The privacy and security of your personal information is of utmost importance to us, and we place a high priority on the protection of your information.

Contained herein is Ippodo’s Privacy & Security Policy. We ask that you take the time to read and understand the terms of this policy before using the Ippodo Online Shop and disclosing or providing any your personal information. Please do not use the Ippodo Online Shop or any other our services if you disagree with the terms of this policy. Users of the Ippodo Online Shop and any customers using our services are considered to have agreed to all of the terms and conditions contained herein. Please note that Ippodo reserves the right to revise this Privacy & Security Policy from time to time as needed. Thank you for your understanding, and for your continued patronage.

1. The Information Provided by You

In order to purchase merchandise from the Ippodo Online Shop, you will need to first register as a member. During that process, you will be asked to provide personal information including your name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, and credit card details. This information is required for carrying out purchase transactions.
In addition, if you wish to have merchandise delivered as gifts to friends and family, their names and mailing addresses will need to be provided for the purposes of delivery.
All of this personal information, along with other information such as purchase records, will be stored on our system while you are a registered member.

2. Cookie Technologies

When you use our online services, we may use “cookies” to enable our systems to recognize your device for an improved shopping experience.
In your browser settings, you can select not to receive cookies, however it will affect a portion and adequacy of our services.

3. The Use of Your Personal Information

The personal information which you provide to us will be used for the purposes of carrying out purchase transaction and making improvements with respect to our products and services. Included among these are account settlement, the provision of information to you, sales management, products development, and market trend analysis.
We always have legitimate reasons and legal basis, for each processing activity.
Occasionally, we may ask you to give us your consent to collect and use certain types of personal information. If we ask for your consent to process your personal information, we will ensure that you may withdraw your consent at any time. Please note that we always reserve the right to process your personal information deemed necessary under the legitimate law.

4. Shared use of Personal Information

We may share the contents of the inquiry and your personal information such as your name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address with our associated company, IPPODO TEA USA, INC. in order to respond to your inquiries efficiently and correctly.
In such instances, we will manage and safeguard your personal information.

5. Disclosure of Information about You

We will not disclose any of your personal information obtained to a third party except in the following cases:

1. you specifically consent to such a disclosure; or
2. such information is required in connection with the carrying out of an online shop transaction (for example, the disclosure of your name and address to a delivery company for the purpose of delivering merchandise which you have purchased); or
3. the data is used for statistical or trend analysis in such a way that you cannot specifically be identified; or
4. such information is demanded by legal authorities based on proper and legal procedures; or
5. it is deemed by us or by legal authorities as a necessary measure to prevent or detect fraud or abuses of our website; or
6. the use of such information is otherwise authorized under "The Terms and Conditions " or other Ippodo guidelines.

6. Information Service provided by Ippodo

We occasionally send information by e-mail or other communication methods to our customers regarding products, services and notices which we think may be useful or interesting. If you do not wish to receive such information, you can choose to suspend or halt delivery by adjusting your registered member profile or contacting us via e-mail (shop@ippodo-tea.co.jp). Please note that the option to suspend or halt such information delivery is independent of the electronic communications from us required for the normal operation and maintenance of the Ippodo Online Shop.

7. Integrity of Personal Information

We want to keep your personal information accuracy recorded in our system.
We provide you with easy access to your information. You are able to view, modify and remove most of the information that you have given to us through your Account management page. Please remember to update information about yourself that has become inaccurate or outdated.
If you would like to access your information in written form, or through a means other than your Account management page, please contact us via e-mail (shop@ippodo-tea.co.jp).
Please note that depending on or owing to the nature of the information and the way it is stored, it may not be possible for us to fulfill your request.

8. Retention Period of Your Information

We will retain your personal information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Policy. When assessing these periods we carefully examine our necessity to collect personal information and if we establish a relevant necessity we will retain it for the shortest possible period to pursue and achive the purpose of collection unless a longer retention period is required by law. If there are outstanding claims or complaints that will reasonably require your personal information to be retained.

1. Protection of the Transmitted Data

To ensure the security of information, we employ SSL (Secure Socket Layer), which is currently the most reliable and practical technology for coded communication on the Internet. With this technology, your personal information is encrypted and transmitted between your personal computer and our website server. Additionally, our website server is located in a high-security data center, specially designed to protect data from computer viruses or illegal access. We want you to enjoy your time, leisurely browsing and shopping at our online shop without being concerned about your data being lost or stolen.

2. Important Points to be Noted when using Ippodo’s Online Shop

While we take all the appropriate measures to ensure the security of your personal data and of our website in general, there are some circumstances over which we have no control. Please note that Ippodo cannot take responsibility and is under no compensatory obligations with regard to, but not restricted to, the following situations:

1. our website becomes modified by a third party who has hacked into the site; or
2. the security at the data center which houses our website server is compromised; or
3. the computer which you use to browse or make transactions at our online shop is infected with a worm or virus.

During the term of your membership, we ask that you take responsibility for ensuring that your password is kept confidential and secure. This is essential to prevent unauthorized access to your profile and to your account information. Please choose a password that is difficult for others to guess, and refrain from divulging your password to a third party. Please also note that regular e-mail correspondence is in free-format (non-encrypted) text. We ask that you take precautions not to send any sensitive information such as passwords or credit card details when corresponding using regular e-mail. Thank you for taking the time to read this Privacy & Security Policy. We hope you will enjoy your shopping at our online shop.

Because we operate our business mainly in Japan, your personal information will likely be transmitted to Japan. However, such transfers of your personal data to Japan take place only on the conditions laid down in the GDPR.