Privacy policy

Who I am

Kero Learns Japanese is made by one person: me. I make the YouTube videos, this website and the KEROTOWN game, and I run them through my small company, KERO LEARNS JAPANESE LTD. Under UK data protection law, my company is the “controller”: the one that decides how the information described here is used. In this policy, “I”, “me” and “my” mean me and my company.

This policy covers this website (kerolearnsjapanese.com), the KEROTOWN game, and the game’s website, kerotown.com (opens in a new tab). My videos are on YouTube at @KeroLearnsJapanese (opens in a new tab). YouTube is run by Google under its own privacy policy, so what happens there is not covered here.

KEROTOWN keeps its information on your device

KEROTOWN is my free game for phones and tablets, coming to Google Play in December 2026. A version for iPhone and iPad on the App Store is planned too. This part describes the game as it is built today.

The game saves what it needs on the phone or tablet it is played on. Up to four players can share one device, and each player has their own things. I cannot see any of it, because none of it is sent to me.

For each player, the game keeps:

• A nickname. The name a player types stays on the device and only shows on that device. It can be up to 12 letters, numbers and spaces long, and the game checks it against a list of words that are not allowed.
• A public name. Each player picks a two word name from lists, like BRAVE OTTER, and the game adds a random 4 digit number. Nothing is typed, so it cannot hold a real name. This is the only name another player could see.
• An age group, never a birthday. The game asks for a birth month and year, works out an age group (under 9, 9 to 12, 13 to 15, or 16 and up) and keeps only the group. The month and year are not saved anywhere.
• Safety settings. The chat level, the grown-up switch that turns chat off, and whether messages from other players are hidden.
• Progress. The chosen fighter and colour, scores and records, the newest 100 matches (and every match from the last seven days, up to 500), practice coins with a list of the last 200 times they were earned or spent, things unlocked or collected in the game, and which tips have already been shown.
• Codes. A code typed into REDEEM A CODE is kept only if it has the shape of a real code, ready for when online play opens. Codes that have been used are kept scrambled, so they cannot be read back.

For the whole device, the game keeps:

• Settings. Sound volumes, graphics quality, screen shake and any controls that were changed.
• The device check. When it first starts, the game measures how smoothly the device runs, to suggest a graphics setting. It saves the result with the device’s model name and the name of its graphics chip.
• A local network address. If someone joins a LOCAL NETWORK game, the address they typed (numbers like 192.168.1.9) is saved, so it does not need typing again.
• Technical notes. On phones and tablets the game writes a log of what it is doing, such as starting a match or joining a local game, and notes whether it closed properly last time. A random number made on the device limits how many wrong codes can be tried, and the game counts wrong answers to the grown-up question, so that three in a row lock it for a minute. None of these leave the device.

While online play is a preview, the game also keeps practice versions of online things on the device, such as party codes. They stand in for a future server, and they stay on the device too.

What the game sends

Nothing goes to me or to any server. The only part of the game that uses the network is LOCAL NETWORK play, below. Every online feature in the game today is a preview that runs on the device.

On Android the game has permission to use the network, and it uses it for LOCAL NETWORK play only. It asks for no other permissions: no camera, microphone, location or contacts.

In LOCAL NETWORK play, one device hosts a game and others on the same network, such as the same home Wi-Fi, join it by typing an address. The devices then talk directly to each other, not through me. They share only what the game needs: button presses, positions and scores, each player’s fighter, colour and items, the public name and number, and ready made messages, which travel as numbers. The typed nickname is never sent.

As with any local network connection, the devices can see each other’s network address. The connection is not encrypted, and any device on the same network can join a game that is being hosted, so only host a game on a network you trust.

No adverts, no tracking, nothing to buy

• There are no adverts in KEROTOWN.
• The game has no analytics, no tracking and no crash reporting, and no code from other companies that collects information.
• Coins are practice coins. Players earn them by playing. They cannot be bought, and nothing in the game costs real money.
• The game has one link out to a website: PRIVACY POLICY on the GROWN-UPS page. It opens this page in the web browser, and only after the grown-up question is answered.

Who gets information, and keeping it safe

• I never sell information about anyone, and I never share it for advertising.
• The game shares nothing with me or with any company. In LOCAL NETWORK play, the other devices in the game see what is described above, such as the public name and number.
• This website and kerotown.com use two companies to work: Amazon Web Services, which hosts them, and Google, which counts visits. Each is described below.
• The game keeps its information in its own storage on the device, which other apps cannot read. Codes that have been used are kept scrambled.
• This website and kerotown.com are only sent over a secure (HTTPS) connection.

Children and grown-ups

KEROTOWN is for all ages, including children under 13. It is built so a child can play without giving anything to me or to anyone else.

• The game asks WHEN WERE YOU BORN? before it asks for a name. Skipping the question counts as the youngest group, and only a grown-up can change the group later.
• Chat is ready made messages only, such as GOOD GAME. Nobody can type a message to anyone. Under 9s start with chat off, and a grown-up can turn ready made messages on. Everyone else starts with ready made messages.
• Any player can MUTE another player, or switch SHOW MESSAGES off to hide every other player’s messages.
• A grown-up can turn chat off at any time.
• A grown-up question, a sum such as WHAT IS NINE TIMES SEVEN?, guards the GROWN-UPS page: chat, a player’s age group, adding and deleting players, and the link to this privacy policy.
• There is a REPORT button on other players. Until online play opens, a report is not sent anywhere.

Deleting a player

Open SETTINGS, then GROWN-UPS, and answer the grown-up question. Tap DELETE with the player’s name beside it, such as DELETE PLAYER 2, tap it again when it says TAP AGAIN, then answer one more grown-up question. This erases everything the game saved for that player, including their nickname, age group, progress and coins. Settings shared by the whole device, such as the volumes, stay.

Uninstalling the game erases everything it kept on that device. The game switches off Android’s cloud backup, so no copy is kept in a Google account.

You can also email me at hello@kerolearnsjapanese.com. I hold nothing about players, so there is nothing for me to delete, but I am happy to help.

Children on this website

This website is for all ages too. It has no accounts, no forms, no comments and no chat, it never asks for a name, and every advertising feature is switched off.

Online play: planned, not live yet

I plan to add online play with other people. None of it is live, and the game does not connect to any server today. This is how it is planned to work:

• Sign in with Google Play Games on Android, or Game Center on iPhone and iPad, only for players aged 13 and over, and only after the age question. Players under 13 skip it, and nothing about them is taken from those services. Signing in would bring over the player’s name on that service, checked against the list of words that are not allowed, and any limits a parent has set there, such as chat being off.
• Other players will only see the two word public name and its number, never the typed nickname.
• The chat levels stay. Under 13s get ready made messages only. Typed chat for 13 and over will only come with a filter on my server, and only between players of similar ages. A grown-up can always turn chat off.
• A game server that I run will keep what online play needs, such as the public name and number, fighter, coins, items and scores. Reports about players will be sent to me to check, and a player reported by several others will be hidden.

Before any of this goes live, I will update this policy to say exactly what is collected, where the server is and how long things are kept. I will tell players in the game before it starts.

This website

kerolearnsjapanese.com has free Japanese lessons, games, a manga and fan art. It has no accounts and no forms, and it never asks for your name.

Hosting

The site is hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS). Its files are stored in London and sent to you through Amazon CloudFront, which delivers them from a place near you. To send a page, AWS receives your device’s internet address (IP address) and the details every browser sends, such as the page asked for and the type of browser. I have not switched on visit logs at AWS, so I keep no record of them.

Counting visits

I use Google Analytics 4 to count visits, so I can see which lessons and pages people use.

• Before you answer the cookie question, and if you press Necessary only, the page sends Google a simple note that a page was viewed, with details such as the page address and the type of browser. It uses no cookies and no ID that links one visit to the next. I do this because I have a legitimate interest in knowing how the site is used.
• If you press Accept all, Google Analytics also stores cookies in your browser. They hold a random ID, so Google can tell a new visitor from one who comes back. The ID is not your name, but UK law still counts it as personal data, which is why I ask first.
• Every advertising feature is switched off, whatever you choose. Nothing from this site is used for adverts.
• Google says Google Analytics 4 does not log or store IP addresses.
• Without JavaScript, the page sends nothing to Google Analytics.

Google explains how it uses information from sites like this one at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites (opens in a new tab). Google may handle analytics data outside the UK, including in the United States. When it does, it uses the safeguards UK law requires for sending personal data abroad.

What the site keeps in your browser

• kero-consent

  Set by

  This site, in your browser storage

  What it is for

  Remembers your answer to the cookie question, so you are not asked again on every page.

  How long

  Until you change your answer or clear this site’s data in your browser

• kero-kana-progress

  Set by

  This site, in your browser storage

  What it is for

  Which hiragana and katakana lessons you have finished, and the last one you visited, for the Continue button.

  How long

  Until you clear this site’s data in your browser

• kero-study-v2

  Set by

  This site, in your browser storage

  What it is for

  Your progress in Lessons 1-6 and the numbers lessons: which words you know and when to review them, best scores, your daily goal and minutes studied, and settings such as sound. A browser that visited earlier may also hold kero-study-progress, an older version of the same thing.

  How long

  Until you clear this site’s data in your browser

• _ga

  Set by

  Google Analytics, only after you press Accept all

  What it is for

  Two cookies, _ga and one more whose name starts with _ga_, that hold a random ID, so Google can tell a new visitor from one who comes back.

  How long

  Up to 2 years from your last visit, unless you clear them

The first three are kept in your browser’s own storage. They are not cookies, they are never sent to me and I cannot see them. Clearing this site’s data in your browser removes them, and your lesson progress with them.

Change your cookie choice

Press Cookie choice at the bottom of any page, or the button below, and the cookie question comes back. Choosing again is as easy as the first time.

Changing to Necessary only stops Google Analytics using cookies from then on. To remove cookies it has already set, clear this site’s cookies in your browser settings.

Everything else on the page

• The fonts, pictures and sounds all come from kerolearnsjapanese.com itself. Apart from Google Analytics, the site loads nothing from other companies, and it has no YouTube videos built into it.
• When you follow a link to YouTube or to another website, that site’s own privacy policy applies.
• Some lessons and games can read Japanese aloud with your browser’s own voice when a recording is not there. That voice belongs to your browser or device, and it only ever gets the Japanese words from the lesson.
• Pictures drawn on the Draw page stay in your browser. The Save picture button downloads one to your device, and nothing is uploaded.

kerotown.com

kerotown.com, the game’s own website, works the same way as this one. AWS hosts it in London with no visit logs, it has no accounts and no forms, and it counts visits with Google Analytics 4 behind the same cookie question, with every advertising feature switched off.

It keeps your answer in your browser as kerotown-cookie-consent, and Google Analytics sets its _ga cookies there only if you press Accept all. To change your answer on kerotown.com, clear that site’s data in your browser settings and the cookie question comes back.

Fan art

Fans post drawings of Kero on YouTube and tag @KeroLearnsJapanese. I show some of them on my Fan art page, and some hang on the walls in KEROTOWN’s maps. Each one is shown with the name and channel picture it was posted under, and on the website with a link to the original post.

I do this because the artist chose to share the drawing publicly with me, and I have a legitimate interest in celebrating it. If you would like a drawing taken down, email hello@kerolearnsjapanese.com. I will remove it from the website, and from the game in its next update.

Google Play and the App Store

You get KEROTOWN from Google Play, and from the App Store once it is there. Google and Apple run those stores under their own privacy policies. If you pre-register for KEROTOWN on Google Play, Google handles it and tells me only how many people did.

The stores give me totals, such as how many people installed the game. They can also give me technical crash reports from devices whose owners have chosen to share them. These do not tell me who you are. Reviews you write in a store are public, and I may reply to them there.

If you email me

If you email hello@kerolearnsjapanese.com, I receive your email address and whatever you write. I use it only to answer you, because I have a legitimate interest in replying, and I delete it once I no longer need it. Please do not send me a child’s personal details.

How long things are kept

• In the game: on the device, until a grown-up deletes the player or the game is uninstalled. The match list keeps the newest 100 matches and every match from the last seven days, up to 500, and the coin list keeps the last 200 entries.
• On this website: your lesson progress and your cookie answer stay in your browser until you change them or clear the site’s data.
• Google Analytics cookies: up to 2 years from your last visit, unless you clear them.
• Google Analytics visit data: deleted after the period set in my account, which is never more than 14 months. Totals, such as visits a day, do not identify anyone and may be kept.
• Fan art: until the artist asks me to take it down, or I stop showing it.
• Emails: only as long as I need them to help you.

Your rights

UK data protection law (the UK GDPR) gives you rights over personal data about you or your child. You can ask me:

• for a copy of what I hold
• to correct it
• to delete it
• to use it less, or to stop using it
• to send it to you or to someone else in a form a computer can read

You can also object to how I use it. You can change your cookie choice at any time, on this page or with Cookie choice at the bottom of every page. For anything else, email hello@kerolearnsjapanese.com. I will answer within one month. If you ask about a child, I may need to check that you are their parent or carer.

Because the game and this website keep things on your own device, I hold very little about anyone: Google Analytics visit data, the fan art credits above, and any emails you send me. You can delete the game’s information yourself, in the game, and this website’s by clearing its data in your browser.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with how I handle information, please tell me first so I can put it right. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint (opens in a new tab) or on 0303 123 1113.

Changes to this policy

When something changes, I update this page and the date at the top. If a change matters to players, such as online play arriving, I will tell players in the game before it applies.

This version is dated 14 October 2026.