Privacy Policy
suu is an app for keeping entries with photos and words and collecting them into ZINEs. This policy applies to the suu app and suu Web, the website where you can read published ZINEs and sign in with a suu account. It explains the information suu handles, why it is used and how long it is kept.
1. Information stored on your device
Photos, text, photo captions, camera or equipment names, author names, ZINE contents, covers, paper choices, music information and copies of submissions are stored on your device. You can use these features without signing in. Photo cropping and analysis of colors and words also take place on your device.
Your work is sent to our servers only when you choose a feature that requires it, such as cloud storage while signed in with an active suu＋ subscription (section 3), publishing a ZINE (section 6), joining a collaborative ZINE (section 7) or submitting to an event (section 5). Without suu＋, deleting the app or changing devices may cause you to lose locally stored data. Exporting images is not a backup of editable work.
If you enable weather and allow location access, the app obtains your current location while you use it. Your device's map service (Apple or Google) uses the location to find a place name. The forecast area code is sent to the Japan Meteorological Agency to obtain a forecast. These services also receive information such as your IP address when communicating. Latitude, longitude and addresses are not sent to or stored on suu servers or attached to your entries or usage data. Forecasts are held temporarily in app memory; only the on/off preference is stored on your device. Location is not obtained in the background. You can turn weather off in the weather panel or revoke permission in device settings.
2. Your suu account (sign-in)
Signing in is optional. A suu account is required to subscribe to suu＋ and transfer your work to another device. Sign-in uses Sign in with Apple or Sign in with Google; there is no separate email-and-password registration.
When you sign in, we receive your provider-specific user ID and email address from Apple or Google. Apple may provide a relay address if you choose Hide My Email; only verified Google email addresses are accepted. We do not store your provider name or profile photo. The provider ID is used to create your suu account. Apple and Google accounts are treated as separate suu accounts even if their email addresses match, and are not merged automatically. Your email address is used to show you which account is signed in and is not shown to other users.
To keep you signed in, a session token is issued for each device and stored in its keychain. Only a hash of that token and a hash of a device-specific identifier are stored on the server. The session is extended while in use, but you must sign in again 180 days after the initial sign-in. Expired records are deleted in daily processing.
The device's work is associated with the first suu account that signs in on that device. If you sign in to another suu account on the same device, work is stored separately for each account and is not mixed during synchronization. The public identity previously used on the device, including its author name, profile and notifications, is transferred to the account when you sign in from that device.
You can sign in to the website with the same suu account. Only when signed in, the website uses cookies such as __Host-suu_session to maintain the session; only their hashes are stored on the server. Account pages do not include page-view analytics.
To verify eligibility for beta thank-you benefits and carry them across devices, we use authenticated app sign-in history from before the public release and, when needed, Apple-signed app download information. We store a hash of the app download identifier and the claim date with your account. The signed payload is not retained in logs or the database. Consent to optional usage analytics is not required to claim benefits. Claimed benefits and the records needed to verify them are retained while the service operates or until you delete your account. Cancelling a subscription does not delete them.
3. suu＋ subscriptions and cloud storage
suu＋ is a monthly subscription. You must sign in to a suu account so the subscription can be associated with the correct account. In the app, payment is handled by Apple's App Store; on the website, it is handled through Stripe's payment page (Stripe, Inc.). suu does not receive payment details such as card numbers.
To verify your subscription, we receive transaction identifiers, product type (10 GB or 50 GB), subscription status and expiry from Apple and store them with your account. A purchase identifier issued by suu's server is attached to the Apple purchase. For website subscriptions, we store the Stripe customer ID, subscription ID, plan, status and expiry. Stripe handles information under Stripe's Privacy Policy.
While you are signed in with an active suu＋ subscription, entries, ZINEs, photos, cover and paper settings, author name and icon are stored in Cloudflare R2 and D1 and synchronized across devices using the same account. Sample works and follow records are not sent. Communications are encrypted. We do not use content entrusted to us for cloud storage for advertising or analytics. If you separately publish a ZINE for free and consent to its use in advertising or publicity, only the published content is handled under section 6-2. We record storage usage to determine and explain your plan's capacity.
After your subscription ends, cloud work is retained for 90 days and can be downloaded to your device during that period. It is deleted from the cloud after 90 days. Before deletion, we notify you in the app and through notifications if you have allowed them. Work stored on your device is not deleted.
4. Support inquiries
We receive the inquiry category, message and any optional image attachment you submit. For bug reports, we also receive the app version, OS, device model when available and runtime environment shown on the submission screen. There is no reply-email field, but personal information included in your message or images will be received. Please do not include unnecessary personal information or passwords.
This information is used to investigate bugs, respond to inquiries and improve the service. Messages, images, device information and our handling notes are deleted in daily processing after 365 days from receipt. Updates or further handling do not extend that retention period.
5. Event submissions
When you submit an entry, we receive that entry's photo, text, caption and equipment name, your author name, publication consent and receipt time. Other entries are not sent. A random device token generated by the app is used to look up and withdraw submissions; its hash is stored on the server.
Submissions are used for acceptance, selection, creation and publication of features. At submission, we ask for consent to publication and confirmation of rights and privacy. Selected entries may be published in app features with your author name, or Anonymous if none is set, and may be viewed by anyone.
Submission data is deleted in daily processing approximately 180 days after receipt. You can withdraw submissions in the app during the submission period. To stop publication in an existing feature, or if you cannot withdraw because you deleted the app, contact us below. Published feature data is managed separately from submission data; publication periods and deletion arrangements are explained when a feature is published.
6. Community ZINEs, profiles, bookmarks, follows, likes and reports
When you publish a ZINE, we receive its cover, included entries' photos, text, captions and equipment names, title, author name, tags, paper and music information, profile icon selected from the app's emoji or profile photo if set, profile text if written, publication consent and publication time. We also receive profile icon changes. The icon appears on your author profile while you have a published ZINE under an author name or a published collaborative ZINE in which you participated under a name. Editing a published ZINE on your device updates the published version. Other entries and uncropped original photos are not sent.
Badges are determined on your device. We do not send information about which entries or ZINEs earned them. Only the badges you choose, up to three, are sent to the server for display on your author profile.
If you set a profile photo, it is cropped to a square and resized to about 256 × 256 pixels on your device, and metadata such as location (EXIF) is removed before transmission. The server also removes metadata before storage. While you have a ZINE published under an author name or a published collaborative ZINE you joined under a name, the photo is publicly visible in the app's author profile and following list and on the website's author page. We instruct search engines not to index website profile photos as images, but cannot retrieve copies saved by viewers. Reverting to an emoji or removing the icon deletes the photo from the server. Website cached copies may take up to one hour to disappear. Author profiles can be reported. Photos reported by multiple distinct devices are hidden automatically pending review and replaced with an emoji or similar icon. We review reported photos and may delete problematic photos and prevent the device from setting another. Do not use photos of other people or other people's copyrighted works.
If you write profile text, we receive that text. While you have a ZINE published under an author name or a published collaborative ZINE you joined under a name, it is publicly visible on your author profile, the app's discovery screen and the website's author page. We instruct search engines not to use website profile text in search snippets, but cannot retrieve text copied by viewers. Clearing the text deletes it from the server; website cached copies may take up to five minutes to disappear. Text reported by multiple distinct devices is hidden automatically pending review. We may delete problematic text and prevent the device from setting more. Contact details such as URLs, email addresses, phone numbers and @handles, and other people's personal information, are not allowed.
Published ZINEs appear immediately in the app's community library and on the website and can be viewed by anyone. People without the app can use each ZINE's URL to view its cover, text, photos, captions, equipment names, author name, tags, publication date and music information. These pages may appear in search engine results. We review reported ZINEs and unpublish content that raises rights, privacy or inappropriate-content concerns. ZINEs receiving multiple reports are hidden automatically until review is complete. If no author name is set, Anonymous is displayed. You can unpublish from your device at any time, removing the ZINE from both the app and website. Cached website pages may remain for up to five minutes and images for up to six hours. You can republish in the app. We cannot retrieve content remaining in search results, social previews or copies already saved by viewers.
The website has author pages that group ZINEs published under the same named public identity, from the same device or signed-in suu account. ZINE and author-page URLs use random strings unrelated to device identifiers or internal ZINE IDs. They do not show device identifiers, email addresses or locations. Anonymous ZINEs are not listed on author pages and do not link to one. An author page stops displaying when there are no longer any ZINEs published under the name or published collaborative ZINEs joined under the name.
A dedicated random device token is used to manage publishing and prevent duplicate likes; its hash is stored on the server. If signed in, your suu account session is also sent. We receive the ZINE and time of a like, and report contents and times, to notify authors, display logs, prevent misuse and review content. Like counts appear only in the recipient author's own notifications. When you send a like from the app and have a ZINE published under an author name or a published collaborative ZINE joined under a name, your current profile name and icon, including a photo, appear in the recipient author's notifications; for collaborative ZINEs, they appear to participants. This is explained on the like screen. The current profile name is displayed and stops displaying when you no longer have any qualifying published ZINEs. Otherwise, and for likes sent before this display feature began, the sender is not shown. Website likes are received as the same type of record, without showing the sender. They are stored with a hash of a random identifier saved in the browser when a like is sent, for the same purposes. This identifier is created only when you press Like and does not use cookies.
For bookmarks, we store the public ZINE identifier and save time with a hash of the dedicated device token. These are used to provide your saved list and improve the order of community ZINEs. Removing a bookmark deletes that record. We do not show users who saved a ZINE or how many saves it received. Bookmarks do not save the text offline; unpublished ZINEs cannot be read. The last published title and cover remain in the bookmark list after unpublishing, so they are also retained on the server. Bookmarks of bundled samples are handled only on your device.
The list of authors you follow is stored only on your device, not on the server. When showing followed authors' new ZINEs or profiles, the app sends their public identifiers, the random strings used in author-page URLs, and receives their named published ZINEs, named collaborative contributions and profile icons, photos and text. Other authors' photos are cached temporarily on your device for display. The identifiers are used only to produce the list and are not retained. Follower counts and who follows whom are not shown to any user, including authors, or recorded by us. The number of people you follow is counted locally and shown only to you. Anonymous ZINEs cannot be followed and are not included in the followed-author list. Follow records are not included in cloud storage and are lost if you delete the app or change devices.
The list of authors whose entries you choose to hide is also stored only on your device. When displaying community ZINEs or followed authors' new ZINEs, their public identifiers are sent to the server to obtain a list excluding their named published ZINEs and named collaborative contributions. The identifiers are used only to create that list and are not retained. The authors are not notified. Anonymous ZINEs are not excluded.
Published ZINEs, publication status, likes, reports and notifications are retained on the server for as long as needed to manage publication, republishing and notifications. Profile photos remain until you switch to an emoji, remove the icon or we delete the photo; they are not displayed while there are no qualifying named published ZINEs or collaborative contributions. Profile text remains until you clear it or we delete it, with the same display conditions as photos. Unpublishing stops viewing but does not delete server content. To request deletion of server content, contact us below with the ZINE title, author name and other identifying information.
If signed in, you can manage publication from another device using the same suu account. If you delete the app or change devices without signing in, you may lose the ability to unpublish content yourself. Contact us below in that case.
The main ZINE list considers bookmark patterns, viewing patterns based on consent, words and tags in published text, publication time, editorial recommendations and diversity of authors and genres. Word characteristics derived from published content are stored on the server. The newest list is ordered by publication time.
On your device, words and previously analyzed colors from your recent entries and cover colors of loaded public ZINEs also help find work you may enjoy. Private entry contents, their analysis, preference information and cover colors extracted on the device are not additionally transmitted. You can turn off individual preference matching in the personalization setting. This is separate from usage sharing.
Organizer letters are not available in the current app. Previously submitted data is retained as follows until a deletion condition applies. The server stores organizers' text, photos and send times and participants' chosen reactions for collaborative ZINE letters. Access to stored letters and photos is limited to the organizer and participants who still have eligible entries in the project. Letters are not published in public ZINEs or on the website. Reactions show counts by type and your own choice, not the identities of people who reacted or read receipts. Photos are resized and metadata such as location is removed on the device before upload. Deleting a letter also deletes its photos and reactions. Withdrawing all entries removes a participant's access and reactions. Letters cannot be viewed while a project is suspended and are deleted when the project information is deleted from the server.
6-2. Use of freely published ZINEs in advertising and publicity
By agreeing to this section, the creator grants suu's operator a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use the covers, photos, text, titles and author names at publication of ZINEs freely published on suu to introduce, advertise and publicize suu itself. We do not contact the creator or request separate confirmation for each use. Freely published means readers can view the ZINE for free, regardless of whether the creator subscribes to suu＋.
Uses may include suu's official website and social accounts, app store pages, online advertisements, promotional videos and printed materials. All or part of a work may be displayed, reproduced and distributed. Resizing, cropping, excerpts and placement in promotional layouts may be made as needed for publication. We do not make changes that undermine the work's intent or imply that the creator endorses another company's products or services. Copyright remains with the creator or other rights holder.
This license covers only published content for which the creator has the necessary rights. It does not cover private entries, drafts, work stored only in the cloud or sign-in email addresses. Third-party works or people's likenesses are used only when the rights or permissions required for advertising and publicity can be confirmed. Songs and artwork selected through the app's music feature are not included. For collaborative ZINEs, the organizer's consent alone does not authorize use of participants' work; permission from the relevant rights holders is confirmed.
After unpublishing, deletion or a request to stop use sent to the contact below, we stop new advertising and publicity uses and remove materials we control within a reasonable period. We cannot retrieve printed materials already distributed or content saved or shared by third parties.
This section applies to works for which consent to these terms can be confirmed. Continuing to publish a work that was already public before this revision is not treated as consent.
7. Collaborative ZINEs
When you create a collaborative ZINE project, we receive its title, description, tags, submission period, paper, cover, organizer name and consent version. They are published in the app and on the website when the project is created; project pages are excluded from search engine indexing. If the organizer uses a name, the project links to their author profile.
When you join a collaborative ZINE, we receive your selected entry's photo, resized with location and other metadata removed, text, caption, equipment name, participation name and consent version. During submissions, the app shows the number of submitted entries and small thumbnails of entries whose creators consented, including photos and excerpts. Entry details are published after completion.
After the deadline, an editing period of up to ten days allows the organizer to adjust entry order, cover and description before publishing. Even without a publication action, the ZINE is published automatically ten days after the deadline. Participants are listed as authors in the community library, on the website and on author pages for named participants. Each page shows its author's name, or Anonymous if no name was given. Named participants receive an author-page label, and the ZINE appears among new ZINEs for people who follow them. Public profiles also show ongoing collaborative projects organized or joined under a name. Withdrawn participation and projects under review or unpublished are not shown. Participant-only letters cannot be read through profiles. Anonymous contributions are not linked to a person. Participant counts, popularity and rankings are not shown.
Named participants have an author page while the collaborative ZINE is published even if they have not published their own ZINE. Their chosen profile icon or photo is displayed in the app's author profile and website author page. Profile text is also displayed on the author profile, the app's discovery screen and website author page. Removing all their pages ends display based on that collaborative ZINE.
Entry data is deleted for projects with fewer than two participants, withdrawn projects and projects taken down by the operator. Project records are also deleted after approximately 30 days.
Before publication, withdrawing your entries on the project screen deletes them from the server. After publication, removing your own pages deletes them from public display and the server.
Reports about projects or pages are sent to us. Content reported by multiple distinct devices is hidden pending review. We may take down projects or entries that violate the guidelines and prevent that device from creating or joining projects.
8. Optional beta usage sharing
Usage transmission described in this section applies only when you consent to optional sharing in the beta. The public release does not send measurements of app launches, entry saves, public ZINE reading time, completion or completed sharing, even if beta consent remains on the device. Previously sent records remain subject to the retention periods below. Public actions you take, such as bookmarks and likes, are handled under section 6.
Only with optional sharing consent, the time you open the app and save a new entry, rounded to minutes, and a dedicated random device identifier are sent to suu's operator. We analyze counts by date and time of day to improve the app. If you review and accept the additional sharing explanation, we also receive whether your work library is linked to a suu account and whether a non-sample entry is known to have been saved. This lets us distinguish overall usage from usage with entry-creation experience and aggregate account-linking status. Account IDs and email addresses are not sent linked to the analytics identifier. Private entry IDs, photos, text, author names and contact details are excluded. Identifiers are stored hashed on the server.
With consent, we also receive public ZINE identifiers, opening the text, time spent reading in the foreground, reading completion and sharing completion confirmed by the OS. Using a hash of the public-feature device token, these are grouped by device, ZINE and day to help order community ZINEs. Views, completions and shares count at most once daily, and reading time at most ten minutes. Viewing aggregates are deleted in daily processing after 30 days. Authors' own views do not count. Sharing destinations and recipients are not collected.
Launch and entry-save records and the last known account-linking and entry-experience status are deleted in daily processing after 90 days. You can stop sharing in settings; unsent records are also deleted. Records already sent remain subject to the 30- or 90-day retention period above. Normal features work without sharing. This data is not used for advertising tracking.
9. Communications and storage providers
Event submissions, inquiries, usage data, ZINEs submitted for publication, profile icons, photos and text, bookmarks, viewing aggregates, likes and reports are received and stored using Cloudflare Workers and D1. Collaborative projects and entries are also stored in D1. Public event information and notices are obtained from the same services. The website runs on these services and reads published ZINEs from the same database. Submission rate limits use a daily hash derived from the source IP address; expired hashes are deleted daily. Raw IP addresses are not stored in these databases. suu＋ cloud photos and entries are stored in Cloudflare R2 and D1. Sign-in communicates with Apple or Google, and website payments communicate with Stripe. Information handled by the communications infrastructure is subject to Cloudflare's Privacy Policy.
Uploaded images are resized and re-encoded to remove EXIF, but this does not remove personal information visible in photos or written in text. The administration interface requires operator authentication.
Registration or sign-in is not required to browse the website. We do not set cookies to identify signed-out visitors or identifiers for advertising or access analytics. An identifier is stored in the browser only when you press Like; sign-in cookies are described in section 2. Published ZINEs, author pages and their images are cached temporarily on Cloudflare's network to improve loading. Cloudflare processes connection records such as source IP addresses. After you follow share links to X, LINE or another service, that service's terms and privacy policy apply.
We use Cloudflare Web Analytics to understand website usage. Viewed page URLs, referring pages, browser, OS and device types, country and page performance are sent from the browser to Cloudflare and used for aggregates such as page-view counts. This measurement does not use cookies, store browser identifiers or identify individual visitors. Only the operator views the aggregates; they are not shown to authors or readers.
10. Music, OS features and TestFlight
Music search terms and requests for track information, artwork and preview audio are sent to Apple's services. Previews do not require an Apple Music subscription. Supported full playback checks Apple Music access permission and subscription status. Audio files and Apple Account credentials are not stored on suu's operating servers. You can create entries and ZINEs without granting music access. For website previews, suu's server similarly obtains track information and artwork from Apple, while the browser receives preview audio directly from Apple.
The app requests photo, camera, notification and other permissions as needed for the features you use. Images sent to a person or service selected in the share sheet are subject to the recipient's handling. Diagnostic information, usage data and feedback collected by TestFlight itself are handled through Apple's systems. See Apple's Privacy Policy for details.
11. Advertising (product recommendations)
Some app and website screens, such as within work lists and after reading, may show products selected by the operator as advertisements. These are labeled as ads and do not appear within the text of a work or during creation actions.
Recommendations link to stores such as Amazon and Rakuten. The operator may earn commissions on purchases through affiliate programs such as Moshimo Affiliate and Amazon Associates. Product images are loaded from the stores' image providers. Opening a link may route through an affiliate tracking link before opening the store's website or app. These communications send information such as your IP address to the respective providers, whose own terms and privacy policies apply.
suu does not track users across other companies' apps or websites for advertising. We do not use advertising identifiers such as IDFA or record which ads each user views or presses. suu＋ subscribers can turn ads off in settings.
12. Account deletion and information management
You can delete your suu account at any time from the bottom of app settings or your account page on the website. Deletion cannot be undone. It deletes the account, published ZINEs, profile name, icon and text, likes, reports and similar records, publicly displayed badges and cloud-stored entries and photos. If you joined someone else's collaborative ZINE, only your pages are withdrawn. Collaborative ZINEs you organized are retained to protect other participants' work, with the organizer name changed to Deleted author. Work on your device is not deleted.
Deleting your account does not cancel a suu＋ subscription purchased through Apple. Cancel it in your device's subscription settings before deleting the account. Website subscriptions are cancelled when the account is deleted, without prorated refunds.
We do not sell collected information or use it for advertising tracking. Deleting the app alone does not delete data already sent to the server. To request deletion of an inquiry or similar data, contact us with the submission time and information that identifies its contents.
13. Changes and contact
We update this page when our handling changes and announce significant changes in the app or through other appropriate channels.
Operator: Masaki Tomohiro (suu)
Contact: tomohiro.masaki.dev@gmail.com