Privacy Policy

This policy explains what personal data pod collects, what it is used for, which services handle it, how long it is kept, and how you can access, export or delete your own data. This is an English translation of the Chinese version; if the two differ, the Chinese version prevails.

1 · Scope and data controller

This policy applies to the pod platform: the iOS and Android apps, the website (po-od.com) and their backend services. The data controller is Potential of Design Limited (Hong Kong; “pod”). Contact details are in section 13.

2 · What we collect

• Basic sign-in account details (the email and name of your Google or Apple account) — used for signing in and identifying your account. If you sign in with Apple, you can choose to have Apple relay your email and hide your real address.
• Profile details (your account handle, your display name, your profile photo) — shown publicly on your profile and next to the content you publish. When you first sign in, your display name is set from the name on your Google or Apple account (if none is available, your account handle is shown instead); you can change or clear it in Settings at any time.
• Content you publish (photos and text in posts, comments, your ratings of pieces and outfits, votes, the place tag you choose for a post) — publicly visible. A place tag is a public place you choose yourself; pod does not read your device location. The city pre-filled when you post is based on the country your connection appears to come from; this step does not store your IP address.
• The location stored in a photo (EXIF GPS) — when you post, if a photo you pick already contains the location where it was taken, the app uses it on your device only to suggest nearby places. That location is never uploaded or stored, and location data is removed from the photo before it is uploaded. Your post is tagged with a place only if you choose one of the suggestions.
• Style analysis of post photos — the photos in the posts you publish are analysed automatically for outfit style, and a style verdict and score are worked out from the analysis. The results are shown publicly on that post (for example the style name and the score). The analysis runs on computers pod manages itself, using publicly released image-recognition models (the models themselves are downloaded to pod’s computers and run there) together with style layers pod has trained itself: a photo is downloaded only temporarily for the analysis and deleted once it is done, and it is never sent to any outside AI or analysis service. The models look at the whole photo (including the person and the background) to judge the outfit; the analysis results stored in pod’s database are only whether the photo could be analysed, and results that describe the outfit: style axes, colours, the items recognised in the photo (where they are and their main colour), how close the outfit is to each style, and the style verdict and score. During the analysis it also works out which parts of the photo are face, hair or skin, only to judge whether the photo can be analysed and to separate the clothing from the body. It does not recognise who the person in the photo is (no face matching or identity recognition), and it does not estimate age, gender or other personal characteristics. Once a post is removed, its analysis results are no longer shown.
• Style league — a post you publish during a round that matches that round’s style is entered automatically; pod records which of your posts entered which round, their places and scores on each board, and the league P you receive as a result (amount, reason and expiry date).
• Saves, cart and follows — the pieces or posts you save, the pieces and sizes in your cart, and the people you follow; your saves and cart are visible only to you.
• Private messages (including attached photos) — visible only to the two people in the conversation. Your conversation with pod’s customer care account, pod care, is read by the pod team to handle your request (for example about an order or a return).
• Reports and blocks — the posts or accounts you report, the reason you give, and who you have blocked; used only by the pod team to handle reports and prevent abuse. pod never tells a reported person who reported them.
• Purchase and order records (piece, edition number, size, amount, delivery method, payment and shipping status, return requests) — used for transactions, shipping, returns and exchanges, and accounting records kept as required by law.
• Payment details — card numbers are collected directly by Stripe’s payment form; pod never handles or stores full card numbers. When you check out several pieces at once, Stripe creates a customer record so that each piece can be charged separately; the card number still stays only with Stripe. Stripe also collects device and browser signals to prevent fraud (see section 4).
• Delivery address and phone number — used for shipping.
• Suppliers’ pickup address and hours (filled in only by designers / workshops themselves) — provided only to buyers who have placed a pick-up order, and never shown on the map; the map shows only the district.
• Suppliers’ shop address (optional; used only when the supplier turns on “Welcome visitors”) — shown publicly on the map, with its location, so visitors can come by; kept separate from the pickup address and no longer shown once “Welcome visitors” is turned off.
• Label application details (label name, a photo of your first piece, an optional logo and website or social link, and which draft of the platform agreement you confirmed and when) — used to review your label application and to record the basis of working together; the photo and link are seen only by the people at pod who review it. Once approved, your label name and logo become the public name and picture of your account on pod.
• Suppliers’ payout details (account holder name, bank and account number, the last 4 characters of the identity document number) — used only for payout reconciliation and statutory reporting; accessible only to payout operations, never made public, and unrelated to any ranking or recommendation.
• Usage events (which posts you viewed in the feed, which pieces you opened, which page you switched to, time spent, where you came from, and when a shared link is opened) — used to understand how features are used and to improve the service; recorded under your account when you are signed in, and linked only to an anonymous session identifier when you are not. For where you came from, only a category is stored (such as “search / social / direct”); the original URL is neither uploaded nor stored. These events are not used for advertising and are not combined with other companies’ data to track you.
• IP address and device information — for account security and to prevent abuse: when you sign in, the sign-in record keeps your IP address and browser / device information (recorded by our authentication provider, Supabase), used to spot unusual sign-ins; the server’s rate limiting also counts requests per IP address (and, once you are signed in, per account) over a short time (only the remaining count and the time of the last request), used to block large volumes of automated requests. This information is never shown publicly, is not used for recommendations, ranking or advertising, and is not used to work out your location.
• Anonymous session identifier (sid) — kept in the sessionStorage of your browser or the app, and gone when you close it.
• Device push token (only if you use the iOS or Android app and allow notifications) — used to send notifications; deleted when you sign out or delete your account.

pod does not collect: your device’s precise location, your contacts, health data or advertising identifiers; and it does not track your activity in other apps or on other websites.

3 · Why we collect it

• to provide sign-in and account management;
• to show your profile and the content you publish, and to let you interact with other users and send private messages;
• to analyse the outfit style in post photos automatically, and to work out and show style verdicts and scores;
• to process orders, payments, shipping, returns and exchanges;
• to send notifications about your account, orders and messages (including iOS and Android app push notifications);
• to answer the questions you raise with pod care;
• to reconcile payouts to suppliers and make statutory reports;
• to keep accounts secure and the service stable (IP addresses in sign-in records are used to spot unusual sign-ins; rate limiting uses IP addresses to block large volumes of automated requests);
• to handle reports and prevent abuse;
• to understand how features are used and improve the service (usage events).

pod does not sell your personal data and does not use it for advertising.

4 · Third-party recipients

5 · Cross-border transfers

The infrastructure of the third-party services listed above is located outside Hong Kong, so your data is transferred outside Hong Kong for processing and storage. In particular, the database, account authentication and photo storage (Supabase) are currently located in India (ap-south-1); payment processing (Stripe), website hosting (Vercel), and sign-in and push notifications (Google, Apple) follow the configuration of their global infrastructure. pod gives these services only the data needed for the purposes in the table above.

6 · How long we keep it

• Account and profile details (email, name, display name, profile photo): for as long as the account exists; deleted when you delete your account (the sign-in account, including the email, is deleted with it).
• Posts, comments and photos: until you remove them or delete your account; when you delete your account, your posts are taken down and the photo files deleted (see section 7: photos involved in a report still being reviewed are deleted once the review is finished).
• Style analysis results: kept with the post; once a post is removed, they are no longer shown and no longer linked to your name.
• Private messages: for as long as the account exists; after you delete your account, messages you sent stay in the other person’s conversation.
• Saves, cart and follows: until you remove them or delete your account.
• Delivery address and phone number: until you change them or delete your account.
• Order, payment and accounting records: at least 7 years, as Hong Kong law requires for business records; after you delete your account they are no longer linked to your name.
• Suppliers’ payout details: for as long as the account exists, plus the period for which payout and reporting records must be kept by law (at least 7 years).
• Usage events: kept for 13 months, then deleted automatically by a daily job; if you delete your account before then, they are kept for statistics, linked only to an internal number that contains none of your personal data.
• Sign-in records (IP address, device information): sign-in sessions are removed when you sign out, when the session expires, or when you delete your account; the authentication provider’s own security audit logs are kept according to that provider’s (Supabase’s) settings.
• Rate-limiting records: one row per IP address and, once you are signed in, one row per account for each kind of action (only the remaining count and the time of the last request); deleted automatically by a daily job after 30 days without a new request, and until then later requests from the same address or account overwrite it.
• Report records: kept to handle reports and prevent abuse; never made public.
• Device push token: deleted when you sign out or delete your account.
• Data export files (see section 7): kept in pod’s private storage for at most 30 days.
• The photo store on your device (see section 9): photos not used for 30 days are deleted; cleared when you sign out or delete your account.

7 · Your rights and how to exercise them

You may exercise the following rights over your own personal data: access, correction, deletion and export. Your display name, profile photo and delivery address can be changed directly in the app; for anything else, make a request through pod care in the app (Activity → envelope → pod care) or email info@po-od.com. If you ask for an export, pod puts together your data (as a JSON file) and gives you a download link, valid for 7 days, in your pod care conversation.

Deleting your account in the app: on your profile page, tap “⋯” at the top right (Settings) → “Delete account”. Your name, profile photo, posts, follows, saves, cart and delivery address are then removed, and your sign-in is disconnected (signing in again with the same Google or Apple account starts a new, empty account); if you signed in with Apple, the app first asks Apple to confirm once more, and pod asks Apple to revoke pod’s sign-in authorisation. Orders and payment records are kept as required by law, but no longer carry your name; the ratings and votes you gave stay in the totals, no longer carrying your name; private messages you sent (including attached photos) stay in the other person’s conversation. If you are a workshop, your workshop profile (shop name, location, crafts, story, signature line and so on) is not currently covered by deleting your account in the app and stays in pod’s records; to have it deleted as well, make a request through pod care. If the account still has unused P, a seat you are holding on a piece, an order that is not finished (paid for but not yet delivered, including one still being prepared and not yet shipped; in a dispute; or with a return request still being handled), or (for designers and workshops) pieces still listed or money still waiting to be paid out, the app first shows what needs to be settled and lets you message pod care directly.

When you delete your account, if one of your posts has been reported and is still being reviewed, that post’s photo is kept until the review is finished and then deleted; if you yourself have been reported and the report is still being reviewed, your profile photo is likewise kept until the review is finished and then deleted. If deleting a photo file fails, it stays on a to-delete list and is deleted again.

8 · Special notice on payout details (PICS)

• Purpose of collection: payout reconciliation and statutory reporting.
• Period of use: for as long as the account exists, plus the period for which the records must be kept by law (at least 7 years).
• Who uses it: pod’s payout operations and banks.
• You may refuse to provide it, but if you do, you will not be able to use payouts.

9 · Cookies and similar technologies

• Your sign-in state is kept by the authentication service (Supabase), which stores the necessary credentials in your browser or the app to keep you signed in.
• sessionStorage holds an anonymous session identifier (sid), used to link together the usage events of the same visit; it is gone when you close the tab or app.
• The interface language you choose is remembered on your device (localStorage) for next time.
• Where you came from (the referrer) is sorted into a broad category on your device; only the category name is uploaded, and the original URL is neither uploaded nor stored.
• Public photos you have viewed (posts, pieces and profile photos) are stored on your device (phone or browser) in IndexedDB, so they do not have to be downloaded again the next time you open pod: up to about 40MB (or 500 photos); a single photo of 4MB or more is not stored; photos not used for 30 days are deleted the next time you open pod; the store is cleared when you sign out or delete your account. This stored copy stays only on your device and is never sent back to pod.
• pod does not embed third-party advertising or marketing trackers, and does not use advertising identifiers.

10 · Security measures

• encryption in transit (HTTPS);
• access control and least-privilege design at the database level;
• location and other metadata are removed from photos on your device before they are uploaded;
• payout details are stored separately from other data and are accessible only to payout operations.

11 · Minors

The platform is intended for users aged 13 and over and is not directed at children under 13. A user under 18 should have a parent or legal guardian read and agree to this policy.

12 · Changes to this policy

If this policy changes materially, the platform will tell you through an in-app notice and update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. Financial and security notices are essential and are sent regardless of your notification settings.

13 · Contact

For questions about personal data and to exercise your rights: pod care in the app (Activity → envelope → pod care), or email info@po-od.com. Data controller: Potential of Design Limited (Hong Kong).