Privacy Policy.

Introduction

Welcome to Hirakata. We are committed to protecting your privacy and being transparent about our data practices. This Privacy Policy explains how we handle information when you use our website and application, and it applies to visitors in the EU, UK, and everywhere else.

Personal Information

The flashcard, vocab, quiz, and printable tools do not collect, store, or process any personal information. They run entirely in your browser without requiring registration or accounts, and any progress or settings stay in your browser's local storage — never sent to us.

Personal information is only involved in a few places on the site:

• The newsletter signup — your email address, if you subscribe
• The contact form — your name, email address, and message, if you send us one
• Analytics — anonymized usage data, sent to Google Analytics
• The ad banner — pseudonymous identifiers and browsing signals, handled by our ad provider (see Advertising below)

We do not sell personal information, and we never share your email address or contact-form messages with advertisers. We don't build advertising profiles ourselves — but the third-party ad network we use does set its own cookies to select which ads you see, which is described in full below.

Email Newsletter

If you subscribe to the Hirakata weekly newsletter, we collect your email address so we can send you a new kana article once a week. That's the only reason we ask for it. Legal basis: your consent, given by submitting the signup form.

We will never sell, rent, or trade your email address to anyone. It is used solely to send you the newsletter you signed up for, and it is never shared for advertising or marketing purposes by any other company.

We use Kit (Kit Media, Inc., USA) to manage our subscriber list and deliver these emails, so your email address is stored with Kit rather than on our own servers. Kit has its own privacy policy governing how it handles that data on our behalf.

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link at the bottom of every newsletter email, which removes your address from our list immediately.

Contact Form

If you use the contact form, we collect the name, email address, and message you enter. That information is emailed directly to us via Resend (Resend, Inc., USA), our transactional email provider, so it can pass through their systems in order to reach our inbox. We use it only to read and reply to your message, and we keep it only as long as needed to handle your request. Legal basis: your consent, given by submitting the form, and our legitimate interest in responding to inquiries.

The form is protected by Cloudflare Turnstile, a CAPTCHA alternative that checks you're not a bot before we accept a submission. Turnstile may process your IP address and device signals for that check; see Cloudflare's privacy policy. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in preventing spam and abuse.

Analytics and Cookies

We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors use the site — pages visited, browser and device type, approximate location, and referring website — using cookies and similar technology. A banner notifies you of this on your first visit; using the site after that banner appears means you're okay with it. See Google's privacy policy. If you'd rather not be tracked by Google Analytics regardless of the banner, install the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

Advertising cookies

The ad banner on the site is served by a third-party ad network, which may drop its own cookie in your browser to decide which ads to show you — including ads based on your prior visits to this or other websites. These cookies are set by the ad network, not by us, and we can't read them. Full details are in the Advertising section below.

Preferences

Separately, your theme choice and study progress are stored in your browser's localStorage. This never leaves your browser and isn't used to identify or track you.

Advertising

Hirakata is free to use, and a single banner ad on the site helps cover hosting costs. Those ads are supplied by Adsterra, a third-party advertising network.

The ad is loaded inside a sandboxed iframe served from a separate domain (ads.hirakata.io). This is deliberate: because the ad runs on a different origin from the rest of the site, the ad network's code cannot read or touch this site's pages, your study progress, your settings, or any cookie belonging to hirakata.io. It is walled off from everything you do in the app.

Within its own iframe, Adsterra may set a cookie and collect:

• A pseudonymous unique identifier (UID)
• Your device and browser type (user agent)
• A timestamp of the ad view
• Counts of ad impressions and clicks

Adsterra states that it does not collect or store personally identifiable information such as your name, email address, or billing details — only the pseudonymous signals above, used to serve and measure ads. You can read their privacy policy and cookie policy for their side of this.

If you'd rather not receive ad cookies at all, you can block third-party cookies in your browser settings, or use an ad or tracker blocker — the site works exactly the same either way, and nothing in the flashcard app depends on ads loading.

Third-Party Services

• Google Analytics — website analytics
• Kit — newsletter signup and email delivery, if you subscribe
• Resend — delivers contact-form messages to us, if you use the form
• Cloudflare Turnstile — spam protection on the contact form
• Adsterra — serves the banner ad, in an isolated iframe

These services have their own privacy policies, and we encourage you to review them.

International Data Transfers

Google, Kit, Resend, Cloudflare, and Adsterra are based in or operate servers in the United States and elsewhere outside the EU/UK. Where personal data is transferred there, these providers rely on mechanisms such as Standard Contractual Clauses to safeguard it in line with GDPR/UK GDPR requirements.

Data Security

App progress and settings are stored locally in your browser and never transmitted to us. Newsletter emails are held by Kit; contact-form messages pass through Resend to reach our inbox. We don't operate a database of our own, which limits what could be exposed if a third-party provider were compromised — but no transmission or storage method is 100% secure.

Children's Privacy

Hirakata is suitable for users of all ages. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 (or the relevant minimum age in your jurisdiction) outside of a parent or guardian submitting the newsletter or contact form on their behalf.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated "Last updated" date.

Your Rights

If you're in the EU, UK, or a jurisdiction with similar protections, you have the right to access, correct, delete, or export the personal data we hold about you, and to object to or restrict its processing. In practice, that means:

• Unsubscribing from the newsletter at any time, instantly removing your email address from Kit's list
• Opting out of Google Analytics tracking using the browser add-on above, or by blocking cookies in your browser settings
• Blocking third-party cookies in your browser settings, or using an ad or tracker blocker, to stop advertising cookies being set
• Clearing your browser's localStorage to remove app settings and progress
• Contacting us to request access to, or deletion of, a message you sent us or your newsletter subscription

If you're unsatisfied with our response, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority (in the EU, find yours via the EDPB member list; in the UK, the ICO).

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or want to exercise any of the rights above, please contact us.