Privacy Notice

1. Who is responsible

Cuberoots SRL, the company operating Zijian, is the controller for the personal information we process to operate our website, provide learning access, respond to you and manage our business.

This notice covers Zijian's website, browser-based reader and related support. Cleeng also has its own responsibilities: when acting as merchant of record, it is an independent controller for payment, tax, compliance and fraud prevention, and it processes some other information on our instructions. Its Privacy Policy explains those activities.

2. What information is used

Account and subscription information

Cleeng collects the details you enter in its registration, account and payment forms, such as your email address, login credentials, country and necessary billing details. Zijian receives authentication tokens, a customer identifier, token expiry, the relevant offer and whether your subscription provides access. Our integration also receives payment-success or failure status. Customer and transaction details may be available to us through Cleeng for subscription administration and support.

The Zijian reader does not collect your raw password or full payment-card details. These are handled by Cleeng and its relevant payment providers. We do not maintain a separate copy of subscriber profiles or billing records in the Zijian publication database.

Connection and request information

Opening a page, requesting an article or playing a recording sends technical information to the providers delivering it. This can include your IP address, browser/device information, request time, requested page or resource and error/security information. Requests for protected content also carry authentication information. These records may reveal which article or recording was requested.

Our price display contacts Cleeng before registration to obtain a localised offer. Cleeng uses connection information, including IP-based approximate location, to determine country, currency and pricing. We do not request your device's precise GPS location.

Reader preferences and navigation

Your browser stores choices such as difficulty, text size, pinyin, vocabulary highlighting, theme and listening settings, together with the most recently selected article. Temporary browser storage helps restore your article, filters and position after sign-in or checkout. These reader preferences are not synced to a subscriber-profile database.

Messages you send us

If you email support, report a problem or contact us about working together, we receive your email address, the message and anything you choose to attach. Please do not send passwords, full card numbers or sensitive personal information that is not needed for your request.

3. Why we use information and our legal bases

Delivering the service — performance of a contract

We use account identifiers, sign-in information and subscription status to authenticate you, check access, deliver subscriber content, restore the service you requested and help with subscription-related questions. We also process information necessary to take steps at your request before purchase.

Operating and protecting the website — legitimate interests

Our interests are keeping the site available and secure, preventing unauthorised access and misuse, diagnosing errors, resolving general enquiries and maintaining a workable service. We limit the information used for these purposes and consider your interests and rights. Necessary technical processing also supports delivery of the service you request.

Legal obligations and disputes

Where applicable, we retain or disclose information to meet legal, accounting or regulatory obligations. We may process relevant records for our legitimate interest in establishing, exercising or defending legal claims.

Optional communications or optional tracking — consent where required

Any optional marketing consent is separate from agreement to the Terms of Service and can be withdrawn. Our reader currently has no advertising pixels or separate audience-analytics service. If we introduce non-essential tracking or a use requiring consent, we will explain it and request consent before that use.

Some information is necessary to create an account, verify paid access or process a purchase. Without it, those features cannot operate, although you can still read the free samples without an account. Any optional information will be identified as optional.

Subscription checks automatically allow or refuse paid access based on Cleeng's entitlement response, rather than a behavioural profile of you. If an access decision appears wrong, contact us for review. Cleeng's own payment and fraud decisions are explained in its privacy information.

4. Who receives information

• Cleeng: account creation, authentication, account management, local pricing, subscriptions, checkout and payment-related administration. It works with payment providers as described in its Privacy Policy.
• Render: website hosting and delivery. It processes technical connection information needed to serve the website and operate its infrastructure. See Render's privacy information.
• Supabase: the article catalogue, content storage, recordings and server functions that verify access with Cleeng. Authentication tokens and content requests pass through those functions even though our publication database does not contain separate customer profiles. See Supabase's privacy information.
• Email and professional service providers: providers that deliver our support correspondence, and advisers where necessary for legal, accounting or dispute matters.
• Authorities or other recipients where legally necessary: for example, to comply with a lawful request, establish or defend a claim, or protect people and the service. If the business is transferred, relevant information may be transferred with appropriate safeguards and notice where required.

We do not sell your personal information or share it with advertisers for targeted advertising. Access within our business is limited to people who need it for the purposes described here.

AI used to prepare learning materials

Our editorial pipeline uses OpenAI and ElevenLabs to help prepare learning text, illustrations and recordings. It works with news and lesson material; the current reader does not send your account details, saved preferences or reading activity to those AI APIs. The news material itself may refer to people involved in the reported events.

5. Cookies and browser storage

Browser storage is used to provide the reader and remember the settings you select. Local storage, session storage and cookies are different technologies, but each can hold information on your device.

• Reader settings and last article: stored in your browser's local storage, without a programmed expiry. They remain until replaced or cleared by you or your browser.
• Sign-in and checkout return information: stored temporarily in session storage, normally consumed when the return completes. Some entries are single-use and accepted only for short periods, up to 24 hours; other temporary context lasts for the browser session. These validity windows do not guarantee that every browser deletes the stored entry at that exact time.
• Authentication: Zijian keeps its working authentication tokens in page memory. Cleeng's embedded services manage their own login storage and session renewal, which may persist between visits under Cleeng's settings and policies. See Cleeng's Cookie Policy.

You can change reader preferences in the toolbar, sign out through your account, and clear site data through your browser settings. Clearing local preferences resets the reader; blocking authentication storage may prevent sign-in from working. Signing out does not necessarily clear your reader preferences, and clearing storage does not cancel a paid subscription.

We use storage needed for the service and preferences you request. Optional tracking, if introduced, requires a separate assessment and consent where applicable. Cleeng's embedded pages may use their own technologies; this notice does not describe all of those as essential or claim that the entire site is cookie-free.

6. How long information is kept

Retention depends on the information and its purpose:

• Device preferences: until you or your browser clears them or they are replaced, as explained above.
• Working access tokens: in the current page's memory until replaced, cleared by sign-out or the page is discarded. Cleeng's underlying account and session records have their own retention rules.
• Subscription and transaction records: handled primarily by Cleeng for the account, subscription, payment, fraud and legal purposes described in its notice. Cancelling a subscription does not automatically erase records that must be retained for accounting or legal reasons.
• Support correspondence: for the time needed to handle the request and follow-up, and longer only where relevant to an outstanding dispute, legal obligation or claim. The nature of the request and the applicable legal limitation period determine that longer retention.
• Technical records: subject to the hosting providers' configured retention and operational needs, such as investigating delivery errors or security incidents. Relevant records may be kept longer for a specific incident or legal claim. Backup copies follow the relevant provider's backup cycle rather than disappearing immediately when a live record is deleted.

We do not keep a separate, permanent reading-history profile in our application database. If you need information about records concerning you, or want deletion considered, contact us. We will distinguish records we control from information Cleeng must handle in its own capacity.

7. International processing and security

Our providers and their subprocessors may process information outside Belgium or the European Economic Area, including through hosting, content delivery and support. An EU hosting location alone does not mean every provider operation stays in the EU.

Where a transfer needs safeguards under European data-protection law, the relevant arrangements may include an applicable adequacy decision or the European Commission's standard contractual clauses, together with required supplementary measures. Our providers describe their arrangements in the Cleeng data-processing agreement, Render data-processing addendum and Supabase data-processing addendum. Contact us to request details or a copy of the safeguards relevant to your information.

We use measures such as encrypted connections, restricted access and server-side subscription checks. Our content-access functions are designed not to write authentication tokens or upstream account responses into application logs. No internet service can promise absolute security; report a suspected account or data issue to support promptly.

8. Your privacy rights

Depending on the applicable law and the circumstances, you can:

• Ask for access to your personal information and a copy of it.
• Ask for inaccurate information to be corrected, or for information to be deleted.
• Ask for processing to be restricted, and object to processing based on legitimate interests.
• Receive eligible information you provided in a portable format.
• Withdraw consent at any time where processing relies on consent, without affecting the lawfulness of earlier processing.
• Object to direct marketing at any time.

Email support@zijian.io with your request. We may ask for proportionate information to confirm your identity. We normally respond within one month; if the law permits extra time for a complex request, we will explain why and notify you within that first month. These rights have legal exceptions, such as retaining information required for an outstanding legal obligation.

You can also use your Cleeng account controls or contact Cleeng about information it controls. If your request concerns both services, we will explain which parts we can handle and help direct the remainder. Deleting personal data and cancelling recurring payments are different actions; mention both if that is what you want.

You may complain to the Belgian Data Protection Authority, or another competent supervisory authority, including one in your country of habitual residence, workplace or the alleged infringement. The authority explains its complaint procedure and any supporting information needed.

9. Younger learners

An adult must manage any paid subscription used by someone under 18. Children under 13 must not create their own account. We do not knowingly seek personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided personal information inappropriately, contact us so we can investigate and work with Cleeng where necessary.

10. Changes to this notice

We update this notice when our service or information practices change. The effective date and version appear at the top. We will draw material changes to your attention where appropriate and obtain fresh consent before a new use where the law requires it. A change to this notice does not itself authorise unrelated processing or waive your rights.