Privacy Policy

1. Information Collected

Information you provide directly:

• •Account sign-in: your email address, and, if you sign in with Google, the basic profile information Google returns such as your display name. Sign-in is passwordless (Google, or a one-time link sent to your email), so no password is collected or stored.
• •Saved jobs: records of which job listings you have saved to your account.
• •Contact messages: any information you include when emailing ALT Direct.
• •Recruit Me survey answers: your home prefecture (or that you are currently outside Japan), the prefectures you would work in and whether that is local or a relocation, how far you would go for a role (relocating, or interviewing in person or by video), when you could start, whether you can drive in Japan, whether you have your own car, and whether you have ALT experience in Japan. You provide these in the Recruit Me survey, or when you first sign in, and can change or remove them at any time.

Information collected automatically:

• •Log data: IP address, browser type, pages visited, and timestamps when you access the site.
• •Cookies and session tokens: used to keep you logged in and maintain session state. Third-party advertising cookies are not used.

2. How Your Information Is Used

• •To operate and maintain your account and saved jobs.
• •To send account emails, such as your one-time sign-in link.
• •To send job alerts for the Boards of Education you choose to watch.
• •To send alerts for jobs a Board of Education posts directly on this site, if you have completed the Recruit Me survey. Only the fact that you completed the survey is used to decide this, never your individual answers. You can turn these alerts off in your watchlist settings at any time.
• •To improve the service through aggregate, anonymised usage analysis.
• •To respond to support or contact requests you send.
• •To enforce the Terms of Service and comply with legal obligations.

Your personal information is not sold, rented, or traded to third parties.

3. Recruit Me Survey and Demand Counts

Your Recruit Me survey answers are shown to Boards of Education only as anonymous, aggregate totals on the relevant prefecture pages. For example, a Board may see how many people are available for direct-hire work in their prefecture, how many already live there, and how many could start by a certain time. This helps a Board gauge whether opening direct-hire roles is worthwhile.

These totals are aggregate only. Your name, email address, and identity are never shown alongside them, and a total is only displayed once enough people have answered. You can change or remove your answers at any time from the Recruit Me survey, and deleting your account removes them entirely. Job alerts are a separate feature: you receive them for the specific Boards you choose to watch, and, once you have completed the Recruit Me survey, for jobs a Board posts directly on this site. Eligibility for direct-posting alerts is based only on whether you completed the survey, never on your individual answers, which stay de-linked from your account.

4. Cookies

Strictly necessary cookies are used to authenticate your session and keep you logged in. Tracking cookies, analytics cookies tied to your identity, and third-party advertising cookies are not used. You can disable cookies in your browser settings, but doing so will prevent you from staying logged in.

5. Third-Party Services

ALT Direct may use the following third-party services in the course of operating the site:

• •OAuth providers (e.g. Google): if you sign in via a third-party provider, ALT Direct receives a token and basic profile information (email, display name) from that provider. No password is involved.
• •Hosting and infrastructure providers: server logs may be retained by the infrastructure provider for security and operational purposes.

Personal data is not shared with any third party beyond what is necessary to operate the service. Third-party providers are required to handle personal data appropriately and only as needed to provide their service.

Some of these providers operate outside Japan. Site hosting is in Germany, transactional and notification email is sent through a provider in the United States, and Google sign-in is processed by Google in the United States. Where personal data is transferred abroad, it is handled under that provider’s data-protection terms.

6. Data Retention

Account information is retained for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, your personal data will be deleted within 30 days, except where retention is required by law. Anonymised, aggregated data may be retained indefinitely.

7. Your Rights

Under Japan’s Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI) and, where applicable, other privacy laws, you have the right to:

• •Request access to the personal data ALT Direct holds about you.
• •Request correction of inaccurate data.
• •Request deletion of your account and associated personal data.
• •Object to or restrict certain processing of your data.

To exercise any of these rights, contact ALT Direct at [email protected]. A response will be provided within 30 days.

8. Security

Reasonable technical and organisational measures are taken to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, loss, or disclosure, including access controls and encryption of traffic in transit. Because sign-in is passwordless, no password is stored. No method of transmission over the internet is completely secure, however, and absolute security cannot be guaranteed.

9. Children

ALT Direct is not directed at children under the age of 16. Personal information from anyone under 16 is not knowingly collected. If you believe such information has been inadvertently collected, please contact ALT Direct and it will be deleted promptly.

10. Changes to This Policy

This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time. When it is, the effective date at the top of this page will be revised. You are encouraged to review this policy periodically. Continued use of ALT Direct after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

11. Operator and Contact

ALT Direct is operated by J. Witteman (J・ウイットマン), based in Hokkaido, Japan. Questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy? Contact ALT Direct at [email protected].