Privacy Policy

01Who we are

The business operator responsible for handling your personal information under the APPI is:

02Information we collect

Information you give us:

• Account information. When you sign in with GitHub or Google, we receive your name, email address, profile picture, username and the account ID from that service. We never see your password.
• Project submissions. When you submit a hackathon project, we collect the project name and description, your team members, and links such as a demo video, slides or code repository.
• Community votes. When you vote for a project in a community vote, we record which projects you voted for. Vote counts are seen only by organizers, never who voted.
• Newsletter. When you subscribe, we collect your email address.
• Messages. When you email us, we keep the message and your contact details so we can reply.

Information collected automatically:

• Cookies. We use a small number of essential cookies. See “Cookies” below.
• Analytics. We use Vercel Web Analytics and Speed Insights to count page views and measure page speed. They do not use cookies or identify you personally.

Event registration happens on Luma, and our community chat is on Discord. Those services handle your information under their own privacy policies.

03How we use your information

We use personal information only for these purposes:

• To sign you in and keep your account secure.
• To run our events, including receiving, reviewing and judging project submissions and contacting teams about results.
• To show projects and winners on this website and in our announcements, but only with the team’s permission.
• To send our newsletter, if you subscribed.
• To answer your questions and requests.
• To understand how the website is used and improve it.
• To prevent abuse and comply with the law.

04Sharing your information

We do not sell your personal information. We do not give it to third parties except in these cases:

• Service providers. We entrust data to companies that run parts of the service for us (listed in the next section). They may use it only to provide that service.
• Judges and partners. For a hackathon, submitted projects are shared with that event’s judges, and with sponsors involved in judging or awarding prizes.
• With your consent. For example, publishing your project and team names on this website.
• When required by law. Or where the APPI otherwise permits it, such as to protect someone’s life or property.

05Service providers and overseas transfers

Some of our providers store or process data outside Japan:

• Supabase (Singapore): sign-in and our database. Singapore protects personal data under its Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA).
• Vercel (United States): website hosting and analytics.
• beehiiv (United States): newsletter.
• GitHub and Google (United States): sign-in, when you choose them.

The United States has no single comprehensive federal privacy law, though some states have their own. Each provider above is bound by contract or published data-processing terms to protect personal data to a standard equivalent to what the APPI requires. Ask us if you want more detail.

06Cookies

We use only essential cookies:

• Sign-in cookies (names starting with “sb-”) keep you logged in. They are set only after you sign in.
• Language cookie (“lang”) remembers whether you chose English or Japanese.

We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. You can delete cookies in your browser settings, but you will need to sign in again.

07How long we keep it

• Account information: while your account exists. Ask us and we will delete it.
• Newsletter: until you unsubscribe.
• Project submissions: kept as a record of the event. Published projects stay up unless you ask us to take them down.
• Messages: as long as needed to deal with your request.

08Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your information. These include encrypted connections, access controls on our database, and limiting who on our side can see personal data.

09Children

This website is not intended for children under 13. Participants under 18 need permission from a parent or guardian to take part in our events. If you think a child has given us personal information, please contact us.

10Your rights

Under the APPI, you can ask us to:

• tell you what personal information we hold about you, and disclose it;
• correct, add to or delete information that is wrong;
• stop using or delete your information, or stop sharing it with third parties;
• disclose records of when we shared it with third parties.

Email us to make a request. We may need to confirm your identity first, and we will respond without undue delay. You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time using the link in any issue.

11Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. If we do, we will post the new version on this page and change the effective date. For significant changes we will also tell you by email or on the website.

12Contact

Questions, requests and complaints about this policy or your personal information:

Please use “Privacy request” as the subject line.