Privacy Policy

ChinaCue helps international travellers read Chinese restaurant menus and talk with restaurant staff. This policy explains exactly what the app sends, where it goes, and what we keep.

ChinaCue has no accounts and no sign-in. We do not ask for your name, email address, phone number, or date of birth, and we have no way to identify you personally.

1. What the app does not collect

• No name, email, phone number, or postal address
• No contacts, calendar, health data, or advertising identifiers
• No GPS or precise location
• No access to your photo library except a single image you personally choose to import
• No third-party analytics, advertising, or tracking SDKs of any kind

2. What the app does send, and when

Anonymous device identifier

On first launch the app generates a random identifier and stores it in your device's Keychain. It is sent with requests to our server so we can apply rate limits and prevent abuse. It is not linked to you, your Apple ID, or your device's hardware identifiers, and it is not used for tracking or advertising. Deleting the app removes it.

Menu photographs

Menu photos are read on your device first using Apple's on-device text recognition. In most cases the photo never leaves your phone.

A compressed copy of the photo is uploaded to our server only when on-device reading produces too little to work with — for example a blurry, dim, or unusual menu. When that happens the image is forwarded to our AI provider (see section 3) purely to extract the dish names, and is discarded after the response is generated. We do not store menu photos.

Speech and text you enter

Speech is converted to text by Apple's speech recognition on your device. Depending on your device and language settings, Apple may process the audio on Apple's servers; that processing is governed by Apple's Privacy Policy, not this one. ChinaCue never receives or stores your audio.

The resulting text — and any text you type — is sent to our server and on to our AI provider in order to translate it. Translated text is returned to your device and is not stored on our servers.

Dish names

When a dish is not in the offline database bundled with the app, its name is sent to our server for an explanation to be generated. The explanation is cached on your device so the same dish is never looked up twice.

Purchases

Purchases are processed by Apple. ChinaCue never sees your payment details. Apple provides the app with a signed transaction record, which we send to our server to confirm it is genuine and has not already been used. We store the transaction identifier for that purpose. Your remaining credits are stored only on your device, in the Keychain.

3. Third parties that process your data

• Volcengine Ark (Beijing Volcano Engine Technology Co., Ltd.) — processes menu text, dish names, menu images (only in the fallback case described above), and text for translation. Content is sent for processing and the result is returned to your device. What Volcengine may do with content it receives is governed by its own terms and privacy policy, not by ours.
• Apple — App Store purchases and, where applicable, speech recognition.

Because content is processed by these providers, please do not use ChinaCue to translate confidential or sensitive information. It is a tool for restaurant conversation.

Our own server is operated by us on infrastructure located in Hong Kong SAR. Our AI provider processes requests in mainland China. If you use ChinaCue, information described above is transferred to and processed in those places.

4. What we keep, and for how long

• On our server: purchase transaction identifiers, kept so that a purchase cannot be redeemed twice. Rate-limiting counters are deleted automatically within one hour. Standard server logs, which include IP addresses, are kept for 14 days for security and troubleshooting and are then deleted automatically.
• On your device: your remaining credits, cached dish explanations, and your app preferences. All of it is removed when you delete the app.
• Not kept anywhere: menu photographs, audio, and the content of your translations.

5. Children

ChinaCue is a travel utility intended for adults. It is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect information from children.

6. Your choices

• Camera, microphone, speech recognition, and photo access are each requested only when first needed, and can be revoked at any time in iOS Settings. The app remains usable without them, with reduced functionality.
• Deleting ChinaCue removes the anonymous identifier, your cached dishes, and your locally stored credits. Because credits are stored on your device only, deleting the app also deletes any unused credits.
• Because we hold no information that identifies you, we are generally unable to look up, export, or delete "your" data on request — there is nothing linked to you to find. If you have a question about this, please contact us.

7. Security

All communication between the app and our server uses HTTPS. Credits and the anonymous device identifier are stored in the iOS Keychain. No system is perfectly secure, but we do not hold personal information, which substantially limits what could be exposed.

8. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy we will update the date at the top of this page and, where the change is significant, note it in the app's release notes.

9. Contact

Questions about privacy: support@vacationcue.com