Privacy Policy

The short version

MAHJ has no accounts and no logins, and your lesson progress stays on your device. The only purchase today is a one-time in-app unlock, handled by Apple or Google — we never see your card number. If you use the AI features (the Coach, Hand Analyzer, or Study Plan), your questions are sent to our AI providers to generate answers. We don’t sell or rent your data. (A MAHJ shop is planned; when it launches, orders will be handled by Stripe — see the shop sections below.)

Who we are

Welcome2Mahj LLC is a Texas limited liability company, operating welcome2mahj.com and the MAHJ mobile app. (A MAHJ shop is planned but not yet available; the parts below marked “when the shop is available” describe how it will work.) Contact: info@welcome2mahj.com.

What we collect

When you unlock the app, the one-time in-app purchase is processed by Apple (App Store) or Google (Play Store). We receive confirmation that you purchased — not your payment card number.

When the MAHJ shop is available and you place an order, Stripe will collect your name, email, billing address, shipping address, and payment information on our behalf. We would receive everything except your full payment card number — Stripe stores that. (The shop is not currently live.)

When you email us, we receive your email address and whatever you choose to share.

When you use the website or app, our hosting provider (Vercel) logs standard request data: IP address, user agent, page accessed, timestamp. This is used for security and basic operations, not marketing.

On your device, MAHJ saves your lesson progress, quiz scores, streaks, settings, and (for up to 7 days) your recent Coach conversation in your browser’s local storage. This stays on your device: “Reset Progress” clears your progress and Coach conversation, and clearing your browser’s site data removes everything, including your settings.

When you start or join a crew(the “Start a Crew” feature), you choose to share a small progress card with your crewmates so everyone can see who’s ready to play: a nickname you type, your overall progress bar, your rank, how many lessons you’ve finished, your streak, and a “ready” flag. That’s all that leaves your device — never your Coach conversations, email, real name, or per-lesson detail. Crew data is stored (in Vercel KV/Upstash) under an anonymous device id, with no login, and auto-deletes after about six months of inactivity.

To prevent abuse of the AI features, we briefly keep a per-IP request count (in Vercel KV/Upstash) that expires within minutes. In the installed app, MAHJ also checks the App Store (itunes.apple.com) for update availability when you open it, which sends your IP address to Apple.

On the website we use privacy-friendly, cookieless analytics (Vercel Web Analytics) to understand which pages and features are used. It sets no cookies, does not collect personal data, and does not track you across other sites. We do not run third-party advertising trackers or social media pixels.

Coach and Hand Analyzer

The MAHJ Coach (the chat at /coach) and the strategy advice on the Hand Analyzer (/analyze) generate their answers using third-party AI services. A few other features also send what you enter to third-party AI — the Study Plan on the Lessons page, and, in the shop, the Gift Finder and the custom-tile Designer (each described below).

When you ask the Coach, we send your question, the recent conversation (up to 20 most recent turns), and a short summary of which lessons you’ve completed (so the coach can pitch answers at your level) to one of our AI providers — currently Anthropic (Claude), Google (Gemini), or Groq (Llama). The choice is made automatically per request based on availability.

When you use the Hand Analyzer’s strategy advice, we send a description of the tiles you’ve assembled and a computed summary (suit counts, joker count, observed patterns) to Groq (Llama) or Google (Gemini), chosen automatically based on which provider is configured. We do not send your name, email, or any device identifier.

When you generate a Study Plan (on the Lessons page), we send a snapshot of your progress — which lessons you’ve completed, which you’re on, your low quiz scores, and the tiles you miss most — to Groq (Llama) or Google (Gemini) so it can suggest what to study next. In the shop, the Gift Finder sends the recipient, occasion, and style you describe, and the custom-tile Designer sends the short description you type, to the same providers. We don’t attach your name, email, or any device identifier — but the text you type into these features is sent to the AI provider.

We do not store your coach conversations or analyzer queries on our own servers — once the response is sent back to you, the request is gone from our side. The AI providers may retain inputs for their own service operation per their policies (linked below). For that reason, avoid typing sensitive personal information (real names, addresses, payment details) into the Coach, Hand Analyzer, Study Plan, Gift Finder, or Designer.

The lessons, glossary, calculator, cheatsheet, and all other features of the Service work fully without the AI features. If you prefer not to interact with the AI providers, simply do not use /coach, /analyze, or the Study Plan generator on the Lessons page.

How we use it

• To deliver the app and its features (including the AI Coach, Hand Analyzer, and Study Plan)
• To respond to your questions
• To resolve issues, prevent fraud, and meet legal obligations
• To improve the Service (in aggregate, not individually)
• When the MAHJ shop is available: to process and fulfill your orders and send order confirmations

We don’t send marketing emails. If we ever start a newsletter, it will be opt-in.

Who we share it with

We share data only with the providers needed to run the shop and the Service:

• Stripe — payment processing and order receipts (Stripe’s privacy policy).
• Printful — printing and shipping; receives your name, shipping address, and order details (Printful’s privacy policy).
• Printify — printing and shipping for some apparel and drinkware; receives your name, shipping address, and order details (Printify’s privacy policy).
• Gelato — printing and shipping for cards and stationery; receives your name, shipping address, and the design (for custom cards, this includes any message you typed) (Gelato’s privacy policy).
• Art of Where — printing and shipping for pouches; receives your name, shipping address, and order details (Art of Where’s privacy policy).
• OpenAI— screens the text you type into custom tile and card designs for policy violations before it’s printed (OpenAI’s privacy policy).
• Vercel — website hosting; standard request logs.
• Anthropic — powers some Coach answers using their Claude AI model; receives your question text, recent conversation, and a short summary of your lesson progress (Anthropic’s privacy policy).
• Google— powers some Coach answers and the Hand Analyzer’s strategy advice using their Gemini AI model; receives your question text, conversation, and a short summary of your lesson progress or hand state — and, when you use them, your Study Plan progress, Gift Finder request, or Designer description (Google’s privacy policy).
• Groq— powers some Coach answers, the Hand Analyzer’s strategy advice, and the Study Plan, Gift Finder, and Designer, using their Llama AI model; receives your Coach question and conversation, hand state and computed summary, or the progress data and text you enter into those (Groq’s privacy policy).
• Apple — if you downloaded the iOS app, Apple handles app distribution under their own privacy policy.
• RevenueCat— in the installed app (not the website), RevenueCat initializes when you open the app to manage entitlements; it assigns an anonymous app-user identifier and receives basic device information. If you buy the one-time in-app unlock, Apple (App Store) or Google (Play) processes the payment (we never see your card details) and RevenueCat verifies the purchase so the app knows you’ve unlocked (RevenueCat’s privacy policy).
• Our support channel (Discord / Slack)— two kinds of diagnostic reach this channel (a third-party messaging service) so we can find and fix problems. First, when you use “Report a problem” in the app, the message you type along with your browser/device info, the page URL, and the current game state are delivered — only when you choose to send a report. Second, if the app hits an unexpected error or crash, a brief automatic diagnostic is sent: the error message, a technical stack trace, the page URL, and your browser/device info. These crash diagnostics are technical only — we never attach your name, email, or the content of your lessons or games.

We may also disclose information when required by law (e.g., valid subpoena) or to protect our rights or the safety of others.

Affiliate links

Some pages (such as the Gear Guide) contain Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Clicking a link takes you to Amazon, where your activity is governed by Amazon’s own privacy policy; we receive only anonymized commission reporting, never your Amazon order details.

Data retention

We keep order records for as long as needed to fulfill the order and meet tax and accounting obligations (typically 7 years for tax purposes in Texas). Email correspondence is kept for as long as needed to provide support, then deleted.

Custom print files (for example, a card with your typed message) are generated when you order and kept only as long as needed to produce and ship your order — at most 90 days — then automatically deleted.

International users and data transfers

MAHJ is operated from the United States, and our service providers (hosting, payment, print, and the AI providers named above) process data in the United States. If you use MAHJ from the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom, or elsewhere outside the US, the information you provide — including anything you type into the AI features — is transferred to and processed in the United States by those providers (such as Google, Anthropic, Groq, and OpenAI).

For users in the EEA and UK, our lawful bases for processing are your consent (given when you choose to use a feature that sends data off your device, such as the Coach), performanceof the service you’ve asked for, and our legitimate interestin operating and securing the app. You can withdraw consent at any time by not using those features, and you have the rights described in “Your rights” below. Because MAHJ has no accounts and keeps your progress on your own device, we hold very little personal data about you.

Your rights

You can ask us to:

• Tell you what information we hold about you
• Correct inaccurate information
• Delete your information (subject to legal retention requirements)
• Stop processing your information for non-essential purposes

California residents have additional rights under the CCPA; EU/UK residents have additional rights under GDPR. To exercise any of these, email info@welcome2mahj.com. We’ll respond within 30 days.

Cookies

The site uses minimal cookies — we don’t use advertising or analytics cookies. The Stripe checkout flow may set cookies on stripe.com (their domain) for fraud prevention; those are governed by Stripe’s policies.

Children

The Service is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us information, please email us and we’ll delete it.

Security

We use industry-standard practices: HTTPS everywhere, payment processing through Stripe (PCI-DSS Level 1), no storage of payment card data on our servers. No system is perfectly secure, but we keep our footprint small for that reason.

Changes

We’ll update this policy if our practices change. The “last updated” date at the top reflects the most recent change.

Contact

Welcome2Mahj LLC
info@welcome2mahj.com