Tanko Vault/Tanko Vault

TANKO VAULT PRIVACY

PRIVACY POLICY

This policy explains what Tanko Vault collects, why we use it, who processes it and the choices you have over your information.

Effective and last updated: August 23, 2026

1. Scope and who we are

This Privacy Policy applies to Tanko Vault, an online manga discovery and collection service operated by TechManPat. It covers visitors, account holders, community contributors and people who use the manga vault, Vault Assistant and AI cover scanner.

We handle personal information transparently and in accordance with privacy laws that apply to our service and to users in their location.

2. Information we collect

Account information: email address, display name, username, password hash, account status, signup date, last activity and legal-policy acceptance records. If account creation fails because of a technical error, we may temporarily retain the submitted email address, display name, failure stage and timestamps so an administrator can investigate and provide signup recovery instructions. The failed-signup record does not contain the submitted password or verification code. We do not store passwords in readable form.

Profile and vault information: avatar, biography, manga collection, reading status, formats, condition, Wishlist, series follows and the visibility choices you make for public profile sections.

Community information: ratings, comments, comment votes, reader follows, blocks, reports, activity-feed events and catalog submissions. Ratings made without an account use a long-lived browser identifier to reduce duplicate votes. Vote identities and block lists are not public.

Cover-scan information: a photograph you choose to submit, extracted title and edition information, possible catalog matches, confidence values, confirmation decisions, scan time and usage count.

Usage and technical information: cookie or browser identifiers, session identifiers, pages viewed, approximate country, device type, referring website, timestamps, security events and basic diagnostic information.

Communications: messages you send to us, email preferences, suppression choices, email delivery status and whether you used a Tanko Vault call-to-action link. We do not use invisible email open-tracking pixels.

2A. Membership, payment and Vault Assistant information

When you use Collector membership, we store your plan, billing status, renewal or cancellation date, Stripe customer and subscription identifiers, and the status of relevant payment, refund or dispute events. Tanko Vault does not receive or store complete card details.

When you use Vault Assistant, we store your questions, its answers and matches, conversation title, feedback, catalog-addition requests, usage count, safety outcomes and limited model-usage diagnostics. If Vault personalization is enabled, relevant titles and reading states from your private Vault are sent with the question to produce the answer. The interface clearly indicates when this setting is on.

3. How we collect information

We collect information directly when you create an account, update your profile, scan or add manga, rate or comment, contact us or use Tanko Vault. We also collect limited technical information automatically through cookies, local storage, server logs and analytics. Catalog information may be obtained from publishers, bibliographic sources and community submissions.

4. Why we use information

  • Provide accounts, public profiles, sessions, vaults, lists, ratings, comments, voting, reader follows and collection tools.
  • Detect account-creation failures, alert authorized administrators and send a limited service message inviting the affected person to restart signup.
  • Build a Following feed from profile sections and activity categories that are currently public under the account holder's settings.
  • Answer manga discovery and catalog questions, personalize recommendations when enabled, identify manga covers, match volumes and review proposed catalog additions.
  • Operate fair-use limits, prevent duplicate ratings or votes and protect the service from misuse.
  • Measure visitors, feature use, performance and signup conversion.
  • Send requested admin, security or optional service emails.
  • Respond to support, privacy, safety and intellectual-property requests.
  • Maintain, troubleshoot and improve catalog quality and site accessibility.
  • Comply with law and enforce the Terms & Conditions.

4A. Billing purposes

We use membership information to start secure checkout, confirm entitlements, manage renewals and cancellations, reconcile Stripe events, prevent duplicate billing and respond to payment failures, refunds or disputes.

5. AI features and OpenAI processing

When you use the cover scanner, the selected photograph is transmitted securely to OpenAI for image analysis. Tanko Vault processes the photograph temporarily and does not save the uploaded photograph to its permanent storage. Tanko Vault deletes its temporary copy after the analysis request finishes, whether the scan succeeds or fails.

When you use Vault Assistant, your question, recent messages in that conversation, a restricted set of catalog candidates and—when enabled—relevant Vault titles and reading states are transmitted securely to OpenAI. We do not give the model unrestricted database, web-browsing, code-execution or admin access. Answers are checked against TankoVault catalog identifiers before they are displayed.

We may retain extracted cover metadata, AI responses, confidence scores, catalog matches, confirmation results, safety outcomes and usage counts. Do not include sensitive personal information in a cover photo or Vault Assistant question.

OpenAI processes submitted data as our service provider under its applicable business/API terms and privacy commitments. Its systems may process information in the United States and other countries where its infrastructure operates. You should not use an AI feature if you do not want the submitted information sent to this provider.

6. Cookies, analytics, ad measurement and session replay

When referral invitations are available, following a valid invitation can save a functional referral cookie for 30 days. It remembers the first valid invitation for signup independently of optional analytics. After signup, we retain the inviter relationship and necessary payment references in a private reward ledger to administer earned membership, prevent duplicate rewards and handle refunds. Referrers do not receive invitees’ email addresses, collection contents or payment details.

Tanko Vault uses essential cookies for secure sessions, admin access, private QR handoffs and guest-rating duplicate protection. We also use first-party identifiers and event records to understand aggregate traffic, device categories, referrals and popular pages.

Google Analytics for Firebase and PostHog start automatically when you visit Tanko Vault. They measure page and catalog views, searches and zero-result searches, Vault actions, account creation, membership conversion, CSV import outcomes, sharing, community participation, errors and broken links. Firebase advertising storage and ad personalization remain disabled.

X ad measurement may also start automatically to connect visits and verified account sign-ups with Tanko Vault advertising on X. It uses X's website tag and server conversion API with the same unique conversion ID so duplicate reports can be removed. For a verified sign-up, X may receive the X click ID when present and a one-way SHA-256 hash of the normalized email address for matching. Tanko Vault does not send X the plain email address, username, password, comments, uploaded CSV contents, cover photographs, search terms or private collection details.

PostHog may create a privacy-protected session replay to help us understand navigation problems and reproduce errors. Replays can display ordinary public page text, buttons, navigation, manga titles and explicitly designated public catalog search and filter values. Other form entries are masked; passwords, email fields and text areas remain masked; sensitive elements and network payloads are blocked; and admin, private Vault, profile, account-security, cover-scanning and collection-import pages are excluded from replay. Signed-in activity is linked only to Tanko Vault's internal account identifier and broad plan type.

You can stop further Firebase Analytics, PostHog and X ad measurement on your browser at any time using “Privacy & measurement settings” in the footer. Switching measurement off also stops future session replay and ad-measurement events and does not affect essential Tanko Vault features. Blocking essential cookies may prevent sign-in, guest-rating persistence or other features from working.

7. When we disclose information

We do not sell personal information. We may provide only the information reasonably required to service providers that help operate Tanko Vault, including:

  • OpenAI for Vault Assistant responses and AI cover analysis.
  • Google for Firebase Analytics, subject to the browser opt-out described above.
  • PostHog for product analytics, error tracking and privacy-masked session replay, subject to the same browser opt-out.
  • X for advertising measurement through its website tag and conversion API, including an X click ID when available and a one-way hashed email identifier for verified sign-ups, subject to the same browser opt-out.
  • Cloud hosting, database, object-storage, security and delivery providers.
  • Resend for account, service and opted-in email delivery.
  • Stripe for subscription checkout, billing management, payment confirmation, fraud prevention, refunds and disputes when you choose Collector membership.
  • Professional advisors, regulators, courts or law-enforcement bodies where required or authorized by law.

We may disclose information to protect users, investigate fraud or abuse, respond to illegal content, enforce our terms or complete a business restructure. If ownership changes, affected information may transfer subject to this policy and applicable law.

8. International processing

Tanko Vault primarily serves readers in the United States. Tanko Vault and its service providers may process or store information in the United States, Australia or other countries where they operate. Privacy protections may differ between countries. Where required, we use reasonable contractual, technical and organizational safeguards.

9. Retention and account deletion

We keep account and vault information while your account is active and as needed to provide the service. Failed-signup recovery records are automatically deleted after 30 days and can be deleted earlier by an authorized administrator. Completing signup marks the recovery item as resolved until that automatic deletion. Vault Assistant conversations are automatically deleted 30 days after their most recent activity and can be deleted earlier from the conversation history. Safety-event records may be retained for up to 90 days and administrator access-audit records for up to one year. Analytics, security and diagnostic records are retained only for as long as reasonably needed for their stated purpose. Cover photographs are not retained by Tanko Vault after AI analysis.

You can submit a confirmed deletion request from My Profile. The request is recorded, delivered to the Tanko Vault administrator and normally processed within 48 hours. Your account remains available until an administrator completes the deletion. If you request account deletion, or if we terminate an account for inappropriate or prohibited uploads, we may permanently delete the account and associated profile, vault, lists, ratings, comments, submissions, assistant conversations and scan history. Limited records may remain temporarily in backups or be retained where required for security, fraud prevention, legal obligations or dispute resolution. We will delete or de-identify information when it is no longer reasonably needed, subject to those exceptions.

10. Security and administrator review

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures designed to protect information, including password hashing, secure session cookies, restricted admin access, expiring QR capture tokens and access-controlled storage. Failed-signup email addresses are visible only to authorized full administrators, and recovery actions are recorded in the administrator audit log. Vault Assistant conversations are private from other readers but may be viewed by authorized full administrators for support, safety, abuse investigation and quality review. All administrator conversation views and actions are recorded in the restricted audit log. Moderators cannot access these tools. No online system is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee that unauthorized access, loss or misuse will never occur.

11. Access, correction and deletion choices

New accounts start with the reader profile and supported sharing sections enabled, including collection shelves, reading activity, completion statistics, estimated collection value and follower lists. You can make the profile private or switch off any individual section at any time in Profile settings. Email addresses, individual purchase prices, condition notes, insurance information and CSV records are never included in the public profile. Existing accounts keep their previously saved visibility choices.

You can update your profile, activity-sharing categories, follower notifications and collection information while signed in. You may ask us to provide access to, correct or delete personal information associated with your account by emailing admin@tankovault.com. We may need to verify your identity before acting and may decline or limit a request where permitted by law.

You can unfollow or block another account, withdraw from optional features, remove browser cookies through your browser, and request account deletion. Blocking removes follow relationships and suppresses signed-in interactions, but it cannot prevent someone from viewing information you publish while they are signed out. Deleting an account may be irreversible.

12. Children and adult content

Tanko Vault accounts are not intended for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their personal information. A parent or guardian who believes a child has provided information should contact us for deletion. Users under 18 require parental or guardian permission to create an account and must not enable or access sexually explicit content.

13. Email preferences and notifications

Required account-security, signup-recovery, verification, password-reset and requested billing messages may be sent when needed and cannot be disabled. A signup-recovery message is limited to an address entered during an unsuccessful account-creation attempt and asks the recipient to restart signup; it does not create an account automatically. Optional email is grouped into General, Marketing and Platform categories. These categories start enabled for active accounts and can be switched off independently at any time in Profile settings or through the secure preference link in an email.

General email includes direct replies, followed-series releases, weekly Vault briefs, follower updates and relevant catalog activity. Marketing includes recommendations, editorial campaigns, promotions and return reminders. Platform includes feature announcements, important product changes and guidance about new TankoVault tools. Messages may use your Vault totals, Wishlist titles, followed series and catalog events to make them relevant. Every optional email includes an unsubscribe and preference link. Suppression and frequency controls are applied before delivery.

Tanko Vault records whether an email was accepted by the delivery provider and whether you selected a tracked Tanko Vault button. We do not use invisible email open pixels. Link tracking is used to understand whether a message was useful and to prevent excessive or repetitive outreach.

14. External links and public content

Publisher and other third-party links are governed by their own privacy policies. Usernames, avatars, biographies, comments, comment scores, follower counts and enabled profile sections may be visible publicly, so do not post personal or sensitive information. New accounts begin with the reader profile and supported sharing sections enabled; every setting can be switched off after signup. Voter identities, block lists, email addresses, private acquisition details, insurance information, CSV records, individual purchase prices and disabled vault sections are not displayed publicly.

Catalog information that you submit may become public after verification. Profile search indexing is limited to eligible published profiles, and personalized profile, connection and feed responses are excluded from shared offline caching.

15. Changes and complaints

We may update this policy as Tanko Vault changes. The latest version and effective date will always appear on this page. For material changes, we may provide an additional notice or ask account holders to acknowledge the updated policy.

Questions, privacy complaints and requests to exercise applicable privacy rights can be sent to admin@tankovault.com. We will review the matter, verify identity where needed and respond within the time required by applicable law. You may also contact the privacy or consumer-protection regulator available in your jurisdiction.

Privacy version: 2026-08-23.1