Last updated: June 8, 2026
Scani ("we", "our", "the app") is a menu translation app that helps users understand Japanese restaurant menus. Your privacy matters to us.
Scani does not collect personal information such as your name, email address, or location, and does not require account creation, login, or registration. We do collect anonymous usage data to understand how the app is used and improve it (see Analytics & Usage Data below).
The app accesses your camera and photo library solely to scan menu images for translation. Photos are sent to Google's Gemini API for processing. If you submit a report, menu images and selected issues are sent to our team via a secure webhook to help improve translation quality. Photos are not stored on our servers beyond what is needed to process your report.
When a scan returns no results or fails (no menu items detected, response truncated, etc.), the menu image you took may be temporarily uploaded to our private storage for diagnostic purposes — so we can review what went wrong and improve the translation pipeline. These images are anonymous (no identifier embedded in the file), kept only as long as needed to investigate, and then permanently deleted. They are never shared with third parties.
From version 1.0.13 onwards, Scani also uploads the normalized image of every successful scan to our private storage. Only the menu-detection–cropped image is sent (no faces or surrounding context), with no embedded identifier. These images are used to build a perceptual-hash cache of common menus — so future scans of the same menu can be served from the cache without re-querying the AI — and may later be used to train an on-device translation model. They are never shared with third parties and can be deleted on request.
Text recognition (Apple Vision) and speech pronunciation (AVSpeechSynthesizer) run entirely on your device. No data is shared with third parties for these features.
Scani collects anonymous usage data — such as the number of scans, app launches, onboarding completion, camera permission grants, which features are used, app version, and language — to understand how the app is used and improve it. This data is tied to a random, anonymous identifier generated on your device; it is not linked to your name, email, or any account (Scani has none) and cannot be used to identify you. This data is stored on our Supabase backend.
To improve translation quality over time and reduce reliance on third-party AI for items we've already seen, Scani uploads the Japanese-language text of menu items extracted from your scans to our private backend. Only the Japanese title text is sent — no images, no translations, no prices, and no identifier of any kind, so the data cannot be linked back to you or your device. These titles describe public restaurant menu items and contain no personal information.
Scani uses Google AdMob to display ads. AdMob may collect device identifiers and usage data to serve relevant ads. Per-impression ad revenue values returned by AdMob are also logged alongside the anonymous identifier so we can attribute revenue to scan sessions. This data is handled by Google according to their privacy policy.
Scan history and preferences are stored locally on your device. This data never leaves your device and is deleted when you uninstall the app.
Scani is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect data from children.
We may update this policy from time to time. Changes will be reflected by the "Last updated" date above.
If you have questions about this privacy policy, contact us at: scani.app.official@gmail.com