⌕Sign in
Tanko Vault catalogue Official western editionsWeekly publisher scans

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: 2 August 2026

1. Scope and who we are

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

We aim to handle personal information transparently and consistently with applicable Australian privacy law, including the Australian Privacy Principles where they apply.

2. Information we collect

Account information: email address, display name, username, password hash, account status, signup date, last activity and legal-policy acceptance records. We do not store your password in readable form.

Profile and vault information: avatar, biography, manga collection, reading status, formats, condition, wishlists, pull lists, 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 catalogue 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 catalogue 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, including support, privacy, safety and rights-holder requests.

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. Catalogue 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.
  • Build a Following feed from profile sections and activity categories that are currently public under the account holder's settings.
  • Identify manga covers, match volumes and review proposed catalogue 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 catalogue quality and site accessibility.
  • Comply with law and enforce the Terms & Conditions.

5. AI cover scanning and photo deletion

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.

We may retain the extracted metadata, AI response, confidence score, catalogue match, confirmation result, safety outcome and usage count. If a new volume is proposed, clean catalogue artwork obtained from an authorised or public catalogue source may be stored separately. Do not include people, private documents or sensitive information in a cover photo.

OpenAI processes submitted data as our service provider under its applicable business/API terms and privacy commitments. Its systems may process information outside Australia. You should not use the scanner if you do not want the image sent to this provider.

6. Cookies and analytics

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.

Blocking essential cookies may prevent sign-in, guest-rating persistence or other features from working. You can clear cookies using your browser, although doing so may sign you out and reset device-level preferences.

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 AI cover analysis.
  • Cloud hosting, database, object-storage, security and delivery providers.
  • Resend for transactional email delivery.
  • Payment providers such as Stripe if paid features are introduced and you choose to subscribe.
  • Professional advisers, regulators, courts or law-enforcement bodies where required or authorised 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. Overseas processing

Some service providers may process or store information in the United States or other countries where they or their infrastructure operate. Privacy protections in those countries may differ from Australian law. Where required, we take reasonable steps to use providers with appropriate contractual, technical and organisational safeguards.

9. Retention and account deletion

We keep account and vault information while your account is active and as needed to provide the service. 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.

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 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

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures designed to protect information, including password hashing, secure session cookies, restricted admin access, expiring QR capture tokens and access-controlled storage. No online system is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee that unauthorised access, loss or misuse will never occur.

11. Access, correction and deletion choices

New accounts start with a public reader profile and all supported public sections enabled, including collection shelves, reading activity, completion statistics, estimated collection value and follower lists. This is disclosed during signup. You can make the entire profile private or untick any individual section at any time in Profile settings. Email addresses, 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 R18 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 R18 sexual content.

13. Marketing and service notifications

We do not currently use account emails for general marketing. If optional marketing communications are introduced, we will provide an appropriate choice and unsubscribe method. We may still send essential security, account, billing or service messages.

Direct comment-reply emails are optional service notifications. They are on by default so readers do not miss a reply and can be turned off at any time in Profile settings. New-follower email is off by default and can be enabled separately. Turning either email off does not disable the corresponding in-site notification.

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 currently enabled profile sections may be visible publicly, so do not post personal or sensitive information. New accounts begin with supported profile sections enabled, and those settings can be changed after signup. Voter identities, block lists, email addresses, private acquisition details, insurance information and disabled vault sections are not displayed publicly.

Catalogue information that you submit may become public after verification. Profile search indexing is limited to eligible published profiles, and personalised 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 or privacy complaints can be sent to admin@tankovault.com. We will review the matter and aim to respond within a reasonable time. If applicable and you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

Privacy version: 2026-08-02.2