Privacy policy

18 September 2026

Atelier Lab ("we") handles information about people who use this website as described in this policy.

1. Collection of personal information

We state our purposes and collect personal information by lawful and appropriate means, limited to what is necessary for those purposes. This mainly includes email addresses, membership, subscription and payment information, enquiries, and access records such as IP addresses and browser information. Card numbers are processed by the payment provider and are not stored by this website.

2. Purposes of use

We use the information we collect for the following purposes. Unless permitted by law, we do not use personal information beyond these purposes without your consent.

1. Providing, maintaining, protecting and improving our services, including registration, identity verification, billing and payments
2. Providing service information and responding to enquiries
3. Creating and analysing statistics about website usage and sources of visits to improve articles and their promotion
4. Responding to abuse and breaches of our terms
5. Notifying you of changes to our terms and policies
6. Incidental purposes reasonably related to the purposes above

3. Disclosure to third parties

We do not disclose personal information to third parties without your prior consent, except for necessary outsourcing within our stated purposes, business succession, disclosures required by law and other exceptions permitted by applicable law.

International disclosures and outsourcing are also subject to applicable transfer requirements, such as obtaining consent after providing the required information or ensuring legally compliant safeguards. Analytics information may be processed and stored by providers outside Japan, including in the United States. Other information may also be processed outside Japan, including in the United States, as part of our service providers' operations.

4. Management of personal information

We apply necessary and appropriate security measures, including encrypted communications and access restrictions, to protect against leaks, loss, damage and unauthorised access. When outsourcing processing, we review providers' contracts and terms and exercise necessary and appropriate oversight.

We retain information as needed to provide services, respond to enquiries and address accounting or legal requirements, and appropriately delete information that is no longer needed.

5. Cookies and usage analysis

We count article views and arrivals through our social sharing links to understand useful topics and promotion. Article-level statistics contain the article, language, full-content or membership-guide view, verified sharing code and daily counts.

We also count arrivals at our profile page through social media bio links by source and language. Each arrival uses a fresh identifier, without linking return visits or account information. We send Matomo the profile path and verified source and sharing code, without the original IP address, browser details, cookies or other URL parameters. You can stop collection in privacy settings; DNT and GPC are also respected.

For articles read without signing in from Japan, we aggregate scroll reach, estimated visible time and optional article feedback to improve our content. Measurement is limited to one hour per page load and uses a fresh page identifier, without linking different articles, return visits or account history. Temporary snapshots are periodically deleted using a 24-hour retention period, and final measurements are sent to Matomo for article statistics. We do not forward names, email addresses, original IP addresses, browser details or login cookies. You can stop collection in privacy settings; DNT and GPC are also respected.

For free and paid members who allow analysis, we link subsequent article views, scroll reach, estimated viewing time, optional feedback, display or interaction issues, return visits and navigation with registration, confirmed payments, renewals and cancellations. We also record an estimated country and broad device and browser categories. We use this information to understand useful articles, usability issues, promotion and continued membership use, and to improve our content and service.

If you allow payment analysis, we link subsequent payment and refund amounts with verified social referral sources to understand continued use. These individual analytics records are also retained for 90 days. Official records needed for billing and accounting are kept separately for those purposes.

A random analytics identifier links activity for up to 90 days. These are pseudonymous records associated with membership. Your choice is saved to your account and applies on future sign-ins and other devices. A significant change to the purpose or scope of analysis may require a new choice.

Individual analytics records are retained for 90 days and identifier-free statistics for up to 13 months. We retain the choice, explanation version, date and withdrawal history while your account exists so we can respect and demonstrate your choices. Previous notices and acceptance of the terms are not converted into analytics consent.

Login cookies last 30 days and may be renewed through use. If you allow analysis, your signed-in account is associated with its analytics identifier. No additional visitor tracking cookie is used, and separate visits by nonmembers are not linked. A cookie saves a device-level stop preference for 180 days.

You can allow or withdraw participation and stop analytics on this device from privacy settings in your account or the footer. Either choice preserves access under your membership and subscription terms. Withdrawal stops new account-linked collection and forwarding. Existing statistics and lawfully processed records may remain within their retention periods. We also respect Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control.

Matomo receives the analytics identifier rather than your name or email. We do not forward the login cookie itself, raw IP address or User-Agent, card numbers or free-form input. Country, device and browser categories are summarised in our own dashboard. Social metrics describe posts in aggregate. Records needed for service delivery, payments and security are processed separately from this optional analysis.

6. Your rights and contact details

For requests to access, correct, stop use of or delete personal information, restrict or object to processing, or receive your data, contact altria@atelier-lab.com. We verify your identity and respond under applicable law. Because analytics identifiers are limited, we may be unable to isolate your records. You may also lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority where applicable.

The operator's name, address and telephone number are disclosed promptly by email on request. See seller information for how to request them.