Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Near U (hereinafter "Service") collects, uses, stores, and destroys users' personal information.

As a location-based place-sharing service where location-verified users record and share local places (restaurants, cafés, shopping, beauty, etc.) with a photo and a one-line experience and explore them via a map and feed, the Service collects and uses only the minimum necessary information in principle.

This policy is effective from June 14, 2026.

1. Items of Personal Information Processed

Member Sign-up and Account Operation
  • Required:
    • Email Address (Account identification and login, sending notification emails)
    • Name or Nickname (For profile/display)
    • Login Identification Information (OAuth unique ID or own account ID, etc.)
  • Optional (When using service features):
    • Profile Image
    • Selected region (city/country) and verified-region information
    • Location (GPS coordinates): collected only when the user uses the feature and grants the device's location permission, for regional (city) verification, pinning a new place, and showing nearby places.
Information that may be created/collected during service use
  • Places and experiences you register: uploaded photos (images), one-line experiences and recommendation flag, place name/type/address/coordinates, and your saved places (eatlist).
  • Report and Sanction Records: Report history, processing results, sanction history, etc.
  • Automatically Collected Minimum Logs (For security/quality improvement):
    • Access date/time, request path (URL), browser/OS information (User-Agent)
    • Partially masked IP address information (e.g., removing the last octet)
    • Error logs, abnormal request pattern information, etc.
Others

If collection/storage is required by law, it may be processed within the minimum information and period range defined by such law.

2. Purpose of Collection and Use of Personal Information

The Service uses collected personal information only for the following purposes:

Member Management and Authentication
  • Sign-up, login, account identification, and management
  • Password reset or account-related notifications (if applicable)
  • Providing OAuth-based simple login
Service Provision and Operation
  • Providing core functions such as registering/viewing/searching place photos and one-line experiences, recommending, and saving to an eatlist
  • Regional (city) verification and location-based feed/map display, pinning new places, and nearby-place suggestions
  • Prevention of misuse (spam, ads, abuse, account theft, etc.) and response to service abuse
Service Improvement and Security
  • Error log analysis and failure response
  • Security threat detection and response, access pattern analysis
  • Service quality improvement and new feature development
Fulfillment of Legal Obligations and Dispute Response
  • Compliance with obligations under relevant laws (storage obligations, etc.)
  • Fact-checking and response in case of disputes
  • Processing users' exercise of rights (request for access, correction, deletion, etc.)

3. Legal Basis for Processing

The Service processes personal information based on the following legal grounds:

  • User Consent: Sign-up, OAuth linkage, providing specific optional items, etc., are processed based on the user's explicit consent.
  • Performance of Contract for Service Provision: Processing essential for service use such as login, account management, community function provision, etc.
  • Legitimate Interests: Processing logs and technical information within the minimum necessary range for security, prevention of illegal use, error response, service quality improvement, etc.

4. Retention and Usage Period

Account Information (Email, Name/Nickname, Login Identification Info, etc.)

Destruction without delay upon withdrawal.

However, if retention for a certain period is required by law, it is destroyed after storage for such period.

Community Content such as Posts/Comments

Can be stored until the member directly deletes it or for a period required by service operation policy.

Upon withdrawal, posts are not deleted en masse but stored with identification information such as nickname/profile de-identified, which is a measure for preserving conversation flow/information of other users (Adjustable according to operation policy).

Technical Logs (Access Records, Error Logs, etc.)

Stored for a maximum of 6 months for security/error analysis purposes and then destroyed without delay.

However, if necessary for security incident investigation or dispute resolution, it may be stored longer according to relevant laws.

Information Required to be Stored by Law

Stored for the period defined by relevant laws such as E-commerce records and then destroyed (Only if applicable).

5. Provision to Third Parties and Consignment of Processing

Provision to Third Parties

In principle, the Service does not sell or arbitrarily provide users' personal information to third parties.

However, it may be provided exceptionally in the following cases:

  • When the user agrees separately
  • When requested by public institutions such as investigative agencies or courts according to lawful procedures under laws
  • When inevitable for the vital interests of life, body, or property (Prevention of serious damage to user or third party, etc.)
Consignment of Processing

The Service may entrust some tasks to external companies for stable provision.

  • Example)
    • Member Authentication: OAuth Providers (e.g., Google, Naver, Kakao, etc.)
    • Infrastructure Service: Cloud Server Providers (e.g., AWS, etc.)
    • Email Sending Service (Notification/Auth emails, etc.)

Upon consignment, a contract related to personal information protection is signed, and the trustee is managed/supervised to process personal information safely.

The actual status of trustees may be guided through a separate page within the Service or revision of this policy.

6. Overseas Transfer

Part of the service infrastructure (cloud servers, etc.) or consigned services may be located overseas (e.g., USA, other countries).

In this case, users' personal information may be transferred/stored overseas for service provision, and it is managed to be processed safely through appropriate protection measures required by relevant laws.

Specific details such as transfer target, country, transfer purpose and method may be notified within the Service when relevant laws or policies change.

7. Rights of Users and Method of Exercise

Users may exercise the following rights regarding their personal information at any time:

  • Request for access (inquiry)
  • Request for correction (modification)
  • Request for deletion
  • Request for suspension of processing (Except where restricted by law)
Method of Exercising Rights
  • Direct change/deletion through account settings menu within the Service (Limited to possible items)
  • Email Inquiry: nearuconnect@gmail.com

The Service takes action within the period defined by relevant laws after verifying identity, and if the request is rejected for a justifiable reason, the reason is notified.

8. Protection of Children's Personal Information

In principle, the Service does not target children under the age of 14, and use by such age requires the consent of a legal representative.

If it is discovered that personal information of a child under 14 has been collected without the consent of a legal representative, measures are taken to destroy such information or restrict sign-up without delay.

Legal representatives may request access, correction, deletion, or suspension of processing of the child's personal information, and the Service supports this according to relevant laws.

9. Procedure and Method of Destruction of Personal Information

Destruction Procedure
  • Personal information for which the retention period has elapsed or the purpose of processing has been achieved is destroyed without delay.
  • If separate storage is required by law, it is destroyed after separate storage for such period.
Destruction Method
  • Electronic File Form: Permanently deleted by a method that cannot be restored (using secure deletion programs, etc.)
  • Printouts, etc.: Physically destroyed by shredding or incineration

10. Measures to Ensure Safety of Personal Information

The Service takes the following measures for safe processing of personal information:

  • Access Control: Restricting access rights to personal information to a minimum number of personnel, managing administrator account access records and regular checks
  • Encryption: Encryption of communication sections between Service and users (HTTPS), safe storage/management of sensitive information such as passwords, tokens (hashing, etc.)
  • Log and Security Management: Monitoring of security events and access logs, detection and blocking of abnormal access attempts
  • Establishment of Internal Management Plan and Education: Establishing internal management standards for personal information protection, personal information protection education for operators (if necessary)
  • Data Minimization: Not collecting personal information unnecessary for service provision, and destroying collected information without delay after achieving the purpose

11. Operation of Cookies and Similar Technologies

The Service may use cookies for the following purposes:

  • Maintaining login sessions and account identification
  • Security (detection of abnormal access, etc.) and understanding service usage patterns (basic statistical level)

Users may refuse to store cookies or delete them through browser settings. However, if essential cookies are blocked, some functions such as login may not work properly.

Currently, the Service does not use cookies for separate advertising/behavior-based tracking. If introduced in the future, relevant information and consent procedures will be notified in advance.

12. Data Protection Officer and Contact Information

The Service designates a Data Protection Officer who oversees tasks related to personal information protection.

Data Protection Officer: NearUConnect Operator
Email: nearuconnect@gmail.com

Please contact the above contact information for personal information protection inquiries, complaint handling, infringement reports, etc. We will answer/act faithfully and quickly.

13. Notice of Change in Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy may be modified according to changes in laws, policies, or service contents.

In case of significant changes (expansion of collection items, addition of usage purposes, etc.), prior notice will be given through notices within the Service at least 7 days before the change (30 days before if there is a significant impact on users).

The changed policy becomes effective from the announced effective date.