YB Techworks ("we", "us", or "our") is an independent software studio based in Kyoto, Japan. This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, and how we handle it in compliance with Japan's Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI) and, where applicable, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
1. Information We Collect
- Contact information: name and email address when you contact us or create an account.
- Payment information: payment card details are collected and processed directly by Stripe, Inc. We do not store or have access to full card numbers.
- Usage data: basic technical data (browser type, OS, referring URL) may be collected to improve our services.
2. Purposes of Collection
We collect personal information for the following clearly defined purposes:
- Processing and fulfilling orders for digital products
- Providing customer support
- Sending transactional emails (order confirmations, receipts)
- Improving our products and services
- Complying with legal obligations (e.g., tax record retention)
We will not use your information for any purpose beyond those stated above without your explicit consent.
3. Legal Basis (GDPR)
For users in the European Economic Area, our legal bases for processing personal data are:
- Contract: processing is necessary to fulfill the purchase agreement.
- Legal obligation: processing is necessary to comply with applicable laws.
- Legitimate interests: service improvement and fraud prevention, where not overridden by your rights.
4. Third-Party Services
Stripe, Inc. processes all payments on our behalf. When you make a purchase, you submit your payment information directly to Stripe. Stripe's processing of your personal data is governed by their Privacy Policy. Stripe is headquartered in the United States; your payment data is processed and stored on Stripe's servers in the US.
5. International Data Transfers
Your personal data may be transferred to and processed in the United States by Stripe. Such transfers are carried out under appropriate safeguards (Stripe's Standard Contractual Clauses for EEA users). We do not otherwise transfer your personal data outside Japan without your consent or a lawful basis to do so.
6. Cookies
Our website uses only functional cookies strictly necessary for the site to operate. We do not use tracking cookies, advertising cookies, or third-party analytics cookies.
7. Data Retention
- Account and contact data: retained while your account is active, plus 1 year after closure.
- Payment records: retained as required by Japanese tax law (generally 7 years).
8. Your Rights
Under APPI and GDPR (where applicable), you have the right to:
- Access the personal information we hold about you
- Request correction of inaccurate data
- Request deletion of your personal data (subject to legal retention obligations)
- Request restriction of processing
- Data portability (GDPR users)
- Object to processing based on legitimate interests
To exercise any of these rights, contact us via our contact form.
9. Security
We implement reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information. Payment data is handled exclusively by Stripe using industry-standard encryption.
10. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The updated policy will be posted on this page with a revised effective date. Continued use of our services constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.
11. Contact
For privacy-related questions or requests, please use our contact form or email [email protected].
12. Product-Specific: Manga de Nihongo (browser extension)
This section applies to the Manga de Nihongo Chrome extension, which adds Japanese learning features — word breakdowns, furigana, and translations — to manga reader pages.
What is captured and where it is processed
When you translate a page, the extension captures an image of the visible area of the browser tab. This capture is of the whole visible tab, not only the manga image, so anything else visible in that tab at that moment is included in it.
Detection and OCR run locally on your device inside the extension: we use the capture to detect speech bubbles and read the Japanese text, entirely in your browser. The captured image never leaves your device. Only the recognized Japanese text, your chosen target language, and an image fingerprint are sent to our translation service to produce the translation.
We do not use any of this to build a profile of you, and we do not sell it.
Third parties that receive your data
- Text sent for translation. The Japanese text read from the page is sent to OpenRouter (openrouter.ai), which routes it to a large language model to produce the translation. The text leaves your device to do this. It is not sent with your name, email address, or account identifier.
- Sign-in. We use Google sign-in and receive your email address from Google to identify your account.
- Payments. Credit purchases are handled by Stripe. We never receive or store your card details.
- Hosting. Our translation service runs on Cloudflare.
Storage and retention
- Translation results are cached on our servers for up to 30 days, so that re-opening the same page is fast and does not cost you a credit.
- This cache is shared between users. It is keyed on an image fingerprint, not on your account, so if another user opens the same page they may be served the cached result your request produced. The cache stores the detected text and its translation. It does not store the captured image, which is processed on your device and never uploaded.
- Your account record stores your email address, an account identifier from Google, and your remaining credit balance.
Account deletion
Deleting your account from the extension permanently removes your account record and your remaining credit balance. Remaining credits are forfeited and are not refunded.
Cached translation results are not removed by account deletion. They are not linked to your account — they are keyed on the page fingerprint and are indistinguishable from any other user's — and they expire on their own within 30 days. If you want a specific cached page removed sooner, contact us at [email protected].
Logging
We keep short-lived server logs for reliability and abuse prevention. These record the time of a request, a one-way pseudonymous identifier derived from your account (not your email address or Google ID), and technical details such as how many text regions were found. We do not log the text of what you are reading.
Your choices
- The extension only runs on the manga reader sites listed in its store description, and only captures a page when you ask it to translate.
- You can sign out or delete your account at any time from the extension popup.
- You can request access to, or deletion of, your account data at [email protected].
Google user data (Limited Use)
Sign-in uses Google OAuth to read only your email address, which we use solely to identify your account. Manga de Nihongo's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.