Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

NihonGoat provides private online Japanese lessons with native Japanese teachers. NihonGoat is operated by Akinori Toma, based in Chicago, Illinois, USA. We are responsible for the personal information described in this policy.

2. Information we collect

Information you give us

• Booking & account details — your name, email address, phone number (if you provide one), time zone, and the login details for your customer account.
• Lesson information — the teacher and service you choose, lesson dates and times, attendance, anything you tell us about your Japanese level and goals, and notes your teacher shares after lessons.
• Messages — anything you send us by email or through the website.

You need to give us your name, email address and time zone to book a lesson. Other information is optional.

Payment information

Card payments are handled by our payment provider, Stripe. We receive limited information such as the amount, date, payment status and the last four digits of your card. We never see or store your full card number.

Information collected automatically

Like most websites, our site and hosting provider record technical information such as your IP address, browser type, device and the pages you visit. Some of this is collected using cookies (see Section 10).

3. How we use your information

• To make and manage your bookings, take payment, issue refunds and send booking confirmations and reminders.
• To share what your teacher needs to prepare and run your lessons (your name, level, goals and lesson times).
• To reply to your questions and provide support.
• To keep the website secure, prevent fraud (for example, repeat trial bookings) and fix problems.
• To send you newsletters or lesson news, only if you have agreed to receive them (see Section 12).
• To meet our legal obligations, such as keeping accounting records.

We do not use your information to make decisions about you based solely on automated processing.

4. Legal bases

If you are in the European Economic Area (EEA) or the United Kingdom, we rely on these legal bases:

• Contract — to provide the lessons you book and process your payment.
• Legitimate interests — to run, secure and improve our service and to prevent misuse.
• Legal obligation — to keep records required by tax and accounting law.
• Consent — for optional cookies and marketing emails. You can withdraw consent at any time.

5. Who we share it with

We share personal information only where needed to provide our service:

• Your teacher — the details needed to prepare and run your lessons.
• Payment provider (Stripe) — to process payments and refunds. Stripe handles your card details under its own privacy policy.
• Video platform (Google Meet, provided by Google) — lessons take place on Google Meet. When you join a lesson, Google processes your name, email address (if you join with a Google account) and audio/video under its own privacy policy.
• Booking system (LatePoint) — our booking system runs on our own website using the LatePoint plugin. Your booking and account details are stored on our website’s servers.
• Service providers — our website hosting provider XServer, and, where used, our email and analytics providers Google Analytics and Clarity. They process information only on our instructions.
• Authorities — where we are required to by law.

We do not sell your personal information or share it for advertising.

6. International transfers

NihonGoat is based in the United States, and some of our teachers are based in 【要確認：Japan】. Your information may therefore be transferred to and processed in the United States and 【要確認：Japan】. When we transfer personal information from the EEA or the UK, we rely on appropriate safeguards, such as the European Commission’s adequacy decision for Japan, the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework where our providers take part in it, or Standard Contractual Clauses.

7. How long we keep your information

• Booking and payment records — for as long as required by tax and accounting law.
• Your customer account — until you ask us to delete it.
• Lesson notes and messages — up to 2 years after your last lesson or message.

After these periods, we delete or anonymise your information.

8. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• access the personal information we hold about you;
• correct information that is inaccurate;
• ask us to delete your information;
• restrict or object to how we use it;
• receive a copy of your information in a portable format;
• withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on consent.

To use these rights, email us at info@nihongoat.com. We will reply within one month. If you are in the EEA or the UK, you also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority.

9. Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your information, such as encrypted (HTTPS) connections and limited access for our teachers. No method of transmission over the internet is completely secure.

10. Cookies

We use cookies that are necessary for the website and booking system to work (for example, to keep you logged in to your customer account and to complete a booking). We may also use analytics cookies to understand how visitors use our site. Where required, we ask for your consent before using them. You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, but some parts of the site may then stop working. For the full list of cookies we use, see our Cookie Policy.

11. Children

Lessons for students under 18 must be booked by a parent or legal guardian. We do not knowingly collect information directly from children under 13 without a parent’s or guardian’s involvement.

12. Marketing emails

We send newsletters or lesson news only if you have agreed to receive them. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in every email.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The updated version will be posted on this page with a new “Last updated” date. If we make important changes, we will let you know by email or on our website.

14. Contact us

Questions or requests about your personal information? Email us at info@nihongoat.com

See also our Terms of Use.