PRIVACY NOTICE & COOKIE POLICY
1. Controller of the Personal Data
(1) company name: Yamaha Corporation
(2) means of contact: https://inquiry.yamaha.com/contact/?act=79&lcl=en_WW
2. Purpose of Processing
We use your personal data to provide, support and develop our innovation platform service. We use your personal data to:
- allow you to take part in the innovation challenges on our website;
- enable you to personalize your user profile/account;
- For the selection of challenges and execution of awards we may disclose the information with Partner companies. Partner companies are required to use such information only for these purposes and in accordance with applicable privacy and data protection laws;
- We may transfer your personal data to Yamaha affiliates (located inside and outside the European Economic Area including USA, Japan or other jurisdictions);
- send you service-related information (e.g., confirmation of your registration in a challenge) by email and/or any other communication means;
- enable you to communicate and interact with other community members, such as team members, mentors, jury members and/or the organizers of a challenge (e.g., team member messages or invitations to join a team);
- publish an announcement that you are a finalist or winner of a challenge;
- give you access to our support services to enable you to communicate with us;
- keep our website secure and safe;
- measure or understand the effectiveness of advertising and to deliver relevant advertising to you where permitted by applicable law;
- provide information about our services through third-party social media platforms where permitted by applicable law;
- send you, in accordance with applicable laws and where required, with your consent, marketing materials and suggestions of our services (e.g., up-coming challenges) that may interest you;
- notify you about changes to our services;
- administer our website, including for troubleshooting, access, data analysis, testing, research, analytic and survey purposes;
- improve our website to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner;
- enable the Sponsor and Partners to contact you for the purpose of exploring future business collaboration, where applicable;
- comply with our legal obligations, including court orders and other legal or regulatory requirements.
The legal basis for processing is your consent ii) legitimate interest iii) performance of contract; iv) compliance with legal obligations.
3. Categories of Personal Data
As a website-based open innovation platform, we may collect and process personal data our services.
The personal data that we collect and process may include:
- Registration information. When you create an account, we collect information necessary to establish and manage your account, such as your name, email address, account credentials, and other information required for registration.
- Profile information. You may choose to provide additional information in your profile, such as, your date of birth, title, photograph, country or region, educational background, professional skills, employment preferences and membership in a team(s). Providing this information is generally optional but may help you get more from our services, like being identified by teams to participate in a Challenge.
- Challenge participation information, community interactions and messages. When you participate in Challenges, we may collect information related to your participation, including submissions, application materials, responses and other content that you voluntarily provide. In addition, the information of communication with other Members of the Community through the Website, including messages, comments, post announcements and other interactions may also be collected.
- User-generated content, postings and uploads. We collect content that you upload, submit, publish or make available through the Website or during the Services, such as deliverables (e.g., documents, presentations, images, audio/video or other files) submitted as part of your participation in a Challenge.
- Customer support and correspondence information. We keep a record of any correspondence between you and us, including inquiries, feedback, support requests, and reports of technical issues.
Information that we collect automatically from a third-party source, including:
- Technical Information. When you visit our website we collect information relating to the devices you use and the networks to which you are connected automatically. These technical information, includes your IP address, log-in information, bandwidth used, time of visit, browser type and version, browser plug-ins types and versions, operating system, information about your visit including the URL clickstream, download/upload errors, pages visited, page interactions, and other connection data held in our logs. We collect this information using different technologies, like cookies (please refer to our Cookies Notice).
Please do not submit or disclose any sensitive personal information (e.g., my number, information related to racial, biometrics characteristics) on the Website or during the Services, unless specifically requested by us.
4. Encrypted Communications
The website uses encrypted communications for personal data protection.
5. Security of Processing Personal Data
Yamaha implements appropriate technical and organizational measure to ensure a level of security appropriate to the risk.
6. The recipients or categories of recipients of the personal data;
We may share your personal data with Yamaha affiliates, for the purposes outlined in this Privacy Notice.
Profile. When you use our services, your profile is fully visible to all members of our community, such as challenge participants, mentors, jury members, and the company or organization that sponsors a challenge. Certain profile information (e.g., name, photo, community, etc.) can also be visible to others on or off our website (e.g., visitors to our website or users of third-party search engines).
Wall posts, messages and deliverables. When you post on a message board/wall, it can be viewed by all members of the community. You can send messages to team members, individual participants, challenge administrators or mentors. Deliverables pertaining to the challenge, can be viewed by other members of your team (if applicable), challenge administrators, jury members and team mentors.
Public challenges. Certain of our challenges are public, which allows the public to vote on the winning deliverables. In these cases, the public can view wall posts related to the challenge, individual and team profiles and deliverables pertaining to the challenge (presentations, audio/video files, etc.). Before participating in a public challenge, you will be asked to consent to this information being made public. Please don’t participate in a public challenge, if you do not want to make this information public.
In order to provide, support and develop our website and services, we may share your personal data with the following categories of third parties:
- Agorize SAS which is the company hosting and maintaining the Website;
- the company that has sponsored a challenge, its administrators, mentors and jury members, or other persons to whom it has granted access to your personal data for the sole purpose of administering the challenge. We have entered appropriate data sharing arrangements with the companies with whom we co-organize a challenge to ensure compliance with data protection laws;
- social media authentication that may provide you with accessing or interacting services to our website, where such functionality is optional;
- our sub-contractors, who are technical (e.g., cloud computing platforms, data and content management and transmission systems, search engine providers, etc.) or analytics providers; and
- social media platforms who may advertise our services on their websites.
We only share your personal data with third parties in the following cases:
- We share data necessary for each activity (examination of ideas, mentoring of selected teams, execution of awards to winning teams, exploration of future business collaboration, etc.) with both the Sponsor — the company or organization that sponsors the Challenge and presents the Brief and Challenge to Members through our website — and the Partners, who provide financial support and/or operational support for the Challenge. Such data includes, but is not limited to, company name, country of registration, participant name, country of origin, email address, participant attribute information, and deliverables submitted in the Challenge. The Sponsor and Partners are currently located in Japan, but this may change in the future. In such cases, the data will be handled in accordance with Section 9 (International Transfers) above.
- The Sponsor or Partners may contact you for the purpose of future business collaboration.
- The video recording and photographs of the Final Pitch Event will be shared with the Sponsor and Partners with a limited scope of disclosure.
- to assist us in the improvement and optimization of our website by using analytics and search engines;
- it is explicitly requested by you (e.g., when registering through social media authentication);
- it is based on your consent and/or our legitimate interest ;
- if we are required to do so by law or in a good faith belief that disclosure is reasonably necessary to respond to claims asserted against us, to comply with legal proceedings, in the framework of an investigation, or protect the rights, property or personal safety of Yamaha or its members;
- if we sell or buy any business or assets, we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer; and
- if all or part of our assets are acquired by a third party, your personal data may be included as transferred assets.
If you decide to share your personal data with us by using social media authentication, the latter’s privacy policies will apply to you. We do not control the collection or processing of your information by such platforms.
7. Data subject rights
Subject to applicable law, you may have the following right with regard to the personal data you provided to us;
- the right to request access to your personal data;
- the right to make correction and update your personal data;
- the right to request deletion or erasure of your personal data;
- the right to withdraw consent, where we rely on your consent to process personal data, you may withdraw such consent at any time. However, withdrawal of consent will not affect the lawfulness of processing conducted before the withdrawal.
- the right to data portability:
We may require reasonable verification of your identity before responding to a request. Certain rights may be limited or subject to exceptions under applicable law.
8. Statutory or Contractual Requirement Concerning the Provision of Personal Data
The provision of personal information is a condition for participating in this challenge, but it is up to you whether or not to provide it.
9. International Transfers
We primarily store your personal data in the European Economic Area. If you use our website or Services, your personal data may be shared among Yamaha affiliates, Partners and Sponsors (both located inside and outside the European Economic Area including USA, Japan or other jurisdictions).
We implement appropriate protection approaches to protect your personal data transferred within our affiliated entities at least as protective as those mandated by the European Economic Area.
We may also transfer personal data to third parties, including those based outside the European Economic Area including USA, Japan or other jurisdictions, for example (but not limited to) sub-contractors and third parties involved in providing services.
When we transfer your personal data, we will do this in accordance with applicable data protection laws and will take appropriate safeguards to ensure its integrity and protection. You may contact us for additional information regarding the safeguards used in connection with international transfers of personal data.
10. Retention Period
We retain your personal data so long as you have an account with us. If you close your account, your personal data will be immediately deleted.
Information you have shared with others (e.g., through messages, chats or on message boards/walls) will remain visible after you close your account, but will be anonymized. Your profile may continue to be displayed in the services of others (e.g., search engine results) until the user refreshes their cache.
If your account is suspended or blocked, we will keep your data for a reasonable period according to applicable law to prevent you from circumventing the terms and conditions of our website.
We may also retain your personal data for an additional period to the extent necessary to assert or defend against legal claims, or to protect security and integrity of our websites and services.
11. Contact Information
means of contact: https://inquiry.yamaha.com/contact/?act=79&lcl=en_WW
12. The right to submit a complaint at the relevant data protection authority.
You have the right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority, if it exists, in the country or region that the data subject belongs.
13. Automated Processing and Profiling
We analyze the access logs for this website. We also use automated processing, including profiling, to better understand our users’ interests and preferences, in order to measure and recommend Challenges, programs, or opportunities that may be relevant, as described in Section 2 above. However, we do not make any decision that produces legal effects concerning you, or that similarly significantly affects you, based solely on such automated processing, including profiling.
Sections 14-16 below apply only to residents of the State of California, USA.
14. The right to limit the use of sensitive personal data
We do not collect or process sensitive personal data, thus we do not provide an opt-out.
15. The right to opt-out of sales and sharing of your personal data
As explained in the section 6 above, we may disclose information to third parties in order to provide, support and develop our website and services. This disclosure of information may be considered a “sale” or “sharing” under the CCPA.
The following lists the categories of personal data we have sold or shared over the last 12 months:
| Category of Information collected | Collected | Categories of third parties receiving information for a business purpose |
|---|---|---|
| A. Identifiers (name, alias, postal address, email address, phone number, fax number, account name, Social Security number, driver's license number, passport number, unique personal identifier, online identifier, IP address) | YES | Yamaha affiliated companies; Sponsor companies; Partner companies; Mentors; |
| B. Personal information categories Protected under the California Customer Records statute (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80(e)) (A name, signature, Social Security number, physical characteristics or description, address, telephone number, passport number, driver's license or state identification card number, education, employment, employment history, bank account number, medical information. Some personal information included in this category may overlap with other categories.) | YES | Yamaha affiliated companies; Sponsor companies; Partner companies; Mentors; |
| C. Protected anti-discrimination classification characteristics under California or federal law. (Age (40 years or older), race, color, ancestry, national origin, citizenship, marital status, medical condition, physical or mental disability, sex (including gender, pregnancy or childbirth and related medical conditions), veteran or military status.) | YES | Yamaha affiliated companies; Sponsor companies; Partner companies; Mentors; |
| D. Commercial information (Records of personal property, products or services purchased, obtained, or considered, or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies.) | YES | Not Shared |
| E. Biometric information | NO | Not shared |
| F. Internet or other similar network activity. (Browsing history, search history, information on your interaction with company systems, websites, applications, etc.) | YES | Not shared |
| G. Geolocation (Physical location or movements.) | YES | Not shared |
| H. Sensory data. (Audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory, or similar information.) | NO | Not shared |
| I. Professional, educational or employment related information (Current or past job history or performance evaluations.) | YES | Yamaha affiliated companies; Sponsor companies; Partner companies; Mentors; |
| J. Non-public education information (per the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. Section 1232g, 34 C.F.R. Part 99)). | NO | Not shared |
| K. Sensitive Personal Information (social security, driver’s license, state identification card, or passport number, account log-in in combination with any required security or access code, password, or credentials allowing access to an account, racial or ethnic origin) | YES | Not shared |
| L. Inference from other personal information (preferences, characteristics, behavior, attitudes, abilities, etc.) | NO | Not shared |
Under the CCPA, you have the right to direct us not to "sell" or "share" your personal data but this may also cause you cannot use any or all services provided by us. You can exercise this right at any time by submitting a request through the inquiry form below:
[https://inquiry.yamaha.com/contact/?act=79&lcl=en_WW]"
16. The right to non-discrimination
You have the right not to be discriminated for asserting the data subject rights, such as denying services, charging different prices or rates or suggesting data subject may receive a different price or rate, providing a different quality of goods or services.
17. UPDATES
This Privacy Notice was updated in August 2026. We reserve the right to amend this Privacy Notice from time to time to reflect changing legal requirements or our processing practices. Any such changes will be posted on this website and will be effective upon posting.
18. COOKIE POLICY
A cookie is a file that records information relating to your navigation on our website https://yamaha-music.agorize.com/(date and time the pages were loaded; browser used and language; pages viewed, frequency and duration of visits to the site, number of visits, sources of the visit, location) and can facilitate your visits to the site.
During the visit on the website, a consent window pops up to ask for your cookies preferences regarding the following cookie categories:
- Audience monitoring (i.e. Google Analytics,..)
- Social media (i.e. Facebook, Linkedin,...)
- Marketing (i.e. Sumo,...)
The 3 categories are disabled by default. You may either accept all, refuse all or only accept selected categories of cookies.
Until you make a choice, the consent window will be displayed on any visited page and no cookies will be installed, except technical cookies required to operate the platform.
Once a choice is made, the cookies related to the selected categories will be installed on the next visited page or upon page refresh.
At any time, you can delete cookies, refuse installation of new cookies or be notified before a new cookie is installed by configuring your browser following the instructions below.
Please note that if you uninstall a cookie or refuse the installation of cookies, you may not be able to use some of our services on our website.
Types of cookies
We use the following types of cookies:
- Technical session cookies for site management: when you access the site, a session cookie and a cookie “token” with unique encrypted session id code is passed to your computer. The session cookie then controls your access to the site for that session, and is deleted once you close your browser or log off from the site. The token cookie controls your access to the website as an authenticated user, and is kept until you logout or for a maximum of 7 days. These cookies also allow us to identify your device and preferences when you return to our website, such as customized features, language and regional preferences. These cookies are an essential part of the site delivery system, and you will not be able to fully use our site without these cookies enabled. The information gathered by these cookies is anonymous, and is used only to improve your experience on our website.
- Technical persistent cookies for site management: if you register on the site and select the "Remember me" option, a persistent cookie is passed to your computer. This cookie is not deleted when you leave the site or close your browser, but is saved on your computer. This cookie contains an encrypted user id code that identifies your computer upon future visits and automatically logs you into the site. This cookie is functional, and is designed to remember your preferences, to make your experience on our site better. It does not contain any personal information that could be used to identify you.
- Third-party cookies for audience monitoring: We may use Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Hotjar or other tools to monitor traffic on our site. When you visit our site, these programs set certain cookies that record statistical information about your visits to the site. We measure the number of visits, the number of pages viewed as well as visitors' activity on the site and their frequency of return. This helps us improve our website and its functionality, for example, by ensuring that users can navigate it intuitively. These cookies do not store any personal information that could be used to identify you.
- Third-party cookies for social media: If the platform allows you to register using social media Single Sign On connectivity, we will use the information stored in these cookies to authenticate you.
- Third-party cookies for marketing: If marketing tools are configured on the platform, these cookies will be used to send you communications. (deactivated by default)
What cookies are installed?
Cookies installed by Agorize:
| Cookie | Description | Opting out | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| _agorize_session | Contains information about the navigation session and allows the user to access the site | N/A | Expires at the end of the session. |
| cookies_policy_accepted | Saves a user's choice regarding cookies | N/A | 13 months |
| jwt_token | Contains a key specific to the user after successful login. This is a mandatory cookie to navigate as a logged in user. | N/A | 7 days |
| jwt_payload | Contains user information specific to the user after successful login. This is a mandatory cookie to navigate as a logged in user. | N/A | 7 days |
| remember_user_token | Keeps the user logged in if the remember me option is selected upon login | N/A | 14 days |
| hide_profile_incomplete | Helps users filling their information on the website | N/A | 13 months |
Third-party cookies for audience monitoring:
| Cookie | Description | Opting out | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google analytics: | |||
| _gid | Used to distinguish users. | Google Analytics | 24 hours |
| _gat | Used to throttle request rate. | Google Analytics | 1 minute |
| _ga | Used to distinguish users. | Google Analytics | 13 months |
| Hotjar | |||
| _hjIncludedInSample | Session cookie to let Hotjar know whether a user is included in the sample which is used to generate funnels. | Hotjar | 365 days |
How to delete, be notified when cookies are installed or configure your browser?
Click here to change your cookie preferences
Clearing cookies already installed on your computer.
You can clear the cookies already installed on your computer by clearing your browser’s cache. For instructions on how to remove cookies on the Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Internet Explorer browsers, click here.
Configuring your browser to refuse cookies, or to be notified when cookies are installed.
All web browsers enable you to set your cookies preferences before you navigate the internet. For instructions on how to configure your web browser to refuse cookies or to notify you when cookies are installed, click here.
If you have questions about our Cookies Policy, please email us at [https://inquiry.yamaha.com/contact/?act=79&lcl=en_WW] .