Privacy policy

Minedia, Inc. Privacy Policy

Through market research, public-opinion surveys, and social surveys (referred to collectively as “marketing research” hereinafter), Minedia, Inc. provides information to businesses, organizations, and other clients concerning consumer awareness and behavior.

In doing so, we recognize the protection of users’ privacy in order to protect personal information concerning the consumers that are our sources of information to be one of our responsibilities to society. Our thinking concerning privacy is outlined below. We handle all information concerning users faithfully in accordance with this policy.

1.Definition of personal information

Personal information refers to information pertaining to living individuals that can be used to identify specific individuals by including names, dates of birth, and other descriptions or numbers assigned to specific individuals, contained in such information (meaning all matters stated or recorded in documents, drawings, or electromagnetic records (meaning records made by electromagnetic means, magnetic means, or other methods that cannot be recognized by human perception) or expressed by voice, operation, or other means.) or personal identification codes (including information that, while it cannot be used alone to identify a specific individual, could easily be checked against other information to identify a specific individual).

2.Collection, use, and provision of personal information

In collecting personal information, we provide users with clear information on the purposes of use of such information and collect the information only after obtaining the user’s consent. We also manage such information to ensure that it is accurate and up-to-date, handle such information appropriately within the scope of its purposes of use, and take measures to ensure that it is not used for purposes other than its intended purposes of use. Users are requested to ensure that they understand these purposes of use when they provide us with personal information. Provision of personal information to Minedia, Inc. is voluntary. However, users who do not provide the personal information requested may not be able to use some or all of the services we provide.

Use of cookies etc.

The websites operated by Minedia, Inc. or our third-party partner companies may collect individually identifying information such as users’ IP addresses, information concerning cookies (including information linked to cookies), or information identifying individual devices. When a user uses our website, we may save information on the user’s computer in the form of cookies and refer to cookies already saved as files on the user’s computer. Cookies refer to a type of data transmitted by the web server to the browsers of users who have accessed the website. Cookies can be used to record information on past site access, including whether or not a computer has accessed the site in the past and the pages viewed. We use cookies for purposes such as improving privacy protection and making services more useful for users and collecting and analyzing statistical data.

We also may use cookie technology to obtain users’ device information and records of behavior (e.g., URLs accessed, times of access, and the order in which pages were viewed) for purposes of researching users’ history of viewing the site and the conditions of their use of the site. However, except when providing it to third parties in accordance with the provisions under “Provision of Personal Information to Third Parties” below, we will not release such information in a form in which individual users can be identified without first obtaining the consent of the users concerned. Cookies themselves do not contain any personal information or other information related to users’ privacy.

While a user may disable cookies by changing the settings of his or her web browser, doing so may make it impossible to use some services.

Minedia, Inc. may permit third-party companies to which we subcontract tasks such as analysis of the websites we operate to obtain information on users’ cookies. Use of cookie information by these third-party companies is conducted in accordance with the third-party companies’ own privacy policies. We also may provide to third-party companies information that cannot be used to identify specific individuals among survey subjects, such as attribute information on survey subjects (e.g., age, gender, occupation, area of residence, member ID) or the content of answers to survey questions, in accordance with the provisions under “Provision of Personal Information to Third Parties” below.

Note that in some cases websites operated by third-party companies viewed by survey subjects during the process of implementing a survey may transmit cookies. In such cases, those third-party companies obtain information in the cookies and manage it in accordance with their own privacy policies.

Advertising identifiers

When providing mobile apps or mobile websites to survey subjects, for purposes of surveying the state of viewing of advertisements by such subjects we may obtain Android Advertising IDs (if the app or website was used on an Android device) or identifiers for advertisers (IDFAs) (if the app or website was used on an iOS device) and use them for purposes of making the services we provide to users more useful or marketing research. However, except when providing it to third parties in accordance with the provisions under “Provision of Personal Information to Third Parties” below, we will not release such information in a form in which individual users can be identified without first obtaining the consent of the users concerned.

Users who wish to suspend the provision of advertising identifiers are asked to opt out from use of advertising identifiers as described on the following sites. However, setting a mobile device to opt out from such provision may result in limitations to the services that can be used in the app or in the inability to use some of the features of such services.

Behavioral-targeted advertising

Some of the websites operated by Minedia, Inc. may use behavioral targeting services provided by third-party companies to display behavioral-targeted advertising. In order to display on the websites we operated or on partner sites from third-party companies advertising better suited to members’ needs, the third-party companies’ behavioral targeting services may collect, accumulate, and use behavioral records linked to cookies on the websites we operate. Behavioral records collected and accumulated by third-party companies on the websites we operate may include all or some of the following information :

See the following third-party companies’ cookie policy pages for details of how they use behavioral records. If you do not wish to receive behavioral-targeted advertising using cookies, you may suspend the collection and accumulation of behavioral records by opting out on the pages shown below.

Acquisition of e-mail information, etc.

Minedia, Inc. obtain and store e-mails sent and received in the e-mail account for the purpose set forth in this Personal Information Protection Policy when Minedia, Inc. are granted access to e-mail accounts from users (including, but not limited to, Gmail and Yahoo mail).

Recording of telephone calls

When Minedia, Inc. talk to users on the phone, Minedia, Inc. will store a recording of the conversation for the purposes set forth in this Personal Information Protection Policy.

3.Purposes of use of personal information

Marketing research

E-mail information

Minedia, Inc. will use e-mails to be obtained and saved when Minedia, Inc. are granted access to e-mail accounts from users (including, but not limited to, Gmail and Yahoo mail) for the following purposes.

When providing information to a third party for the above purposes, information that can identify individuals, such as names and e-mail addresses, will be excluded.

Recording of telephone calls

When Minedia, Inc. talk to users on the phone, Minedia, Inc. will store a recording of the conversation for the following purposes.

4.retained personal information

As used in this Privacy Policy, retained personal information refers to personal information included in structured databases of information provided by use in a form searchable using computers or personal information included in structured databases of information making it easy to search for specific personal information through sorting, categorization, indexing, and assignation of tags or other codes, for which the individual concerned by such personal information has the right to demand its release, correction of content, addition or partial deletion, suspension of use, complete deletion, and suspension of provision to third parties.

Items of retained personal information that we handle, and their purposes of use, are described below. We handle any information that meets the above definitions as retained personal information.

Items of retained personal information

Purposes of use of retained personal information

We use retained personal information within the scope of purposes of use stipulated under “Purposes of Use of Personal Information” in this Privacy Policy. The purposes of using information about our employees are enumerated under (1) – (10) below.

5.Requests for release etc. of retained personal information and records of provision to third parties

We will respond without delay to any request from the individual concerned by the information or his or her agent to provide notification of purposes of use, disclose, correct (i.e., correct the content of or add to or partially delete the information), or suspend use (i.e., suspension of use, complete deletion, and suspension of provision to third parties) regarding retained personal information and records of provision to third parties.

6.Provision of personal information to third parties

7. Regarding Anonymously Processed Information

  1. Creation of Anonymously Processed Information
    When creating anonymously processed information (information about an individual obtained by processing personal information so that the individual cannot be identified through measures prescribed by laws and regulations and such personal information cannot be restored), we will take the following actions:
    • Apply appropriate processing in accordance with the standards set forth in laws and regulations;
    • Take security control measures to prevent the leakage of deleted information and information on the method of processing in accordance with the standards set forth in laws and regulations;
    • Disclose the items of information contained in the anonymously processed information;
    • Do not take any action to identify the individual whose personal information was the source of creation.
  2. Provision of anonymously processed information
    When providing anonymously processed information to a third party, we will publicly disclose the items of information included therein and the method of provision and clearly indicate to the third party that the information is the anonymously processed information.
  3. For the items of information contained in the anonymously processed information to be created by us and the items of information contained in the anonymously processed information to be provided to a third party and the method of provision, please click here here.

8.Prevention and Correction of Accidents Concerning Safety Control Measures

We will take the following security measures to prevent the leakage, loss, or damage of personal information.

  1. Organizational safety control measures
    • We have established rules for the handling of personal information, including handling methods, responsible persons and persons in charge, and their duties for each stage of acquisition, use, storage, provision, deletion, and disposal of personal information.
    • Periodic audits regarding the status of personal information handling will be conducted.
  2. Personnel safety control measures
    • Regular training on the handling of personal information will be provided to employees.
  3. Physical security control measures
    • In areas where personal information is handled, we have implemented access control measures for employees and imposed restrictions on devices that they may carry. Measures to prevent unauthorized persons from accessing this information have also been introduced.
    • Measures have been implemented to prevent the theft or loss of equipment, electronic media, and documents that store personal information. We will also apply encryption or password control methods in situations where the aforementioned devices are transported, both internally and externally.
  4. Technical safety control measures
    • Access control systems have been put in place to limit the scope of persons in charge and the scope of the personal information database which we will handle.
    • We have also set up mechanisms to prevent these systems from being accessed by unauthorized individuals, entities and software.
  5. Grasping the external environment
    • Safety management measures have been implemented based on an understanding of the systems to protect personal information in the following country where personal information is stored.
    • Country of custody of retained personal data: Japan

9.Compliance with laws, regulations, etc.

We will establish a privacy management system to protect personal information.
We will strive to protect users’ personal information through strict compliance with laws and regulations, national guidelines, and various other guidelines concerning the protection of personal information and with this privacy management system.

10.Continual improvements to the privacy management system

To enable the best possible protection of personal information at all times in response to social conditions, technological advances, and environmental changes, we will continually review and improve our handling of personal information and our privacy management system.

11. Contact point for inquiries regarding personal information

Recognizing the importance of protecting personal information, we implement safety measures to the utmost extent possible. Please direct any inquiries or complaints concerning our management of personal information to the privacy management section of Minedia, Inc.

1) Contact point for inquiries regarding the handling of personal information by Minedia, Inc.

12. Name of Accredited Personal Information Protection Organization and contact for complaint resolution

13. Revision history