Multilingual Speech Translation Application

1. Name of the application provider, etc. that acquires the information:
   National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (hereafter, “NICT”)
2. Items of information to be acquired:
   Speech and text data input into “VoiceTra,” their translation results, terminal information (including unique ID), communication history, application operation history, and user location and usage time information will be acquired.
3. Acquisition method:
   The information is transmitted and recorded on the servers managed by NICT, each time speech translation is performed.
4. Purpose of use:
   The acquired information will be used to make improvements to the performance of speech translation.
5. Method of notification, announcement, or obtaining consent/Involvement of users:
   The information is indicated in the Terms of Use, which is displayed when the app is launched for the first time. Users are not eligible to use the app unless they have read and agreed to the Terms of Use.
6. Transmission of information/Provision to third parties/Information collection module:
   In no cases will the acquired information be publicly released as is or provided to third parties. Statistical information may be provided to third parties. Statistical information may be used for commercial purposes.
7. Contact:
   voicetra-support@khn.nict.go.jp
8. Updates to the Privacy Policy:
   Users will be asked to read and agree to the Terms of Use again when updating the app.
9. If you wish any of the acquired information to be deleted, please email us above along with your “Inquiry Number” displayed in the Settings Screen of VoiceTra. We will process your request as much as possible.

Supplemental Information to the Privacy Policy of VoiceTra to Comply with the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union

This document is a set of supplemental information in addition to the Privacy Policy of VoiceTra above, which aims to explain about the rights of the users who reside in the European Economic Area (EEA) and how NICT will process and handle the personal data of the users of VoiceTra. Providing such information is one of the requirements regulated in the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR) of the European Union.

1. Introduction

The Privacy Policy of VoiceTra above explains the fundamental policy of NICT for processing acquired information from the users of VoiceTra (hereinafter “User Data”) and applies to all users including those who reside in the EEA (hereinafter “EU User(s)”). This document provides additional information in relation to EU Users’ rights and responsibilities of NICT under the GDPR.

2. EU Users’ Rights

EU Users have the following rights with respect to the User Data acquired by NICT. To exercise these rights, please send in your requests by email to [voicetra-support@khn.nict.go.jp] along with your “Inquiry Number” displayed in the Settings Screen of VoiceTra (you may also send your email from 'Email inquiry' on the same Settings Screen).

   a. Right to access the information

The EU Users retain the right to access their own User Data acquired by NICT.

   b. Right to make corrections to your information

In the case where the EU User finds the User Data inaccurate, the EU User has the right to request NICT to make corrections to the User Data.

   c. Right to request deletions

The EU Users retain the right to make requests to delete any of their User Data at any time. NICT may keep certain information as required by law and for legitimate research and business purposes permitted by law. NICT will delete the User Data as soon as they become no longer necessary.

   d. Rights to make objections and file complaints

The EU Users retain the right to make objections about how NICT processes the User Data. NICT may continue to process the information notwithstanding the objection to the extent permitted under the GDPR. EU Users also have the right to file a complaint relating to NICT's handling of personal information to Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL), the French Data Protection Authority.

Their contact information is as follows:

Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés

3. Grounds for Processing User Data

GDPR requires the organizations processing the User Data of EU Users to do so on the basis of specific legal grounds. As described below, NICT processes the User Data of EU Users based on one or more of the grounds specified under the GDPR:

   a. Collecting and processing User Data are necessary for the speech-to-speech translation service that VoiceTra provides

VoiceTra, in principle, recognizes the user’s speech input and returns the translation results in text and audio. For this reason, NICT must collect and use certain information from the User Data in order to provide the translation service on VoiceTra. The User Data are: speech and text data input into VoiceTra, terminal information (including unique ID), communication history, application operation history, location, and usage time information.

   b. Collecting and processing User Data are necessary to improve the quality of the service

The input speech and text data from the users as well as the translation results are utilized to improve the performance of speech recognition, machine translation, and speech synthesis technologies which all together constitute the speech-to-speech translation service.

   c. Collecting User Data is necessary to provide customer support

NICT uses the collected User Data to enforce the responsibilities of NICT as described in the Terms of Use of VoiceTra.

   d. Collecting User Data is necessary to fulfill NICT's legal obligations

NICT is subject to the legal requirements in the jurisdictions in which it operates who require us to collect, process, disclose, and retain acquired information. NICT may also share information with the law enforcement or third parties pursuant to requests due to legal processes.

   e. Consent

NICT relies on consent from the users as the basis of collecting and processing User Data.

4. Information to be provided in accordance with Article 13 of the GDPR

   a. Name of the organization that acquires the User Data (hereinafter “Data Controller”) and the representative of the Data Controller:

   National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT)

   4-2-1 Nukuikitamachi, Koganei, Tokyo, 184-8795 Japan

   Representative: Hideyuki Tokuda (President of NICT)

   b. Contact details of the data protection officer

   In accordance with Article 37 of the GDPR, NICT shall not designate a data protection officer.

   c. Purpose and the legal grounds of processing User Data

NICT conducts research and development of multilingual speech translation technologies and VoiceTra has been released as a speech-to-speech translation app as part of our field experiment. The legal grounds concerning the processing of User Data are described in Section 3.

   d. Recipients of User Data

NICT, in principle, shall be the sole recipient of the User Data. NICT may share the User Data to other research/academic organizations for the purpose of further research and development on speech-to-speech translation technologies, which shall be subject to user consent in the future as necessary.

   e. Transfer of User Data

NICT will not transfer the collected User Data to a third party without consent from the users. NICT may distribute statistical information created from the User Data to third parties. The statistical information may be used for commercial purposes. The statistical information will not contain any personal information that can identify individuals.

   f. Period of storing User Data

The collected User Data will be stored as long as NICT continues research and development on multilingual speech translation technologies. NICT will delete the User Data as soon as they become no longer necessary.