Privacy Policy
Last updated: May 2026
Purpose of Collection
Nightlife Tokyo collects publicly visible comments from Instagram posts about recurring event series. When an event organizer shares a post about their night on a public Instagram account, visitors to our site can benefit from reading first-hand impressions of past events — helping them decide whether to attend a future edition of the same series. We collect only comments from posts that the event organizer has chosen to make public. The purpose is to provide authentic social proof for recurring nightlife events, displayed anonymously on event-series pages.
How We Anonymize Data
When a comment is collected, the commenter's Instagram username is immediately processed through a one-way cryptographic hash function (HMAC-SHA256) using a private project key. This produces a short, non-reversible pseudonym such as "ig_5a3c2e1f". The original Instagram username is never stored in our database — only the pseudonym is retained. When a comment is displayed publicly on our site, the attributed label is always "Instagram user"; the internal pseudonym is never shown to visitors. This design ensures that no personal identifier can be recovered from our stored data.
Data Retention
Comments are retained for as long as the associated event series remains active on the site. If you submit a verified deletion request (see "Your Rights" below), your comments are soft-deleted from our database. Once deleted, our database constraints prevent the same comment from being re-stored even if it is re-encountered during future data collection — deletion is permanent.
Your Rights
Under Japan's Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI), you have the right to request the deletion of comments associated with your Instagram account. To exercise this right, email us at [email protected] with your Instagram username and a clear statement that you wish to have your comments removed. We will respond without undue delay. We may ask you to provide proof of identity — for example, a temporary code placed in your Instagram bio, or a screenshot of a direct message from your account — before processing requests that appear unusual or potentially fraudulent. There is no charge for submitting a deletion request.
Contact
For questions about this privacy policy or to submit a deletion request, please contact us at: [email protected]