Privacy Policy

Effective date: 2026-10-12

Kamishi ("the app", "we", "us") is an app for writing visual novels on your phone and exporting them as games. This policy explains what data the app handles, where it goes, and the choices you have.

The short version: your stories, pictures and voice recordings stay on your phone. Kamishi has no servers, no accounts, no ads, no analytics and no crash reporting. It only leaves your phone when you choose to share it. The one exception to know about is background removal on Android, which uses Google's ML Kit through Google Play services, described below.

1. Who we are

Kamishi is developed by Joseph Griffin (privacy@kamishi.app), based in Okinawa, Japan. There is no company behind the app, no employees, and no marketing or data team.

2. Data that stays on your device

Everything below is stored and processed on your phone and never sent anywhere by the app:

• Your projects: stories, scenes, characters and their settings.
• Pictures you import for backgrounds and characters, including character art with its background removed.
• Voice recordings you make for lines, and music you pick for scenes.
• App settings, stored in the standard per-app storage that Android and iOS provide.

When you uninstall the app, your operating system removes this data along with it. If you want to keep a project, back it up first.

3. Data you choose to share

Exporting a story (as a web game or a Ren'Py project) or backing up a project creates a zip file and hands it to your operating system's share sheet, where you decide where it goes, such as your files, a cloud drive or a message. Kamishi itself does not upload these files anywhere.

An exported web game remembers how far a reader got, so they can carry on later. It keeps this in the reader's own web browser, on their device. Kamishi does not host exported games and receives nothing from them.

4. Background removal

Kamishi can cut a character out of the background of a picture. This always happens on your device, and the picture is not uploaded:

• On iPhone, it uses Apple's built-in Vision framework, which runs entirely on the device.
• On Android, it uses Google's ML Kit subject segmentation through Google Play services. The first time it is used, Google Play services downloads the model from Google; after that it runs on your device. Pictures are processed on the device and are not sent to Google.

When background removal is used on Android, ML Kit sends Google the following for diagnostics and usage analytics, as Google describes in its ML Kit data disclosure:

• Device and app details: the device's manufacturer and model, its Android version, and Kamishi's package name and version.
• Identifiers: a device identifier and an identifier for this installation of the app.
• Performance information: such as how long the cutout took, its settings, and any error codes.

Google sends this over an encrypted connection (HTTPS), says it does not pass it on to third parties, and handles it under its privacy policy and the ML Kit terms. It never includes your pictures. Kamishi does not receive this data, and it is only sent when you use background removal.

Background removal is optional. You can always use a picture as it is.

5. Permissions

The app asks for these permissions only when a feature needs them:

• Microphone: to record voice lines.
• Photos: to pick pictures for backgrounds and characters. On recent Android versions, the system photo picker gives the app only the pictures you choose, without a permission.

Music and backups are opened with your operating system's file picker, which only gives the app the files you select.

You can turn permissions off in your operating system's settings at any time. The features that need them stop working, and the rest of the app continues to work.

6. Children

Kamishi does not collect personal information from anyone, including children. It has no accounts, no advertising, no chat or social features and no third-party trackers.

If you are in the European Economic Area and your child is under 16, or in the United States and your child is under 13, your child may use the app under your supervision.

7. Your rights

Because your projects are stored only on your device, you control them directly:

• Access and export: open your projects in the app, back them up, or export them as games.
• Deletion: delete what you no longer want in the app, or uninstall the app to remove all of its data.

We hold no data about you, so there is nothing for us to access, correct or delete on our side. If you live in the European Economic Area (GDPR), the United Kingdom (UK GDPR), California (CCPA / CPRA) or Japan (APPI) and have questions about your rights, contact us at the email below. For the data ML Kit sends Google on Android (section 4), Google is the one holding it, so see Google's privacy policy linked above.

8. Changes to this policy

If the app starts handling data differently, for example by adding crash reports or purchases, we will update this policy and its effective date before that version of the app is released.

9. Contact

Questions about this policy or about how Kamishi handles your data: privacy@kamishi.app