Shami Privacy Policy

Effective date: 2026-08-25

Last updated: 2026-10-02

This English text is a reference translation provided for convenience. The Japanese version is the authoritative original; in the event of any discrepancy between the two, the Japanese version prevails.

Takumi Nishimura (trading as ondo) (the "Provider") sets out this Privacy Policy (the "Policy") regarding the handling of users' personal information and other data in "Shami" (the "Service"), a shamisen score digitization and practice-support service.

1. Information We Collect

• Account information: email address, authentication information (including identifiers provided by third-party sign-in services), member number, display name, avatar image, bio (profile), and other profile settings
• User Content: score photos and PDFs uploaded by the User, score data created within the Service, audio and video recordings, annotations, and practice records
• Subscription and billing information: plan status, billing period, and subscription identifiers issued by the billing platform. We do not collect or retain credit card numbers or other payment credentials (see Section 6).
• Usage and device information: access logs, IP address, browser/OS/device information, operation logs, error logs, and information collected via cookies and similar technologies
• Inquiries and posts: the name, email address, and content of any inquiry sent to us, and content posted to the in-service feedback box (including member number and display name)
• Early access and release-notice sign-up information: the email address entered when signing up for early access (the test version), the type of device (iPhone, iPad, or Android), display language, the screen the sign-up was made from, the date and time of consent and the version of the text consented to, the sign-up status (invited, stopped, etc.), and the date and time a confirmation email was sent. We do not store IP addresses as part of this sign-up record.

2. Purposes of Use

1. Providing and maintaining the Service (score digitization, score creation and editing, practice-support features, sharing, cloud synchronization and storage)
2. Performing AI Recognition (from photos and PDFs) and automatic transcription (from audio and video recordings), including the transfers described in Section 3
3. Managing accounts, verifying identity, and managing subscription status and remaining AI Recognition page allowances
4. Billing and synchronizing subscription status with billing platforms
5. Responding to inquiries and sending necessary or important notices
6. Detecting and preventing misuse and maintaining the security of the Service
7. Investigating incidents, improving quality, and developing new features (performed statistically, in a form that does not identify individuals)
8. Complying with applicable law
9. Inviting you to early access, communicating about the test, and notifying you of the official release (using the email address you registered for early access and release notices; as described in Section 8, it is registered with Apple Inc. or Google LLC for the test invitation)

We do not use personal information beyond these purposes. If the purposes change, we will update this Policy and notify or publicly announce the change.

3. Transmission for AI Recognition and Automatic Transcription, Including Transfer Overseas (United States) — Important

The destination of your data differs between "AI Recognition" (digitizing score photos and PDFs) and "automatic transcription" (generating scores from audio and video recordings), as set out below.

1. Information transmitted. Depending on the feature, one or more of the following. Account email addresses, names, display names, and other account information are not transmitted.

• Score image or PDF data (when AI Recognition is used)
• Audio data (when transcribing from an audio recording)
• Video data (when transcribing from a video recording — this includes the video imagery, not only the sound)
• Incidental information needed for processing (page numbers, tuning, reference pitch, tempo, etc.)

1. Recipients for AI Recognition (photos/PDFs). Data is first sent to a score-processing server operated by the Provider on Google Cloud Platform (Cloud Run, in a Japanese region). To analyze the image or PDF, that server in turn transmits data to an external generative-AI provider selected by the Provider. The provider currently used is primarily OpenAI, L.L.C. (located in the United States), with Google LLC (located in the United States) used for some processing. We do not currently use Anthropic, PBC (Claude). The providers and models used may change, for example to improve recognition accuracy; this Policy will be updated if they do.
2. Recipients for automatic transcription (audio/video). Audio and video recordings are not sent to any external AI provider. They are processed solely on a processing server operated by the Provider on Google Cloud Platform (Cloud Run, in the Tokyo region). Temporary files on that server (the transmitted audio/video and any intermediate data generated during processing) are automatically deleted within 48 hours at the latest.
3. Countries of processing. Where AI Recognition involves processing by an external AI provider, that processing takes place on servers in the United States or other countries designated by that provider. Accordingly, AI Recognition transmissions include a transfer of personal data to a third party located overseas. Automatic transcription (audio/video) is processed only on the Provider's processing server in Japan and does not involve a transfer to a third party overseas. For information on the personal data protection regime in the United States, please refer to the materials published by Japan's Personal Information Protection Commission. Handling by the recipient is governed by its API terms and privacy-related policies. The Provider endeavors to use this service under terms under which the transmitted data is not used to train the provider's models.
4. Purpose. Limited to automated score recognition and transcription (reading notes, fingering positions, time signatures, and similar information from images, audio, or video and converting them into score data).
5. By using AI Recognition, the User consents to the transfer to a third party located overseas described in this Section. Automatic transcription (audio/video) does not involve any such transfer overseas. Users who do not wish for such a transfer can refrain from using AI Recognition and instead use manual entry in the bunkafu editor and other features. These features run only when the User explicitly requests them; stored scores, recordings, and videos are not transmitted automatically. Before transmission, the destination (processing server and any external AI provider used) is shown on screen.
6. Please avoid incidental capture of personal data (images). A score image alone is not usually personal information, but depending on how it is photographed it may incidentally include names written on the score, student rosters, a school's contact details, or the faces of nearby people. Please frame your photos, or mask unnecessary areas, so that neither your own nor any third party's name, facial image, or other personal information appears in images used for AI Recognition.
7. Note on recordings (audio and video). Video used for automatic transcription may show the performer's face and appearance, the faces of others nearby, and the interior of the room, and audio may contain conversation and voices. Such data can constitute personal information. Before using automatic transcription, please check what has been captured; if unnecessary material is included, adjust the framing or use audio-only transcription. If a User transmits data in which a third party appears or whose voice is included, the User is deemed to have obtained that third party's necessary consent.

5. List of External Recipients

The following external providers receive data in connection with your use of the Service. This list sets out the information transmitted, the recipient, and the purpose, in light of Japan's external transmission disclosure rules under the Telecommunications Business Act. Details of handling by each provider are governed by that provider's own privacy policy.

6. Payment Information

1. Payments are processed through Apple Inc. (App Store in-app purchase), Google LLC (Google Play in-app purchase), RevenueCat, Inc. (Web Billing on the web), or Stripe, Inc. (credit card payments on the web), depending on the channel and the time of subscription. The web currently uses RevenueCat's Web Billing; for subscriptions taken out through Stripe in the past, Stripe remains the payment provider.
2. Credit card numbers and other payment credentials are collected and managed directly by those companies; we do not collect or retain them.
3. We receive subscription identifiers, plan type, billing period, and billing state from those companies in order to manage subscription status.
4. Handling of information by each company is governed by that company's privacy policy.

7. Outsourcing

We may entrust the handling of personal information to external providers to the extent necessary to achieve the purposes of use (see the list in Section 5 for details). We select such providers carefully and supervise them appropriately. The main categories are:

• Cloud infrastructure, database, file storage, and authentication (Supabase, Inc.)
• Application hosting and delivery (Vercel, Inc.)
• Hosting of the score-processing server and automatic-transcription server (Google Cloud Platform (Cloud Run); operated by the Provider in a Japanese region; temporary files are automatically deleted within 48 hours at the latest)
• AI processing for AI Recognition (photos/PDFs) (currently primarily OpenAI, L.L.C., with Google LLC used for some processing; carried out as a transfer to a third party overseas with the User's consent, as described in Section 3; automatic transcription (audio/video) is not sent to any external AI provider)
• Billing and subscription management (RevenueCat, Inc.; Stripe, Inc.; Apple Inc.; Google LLC)
• Failure and error monitoring (Sentry; configured not to transmit personal information; used across the web app, mobile app, and processing server)
• Sending notification emails to the operator, and sending early-access confirmation emails and release notices (Resend, Inc.; processes feedback-box content, registered email addresses, and similar data)
• App update delivery (Expo, Inc.; in-app updates via EAS Update)
• Access analytics (Vercel Web Analytics; does not use cookies and only handles page-view data aggregated so it cannot identify individuals)

8. Provision to Third Parties

We do not provide personal information to third parties without the User's prior consent, except:

1. where required by law;
2. where necessary to protect a person's life, body, or property and it is difficult to obtain consent;
3. where cooperation with a governmental body performing statutory duties is necessary and obtaining consent would impede those duties;
4. where information is provided in connection with the outsourcing described in Section 7 (which is not a provision to a third party under Japan's Act on the Protection of Personal Information);
5. the transfer to a third party overseas for AI Recognition (photos/PDFs) described in Section 3 (carried out based on the User's consent; automatic transcription (audio/video) does not involve any transfer to a third party overseas); or
6. the provision of your email address to Apple Inc. or Google LLC to invite you to the early access (test) version (carried out based on the User's consent; it includes a transfer to a third party overseas, as described below).

With your consent given at sign-up, the email address you register for early access and release notices is registered as a tester, in order to invite you to the test version, with Apple Inc. (TestFlight external testers; located in the United States) if your device is an iPhone or iPad, or with Google LLC (Google Play closed testing; located in the United States) if your device is Android. The only information provided is the email address, and the purpose is limited to the test invitation described above. Handling by each recipient is governed by its privacy policy and related terms. For information on the personal data protection regime in the United States, please refer to the materials published by Japan's Personal Information Protection Commission. If you do not want to be registered as a tester, please do not sign up for early access, or request that we stop as described below (when we receive a request to stop, we will also remove your tester registration on the Apple and Google side without delay).

We do not sell or provide User Content (scores, audio and video recordings, etc.) to third parties for advertising or marketing purposes, and we do not use User Content as training data for our own machine-learning models. Handling by the external AI provider is as described in Section 3.

9. Visibility (Sharing Features, Member Pages, and the Feedback Box)

1. Link-based score sharing. Anyone who knows a share link can view that score. The scope of sharing is controlled by the User, so please handle links with care. Sharing can be stopped at any time from within the Service.
2. Member pages (`/members/[member number]`). The display name, avatar image, bio, and month joined that a User registers are published on a member page accessible on the internet, viewable by anyone regardless of whether they have an account. These pages are configured not to be indexed by search engines (noindex), but this does not prevent viewing by anyone who knows the URL. The display name, avatar, and bio can be changed or removed at any time from the Service's settings screen.
3. Posts in the feedback box. Content posted to the in-service feedback box is published by default, together with the poster's member number and display name, to other users and visitors. Before posting, please make sure not to include your name, contact details, or other information you do not want third parties to see. We may hide or delete posts that violate the prohibited conduct provisions (see the Terms of Service).
4. In addition to the above, information registered in the User's profile, such as the display name, may be shown to recipients of a share.

10. Retention and Deletion

1. We retain information for the period necessary to achieve the purposes of use, under appropriate security controls.
2. User Content and account information: retained while the account is active. Users may request deletion of individual content or of the account at any time, using features within the Service or by contacting us at Section 13. The steps for deleting an account are set out on the Deleting your account and data page.
3. On account deletion: except where retention is legally required, we delete the database records of User Content and personal information associated with the account in due course once the deletion process is completed. We also process deletion of data in file storage; if that particular process fails for any reason, the account deletion itself still completes and we address the storage issue separately afterward. Free-text content such as song requests may remain after account deletion with the identifying poster information removed (anonymized). Information remaining in backups is erased in the ordinary course as backup retention periods elapse. Data may also remain, for a period following that provider's own retention schedule, with external providers we use such as RevenueCat, Stripe, Sentry, Apple, and Google.
4. Access and error logs: these logs are recorded for misuse investigation, incident response, and operational monitoring, and are stored on the infrastructure of the cloud platform providers we use (hosting, database, and similar providers). Their retention period follows those platform providers' default retention policies (we do not operate our own automated deletion on a separately defined schedule for these logs). We do not use logs for purposes other than those set out in Section 2.
5. Transaction records: retained for the period required by applicable law.
6. Early access and release-notice sign-up information: deleted one month after the last release notice is sent (whichever of iOS and Android is later), or 18 months after sign-up, whichever comes first. If we receive a request to stop notices (by replying to our email or contacting the contact point in Section 13), we stop sending immediately, keep only a record of the stop for one month, and then delete it. We respond to deletion requests without delay. In every case, we separately remove your tester registration on the Apple and Google side.

11. Security Measures

• Organizational: access to personal information is limited to the minimum necessary persons, with arrangements to monitor how it is handled.
• Technical: encryption in transit (TLS), access controls on stored data (including row-level access control in the database), appropriate management of credentials, and permission-based access restrictions.
• Physical: data is stored in data centers of cloud providers that maintain appropriate security measures.
• Awareness of the external environment: User information may be stored and processed on servers outside Japan, including in the United States. We take necessary and appropriate measures with an understanding of the data protection regimes of those countries.

12. Requests for Disclosure, Correction, or Suspension of Use

1. Users may request notification of purposes of use, disclosure, correction, addition or deletion of content, suspension or erasure of use, or suspension of provision to third parties, in accordance with Japan's Act on the Protection of Personal Information. Where we omit the Provider's address or phone number from disclosure on this Policy or the Legal Notice under the Act on Specified Commercial Transactions, that information will also be disclosed without delay upon request through this same contact.
2. Requests should be sent by email to the contact in Section 13. After verifying the requester's identity, we will respond without delay in accordance with law.
3. No fee is charged. Where we cannot comply under applicable law, we will explain the reason.

13. Contact

• Provider: Takumi Nishimura (trading as ondo)
• Person responsible for personal information: Takumi Nishimura
• Email: hello@shami.jp

14. Cookies and Similar Technologies

1. The Service uses cookies and similar technologies (such as local storage) to keep Users signed in, save settings, understand usage, and improve the Service.
2. Users may disable cookies in their browser settings, but some features, such as staying signed in, may then become unavailable.

15. Changes to This Policy

We may amend this Policy due to changes in law, changes to the Service, or other reasons. For material changes, we will announce the content and the effective date by posting within the Service or by another appropriate means before the change takes effect. If we significantly change the purposes of use, or newly begin transferring information to a third party overseas, we will obtain Users' consent again.