Privacy Policy
This is a translation for reference. In the event of any discrepancy, the Japanese version shall prevail.
BLOOM CONSULTING ("we") sets out the following regarding the handling of personal information in the website and related services operated by us (the "Service"). We respect applicable laws and regulations and operate appropriately.
1. Scope of Application
This policy applies to the handling of personal information that we obtain through each page of bloom-abroad.com, inquiry forms, partner pages, blogs, campaign pages, and the like. Handling after you move to an external website is governed by the policy of each respective business.
2. Definitions
- Personal information: name, address, email address, phone number, online identifiers such as cookies, and other information that can identify an individual.
- Personal data: personal information that is systematically managed.
3. Information We Collect
- Information you provide: name, email address, phone number, country and city of residence, travel plans, desired schools or programs, preferred conditions for insurance and telecommunications services, inquiry details, reviews and survey responses, images and attached files, etc.
- Automatically collected information: IP (Internet Protocol) address, device and browser information, language settings, referrer, behavioral data such as views, time spent, and clicks, cookies and equivalent identifiers, UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) parameters, and measurement events.
- Information from integrations: minimal performance information about referrals from referring agents and partners.
- Location signal (country, city, time zone): We use the country, city, and time zone provided by Cloudflare's network only to show an on-screen suggestion (for example, a prompt such as "See info near you"). This information is not stored on our servers and is not logged or recorded for analytics.
- Favorites saved before logging in: what you save by pressing the heart while not logged in (type, ID, and date saved) is stored only on your device (browser) and not on our servers. It is kept for 90 days, and anything older is deleted automatically. When the list is displayed, the type and ID are sent to this site to retrieve a summary of the listings that are currently published.
- Meetup-related information: the content of Meetups you host (title, description, venue, date and time, capacity, etc.), your RSVP ("Going") records, and your preference for whether your display name is shown to other attendees.
- Profile photo (optional): the photo you set on My Page. It is cropped to a square in your browser, reduced to 512 x 512 pixels, and stripped of shooting information (including location) before it is saved. You can replace or delete it on My Page at any time, and deleting it also removes the stored image. It is shown only in the Meetup organizer and attendee displays (attendees only to logged-in users, and not in the list if you choose to hide your name) and in the article contributor display (only if you choose to have your name shown). It is handled separately from reviews and stories, and has no approval step.
- Information you enter in My Page: My Plans (plan name, purpose, candidate destinations, start month and duration), the options added to a plan and their status, notes attached to plans or favorites, and the status of your travel preparation checklist, items you added yourself and due dates (date and time zone). Only you can see this information, and it is never sent automatically to consultants or partners.
- Search box, City Match and Quote Check usage records: when you search with the search box on the top page, or leave the page without searching after typing, we record the search words (anything that looks like an email address, phone number, URL, self-introduction of a name, street or house number, date of birth or passport number is masked; a name typed on its own, without a self-introduction, cannot be recognized and may not be masked), the conditions filled in automatically, whether you chose a suggestion or an example, the type of destination and the number of results, the time taken, the display language, the type of device (smartphone, tablet or computer), whether you are logged in, the referral source of the first page opened in that tab (UTM parameters and the referring site's name), and the type of pages opened in the same tab within 30 minutes after the search (lists, details, free consultation, contact, etc.) and whether you added a favorite or sent a form. Characters you are still typing are not sent. These records are stored without linking them to your user ID, IP address or browser identification (User-Agent). To tell tabs apart, a random number that disappears when the tab is closed is stored in your browser (session storage); no cookie is used. For City Match, we record the answers you chose (the options only), your top 3 cities and match rates, whether you opened it from a shared link, and, if you closed it before the result, which question you were on. For Study Abroad Quote Check, we record whether you opened the result, at which stage you left, the number of items read, whether you are logged in, and the destination country and city (only within the scope of the consent in Article 26). Neither is linked to the text or amounts of the quote, the school name or a case number. The display language, device type, referral source and later-opened-page records are the same as for the search box. We do not send them to external analytics services.
- Record of consent at member registration: the versions of the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy you agreed to when you registered, the date and time, and how you registered (email or Google). Only you and our administrators can see it. There is no record for members who registered before we started keeping it (before October 20, 2026).
- My Abroad records: moments (text of up to 500 characters, a photo, the stage and the date) and display settings, the plans you write yourself (title, date and time), and when you last opened each enquiry (to let you know about new replies). Only you can see them, and they are never published on the Service. Shooting information such as the location in photos is removed both on your device and on our server, and photos are stored in a non-public storage area. We also store the days on which you opened My Abroad (the date only; we do not record the time, how many times or which screens you viewed), together with your member ID.
- Drafts and history stored on your device: what you are typing in a form is stored temporarily on your device (browser) until you send it (deleted automatically after 7 days for most forms and after 30 days for review and experience text). The destinations you chose in the search box on the top page are also stored only on your device. Neither is sent to our server.
- Feedback on articles: what you enter in an article's feedback form (type, text, article and display language) and, if you choose to enter it, your email address.
- Records of clicks on partner and advertising links: the time, page, destination, type of button, referrer and UTM parameters, a marker made by converting your IP address together with a secret value (a hash; the IP address itself is not stored), and information on your browser type (part of the User-Agent). We do not record names or member IDs.
- Quotes in Study Abroad Quote Check: the uploaded quote file and the content read from it (Article 26).
- Information entered in the Working Holiday Calendar and English documents (Article 27).
- Feedback on the site (Article 28).
- Registration for news notifications and your preferences (Article 29).
- Submissions and drafts for schools, scholarships, local tours, careers after returning home and similar listings, and inquiries about listings (Article 30).
- Hosting, attending, photos, reviews and reports for events, and applications from partner organizers (Article 31).
- Information at member registration and notification registration: the name of the first referring site, the first page opened, UTM parameters, display language, the country and fields you chose, the date you registered and the date you last visited. “Receive notifications and recommendation emails” is optional, and the default is not to receive them. Only when you choose it on the registration screen or the notification registration screen do we record the version of the consent and the date and time (members who registered before this record began are treated as not having consented).
4. Methods of Collection
- Collection through forms, chat, email, etc.
- Automatic collection through cookies, web beacons, local storage, etc.
- Collection of performance information through referral codes, tracking URLs, etc.
5. Voluntary Provision and Consequences of Not Providing Information
Providing personal information is voluntary. However, if you do not provide the necessary information, you may be unable to use all or part of the Service, such as estimates and application support, and delivery of member notices.
6. Purposes of Use
- Providing and operating the Service, responding to inquiries, estimates and proposals, and application support
- Supporting procedures such as reservations, contract conclusion, and cancellations, and identity verification
- Improving content and functionality, quality control, statistics and analysis
- Delivering campaigns, notices, newsletters, surveys, etc.
- Preventing fraud and spam, ensuring security, and legal compliance
- Minimal data matching to confirm referral and affiliate results and to pay rewards
- Other incidental purposes to the extent permitted by law
- Creating, using, and publishing anonymously processed information and statistical information
- Displaying Meetup listings and details, managing attendee counts and capacity, and displaying organizer and attendee names (only for those who have chosen to show their name; we do not display or disclose the member IDs of organizers or attendees)
- Statistics on how My Abroad is used (the record of days on which My Abroad was opened is used only for these statistics and is not sent to external analytics services)
- Counting clicks on partner and advertising links, confirming the results of referral fees and advertising, and detecting fraudulent clicks
- Reading quotes and displaying the results in Study Abroad Quote Check, improving reading accuracy, and creating, using and publishing statistics records that exclude items identifying individuals (Article 26)
- Providing the Working Holiday Calendar and English documents, drafting and proofreading, notices and guidance limited to the purposes you chose, and creating, using and publishing statistics records (Article 27)
- Reviewing feedback on the site and improving the site, notices to those who want them, and presenting the voices we received and our responses (limited to paraphrases from which no individual can be identified) (Article 28)
- News notifications for the regions and fields you chose (on My Page and by email), and improving how notifications reach you (Article 29)
- Reviewing and publishing submissions, delivering inquiries about listings to the listing parties, notifying review results, and sending emails to listing parties and organizers in the recipient's language (Article 30)
- Publishing events and accepting attendance, showing attendees to and notifying organizers, confirming who may write reviews, responding to reports, and reviewing partner applications (Article 31)
- Analysis of service improvement, notifications and advertising effectiveness by aggregating member registration and notification registration information (seen only by our administrators; no list per individual is made, and nothing is sent to external advertising or customer-management services), and sending notifications and recommendation emails to those who have consented
7. Legal Basis and Consent
We handle personal information on the basis of performance of contracts, legitimate interests, legal compliance, and your consent. Legitimate interests include service improvement, fraud prevention, management of referral results, quality control, and the establishment, exercise, or defense of the legal rights of us or third parties. Marketing emails are sent based on your consent. You may withdraw your consent at any time, but this does not affect the lawfulness of handling before the withdrawal.
8. Use of Cookies and Similar Technologies
- This site uses the following cookies:
- A cookie to remember your display language (issued by this site; kept for 1 year)
- A cookie used by Cloudflare to distinguish bots
- A cookie used by Google Analytics to record page views
- A cookie issued by this site to remember the currency you display (kept for 1 year)
- A cookie to keep you logged in (only when you log in)
- A cookie to return you to the original page after logging in (issued by this site; kept for 10 minutes)
- A cookie to remember how you first came to this site (the referring site's name, the first page you opened, UTM parameters and whether you came from an ad click) (issued by this site; kept for 180 days)
- A cookie to identify the operator's devices and exclude them from analytics (issued by this site; set only on the operator's devices; kept for 400 days)
- A cookie to recognise a device that tapped “Helpful” without logging in (issued by this site; saved only when you tap; kept for 180 days)
- A cookie used to count daily uses of Study Abroad Quote Check (issued by this site; random value only; kept for 2 days), and a cookie used to reopen the screen of an uploaded quote (issued by this site; kept for 24 hours)
- A cookie used to count daily uses of English documents (issued by this site; random value only; kept for 2 days)
- We use the following services for access analytics:
- Google Analytics (loaded through Google Tag Manager) — records which pages were read, where visitors came from, device and browser type, and approximate region. It uses cookies.
- Cloudflare Web Analytics — counts how many times pages are viewed and similar figures. It does not use cookies.
- Some pages show components from external services: Google Maps (maps on event detail pages and entering a location when listing a property), YouTube (school introduction videos, loaded from youtube-nocookie.com) and iframely (embeds within blog articles). When a component is shown, your browser connects to the service and your IP address and browser information are sent to that company. Each company handles this information under its own policy.
- When you search with the search box, the masked search words and the type of search are also sent to Google Analytics. Words you typed but did not search are not sent (only their length and the time taken are sent).
- When you send the free consultation, contact or partner inquiry form, register as a member, or post an experience or a review, our server sends the type of action (for example, free consultation) and how you first came to this site (the contents of the cookie above) to Google Analytics. The identifier in the Google Analytics cookie (a pseudonymous ID) is sent with it; your name, email address, message and member ID are not sent. If there is no Google Analytics cookie (for example, when you use the opt-out add-on), nothing is sent.
- The contact, free consultation, listing inquiry, partner inquiry, school inquiry, review, experience and article edit suggestion forms use Cloudflare Turnstile. To tell automated submissions apart, characteristics of your interaction and your IP address are sent to Cloudflare.
- On screens that show your own information, such as My Page, Favorites and Log in, no access analytics (Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics) recording is performed. Events sent to access analytics do not contain personal information such as your name or email address.
- This site does not have a mechanism for obtaining your consent in advance to the storage of cookies (a cookie banner). Analytics cookies are stored when you open a page.
- If you do not want to be recorded by Google Analytics, please use the "Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on" provided by Google (https://
tools.google.com/ ), or disable cookies in your browser settings.dlpage/ gaoptout - We do not use cookies for advertising. If we do so, we will revise this policy, give advance notice, and do so based on your consent.
- You can disable cookies in your browser settings. In that case, your display language will not be saved and you may be unable to submit forms.
9. Provision to Third Parties and Outsourcing
- We provide personal information to third parties in the following cases:
- Where you have given consent
- Where required by laws or regulations
- Where it is necessary to protect a person's life, body, or property, and it is difficult to obtain your consent
- Where it is especially necessary to improve public health or to promote the sound development of children, and it is difficult to obtain your consent
- Where it is necessary to cooperate with a national government agency, a local government, or a person entrusted by either of them in performing affairs prescribed by laws or regulations, and obtaining your consent is likely to impede the performance of those affairs
- If you make an inquiry or application through a form on the Service to a listing party (a property lister, a school, a study-abroad agent, an insurance agency, or a listing party of local tours, careers after returning home and similar listings), we provide your name, email address, and the content of your inquiry to that listing party, to the extent necessary for that procedure. Recipients are limited to the listing party you selected. Before sending, we show you the recipient and the information to be provided, and we provide it only after obtaining your consent. If you apply to an event for which this site accepts attendance, we show your name and application status to that event's organizer to the extent necessary to accept your attendance (Article 31).
- If you make an inquiry or contact a partner (a business we refer you to, such as a study-abroad agent) through a form or button on the Service, we provide your name, email address, place of residence, plans and message (and your LINE ID if you enter it) to the partner shown to you before sending, to the extent necessary for that inquiry, and the partner contacts you directly. Partners have agreed with us to use the information only to guide you and handle procedures for that inquiry. After it is provided, the partner handles it under its own privacy policy. Emails between you and the partner are delivered through our relay address. We do not store the body or attachments of these emails and keep only the records needed to confirm the referral, such as the date and time, direction and size of each email. If you ask us to stop providing or to delete your information, we erase our own records (except the minimum needed for reconciliation under Article 12) and ask the partner to delete theirs.
- Where a partner treats “arrest or criminal record, in Japan or abroad” as an item it must confirm (to guide you on visas and entry procedures), we do not ask you this question and do not collect, store or provide any answer. The notification email says only that confirmation with the partner is required, and the partner confirms it with you directly.
- We outsource the handling of personal information to the following external services. All of them are businesses outside Japan.
- Supabase — stores inquiry content, account information, saved favorites, the plans, notes and preparation records you enter in My Page, and My Abroad records. The servers where the data is stored are in South Korea (Seoul). It also stores the content read in Study Abroad Quote Check and the statistics records (Article 26).
- Cloudflare — delivers the site and keeps access records (logs), stores listing images and My Abroad photos (in a non-public storage area), judges automated form submissions, and counts page views without cookies. It also stores the original files of quotes in Study Abroad Quote Check, the screenshots attached to site feedback, and the photos of submissions in a non-public storage area (Articles 26, 28 and 30). It also receives emails sent to the relay address so that they can be delivered to the other party (the body and attachments are not stored).
- SMTP2GO — handles recipient email addresses and message bodies in order to send automatic replies, notification emails, sign-up and login confirmation emails, news notifications, and emails to listing parties and organizers. It also receives notices of non-delivery and spam reports. We also use it to deliver emails between partners and customers from the relay address to the other party (we do not store the body).
- Anthropic, PBC — only when you press “Polish the wording” on a submission form, handles the text of the description or review you entered (and nothing else) in order to create suggested wording. It is also used to read the conditions you are looking for from words typed in the search box. In addition, it is used to extract figures and changes from parts of the text of official public pages (no personal information is included; Article 24). It is also used when an administrator translates the text of a school listing into drafts in other languages (listing text only; no personal information). It is also used to read uploaded quotes in Study Abroad Quote Check (Article 26). It is also used for drafting and proofreading English documents (Article 27) and for translating the text of inquiries to listing parties (only when the listing party's language differs from the language of the inquiry; Article 30).
- Google — handles browsing records for access analytics, and displays maps (Google Maps).
- To find nearby stations and similar places from the location of a property listing, we send the location (latitude and longitude) to the Overpass API (Germany), which provides OpenStreetMap data. No personal information is sent.
- We require our contractors to take security control measures and enter into the necessary agreements with them.
- We do not sell personal information.
- The privacy practices of external websites and partner businesses are outside our control. Please check the policy of the site you move to.
10. Outsourcing to Businesses in Foreign Countries and Storage Outside Japan
We are based in Japan. The contractors listed in Section 9 are all businesses headquartered outside Japan. Your information may be stored and processed on servers outside Japan.
| Contractor | Country of headquarters | Main purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase | United States | Storing inquiries, accounts, favorites, and My Page and My Abroad records (servers in Seoul, South Korea), content read in Study Abroad Quote Check and statistics records |
| Cloudflare | United States | Delivering the site and keeping access records, storing images and My Abroad photos, judging automated form submissions, counting page views without cookies, storing the original quote files, storing original quote files and the photos for feedback and submissions |
| SMTP2GO | New Zealand | Sending automatic replies, notification emails, and sign-up and login confirmation emails, news notifications, and emails to listing parties and organizers |
| Anthropic | United States | Creating suggested wording for submitted descriptions and reviews (only when you press the button) / reading the intent of search-box words / extracting figures and changes from official public pages (Article 24) / drafting school listing text in other languages / reading quotes in Study Abroad Quote Check (Article 26) / drafting and proofreading English documents (Article 27) / translating the text of inquiries to listing parties (Article 30) |
| Google | United States | Access analytics, displaying maps |
You can check each country's system for the protection of personal information in the "Survey on Systems for the Protection of Personal Information in Foreign Countries" published by the Personal Information Protection Commission of Japan (https://
We have confirmed, through each company's terms of use and data processing agreements, that each contractor has established a system for continuously taking measures equivalent to those required under Japan's Act on the Protection of Personal Information. In addition, at least once a year, we check how each contractor handles personal information and whether its country has any systems that could affect the implementation of those measures. Upon your request, we will inform you of an overview of these measures.
Only if you press “Polish the wording” on a submission form, the text of the description or review you entered (and nothing else) is sent to the Anthropic, PBC API (Claude) to create suggested wording. A review’s star rating, names, email addresses and other contact details, and account identifiers are not sent. We do not store the text you send and use it only to create the suggestions. A suggestion is applied to your text only if you choose “Use this text”; if you do not, your text is submitted as you wrote it. How the text is handled at the destination is governed by that company’s terms.
Words you type in the search box may be sent to the API of Anthropic, PBC (Claude) to read the conditions you are looking for (country, city, category, etc.). Before sending, anything that looks like an email address, phone number, URL, self-introduction of a name, street or house number, date of birth or passport number is masked, and input longer than 200 characters is not sent. A name given in a self-introduction (such as “my name is …”) is masked before sending. However, a name typed on its own without a self-introduction (for example, “Taro Yamada Cebu”) cannot be told apart from other words and may be sent as it is, so please do not type your name in the search box. We do not send contact details (after masking), your user ID or IP address. The result is only turned into search conditions; AI does not create any listing content. The search words, the conditions read from them, the destination and the number of results are stored for 90 days, without linking them to your user ID or IP address, to improve search and monitor cost, and are then deleted automatically. They are linked to the usage record of the same search in Article 3 by a random number generated for each search. Handling at the recipient follows its terms. We may also send stored search words (after masking) to its API once a week to check how accurately they are interpreted.
11. Business Succession
Personal information may be transferred to a successor in connection with a corporate reorganization such as a merger, company split, business transfer, or asset sale. We will take care that, after the succession, it continues to be handled at a level equal to or higher than this policy.
12. Retention Period
We retain personal information for the period necessary to achieve the purposes of collection, or for the period prescribed by law. We may extend the retention period where necessary, for example for legal obligations. Personal information that is no longer needed will be deleted or anonymized by appropriate methods.
- Content you submit through the contact form and the free consultation form (name, email address, message, record of consent, etc.) is kept for one year from the date we receive it and is then deleted automatically. However, where necessary to comply with the law or to handle a dispute, we keep it for as long as that is necessary.
- For partner inquiries and free consultations, the records needed to confirm referral fees (receipt number, partner, target listing, date received, display language, UTM parameters of the source, date and version of consent, and the status of forwarding and contract) are kept after one year from receipt, once names, contact details, message text, member IDs and the like have been erased. These records include the date and time of sending to the partner, the sending ID and whether it was delivered, the date, time and direction of emails through the relay address, status updates from the partner, and the links between referral numbers used to connect inquiries from the same customer.
- We store the version (date) of this Privacy Policy that was in force when you gave consent, together with the record of your inquiry.
- When you close your account (delete it), you can no longer log in. One year after closure, we automatically delete your favorites (including notes), My Plans (including plan candidates, notes within plans and travel preparation records), My Abroad moments, photos, settings and records of days opened, "Helpful" records, event attendance records, the plans you wrote, records of when you opened your enquiries, the records of your sign-up source and consent, the records of notification emails, recommendation emails and consent for each purpose, and the records of news preferences and notifications. Account information such as your registered email address is kept after closure to prevent misuse and to respond to inquiries and disputes. If you wish it to be deleted, please make a request under Article 14. Reviews, experiences and photos are not subject to this automatic deletion (as stated in Articles 21 and 22, they are deleted on request).
- Profile photos are deleted automatically, together with the stored image, one year after you withdraw (they are deleted immediately when you delete them on My Page).
- When you delete a My Plan, the options, in-plan notes and travel preparation records of that plan are also deleted. When you remove a favorite, the note attached to it is also deleted. Neither can be undone.
- When you log in, we ask whether to add the favorites saved on your device to your account. They are saved to your account only if you choose "Add" (after that they are kept as described in Article 9). If you choose not to add them, the copy on your device remains as it is and disappears after 90 days.
- Search box, City Match and Quote Check usage records (Article 3) and records of reading search words (Article 10) are kept for 90 days and then deleted automatically.
- For records of clicks on links to partners and ads (Article 3), we delete the IP address marker, the browser type information and the referrer after 90 days, and automatically delete the record itself after one year. However, records linked to a referral result or an inquiry are kept to confirm referral fees (with the IP address marker and similar information already deleted).
- Records of the days on which My Abroad was opened are deleted automatically after 180 days.
- The device marker for “Helpful” reactions made without logging in is deleted 180 days after the last tap, leaving only the count for each item. Markers used to prevent rapid repeated sending are deleted within about an hour after the date changes (Article 25).
- Records of clicks on partner and advertising links are kept for as long as needed to confirm the results of referral fees and advertising and to detect fraud, and are deleted when no longer needed.
- The record of how you first came to this site and the Google Analytics identifier are kept together with your inquiry and deleted at the same time as the inquiry record (1 year after receipt). The record made at member registration is deleted automatically together with your other member data 1 year after you delete your account.
- The original files and the extracted content of quotes in Study Abroad Quote Check are automatically deleted 180 days after upload for members, and 24 hours after upload when not logged in. Statistics records that exclude items identifying individuals are kept with no time limit. Usage count records are deleted after 31 days (Article 26).
- English documents are automatically deleted one year after they were last opened or edited. Usage count records are deleted after 31 days, and statistics records are kept with no time limit (Article 27).
- For site feedback, the marker used to detect rapid repeated sending is automatically deleted after 2 days, the email address after 30 days from sending the notification or 1 year from receipt, whichever is earlier, the screenshot after 180 days, and the text and other content after 3 years (Article 28).
- Records of submissions, listings and inquiries, and records of event reports, applications and the like, are kept for as long as necessary and deleted when no longer needed (Articles 30 and 31).
13. Security
We take reasonable security control measures such as access control, encryption, log auditing, least privilege, and employee training. However, we do not guarantee complete security in transmission over the internet or in storage. When handling personal data in a foreign country, we take security control measures after understanding that country's system for the protection of personal information (the countries where our contractors are headquartered are listed in Section 10).
14. Requests for Disclosure, etc.
- With respect to your personal data held by us, you may request notification of the purposes of use; disclosure (including records of provision to third parties); correction, addition, or deletion; suspension of use or erasure; and suspension of provision to third parties.
- Please send your request through the inquiry form in Section 17, clearly stating what you are requesting. For identity verification, we may ask you to provide information to the extent necessary, for example by sending the request from your registered email address. If the request is made through an agent, please provide a document that confirms the agent's authority.
- We do not charge any fee.
- Disclosure is made by the method you specify, such as providing electronic records. If disclosure by the specified method is difficult, we will inform you of this and make the disclosure in writing.
- After receiving a request, we will respond without delay (as a rule, within 30 days).
- We may decline to disclose all or part of the information where disclosure is likely to harm the life, body, property, or other rights or interests of you or a third party, is likely to seriously interfere with the proper conduct of our business, or would violate other laws or regulations. In that case, we will inform you of the reason.
15. Traffic Tracking
We identify traffic sources using UTM-tagged URLs and referral codes, and record them in Google Analytics. We use them as statistics that do not identify individuals, to decide which pages to expand. Where we send you email notifications or mailings, you may stop them at any time.
16. Behavioral Targeting Advertising
We do not currently conduct behavioral targeting advertising. If we do so, we will update this policy, give advance notice, and carry it out based on consent.
17. Contact (Including Complaints and Consultations)
Trade name: BLOOM CONSULTING
Name of the business operator (representative): Yuki Sugimoto
Address: Osaka Ekimae Dai-3 Building 11F Room 2, 1-1-3 Umeda, Kita-ku, Osaka 530-0001, Japan
Phone: +81 50-6875-4609
Person responsible for handling personal information: Yuki Sugimoto
Contact: Contact Form
Operator information: Operator information (Legal notice under the Act on Specified Commercial Transactions)
We accept consultations, complaints, and requests for disclosure, etc. regarding personal information at the contact point above, and endeavor to respond promptly.
For our policy on inquiries, please see Policy on Inquiries.
18. Revisions to This Policy
We may revise this policy due to changes in laws, the content of the Service, or the like. We make revisions as follows, depending on their content.
- For revisions that narrow your rights, or that require your consent under the law (such as changing the purposes of use beyond the scope reasonably recognized as related to the purposes before the change), we will announce the revised content and its effective date on this site before the effective date. Revisions that require your consent will be made only after obtaining your consent.
- Revisions that only adjust the wording, bring the policy in line with how we actually handle information, or strengthen your protection take effect when they are published on this site.
- For every revision, we list the version, effective date and what changed in the "Revision History" at the end.
19. Language and Interpretation
The Japanese version of this policy is the authoritative text. Versions in other languages are reference translations, and in the event of any inconsistency, the Japanese version prevails.
20. Personal Information of Information Providers, Listing Parties, and Advertisers Outside Japan
- This Section applies to the names, email addresses, phone numbers, affiliations, and contents of communications of information providers, listing parties, and advertisers outside Japan (the "Overseas Providers"), and to the contents of customers' inquiries that reach us through Overseas Providers.
- The personal information of Overseas Providers is sent to us in Japan, and may be stored and processed on the servers of the outsourcees in Section 10 (businesses outside Japan). The outsourcees, countries, and methods of verification are as set out in Section 10.
- When we pass a customer's inquiry to an Overseas Provider, we do so only after showing the customer, before sending, the recipient and the information to be passed, and obtaining their consent. Overseas Providers manage the information in accordance with the laws and regulations of their country.
- Where an Overseas Provider is subject to the personal information protection laws of the EU, the United Kingdom, or another country, we will separately inform them of the matters required by those laws (purposes of use, retention period, rights of the individual, and the basis for transfer).
- We do not sell personal information.
- Requests for disclosure, correction, deletion, suspension of use, and withdrawal of consent are accepted through the contact form, as set out in Section 14. After verifying identity, we will respond in accordance with laws and regulations.
- Records of communications are kept, as set out in Section 12, only for the period necessary to achieve the purpose or for the period necessary for compliance with laws and regulations or dispute handling, and are deleted or anonymized when no longer needed.
21. Reviews and Photos
- When you post a review, we collect the text, rating, period of use, any declaration of affiliation or reward, photos (optional), the identifier of the posting account, and the content of any report.
- We use this to check and publish reviews (including preventing abuse and fraud) and to record your consent to use a photo "elsewhere on the site" (we store the date and time of consent).
- What is published is the text, rating, period of use, photos, language, and affiliation or reward labels of approved reviews. We do not publish the author's name, email address or identifier (nicknames on experiences and the contributor display on articles are published as exceptions, as described in Articles 22 and 23). Information about the person who made a report is not disclosed to the author.
- Shooting information such as the location in photos is removed on your device (browser) before posting, and removed again on our server when we receive the photo. Until the check is complete, photo files are stored under unguessable names in storage that is not publicly accessible (Cloudflare). Only after both the photo and the post are approved do we copy the photo to our public image storage. When a photo or post is rejected, hidden or deleted, or when an edited post returns to awaiting review, we remove the photo from the public storage. Photos in which a face appears large are not published.
- Reviews and photos are deleted when the author deletes them from "Reviews" under "Posts & listings" in My Page, or requests deletion. Deletion from My Page takes effect immediately, including attached photos, and cannot be undone. Closing your account alone does not automatically delete reviews and photos. If you wish them deleted, please delete them from My Page or request deletion through the contact form as set out in Article 14.
- You may withdraw your consent to "use elsewhere on the site" for a photo at any time. When you do, the photo is removed from publication (including from under the review) and the stored file is deleted.
- If you use “Polish the wording” on a review, we record the date of use, the amount of input and output (tokens), the cost, the result, and the identifier of the account that posted, in order to understand usage and manage costs. The text itself is not recorded.
22. Experiences and Photos
- When you post an experience, we collect its title, text, period, country and city, links (the listings you selected, or the names and short comments you entered), an optional nickname, the language of the post, any declaration of affiliation or reward, photos (optional), the identifier of the posting account, and the content of any report.
- We use this to check and publish experiences (including preventing abuse and fraud), to show them on the pages of the linked listings, to record your consent to use a photo "elsewhere on the site" (we store the date and time of consent), and to notify you of the result of our check (by email).
- What is published is the title, text, period, country and city, links, photos, language, nickname (only if entered; if left blank, the experience is shown as anonymous), and the affiliation, reward and "our own services" labels of approved experiences. Publishing a nickname applies only to experiences and the contributor display on articles (Article 23); for reviews (Article 21), we do not publish the author's name. We do not publish the author's email address or account identifier. We do not ask you to enter your real name. Information about the person who made a report is not disclosed to the author.
- Experience pages include structured data for search engines (title, dates, nickname and publisher). For experiences without a nickname, no author name is included. We do not create profile pages for authors.
- Shooting information such as the location in photos is removed on your device (browser) before posting, and removed again on our server when we receive the photo. Until the check is complete, photo files are stored under unguessable names in storage that is not publicly accessible (Cloudflare). Only after both the photo and the post are approved do we copy the photo to our public image storage. When a photo or post is rejected, hidden or deleted, or when an edited post returns to awaiting review, we remove the photo from the public storage. Photos in which a face appears large are not published.
- Experiences and photos are deleted when the author deletes them from "Experiences" under "Posts & listings" in My Page, or requests deletion. Deletion from My Page takes effect immediately, including photos and links, and cannot be undone. Closing your account alone does not automatically delete experiences and photos. If you wish them deleted, please delete them from My Page or request deletion through the contact form as set out in Article 14.
- You may withdraw your consent to use a photo elsewhere on the site at any time. When withdrawn, the photo is removed from publication and the stored file is deleted.
- When we send an email notifying you of the result of our check, we record only the experience identifier, the type of result, the sending result, and the date and time. We do not record your email address or the text.
23. Article Edit Suggestions and Contributor Display
- When a logged-in member suggests an edit to an article, we collect the type of suggestion, the part of the article, the selected text, the content of the suggestion, the source URL (optional), whether to show your name on the article and your nickname (optional), the language of the suggestion, and the identifier of the account and the date and time of the suggestion.
- We use this to check and correct articles, to prevent misuse, to notify you when a suggestion is accepted (by email), and to calculate your contributor level.
- Only when a suggestion is accepted and the member has chosen "Show my name on the article" do we publish, under "People who helped with this article" on that article, the nickname (or "Contributor" if left blank), profile image, contributor level, and a label showing that the correction was made by the listed provider. We do not publish email addresses, names or account identifiers.
- Contributor levels are calculated by us from accepted suggestions and approved experiences, reviews and photos, using the status and dates of these posts. Total points are shown on your own My Page, and the contributor display on articles shows only the level. We do not rank members against each other.
- You can stop showing your name at any time, for each article or for all articles, from "Contributions" under "Posts" on My Page. Your name is also removed when you withdraw a suggestion or close your account.
- We delete a suggestion when you withdraw it from My Page or when you request deletion as described in Article 14. Closing your account alone does not automatically delete the record of your suggestions.
- Notices of acceptance (by email) are sent to your registered email address.
24. Checking Official Public Information and Analysis by AI
- To keep our content accurate, we regularly retrieve official pages published by government agencies, schools, transport operators and others, and check whether their content has changed since the last check. We retrieve only public pages that anyone can view.
- We may send parts of the text of the retrieved pages to the API of Anthropic, PBC (Claude) to extract figures such as tuition, required amounts and dates, and changes. Only the text of public pages is sent; we do not send personal information of members or users (names, contact details, account identifiers, IP addresses, the content of inquiries or My Page, etc.). Handling at the recipient follows its terms.
- We do not store the original text of the retrieved pages. We store only a marker for detecting changes (a hash value), short quotations that serve as the basis for what we publish, the source URL and the date of the check.
- Content extracted by AI is treated as a draft and is never published on the site as is. Whether to publish it is decided by our staff after checking the source.
25. “Helpful” Reactions and How We Count Views
- Public stories and reviews, blog articles, news, listing detail pages (such as schools, housing and insurance), and stories published with a partner's permission have a “Helpful” (thumbs up) and a “Not helpful” (thumbs down) button. You can tap them without logging in. One person (or, when not logged in, one device) can choose only one of the two for each item, and tapping the same button again withdraws it.
- When you tap while logged in, we store your account ID, the item, which button you tapped, and the time. Only you can see this record; we never show the author or other users who tapped. The record is deleted when you withdraw the reaction (for closing an account, see Article 12).
- When you tap without logging in, we save a cookie containing only a random value on your device (Article 8) so that repeated taps from the same device can be recognised. We do not store the cookie value itself; we store only an irreversible marker made by combining it with a secret value held only by us, together with the item, which button was tapped, and the time. 180 days after the last tap, the marker is deleted and only the count for each item remains. If you later log in on the same device and tap, the device record is deleted and merged into your account's record.
- To prevent rapid repeated sending by machines, we create an irreversible marker from part of the IP address and a broad category of the browser, using a secret value that is replaced every day, and count how many taps are made within a set time. Sending judged to come from bots is not accepted. The marker is deleted together with the previous day's secret value within about an hour after the date changes. We do not store IP addresses or browser information (user agent) for this purpose. We do not guarantee that duplicates can be prevented completely.
- We publish only the number of “Helpful” reactions for each item (nothing is shown when it is zero). The number of “Not helpful” reactions is not published and can be seen only by our administrators. Authors are told only how many logged-in members marked their member stories or reviews as “Helpful”. The counts are never used to change the order of listings or articles, and tapping earns no points or rewards. When you tap, we send the type and ID of the item and which button you tapped to Google Analytics (no personal information such as your name is sent).
- We count how many times a public story or review is shown on screen, as feedback for its author. A view is counted only when the text stays on screen for a certain time. Views by automated programs (bots) and by the author themselves are not counted.
- Repeated views of the same post by the same person on the same day count as one. To tell them apart, we create an irreversible marker from part of the IP address and a broad category of the browser, using a secret value that is replaced every day. The marker is used only to detect duplicates on that day, and it is deleted together with the previous day's secret value within about an hour after the date changes, so past views cannot later be traced back to anyone.
- For view counts we store only the number of views per post per day. We do not store IP addresses, browser information (user agent), or member account IDs for view counting.
26. Study Abroad Quote Check (Storing Your Quote and Reading It with AI)
- In “Study Abroad Quote Check”, we keep the study abroad quote file you upload (PDF, JPEG or PNG; the “Original”) and use AI to read and organise what is written in it (country, city, school, course, duration, start date, cost items and amounts, currency, discounts, support included, payment, refund and cancellation terms, issuer, issue date, quote number, etc.; the “Extracted Content”), and show it only on the screen of the person who uploaded it. You can use it without logging in. Before you upload, we ask for your consent to the handling described in this Article.
- A quote may contain personal information about you or your family, such as names, addresses, contact details and dates of birth. You may black out the parts that are not needed for reading before you upload. If the quote is not your own, please upload it only with the consent of the person it concerns.
- To read it, we send the Original to the API of Anthropic, PBC (Claude). We send only the Original and the reading instructions; we do not send the member ID, email address or IP address. According to the policy published by that company (as we confirmed on October 24, 2026), inputs and outputs received through the API are automatically deleted from its systems within 30 days of receipt or generation. However, inputs and outputs judged likely to violate its usage policy may be retained for up to 2 years, and may be retained as required by law in accordance with those provisions. The company also states that, as a rule, it does not use API inputs and outputs for model training. We do not send evaluations or feedback to that company. Handling at the destination follows that company’s terms and policies (https://
privacy.claude.com/ ). - The Original is stored in Cloudflare’s non-public storage area (storage with no public URL), and the Extracted Content is stored in Supabase (Articles 9 and 10). The Original and the Extracted Content can be viewed on screen only by the person who uploaded them (for members, the logged-in person themselves; when not logged in, the browser used to upload). Our administrators may check them to the extent necessary to handle failures, investigate misuse, improve reading accuracy and comply with laws and regulations.
- The retention periods are as follows.
- Members: The Original and the Extracted Content (including the history of corrections and the confirmed content) are automatically deleted 180 days after upload. Opening or correcting them does not extend this.
- Not logged in: The Original and the Extracted Content are automatically deleted 24 hours after upload. The key for reopening the screen is stored only in a cookie in your browser (kept for 24 hours), so if you close the browser or delete cookies, you may not be able to reopen it even before the deadline.
- A quote checked while not logged in is carried over as a member's quote only if you log in (including registering as a member) within 24 hours after upload and press “Keep on My Page” on the results screen. A quote carried over is automatically deleted 180 days after upload.
- Items past their deadline are deleted by a process that runs about once an hour. If you close your account, they are likewise deleted by this deadline.
- The Extracted Content may remain for up to about 60 days after deletion in database backups prepared for failures (backups do not include the Original). Backups are used only for recovery from failures and are deleted automatically when the period ends.
- To keep to the daily usage limit, we count the number of uses per day for each irreversible marker made from the member ID or, when not logged in, from the random number of each device (the cookie in Article 8) and part of the IP address. This record is automatically deleted after 31 days.
- From the Extracted Content we create a record of only the following items (the “Statistics Record”) for every quote, and keep it with no time limit. The Statistics Record is used to improve the service and to create and publish statistics (for example, cost guides by country and school).
- Items kept: country, city, school, course, number of weeks, start year and month, quote year and month, issuer (company name), for each type of cost the amount, currency, quantity, unit, whether it is mandatory or optional and the plan name, total amount and currency, the text of support, refund and cancellation terms (with email addresses, phone numbers, postal codes, strings in the form of passport numbers, names accompanied by an honorific or a heading such as “Name”, and dates of birth masked), whether a payment deadline is stated, the proportion of items you corrected, and reading quality (such as the number of items).
- Items not kept: the Original, name, address, contact details, date of birth, quote number, the day of a date, excerpts of the quote’s text, the memo field, and the member ID, email address and IP address.
- While the Original and the Extracted Content remain, the Statistics Record carries a number linking it to them. When the Original and the Extracted Content are deleted (whether by the deadline or by you), this link is also erased, and after that even we cannot identify whose quote the record was made from.
- Because the masking is done automatically, names without a heading or honorific and the like cannot be recognised and may remain in the text of the terms. If we find any, we may delete that part.
- From “Delete this quote and the results” on the results screen, you can immediately delete the Original, the Extracted Content, the history of corrections and the record of consent at any time (when not logged in, only while you can open the screen). Deletion cannot be undone. The Statistics Record is not deleted by this operation and remains with the link erased, as described in the preceding item. A Statistics Record whose link has been erased cannot be identified as anyone’s, so it cannot be deleted individually. If you cannot operate it from the screen, please make a request under Article 14 (for a quote uploaded without logging in, there is no means of confirming that it is yours, so we may be unable to comply with the request).
- We do not provide the Original or the Extracted Content to third parties such as consultation partners, schools, study abroad agents and affiliates (except for outsourcing to the service providers in Article 9 and cases required by law as set out in Article 9). We also do not tell the business that issued the quote that you checked it or what the results were. The Statistics Record may be published or provided as aggregated statistics, and in that case it will not be in a form that lets anyone tell who uploaded the quote.
- The results screen shows reference exchange rates (published figures from central banks such as the Bank of Canada and the European Central Bank). We only fetch the published rates; we do not use or send any of your information.
- The reason you select when you “correct” the read content (misread, error in the quote, or your own judgment; selecting one is optional) is kept in the history of corrections and used to improve reading accuracy. The history of corrections is deleted at the same time as the quote.
- The Study Abroad Quote Check screen does not load external analytics services such as Google Analytics. For quality control, we record the number of processes, time taken, cost, type of failure, number of corrected items and the number of times the “What you can do next” link was pressed, without linking them to a case number or personal information.
- Reading by AI may be wrong. The content shown is reference information that organises what the quote says; we do not judge or guarantee whether the amounts in the quote are reasonable, nor do we evaluate the business that issued the quote. Before signing a contract or paying, always check the original quote and the issuer.
27. Working Holiday Calendar and English Documents (Resume, Cover Letter and Application Documents)
- In the “Working Holiday Calendar” and “English Documents” (resume, cover letter, academic CV, statement of purpose, request for a recommendation letter, etc.), you enter the destination country and city, the timing of travel, your year and month of birth, the expiry (year and month) of your passport, work history, education, qualifications and skills, the type and score of English tests, desired occupation, the institution and program you are applying to, and text you write yourself. Your name, address, phone number and email address are entered on the screen only when you export a document, and are not sent to our servers or to the AI in the next paragraph (the exported file is created on your own device).
- Your year and month of birth are used only inside your browser to calculate age-based application deadlines, and are not sent. If you save a calendar, we store only the calculated “last day you can apply”, the year and month of travel and the year and month of passport expiry.
- To draft and proofread English text, we send the content you entered (excluding your name, address, phone number and email address) and your instructions to the API of Anthropic, PBC (Claude). We do not send the member ID, email address or IP address. Handling at the destination follows that company's policy described in paragraph 3 of Article 26. We do not send evaluations or feedback to that company.
- Only when a logged-in user chooses “Save”, we store the content entered, the drafts and the corrections in Supabase (Articles 9 and 10). Only you can view them on screen. Our administrators may check them to the extent necessary to handle failures, investigate misuse and comply with laws and regulations. English documents are automatically deleted one year after they were last opened or edited. A calendar is kept until you delete the plan. When you are not logged in, what you enter is stored only in your browser.
- To keep to the daily usage limit, we count the number of uses per day for each irreversible marker made from the member ID or, when not logged in, from the random number of each device (the cookie in Article 8) and part of the IP address. This record is automatically deleted after 31 days.
- From the content entered, we create a record of only the type of document, country, purpose (work or application), type of English test and band of score, occupation fitted into a fixed classification, stage of program, year and month of travel and year and month of creation (the “Statistics Record” in this Article), and keep it with no time limit. Because the Statistics Record is created in a form not linked to a member ID or a document, even we cannot identify whose input it was made from. It is used to improve the service and to create and publish aggregated statistics, and when publishing we do not show any group of fewer than 10.
- We use the saved information only when you have chosen to receive each of the following: news notifications on working holidays in that country (information used: country), invitations to events matched to your travel timing (information used: city and year and month of travel), and guidance on job search, schools, insurance and communications (information used: country, timing, English level and desired occupation). We record what you chose, the date and time, and the version of the policy at that time. You can withdraw what you chose at any time. After withdrawal, we do not use it for that purpose.
- We do not provide the content entered, the drafts or the saved information to third parties such as schools, study abroad agents, companies and affiliates (except for outsourcing to the service providers in Article 9 and cases required by law). The guidance in the preceding paragraph is chosen and displayed by us and does not pass your information to affiliates. Guidance for which we receive a referral fee is labeled “PR”.
- From “Delete this document” and “Delete this calendar” on the screen, you can delete them immediately at any time. Deletion cannot be undone. The Statistics Record cannot be deleted individually because, as stated in paragraph 6, it is not linked to you. Database backups prepared for failures may retain the data for up to about 60 days after deletion. Backups are used only for recovery from failures and are deleted automatically when the period ends.
- For quality control, we record the number of processes, time taken, cost and type of failure, without linking them to personal information. We do not send the content entered to external analytics services such as Google Analytics.
- Drafts and corrections by AI may be wrong and do not guarantee employment or admission. Always check the content yourself before submitting. Some institutions have rules on the use of AI, so please follow the rules of the institution you apply to.
28. Feedback on the Site
- Through “Feedback on the site” (the feedback page and the banner on each page), we collect the type of feedback, a short comment, the feeling button, the path of the page you sent it from, the display language, the screen width, and a screenshot if you choose to attach one. If you are logged in, we also keep your member ID and an optional nickname, and if you asked to be notified, your email address.
- After removing shooting information, we store the screenshot in non-public storage (Cloudflare), and only our administrators view it. Please make sure that no one else's personal information appears in the screenshot.
- The purposes are to improve the site, to notify those who want it, and to prevent rapid repeated sending. To detect rapid repeated sending, we create an irreversible marker (a hash) from part of the IP address and a rough category of the device, using a secret value that is renewed every day, and store only the marker.
- For feedback we have responded to, we may publish only a paraphrase written by us from which no individual can be identified, as “What you told us, and what we did”. We do not publish the text we received, your name or the screenshot.
- The retention periods are as follows. The marker for detecting rapid repeated sending is automatically deleted after 2 days, the email address after 30 days from sending the notification or 1 year from receipt, whichever is earlier, the screenshot after 180 days from receipt, and the text and other content after 3 years from receipt (a published paraphrase remains).
- The service providers are Supabase, Cloudflare and SMTP2GO (Articles 9 and 10).
29. News Notifications (Notification Registration and Preferences)
- From those who register for news notifications, we collect their preferences (destination, countries of interest, type of study abroad, month of departure, period, interests, regions and fields to receive, how to receive, and whether to receive only important items), display language, whether they have answered the first question, and the version and date and time of consent to receive by email. We also record whether you read the notification on My Page, the time you opened an email and the time you pressed a link (using tags attached to images and links; only the first time), and the reason notifications were stopped (your own operation, the unsubscribe link in an email, non-delivery, or a spam report).
- The purposes are to notify you of news for the regions and fields you chose on My Page and by email, to list news about your country on My Page, and to count whether notifications arrived and how many were stopped, in order to improve them.
- We send emails only when you have chosen to receive them by email. Each email includes the sender's name, address and contact details, and a link that stops them with one action. We do not send after you stop them.
- Notices of non-delivery and spam reports are received from SMTP2GO and used to stop sending to that address.
- Preferences and records are kept while you remain registered, and are automatically deleted one year after you close your account.
- The service providers are Supabase, Cloudflare and SMTP2GO (Articles 9 and 10).
30. Submitted Listings and Inquiries about Listings
- For submissions of schools and scholarships and of listings such as local tours and careers after returning home, we collect the name of the person in charge, the contact email address and phone number (optional), the position (direct business or agency) and the agency's declaration (permit, fees, registration number), and the content and photos of the listing. The contact details of the person in charge are not made public. The agency's name and whether customers pay the agency a fee are made public together with the listing.
- After removing shooting information, we store photos in non-public storage (Cloudflare), and copy only the photos of listings that are public to public storage.
- If you are logged in, we save a draft in progress to your account. A draft can be read only by you, does not include photos, is deleted once sending is complete, and is deleted together with your account when you close it. If you are not logged in, it is kept in your browser for 7 days.
- While waiting for approval, the submitter can edit or withdraw their submission. We record the time of editing and withdrawal.
- The purposes are to review and publish submissions, to deliver inquiries about listings to listing parties, to notify review results, and to prevent misuse. To prevent misuse, we set a limit on the number of submissions and inquiries one person can send in 24 hours.
- For an inquiry about a listing, we collect the member's name, email address, message, desired date and number of people, and deliver it by email to the listing party when you perform the operation to send the inquiry (provision under Article 9). The reply goes to the email address of the person who made the inquiry. We only pass it on, and subsequent exchanges take place between you and the listing party.
- Emails to listing parties and organizers are sent in the recipient's language (decided in the order of the person's setting, preferences and the language of the submission, and English if none applies). Text written by users, such as the body of an inquiry, is included as written. Only when the listing party's language differs from the language of the inquiry, we send only the body of the inquiry to the API of Anthropic, PBC (Claude) in order to translate it, and include the translation alongside the original. We do not send names, email addresses or account IDs. We do not store the translation or the body as an AI record, and record only the name of the function, the volume of processing, the cost and the result. The translation is for reference, and the original prevails. Handling at the destination follows that company's policy described in paragraph 3 of Article 26.
- The submitter's management screen shows the number of views of their listing, the number of times it was added to favorites, and inquiries. It does not show who viewed it or who added it to favorites. A person invited as a member of a company can view that company's listings.
- Records of listings, submissions and inquiries are, even after the listing ends, marked as deleted and kept for as long as necessary to confirm listings and handle disputes, and are deleted when no longer needed.
- The service providers are Supabase, Cloudflare, SMTP2GO and Anthropic (Articles 9 and 10).
31. Events (Hosting, Attending, Photos, Reviews and Reports)
- From those who host an event, we collect the content of the event (title, description, date and time, venue, capacity, language used, application deadline, how to find the venue at the venue, and photos) and the host's member ID. Photos (one main photo and up to 9 others) have their shooting information removed when they are reduced in your browser, are stored in Cloudflare's public storage, and are published together with the event. Photos that are removed are taken off publication.
- For events for which this site accepts attendance, we store the name (display name), application status, time of application and time of cancellation of those who apply, and show them to the event's organizer to the extent necessary to accept attendance. Contact details are not shown to the organizer. Even if you chose not to show your name in the list of attendees, your name is shown to the organizer. If the organizer so chooses, we notify the organizer by email of the name and number of people at each application and cancellation. To those who applied, we send the organizer's guidance (a URL and a message) by email and also show it on My Page and the event details.
- For event reports, we collect the member ID of the reporter, the reason, a short comment and the date and time. The content of a report is read only by our administrators, and we do not tell the organizer that you reported. An event that reaches a certain number of reports is automatically made non-public, and we notify the organizer by email. We also send the organizer emails when an event is published and when it is made non-public.
- Only those who applied for the event on this site and were still attending when the event ended can write a review of it. We use the attendance record to confirm this. On the day after the event ends, we send one email asking for a review. This email can be stopped from the settings on My Page. We keep a record of sending and of stopping.
- For partner applications, we collect the member ID of the applicant, the organization name (organizer name), the type of organization, the URL of the organization's site, the event the application is based on, and the result and date and time of the review. The purposes are to review the partnership, to link it to the organizer's page, and to prevent impersonation. The content of an application can be seen only by the applicant and our administrators.
- Attendance records are automatically deleted one year after you close your account, as stated in Article 12. Records of reports, applications and review requests, and records of removed photos, are kept for as long as necessary to operate events and handle disputes, and are deleted when no longer needed.
- The service providers are Supabase, Cloudflare and SMTP2GO (Articles 9 and 10).
Revision History
| Version | Effective date | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-20 | October 20, 2026 | Added Article 25 on “Helpful” and how views are counted |
| 2026-10-20.2 | October 20, 2026 | Added to Articles 8 and 12 the cookie that remembers where you first came from and the sending of results from our server |
| 2026-10-20.3 | October 20, 2026 | Brought Articles 3 and 10 in line with what is actually masked in search words, and stated that a name typed without a self-introduction cannot be recognized |
| 2026-10-20.4 | October 20, 2026 | Divided Article 18 by the type of revision and added this Revision History; added the record of consent at member registration to Article 3 |
| 2026-10-20.5 | October 20, 2026 | Stated in Article 3 that the record of consent at member registration also keeps the version of the Terms of Use |
| 2026-10-20.6 | October 20, 2026 | Removed campaign participation and referral-based benefits, which we do not offer, from the examples in Article 5 |
| 2026-10-20.7 | October 20, 2026 | To match actual practice, added My Abroad records (moments, photos and days opened), drafts stored on your device, article feedback, and records of clicks on partner and advertising links to Articles 3, 6 and 12. Added cookie retention periods, cookie-free page-view counting and external components (maps, videos, embeds) to Article 8, and the uses of service providers (storage country, draft translation of school listings, weekly search checks) to Articles 9 and 10. Made Article 12 accurate about which records are deleted automatically one year after closing an account, and aligned Articles 21–23 and 25 with actual practice (effective on publication under Article 18(2)) |
| 2026-10-20.8 | October 20, 2026 | Added My Abroad moments, photos, settings and records of days opened, "Helpful" records and event attendance records to the records deleted automatically one year after closing an account in Article 12 (matching the deletion process). Added sign-up and login confirmation emails to the uses of SMTP2GO in Articles 9 and 10 |
| 2026-10-20.9 | October 20, 2026 | Added to Article 12 the retention period for records of clicks on links to partners and ads (IP address marker and similar information deleted after 90 days; records deleted after one year). Articles 21 and 22 now state that photos are stored in non-public storage until the check is complete and copied to public storage only after both the photo and the post are approved, and that shooting information is also removed on our server (to match the changed handling). Article 25 now states that the previous day’s secret value for view counts is deleted within about an hour after the date changes. Added to Article 6 that member IDs of event organizers and attendees are not disclosed |
| 2026-10-20.10 | October 20, 2026 | Added to Articles 3 and 12 the plans you write yourself and the record of when you open your enquiries (to notify new replies), and included them in the automatic deletion one year after account closure |
| 2026-10-20.11 | October 20, 2026 | Article 25 now states, in line with “Helpful” becoming available without logging in, the addition of “Not helpful”, and its extension to blog articles, news, listing detail pages and partner stories, the device cookie and marker, how rapid repeated sending is prevented, and which counts are published. Added the device cookie to Article 8 and its retention period to Article 12 (effective on publication under Article 18(2)) |
| 2026-10-23 | October 23, 2026 | Articles 3 and 12 now cover profile photos (cropping, resizing, removal of shooting information, where they are shown, replacing and deleting on My Page, automatic deletion one year after withdrawal) |
| 2026-10-24 | October 24, 2026 | Added Article 26 “Study Abroad Quote Check (Storing Your Quote and Reading It with AI)”, and added the handling of quotes (retention periods of the Original and Extracted Content, the Statistics Record, cookies, and the uses of service providers) to Articles 3, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 12 (this sets out the handling of a new feature and takes effect on publication under Article 18(2)) |
| 2026-11-02 | November 2, 2026 | Added Article 27 (Working Holiday Calendar and English Documents), Article 28 (Feedback on the Site), Article 29 (News Notifications), Article 30 (Submitted Listings and Inquiries about Listings, including the language of emails to listing parties and the translation of inquiry text) and Article 31 (Events: hosting, attending, photos, reviews and reports, and partner applications). Added to Article 3 the usage records of City Match and Quote Check and the information at member registration and notification registration with consent to emails, added to Article 26 the carry-over to a member's quote, reference exchange rates and the reasons for corrections, and brought Articles 6, 8, 9, 10 and 12 in line with them (this aligns the policy with actual practice and takes effect on publication under Article 18(2)) |
| 2026-11-03 | November 3, 2026 | Added to Article 9 the information provided when you contact a partner, that the partner contacts you directly, the delivery of emails through a relay address (without storing the body), and how we handle requests to stop provision or delete information, and added the relay to the purposes of our processors (Cloudflare and SMTP2GO). Specified in Article 12 what the records needed to confirm referral fees contain (a revision to match actual practice, effective upon publication under Article 18-2) |
Last updated: November 3, 2026
