Privacy Policy

Nihongo-Pro provides live, online Japanese lessons and other Japanese-related services to users around the world. In providing these services, we collect and use certain information from users who visit and/or register for services at our website.

We respect our users’ privacy, and want to be transparent in how we collect, store, manage, and transmit your personal information. Please read this policy in full, but here are the key points:

• We do not share, sell, or trade your name, email address, or any other account information with other parties.
• When you use Nihongo-Pro, even if just browsing the site, we receive some personal information from you, such as the type of device you’re using and your IP address.
• We require certain personal information (see details below) in order to provide services to you.
• If you have questions about this policy, how we collect or process your personal data, or anything else related to our privacy practices, please contact us.

Account Information

You don’t have to create an account to use some of our services, such as viewing and searching the Hiroba social forum, taking quizzes, or playing games. If you do choose to register for additional services, you must provide us with some personal data so we can provide our services to you. This includes the information listed below.

Free-Service Registrants: If you register for our no-cost services, such as extra quiz services or posting permission to the Hiroba social forum, we collect the following information:

• a username of your choice (e.g., “japanfan”), which you use to log in to your account
• a password
• email address
• a nickname for access to the chat room and the Hiroba social forum (by default, we use your username, but you may change your nickname at any time)

Student Registrants: If you register with the intention of taking lessons, we collect the following information. We assign you a username and password, which you use to log in to your account. After your account is created, you may change your password if you like.

• your given and family names
• gender
• birthdate
• address (city, state/province, and country)
• native language
• time zone
• email address
• current Japanese level
• current occupation and employment status
• OS of your computer
• details of your experience studying Japanese and living in Japan
• details of your goals in studying Japanese, your preferred days/times for taking lessons, and other preferences with respect to Nihongo-Pro lessons
• a nickname for access to the chat room and the Hiroba social forum (by default, we use your username, but you may change your nickname at any time)

In addition, when you use our services, additional personal information may be generated, including:

• your entries and exits from our online rooms, including classrooms, chat rooms, meeting rooms, and support rooms
• your participation in the Hiroba social forum
• a record of the quizzes you take, your score in each quiz, and your answers to each quiz question
• a record of the kanji/kana games you take, your score in each game, and your answers to each game question
• a record of any correspondence between you and Nihongo-Pro
• one or more recordings of the images provided by your web camera and the audio provided by your microphone

Public Information

Your activity on Nihongo-Pro related to browsing the site, taking quizzes, playing games, and taking lessons is not publicly accessible, except as described below.

When you enter any Nihongo-Pro room, your nickname is visible to all other users in the same room. Your nickname, IP address, browser information, and other technical information related to your connection is also visible to Nihongo-Pro administrators and teachers. While in the room, your audio stream, video stream, and text messages you type may be stored in our system. If you enter a Nihongo-Pro chat room, other visitors to the site may be informed that another user is in the chat room. None of your personal information is disclosed to other site visitors, unless another user enters the chat room as well.

Your activity on the Hiroba social forum is public. If you make a post on Hiroba, other users and visitors will be able to see your nickname, the date you first visited Hiroba, the number and timing of your Hiroba posts, and your avatar (personal image), if you have uploaded an avatar or (in the case of Nihongo-Pro teachers) an avatar has been associated with your account.

If you submit a testimonial related to your lessons at Nihongo-Pro, we may publish your testimonial, along with a photograph you provide, on our website. We may edit the testimonial for clarity or length, and may crop or resize the photograph. Your testimonial and photograph become the property of Nihongo-Pro. However, if you wish to have your testimonial (and photograph, if any) removed from our website, please contact us.

You may provide us, or one or more of our payment processors, with payment information, including your credit or debit card number, card expiration date, CVV code, and billing address, in order to purchase lesson tickets, e-books, or other offerings as part of our services.

How You Control the Information You Share with Us

Your activity related to taking quizzes, playing games, and taking lessons is not publicly accessible; we collect only the personal information we need to provide these services to you.

You may change your nickname at any time. You may also freely change or delete your Hiroba avatar (personal image).

If you have previously registered and wish to close your account, please contact us. Please note that, if you have registered as a student and have purchased lesson tickets, any unused lesson tickets will be forfeited with account closure.

How We Use Information We Collect

We use your information to provide, personalize, maintain the security of, and improve the services you use. We do not share, sell, or rent your account information with any other party.

A cookie is a small piece of data that is stored on your computer or mobile device. Like many websites, we use cookies and similar technologies to collect additional website usage data and to operate our services.

Cookies are not required for parts of our services such as browsing our site or searching kanji pages. Although most web browsers automatically accept cookies, many browsers’ settings can be set to decline cookies or alert you when a website is attempting to place a cookie on your computer.

However, some of our services may not function properly if you disable cookies. When your browser or device allows it, we use both session cookies and persistent cookies to better understand how you interact with our services, to monitor aggregate usage patterns, and to personalize and otherwise operate our services such as by providing account security, personalizing the content we show you including ads, and remembering your language preferences. We do not support the Do Not Track browser option.

We receive information when you view content on or otherwise interact with our services, which we refer to as “Log Data,” even if you have not registered for services as described above. For example, when you visit our website or log into our services, we may receive information about you.

This Log Data includes information such as your IP address, browser type, operating system, the referring web page, pages visited, geographic location, mobile carrier, device information (including device and application IDs), search terms you used to access our website, and cookie information. We also receive Log Data when you click on, view, or interact with links on our services.

We use Log Data to operate our services and ensure their secure, reliable, and robust performance. For example, we use Log Data to protect the security of accounts. We may use this data to improve the content we show you, such as highlighting the teachers whose lessons you have taken, or customizing time schedules to your time zone.

Advertising revenue allows us to support and improve our services. We display Google ads on certain pages. When you click one of these ads, we receive compensation from the advertiser.

None of your account information is shared with Google or its advertising partners.

Google uses cookies to help serve the ads it displays on the websites of its partners, such as websites displaying Google ads or participating in Google certified ad networks. When users visit Nihongo-Pro, a cookie may be added to your browser.

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), our ads are selected and shown to you based solely on the page content and other contextual information, not by your prior visits to Nihongo-Pro and other websites. This is known as non-personalized advertising.

If you are located outside the EEA, Google and its third-party vendors use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to Nihongo-Pro and other websites. This is known as personalized advertising. Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to Nihongo-Pro and/or other sites. You may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google’s Ads Settings. To opt out of a third-party vendor’s use of cookies for personalized advertising, please visit www.aboutads.info.

We seek to ensure that we do not inadvertently collect information from children.

Although our services do not target children as the primary audience, children may register for lessons, register for free services, take lessons, and make use of our other services, provided we obtain the legally valid consent of the child’s parent or guardian.

If we learn that we have inadvertently gathered personal information from a child (other than a child for whom we have obtained legally valid consent from a parent or guardian), we will take reasonable measures to promptly remove the information from our records.

If you are located in the EEA, you have certain rights with respect to your personal information, as follows:

• You can request deletion of your personal information, request a copy of your personal information, or withdraw your consent for the collection of personal information by contacting us. If your personal information is deleted, or if you withdraw your consent for the collection of personal information, we may be unable to provide services to you.
• You may correct or update your personal information. You can carry out most corrections or updates by logging in to our site, and choosing My Account. If there are other corrections or updates are required, please contact us.

Updated October 16, 2020