About this privacy notice

The General Incorporated Association Phase Free Association (hereinafter referred to as "PFA (We)") is an organization dedicated to disseminating and promoting the concept of 'Phase-Free' as one approach to addressing recurring disasters worldwide. PFA operates through the collaboration of supporters, dispatched staff, and all other stakeholders. PFA considers that all personal information obtained through our activities is important, therefore, in accordance with the following notice, we will strive to protect the personal rights and interests of individuals by adhering to relevant laws, regulations and guidelines, in addition to the Japanese Act on the Protection of Personal Information. PFA ensures that its employees familiarise themselves with and understand this Privacy Notice and its delivery, which will be reviewed and improved when necessary.

1. How do we collect information about you?

We collect information:

  • when you provide it to us directly
  • when we obtain it indirectly
  • via social media
  • through cookies, when you visit our website or use forms

Direct collection

You may give us personal information when you: application for Phase Free Certification, registration with Action Partners, donate, sign up for one of our events, respond to surveys, apply for positions, take actions related to supporting or working for us, communicate with us, sign up for email newsletters and/or leave a comment on our social media accounts.

Indirect collection

We may obtain your personal information via disclosed information, other entrepreneurs, experts with specialty, supplier lists, other PFA entities, recruitment agencies, temporary-staffing companies, fundraising organisations, fundraising platforms etc. For the purpose of asking for a wide range of support in order to send direct mails etc, we obtain personal information on name lists. In such cases, we obtain them after ensuring that an organisation from which we obtain individual names on a list abides by the Act on the Protection of Personal Information.

Collection via social media

We may obtain information about you from your social media accounts or services. Facebook and X (formerly known as Twitter) are examples. We can do this if you have set your account settings to give us permission. Please check your settings and privacy policies of social media for more details.

Cookies

Please see "9. About cookies" below.

2. What information do we collect?

We usually collect your:

  • Name
  • Birth date
  • Email address
  • Phone number
  • Postal address
  • Other information

When you donate or apply for Phase Free Certification, register with Action Partner and others/and the like, we may also collect your bank or credit card details. When you contact us by telephone, we may record the content of the call in order to accurately understand and respond to your questions or requests.

For recruitment, we collect academic background, career history, certification information and other required information.

3. How do we use your information?

PFA handles personal information for the purpose of popularizing and promoting the "Phase Free" concept to cope with disasters, so as to call the attention of as many people as possible to the situation and to use human and financial resources to their utmost extent. For these reasons, and particularly in relation to conducting the following activities, PFA handles personal information for purposes necessary for such activities.

We use your information, in particular, to:

  • send you updates, marketing communications such as direct marketing.

    • Sending reports of our activities, newsletters, advertisements and so on.
    *We may analyze your information such as donation history, event participation history, and residential areas, etc., to send you our activity report, newsletters, and other information for your donation and support.

  • process and acknowledge your donations
    • Receipt and processing of donations, reporting of information required by financial institutions, issuance of receipts etc.
  • Processing and Confirmation of Applications
    • Acceptance and processing of applications, providing necessary information to financial institutions, issuing receipts, etc.
  • Management of records for support to PFA
    • Information management for past support received by PFA
  • human resource management [Resource management]
    • Holding events for recruitment, introduction of vacant positions and exchanging information with job applicants, recruitment, recruitment promotion, employment management, human resource development
  • analyse our activities
    • Conducting surveys and analysis of our activities
  • understand how we can improve our services and information
  • other communications for general business purposes

Please see "Share / Provision" below for details about personal information provided by third parties necessary for the above matters.

Direct marketing

We use direct marketing to inform you about what PFA is doing and how your support makes a difference. We may use it for emergency fundraising or to ask for other support. We always respect your preferences and endeavor to send you information that you find interesting, in a format you prefer.

We use direct marketing unless you indicate that you do not wish to hear from us. We send these communications on the basis of it being within our legitimate interests to do so or if you have consented to receive them. Please see the "7. Legal Basis for Processing Data" section below for more information on this.

Our email direct marketing has ways to opt out or update your preferences in the footer of each email. You can opt out at any time. If you do not wish to hear from us, that is fine. Please let us know that you do not wish to hear from us at the contact address or via email specified in "11. Contact".

We also implement direct mail campaigns.

Social media

We may use publicly available information from your profile to target you with specific posts that may interest you. We never ask for personal or sensitive information on social media. We may repost or share your post on social media if it relates to PFA and our work. We may respond to questions or comments left on our social media channels. We may use information found on your profile to help us answer these.

Check your social media accounts if you want to change the information you make public. Our websites use sharing buttons which allow users to share our web pages on social media platforms. Use these buttons at your own discretion. Social media platforms may track these shares through your accounts.

Share / Provision

Your personal data are shared with, or provided by or to third parties if such sharing or provision is authorised by law or required to achieve the purposes defined above. We may share your personal data with service providers, who help assist us in fulfilling our business purposes.

4. How do we keep your information safe?

We use appropriate technical, physical, personal and organisational measures and precautions in order to protect your personal data and to prevent the divulgence, loss, damage, misuse, alteration or unauthorised access of your personal data. For further information, please contact us at the address or via email specified in "11. Contact" below.

We recognise the importance of protecting personal information that we have collected. All of our staff strictly adhere to our privacy governance rules. We establish appropriate organisational systems for the protection of personal information, evaluate the authority and the scope with which our staff can access information on a regular basis and provide staff with education and training in relation to personal information.

We use other companies to manage and store personal data and carry out certain activities on our behalf. We supervise these companies in an appropriate fashion.

We operate globally and may have to transfer certain data to countries outside Japan and the European Economic Area (EEA). We make sure to implement technical, physical, personal and organisational measures to protect your data. For more information, please see "Security Management Measures (PDF)".

5. How long do we keep your information?

We keep your information for as long as it is necessary in connection with the purposes defined above in "3. How do we use your information?"

6. Protection of Children's Privacy

PFA is committed to protecting the personal information and the privacy of children in accordance with applicable laws. When we intend to collect personal information from children for event application etc., we call on children to handle their personal information (providing personal information to PFA) under the guidance and supervision of their parents or guardians. We also take additional steps to protect children's privacy, including but not limited to notifying parents (or guardians) about our policy on handling personal information and obtaining consent from parents (or guardians) for the collection of personal information of their children.

7. Our legal basis for processing personal data

The lawful basis to collect and use personal data is described here. As stated in this Privacy Notice, we consider the lawful basis in relation to the stipulations of the Act on the Protection of Personal Information has been fulfilled, therefore, we describe here EEA data protection regulation, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). GDPR allows six ways to process personal data. They are:

  • With a person's consent;
  • Processing that is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is party or to take steps at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a contract;
  • Processing that is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation;
  • Processing that is necessary to protect the vital interests of the data subject or of another natural person;
  • Processing that is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller; and
  • Our legitimate interests (please see below for more information).

Our legitimate interests include:

  • Management of Damage Reduction and Emergency Support Activities; including the implementation of projects for the purpose of damage reduction and emergency support, statutory and financial reporting and other regulatory compliance purposes;
  • Administration and operational management; including responding to solicited enquires, providing information and services, research, events management, the administration of volunteers and employment and recruitment requirements.
  • Fundraising and campaigning; including administering campaigns and donations, and sending direct marketing by post or by email and thank you letters by post.

If you'd like to change our use of your personal data in this manner, please contact us using the details specified in "11. Contact".

8. How can you change your information and what are your rights?

The Japanese Act on the Protection of Personal Information and GDPR authorise the rights of individuals to be involved with their own personal information.

Act on the Protection of Personal Information (Japan)

Except for cases with appropriate reasons as stipulated by the Act on the Protection of Personal Information and other laws and regulations, we take appropriate action on requests for disclosure (including record on third-party provisions), correction, addition and/or suspension of use of personal information by principal persons or their agencies. If you have any questions, please contact us at the contact address or via email specified in "11. Contact".

We ask you to submit a written request for disclosure of record on third-party provisions. For details of the request procedures, please contact us at the address or via email specified in "11. Contact".

General Data Protection Regulation (EEA)

Contact us if GDPR applies and you wish to change or update your personal information. GDPR stipulates a number of rights. Contact us at the contact address or via email specified in "11. Contact". You may be asked for proof of identity.

  • You have the right to ask us to stop using or to restrict the processing of personal data.
  • You can withdraw your consent to us processing your data at any time.
  • If you believe our records are inaccurate, you have the right to ask for those records concerning you to be updated.
  • In accordance with the GDPR provisions, you have the right to erasure ("to be forgotten"i.e. to have your personal data deleted from our database) or transferred to another organisation ("data portability").
  • If you have any concern about the way your data is being used or if you wish to make a complaint, please contact us at the contact address or via email specified in "11. Contact". You are also entitled to make a complaint to the relevant data protection authority.

Profiling, Direct Marketing

PFA may ask for your support and participation, as well as introduce our activities, based on your likely interests or preferences. For these purposes, we analyze your information such as donation history, event participation history, and residential areas, etc. Using the analyzed information, we send you our activity report, newsletters, and other information for your donation and support. If you are a data subject under GDPR, you have a right to refuse or restrict these activities with your information. If you wish to submit such request under GDPR, please contact us at the contact address or via email specified in "11. Contact".

9. About cookies

We use "cookies".

What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files that are transferred from a website to your computer, phone or tablet. Websites store cookies on your internet browser (Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer, for example) when you visit. Every time you return to the site and navigate around it, cookies pick up these bits of information. There are several types of cookies and they each have different functions and uses. Some cookies can be really helpful and most websites rely on them in order to work properly and to understand what their users do when they visit.

What cookies do we use?

The following cookies are used on all websites under phasefree.world (including our main website, "Phase Free Asociation", Innovation unit's website, and special pages for various campaigns.).

Type of cookies What they do Who serves them
Strictly necessary cookies These cookies let you move around the website and use areas like the donate form, log in and e-news sign up. They don't gather information about you that could be used for marketing or remember where you've been on the internet. These cookies only last until you close your browser.
  • PFA
Performance/analytics cookies These cookies help us understand how you use our website and if users have had any problems. They also let us know if you see one of our adverts online or click on our banners. The information they gather is anonymous. We only use the information to improve the way the website works.
Functionality cookies These cookies remember any choices you have made on a website. This could be changing the text size, preferences or colour. They can also remember if you have already completed a survey. They cannot track you on other websites.
  • PFA
Targeting cookies These cookies collect info for third parties and remember what you looked at on a website. They are used for things including 'Like' and 'Share' buttons, as well as online advertising. Do you see ads for things you have looked at online appear on random websites? It's because of targeting cookies.
  • *For opt-out, please see "Distribution of advertisements from advertisement distributors using cookie" below.
Social media cookies These cookies are only used to enable you to share website pages and content on social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. These cookies are set by the relevant social media company and governed by its privacy policy. We do not control these cookies.

Distribution of advertisements from advertisement distributors using cookies etc.

We sometimes use advertisements distributed by third parties. In this regard, the said third parties may collect and use cookie information of users who have visited our website. This cookie information collected by the said third parties is handled in accordance with the privacy policy of the third parties. Users can access the opt-out web pages within the website of the said third parties to stop advertisement distribution using the cookie information by them.

Google・YouTube
Yahoo!Japan
Criteo
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Bing ads

Cookie management procedures

You can control and/or delete cookies at any time. You can also remove all the cookies already on your computer. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you should be able to change your browser to prevent that. To learn how to do this, please look at the help menu on your web browser. Further information is available on the following websites.

  • Microsoft Edge
  • Mozilla Firefox
  • Safari
  • Google Chrome

Further, most third-party providers offer modules or proceedings allowing you to opt out from data collection.

10. When do we update this notice?

We change this Privacy Notice when we need to. If we make any significant changes in the way we treat your personal information, we will make this clear on our main website or by contacting you directly.

Last updated on [2023.12.25]
All rights on this document belong to PFA. Any reproduction without written consent is strictly forbidden.

11. Contact

If you have any questions, please contact PFA at the following:

Contact

President: Tadayuki Sato
Address 4-6-11 A-1607, Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-0034, JAPAN
E-Mail info@phasefree.or.jp

Privacy notice for PFA staff

This describes how PFA ("we") collects, holds and processes personal information (including special care-required personal information) about its employees, former employees, individuals on the register waiting for an assignment, committee members, employees who have been dispatched to the field by PFA in the past, volunteers, PFA Members and their families – referred to as "you" below.

We consider that all personal information obtained through our activities is important, therefore, in accordance with the following notice, we strive to protect the personal rights and interests of individuals by abiding by relevant laws, regulations and guidelines, in addition to the Japanese Act on the Protection of Personal Information. We ensure that our employees familiarise themselves with and understand this Privacy Notice and its delivery, which will be reviewed and improved when necessary.

We maintain information about you in print and electronically. This is managed mainly by the Human Resources department. For certain services, such as payroll, we share this information with other teams in PFA (i.e. Finance) and sometimes with external partners who provide human resource management services on our behalf, for example payroll processing. Depending on the nature of your contract or work with us, we may also need to share your personal data with other partners within the PFA movement. This is shared and used for the purposes detailed below.

1. What information do we collect and why

PFA handles personal information for the purpose of providing support to people in crises, so as to call the attention of as many people as possible to the situation, and to use human and financial resources to their utmost extent. For these reasons, and particularly in relation to conducting the following activities, we handle personal information for the purposes necessary to allow you to participate in our activities.

We use your personal information particularly to administer payroll, pensions, insurance, training and appraisals, human resource development, monitor equal opportunities, obtain visas, book travel, recruit personnel, promote personnel recruitment, and manage employment and to manage your access to various services such as IT and buildings. We cannot offer you an employment contract without having specific personal information about you. We also have certain legal obligations to keep personal information for a set period of time, and on specific occasions we are legally required to disclose information to appropriate authorities.

Staff information

  • Basic information required for general management such as name, birth date, email address, phone number and postal address
  • Information required for human resource management such as career history, certification and performance evaluation
  • Information required for salary-related, taxation and insurance matters
  • Information required for health management such as medical check data
  • Information required for obtaining visas or other information required for overseas travel procedures

Family information

Information on employees' families (including information about their children) is collected by PFA. For example, information is used for taxation, social insurance and residency status application procedures, emergency contact information, procedures for nursery school etc.

External disclosures

Sometimes we pass information about you to third parties, where the law allows it. For example, exchanging information with a payroll vendor to transact payment, the Field Human Resources team and other PFA departments for recruitment etc, embassies, insurance companies, notaries, etc. We do not provide information for a third party's benefit or sell personal information to other organisations.

When you leave

When you terminate your employment with PFA, your personnel file is kept within the duration of time and scope required by laws or necessary for the operation of PFA.

Others

This Privacy Notice describes staff-specific matters. For matters not specifically described herein, please refer also to the Privacy Notice on the handling of personal information in the earlier part of this document.