Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Last updated March 19, 2025

We at the Inter-Pacific Bar Association (“IPBA”) recognize the importance of the Personal Data you have entrusted to us and take measures designed to manage, protect and process your Personal Data.

This data protection policy (the “Privacy Policy”) will assist you in understanding how we collect, use, disclose and/or process the Personal Data you have provided to us or that we process about you, as well as assist you in making an informed decision before providing us with any of your Personal Data. The term “Personal Data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (“data subject”); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, by reference to an identifier. This Privacy Policy applies to the events organized, the membership services, website(s), and applications(s) provided and/or the business conducted by IPBA and explains how we handle Personal Data and comply with the requirements of applicable privacy law, including where applicable, Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act 2012 (“PDPA”), the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union (“EU-GDPR”), the General Data Protection Regulation of the United Kingdom (“UK-GDPR”, referred to together with the EU-GDPR as the “GDPR”), and the Act on the Protection of Personal Information of Japan (“APPI”). If you, at any time, have any queries on this Privacy Policy or any other queries in relation to how we may manage, protect and/or process your Personal Data, please do not hesitate to contact our Data Protection Officer (i.e., the IPBA’s Chief Technology Officer as set forth in https://ipba.org/about-us/leadership/4/) via the contact details below:

Telephone number:   +81-3-5786-6796.

E-mail: cto@ipba.org. Attention to the ‘Data Protection Officer’.

Office address: IPBA Secretariat, Roppongi Hills North Tower 7F, 6-2-31 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032 Japan. Attention to the ‘Data Protection Officer’.

Our EU-GDPR representative according to Art. 27 EU-GDPR is:

Rickert Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH
Colmantstrasse 15, 53115 Bonn, Germany
E-mail:   art-27-rep-ipba@rickert.law

Our UK-GDPR representative according to Art. 27 UK-GDPR is:

Rickert Services Ltd UK
PO Box 1487, Peterborough
PE1 9XX, United Kingdom
E-mail: art-27-rep-ipba@rickert-services.uk

1. Collection of your personal data

1.1 We may collect Personal Data from you through various means, including but not limited to through our website, application, or in person. Where required by applicable law, before we collect any Personal Data from you, we will notify you of the purposes for which your Personal Data may be collected, used and/or disclosed, as well as obtain your consent for the collection, use and/or disclosure of your Personal Data for the intended purposes.

1.2 You have no obligation to provide any of the Personal Data requested by us. However, depending on circumstances, it may be the case that if you do not provide the requested Personal Data, we may not be able to provide you with certain products and services that depend on the collection, use, or disclosure of your Personal Data.

1.3 Your consent that is given pursuant to this Privacy Policy is additional to and does not supersede any other consents that you provided to IPBA with regard to processing of your Personal Data. For the avoidance of doubt, that you read and understand this Privacy Policy does not constitute as consent within the meaning of the EU-GDPR and UK-GDPR.

1.4 We may collect Personal Data from you on the following legal bases:

  • Your consent;
  • For the performance of a contract of which you are a party or in order to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract (contractual necessity);
  • Based on our legitimate interest to provide you with a secure and functional website and membership platform and other services; or
  • To comply with legal obligations to which we are subject.

1.5 The Personal Data collected by IPBA may include, without limitation: 

  • Identifiers, such as your name, email, address, country of residence, other contact information, tax identification number.
  • Professional information, such as your firm’s name, address, phone number, and fax number, your practice area(s), your designation or position, the city in which you practice, and the jurisdictions in which you are admitted to practice law.
  • Financial information, such as your tax identification number.
  • Visual or audio information, such as your image or voice in videos or photographs taken at events or webinars or contained within articles, presentations or other forms of publications.
  • Other profile information, including IPBA membership status, CLEs, conferences, local or regional meetings and other events and meetings attended, and dietary needs.
  • Any other information you choose to share with IPBA.

1.6 The IPBA also uses cookies on some pages of its website. “Cookies” are small text files placed on your computer that assist the IPBA in providing the website experience and gaining insight how the website is being used. If you are concerned about cookies, most browsers permit individuals to decline cookies. In most cases, a visitor may refuse a cookie and still fully navigate the IPBA websites; however, other functionality in the site may be impaired. When leaving the IPBA website, you can delete the cookie from your system if you wish. The IPBA deploys cookies, such as:

 

Cookie’s name Purpose Duration
PHPSESSID To login registered members on the IPBA website’s member-only area Session only
Google Analytics To track visitor behaviour on the IPBA website 2 years

2. Purposes for collection, use & disclosure of personal data

The Personal Data which we collect from you may be collected, used and/or disclosed for the following purposes (collectively, the “Purposes”):

  • a) Facilitating, processing, dealing with, administering, managing and/or maintaining your relationship with us or as necessary to fulfill our obligations under contracts with you, including but not limited to the provision of products or services to you or to complete a transaction
  • b) Marketing, including providing you with marketing, advertising and promotional information, materials and/or documents relating to products, contests, services and/or events (including those of third party organizations whom we may collaborate with) that we or relevant third party organizations may be selling, marketing, offering, organizing, involved in or promoting, whether such products, services and/or events exist now or are created in the future
  • c) Conducting research, analytics and development activities (including but not limited to data analytics, surveys and/or profiling) to improve our services, website, platform and facilities in order to enhance your relationship with us or for your benefit, to improve any of our products or services, to facilitate or administer your use of our website, and/or to assist us in improving your experience in using our website
  • d) Storing, hosting, or backing up (whether for disaster recovery or otherwise) your Personal Data
  • e) Ensuring the security of our website, platform and systems
  • f) Facilitating, dealing with and/or administering external audit(s) or internal audit(s) of the business of IPBA
  • g) Carrying out due diligence or other screening activities (including background checks) in accordance with legal or regulatory obligations applicable to us, the requirements or guidelines of governmental authorities which we determine are applicable to us, and/or our risk management procedures that may be required by law or that may have been put in place by us
  • h) Preventing or investigating any fraud, unlawful activity or omission or misconduct and investigating and resolving complaints
  • i) Complying with or as required by any applicable law, regulation, court order, subpoena, order of a regulatory body, governmental or regulatory requirements of any jurisdiction applicable to us, and cooperating with public and government authorities, courts, ministries, statutory boards, law enforcement, and similar authorities, including meeting disclosure requirements under applicable law, and/or for the purposes of any guidelines issued by regulatory or other authorities, with which we are expected to comply
  • j) Protecting the health or safety of IPBA personnel, the public, or you
  • k) In connection with a business transfer or corporate transaction
  • l) For legal purposes, including in response to a court order, subpoena, or government investigation, to protect the legitimate rights or interests of IPBA, personnel, or the general public, to enforce our policies and procedures, to respond to an emergency, or as otherwise required by law or legal process

For Personal Data of individuals located in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, the legal bases for the processing for the above purposes are as follows:

  • Consent (Art. 6(1)(a) EU-/UK-GDPR): for purposes b), c)
  • Contractual necessity (Art. 6(1)(b) EU-/UK-GDPR): for purpose a)
  • In case of binding requests by EU/UK authorities, compliance with the legal obligations (Art. 6(1)(c) EU-/UK-GDPR): for purposes i), l)
  • Necessity to protect vital interests (Art. 6(1)(d) EU-/UK-GDPR): for purpose j)
  • IPBA’s legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f) EU-/UK-GDPR): for purposes a) through i), j) through l); the legitimate interest being generally the pursuit of the respective purpose

3. Disclosure and transfer of personal data

3.1 We may disclose Personal Data to our agents, affiliates, and service providers for the above-stated Purposes. We may also disclose Personal Data for legal purposes, such as to legal authorities, public agencies, ministries, statutory boards, law enforcement, or similar authorities, or as required by law or legal process. We may also disclose Personal Data to other recipients with your consent.

3.2 For Personal Data of individuals located in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Japan, we have taken reasonable steps designed to ensure that an adequate level of data protection is achieved in connection with cross-border data transfers in accordance with applicable data protection laws, including by implementing appropriate transfer mechanisms, such as contractual safeguards, as applicable.

4. Retention period

4.1 We retain your Personal Data if you remain a member of the IPBA.

4.2 The Personal Data of former IPBA members is deleted when (i) the purpose for which that Personal Data was collected is no longer being served and (ii) the retention is no longer necessary for any other legal or business purposes.

5. Your rights

5.1 IPBA is the controller of your Personal Data as described in this Privacy Policy, unless expressly specified otherwise.

5.2 You may have the following rights, subject to legal limitations, concerning our collection, use, disclosure and other processing of your Personal Data:

  • Right to Access: The right to confirm whether or not we process Personal Data from you and, where that is the case, to receive your Personal Data and other information as set forth in applicable data protection law.
  • Right to Erasure: The right to request that we delete your Personal Data.
  • Right to Correct: The right to request that we correct your inaccurate or incomplete Personal Data.
  • Right to Withdraw Consent: The right to withdraw consent you have previously given to IPBA at any time. Your withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of our collection, use, disclosure or other processing of your Personal Data prior to the withdrawal of your consent.
  • Right to Limit or Restrict: The right to request that we stop using, transferring or otherwise processing your Personal Data or to limit our use or other processing of such Personal Data.
  • Right to Data Portability: The right to receive your Personal Data, which you have provided to us, in a machine-readable format and the right to transmit those data to a third party, when we are processing your Personal Data based on your consent or based on contractual necessity.
  • Right to Object: The right to object to our processing of your Personal Data.
  • Right to Lodge a Complaint: The right to lodge a complaint about our privacy practices with a Supervisory Authority. You can find contact information for your Supervisory Authority on the European Commission Data Protection Authorities webpage or through other publicly available sources.

5.3 If you choose to exercise any of these rights, IPBA will not discriminate against you for your exercise of these rights. If you do exercise certain rights, understand that you may be unable to use or access certain features of IPBA’s services.

5.4 You may exercise your rights by submitting your request through the following methods:

(a) Telephone number:   +81-3-5786-6796.
(b) E-mail:  cto@ipba.org. Attention it to the ‘Data Protection Officer’.
(c) Office address: IPBA Secretariat, Roppongi Hills North Tower 7F, 6-2-31 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032 Japan. Attention it to the ‘Data Protection Officer’.

5.5 IPBA does not take decisions solely based on Personal Data processed using automated tools.

6. Security of personal data

We have taken commercially reasonable efforts to take appropriate precautions and preventive measures designed to ensure that your Personal Data is adequately protected and secured. Appropriate security arrangements have been taken that are designed to prevent unauthorized access or use of your Personal Data. However, we cannot assume responsibility for any unauthorized use of your Personal Data by third parties which are attributable to factors beyond our control.

7. Complaint process

7.1 If you have any complaint or grievance regarding about how we are handling your Personal Data or about how we are complying with the PDPA, the EU-/UK-GDPR or the APPI, we welcome you to contact us with your complaint or grievance.

7.2 Please contact us through one of the following methods with your complaint or grievance:
(a) Telephone number:   +81-3-5786-6796.
(b) E-mail: cto@ipba.org. Attention it to the ‘Data Protection Officer’.
(c) Office address: IPBA Secretariat, Roppongi Hills North Tower 7F, 6-2-31 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032 Japan. Attention it to the ‘Data Protection Officer’.

7.3 Where it is an email or a letter through which you are submitting a complaint, your indication at the subject header that it is a PDPA, EU-/UK-GDPR or APPI complaint would assist us in attending to your complaint speedily by passing it on to the relevant staff in IPBA to handle. For example, you could insert the subject header as “PDPA Complaint”.

7.4 We will certainly strive to deal with any complaint or grievance that you may have speedily and fairly.

8. Personal data of children

We do not knowingly collect the Personal Data of any person under the age of 13, nor do we target our services to anyone under the age of 13. If IPBA learns a person under the age of 13 has submitted Personal Data to us, we will take reasonable measures to delete that data, unless otherwise required by law. If you believe a person under the age of 13 has submitted Personal Data to us, please contact us at cto@ipba.org.

9. Updates to privacy policy

9.1 As part of our efforts to ensure that we properly manage, protect and process your Personal Data, we will be reviewing our policies, procedures and processes from time to time.

9.2 We reserve the right to amend the terms of this Privacy Policy at our absolute discretion. Any amended Privacy Policy will be posted on our website.

9.3 You are encouraged to visit our website and review our Privacy Policy from time to time to ensure that you are well informed of our latest policies in relation to Personal Data protection.