PIGPON Terms of Use

The important parts first

• Only people aged 18 or over may use the Service.
• It is free and provided as it is. It may change, pause temporarily or end without notice.
• There are no accounts. Photos are deleted automatically 3 days after the results, and captions and results after 30 days. Groups that nobody opens for 30 days are deleted too.
• You are responsible for the photos and captions you put in. Get the consent of anyone shown in a photo. A photo appears on a share card only if the person who put it in turned on “OK for share cards”.
• Who pressed “LOL” is never shown to anyone. The operator does not look at the content of photos or captions, except when handling a report and similar cases.
• The operator is not liable for damage it is not responsible for. For damage caused by the operator's slight negligence, compensation is limited to direct and ordinary damage (this limit does not apply to intent or gross negligence).

The detailed conditions are in Articles 1 to 18 below. If the summary and the articles differ, the articles prevail.

Article 1. About these Terms

• These Terms set out the conditions for using “PIGPON” (the “Service”), provided by the operator of mendoi-apps (the “Operator”).
• Before you create a group, or join a group through an invite link or an in-app invitation, select “I agree to the Terms” on screen. These Terms then form the contract between the person who agreed (the “User”) and the Operator.
• These Terms are standard terms (teikei yakkan) under the Japanese Civil Code. Users can read the full text on this page at any time.
• The handling of personal information, and the list of information sent to outside parties, follow the separate Privacy Policy.

Article 2. Who may use the Service

• Only people aged 18 or over may use the Service. People under 18 can neither create nor join a group.
• Age is self-declared. The Operator neither receives nor stores dates of birth. Once a device confirms “18 or over”, that confirmation is stored on the device and not asked again. If a person under 18 uses the Service by declaring they are 18 or over, the person who made the declaration is responsible for the consequences.
• If the Operator learns that a User is under 18, it may stop group creation and joining from that device.
• A person whose use was previously stopped for violating these Terms may not resume use without the Operator's consent.
• Public rooms (play with strangers) are for people aged 18 or over only. The first time you enter, you confirm the “Public room pledge” and that you are 18 or over on screen; the confirmation is stored on your device and is asked again when the version is raised.

Article 3. What the Service is

• The Service is a free game in which a group of invited friends only (up to 10 people) add short captions to photos and press “LOL” on the captions that made them laugh.
• Once a day, a “drop” starts sometime within the time window the group chose (initially 7 PM to 10 PM) and closes 6 hours later. It starts only in groups with 2 or more members. When 2 or more people have opened the group in the last 10 minutes, a short round of a few minutes can also be started with “Play now”.
• Photos: for each user, one photo per round is picked at random from the photos or folder chosen in advance on their own device. “Reroll” can be used up to 3 times. A photo is sent to the Operator's server only when “Drop it” is pressed, after it has been shrunk and stripped of extra information such as where it was taken. The photos or folder chosen in advance stay only on the device and are not sent to the Operator. There is a daily limit on how many photos can be put in.
• Captions: users write short captions on photos put in by others. You cannot caption your own photo. While captions are being written and judged, the authors' names are not shown.
• Judging: users look at captions written by others and press “LOL” on the ones that made them laugh (any number, including none). If 2 or more people judged a caption and two thirds or more of them pressed “LOL”, it becomes a “PIGPON”. The moment the results are out, the name of each caption's author is shown to everyone in the group. Results (the author's name, the LOL counts, the PIGPON counts and the board) can be seen by anyone who has judged every caption by others that they could judge in that round. Anyone who still has captions left can see them after judging, and 24 hours after the results are out anyone can see them without judging. For 24 hours after the results are out, you can still judge the remaining captions as “late judging”. A “LOL” pressed late is shown to the caption's author only as a number of “LOLs that came late”; it does not change the final LOL counts, tiers or PIGPON counts. Not judging never voids your own caption or changes anyone else's results.
• On devices without photos, in groups that turned photos off, and while the Operator has stopped accepting photos, photos from Wikimedia Commons (free photos) are used.
• Results can be turned into an image (share card) and sent outside the Service with the device's sharing function. Once sent outside, the Operator cannot delete or control the image. When the total number of days you took part (days on which you wrote a caption or judged) reaches 7 and 30, you can choose a decorative frame for the card. Frames are only for looks, have no monetary value, and do not affect game results.
• There is no charge for use. Data charges are paid by the User.
• Public rooms: open rooms where you play with strangers. Photos are free photos prepared by the Operator only; Users cannot put in photos. There is no chat, direct message or exchange of contact details. Your name is a random handle assigned each time you enter a room and does not carry over between rooms. The caption you write (up to 30 characters) is shown to the strangers in that room, so do not write personal information, other people’s names or contact details. Certain words, the names of people present, long numbers and repeated identical lines are rejected automatically by a program. People may come and go freely. Daily limits apply to how many rooms you can create, enter and report.

Article 4. Groups, invite links, inbox and acquaintances

• Each group has one invite link with no expiry. Anyone you give the invite link to can join that group. Users must manage invite links themselves. When the group's host remakes the link, the old link stops working.
• The host is the person who created the group. If the host has not opened the group for 24 hours or more, the longest-standing member can, in the host's place, remove members, remake the invite link, change the time window or photo settings, and rename the group. Only the person who created the group can delete it.
• One device can join up to 10 groups. The “inbox” lists the groups the device belongs to, ordered by what needs doing. For this, the Operator's server keeps, per device, the list of groups it belongs to.
• People who were once in the same group as you are shown only on your own screen as “acquaintances”. Acquaintances are derived automatically from records of having been in the same group; contacts or address books are not used. A person who left a group stops being shown as an acquaintance 30 days after leaving. Showing acquaintances can be turned off in the device settings.
• In-app invitations can be sent to acquaintances. An invitation appears in the other person's inbox and expires after 7 days. There is a daily limit on how many can be sent.
• When you leave a group, the photos you put in that group are taken down immediately. If results are not out yet, the captions on those photos become void. The captions you wrote and the “LOL”s you pressed remain. A member who does not open the group even once for 60 days is treated as having left the group automatically (handled the same as leaving on your own; no notification is sent).

Article 5. Provision as is; changes, interruption and termination

• The Service is provided as it is. The Operator does not promise that the Service will always work, be free of errors or defects, suit a particular purpose, or never lose data.
• The Operator may, without notice, change the content of the Service, stop it temporarily, or end it. There may be times when it cannot be used because of the limits of free usage quotas, maintenance, failures, or outages of outside services.
• To keep things safe, deal with failures, or stay within free usage quotas, the Operator may, without notice, temporarily stop the whole Service, the acceptance of photos, notifications, “Play now”, or new joining. On a day when the whole Service is stopped for more than 6 hours, that day's drop may not start. On busy days, the number of “Play now” rounds or new groups that can be created may be reduced.
• In a group that nobody has opened for 14 days, drops do not start automatically. They start again from the day someone opens the group. A member who does none of putting in a photo, writing a caption or judging in 5 drops in a row automatically becomes “resting”. No notifications are sent to resting members, and they are not counted in the number of participants or in deciding whether a drop closes early. Their rights to photos, captions and judging remain; when they open the group, notifications return, and doing any one of putting in a photo, writing a caption or judging brings them back immediately, with no procedure. The member list shows “resting”.
• When suspending or ending all or part of the Service, except in emergencies, the Operator will announce on this page and on the Service's screens, at least 30 days before the date of suspension or termination, what will happen, the date, the reason and where to ask.
• The Operator may close or stop any single public room, or all public rooms, at any time and without notice. Captions and results of a closed room cannot be restored.

Article 6. Accounts and the device passcode

• The Service has no account registration. Users are identified only by a random passcode (token) stored on their device. The Operator's server stores only a value converted from that token in a way that cannot be reversed.
• If the passcode is lost — for example because browser data was cleared or the device was changed — you generally cannot return as the same user. The Operator cannot restore it either.
• However, a device that rejoins a group through that group's invite link with the same nickname as a member who has not opened the group for 7 days or more takes over that member's place. PIGPON counts, records of days played and photos are not carried over. After the takeover, the previous device's passcode stops working, and the group shows “○○ rejoined from another device”. The place of the person who created the group cannot be taken over this way.
• Users must manage their passcode themselves.

Article 7. Notifications (Web Push)

• Notifications are sent only if the User allows browser notifications. Permission is asked only once, after you first see results. If you decline, you can allow it later only from the settings screen.
• When you allow notifications, the address (endpoint) of the notification delivery service provided by your browser's maker is stored on the Operator's server. The notifications sent contain no message text; the text shown is loaded by the device from the Operator's server.
• Only three kinds of notification are sent: that a drop has started, that results are out, and, 60 minutes before closing, that you still have something to do. Up to 4 per device per day and up to 3 per group per day. None are sent between 11 PM and 7 AM; they are bundled at 7 AM. Not sent to members who are resting (Article 5).
• Notifications can be turned off per group, and also in the browser settings. When you leave a group or are removed from it, notifications for that group stop. The addresses of devices that have not opened any group for 30 days are deleted.

Article 8. How data is handled and how long it is kept

• The Operator stores only the minimum data needed for the game, and deletes it automatically after the periods below.
• Photos put in: deleted 3 days after that round's results are out. Photos that received no captions, photos that were taken down, and photos whose owner left or was removed from the group are deleted immediately. When storage runs short, photos may be deleted 1 day after the results.
• Captions, results and PIGPON counts: deleted 30 days after the round started.
• Groups: a group that nobody has opened for 30 days is deleted together with the data in it.
• Records of days played (lights): deleted after 35 days. Total days of participation used for card frames: for devices that are in no group, deleted 180 days after it last increased. Record of whether a member is resting: deleted when you leave the group.
• Notification addresses: deleted for devices that have not opened any group for 30 days. When you leave or are removed from a group, notifications for that group stop immediately.
• Records used to show acquaintances: deleted 30 days after leaving the group. In-app invitations: deleted after 7 days.
• Records of agreement to these Terms (version and time agreed): deleted when you leave the group or the group is deleted.
• Content sent through the “Report a bug / request” form: kept for up to 180 days, then deleted.
• Usage counts that do not identify individuals or groups: deleted after 120 days.
• What is stored on the Operator's server: nicknames, group names and settings, photos put in, captions, the “OK for share cards” setting of each photo, the list of groups joined, days played, notification addresses, the icon images of people who set one, records used to show acquaintances, records of agreement to these Terms, the declaration of being 18 or over, and records of counts used to prevent abuse. Contacts, address books, location and dates of birth are not collected. Member icons (only for people who set one): for each group, one small image is stored — the LINE or Discord profile picture, or a photo the user chose, made smaller; LINE and Discord user IDs, display names and login keys (tokens) are not stored. An icon is deleted when you remove it, when you leave or are removed from the group, or when the group is deleted, and it is shown only to members of that group who are 18 or over. Do not use someone else's photo, or a photo of people who have not agreed to it, as your icon.
• Who pressed “LOL” is never shown to anyone. Once a round is over, nothing but the counts remains on the Operator's server either. The name of each caption's author is shown to everyone in the group the moment the results are out. However, for 24 hours after the results are out, to allow “late judging” and the showing of results (Article 3), the Operator stores who judged which caption (not including “LOL”s pressed before closing) and the “LOL”s pressed late, and after 24 hours keeps only the number of “late LOLs”.
• Photos that may violate the law (such as sexual images of children) may be kept beyond the periods above, as set out in Article 12, to the extent needed to report them to the relevant authorities and for investigation.
• Deleted data cannot be restored. Users should save any results they want to keep themselves. The Operator provides the Service on the basis that data may be lost through failures and the like even before the end of the retention period.
• The information sent to outside providers when you open the Service's pages — such as for Wikimedia Commons photos and fonts — and where it is sent are listed under “PIGPON's external transmissions” in the Privacy Policy.
• Public rooms: the state inside a room (handles, captions, reactions, votes) is deleted at most 10 minutes after the room closes. Round totals, records of hiding, kicks and reports (with a hashed device value), the caption log kept for lawful disclosure requests, and the record of a device’s first lobby visit are deleted after 30 days. The record of which room a device is in is deleted after 7 hours.

Article 9. Secrecy of communications

• The Operator protects the secrecy of communications exchanged by Users within groups, such as photos, captions and group names.
• The Operator does not look at this content on its own initiative. The content is checked only when a User reports something or asks for removal — in which case only that photo or caption is checked, within the scope of that User's consent — and in the cases permitted by law under Article 12, paragraph 7. What is checked is not used beyond the purpose of that response or passed on to others.
• Automatic rejection of captions (set words, URLs, phone numbers and so on) and temporary limits for abuse are decided by the program using fixed rules and counts, without anyone looking at the content. Only counts that do not identify individuals or groups are used to improve the Service.
• If the secrecy of communications is breached, the Operator will promptly report it to the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications under the Telecommunications Business Act and inform Users on this page and on the Service's screens.

Article 10. Photos and captions you put in

• Users may put in only photos they have the right to share, such as photos they took themselves. Do not put in photos taken by others, or photos mainly showing other people's works, characters or logos, without the rights holder's permission.
• Before putting in a photo that shows people, get the consent of everyone shown to it being seen by the members of that group.
• “OK for share cards” (on by default) when putting in a photo is the consent of the person who put it in to that photo being used on share cards. If it is turned off, the photo does not appear on share cards. “OK for share cards” can be withdrawn at any time, but images saved or sent before it was withdrawn cannot be deleted. Getting the consent of the people shown is the responsibility of the person putting in the photo.
• Users write captions, nicknames and group names on their own responsibility. When sending share cards containing other people's captions outside the Service (to social media and the like), please also consider the feelings of the people who wrote them.
• Rights to the photos and captions put in remain with the Users who put them in. Users allow the Operator to use them free of charge to the extent needed to run the Service (storage, conversion such as shrinking, showing them to group members, and making share cards). The Operator does not use Users' photos or captions for any other purpose (such as advertising or promotion).
• If photos or captions you put in cause trouble with others, resolve it yourself at your own responsibility and expense. The Operator will, however, take the necessary action under Article 12.

Article 11. Prohibited conduct

• Users must not do the following.
• Break the law, do anything leading to crime, or help others do so.
• Put in obscene images or text, sexual images or text, or images taken for sexual purposes. Never put in content that sexualises children.
• Put in or spread outside the Service photos taken without the person's consent, voyeuristic photos, or private sexual images.
• Put in violent or cruel images or text, or content encouraging self-harm or harm to others.
• Put in discrimination, or content inciting discrimination, based on race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, disability, illness, religion and the like.
• Bullying, harassment, threats, defamation of particular people, or exposing someone to ridicule.
• Write, or show in photos, personal information about yourself or others, such as phone numbers, addresses, school or workplace names, or social media accounts.
• Infringe others' copyright, portrait rights, privacy, reputation, trademarks or other rights.
• Impersonate others or the Operator. Use the same nickname as someone else in order to take over their place.
• Use the Service for advertising, solicitation, sales, religious or political recruitment, or dating.
• Repeatedly take down other people's photos or hide their captions in order to harass them.
• Unauthorised access, putting a heavy load on the servers, mass operations with automated tools, exploiting vulnerabilities, or interfering with how the Service works.
• Interfering with the work of the Operator or the use of other Users.
• Letting people under 18 take part in the Service.
• Anything else the Operator reasonably judges to be close to any of the above.

Article 12. Hiding, taking down, reports, removal and suspension

• Hiding captions: any member of a group can hide a caption in one action. A hidden caption disappears from everyone's screen and cannot be restored. If it is hidden after the results are out, it simply disappears from view; PIGPON counts do not change.
• Taking down photos: any member of a group can take down a photo in one action without giving a reason. The image of a taken-down photo is deleted immediately and cannot be restored. If it is taken down before the results are out, the captions on that photo become void. If it is taken down after the results are out, PIGPON counts and “LOL” counts remain. Share cards saved or sent before the takedown cannot be deleted.
• To prevent abuse of hiding and taking down, when the same device has its captions hidden many times, or takes down other people's photos many times, within a short period, captions from that device may be stopped for 24 hours.
• When, after receiving a report or a removal request (checked within the scope of the reporting User's consent, as set out in Article 9), the Operator judges that a photo or caption violates these Terms or may infringe others' rights, it may, without notifying the User in advance, hide or delete that photo or caption, suspend or delete the group, or restrict or suspend use.
• When, through a report or request, the Operator learns of a photo that may violate the law, such as a sexual image of a child, it may immediately stop its delivery, stop new posts to that group, and report it under the law to the relevant authorities (such as the Internet Hotline Center and the police). In that case, the Operator may keep that photo, isolated so that neither others nor the Operator itself can view it, to the extent needed to cooperate with an investigation (for up to 90 days).
• If you want a photo or caption that infringes your own photo or rights removed, contact us through the contact form. The Operator will check the content and take the necessary action. Requests to remove private sexual images are handled as quickly as possible (as a guide, within 2 days at the latest).
• The Operator may provide information to the extent it has stored it only where permitted by law, such as under a warrant issued by a judge or disclosure of sender information based on a court order. Mere inquiries without legal compulsion do not lead to providing the content of communications, such as photos and captions, or who sent them. Information deleted after the periods in Article 8 cannot be provided.
• The Operator has no obligation to explain its reasons for taking or not taking the actions in this Article.
• Public rooms use these mechanisms. (1) Hide: anyone present can hide a caption with one action, and it disappears from everyone’s screen. (2) Report: you can report to the Operator by choosing one of four reasons; the room ID, handle and caption are attached. (3) Kick vote: a majority of those present can remove a person from the room, once per round. (4) Removal of inactive people: after 2 rounds without a response you become view-only, and in the 3rd round you leave the room (this is not a penalty). (5) Staged temporary bans: being hidden twice in one room bars you from captioning in that room; being hidden in 2 rooms within 24 hours bars you for 24 hours; 3 times within 30 days, for 30 days; being kicked, for 15 minutes; kicked twice within 7 days, for 7 days. The end of the period is shown on your own screen. (6) Daily limits on creating rooms, entering rooms and reporting.

Article 13. Disclaimers and scope of liability

• Problems arising from exchanges between Users, the content of photos and captions put in, or sending share cards outside the Service should be resolved between the Users concerned. The Operator is not liable for them, except where the Operator is responsible (where caused by the Operator's intent or negligence).
• The Operator is not liable for damage suffered by Users through using or being unable to use the Service, loss of data, or changes to, interruption of or termination of the Service, except where the Operator is responsible (where caused by the Operator's intent or negligence).
• If the Operator causes damage to a User through its intent or gross negligence, it will compensate in accordance with the law.
• Only where the Operator causes damage to a User through slight negligence (negligence other than gross negligence), the compensation the Operator pays is limited to the direct and ordinary damage actually incurred. This limit does not apply where the Operator acted with intent or gross negligence.
• Even if any part of these Terms is held invalid, or deemed not agreed, under the Consumer Contract Act or other laws, the rest remains in effect.

Article 14. Users' responsibility

• If the Operator receives a claim from a third party or suffers damage because a User violated these Terms or put in photos or captions that break the law, that User shall bear the damage (including reasonable attorneys' fees) to the extent permitted by law.

Article 15. Changes to these Terms

• The Operator may change these Terms without the individual consent of Users in either of the following cases.
• Where the change is in the general interest of Users.
• Where the change does not go against the purpose of the Service and is reasonable in light of the need for it, the appropriateness of the new content and other circumstances.
• When making a change, the Operator will announce on this page, before the date it takes effect, that the Terms will change, the new content and the date the change takes effect. Changes that are disadvantageous to Users will be announced at least 7 days before they take effect, also announced on the Service's screens, and Users may be asked to agree again.

Article 16. Transfer of rights

• Users may not transfer their position, rights or obligations under these Terms to others without the Operator's consent.

Article 17. Governing law and court

• These Terms are interpreted under the laws of Japan.
• If a dispute arises between the Operator and a User about the Service, both will first try to resolve it through discussion. If it still cannot be resolved, the district court or summary court having jurisdiction over the Operator's location shall be the exclusive agreed court of first instance. Where another court has jurisdiction under the law, that rule applies.

Article 18. Contact

• Send questions about these Terms, reports, removal requests and notices of rights infringement through the contact form.
• Bugs and requests can also be sent with “Report a bug / request” on PIGPON's screens.
• The information sent to outside providers when you open PIGPON's pages, where it is sent and why, are listed under “PIGPON's external transmissions” in the Privacy Policy.
• For how personal information is handled, see the Privacy Policy; for information about the Operator, see the Notation under the Specified Commercial Transactions Act (Japanese).