Privacy Policy

Last updated: April 26, 2026

Overview

Aoki Sisters is operated by DLKR Inc. (DLKR株式会社) ("we," "us," "our"), a Kabushiki Kaisha (K.K.) registered in Japan.

Registered address: 3F Yazawa Building UFC, 3-1-9 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0002, Japan

Aoki Sisters is a media and ecommerce brand featuring AI-generated character travel and fashion content. We publish weekly travel essays, run a paid membership program, and sell print-on-demand merchandise through a separate shop. This privacy policy explains how we collect, use, store, and protect your personal information.

This policy applies to all visitors, subscribers, and members who interact with our website (aokisisters.com), our newsletter and digital content, and any platforms we use to deliver those services. The shop at shop.aokisisters.com (operated through Fourthwall) has its own separate privacy policy, linked below.

We collect and use personal information for the following purposes: delivering newsletter and member content, managing memberships, communicating with subscribers, processing payments, fulfilling member requests (including custom video briefs and Mailbag questions), improving our services, and meeting legal obligations. Details on each are below.

AI-generated content

The characters Emily and Erika Aoki are AI-generated. Every image, video, and synthesized voice you encounter on Aoki Sisters surfaces is produced using AI tools by DLKR's human team. The writing is drafted, edited, and approved by people. Travel research, product design, and editorial direction are human work.

We disclose the AI nature of the characters openly across every surface, and we use the native AI-content labels offered by each platform we publish on. The full AI disclosure — including FAQ — is on our Disclosure page.

This privacy policy describes how we handle data about you (the human reader, subscriber, or member). The characters themselves are not data subjects.

Information we collect

Information you provide directly:

Name and email address (when you subscribe to the newsletter, sign up as a member, or contact us)
Member account information (display name, profile preferences, tier selection)
Payment information (processed securely by third-party providers — we don't store credit card details)
Comments posted on articles as part of a paid membership
Mailbag submissions — questions, prompts, and topics you send for the weekly Mailbag (Friend tier and above)
Custom video brief details — the location, outfit, and message you submit for the monthly custom video (Star tier)
Any other messages, requests, or files you send us

Information collected automatically:

First-party, cookie-free analytics data collected by Ghost's native analytics, powered by Tinybird (pages visited, time on site, referral source, unique visitors within 24-hour windows). When you're logged in as a member, Ghost may record which posts you view to improve your experience and help us understand which content is most useful. This data is never shared with third parties.
Cookies used by embedded tools (payment forms) — see Cookies section below
IP address and general location data
Device and browser information
Access logs for member-only content during your active membership

Information from third-party platforms:

Ghost CMS, hosted by Magic Pages (newsletter subscriptions, member subscriptions, content delivery, member activity tracking, analytics via Tinybird)
Stripe (payment processing for paid memberships)
Fourthwall (merchandise orders placed at shop.aokisisters.com — handled separately under Fourthwall's policy)
Google Workspace (email and document collaboration, internal use)
Social media platforms (Instagram, TikTok, X, Pinterest, Threads, Facebook — analytics from embedded surfaces and engagement on our profiles)

Each of these platforms may collect additional data about you automatically — including IP address, device information, and usage behavior — according to its own privacy policy. We've linked each provider's policy below for your reference. Our use of your data from these platforms is limited to the purposes described in this policy.

AI tools: Our team uses AI image-generation, video-generation, voice-synthesis, and language-model tools to produce the characters and content. We don't disclose specific vendors because the toolset evolves. We do not feed your personal data, comments, Mailbag submissions, or custom video brief details into public AI training datasets.

How we use your information

We use your personal information to:

Deliver the newsletter and member content you've subscribed to
Manage your membership tier and account
Respond to comments, Mailbag questions, and custom video briefs
Process payments and renewals
Communicate with you about your account, content, or order
Improve our website and services
Send relevant updates (only with your consent — you can unsubscribe at any time)
Meet legal obligations

We don't sell your personal information to third parties. We don't use your information for automated decision-making or profiling.

For California residents: we don't sell or share your personal information as those terms are defined under the CCPA/CPRA.

Legal basis for processing

Japan (APPI): We process your personal information based on your consent and as necessary to fulfill our membership agreement, in accordance with the Act on the Protection of Personal Information.

EU/EEA (GDPR): For individuals in the European Economic Area, we rely on the following legal bases under the General Data Protection Regulation:

Contractual necessity (Article 6(1)(b)) — to deliver the membership you've purchased and process related payments
Consent (Article 6(1)(a)) — for marketing communications
Legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f)) — to improve our website, prevent fraud, and protect our legal rights

You may withdraw consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing that occurred before withdrawal.

United States: We comply with applicable state privacy laws. California residents may have additional rights under the CCPA/CPRA (see Your Rights section below).

Cookies

Our website uses only essential cookies — those required for the site and embedded tools (payment forms, member login) to function. We don't use any third-party advertising cookies.

Website analytics are handled by Ghost's native analytics (powered by Tinybird), which are first-party and cookie-free. They don't use cookies or any form of persistent browser storage to identify visitors across sessions, browsers, or devices. Instead, Ghost counts unique visitors within 24-hour windows. This data is never shared with third parties.

Essential cookies include those used by the Ghost membership system to keep you logged in and deliver content based on your membership tier.

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Disabling essential cookies may affect the functionality of payment forms and member login.

We share your information only with third-party service providers necessary to deliver our services:

Ghost CMS (hosted by Magic Pages) — Newsletter hosting, member subscription management, content delivery, member activity tracking, and first-party cookie-free website analytics (via Tinybird)
Stripe — Payment processing for paid memberships
Fourthwall — Merchandise sold at shop.aokisisters.com (a separate subdomain operating under Fourthwall's own privacy policy)
Google Workspace — Email and document collaboration (internal use)
Social media platforms (Instagram, TikTok, X, Pinterest, Threads, Facebook) — Analytics from embedded surfaces and engagement on our profiles

Each provider has its own privacy policy (linked above). We select providers that maintain reasonable security standards.

We may also share information if required by law or to protect our legal rights.

Under Japan's APPI, sharing your data with these service providers falls within the "entrustment of handling" exception (Article 27(5)(i)). We remain responsible for overseeing how these providers handle your data on our behalf.

Data storage and security

Your data is stored on servers operated by the third-party platforms listed above. These servers may be located in Japan, the United States, the European Union, or other countries. Ghost CMS is hosted by Magic Pages, with servers in the European Union (Germany).

We take reasonable steps to protect your information: encrypted connections (HTTPS), secure passwords, and limited access to personal data. No method of electronic transmission or storage is completely secure.

Cross-border data transfers:

Your personal data may be transferred to and processed in countries outside Japan, including the United States (where most service providers are based). These countries may have different data protection standards than Japan.

Under Japan's APPI (Article 28), we're required to inform you that:

Your data may be transferred to the United States, the European Union, and other countries where our service providers maintain servers
The Personal Information Protection Commission (PPC) has recognized certain jurisdictions, including the EU/EEA and the UK, as having equivalent data protection standards to Japan. For transfers to other countries (including the United States), we rely on confirming that each service provider maintains data protection measures that meet the standards required by APPI
Each provider listed in the Data Sharing section above maintains security practices and data handling policies that we've reviewed for adequacy

Under the GDPR, for any personal data transferred from the EEA, we rely on the European Commission's adequacy decision for Japan (where applicable) and Standard Contractual Clauses for transfers to countries without an adequacy decision.

Data retention

We keep your personal information only as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this policy, or as required by law:

Payment records: Retained as required by Japanese tax law (typically 7 years)
Website analytics data: Retained in anonymized form
Newsletter subscriber information: Retained until you unsubscribe
Member account information: Retained for the duration of your membership and deleted within 90 days of cancellation, except where retention is required by law (e.g., payment records)
Marketing contact information: Retained until you unsubscribe
Mailbag submissions: Retained as part of the published Mailbag archive once we respond. If we don't publish a response, the submission is retained for 12 months and then deleted.
Custom video briefs (Star tier): Retained for 12 months after the video is delivered, then deleted
Member access logs: Retained for the duration of your subscription, then deleted within 90 days of cancellation
Member comments on articles: Stored and retained by Ghost CMS (hosted by Magic Pages) for the duration of your membership. Comments are visible to other paid members. You can request deletion of your comments at any time.

You can request deletion of your data at any time (see Your Rights below).

Some data may need to be retained beyond your deletion request where required by law (for example, payment records under Japanese tax law). In those cases, we'll explain what's being retained and why.

Data breach notification

If we become aware of a data breach that affects your personal information and is likely to harm your rights or interests, we'll:

Notify you by email as promptly as possible, describing what happened and what data was involved
Report the breach to the Personal Information Protection Commission (PPC) in Japan as required by APPI
Where applicable, notify relevant supervisory authorities under GDPR (within 72 hours) or comply with state breach notification laws in the United States

Your rights

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights:

Access — Request a copy of the personal information we hold about you
Correction — Request correction of inaccurate information
Deletion — Request deletion of your personal information
Restriction — Request that we limit how we use your information
Portability — Request a copy of your data in a portable format
Objection — Object to certain types of processing
Withdraw consent — Withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on consent

Japan (APPI): You have the right to request disclosure, correction, addition, deletion, or cessation of use of your personal information. You may also request disclosure of records related to third-party provision of your data. These rights apply under the Act on the Protection of Personal Information as amended.

EU/EEA (GDPR): You have the rights listed above and the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority in your country.

California (CCPA/CPRA): You have the right to know what personal information is collected and how it's used, request correction of inaccurate information, request deletion, and opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information. We don't sell or share personal information. You also have the right not to be discriminated against for exercising your privacy rights.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at [email protected]. We'll respond within 30 days.

To protect your privacy, we may need to verify your identity before fulfilling a request. We'll explain the verification process when you contact us.

Children's privacy

Our services aren't directed at individuals under the age of 18. We don't knowingly collect personal information from minors. If we learn that we've collected information from a minor, we'll delete it promptly.

Changes to this policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated date. For significant changes, we'll notify you by email or through a notice on our website.

Contact

If you have questions about this privacy policy or how we handle your data:

Email: [email protected]

DLKR Inc. 3F Yazawa Building UFC, 3-1-9 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0002, Japan