Kao group companies worldwide (collectively the “Kao Group”) utilize personal information of stakeholders (consumers, business partners, shareholders, investors, employees, etc.) through business activities. The Kao Group recognize that it is their important responsibility to properly manage and protect personal information in order to live up to the trust of those who have provided it to us. In order to fulfill the above responsibilities, the Kao Group will comply with laws and regulations, and will strive to appropriately manage and protect personal information in accordance with this policy.
* Privacy policies that comply with the personal information protection laws of each country are posted on each company’s website.
June 1, 2024 Establishment
Kao Corporation, 14-10, Nihonbashi Kayabacho 1-chome, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan (“Kao” or “we” or “our”) takes data privacy seriously. This Privacy Policy informs the users of the webpages on which this Privacy Policy is displayed (“the Webpages”) how we collect and process the personal data and other information of such users in connection with their usage of the Webpages.
Note that other Kao websites (webpages) or mobile applications may be governed by other privacy policies.
You may use the Webpages without providing any personal data about you. In this case, we will collect only the following metadata that result from your usage of the Webpages: browser type and version, operating system and interface, website from which you are visiting us (referrer URL), webpage(s) you are visiting on the Webpages, date and time of accessing the Webpages, and internet protocol (IP) address.
Your IP address will be used to enable your access to the Webpages. Once the IP address is no longer necessary for this purpose, we will shorten your IP address by removing the last octet of your IP address. The metadata, including the shortened IP address, will be used to improve the quality and services of the Webpages and services by analyzing the usage behavior of our users.
If you make an enquiry on the Webpages, you will be asked to provide the following personal data about you: name, email address, enquiry detail and address (country and city only). We process such personal data for purposes of answering your queries, providing information requested, improving the Webpages according to usage patterns, and for technical administration or other purposes to which you have agreed.
We rely on the following legal grounds for the collection, processing, and use of your personal data:
The provision of your personal data is not required by a statutory or contractual obligation. The provision of your personal data is voluntary for you.
Not providing your personal data may result in disadvantages for you. However, unless otherwise specified, not providing your personal data will not result in legal consequences for you.
We may transfer your personal data to third parties for the processing purposes described above as follows:
Any access to your personal data is restricted to those individuals that have a need-to-know in order to fulfill their job responsibilities.
International transfers. The personal data that we collect or receive about you may be transferred to and processed by recipients that are located inside or outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”) or Switzerland.
Your personal data will be retained as long as necessary to fulfill the processing purposes described above. Once the processing purposes are completed or otherwise ended your relationship with us, we will remove your personal data from our systems and records or take steps to properly anonymize it so that you can no longer be identified from it (unless we need to keep your information to comply with legal or regulatory obligations to which the group company is subject).
We may also retain your personal data if your personal data are necessary to comply with any applicable laws or if we need your personal data to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim, on a need to know basis only. To the extent possible, we will restrict the processing of your personal data for such limited purposes.
Right to withdraw your consent: If you have declared your consent regarding certain collecting, processing and use of your personal data, you can withdraw this consent at any time with future effect. Such a withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of the processing prior to the consent withdrawal. Please contact us as stated in Section 7 below to withdraw your consent.
Additional data privacy rights: Pursuant to applicable data protection law, you may have the right to: (i) request access to your personal data; (ii) request rectification of your personal data; (iii) request erasure of your personal data; (iv) request restriction of processing of your personal data; (v) request data portability; and/or (vi) object to the processing of your personal data.
Please note that these aforementioned rights might be limited under the applicable local data protection law. If you are a EU Resident, the following rights apply:
Right to request access to your personal data: You may have the right to obtain from us confirmation as to whether or not personal data concerning you is being processed, and, where that is the case, to request access to the personal data. This access information includes - inter alia - the purposes of the processing, the categories of personal data concerned, and the recipients or categories of recipient to whom the personal data have been or will be disclosed. However, this is not an absolute right and the interests of other individuals may restrict your right of access.
To exercise your rights, please contact us as stated under Section 7 below. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent data protection supervisory authority.
We use cookies to improve the Webpages, including enhancing information and services provided and making the Webpages easier to use, and, on some webpages, to authenticate membership for login, customize the service contents or distribute advertising based on browsing history. A cookie is an electronic file that is transmitted from a particular webpage to a browser viewing that page, which can be retrieved later to distinguish a user’s computer.
The Webpages use a system operated by a provider other than Kao for use of cookies. For more details, see here.
You can disable or delete cookies in your browser settings. However, this makes certain services, including services requiring login, unavailable to you.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or if you want to exercise your rights as stated above in Section 5, please contact us at:
Kao Corporation, Information Security Committee secretariat,
14-10, Nihonbashi Kayabacho 1-chome, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 103-8210 Japan
E-mail: privacy_mail@kao.co.jp
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time in response to changing legal, regulatory or operational requirements. We will notify you of any such changes, including when they will take effect, by updating the “Last revised” date above or as otherwise required by applicable law. Your continued use of the Webpages after any such updates take effect will constitute acceptance of those changes. If you do not accept updates to this Privacy Policy, you should stop using the Webpages.