8282 Korea Privacy Policy

Last updated 2026-10-10

Summary

8282 Korea helps visitors travel in Korea. You can use almost every feature without an account. We do not sell your data. Limited Google AdMob banner ads help operate the service. We ask for an account only when you want to write something other people will see.

Who we are

This app is made and operated by an individual developer.

• Developer: Gwanghee Yi
• Contact: [email protected]
• App: 8282 Korea
• Policy last updated: 2026-10-10

What we collect when you sign in

Signing in with Google is optional. It is required only to post in the Forum, to write a review or a comment, and to share a trip. When you sign in, Google gives us a verified account identifier, your display name and your profile picture address. We store only those three.

• Google account identifier (the "sub" value) — to know that two posts are from the same person
• Display name — shown next to what you write
• Profile picture address — shown next to what you write
• We do NOT store your email address, phone number, date of birth, nationality or gender. We never ask you to type them.

What you write and upload

Posts, replies, reviews, comments and the photos you attach are stored on our server so other people can read them. They are public inside the app. Reports you send about other people's posts are stored so we can review them.

• You retain ownership of photos you upload.
• Before uploading a photo, you must confirm that you have the right to upload it and grant 8282 Korea a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to store, reproduce, display and distribute it within the 8282 Korea app and website.
• The licence permits only technical changes needed for the service, including resizing, compression, cropping and thumbnail creation.
• The licence ends when you delete the photo, except for limited backup, legal compliance or dispute-resolution records.

Trips you share

Your trip stays on your phone until you choose to share it. If you tap Share, the trip — its title, your note, and the places for each day — is stored on our server and becomes readable by everyone using the app, together with your Google display name and profile picture. Other people can copy it into their own trip and leave a review on it. You can remove a shared trip at any time. If you delete your account, the shared trip remains under “Deleted user.”

Location

The app asks for location only when you tap a button that needs it — to show where you are on a map, to measure the distance to a place you are looking at, to find nearby bus stops, and to show local weather after you tap “Use my location.” Your coordinates are used on your device except for nearby bus stops and local weather. For those requests they are sent to our server; weather coordinates are rounded to about 1 km before being sent to Open-Meteo or used in a cache key. If you explicitly choose “Pin my current location,” the coordinates and the name you enter are stored only on your device in My Pins until you delete that pin. We do not attach saved pins to your account or upload them to our server. The transit answer stays in a short server cache (up to 60 seconds), and the rounded weather answer for up to 30 minutes.

Camera, photos and microphone

The camera and your photos are used to read Korean text in a picture. The reading happens on your device with Google ML Kit; the picture is not uploaded. A photo leaves your device only if you attach it to a Forum post or Food review yourself. The microphone is used to type a sentence by voice, in your language or in Korean; the speech is handled by the speech recognizer built into your phone (Google on Android, Apple on iOS), so their privacy policy applies to that step. We do not record or keep audio.

Translation and speech

When our online translation service is available, text you enter in Speak is sent to our server and, if we do not already have a cached translation, to OpenAI for translation. The source text and translated result are kept in a shared cache for up to 180 days so the same short travel phrase does not need to be translated again. We do not attach the text to your account. If the online service is unavailable, Google ML Kit translates it on your device; its models are downloaded once and can then work offline. Reading Korean out loud uses the text-to-speech engine built into your phone.

• If you tap “This translation looks wrong,” the source text, translated result, languages and an irreversible hash made from your IP address are stored so we can review and improve that translation.
• For abuse prevention, an irreversible hash made from your IP address and the time of a paid translation call are kept for up to 10 days. The original IP address is not stored in these records.

Korean name and Joseon portrait

In the Hangul tab, the name you type is sent to our server and to OpenAI to write it in Hangul and suggest Korean names. The result is kept in a shared cache for up to 30 days so the same request does not need to be made again; the name is not linked to your account. If you make a Joseon portrait, the photo you take or choose is sent over an encrypted connection to our server and to OpenAI's image service to create the picture. We do not store the photo or the picture on our server. OpenAI may keep them for up to 30 days only to detect abuse. Please use a photo of yourself or of someone who agreed, and not a photo of a child.

• Name seals, name cards, voice files and portraits you save go to the photos or music folder on your phone; we do not receive them.
• To limit costs and abuse, an irreversible hash made from your IP address and the time of each request are kept for up to 10 days. The number of free portraits you have used today is counted on your phone.

Korea Visit Certificate and Visit Hall

The Korea Visit Certificate is made on your phone. To make it, the app checks once on your phone that you are in Korea; your location is not sent to us. The certificate, its photo and your Korean name are kept on your phone. If you choose to leave your certificate in the Visit Hall, you sign in with Google, and the certificate picture (with your names, country, date and photo), your handwritten message and your account are stored on our server and shown publicly in the Visit Hall, where anyone can browse and search them.

• You can delete your certificate in My certificates at any time; its pictures are deleted from our server. When you delete your account, you can choose to delete your certificates or keep them on display.
• Each account can leave one certificate every 30 days. For this we keep only the date you left each certificate, without your names or pictures.
• Certificates reported by other users may be hidden and reviewed by us.

Crash reports

If the app stops or hits an error it cannot handle, it sends a crash report to our server (8282korea.net): the error type, message and the place in the code where it happened, the app version, your phone's operating system and version, and the app language. It does not send your account, location or a device identifier.

• To limit abuse, an irreversible hash made from your IP address is kept with the report. The original IP address is not stored.
• Crash reports are deleted after 90 days.
• You can turn this off at any time in My → Send crash reports. Reports that were not sent yet are then discarded.

Other services the app contacts

Using these services means your device's IP address is visible to them, as with any web request.

• Our server (8282korea.net) — guide content, transit, weather, tourism, forum
• Open-Meteo and CAMS — weather and air quality after the Today screen loads (Seoul by default, or your rounded location when requested)
• OpenAI — online translation, only when a translation is not already in our shared cache; Korean names and Joseon portraits when you ask for them
• Google Sign-In — only when you choose to sign in
• Google Play services / ML Kit — on-device translation and text reading
• OpenStreetMap (tile.openstreetmap.org) — map tiles
• Google Maps — only when you tap a map or nearby-search link outside the app
• Google AdMob — limited banner advertising and consent management

Advertising

Limited Google AdMob banner ads help cover server and maintenance costs. The app does not use interstitial, app-open or rewarded ads. AdMob may process your IP address, device information, app interactions and the Android advertising ID for ad delivery, security, fraud prevention and measurement. We request non-personalized ads by default. Where required, Google’s consent form is shown before ads are requested, and an Ad privacy choices entry lets you review available choices. Google’s privacy policy applies to its processing.

What we keep on your phone

To work offline and to save your data allowance, the app keeps a copy of guide content, the last weather update, transit answers, tourism results and translated names in a database on your phone, together with your saved trips and pins. Deleting the app removes all of it.

How long we keep things

What you post stays until you delete it. If you delete your account, your Google identifier, display name and profile picture are removed, while public content remains under “Deleted user.” Server caches expire on their own (from seconds for arrival times to 180 days for bus routes).

Your choices

You can use the app without an account. You can refuse or withdraw the location, camera and microphone permissions in your phone settings at any time; only the features that need them stop working. You can delete your posts in the app.

• Delete content you do not want to keep before deleting your account.
• For a separate content-deletion request, email [email protected].
• We answer deletion requests within 30 days.

Children

The app is made for travellers and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect anything from them. If you believe a child has sent us data, write to [email protected] and we will delete it.

Security

All traffic between the app and our server uses HTTPS. Sign-in is verified against Google on the server, not in the app.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it and the new text appears here and at https://www.8282korea.net/privacy/.

Open data we use

• Korea Tourism Organization (TourAPI) — tourist sites and photos
• Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (TAGO) — nationwide buses
• Seoul Metropolitan Government Open Data Plaza — subway arrivals, official foreign-language place names
• Korea Railroad Corporation / Korea National Railway — subway routes
• Korea Airports Corporation and Incheon International Airport Corporation — airport buses
• Ministry of the Interior and Safety — free Wi-Fi, bicycle routes
• Korea Forest Service — 100 famous mountains
• OpenStreetMap contributors — map tiles (ODbL)