GDPR Privacy Policy

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Audio-Technica Co., Ltd. (‘AT’) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. Please read this privacy policy when using our website www.audio-technica.co.jp, our subdomains, and individual pages (hereinafter collectively referred to as "our site").

I. Scope of application

  1. This privacy policy applies to individual use by users of our site and processing of personal data through our site, to which applicable privacy laws and regulations apply. The administrator for this process is our company.
  2. Our site may contain information from third parties (eg hyperlinks, banners, etc.). We do not control the information of these third parties, and we are not responsible for the compliance of applicable privacy laws by third parties. Please carefully read the privacy policy of the third-party sites when you visit them.

II. Personal data to collect

  1. We may request and collect the following personal data from users of our site.
    1. Details of name, date of birth and address
    2. Information about purchasing orders or customer service
    3. Email address
    4. Username and password
    5. IP address
    6. Payment details
  2. We do not collect sensitive personal data such as passport information or health data through our site.
  3. We will collect personal data when the following actions are taken by users of our site.
    1. When creating an account on our site
    2. When registering to an campaign on our site
    3. When placing an order
    4. When applying for employment through our site
    5. When using our site
  4. We process personal data only in accordance with applicable privacy laws of Japan, as described in this Privacy Policy.

III. Purpose and legal basis for data processing

  1. We collect and process personal data only for the purposes described below.
    1. Fulfilment of contract or response to requests from users of our site before concluding a contract：
      We may process your personal data on our site to fulfil your contract when you place an order through our site.
    2. Communication：
      We use our site users' personal data to (i) contact customers in regards to our products as well as customer service communications, (ii) to inform you of important information for our site user's account and/or an important notice, and (iii) to respond to complaints. Once an account is created, we store personal data so you do not have to enter your personal data every time you use our site. Such processing of personal data is necessary for the performance of the contract and/or for the purpose of gaining legitimate interests, that is, in order to carry out our regular operation for example.
    3. Marketing：
      When contacting our site users by email for marketing purposes, we always obtain prior consent from our site users. Users of our site have the right and option to unsubscribe from emails from us at any time. Such processing of personal data is necessary for the purpose of gaining legitimate interests, that is, in order to contact users of our site and provide similar products and services, or based on the prior consent of the users of our site.
    4. Customer Service：
      When a user of our site contacts customer service, we will retain and use the personal data of a said user in order to administer a response. Such processing of personal data is necessary for the performance of the contract and/or for the purpose of gaining legitimate interests, that is, in order to carry out our regular operation.
    5. Application for job recruitment：
      If a user applies for position of employment through our site, we may use the personal data of that user in order to respond to such an application. Such processing of personal data is necessary for the purpose of gaining legitimate interests, that is, for our job recruitment.
  2. If we intend to further process your personal data for any purpose other than the purpose for which we collect your personal data, we will provide you with information about that other purpose and all relevant additional information before we process it allowing the user to approve or deny the use of their data beyond its initially intended use.

IV. Transfer of personal data to a third party

  1. We may outsource all or part of the handling of personal data of users of our site to a business contractor to the extent necessary to achieve the purpose. The contractor will be selected based on the selection criteria set by AT, and will be managed and supervised appropriately.
  2. We share the personal data of users of our site within our affiliate companies.

V. Security

  1. In order to protect the personal data of users of our site, we will take appropriate organisational and technical security measures to prevent unauthorised use, loss or falsification of personal data. We also grant access to personal data only to employees, agents, contractors, and other third parties who need access to that data. They have a non-disclosure obligation under an employment contract or (data processing) contract.
  2. In the event of a personal data breach, we will notify the relevant supervisory authority and data subjects in accordance with applicable privacy legislation.

VI. Retention period

  1. We will only retain the personal data of users of our site for as long as necessary to fulfil the purpose we collected it for.
  2. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of the personal data of users of our website and the purposes for which we process the personal data of users of our website. Users of our site can request we delete their personal data at any time.

VII. Cookies

  1. We use cookies to ensure that our site works properly.
  2. Cookies are small pieces of information that your browser stores on your computer. We use different types of cookies for different purposes.
    1. Functional cookies：
      They are the cookies necessary for our site to function properly that include the ability to create a user account.
    2. Analytical cookies：
      Analytical cookies look to gather information about how our audience use our site or a part of our site. We use this data to analyze the usage of our site at a comprehensive level, not at an individual level. We use Google Analytics for analysis, which helps to improve the overall user experience of our site.
    3. Targeting cookies：
      Targeting cookies are used for marketing purposes, such as the provision of targeted advertising and related content. These cookies may be used for advertising services.
    4. Social Media cookies：
      Social Media cookies are used when a user shares information with us through the use of social media share buttons (social plugin buttons). When the button is clicked, this information is shared with social media and may be used for targeting and advertising activities.
  3. We use third-party cookies only for the purpose of improving the quality and effectiveness of our site.
  4. Accessing our website tells us you agree to our use of cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time. However, if cookies are disabled, features and services on our sites may not function properly.

VIII. Rights of users of our site

  1. If the processing of your personal data is based on your consent, you reserve the right to withdraw your consent related to your personal data at any time.
  2. Users of our site have the right to request access to their personal data. This allows users of our site to receive a copy of their personal data that we hold.
  3. Users of our site reserve the right to request corrections to their personal data held by us. This allows us to correct any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you on our site.
  4. Users of our site have the right to request that their personal data be deleted. This allows us to delete or remove personal data that we continue to process.
  5. Users of our site reserve the right to object to the processing of their personal data that we perform for our legitimate interests. If we process personal data directly for marketing purposes, we will always accept the objections of our site users. If we process personal data for any other purpose, we will stop processing personal data unless there is a compelling and justifiable reason (i) that is prioritised over the interests, rights, and freedom of users of our site, or (ii) that related to initiate/execute legal action or the proof of claim.
  6. In addition to the above rights, You have the right to file a complaint with the supervisory authority at any time (especially the supervisory authority of the EU member state where the user resides, works, or where a user feels their GDPR rights have allegedly been violated). However, we would request users give AT the opportunity to respond to any complaints before you contact the supervisory authority. Please contact us in advance.
  7. When a user of our site under the age of 16 years old exercises the rights of this article, the parents must consent to the use of our site or obtain permission from parents and consent to use our site.

IX. Contact

If you have any questions or complaints or would like to exercise the rights set forth in Article 8 of this Privacy Policy, please contact us at：
Audio-Technica Corporation
Customer Service
TEL: +81 3 6746 0211
Reception hours: Weekdays 9: 00-17: 30 (JST)

X. Data protection authority

In addition to the above rights, complaints can be filed with the regulatory agency, if you reside in the EU, work in the EU, or declare a breach of your GDPR rights. However, please contact us before filing a complaint to the regulatory agency.

XI. General terms

  1. We reserve the right to delete your account on our site at any time without prior notice.
  2. We reserve the right to revise this Privacy Policy on a regular basis. It is the responsibility of the users of our site to check the applicable terms on a regular basis.
  3. If the provisions of this Privacy Policy conflict with the law, to the extent permitted by law, it shall be replaced with an article to the same effect that reflects the intention of the law in which to uphold the law. In that case, the other provisions shall continue to apply unchanged.
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