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易經 I Ching

Privacy Policy

Last updated:

Contents

Introduction

This policy covers two products: this website, and the I Ching — The Book of Changes mobile app for iOS and Android. They behave differently enough to be described separately below, and the difference is the point: reading this website involves no advertising at all, while the app is free because it shows ads.

Both are operated by PkDeveloper Agency, based in Ukraine, which is the data controller for everything described here. We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data.

At a Glance

The short version, before the detail:

  • This website shows you no advertising and runs no cross-site tracking, and nothing on these pages is fetched from another company.
  • The mobile app keeps your readings on your device and never sends them to us. It is free because it shows advertising supplied by Google.
  • Neither product asks you to create an account, and neither sells your personal data.

Part 1 — This Website

Information You Provide

On this website, the only information you can give us is what you type into the contact form:

  • Contact information: Name, email address, subject, and message content when you use our contact form.

Information Collected Automatically

This website runs no analytics, advertising or tracking software. It sets no tracking cookies, and it stores nothing in your browser's local storage. What is collected is limited to the following:

  • Server logs: Our hosting provider records standard web-server entries — IP address, request time, requested page, referring URL and browser user agent — which are used for security and troubleshooting.
  • Strictly necessary cookies: Two first-party cookies, set only on the pages that need them and described in the next section.

Cookies

Reading this website sets no cookies at all. The pages you browse — the guides, the hexagram catalogue, every hexagram entry — are served without one. Two cookies are set only where they are strictly necessary: on the About page, which carries the contact form, and in the administration area. Neither is used for advertising, profiling or analytics, and no consent banner is shown because no optional cookies are set.

  • i-ching-session: Keeps your session state, so that forms and the administration area work correctly. It expires when the session ends.
  • XSRF-TOKEN: Carries the token that protects form submissions against cross-site request forgery.

Web Fonts

Typefaces are served from this site's own domain. Nothing is requested from Google Fonts or any other third party while a page loads, so no outside company receives your IP address or user agent from simply reading these pages.

The site links out to the App Store, Google Play, Buy Me a Coffee, Patreon, our social media profiles and the website of PkDeveloper Agency, as well as to scholarly reference material. Those services are contacted only if you choose to follow a link, and once you do, their own privacy policies apply.

Part 2 — The Mobile App

What Stays on Your Device

Your readings, hexagram consultations and display preferences are stored on your device and are not sent to us. We operate no server that receives them and no account system, which also means we hold no copy and cannot restore your readings if you remove the app.

Advertising

The app is free because it shows advertising supplied by Google AdMob. To select and measure those ads, Google may read and use your device's advertising identifier — the IDFA on iOS, the Advertising ID on Android — along with coarse technical information such as device type, operating system version and approximate region. For that data Google acts as an independent controller, under its own privacy policy rather than ours.

None of it reaches us. What we see in our AdMob account is aggregate earnings, and nothing that identifies a person.

Google describes what it collects in its privacy policy and in How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services.

Your Advertising Controls

The advertising identifier is under your control at the operating-system level, and resetting it breaks the link between past and future advertising activity:

  • Android: Settings, then Google, then Ads, where the advertising ID can be reset or deleted outright.
  • iOS: Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Tracking. iOS also asks through Apple's App Tracking Transparency prompt, and declining it withholds the identifier.

What the App Does Not Do

A list of what is collected is only half the picture, so to be explicit about what is absent:

  • No account, sign-in or profile.
  • No analytics software and no crash-reporting software. Google AdMob is the only third-party component in the app.
  • No in-app purchases and no subscription.
  • Nothing you write into the app reaches our servers, because there are none.

How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

  • Provide, maintain, and improve our services.
  • Respond to your inquiries and support requests.
  • Ensure the security and integrity of our platform.

What you send through the contact form is delivered to us by email so that we can reply. It is not added to any mailing list, and this website sends no marketing or newsletter messages.

Where the GDPR applies to you, these are the grounds we rely on:

  • The contact form: our legitimate interest in reading and answering a message you chose to send us, under Article 6(1)(f). Nothing is asked of you to read this site.
  • Server logs: our legitimate interest in keeping the site available and secure and in diagnosing faults, under Article 6(1)(f).
  • The two strictly necessary cookies: our legitimate interest in providing a working, forgery-protected form, under Article 6(1)(f). Separately, the ePrivacy rules exempt them from consent because they are necessary for something you asked for, which is why this site shows no cookie banner.
  • Advertising in the mobile app: Google is the controller for that data and relies on its own grounds and on the arrangements it has with you as a user of its services. The device controls described in Part 2 are the direct way to limit that use.

Information Sharing

We do not sell, trade, or rent your personal information to third parties. We may share information only in the following circumstances:

  • Service providers: The companies that host this website and deliver the email sent from the contact form. No analytics or advertising provider is involved on the website.
  • Advertising in the mobile app: Google, on the terms described in Part 2. This applies to the app alone; the website carries no advertising.
  • Legal requirements: When required by law, court order, or governmental regulation.
  • Protection: To protect the rights, property, or safety of our users or the public.

Where Your Data Is Handled

This website runs on servers in the European Union — Hetzner Online GmbH, in Germany and Finland — so page requests and server logs stay within the EU and the EEA.

Messages sent through the contact form are delivered to us by email and read by our team in Ukraine, which is outside the EEA. Such a message holds only what you chose to type into the form, and it exists only because you chose to send it.

The mobile app's advertising is handled by Google, which runs its advertising infrastructure globally under its own privacy policy.

How Long We Keep Your Data

Nothing here is kept indefinitely, and most of it is deleted automatically:

  • Web-server logs: 14 days, after which they are rotated out and deleted.
  • Application error logs: 14 days, on the same schedule.
  • Contact-form messages: up to 12 months after the last message in an exchange, so that we can pick up an earlier conversation. Ask us and we will delete yours sooner.
  • i-ching-session: ends with your session, and in any case within 120 minutes of inactivity.
  • XSRF-TOKEN: the same session, and no longer.
  • In the mobile app: your readings stay on your device until you delete them or remove the app. Advertising data is kept by Google under its own retention rules.

Data Security

We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. However, no method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Your Rights

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights regarding your personal data:

  • Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
  • Correction: Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data.
  • Deletion: Request deletion of your personal data.
  • Restriction: Ask us to limit how we process your data while a question about it is being resolved.
  • Portability: Request transfer of your data to another service.
  • Objection: Object to processing of your personal data for certain purposes.

To exercise any of them, contact us using the details at the end of this policy. We will reply within one month.

Deleting Your Data

In the app, clearing its stored data or uninstalling it removes your readings, and resetting the advertising identifier in your device settings cuts the link to past advertising activity. For anything held through this website, write to us and we will delete it.

US State Privacy Rights

Under California's privacy law and similar state laws, using an advertising identifier to serve ads across different apps and sites counts as "sharing" personal information, even where no money changes hands. That describes the mobile app's advertising, and the device controls in Part 2 are how you opt out of it. This website carries no advertising and shares nothing for that purpose. We do not sell personal information in any of these senses.

Complaints

If you believe we have handled your personal data improperly, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority — normally the one for the country where you live, where you work, or where the problem happened. You are welcome to raise it with us first, but you do not have to.

Children's Privacy

Neither the website nor the app is directed to children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. In some European countries the age below which a parent has to consent is higher, up to 16 under Article 8 of the GDPR, and the same applies there. If you believe a child has given us personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new privacy policy on this page and updating the "Last updated" date. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

Contact Us

For any question about this policy, or to exercise any of the rights above, email us at support@bookiching.com. You can also use our contact form.

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