Various kinds of personal information (personal data) are being accumulated in companies and there is now an accelerating movement to utilize such information in their business.
In the course of such attempts, various issues can occur in relation to the Personal Information Protection Act, protection of privacy rights and portrait rights, confidentiality obligations under contract, conflict with purpose of use and the like.

A typical example is a case where an IT service provider collects and analyzes information in order to enhance advertising effectiveness and utilizes anonymized information for marketing purposes.
Regarding such cutting-edge business, Ushijima & Partners supports its clients in designing business and preparing rules in order to avoid any compliance problems, including the Personal Information Protection Act.
In this field, it is also very important in designing business to pay attention to the points that can attract a flood of critical comments on the Internet even though they have no legal problem or are legally undefined. We can provide practical support to companies in their activities in starting new business by taking this aspect into consideration.

Another characteristic these days is that even companies that are not IT service providers as described above have a need to utilize personal data.
This is the situation where companies that have been accumulating customers’ information without any intention of utilizing it suddenly come to realize that it is a “mountain of treasure.” Due to the development of ICT, the time has come for non-IT companies to seek new forms of collaborations and businesses by utilizing information they hold as Big Data. In such case, complicated legal issues arise such as how to clear the issue of old provisions and agreements that are not premised on utilization of information. We provide active support in such cases based on our experience in similar cases.

In addition, inquiries from overseas companies are frequent in this field. Companies that engage in global business utilize personal data of residents in Japan as part of their business and/or develop their business in Japan by utilizing personal data. We often receive inquiries from such overseas companies and are rich in experiences in this area as well.