Privacy Policy and Personal Data Collection Notice

1. Data Controller

The collector is Taiwan Life Buddy. Contact: service@taiwanlifebuddy.com.

2. Purposes

We collect and use personal data for account sign-in and identity confirmation, language exchange matching, invitations and contact exchange, customer support, service notices, abuse prevention, blocking between members, reports and safety review, website analytics and improvement, and legal or regulatory compliance.

3. Service Contexts and Data Scope

The TLB official website currently collects contact form data and website analytics data to reply to inquiries, arrange services, and improve the website. The language exchange platform additionally processes Google sign-in data, public member profiles, private contact methods, invitation records, report records, and block records. Both contexts use this single privacy notice, but the actual data collected depends on the features you use.

4. Data Categories

• Google sign-in data: Google account identifier, email, email verification status, display name, and avatar URL.
• Member and public profile data: nickname, nationality, current city, exchange mode, fluent languages, learning languages, interests, intro, and publication status.
• Private contact data: LINE, Instagram, WhatsApp, email, or other contact methods you enter and enable.
• Interaction records: invitation messages, invitation status, acceptance or cancellation times, report reasons, and additional report details.
• Block records: which accounts you have blocked, when you blocked them, and the nickname that account was using at the time. We keep the record for as long as the block is in place and may use it in safety review. Lifting a block removes it.
• Technical and analytics data: device and browser information, IP address, page views, UTM parameters, cookies, or similar identifiers.
• Contact form data: name, email, company or request details, and other information you choose to provide.
• Safety records: the reason and time an account was suspended, and, where an account is barred from registering again after a serious violation or a suspended account is later deleted, a one-way hash of its sign-in email address and Google account identifier.

5. Period, Region, Recipients, and Method

We retain data for the period necessary to provide the service, fulfill contracts, handle disputes, comply with law, or maintain safety. After account deletion, unpublishing, or a verified deletion request, non-essential data will stop being public and will be deleted or anonymized within a reasonable operational cycle. If certain records remain necessary for legal compliance, payment or accounting records, dispute handling, abuse prevention, security audit, or lawful authority requests, we will limit their purpose and access and retain them only for the necessary period. Data may be processed in Taiwan and locations where our systems or processors operate or back up data. Recipients may include Taiwan Life Buddy, cloud hosting, website analytics, email, form, or security processors, and government authorities legally entitled to request data. If an account is suspended for breaking the rules, we may also bar the same person from registering again, and we do the same when a suspended account is later deleted. In either case we keep a one-way hash of the account's sign-in email address and its Google account identifier, so that we can recognise the same person if they register again and suspend the new account. We do not keep the address or the identifier themselves. The hash is never displayed anywhere and cannot be reversed; our internal moderation view shows only whether an account is currently barred and when that bar lapses. We hold the record for five years from the day it is created. Expiry is automatic: once that date passes the record stops having any effect and is never again used to recognise anyone, whether or not anyone has tidied it away. The hash itself is then deleted by a scheduled monthly sweep, and if we lift a bar early it is deleted at that point. Asking us to delete your account does not itself create such a record; a bar already in place stays for the rest of its period. When an account is deleted we also keep an archived copy of the reports it filed and the reports filed against it, holding the reasons, any additional detail the reporter wrote, the time, and which side the account was on, together with a record that the deletion took place and, where the account had been suspended, the reason it was suspended at the time. We keep this for dispute handling and safety audit, with no fixed end date. It records no nickname, no contact method, and no readable email address as fields of its own. One caveat we would rather state than gloss over: what a reporter wrote in their own words is kept exactly as they wrote it, so if they named someone or quoted a contact detail in that description, it stays in the archive.

6. Public Profile Scope

After a language exchange profile is published, listings may show nickname, nationality, current city, exchange mode, languages, interests, intro, and available contact channels. Exact contact IDs, Google email, and Google account identifiers are not public. Actual contact methods are exchanged only after both sides agree to an invitation.

7. Chat and Invitation Messages

The current design includes invitation messages and invitation status, but not real-time in-app chat. If we add chat, AI assistance, or content review features later, we will provide additional notice before enabling them.

8. Cookies and Analytics

This website uses Google Analytics 4 and first-party analytics scripts to understand page views, traffic sources, and interactions so we can improve content and service quality. If we later add advertising tracking, Meta Pixel, or cross-site marketing tracking, we will add a cookie or tracking consent mechanism.

9. Third-Party Services

We may use Google OAuth, Google Analytics, Google Apps Script/Sheets (the website contact form, and the internal record of signups and reports), Resend (delivery of transactional email such as invitation and account notices), Cloudflare, website deployment and cloud hosting, email, or support tools. These services may process necessary technical data or entrusted data under their own privacy terms.

10. Your Rights

Under Taiwan's Personal Data Protection Act, you may request access, review, copies, supplements or corrections, suspension of collection, processing, or use, and deletion of your personal data. You may also manage or unpublish your language exchange profile and opt out of marketing email. Service notices about your account, your invitations, and safety are part of the service itself, so they are not covered by that opt-out. Contact service@taiwanlifebuddy.com; we may verify your identity before processing the request.

11. Effect of Not Providing Data

If you do not provide required sign-in data, you may not be able to create an account. If you do not provide language exchange profile data, you may not be able to publish or be recommended. If you do not provide contact methods, contact exchange may not work after mutual acceptance. If you do not provide contact form data, we may not be able to reply.

12. Account Deletion and Updates

You may request account or data deletion through the support email. After verifying your identity, we will remove public data and delete or anonymize personal data that is no longer needed. Records still needed for legal, dispute, safety, or audit reasons will be kept with restricted access until the necessary retention period ends. For material policy updates, we will notify you through the website, in-service notice, or another reasonable method. When new categories of personal data or new purposes are added, we will generally provide notice before collection starts. The hash described in section 5 is one of the few things that survives account deletion, for the reason and for the period set out there.