Last updated: September 1, 2026
This policy explains what japanknowhow.com/ collects, why, and what you can do about it. We've tried to write it in plain English rather than the usual wall of definitions. Where the law requires specific language, we've kept it, but we've kept it short.
The short version
- We don’t require an account, and we don’t sell your personal information for money.
- Our tools — the name converter, zodiac calculator, phrasebook, and era converter — run in your browser. What you type into them is not sent to our servers or stored by us.
- We use analytics to see which pages get read, and we may show advertising. Both involve cookies and both are described below.
- If you email us, we keep the email. That’s it.
What we collect
Information you give us
If you write to us, we receive your email address, your name if you include it, and whatever is in your message. We use it to answer you and to follow up. We don’t add correspondents to any mailing list without asking first.
Information collected automatically
Like nearly every website, our servers log requests. A log entry contains your IP address, the page requested, the time, your browser and operating system, and the referring page. We use logs for security, troubleshooting, and abuse prevention, and they’re rotated regularly.
We also use web analytics to understand aggregate traffic: which articles are read, how people arrive, roughly where in the world they are at the country or city level. This is statistical. We don’t use it to build a profile of you as an individual.
Advertising and affiliate links
We may display advertising served by third-party networks, and some links to travel services, books, or products are affiliate links that pay us a commission if you buy. Advertising partners may set their own cookies and may use them to show you ads based on your browsing across sites. Affiliate links may pass a referral identifier so the merchant knows the visit came from us; they do not tell us who you are.
Advertising never buys editorial coverage here. See our editorial standards for how we keep that line.
What our tools do not collect
This is worth stating plainly because it’s unusual. The name converter, zodiac calculator, era converter, and phrasebook run entirely in your browser using JavaScript, and audio playback uses your browser’s own speech synthesis. Names, birth dates, and anything else you type into them stay on your device. We never receive them, so we can’t store, share, or lose them.
Cookies
We use cookies and similar technologies for site function, analytics, and advertising. Which categories are active, what they do, and how to control them are set out on our cookie policy page. You can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings; the site will still work, though some preferences won’t be remembered.
Why we’re allowed to process this
If you’re in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, the legal bases we rely on are: legitimate interests for security logging and basic analytics; consent for advertising and non-essential cookies, which you give through the cookie banner and can withdraw at any time; and legitimate interests again for answering correspondence you initiate.
Who we share it with
We don’t sell personal information for money. We share data only with service providers who help us run the site — our web host, our analytics provider, our advertising partners, and our email provider — and only to the extent they need it. We may also disclose information if we’re legally required to, or to protect the site against fraud, abuse, or a security threat.
Under California law, some ad-network cookie activity can count as “sharing” personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising even when no money changes hands. You can opt out — see the next section.
Your choices and rights
Everyone
You can block cookies, use your browser’s private mode, install a tracker blocker, or ask us to delete any correspondence you’ve sent us. None of that limits your access to the site.
California residents
Under the CCPA as amended by the CPRA, you have the right to know what personal information we’ve collected about you and why; to request its deletion; to request correction of inaccurate information; to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising; and not to be treated worse for exercising any of these rights. We don’t offer financial incentives in exchange for personal information.
We honor the Global Privacy Control signal. If your browser or extension sends GPC, we treat it as an opt-out of sharing for targeted advertising, automatically, with no further action from you.
Other U.S. states
Residents of Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Texas, Oregon, Montana and other states with comprehensive privacy laws have comparable rights to access, correct, delete, and opt out of targeted advertising. We apply the same process to all of them rather than making you prove where you live.
EEA and UK residents
You have rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, and objection, and the right to complain to your national supervisory authority.
How to exercise any of this
Email hello@japanknowhow.com with what you want. We’ll respond within 45 days, and we may ask a question or two to confirm which records are yours — but only enough to be sure, never more. There’s no charge.
Children
This site is written for a general audience and is not directed at children under 13. We don’t knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, write to us and we’ll delete it.
How long we keep things
Server logs are kept for a short operational period and then rotated out. Analytics data is retained in aggregate. Email correspondence is kept as long as the conversation is useful and then deleted on request. We don’t maintain a marketing database.
Security and international transfers
The site is served over HTTPS, and we limit access to the small number of people who run it. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure, and we won’t claim otherwise. Our hosting and service providers are located in the United States and elsewhere, which means data may be processed outside your home country.
Changes
When we change this policy we update the date at the top. If a change is substantive, we’ll say so on the page rather than hoping you re-read it.
Contact
Questions about privacy go to hello@japanknowhow.com, or through our contact page. If something here is unclear, tell us and we’ll rewrite it — a privacy policy nobody can understand isn’t doing its job.