Privacy Policy

The short version

We collect what we need to help you travel in China: your account details, your questions to our AI guide, the places and trips you save, your location while you use the map, and passport details when you order attraction tickets. Your account data is stored on servers in mainland China. We use AI and map partners to answer you. We learn from chats only as combined statistics. We never sell your data and we don't show ads. You can delete your account and data in the app at any time.

1. Who we are

LeoKnows (the "app") is run by LEOKNOWS TECHNOLOGY LIMITED, a company registered in Hong Kong SAR (Business Registration No. 81450472), address Rm 18, 27/F, EGL Tower, 83 Hung To Road, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong ("we", "us"). We are responsible for your personal data under this policy.

Our affiliated company in mainland China, Yantai Yuandian Jubian Information Technology Co., Ltd., runs our servers, this website and our technical services in mainland China, and handles your data only on our instructions.

Contact: privacy@leoknows.net.

2. What we collect

Data	When	Why
Email, name, password (stored encrypted), phone number (optional)	When you create an account. Phone is needed only for Human help.	To run your account and let our team reach you if you buy Human help.
A random guest ID	When you use the app before creating an account	To count your free uses and keep your saved places until you sign up.
Questions you ask our AI guide, and its answers	When you use Ask	To answer you and show your chat history. See section 4.
Photos and files you send	When you use Photo translate or attach something to a question	Sent to our AI partner only to read and translate them. We do not store your photos; we only note that a photo was sent. See section 4 for the shared translation dictionary.
Profile details you choose to add (travel preferences, personality type, zodiac sign, emergency contact)	Only if you add them	To personalise recommendations. Your emergency contact is only shown on your safety card for you to use; we never contact that person.
Saved places, dishes and guides; places you mark as visited; trips; hotels	When you save, plan or mark a place as visited	So they stay with your account on any phone. Places you mark as visited are only the ones you choose; we don't record them automatically from your location.
Location	Only while you use the map, navigation or nearby features, and only if you allow it	To show where you are and plan routes. Your coordinates are sent to our map partner to find places and routes. We don't keep a history of your location.
Camera and photo library	Only when you choose to take or pick a photo	For Photo translate and attachments.
Web pages you open in the app	When you ask the app to translate a Chinese web page	The Chinese text is sent to our AI partner for translation. See section 4.
Passport details of each traveller (full name, passport number, nationality), visit date and any notes you add	When you order attraction tickets	Chinese attractions sell real-name tickets, so we need these details to book the tickets you ordered. We use them only for that order.
Purchases	When you buy a Trip Pass, Human help, an eSIM or tickets	To give you what you paid for. Card details are handled by Apple, Google or Stripe; we never see your full card number.
Messages with our team	When you use Human help or the chat on a ticket order	To help you. Members of our team can read these messages. Messages may be machine-translated so our team can reply in Chinese and you can read the reply in your language.
Basic technical data (app version, error reports, server logs)	When you use the app	To keep the app working and secure.

We do not collect your contacts, and we do not use advertising IDs or track you across other apps or websites.

3. How we use your data

To provide the app: answer questions, translate photos and pages, show maps and routes, save your places and trips.
To manage your account, free uses, Trip Pass and purchases.
To book the attraction tickets you order and to provide Human help, if you buy it.
To send you emails about your account and orders.
To keep the app safe and prevent abuse (for example, misuse of free uses).
To improve the app (see section 4).
To meet legal obligations, such as keeping payment records.

Where the law (such as the EU/UK GDPR) asks for a legal basis, we rely on: performing our contract with you (running the app and fulfilling your orders), our legitimate interests (security and improving the app), your consent (location, camera, and where required for analysing chats), and legal obligations.

4. How we improve the app

Chats. We learn from chats only as combined statistics, for example which questions are most common, which cities people ask about, and where our answers fall short. We do not read individual conversations to profile you, we do not sell chat content, and we do not use it for advertising. When you delete a chat or your account, the chat itself is deleted. If you don't want your chats counted in these statistics, email us and we will exclude your account.

Shared translation dictionary. To answer faster, we save translations of public Chinese text, such as dish names, signs, product labels, place names and general web page text, in a shared dictionary that every user benefits from. This dictionary holds only the Chinese text and its English translation. It is not linked to you or your account, and we leave out text that may be personal, such as lines with numbers, links or email addresses, and anything from tickets, receipts, passports or medicine.

We share data only with companies that help us run the app, and only what they need:

Partner	What for	What they receive
Alibaba Cloud	Hosting our servers and database	All data stored in the app, on servers in mainland China. They host it for us and do not use it for their own purposes.
Yantai Yuandian Jubian Information Technology Co., Ltd. (our affiliate)	Running our servers and technical services in mainland China	Data stored in the app, handled only on our instructions.
DeepSeek and Alibaba Cloud (Qwen)	AI answers, trip plans, photo reading and translation	The question, recent messages of that chat, and any photo, file or page text you send. Processed in mainland China.
Amap (AutoNavi)	Maps, place search, routes	Search words, coordinates and route requests. Processed in mainland China.
Licensed ticketing partners in mainland China	Booking the attraction tickets you order	The traveller names, passport numbers, nationalities and visit date needed for the booking.
Apple, Google and RevenueCat	Trip Pass and Human help in-app purchases	Purchase records and a random account ID. We don't send them your name, email or phone.
Stripe	Payments for eSIMs and tickets	Payment details you enter on Stripe's page, your email and the order.
Our licensed eSIM partner	Issuing and activating eSIMs you buy	The order details needed to issue your eSIM.
Resend	Account and order emails	Your email address and the content of the email.

We may also share data if the law requires it, to protect people's safety, or as part of a sale or merger of our business (you would be told). We never sell your personal data.

6. Where your data is stored

Your account data is stored on servers in mainland China, and our AI, map and ticketing partners also process data there. Some purchase and email data is handled by Apple, Google, RevenueCat, Stripe and Resend outside mainland China. These places may have different data protection laws from your home country, and data stored in a country can be subject to requests from that country's authorities under its laws. Where required, we use contracts and other safeguards to protect your data when it is transferred.

7. How long we keep data

Account, profile details, saved items, trips, chats and messages with our team: until you delete them or your account.
Photos you send: not stored after the answer is created.
Passport details for ticket orders: kept with the order record while the law requires us to keep order records, then deleted.
Guest data that is never turned into an account: deleted after 12 months without use.
Payment and order records: kept for as long as tax and accounting laws require (usually up to 7 years). When you delete your account, these records are separated from your account so they no longer identify you.
Backups: deleted data may remain in backups for up to 30 days before it is overwritten.

8. Your choices and rights

Delete your account: in the app, open Me, go to your profile, scroll down and tap Delete my account. This removes your account, profile details, saved items, trips, chats, messages with our team and any active Trip Pass. See Support for other ways.
Delete single items: remove chats, trips and saved places in the app at any time.
Location, camera and photos: turn access on or off in your phone's settings.
Access, correct, copy (export), restrict or object: email privacy@leoknows.net and we will reply within 30 days.
Withdraw consent at any time; this doesn't affect what was done before.
Complain to your local data protection authority (for example, in Hong Kong the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data; in the EU your national authority).

9. Children

The app is not meant for children under 16. We don't knowingly collect their data, except passport details an adult enters for a child travelling with them when ordering tickets. If you think a child has given us data, contact us and we will delete it.

10. Security

Data is sent over encrypted connections, passwords are stored encrypted, and each account can only read its own data. Our AI keys are kept on our servers, not in the app; our map key is locked to this app so other apps can't use it. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your data and will tell you and the authorities if a breach affects you, as the law requires.

11. Changes to this policy

If we make important changes, we will show a notice in the app before they take effect. The date at the top shows the latest version.

12. Contact us

LEOKNOWS TECHNOLOGY LIMITED, Rm 18, 27/F, EGL Tower, 83 Hung To Road, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong

Email: privacy@leoknows.net