Privacy

Who we are

Shoji is made and run by Dan Bierre in New Zealand (“we”, “us”). This policy follows New Zealand's Privacy Act 2020. Questions, or a request about your information: [email protected].

This website

• No cookies, no analytics, no advertising or tracking scripts. The fonts are served from this site, not from a font service. The studio home page remembers where you left its light dimmer, in your own browser only. It never leaves your device.
• The site is hosted on Cloudflare. Like any host, Cloudflare's network sees technical details of each visit (such as your IP address and browser) to deliver the page and protect it from attacks. We don't use that to track you, and we don't receive a log of your visits.
• The journal box and the demo round on the main page run only in your browser. Nothing you type there is sent anywhere.

The email list

If you leave your email under “Want an email when there's a new version?”, we keep your email address and the date you signed up, and nothing else. No name, no IP address, no location.

• Why: to email you about new versions of Shoji and its launch. Not for anything else, and never sold or shared.
• Where: in a private list on our Cloudflare account.
• Leaving: reply to any email from us, or write to [email protected], and we'll remove you.

The app on your PC

Everything you put into Shoji (slots, journal entries, trackers, time, settings) is kept in one file in your own Windows folder. You can lock it with Windows' own encryption. Shoji makes a backup once a week on your PC and keeps the newest eight. Backups and exports you save yourself go wherever you put them; a backup can have a password, which can't be recovered if you forget it.

The app doesn't send usage data, crash reports or analytics. To block sites during a focus session it changes a setting for your Windows user (or, if that can't be used, your PC's hosts file, with your permission), and puts it back when the session ends.

Connectors

Connectors are off until you set them up, and each one only talks to the service you connected:

• Calendar: fetches your calendar's private link to show today's events. It reads; it doesn't change your calendar.
• Google Sheet: writes your time entries to the one sheet Shoji made in your Google Drive.
• Notion and WaniKani: read your database or reviews with the key you gave.
• GitHub: reads your public activity for the username you entered.
• Anki and your notes folder stay on your PC.

Keys for connectors are locked with Windows' own protection on your PC, and are never put in your data file, backups or sync. Those services' own privacy policies apply to what they hold.

Your account and sync

You only need an account if you turn on Shoji sync (part of Shoji Pro). When you do, our server, which runs on Cloudflare, keeps:

• Your email address, and if you sign in with Apple or Google, the account ID they give us (not your password).
• A locked copy of your data. It's locked with your sync password on your own device before it's sent, so we can't read it.
• The devices you've signed in on: a name, the kind of device, and when each was last used, so you can see and manage them.
• Your plan: Free or Pro, until when, and whether you've used the free trial.
• Short-lived sign-in details: one-time codes (stored scrambled) and, to stop people guessing, a short count of sign-in attempts. These expire on their own.

Sign-in codes are emailed to you through Cloudflare's email service. If you lose your sync password and every signed-in device, the locked copy can't be opened, by you or by us. You can remove the synced copy from Shoji at any time; to delete your whole account, write to [email protected].

Downloads and updates

Installers are hosted on GitHub, so downloading one is a request to GitHub, and its privacy statement applies. When Shoji checks for a new version, it downloads a small file from the same place. Neither sends anything about you or your data.

Payments

Shoji Pro isn't on sale yet. When it is, payments will be handled by a payment company acting as the seller, who will hold your payment details; we'll only learn what's needed to give you Pro (such as your email, plan and whether a payment went through). We'll name that company here before Pro goes on sale.

How long we keep things

• The email list: until you ask to leave, or we stop the list.
• Your account and synced copy: until you remove them or ask us to. Our hosting keeps short recovery copies for a limited time (at most 30 days) before they're gone too.
• Sign-in codes and attempt counts: minutes to an hour.

Your rights

You can ask to see the personal information we hold about you, to correct it, or to delete it. Write to [email protected] and we'll reply within 20 working days. If you're not happy with how we handled it, you can complain to New Zealand's Privacy Commissioner at privacy.org.nz.

Our providers (Cloudflare and GitHub) may store and process information outside New Zealand. We only use them for the purposes in this policy.

Shoji isn't meant for children under 16, and we don't knowingly collect their information.

Changes

If this policy changes, we'll update it here and change the date at the top. If a change matters for how your information is used, we'll say so in the app or by email before it takes effect.