Privacy Policy of 澪標アカデミー

澪標アカデミー ("we", "our", or "us") is dedicated to providing high-quality online language education services. This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, use, disclose, and protect your personal information when you use our site, including live online language lessons, custom curriculum development, intensive immersion programs, cultural exchange workshops, and proficiency test preparation courses. We are committed to protecting your privacy in compliance with applicable data protection laws, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Japanese privacy regulations.

1. Information We Collect

We collect various types of information to provide and improve our online language education services.

• Personal Identifiable Information (PII): This includes information you voluntarily provide during registration, course enrollment, or communication with us. Examples include your name, email address, phone number, billing information (e.g., credit card details), language proficiency levels, and educational background. For corporate clients, this may include contact details for representatives and information relevant to curriculum development.
• Usage Data: We automatically collect information when you access and use our site. This may include your IP address, browser type, operating system, referring URLs, pages viewed, time spent on our service, lesson participation details, and other diagnostic data.
• Lesson Content and Communications: To facilitate effective learning and support, we may store recordings of live online lessons (with your explicit consent), chat logs, and other communications made through our platform. This helps in quality assurance, teacher training, and addressing disputes.
• Cookies and Tracking Technologies: We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to track activity on our service and hold certain information. This helps us personalize your experience, analyze site usage, and improve our offerings.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the collected information for various purposes, primarily to deliver and enhance our online language education services:

• To Provide and Maintain Our Service: Including managing your account, delivering live online lessons, providing access to learning materials, and operating the technical infrastructure of our platform.
• To Personalize Learning: Tailoring curriculum, recommending courses, and providing feedback based on your progress and preferences.
• To Process Payments: Handling billing and financial transactions for the services you purchase.
• To Communicate With You: Sending service updates, course information, administrative notices, and marketing communications (where permitted by law and your preferences).
• To Support and Improve Our Service: Analyzing usage patterns, troubleshooting technical issues, conducting research, developing new features, and improving the quality of our lessons and programs.
• For Security Purposes: Detecting and preventing fraud, unauthorized access, and other malicious activities.
• To Comply with Legal Obligations: Fulfilling our legal and regulatory requirements.

3. Legal Basis for Processing Your Information

We process your personal information based on the following legal grounds:

• Performance of a Contract: When we need to process your data to fulfill our obligations under a contract with you, such as providing live online lessons or custom curriculum development.
• Legitimate Interests: For purposes such as improving our services, marketing (where appropriate), fraud prevention, and enhancing user experience, provided these interests are not overridden by your data protection rights.
• Consent: In specific cases, we may ask for your explicit consent to process your data, for example, for recording lessons or sending certain marketing communications. You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.
• Legal Obligation: When processing is necessary to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.

4. Disclosure of Your Information

We may share your personal information in certain circumstances and with specific categories of third parties:

• Service Providers: We engage third-party companies and individuals to facilitate our service, such as payment processors, hosting providers, analytics providers, and communication platforms. These third parties have access to your personal information only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose.
• Teachers/Instructors: Information relevant to your learning (e.g., name, language level, learning goals) will be shared with your assigned teachers to facilitate effective instruction.
• Business Transfers: In the event of a merger, acquisition, or asset sale, your personal information may be transferred. We will provide notice before your personal information is transferred and becomes subject to a different Privacy Policy.
• Legal Requirements: We may disclose your personal information if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g., a court or government agency).
• With Your Consent: We may disclose your personal information for any other purpose with your explicit consent.

5. Data Retention

We will retain your personal information only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, including for fulfilling our legal obligations (e.g., if we are required to retain your data to comply with applicable laws), resolving disputes, and enforcing our legal agreements and policies.

Usage Data is generally retained for a shorter period, except when this data is used to strengthen the security or to improve the functionality of our service, or we are legally obligated to retain this data for longer periods.

6. Data Security

The security of your data is paramount to us. We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures designed to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. These measures include encryption, access controls, secure software development practices, and regular security audits. However, no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

7. Your Data Protection Rights

Depending on your location and applicable data protection laws (such as GDPR), you may have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• The Right to Access: You have the right to request copies of your personal data.
• The Right to Rectification: You have the right to request that we correct any information you believe is inaccurate or complete information you believe is incomplete.
• The Right to Erasure: You have the right to request that we erase your personal data, under certain conditions.
• The Right to Restrict Processing: You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
• The Right to Object to Processing: You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
• The Right to Data Portability: You have the right to request that we transfer the data that we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions.
• The Right to Withdraw Consent: Where processing is based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the contact details provided in this Privacy Policy. We may ask you to verify your identity before responding to such requests.

8. International Data Transfers

Your information, including personal data, may be transferred to and maintained on computers located outside of your state, province, country, or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ from those of your jurisdiction.

For users in the European Economic Area (EEA), please note that your data may be transferred to countries outside the EEA. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and that adequate safeguards are in place (e.g., standard contractual clauses) before transferring your personal data.

9. Children's Privacy

Our service is not intended for individuals under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 16. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your child has provided us with personal data, please contact us. If we become aware that we have collected personal data from children without verification of parental consent, we take steps to remove that information from our servers.

10. Links to Other Websites

Our service may contain links to other websites that are not operated by us. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that third party's site. We strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of every site you visit. We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites or services.

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page. We will let you know via email and/or a prominent notice on our service, prior to the change becoming effective and update the "last updated" date at the top of this Privacy Policy. You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.

12. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us:

• 澪標アカデミー
• 8-15-7 Higashiyama,
• Meguro-ku,
• Tokyo, 153-0043, Japan