Privacy and personal information
Privacy Policy
NIHONGO Montréal collects only the information necessary to respond to your requests, manage your bookings and follow up on your lessons.
Last updated: August 25, 2026
1. Person in charge of the protection of personal information
NIHONGO Montréal is registered with the Registraire des entreprises du Québec. It is operated by Patrick Chaury, who is self-employed.
Person in charge of the protection of personal information:
Patrick Chaury
NIHONGO Montréal
Email: question@nihongomontreal.ca
You may use this address for any question about this policy or the handling of your personal information, and to exercise rights available to you under applicable laws.
2. Personal information collected
The information collected depends on how you use NIHONGO Montréal's services.
Contact form
When you use the website's contact form, the following information may be collected:
- your name;
- your email address;
- your current Japanese level, if you choose to provide it;
- the content of your message.
Your Japanese level is optional. This information is used only to respond to your request and, where applicable, to prepare for a possible teaching relationship.
Lesson bookings
Bookings are managed using LatePoint, installed on NIHONGO Montréal's WordPress website.
When a booking is made or a customer record is created, the following information may be recorded, among other things:
- first and last name;
- email address;
- phone number;
- internal customer identifier;
- service or type of lesson booked;
- teacher;
- appointment date and time;
- number of participants;
- history of past and future appointments;
- account status;
- notes left by the customer;
- administrative notes, when needed to manage lessons.
LatePoint may also generate technical information related to the booking process, such as order identifiers, booking status, and the date and time when certain operations were performed.
LatePoint activity log
LatePoint also keeps an activity log that may contain, among other things:
- the date and time of certain operations;
- automated emails sent and their delivery status;
- the recipient, subject and content of those emails;
- appointment information appearing in those messages;
- technical events related to the creation or modification of a booking or order.
These logs are used for the operation, diagnosis and monitoring of the booking system. They are not used for advertising. Activity-log entries older than six months are deleted automatically.
Email communications
When you communicate directly with NIHONGO Montréal, your messages may contain your name, your email address and any other information you choose to provide.
Emails are used, in particular, to:
- manage lessons and schedules;
- answer questions;
- send confirmations or administrative information;
- send lesson notes or teaching materials;
- provide educational follow-up.
NIHONGO Montréal may occasionally send students a courtesy message, such as New Year's wishes. These communications are not a newsletter and are not used for advertising or commercial solicitation.
3. Purposes for using personal information
Personal information is used only when necessary, including to:
- respond to requests received;
- organize and manage lessons;
- process bookings and appointment changes;
- communicate with students;
- provide lessons and teaching materials;
- maintain educational continuity when a former student resumes lessons;
- ensure the operation and security of the website and booking system;
- resolve technical issues;
- maintain required administrative, accounting or tax records;
- comply with applicable legal obligations.
NIHONGO Montréal does not sell or rent your personal information and does not use it to create advertising profiles.
4. Legal bases when the GDPR or UK GDPR applies
NIHONGO Montréal is established in Québec but also offers online lessons to people located outside Canada. When the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or the UK GDPR applies to a processing activity, that processing may rely in particular on:
- performance of a contract or pre-contractual steps, to respond to a request, arrange a booking and provide lessons;
- a legal obligation, including for certain accounting or tax records;
- NIHONGO Montréal's legitimate interests, including ensuring system security, preventing abuse, administering the business and maintaining reasonable continuity in the teaching relationship;
- consent, when consent is the appropriate legal basis or is required by law.
5. Payments
No payment is processed directly on nihongomontreal.ca, and NIHONGO Montréal does not collect credit card numbers on its website.
Students in Canada generally pay for their lessons by Interac e-Transfer, using the services of their financial institution.
For some students located outside Canada, NIHONGO Montréal may send an invoice using PayPal. Information required to send or process that invoice, including the recipient's email address, may then be provided to PayPal.
Processing carried out directly by a financial institution, Interac or PayPal is governed by the privacy practices and policies of those organizations.
6. Cookies
NIHONGO Montréal aims to keep its use of cookies to a minimum. In the current configuration of the new website, no cookies are used for advertising or behavioural tracking.
LatePoint cookies
These cookies are necessary for the booking system to function and are not used for advertising.
Security cookie
The hosting provider uses mechanisms to protect against bots and suspicious traffic, including Imunify360. A normal visitor is not subject to this verification. When activity is considered suspicious and a security check is triggered, a cookie may be set after the check is completed successfully so that it does not need to be repeated. The duration indicated by the hosting provider is 24 hours.
Language preference
When the website's bilingual functionality is enabled, a functional cookie may be used to remember the visitor's selected language. It is not used for advertising or profiling.
If cookie practices change, this policy will be updated and consent will be requested where required by law.
7. Technical data and server logs
Like most web servers, the hosting infrastructure may automatically record certain technical data during a visit, for example:
- the IP address;
- the date and time of the request;
- the page or resource requested;
- the type of request;
- the server response code;
- the browser or device identified by the “User-Agent”;
- the referring website or page, when transmitted.
This information is used mainly for the operation, security, diagnosis and technical administration of the website.
The access logs reviewed do not contain the content of messages submitted through the contact form.
The hosting provider also provides AWStats, which produces statistics from server logs. This analysis is performed server-side and does not require an advertising-tracking cookie to be placed in the browser.
8. Hosting and service providers
NIHONGO Montréal's website and email accounts are hosted by Web Hosting Canada (WHC).
According to information provided by WHC to NIHONGO Montréal:
- the primary hosting is located in a Canadian data centre in Montreal;
- raw access logs are kept for approximately one month;
- Imunify360 security events may be kept for approximately 100 days;
- backups for an active account follow a rotation of approximately three months;
- some trusted WHC service providers may process information outside Canada, subject to contractual safeguards implemented by WHC.
Other service providers may receive information when necessary to provide a service, including PayPal when an invoice is sent through its service.
Access to personal information is limited to people and service providers who reasonably need it to perform their functions.
9. Transfers of information outside Québec or abroad
Although the website and email are primarily hosted in Canada, some information may be communicated or processed outside Québec or Canada when necessary, including through certain subprocessors of a service provider, PayPal, or when the international nature of a service requires it.
NIHONGO Montréal considers the nature of the information, the purpose of the processing and the safeguards offered by the provider, and applies the measures required by applicable laws before communicating information outside Québec.
10. Retention periods
NIHONGO Montréal seeks to balance the protection of personal information with the realities of long-term teaching: former students may resume lessons after several years away.
| Type of information | Normal retention period |
|---|---|
| Request received through the Contact form that does not lead to a student relationship | Up to 1 year after the last exchange |
| LatePoint customer record and contact information | Up to 10 years after the last lesson or substantive lesson-related exchange |
| Lesson and booking history | Up to 10 years after the last lesson or substantive exchange |
| Information needed for educational continuity | Up to 10 years, while it remains useful |
| Administrative or teaching notes | For as long as they remain necessary, normally no more than 10 years |
| LatePoint activity log, including copies of emails it may contain | 6 months; older entries are deleted automatically |
| Correspondence with students useful for educational or administrative follow-up | Up to 10 years while it remains useful to the continuity of the relationship |
| Accounting and tax records and supporting documents | For the period required by law, generally 6 years from the end of the last tax year to which they relate |
| Raw server logs | Approximately 1 month |
| Imunify360 security events | Approximately 100 days |
| WHC backups | Approximately 3-month rotation for an active account |
A simple courtesy message sent by NIHONGO Montréal, such as New Year's wishes, does not artificially restart a retention period.
When information is no longer needed for the purpose for which it is held and no legal obligation requires its retention, it is intended to be deleted, securely destroyed or anonymized where permitted by law.
When information is deleted from active systems, it may remain temporarily in a backup until that backup is replaced according to the normal backup rotation cycle.
11. Minor students
NIHONGO Montréal's lessons are intended primarily for adults, but minor students may be accepted in certain circumstances.
When a student is a minor, NIHONGO Montréal normally asks a parent or person with parental authority to participate in the contractual relationship and sign the Terms and Conditions applicable to the lessons. When the law requires the consent of a parent or person with parental authority for the processing of a minor's information, that consent is requested.
In all cases, NIHONGO Montréal seeks to limit the information collected about a minor to what is reasonably necessary to provide and administer the lessons.
12. Security
NIHONGO Montréal takes reasonable measures to protect personal information against loss, unauthorized access, misuse or unauthorized disclosure. These measures include technical protections related to the hosting environment and website, access-control mechanisms and security tools designed to protect against malicious traffic.
However, no computer system or method of transmission over the Internet can guarantee absolute security.
13. Automated decision-making and profiling
NIHONGO Montréal does not make decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects for students solely through automated processing.
The website is not used to create advertising or behavioural profiles of visitors or students.
14. Your rights
Depending on where you live and the legislation that applies to your situation, you may have the right, among other things, to:
- know whether NIHONGO Montréal holds personal information about you;
- access it;
- request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information;
- request its deletion in certain circumstances;
- withdraw consent when processing is based on consent;
- obtain certain computerized personal information in a structured, commonly used technological format when the right to portability applies;
- object to certain processing or request that it be restricted when the GDPR or UK GDPR gives you that right;
- file a complaint with a competent privacy authority.
Any request concerning your personal information may be sent to question@nihongomontreal.ca.
Reasonable verification of your identity may be requested before personal information is disclosed or changed.
15. Complaints
If you have a concern about how your personal information is handled, please first contact the person in charge of the protection of personal information:
Patrick Chaury
question@nihongomontreal.ca
Your request will be reviewed and a response will be provided in accordance with applicable requirements.
You may also contact the privacy authority that has jurisdiction in your territory. In Québec, this is the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec.
16. Third-party links and services
The website may contain links to websites or services operated by third parties. When you leave nihongomontreal.ca or use a third party's service directly, that third party's privacy practices may apply. NIHONGO Montréal recommends reviewing their policies when an external service processes your information.
17. Changes to this policy
This policy may be changed to reflect:
- changes to the services offered;
- changes to the technologies used;
- the addition or removal of a service provider;
- changes to personal information handling practices;
- changes to legal requirements.
The date of the most recent update is shown at the beginning of the policy.
When a significant change affects how personal information is collected, used or disclosed, NIHONGO Montréal will take appropriate reasonable steps to inform the people concerned.
18. Contact us
For any question about the protection of your personal information, to exercise a right or to make a complaint:
NIHONGO Montréal
Attention: Patrick Chaury
Person in charge of the protection of personal information
question@nihongomontreal.ca