GDPR Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy (hereinafter, "this Policy") applies to our handling of personal information or personal data (collectively, "personal data") in connection with services, which Iwane Laboratories, Ltd. / Group of Iwane Laboratories, Ltd. (hereinafter, "we", "us", or "our") provides (hereinafter, "our Services"). This Policy informs, user(s) of our Services (hereinafter, "user", "users", "you", "your", or "yours") or individuals whose personal data may be contained in our Services, of our privacy policies regarding collection, use, sharing, and disclosure of personal data, and other necessary matters.

Iwane Laboratories, Ltd. is a mobile mapping manufacturer and 3D mapping service provider company.

Iwane is a registered company (No. 4300-01-001833). The registered address of Iwane Laboratories, Ltd.,

is at 7-8-3 Maruyamanishi-machi, Chuo-ku, Sapporo Japan.

1 General

1.1 　Scope of policy

We are committed to respecting your privacy and protecting your information. This Policy informs you of how we or our affiliated companies collect and use personal data in connection with providing our Services.

This Policy complies with Japanese applicable law and the General Data Protection Regulation (hereinafter, "GDPR") applied in the European Economic Area (hereinafter, "EEA").

1.2 　Data controller

We, as the data controller as set forth below, collect and handle personal data

with affiliated companies.

Iwane Laboratories, Ltd.

7-8-3 Maruyamanishi-machi, Chuo-ku, Sapporo Japan

Please contact our Compliance team about queries, comments and complaints as to our handling of personal data.

2 Data collection

We or any of our affiliated companies may collect the information including the following.

2.1 Personal data collected when preparing or providing our Services

By using our mobile mapping system that includes 360° photos and geodata, we collect data of panoramic street level images as to certain public roads.

The 360° photos often include personal data, including individuals in a street or a house or premises alongside a street, number plates, houses and buildings, and nameplates of houses.

The Purpose of Image Collection

We conduct ground surveys around the world to collect data (360 degree image and GPS traces ) to build software as a service 3D platform. We will also periodically revisit some locations to gather new data in an effort to maintain an up-to-date image map.

Privacy Features

Before publication of any form of imagery, we use image blurring technology to ensure no faces or license plates are identifiable in the published product and to ensure that the privacy of individuals whose image is unavoidably captured during the mapping process is protected.

To limit the amount of data that is unavoidably captured, collection timing aims to take place at off peak times whenever possible (avoiding a Saturday afternoon in city centers, for example). Further, we do not share the data before being blurred as above with third parties.

We also have a quality and assurance process, both automated and manual, at each step, to ensure the product is developed to our standards. As a final step, we pay special attention to areas of particular sensitivity such as places of worship, hospitals, etc., prior to publication.

GPS Traces

The GPS trace data collected is information about road networks which are publicly accessible by drivers. The GPS trace information, which is a bundle of data containing vehicle heading, latitude and longitude (position), and altitude, and is the core elements of providing strings of data that will enable maps to build and maintain an accurate representation of the road network. Other sensors to aid the navigation data are the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU). The data from these sources is combined to give an accurate picture of how the vehicle has moved over time. Our vehicles will avoid any road that is marked “Private” and any other part of the road network which is specified as prohibited.

The data collected is stored on Solid State Drives (SSDs) which are fully tracked including as collected data is uploaded to our servers in Japan. All imagery and associated data collected is securely transferred to our data centers in Japan. Please contact us with any questions in this respect.

We are committed to protecting your privacy while conducting these surveys. For example, we will censor faces and license plates on images that are published online on 3D platform. If you have comments or questions about this process, your privacy rights, or would like to request that a face, license plate, or your own house be censored, please contact us.

2.2 User's registered data

User registration may be necessary when using some of our Services. We collect user's data when users register or update user's registered information. We will collect user's name, residential address, email address, and/or login ID and password.

2.3 Data collected when you use our Services, including:

(1) Location information

Depending on our Services users access, settings of the equipment and permission of online settings, we may collect location information by GPS, IP address and Wi-Fi.

You can use our Services without permitting us to collect user's location information. This may limit your access to some of our Services.

(2) Usage information

We collect information of users' access and operation histories. This includes images users view, users' access to data tagged to elements including images, date and time, place of access, website page view, and other activities, browser type, as well as websites or services users have accessed before accessing our Services, or terms you search for.

(3) Device information

We may collect device information used by users to access our Services. This includes device identification data, serial number, hardware model, device operation information, selected language, OS and software and their version, advertisement identification data, IP address, and mobile network information.

(4) Data provided by users or collected by us in connection with communication with users

Users can contact us as to our Service or other services. Inc such case, we collect names, email addresses, phone numbers, SNS information and text message information (including location and date). We collect data or information a user sends or provides when such user contacts us for any reasons, including evaluation and complaint.

2.4 Data collected by means of cookies and other tracking technologies

We may collect information of users' access and operation histories from Cookies, pixel tag and similar tracking technologies. Cookies are small text files that are stored on user's browser or device, when visiting websites. Cookies may store user preferences and other information.

2.5 Information from other sources

Such sources include:

publicly accessible information sources; and

our trusted partners, including marketing partners and/or security partners.

We can combine user's personal data or other personal data and our information or data from the above resources.

3 Purposes of Processing Personal Data and Legal Basis

We use the collected personal data for the following purposes and on the following legal bases set forth in Article 6 or 7 of GDPR.

3.1 Provision of our Services (Legal bases: contract and legitimate interests)

We use the collected personal data to build, prepare, provide, maintain and improve our Services, including:

(1) creating or generating panoramic street level images as to certain public roads and embedding data into images and/or tagging data to elements in images;

(2) creating and updating users' registered information;

(3) identifying users; and,

(4) performing other work necessary for providing our Service such as trouble shooting for technical issues, tests and surveys, analyzing data, monitoring and analyzing usage of our Service.

3.2 Users support and communications from us (Legal bases: contract and legitimate interests)

We use personal data to provide necessary assistance to a user or a specific individual identifiable by the personal data (hereinafter, the "Principal") as to our Services, including, handling queries of a user or a Principal, investigating and addressing user's or Principal’s concerns.

In addition, we may use personal data to communicate with you about new or improved products, services or events, news, studies, or surveys.

3.3 Safety and security (Legal bases: contract and legitimate interests)

We use personal data to maintain safety and security of our Services, including,

(1) judging users before and/or after their access to our Service; and

(2) preventing, finding and/or restraining unsafe actions.

3.4 Research and development (Legal bases: legitimate interests)

We may use personal data for development or improvement of current or future services (including our Services), for improvement and enhancement of safety and security of our Services or other services, and/or test, research, and analysis as to our business.

3.5 Legal proceedings and requirements (Legal bases: requirements by law and legitimate interests)

We may use personal data to investigate, handle and/or defend claims or disputes related to our Services or other services. We may also use personal data to the extent allowed by applicable law, or as requested by governmental authorities or official agencies.

3.6 Purpose to use data collected by means of cookies and other tracking technologies (Legal bases: contract and legitimate interests)

We use data collected by means of cookies and similar tracking technologies for the following purposes such as;

(1) authenticating or identifying users;

(2) recording users’ usage trend and settings histories;

(3) analyzing the site traffic and trends, users' online behaviors and interests, and/or the popularity of contents as to our Services; and,

(4) having others for us implement audience measurement or analytics services or track and report on the performance of online advertisements.

4 Blurring

Though we take the above blurring technology to protect the privacy of individuals, if you think that your face or number plate needs additional blurring or if you want your body, house or car blurred, please contact us according to the information set forth in section 16 of this Policy.

5 Sensitive Data

In general, we do not collect sensitive data, such as racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious, philosophical or other similar beliefs, membership of a trade union, physical or mental health, biometric or genetic data, sexual life or orientation, or criminal convictions and offences (including information about suspected criminal activities), except there is requirement by law and/or express consent of the related individual.

6 Information Sharing and Disclosure

We may share personal data under the following circumstances.

6.1 Share with service providers and/or business partners

We may share personal data with our business partners, including,

(1) vendors that assist us to enhance the safety and security of our Services,

(2) business partners we are in the tie-up in connection with our Services,

(3) marketing partners and marketing platform providers, and/or data analytics providers,

(4) research partners that perform surveys or research projects,

(5) lawyers, accountants, consultants and other professional service providers

In addition, when we have a third party handle personal data in accordance with this Policy, we may provide the personal data to such third party. In such case, such third party processes the personal data based on our instructions and in compliance with the Policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.

6.2 M&A or others

We may share personal data with others in connection with merger, sale of our business or company assets, and/or consolidation or restructuring as to all or a portion of our business, including discussion or negotiation thereon.

6.3 For legal reasons or in case of disputes

We may share personal data;

(1) when we believe it is required by applicable law or regulation, governmental requirements or legal procedures. which includes sharing personal data with law enforcement agencies or government agencies;

(2) when we believe that sharing is appropriate due to safety or similar concerns (including detecting, preventing, or otherwise addressing security, or technical issues);

(3) when we believe that sharing is necessary to enforce our terms of use or other policies, matters agreed between us and users, to protect rights and/or property of us, third parties or the public as required or permitted by law.

6.4 With user's consent

We may share a user's personal data for purposes other than those set forth above if such user consents to the sharing.

7 Statistic Data

We have the right to create or generate statistic data (which means data from which an individual is not identifiable) based on the personal data provided or made available by users and non-personal data such as personal attribute, and will be entitled to use, without any limitation, such statistic data for any purpose related to our business or a third party's business or entitled to provide or disclose such statistic data to any third party for any purpose.

8 Cross Border Transfers

If you reside in any country of EEA, we may transfer your personal data outside of your residing country for the purposes set forth under the subheading "Purposes of Processing Personal Data and Legal Basis" of this Policy, or for storing your personal data on our servers outside your residing country. Such transfer will be based on an adequacy decision or the standard contractual clauses.

9 Disclosure and Modification of Personal Data

If a Principal inquires of us as to whether or not his/her personal data concerning such Principal is managed by us, we will promptly give reply.

We will, in principle, disclose personal data without delay if the relevant Principal requests us to do so. We will also in principle modify the personal data of the Principal, within a reasonable period, according to the request made by the relevant Principal .

In addition, if we receive a request as to the right to data portability (the right to receive personal data in a structured, machine-readable and generally accessible form and to forward such personal data to another data privacy manager without our interference), we will review and process the request to the extent required by law including GDPR.

10 Withdrawal of Consent

The Principal may withdraw his/her consent once made at any time, provided, however, that the withdrawal will not affect lawfulness and legitimacy of handling of the relevant personal data by us based on the consent prior to the said withdrawal.

11 Retention

We recognize that risks can arise from retention of imagery prior to publication and have robust procedures in place for protecting that data and restricting access to it. In this respect we blur imagery according to the provision under the subheading " Privacy Features" of Clause 2.1 as soon as is possible.

12 Right to File an Objection with Supervisory Authorities

A Principal may file an objection with supervisory authorities which have jurisdiction over his/her place of residence, in the event of any objections regarding our handling of his/her personal data.

13 Information Retention and Deletion

13.1 Information retention

In some cases user's registered information is necessary to provide our Services and we retain such information as long as the relevant user maintains such user's registration. We retain personal data as long as we need to retain such data in connection with the purposes set forth under the subheading "Purposes of Processing Personal Data and Legal Basis" of this Policy or under the subheading "Information Sharing and Disclosure" thereof.

Even in case that such personal data is no longer necessary in light of the above purposes, we retain such data for compliance with legal requirements or for safety, security and fraud prevention and detection.

13.2 Deletion of information

If a Principal requests us to delete his/her personal data, we will delete such personal data which is not necessary to be retained, as soon as practical.

In certain circumstances such as if there is an unresolved dispute, we may retain the relevant personal data that is requested to be deleted. If such circumstances preventing deletion end, we will delete the related personal information as described above.

14 Links to other websites

In our website there may be hyperlinks to third-party websites. We do not control and will not be held liable for such third parties' privacy practices.

15 Updates to this Policy

We may change this Policy on a regular basis or from time to time. We encourage users to periodically review this policy for the latest information on this Policy.

In the event that any provision of this Policy conflicts with any applicable law or regulation, such provision shall be replaced by a provision reflecting the intent of the initial provision to the extent permitted by law. In such case, the other provisions shall not be affected and shall continue to be applied without change.

16 Language

This Policy is made in Japanese language and in English language, and which may be translated into other languages if necessary. However, only Japanese text shall have legal effect and this English text and translations into other languages are intended solely for convenience of reference.

17 Inquiry

If you have any questions or concerns on how we collect, handle, store or secure your personal data, please contact our Compliance team by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by writing to

Iwane Laboratories, Ltd.,