VortAR — Privacy Policy

1. About this Policy

VortAR (the “Service”) is provided and operated by T Experience LLC (Tエクスペリエンス合同会社; “we”, “us”; company details are in Article 13). This Policy sets out how personal information is handled in the Service’s app and website.

2. Information we collect

The Service collects the following information. Many profile items are optional and are not collected unless the user enters them. Each item can be given a visibility setting (everyone / after a match / mutual item reveal / after a request is approved / private).

2-1. Account information

• Email address and password (passwords are managed by Firebase Authentication; we do not hold them in plain text)
• Nickname (and a normalized string for search)
• Date of birth (used to confirm you are 18 or older and to calculate your age, which goes up by one on your birthday. Your date of birth itself is never shown to other users. Date of birth, email address and notification destinations (device identifiers) are stored where other users cannot read them)
• Account creation and update dates and times, and verification level category

2-2. Profile information

• Age, height, weight, body type, position, bio, purpose of use, places you’re active, etc. (you can set these freely — masked characters or combinations of letters are fine. This is separate from your device’s location information)
• Appearance and lifestyle items such as smoking, drinking, who you live with, facial hair, hairstyle, body mods and vehicles
• Interests (music, films, food, games, reading, art, travel, learning, drinks), dietary restrictions, language skills, countries visited
• Fitness information (exercise habits, body fat percentage, body data, health conditions)
• Views on marriage and children, household composition, future plans, and financial outlook (income band, whether you have debt)
• Visibility settings for each profile item

2-3. Sensitive information

Because of the nature of the Service, we may collect the following information. All of it is optional to enter, and its visibility can be changed item by item. For items about medical transition (gender transition status), the “direction of transition” optionally entered by transgender users, intimate preferences, and sexual health, the default visibility is restricted, for example to “mutual matches only” (for “direction of transition”, you choose the visibility yourself in the visibility settings, and it appears on list cards only when set to everyone). On the other hand, gender identity, sexual orientation and community involvement are basic information for meeting people, so they are visible to everyone by default, and you can narrow this at any time in the visibility settings.

• Information about gender identity and sexual orientation: gender identity (cisgender, transgender, non-binary, etc., and free text you enter), sexual orientation (gay, bisexual, etc., and free text you enter), and preferences about the other person’s gender identity
• Direction of transition (optionally entered by transgender users; you choose the visibility; the default is “mutual matches only”)
• Information about medical transition: gender transition status
• Information about community: self-acceptance, degree of being out, community involvement, events attended, social activities
• Detailed information about intimate preferences: position, power dynamics (BDSM, etc.), fetishes, item-by-item preferences and importance for items such as bondage, stimulation, watching, showing and filming, online preferences, and short free text you enter (the “Other” and “Comment” fields for each item, up to 30 characters each)
• Information about sexual health and safety: date of your last STI test, testing frequency, HIV prevention status (PrEP use, etc.), views on safer sex, and preferences for others
• Information about beliefs: religion and how important it is to you, political views
• Preferences about nationality, and other attributes such as pets and vehicles

2-4. Location information

• Your device’s location information (latitude and longitude, accuracy, time obtained). For details, see “5. Handling of location information”.
• Location information when you scan a venue’s QR code. For details, see “2-11. Venue check-ins”.

2-5. Photos

• Profile photos, sub photos, Secret album photos, and their visibility settings and upload dates and times
• Face detection results (a true/false value for whether a face appears, and whether the user overrode it)

2-6. Social media account information

• Account IDs/URLs of social media and community apps registered by the user, display labels, whether it is a sub-account, and visibility settings
• Covered: Instagram, X (Twitter), Vero, YouTube, TikTok, Threads, Bluesky, 9monsters, Grindr, Hornet, Taimi, HER, Facebook, LINE, Discord and others

2-7. Information generated through use

• Messages (Signal): text, sender, recipient, time sent, time read and reactions, and, if you use translation, the translated text and language
• Call records (caller, recipient, status, start/answer/end times, duration, number of extensions, whether video was used and for how long). There is no feature that records or stores the audio or video of calls. Call records are deleted 90 days after the call.
• Footprints (who viewed whose profile), history of Sparks (likes) sent and received, ratings, and favorites
• Records of blocks and soft blocks, and report contents (reported user, reason, details)
• Notification history and push notification tokens (FCM tokens)
• Billing and subscription status (plan, validity period, transaction ID)
• Contents and processing status of account deletion requests and partial data deletion requests
• Records of app crashes and errors (including the error details, device model, OS version and app version; no user ID is attached. See “10-1. External transmission” for details)

2-8. Verification information

• Phone number (if you use phone verification). Your phone number is held by Firebase Authentication and is not stored in the Service’s database. The app only keeps a category showing whether your phone number has been verified.
• Images of ID documents and selfies (if you apply for document verification). These images are stored only for the review and are deleted when we approve or reject the application. All we keep is the date and time of application and review, the result, and, if rejected, the reason.

2-9. Copies made for mutual photo reveal

• When you approve a photo request, we keep a copy of the photos as they were at the time of approval on the server. This is so that, even if photos are replaced or deleted after approval, the other person can see the photos as they were at the time of approval.
• This copy is deleted when the reveal ends (if the other person has used their last view, it is kept briefly so the image being displayed doesn’t cut off, and deleted within about 1 hour at the latest). Only the person the reveal was approved for can view the copy.
• If you attach photos to a photo request, those photos are stored on the server so that only the recipient of the request can see them, and are deleted when the request ends (approved, withdrawn, expired or blocked).

2-10. Recipients of Warp notices

• We keep a list of the people you sent Warp notices to. It is kept in a form only you can check and is not disclosed to other users.

2-11. Venue check-ins

• When you scan a venue’s QR code (printed on coasters, etc.), the location information is used only to judge your distance from the venue. The coordinates used for the judgment are never saved as a record of your visit.
• The date and time of your visit are recorded. The recorded last visit date is shown on the screen of that venue’s Mama (bar owner).

2-12. Website waitlist

If you join the waitlist on the Service’s official website (vortar.jp), we collect your email address, the area you use most (multiple choice), an optional comment, and browser information at the time of sign-up. These are used only to send you announcements about the Service’s launch and invitations, and to understand which regions have the most interest before launch; they are not linked to app profiles. If you no longer need the announcements, contact us at the address below and we will delete them.

2-13. Device permissions

The Service uses the location, camera, photo library, microphone (during voice calls) and notification permissions. The camera is used only to take profile photos, to scan QR codes for meet-up plans and venues, to photograph ID documents, and for video calls (only when both you and the other person turn video on). You can revoke these at any time in your OS settings. The accelerometer is used only to detect gestures on the device; its values are not saved or sent.

2-14. Display of the Founding Member badge and number

If you buy Founding Member (lifetime plan), your profile shows a Founding Member badge and your purchase number (#1–#100). The badge and number are shown to users who can see your profile and on the screen of the Mama of any venue where you are registered as a regular (list of regulars). You can hide the badge and the number separately in settings (once hidden, they are not shown on the Mama’s screen either). There is no screen that lists Founding Members.

3. Purposes of use

We use the information we collect within the scope of the following purposes.

• Creating, authenticating and verifying accounts, and preventing use by anyone under 18
• Reviewing verification by phone number and ID documents (images of documents and selfies you send are used only for the review and are deleted after approval or rejection)
• Letting the other person see the photos as they were when you approved a photo reveal (keeping a copy as of approval)
• Judging distance from a venue and recording visits when a venue’s QR code is scanned
• Showing nearby users, calculating distance, matching and making recommendations
• Deciding the order of recommendations (we use the tendencies in body type, height and weight preferred by people who sent Sparks or Signals to a given user, combined across several people and rounded every 30 days into coarse bands. They are never treated as any one person’s preferences; the combined tendencies are not shown on screen and are not used for compatibility displays, search or filters. We do not use data from people who keep their Spark list private, and do not apply this to people who keep their body type private)
• Choosing partners for anonymous cards (introductions where neither name is shown) between people who have turned on “OK to be found” in Secret Filter (lifestyle and values answers are used for this choice only, even if their visibility is set to “private”. The answers themselves are not shown to the other person)
• Displaying profiles and controlling disclosure based on visibility settings
• Providing communication features such as messages, voice calls, video calls and photo requests
• Notices by push notification and email (including advance notice of message retention deadlines)
• Managing billing and subscriptions and providing features by rank
• Responding to reports and blocks, detecting and preventing misuse, investigating violations of the Terms, and ensuring safety
• Checking re-registration of accounts suspended for violating the Terms of Service (3-2)
• Responding to inquiries and deletion requests
• Sending launch announcements and invitations to people who joined the waitlist on the official website, and understanding interest by region
• Investigating defects and improving the Service

If we use information beyond these purposes, we will obtain your consent again. Sensitive information is used, of the purposes above, only for providing matching features and ensuring safety, and only within the scope you entered and set visibility for.

3-1. Conversation records when a report is made

When a report is made, for safety measures and to confirm violations, we copy the text, senders, times and references to attachments of the messages around the reported part of the conversation (up to about 40 messages) into an area only our team can access, and keep them for 180 days from the report (or 1 year from the action, if action is taken). Only our team can view this record.

3-2. Preventing re-registration

To prevent misuse and re-registration, when we suspend an account for violating the Terms of Service, we keep a matching value made from that account’s email address and phone number (converted into a form that cannot be turned back into the original email address or phone number), together with the category of reason, number and dates of suspensions, and use them only to check re-registration with the same email address or phone number. They are kept for 15 years from the last suspension for suspensions due to fraud, sexual exploitation, threats or violence, and for 2 years from the last suspension for other violations, and are deleted after that period. However, for suspensions because the user is under 18, no matching value is kept.

4. Provision to third parties and service providers

We do not provide personal data to third parties without your consent, except in any of the following cases (Article 27, Paragraph 1 of the Act on the Protection of Personal Information).

• Where required by laws and regulations (for example, when the police, a court or another public authority makes a request based on law, or when we receive an order to disclose sender information)
• Where it is necessary to protect a person’s life, body or property and it is difficult to obtain your consent
• Where it is especially necessary to improve public health or promote the sound development of children and it is difficult to obtain your consent
• Where it is necessary to cooperate with a national government agency, a local government, or a party entrusted by them in carrying out duties prescribed by law, and obtaining your consent is likely to interfere with those duties

However, we provide the contents of communications, such as the text of messages, only under a warrant issued by a judge, or where unavoidable to avert an imminent danger to a person’s life or body.

In addition, to the extent necessary to provide the Service, we entrust the handling of personal data to the following external services. Each is essential for the Service’s features.

• Google LLC (Firebase) — Authentication, database (Cloud Firestore), photo storage (Cloud Storage), server processing (Cloud Functions), push notifications (Cloud Messaging), and misuse prevention (App Check: Play Integrity on Android, DeviceCheck on iOS, reCAPTCHA v3 on the web). The data described in this Policy is stored and processed on this platform.
• Google LLC (Firebase Crashlytics) — Recording app malfunctions. When the app crashes or an error occurs, the error details, device model, OS version, app version and an identifier for each app installation are sent. No user ID, email address, profile or messages are sent (see “10-1. External transmission”).
• Google LLC (Cloud Translation API) — Message translation. The text of messages the user chooses to translate is sent. Nothing is sent unless the user translates.
• Google LLC (Maps SDK) — Map display. Displaying maps involves network communication.
• Google LLC (Google Play billing) — Billing on Android.
• Apple Inc. (App Store billing) — Billing on iPhone.
• RevenueCat, Inc. — Subscription management. User identifiers (Firebase UID) and purchase and billing information are sent.
• Twilio Inc. (SendGrid) — Delivery of notice emails. Recipient email addresses and email content (including thread display names and scheduled deletion dates) are sent.
• LiveKit, Inc. — Relaying voice and video calls. Connection tokens including room names and participant identifiers, and audio and video media, pass through it. Nothing is recorded.

We exercise necessary and appropriate supervision over these providers based on contracts and each company’s terms of use.

4-1. Service providers located abroad and the countries where data is handled

All of the service providers above are companies located in the United States. The countries where the servers that store and process personal data are located are as follows.

• Firebase (Google LLC): The database (Cloud Firestore), photo storage (Cloud Storage) and server processing (Cloud Functions) are in Japan (Tokyo). Authentication is processed in data centers in the United States. Push notifications, malfunction records (Crashlytics) and so on may be processed in countries where Google has data centers (the United States, Japan and others), so the country cannot be narrowed down to one.
• Cloud Translation API, Maps SDK and Google Play billing (Google LLC), and App Store billing (Apple Inc.): the United States and other countries where each company has data centers (cannot be narrowed down to one)
• RevenueCat, Inc. and Twilio Inc. (SendGrid): the United States
• LiveKit, Inc.: Calls are relayed through LiveKit servers in a region close to the participants, so the country cannot be narrowed down to one (the United States and others).

The United States has no comprehensive federal law equivalent to Japan’s Act on the Protection of Personal Information; personal information is protected by sector-specific federal laws and state laws (such as the California Consumer Privacy Act). You can find information on the U.S. system in the survey published by the Personal Information Protection Commission of Japan (Survey on systems for the protection of personal information in foreign countries: United States, in Japanese). We take security measures with an understanding of the systems of these countries.

Through our contracts with each provider (including each company’s data processing terms), we have confirmed that each provider has a system in place to continuously take measures consistent with the purpose of the provisions of Chapter IV, Section 2 of the Act on the Protection of Personal Information, such as handling personal data only within the scope of the entrusted purpose, taking necessary and appropriate security measures, supervising its employees and subcontractors, and notifying us when a leak or similar incident occurs (Article 28, Paragraph 1 of the Act and Article 16, Item 1 of the Enforcement Rules). At least once a year, we check how these measures are being implemented and whether the systems of those countries have changed, using each company’s published terms, certifications and similar information.

On request to the contact point in Section 13, we will promptly provide information on how each provider has put its system in place, an outline of the measures the provider takes, how often and how we check them, the name of the country, whether that country has any system that may affect the provider’s measures and an outline of it, and whether there is any obstacle to implementing the measures and, if so, what we do about it (Article 28, Paragraph 3 of the Act).

The Service does not include any SDKs for ad delivery, or any analytics SDKs that analyze user behavior (transmissions for recording app malfunctions and for diagnosing features that run on the device are described in “10-1. External transmission”).

5. Handling of location information

Because “showing nearby users” is a core feature of the Service, we use your device’s location information.

Collection and accuracy

• Location information is collected at high accuracy (the accuracy returned by your device’s GPS). The coordinates stored are the actual, unrounded coordinates. The accuracy value and an index for nearby search (geohash, cells of about 4.8 m) are also stored.
• Updates happen while you are using the app (when you open it, and roughly every 10 minutes when you have moved 500 m or more). Location is not updated while the app is closed. Other users see the location from the last time you used the app.
• Distances shown to other users are rounded, such as “within ◯◯ m” or “within ◯ km” (Veil setting; 500 m steps by default). This is rounding for display only and does not reduce the accuracy of the stored coordinates.

Retention period

• Only the latest location is kept, overwritten with each update. It is never accumulated as a movement history.
• It is deleted together with the account information when the account is deleted (see “7. Retention periods and deletion”).

How to stop or control it

• You can turn off the use of location information itself in the app’s settings.
• You can set Stealth Mode (hide from other users on chosen days and time slots; scheduling is available on Aurora and above).
• You can register a Safe Zone (an area you set, such as home or work, with a radius of 200 m–20 km) and, inside it, either keep your location private or show the coordinates of a different point instead. In that case, other users see the substituted coordinates, not your actual ones.
• You can revoke the location permission in your OS (Android/iOS) settings.

These settings are stored in an area only you can access and are not disclosed to other users.

6. Photos and face detection

• Before uploading, photos have all EXIF data (metadata such as date, time and place taken) removed on your device, are converted into three sizes (150×150, 600×600, and 1600 px on the long side), and are then stored in Cloud Storage.
• They are stored in an area separated for each user (under a photo folder per user ID), and display is controlled according to visibility settings.
• Face detection uses Google ML Kit and runs entirely on your device (on-device). It only judges whether a face appears; face classification, contour and landmark extraction, and tracking are all disabled.
• Face images and facial features are never sent outside, and are never stored as biometric data for identifying individuals. Only true/false values for “whether a face was detected” and “whether the user overrode that result” are stored.
• After upload, images may be resized on Cloud Functions solely to create thumbnails and standard sizes.

7. Retention periods and deletion

Message retention periods

Signal messages are deleted automatically after the following periods, based on the higher plan of the people in the conversation. We notify you by email 7 days and 1 day before the scheduled deletion date, depending on your notification settings.

• Free: 14 days
• Aurora: 28 days
• Star: 1 month
• Galaxy: 3 months
• Universe: 6 months

However, for safety checks, conversations in which a block occurred are not deleted for 90 days from the date of the block even after the periods above (conversations that were reported follow the period in “Conversation records when a report is made” below).

Step Signal (anonymous conversations) are deleted 90 days after you leave the conversation.

Retention of verification images

• Images of ID documents and selfies are deleted when we approve or reject the application. All that remains after review is the date and time of application and review, the result, and, if rejected, the reason.

Retention of photo copies (snapshots at approval)

• Copies made when a photo reveal is approved are deleted when that reveal ends (only if the last view was used, kept until about 1 hour later at most).
• Photos attached to a photo request are kept until the request ends and deleted when it ends.

Retention of conversation records for reports and values for preventing re-registration

• Records of reported conversations are kept for 180 days from the report (or 1 year from the action, if action is taken) and then deleted (3-1).
• Matching values for preventing re-registration are kept for 15 years from the last suspension for suspensions due to fraud, sexual exploitation, threats or violence, and 2 years from the last suspension for other violations and then deleted. They are not kept for suspensions because the user is under 18 (3-2).

Accounts taking a break (temporary pause)

• While you “Take a break”, your profile, photos and other data are kept as they are. During the break, your profile is not shown to other users.
• Unless you keep a paid plan, 2 years after the last day you opened the app the account moves to the leaving process (deleted after the 30-day grace period below). We notify your registered email address 30 days and 7 days before the deadline.

Account deletion

• You can request deletion from [My Page] → [⚙️ Settings] → [Delete account & data] in the app. For the steps, see About account deletion. If you can’t use the app, contact ops@vortar.jp.
• After the request there is a 30-day grace period; if you cancel during it, everything returns to how it was.
• After the grace period, a daily process deletes your login credentials, profile (including detailed profile, visibility settings, location information, and settings only you can access), date of birth, photos on Cloud Storage, photo reveal records, verification application records, subscription records, recommendation data, travel plans, and public lists.
• To record the fact of deletion, we keep only the date and time of deletion, the reason, and the date and time of the request as an audit record. This record contains nothing that identifies you.
• Messages, Sparks, footprints, ratings, reports, blocks and so on that have already been sent or received —data kept as the other person’s records — are not part of the bulk deletion above, and may remain until their respective retention periods end or until the other person deletes them.

Partial data deletion

While keeping your account, you can also request deletion of specific data such as photos, location-related history, messages or detailed profile. We review the request and act on it.

8. Your rights (disclosure, correction, deletion, suspension of use)

You may request disclosure, correction, addition, deletion, suspension of use, and suspension of provision to third parties of personal data we hold about you, and notification of the purposes of use.

• What you can do in the app: view, edit and delete profile items; change visibility; stop location use; delete social media accounts; change notification settings; request and cancel account deletion; request partial data deletion
• Requests by contacting us: for requests that cannot be handled above, contact ops@vortar.jp. We may ask you to provide information to confirm that you are the person concerned.

Responding to requests takes some days to check the content and confirm your identity. If we cannot respond under the law, we will tell you why.

9. Use by minors

The Service is for adults aged 18 and over only. Anyone under 18 may not use the Service. Entering your date of birth is required at registration, and an account cannot be created if you are determined to be under 18.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If we find that someone under 18 has registered, we will delete the account and related data.

For our policy on child safety, see our Child Safety Standards.

10. Cookies and analytics

• The Service’s website (vortar.jp) does not set cookies or analytics tags for access analysis.
• The app does not include SDKs for ad delivery, or analytics SDKs that analyze user behavior.
• The app stores some data, such as your settings, on your device. It is erased when you delete the app.
• The website hosting platform (Firebase Hosting) and our service providers may use their own cookies and similar technologies to provide their services.

10-1. External transmission (Article 27-12 of the Telecommunications Business Act)

The app sends the following information from your device to parties other than us. Transmissions to the service providers in Section 4 that are essential for providing the Service’s features (authentication, data storage, notifications, map display, billing, call relaying, misuse prevention and so on) are not listed here.

• Recipient: Google LLC (Firebase Crashlytics)
  Information sent: records of app crashes and errors (the error details and where it occurred, and a name showing which stage of start-up the app was in), the device model, OS version and status such as memory, the app version, and an identifier for each app installation
  Purpose: detecting malfunctions and investigating and fixing their causes (by us). No user ID, email address, profile or messages are sent. Records are deleted after about 90 days.
• Recipient: Google LLC (ML Kit, used for on-device face detection and for reading QR codes)
  Information sent: the device manufacturer, model and OS version, the app name and version, feature settings (such as image format and size), processing time and error types, and an identifier for the device or for each app installation
  Purpose: diagnostics of ML Kit and understanding of its usage by Google. Photos, images and face information are not sent (Section 6).

11. Security

We take the following security measures to prevent leakage, loss or damage of personal data.

• Encrypted communication (HTTPS/TLS)
• Access control rules for the database and file storage. Data only you can access (location privacy settings, call settings and limits, etc.) is separated into areas restricted to you.
• Disclosure control based on visibility settings (everyone / after a match / mutual item reveal / after a request is approved / private)
• App Check (Play Integrity / DeviceCheck / reCAPTCHA v3) to block access from unauthorized clients, and server-side rate limits
• Removing EXIF data from photos to prevent unintentionally revealing where they were taken
• Understanding the external environment: we use service providers that handle personal data in foreign countries (the United States and others), and we take security measures with an understanding of those countries’ systems for the protection of personal information (4-1).

However, we cannot guarantee complete security of communication and storage over the internet.

If a leak or similar incident occurs

When we learn of a leak, loss, damage or unauthorized access involving personal data (including the contents of communications such as messages), or the possibility of one (a “leak or similar incident”), we promptly investigate the cause, prevent the damage from spreading, and take measures to prevent recurrence. Where required by law (for example, where special care-required personal information is involved, where there is a risk of financial damage, where it may have been done for an unlawful purpose, where more than 1,000 people are affected, or where the secrecy of communications is involved), we report it to the Personal Information Protection Commission or the Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications in accordance with the law. We also notify affected users, by a notice in the app, an email to the registered address or an announcement on our website, of an outline of the incident, the categories of information involved, the cause, whether there is a risk of secondary damage and what it is, and what we ask you to do (such as changing your password).

12. Revisions and inquiries

We may revise this Policy in response to changes in laws or new features of the Service. When we do, we will post the revised text and the last updated date on this page. For important changes, we will notify you in the app or by email. If you use the Service after a revision, you are deemed to have agreed to the revised Policy.

For inquiries about this Policy and the handling of personal information, and for disclosure and other requests, contact the address in Article 13 (Company information).

13. Company information

Under Japan’s Act on the Protection of Personal Information, we publish the name, address and representative of the business handling personal information as follows.