This Privacy Policy describes how JAPAN Forward association Inc., together with its parents, partners and affiliates (collectively, “JAPAN Forward,” “we”, “us” and “our”) collects, uses, and discloses your information when you visit websites (including mobile-optimized versions) and applications which have an authorized link to this Privacy Policy (each a “Site” and collectively, “Sites”).
We receive information about you from various sources, including via your use of the Sites and via your use of various third party websites and social media. When you visit the Sites, you are agreeing to the terms of this Privacy Policy, and are expressly consenting to the collection, transfer, manipulation, storage, disclosure and other uses of your information as described in this Privacy Policy.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Your continued use of the Sites after our update constitutes your acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy.
Capitalized terms used but not defined in this Privacy Policy have the meaning given to them in our Terms of Use.
What Does This Privacy Policy Cover?
This Privacy Policy covers our treatment of your personally identifiable information (“Personally Identifiable Information”), which is information that we can use to identify you as an individual. Personally Identifiable Information includes information such as your name, username, password, age, email address, and other information that we associated with Personally Identifiable Information. This Privacy Policy also covers our treatment of any Personally Identifiable Information that our business partners share with us or we share with our business partners.
Except as specified in this Privacy Policy, this Privacy Policy does not cover any Personally Identifiable Information that you may provide to use via non-online communication methods. In addition, some portions of our Sites may be subject to additional privacy disclosures, which will be posted only on the relevant Site.
This Privacy Policy does not cover the activities of third parties that we do not own or control but that may be linked to or accessible via our Sites (“Third Party Services”). Some examples of Third Party Services are when you log into Facebook, Google+ and Twitter while using or visiting the Sites. Third Party Services will have their own privacy policies that govern your use of their sites, services, or applications. We are not responsible for your use of Third Party Services, or for the content or policies of Third Party Services. We encourage you to carefully review the policies of any Third Party Services you access.
What Information Do We Collect?
We collect the following types of information from our users:
Information You Provide to Us:
We collect Personally Identifiable Information that you choose to provide to us when you interact with our Sites. For example, if you sign up for our newsletter, send us an email, take a survey, or provide us with feedback, you may be asked for your name and email address, and we will collect this information from you.
Certain Site features require you to create an account and login in order to access them. You may be able to use your login for a Third Party Service (such as Facebook or Google+) to access these features. By creating a user account with us or signing in using a Third Party Service login, you are providing your Personally Identifiable Information to us and to third parties such as the third party providing the Third Party Service.
If you post material to any forums or participate in social networking features offered on our Sites, your posts and any Personally Identifiable Information contained in the posts will be collected and will be available for others to view. Please consider carefully whether you want your Personally Identifiable Information to be publicly accessible before including it in your post.
Information We Collect About You:
- Site Usage Information. We automatically collect certain types of information about activities on our Sites, such as the numbers and frequency of visitors to our Sites. This information is aggregated and anonymized or de-identified, and does not identify individual users such as yourself. We use Google Analytics to collect this type of information, so Google may also have access to this information. You may read Google’s Privacy Policy (including any opt-out mechanisms that Google offers) here and here.
- Third Party Services. As mentioned above, we may allow you to link your accounts with Third Party Services such as Facebook, Google+ and Twitter to our Sites (“Social Network Accounts”). If you link your Social Network Accounts to our Sites, we may receive information from the Third Party Service about you. Any information we receive from the Third Party Service will be governed by the terms and conditions of the Third Party Service and by the privacy controls you have set on your Social Network Account with that Third Party Service. The Third Party Service may also have access to information you provide to us or activities that you carry out on our Sites while logged into your Social Network Account with that Third Party Service, and this access will be governed by the terms and conditions of the Third Party Service and by the privacy controls you have set on your Social Network Account with that Third Party Service. We encourage you to review the policies of your Third Party Service before linking your Social Network Account.
- Email Communications. If you send us an email that we reply to, or have subscribed to our newsletter or a similar service that allows us to send you emails, we may receive email activity data from your email provider. We use this data to understand and enhance our email communications and the Sites. If you do not want to receive email from us, you can unsubscribe by clicking the "unsubscribe" link in any email we send to you. Please note that you cannot unsubscribe from certain communications from us, such as administrative information regarding the Sites.
- Third Party Companies. We may obtain demographic and interest data from third party companies who specialize in collecting such consumer information. We use this data and combine it with other information we have about you to help us predict your preferences, to better direct the marketing efforts of us and our business partners, to improve our product development, and to help us better analyze user information for internal business purposes.
How We Collect Information From You
We use several methods to collect information from you. As mentioned above, we use Google Analytics to collect many types of Site usage information, and you can learn more about Google Analytics here. In addition, we may use:
- Cookies. A cookie is a small file containing a string of characters that is sent to your device when you use our Sites. When you use our Sites a second time, the cookie allows our Sites to recognize your device or browser. Some Site features may not function properly without cookies. We use cookies to understand how people use the Sites and to improve content and services we offer through the Sites. We may use cookies to control the display of ads, to track Site usage patterns, to personalize what content you see when you visit the Sites, and to record requests for subscriptions to our services. Our cookies may collect Personally Identifiable Information or aggregated, anonymized or de-identified information. Some features of the Site may not function properly without cookies.
Our authorized third party partners (including advertising and marketing companies) may ask us to set and access cookies on your browser, or may directly place their cookies on your browser. We do not allow our third party partners to set and access cookies on our Sites without our permission. These cookies may be used to help deliver advertising and communications to consumers.
- Cookies. A cookie is a small file containing a string of characters that is sent to your device when you use our Sites. When you use our Sites a second time, the cookie allows our Sites to recognize your device or browser. Some Site features may not function properly without cookies. We use cookies to understand how people use the Sites and to improve content and services we offer through the Sites. We may use cookies to control the display of ads, to track Site usage patterns, to personalize what content you see when you visit the Sites, and to record requests for subscriptions to our services. Our cookies may collect Personally Identifiable Information or aggregated, anonymized or de-identified information. Some features of the Site may not function properly without cookies. Our authorized third party partners (including advertising and marketing companies) may ask us to set and access cookies on your browser, or may directly place their cookies on your browser. We do not allow our third party partners to set and access cookies on our Sites without our permission. These cookies may be used to help deliver advertising and communications to consumers.
- Device Identifiers. When you access our Sites via a mobile device such as a smartphone, we may collect data using or linked to unique identifiers that are assigned to your mobile device, which are called device identifiers. You can limit the use of device identifiers by accessing your device’s settings and limiting the use of device identifiers or resetting your device’s identifiers.
GIFs. When you visit our Sites, we may collect data using clear GIFs (also known as web beacons or pixel tags) and similar technologies. We may also use clear GIFs in our communications with you (such as emails) to track information such as whether you have received and opened our communication. A clear GIF is typically a one-pixel, transparent image (although it can be a visible image as well), located on a web page or in an email or other type of message, which is retrieved from a remote site on the Internet, enabling the verification of an individual’s viewing or receipt of a web page or message. A clear GIF may enable us to relate your viewing or receipt of a web page or message to other information about you, including your Personally Identifiable Information. - HTTP Referrer. When you visit our Sites, we may collect data using an HTTP referrer, which transmits information from a web browser to a destination webpage. HTTP referrers may contain information about the browser or operating system of the device that you are using to access the Site.
- IP Address. Your Internet Protocol (“IP”) address is usually associated with the device from which you use the Internet. IP addresses are usually assigned based on the geographic location of the device or computer you use, and can be used to identify the geographic location of the device or computer that you are using to access our Sites. We may collect your IP address. We may use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our servers, gather broad demographic information, and administer the Sites. We may also link this information with your Personally Identifiable Information when we feel that it is necessary to enforce compliance with our rules and policies or Terms of Use or to protect Site operations, customers or others.
- Location Information. If you are accessing our Sites via a mobile device, we may collect your geographic location. You can limit our access to your geographic location by going to your device’s settings.
How We Use Information We Collect About You
We use information we collect from you to provide you with access to the Sites and with other services and features. For example, if you subscribe to your newsletter, we may use your email address to deliver the newsletter. Other uses include:
- Maintaining and improving Site operations and service and content offerings hosted on the Site
- Enforcing our Terms of Service and this Privacy Policy
- Personalizing and optimizing the content shown to you when you visit the Sites
- Delivering advertising content shown on the Sites and managing the type of advertising content you see and the frequency with which you see it
- Administering to advertising, marketing, and promotional campaigns (run by us or by our business partners) for which you sign up or otherwise consent to
- participate in, such as sweepstakes, surveys, and special offers or announcements offered by us or by our business partners
- Responding to user feedback and other user inquiries, such as employment applications or informational inquiries
- Internal uses such as market and content offering analysis
- Assessing and tracking effectiveness of our advertising campaigns and the campaigns of our business partners
Will We Share Any of the Information We Receive?
We neither rent nor sell your Personally Identifiable Information to anyone. We may share your Personally Identifiable Information only as described in this Privacy Policy, in the privacy policy for specific parts of our Sites (if those parts have a separate privacy policy), or in accordance with your consent, if we have separately obtained your consent. By using the Sites, you expressly authorize and consent to our sharing of your Personally Identifiable Information as described in this Privacy Policy.
We share your Personally Identifiable Information with:
Our Corporate Parents and Affiliates. We may share your Personally Identifiable Information with our Affiliates and with our parent companies (Sankei News) and any of their affiliates.
Third Party Services. As discussed above, you may connect your Social Networking Account with certain Third Party Services to our Sites. If you do so, information collected while you are logged into your Social Networking Account is no longer under our control and is subject to the terms of use and privacy policies of such third parties.
Third Parties Receiving Aggregated Information. We may share or disclose your aggregated, anonymized or de-identified data with our service providers and business partners for business and marketing uses, including the development of business and marketing reports and strategy. These service providers and business partners may also share with us aggregated, anonymized or de-identified information about you so that we can develop business and marketing reports and strategy for them. We may combine the aggregated, anonymized or de-identified information we receive from our business partners with your Personally Identifiable Information that we have collected, or with other information we have collected that in combination could identify you.
Third Party Campaigns. We may carry out advertising, marketing, or promotional campaigns with third party companies that invite you to participate in the campaign. The campaigns may involve third-party goods or services. You may participate in such a campaign via our Sites or on a different website that is linked to/from our Sites. If you participate in the campaign, we may share your Personally Identifiable Information with these third party companies.
Third-Party Service Providers. We use third-party service providers to provide certain products, services, and Site features on our behalf (such as sending emails or processing credit cards) and need to share your information with them to provide those products, services, or features to you. We require that our third-party service providers maintain the confidentiality of your Personally Identifiable Information and do not use it for any reason except to carry out the functions that we task them to carry out.
For mobile devices, you can limit the use of information for this type of advertising using options presented in your device setting controls which limit ad tracking or reset your advertising identifier.
Third Parties Involved in Protecting Us and Others. We may disclose your Personally Identifiable Information when we believe in good faith that the disclosure is necessary to: comply with a law, regulation, legal or regulatory process (including investigations), subpoena, warrant, or other legal order; to enforce or apply our Terms of Service and other Site policies; or protect the rights, property, or safety of us, our employees, our users, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for fraud protection and credit risk reduction, and for debt collection.
Is Personally Identifiable Information About Me Secure?
We use industry-standard security technologies and procedures to help protect your Personally Identifiable Information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. However, no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure and we cannot guarantee absolute security or your Personally Identifiable Information.
If you use the login of a Third Party Service to access the Sites, you may have additional or different sign-on protections via that Third Party Service, which will be governed by the Third Party Service’s Terms of Use. We are not responsible for the protection practices of Third Party Services, and you should read the policies of the Third Party Service before using your login with that Third Party Service to access our Sites.
What Choices Do I Have?
If you have provided Personally Identifiable Information as part of setting up an account and login for the Sites, you can change or access your Personally Identifiable Information via your account settings. You can also use many of the features of the Service without registering or signing into a user account.
If you have provided Personally Identifiable Information as part of using your Social Networking Account with a Third Party Service, you must change or access your Personally Identifiable Information via your Social Networking Account with that Third Party Service. You will not be able to access or change such Personally Identifiable Information via our Sites.
If you want to limit the types of data that we collect about you via Google Analytics, you may be able to do so via Google’s functionality. You can find out more at Google’s site.
If you do not want to receive email communications from us, you can unsubscribe from specific email communications or all email communications from us by clicking the "unsubscribe" link in any email we send to you. Please note that if you do not want to receive legal notices from us, such as this Privacy Policy, those legal notices will still govern your use of the Service, and you are responsible for reviewing such legal notices for changes. Please note that you cannot unsubscribe to certain administrative communications about the Site.
If you have provided Personally Identifiable Information directly to third-party companies with whom we conduct business, you should also consult the privacy policies of these third-party companies for how your Personally Identifiable Information may be used and how you may restrict its use or opt out of receiving communications from these third-party companies.
If you do not want to receive communications to your mobile device from us (such as text or SMS messages), you may opt out of these messages by replying “STOP” or following the instructions provided in the message.
If you do not want to receive push notifications on your mobile device about our Sites, you can go to your device’s settings and opt out of receiving push notifications from us.
If you are accessing our Sites via a mobile device and do not want us to collect your location information, you can go to your device’s settings and opt out of providing your location information to us.
If you have used an opt-out mechanism described in this Privacy Policy, but then decide to use a service or to participate in an activity that requires us to contact you or share your information with a third party, then your previous opt-out will not apply to that service or to your participation.
Please note that some of the opt-outs described above use browser cookies or device controls, and are specific to the browser or device you are using to access our Sites. If you buy a new device, change browsers, or delete browser cookies, these actions can change your previous opt-out settings and you may need to opt out again. In addition, disabling all cookies may prevent you from using certain features on our Sites that require cookies to function.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time. Use of Personally Identifiable Information and other information we collect is subject to the Privacy Policy in effect at the time such information is collected from you. If we make changes in the way we use Personally Identifiable Information, we will notify you by posting an announcement on our Sites or sending you an email. Users are bound by any changes to the Privacy Policy when they use our Sites after such changes have been first posted.
Questions or Concerns
If you have any questions or concerns regarding privacy while using the Sites, you may contact us at info@japan-forward.com. We will make every effort to resolve your concerns.
Effective Date: January 1, 2023
