Privacy policy

Efforts to Protect Personal Information and Online Privacy Policy

Latest Amendment Date: April 1, 2016

Please read the following “Efforts to Protect Personal Information” and “Online Privacy Policy” when you access and use the websites of Grant Thornton Japan (hereinafter referred to as the “Website”).
“Grant Thornton Japan” refers to a member firm in Japan of Grant Thornton International Ltd (hereinafter referred to as “GTIL”).
Grant Thornton Japan consists of six entities in Japan, including Grant Thornton Taiyo LLC, Grant Thornton Taiyo Tax Corporation, Grant Thornton Taiyo Advisors Co., Ltd., Grant Thornton Taiyo Inc., Grant Thornton Taiyo Human Capital Corporation and Grant Thornton Taiyo Accounting Service Inc.

Efforts to Protect Personal Information

Each entity of Grant Thornton Japan recognizes the necessity and importance of the protection of personal information, compliance with laws and regulations, guidelines and other standards which apply in relation to personal information, and make efforts to protect personal information, as entities handling personal information under the Act on the Protection of Personal Information (hereinafter referred to as the “Personal Information Protection Act” or “Act”).

1. Collection of Personal Information

Each entity of Grant Thornton Japan collects personal information by legal and appropriate means.

2. Purpose of Use of Personal Information

1. Provision of the services of each entity of Grant Thornton Japan (including procedures to check independence and conflicts of interest, etc).
2. Delivery or sending of newsletters or mail magazines of each entity of Grant Thornton Japan (including those posted on the Website or sent by email).
3. Delivery or sending of invitations for seminars or events of each entity of Grant Thornton Japan and their operation.
4. Delivery or sending of information, books, greetings and others items concerning the services of each entity of Grant Thornton Japan.
5. Implementation of questionnaires, surveys, statistics and others.
6. Responses to inquiries.
7. Recruitment of new employees and staff (including officers and any other worker engaging in work in each entity of Grant Thornton Japan regardless of his/her title, etc.) and personnel management after recruitment.
8. Comprehensive risk management based on the necessity of legal compliance, quality control and others.

3. Joint use of Personal Information

Each entity of Grant Thornton Japan may share personal information with another legal entity within the Grant Thornton Japan group or any of the member firms of GTIL.

1. Personal Information Shared
   Name, title, work place and department, age, address or residence, email address, telephone number, fax number and other personal information that the legal entity sharing information collects in connection with its services or work.
2. Scope of Legal Entities Sharing Information
   • Japan member firms of GTIL.
     (Grant Thornton Japan, Grant Thornton Taiyo LLC, Grant Thornton Taiyo Tax Corporation, Grant Thornton Taiyo Advisors Co., Ltd., Grant Thornton Taiyo Inc., Grant Thornton Taiyo Human Capital Corporation and Grant Thornton Taiyo Accounting Service Inc.)
   • Member firms of GTIL（Please see here for the details）
3. Purpose of Use by Legal Entities Sharing Information
   The purposes of use provided for in “2. Purpose of Use of Personal Information” above apply.
4. Management of Shared Personal Data
   Grant Thornton Japan
   Contact: Please see here

4. Disclosure to Third Party

Grant Thornton Japan will not, in principle, disclose any personal information it collects to any third party, unless required to do so by laws and regulations or consent of a user is deemed to have been obtained based on the principles of laws and regulations.

5. Management of Personal Information

1. Grant Thornton Japan manages personal information safely and takes appropriate information security measures against unauthorized access, computer viruses and others in order to prevent the loss, destruction, alteration and leakage of personal information.
2. Grant Thornton Japan appoints a personal information manager for each department and manages personal information properly. Grant Thornton Japan conducts training concerning the protection, appropriate management method, etc. of personal information for its employees, staff and other workers and ensures the proper handling of personal information in daily business activities.
3. Grant Thornton Japan supervises appropriately its workers and outsources with regard to the handling of personal information.

6. Procedures to Respond to Request for Disclosure of Retained Personal Data, etc.

If any personal data Grant Thornton Japan retains is requested to be disclosed or collected under the Personal Information Protection Act, Grant Thornton Japan will respond to such a request in an appropriate manner in accordance with laws and regulations.

1. Procedures: Please contact the following contact point. Specific procedures will be advised separately.
2. Contact Point: Please see here.

7. Complaints and Inquiries

If users have any complaint, comment or inquiry on the handling of personal information by Grant Thornton Japan, please contact us here.

* Except for the case of sharing, the management of personal information is conducted by each legal entity of Grant Thornton Japan under its own responsibility, and none of the other legal entities of Grant Thornton Japan or member firms of GTIL will share joint and several responsibilities without specific and concrete circumstances.

Online Privacy Policy

1. Basic Terms

Grant Thornton Japan collects information from users of the Website only to the extent necessary for the smooth provision of its services (such as providing information on Grant Thornton Japan website and dealing with requests and inquiries). Information collected is used within the scope of the purpose of use, except for the case provided for in “4. Disclosure to Third Party” of “Efforts to Protect Personal Information” stated above.

2. Scope of Information Collected

Users of the “Contact Us” “Careers” or “Seminar Registration” may be requested to submit information such as name, company, address, telephone number and email address. If the online form is not used, e-mail messages regarding “Contact Us” ”Careers” “Seminar Registration” or other matters also show the email address of the sender.

3. Purpose of Use

“2. Purpose of Use of Personal Information” of “Efforts to Protect Personal Information” stated above apply.

4. Restrictions on Use or Disclosure

“3. Sharing of Personal Information” and “4. Disclosure to Third Party” of “Efforts to Protect Personal Information” stated above apply.

5. Safety Measures

”5. Management of Personal Information” of “Efforts to Protect Personal Information” stated above apply.

6. Information Logs and Cookies

1. Google Analytics is used for the collection and analysis of access logs on the Website. In Google Analytics, access logs are collected by using cookies, but this does not include information identifying any specific individual. Collected access logs are managed in accordance with the privacy policy of Google Inc.
2. The Website uses cookies for access analysis and collects IP address information from which users access by logs on the web server. Grant Thornton Japan does not consider cookies and IP address information as personal information because they may not be used independently to identify any specific individual. It is possible to set a browser to refuse cookies. If users are not sure whether your browser has this function, please contact the manufacture of software.
3. Privacy Policy of Google, Inc.
   Please read below regarding the privacy policy on access logs collected by Google Analytics (external sites).
   • How Google uses data when you use our partners’ sites or apps Google
   • The Google Privacy Policy

7. Scope of Application

This Online Privacy Policy applies only to the Website. Grant Thornton Japan makes no guarantee with regard to the handling of any information on web pages or links outside the Website.

* The privacy policy of GTIL can be found here.