MongChi Privacy Policy

MongChi ("the app", "we", "us") is a pet-care healing app that turns a photo of your real pet into an AI-generated pixel companion you can care for. This policy explains what data the app collects, how it is used, who it is shared with, and the choices you have.

This is a summary of our actual data flows, written in plain language. It is not a substitute for reading the full text below if you have specific concerns.

1. No account, no email required

MongChi does not ask for your name, email address, or phone number. When you open the app for the first time, it creates an anonymous authentication session (via Supabase Auth) tied only to a random session identifier stored on your device. We do not know who you are, and there is no password or account-recovery flow because there is no account to recover.

2. What we collect

• A photo of your pet (source photo) — to generate your pixel companion's avatar art. Uploaded temporarily to our private storage bucket, then automatically deleted the moment generation finishes (see §3 below).
• Generated avatar images — your companion's in-app appearance. Kept in a private storage bucket, accessible only via short-lived signed URLs.
• Pet profile (species, name, personality tags, talking style) — to personalize the avatar and any AI chat. Sent to our generation and chat services as needed.
• Game state (care stats, memories, garden progress, credits) — to run the game. Stored locally on your device only (AsyncStorage), not on our servers.
• Approximate location (optional) — to show weather-matched garden scenes. Read from your device's location permission at low accuracy, used for a one-time weather lookup, and not stored on our servers.
• Anonymous session identifier — to let the anonymous auth session work at all. Stored locally on your device and sent to our API with each request.
• Basic technical/analytics events (for example, "generation issue reported") — to fix bugs and understand feature usage. Sent to our analytics pipeline, which deliberately excludes raw photos, raw chat text, and payment details (see §6).

We do not collect your contacts, precise/continuous location tracking, advertising identifiers, or browsing history from other apps.

3. Your pet's photo: the full lifecycle

This is the most sensitive data flow in the app, so we describe it in detail:

1. You select or take a photo of your real pet and upload it to a private storage bucket (pet-media), scoped to your anonymous session.
2. The photo is sent to OpenAI for two purposes: (a) an automated safety check to confirm the image is an ordinary, appropriate pet photo, and (b) image generation, which uses the photo as a visual reference to create your companion's pixel-art avatar in several poses/expressions.
3. Once generation completes successfully, the original uploaded photo is automatically deleted from our storage as part of the same server-side job that created your avatar. We do not keep a copy.
4. If you later unlock additional expression states for your companion (an "expression pack"), we do not ask for your photo again — we seed the new art from a previously generated avatar image (art we created, not your original photo), because the original photo no longer exists on our servers at that point.
5. The generated avatar images themselves are kept (they are your companion's appearance) in a private storage bucket. The app displays them using short-lived signed URLs that expire, rather than public links.
6. You can delete your original photo separately from the generated avatar at any time the flow is in progress, and you can request deletion of your data entirely — see §8.

4. Third parties we share data with

We keep the list of third parties short and purpose-limited:

• OpenAI — receives your pet's source photo (for the safety check and avatar generation described in §3) and, for premium AI chat, your pet's profile and relevant conversation context (name, personality tags, talking style, and recent messages) to generate in-character responses. OpenAI processes this data to fulfill our request; see OpenAI's own privacy policy for how they handle API data. Premium chat responses are labeled as AI-generated and pass through a moderation check before being shown to you.
• Supabase — our backend infrastructure provider. Supabase hosts our database, private storage buckets, and anonymous authentication. Supabase processes data on our behalf and does not use it for its own purposes.
• Apple / Google (in-app purchases) — if and when MongChi offers paid credits or items via Apple's App Store or Google Play in-app purchases, the purchase itself is handled entirely by Apple/Google's payment systems. We receive a purchase receipt/transaction ID to verify and grant your in-app credit — we do not receive or store your card number.

We do not use advertising SDKs, third-party analytics SDKs with cross-app tracking, or data brokers. There are no ads in MongChi.

5. Location data

Location access is optional and used only to look up approximate local weather so your companion's garden scene can match real-world weather. We request the lowest-accuracy location reading available, use it for a single weather lookup, and do not store a history of your location. If you decline location permission, the app falls back to a manual/local weather preview instead.

6. Analytics

We record lightweight product-usage events (for example, that a generation issue was reported, and which category) to help us find and fix bugs. Our analytics events are deliberately scoped to exclude raw photos, raw chat text, and payment details.

7. Children's privacy

MongChi is not directed at children under 13 (or the equivalent minimum age in your region), and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under that age. Because the app does not collect names, emails, or other identifying account information, we have no practical way to link data to a child's identity — but if you believe a child has provided us information through a pet photo or chat and you would like it removed, contact us using §9 and we will delete it.

8. Your rights and choices

Depending on where you live (for example under the EU/UK GDPR or the California CCPA/CPRA), you may have rights to access, correct, export, or delete the data associated with your session, and to object to or restrict certain processing. Because MongChi does not use accounts, most of these rights map onto your device session:

• Delete your original photo — available directly in the app during the photo/generation flow.
• Delete your data entirely — available directly in the app: go to Settings and choose "Delete pet data." This deletes this device's local data and also asks our servers to delete your uploaded photo, generated avatars, and every database record tied to your anonymous account (generation history, credit balance, and pet slots), then deletes the anonymous account itself. If the app can't reach our servers when you do this (for example, you're offline), your local data is still cleared immediately and the app will tell you to try again later so the server-side deletion can complete. You can also contact us (see §9) if you'd rather request this by email, or if you run into trouble with the in-app option.
• Local game data — since care stats, memories, and progress live only on your device, uninstalling the app or clearing its storage removes that data immediately, without needing to contact us. Note that this data does not currently sync or back up anywhere else, so this action is permanent.
• California residents: we do not sell or share personal information as defined by the CCPA/CPRA, and we do not use your data for cross-context behavioral advertising.

To exercise any of these rights, use the contact details in §9.

9. Contact us

For privacy questions, deletion requests, or concerns, contact us at the support email listed in the app's Support screen, or at lucas@define-you.com.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the app changes. We will update the "Last updated" date above when we do. Material changes affecting how we handle your pet's photo or generated data will be reflected here before they take effect.

11. Governing law

This policy is governed by the laws of the Republic of Korea.

This policy is a plain-language summary of MongChi's actual data flows. It is provided for transparency and is not a substitute for independent legal advice.