit in the nationwide circles. Reported content is reviewed by a person; moderators can remove messages or pause an account's posting in the nationwide circles (up to 30 days). Messages are never hidden automatically just because they were reported.

Voice calls

• Calls are live. Yanyou does not record audio or video. We log time, length and how a call ended (to count minutes and handle reports).
• All calls are currently voice only (random calls and calls between friends). Calls don't use the camera and send no video, so there is currently no AI video moderation.
• If video is enabled later: we will update this policy and tell you in the app first. Random calls would still start voice-only, with video only if both people agree; while video is on, the app would regularly send small snapshots of the video it receives to an AI moderation provider that checks for nudity or violence. Frames are discarded after the check and never stored; if something is detected, only the scores (no image) are kept as evidence for review.
• Screenshots: you can take screenshots of a voice call screen (it shows no video of the other person). If video is enabled later, the call screen would block screenshots and recordings while video is showing, where the system allows.

Quit mode

• Quit status (start date, streak, best streak, milestones) relates to your health. We ask for your explicit consent before quit mode starts; if you never start it, we collect nothing.
• The "Quitting · day N" badge is public by default: others see it on your profile and in lists. Turn it off when you start, or any time in Settings › Privacy & safety.
• Filtering matches by quit status: while you are using quit mode yourself, you can pick "people who are quitting only" for free; otherwise filtering by quit status (including "smokers only") needs a subscription. Anyone not using a filter is matched at random, never filtered by quit status.
• Quit data is used only for quit mode itself (day count, milestone items, badge, match filter), never for ads.
• It is deleted with your account, and ended quit journeys are deleted after 1 year.
• Quit mode is not a medical service and collects no medical records or test results. We treat quit status as sensitive health-related data and protect it the way Article 6 of the Personal Data Protection Act requires for special categories: we ask for your explicit consent first, use it only for quit mode itself, let you end it at any time, and delete it with your account.

Beat the craving (breathing exercise)

The number of rounds you finish counts toward achievements and is stored only on your phone; it is not uploaded. If we ever store it on our servers, we will update this policy and tell you in the app first.

Purchases

Apple handles payment; we never see your card details. We receive subscription status, the item (including Mist companions and outfit items), price, time and refund notices (through RevenueCat).

• 7-day withdrawal acknowledgement: for every purchase we record when you ticked the notice, its version, the product and a hash of your IP address, linked to that purchase.
• Refunds: when Apple refunds a purchase, we take back the matching item, recalculate your XP, level, achievements and reward items, and record what changed (XP and level before and after, achievements and items taken back) so we can tell you and answer your questions.

Mist companions and wardrobe

• Which Mist companions, outfit items and pets you own, what you are wearing, which evolution form you show, and how each item reached you (bought, earned by an achievement or festival event, drawn, or sent by someone — and who sent it).
• The companion, outfit and pet you choose are shown publicly in place of your photo.
• Companion names: the name you give a companion (1–8 characters) appears on your profile and share cards; others can see it and can report an inappropriate name.

Levels, achievements and leaderboards

• Levels and achievements: your XP history, level, unlocked achievements and badges, and the events used to calculate them (for example a call that stayed connected for 5 minutes, making a friend, a confirmed report). Your level and title are shown publicly in lists and on your profile (not in anonymous random calls).
• Monthly map-contribution board: counts only confirmed smoking-area reports, approved corrections and confirmed new spots. It shows your nickname, Mist companion avatar and score — never your photos.
• Friends board: visible only to you and your mutual friends; shows nickname, Mist companion avatar, level and title — not quit status, gifts or XP numbers.
• Opting out: in Settings › Privacy & safety you can turn off "Show me on the map-contribution board" and "Show me on the friends board" (both on by default). With the map board off you no longer appear on it; with the friends board off, others don't see you and you don't see that board.
• Monthly prize: the top three of the map-contribution board each month get free promotional Yanyou Plus (rules: section 11 of the Terms of Use). For the review, a moderator looks at the top three's contributions and sanctions for that month. Winners appear as "Last month's winners" above the board with nickname and Mist companion avatar (no score, no photo). The promotional access is granted through RevenueCat (only your account ID and the end date are sent).
• We keep each month's final map-board ranks, prize records (review result, promotional period and minutes) and your leaderboard settings.

Festival events

• Which festivals you took part in, when, and the badges and items you got.
• Festival cards: who sent one to whom, for which festival and when; a card appears as a message in your chat. Cards can be sent only to mutual friends.

Inviting friends and draws

• Invite records: your invite code, who signed up through your invite, when, and whether the invite qualified (the friend is 20+, finished signing up and used the app on 3 days). We use this to decide whether you get a draw, and to stop abuse (for example inviting your own second account).
• You only see how many invites succeeded and what you got — never the other person's date of birth, location or activity; the person you invited doesn't get to see your photos because of it.
• We don't use ad tracking or third-party attribution tools to track invites.
• Draw records: when each draw happened, which invite it came from, and what it gave (an item, a companion or XP), so we can deliver prizes, count the guaranteed draw and answer your questions.

Share cards

• When you tap "Share", the app makes an image card on your phone; your nickname is not shown by default — adding it is your choice. Saving to Photos or sharing through the system share sheet is done by you.
• The link on the card carries your invite code (a random code, no nickname or location) so a sign-up through it can be credited to you.
• Share to Instagram Stories: only when you tap this button does the app hand the card to the Instagram app on your phone; we don't send any data to Meta (Instagram's company), and what happens next is covered by Instagram's privacy policy.

Notifications

If you allow push notifications, we store your device's push token. Notifications hide message text by default.

Reports, safety and support

• When you report someone, your most recent messages with them (up to 50) are saved as evidence for review.
• Warnings, suspensions and appeals; to stop banned people from signing up again, we keep a hash of their Apple user ID and email (not the originals).
• "Contact support" messages and attachments, plus app version, device model and OS version.

Usage analytics

To improve the service, we record account-linked usage on our own servers — for example which days you open the app, which screens you view and how far you get in sign-up or checkout.

• No coordinates, phone number, nickname, date of birth (age band only) or message text; location is at most a rough area of about 5 km, or the city or county.
• No ad tracking, no third-party analytics, no tracking across other apps or websites.
• Turn it off in Settings › Privacy & safety › Usage analytics; nothing more is recorded after that.

Crash reports

When the app crashes or hits an error, an error report goes to Sentry. Reports are stripped of message text, phone numbers, emails, coordinates and IP addresses and carry only an opaque user ID. No screenshots or screen recordings.

4. Why we use it (specific purposes)

To run the map, check-ins, matching, chat and calls; confirm age; manage plans and minutes; send renewal reminders; keep people safe (reports, suspensions, AI safety checks); provide support; and keep records the law requires. We don't sell personal data or use it for advertising.

Codes follow the Ministry of Justice list of specific purposes and categories of personal data under the Personal Data Protection Act.

5. Who receives data

We share only what each provider needs to run the service:

When you tap "Share to Instagram Stories", your phone hands the card straight to the Instagram app; it doesn't go through us, and Instagram is not our provider.

Otherwise we disclose data only when a court or authority requires it by law. We never sell or share data with advertisers.

6. Where data is stored and cross-border transfer

Your data is stored mainly on Supabase servers in Tokyo, Japan; the providers in section 5 process data in the locations listed. We ask you to agree to storage in Japan when you sign up. We follow any restrictions on international transfers set under Article 21 of the Personal Data Protection Act.

7. How long we keep it

Data past its period is deleted automatically; data without a fixed period is deleted or de-identified once the purposes listed no longer need it:

Legal hold: while an account or content is under report review, or the law requires evidence to be kept, the related data is not auto-deleted until the case is closed; it is deleted by the next clean-up after that.

8. Deleting your account

• Go to Settings › Delete account. Your account is deactivated at once and hidden from everyone.
• You can cancel within 14 days; after that it is permanently deleted and cannot be restored.
• If you signed in with Apple, we revoke the Apple authorization (sign-in token) when the account is deleted, so Yanyou is no longer linked to your Apple ID.
• Deleting your account does not cancel an Apple subscription — cancel it in iPhone Settings › Apple ID › Subscriptions.

9. Your rights

Under the Personal Data Protection Act you may ask to access your data, get a copy (we provide an electronic file of your data), supplement or correct it, stop its collection, processing or use, or delete it.

• Use "Contact support" in the app or email yanyouapp@gmail.com.
• We handle access and copy requests within 15 days and decide other requests within 30 days; if we need longer, we tell you why first.
• Many settings are yours to change directly: check-in visibility, who sees your photos, quit badge, leaderboards, usage analytics, notifications.

10. Adults 20+ only

Yanyou is only for adults aged 20 and over. We don't knowingly collect data from anyone under 20; such accounts are suspended and deleted. If you think someone is under age, report them in the app and choose "Might be under 20". See our Child Safety Standards.

11. Security

Data is encrypted in transit; every database table has access controls; the admin tools require two-step verification and log every action; photo metadata is removed. No system is 100% secure; if a data breach happens, we will notify you as the law requires.

12. Website

For cookies and statistics on the Yanyou website, see the Cookie and Analytics Notice.

13. Changes

We date every update. For major changes we tell you in the app and ask you to agree again before you continue.