Privacy

1Privacy policy

This policy explains how Elk Pegasus, a bespoke swimwear studio at 2-8-1 Ideguchimachi, Nobeoka, Miyazaki 882-0831, Japan, handles personal information that reaches us through this website, by email, by telephone and during fittings. It is written with Japan's Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI) in mind. Elk Pegasus is the business that decides why and how the information you give us is used. The name of the individual who looks after personal information is disclosed without delay to anyone who asks in writing at info@elkpegasus.com.

The site is small and so is the studio, which is why this policy describes what actually happens and nothing more.

2What we collect

If you write to us through the enquiry form or by email, we receive your name, your email address, a telephone number if you choose to add one, and the message you type. Nothing else is required to ask a question.

If an enquiry turns into a commission, we also collect what is needed to make the garment: twelve body measurements, your height, the cut, fabric and colour you prefer, notes from the toile fitting, a delivery address for postal clients, and the bank transfer or card payment reference for the deposit and the balance. Body measurements are personal to you, so we treat them with extra care even though the law does not single them out.

During a video-call fitting we see you on camera while you try on the toile. We do not record these calls. If we want to take a photograph of a toile on you to help with a pattern adjustment, we ask first, keep the picture only with the fitting notes, and never publish it without your written permission.

Browsing the website needs no account. There is no login, no visitor profile, no analytics script and no advertising on these pages.

3Why we use your information

We use personal information for these purposes and no others: replying to your enquiry; arranging a consultation or a fitting; drawing and cutting a pattern from your measurements; taking payment and sending an invoice or receipt; posting or handing over the finished piece; carrying out the free alteration and any later repair or replacement of elastic; and meeting our duties under tax and commercial law.

Elk Pegasus does not send newsletters and does not use your details for marketing. The RSS feed on the Articles page is a plain file that your own reader downloads; we do not know who subscribes to it. If we ever want to use information for a new purpose, we will ask you first.

4Cookies and browser storage

This site sets no cookies for tracking or advertising. When you press Okay on the notice at the top of a page, one small entry named au is written to your browser's local storage so the notice does not appear again. It stays on your device, it is never sent to us, and you can remove it at any time from your browser's site-data settings.

Fonts, images and scripts are served from our own site, so opening a page does not hand your visit to an outside tracker. Your connection is still visible to our hosting provider in the ordinary server logs that every web host keeps for security and fault-finding.

5Who else sees it

We do not sell personal information and we do not hand it to third parties for their own purposes. A few service providers handle information on our behalf, only as far as the job requires: our website host and email provider, the postal or courier service that delivers a finished garment (which needs your name, address and telephone number), and the bank or card payment service that processes a payment. We choose providers that protect information properly and we remain responsible for how they use it.

We disclose information to the authorities only when a law requires it or when a court or investigating body makes a lawful request.

6Providers outside Japan

Some email and hosting services store data on servers outside Japan. Where that applies, we make sure the provider applies protection equivalent to what the APPI expects, or we ask for your consent before sending the information. If you want to know which country holds your messages, ask us and we will tell you.

7How we protect it

Messages arrive in a mailbox protected by a password and used only by people at the studio who deal with commissions. Measurements and fitting notes are kept in the client's file, either in that restricted mailbox or on a paper card kept in the studio, and we do not copy them to personal accounts. If you would rather not email your measurements, you can read them out during the video call instead and we will write them straight into the file.

No system is perfectly safe. If we learn that personal information has been lost or exposed in a way that could harm you, we will tell you and, where the APPI requires it, report it to the Personal Information Protection Commission.

8How long we keep it

An enquiry that does not lead to a commission is deleted up to eighteen months after the last message. For a commission, we keep measurements and fitting notes for three years after delivery so that an alteration, a repair or a second piece can start from what is already known; you may ask for them to be deleted sooner. Invoices and payment records stay for as long as tax law requires. When a retention period ends, electronic records are erased and paper cards are shredded.

9Your rights

Under the APPI you can ask us to tell you the purposes for which we use your information, to show you the information we hold about you, to correct it if it is wrong, and to stop using or delete it. Write to info@elkpegasus.com from the address you used with us, or send a letter to the studio. We may ask a question or two to confirm that the request really comes from you. We do not charge for reasonable requests and we answer without delay.

If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can also contact the Personal Information Protection Commission or the consumer centre in your area.

10Young clients

If you are under eighteen, please ask a parent or guardian to write to us for you, because a commission needs a written agreement and a payment.

11Changes to this policy

If the way we handle information changes, for example because we add an online payment service, this page is updated before the change takes effect and the date at the top is revised.

12Contact

Elk Pegasus, 2-8-1 Ideguchimachi, Nobeoka, Miyazaki 882-0831, Japan. Telephone +81 982-68-5935. Email info@elkpegasus.com.