Privacy notice

Who is responsible for your information?

Blue Windmill is the data controller for the information described here. We are a ceramics studio based at 3-11-6 Kuramae, Taito City, Tokyo 111-0051, Japan. If you have any question about how your information is used, you can reach us using the contact details at the end of this notice, and a real person at the studio will answer.

What information do you collect?

We collect only what we need to run the studio. When you place an order we take your name, delivery or pickup details, email address and phone number. When you book a workshop we take your name, contact details and your experience level so we can prepare the right bench for you. If you pay by card, the card details are handled by the payment provider and are never written into our own order notes.

When you simply browse the site, we record basic technical information such as your device type and the pages you view, so that the site keeps working and we can fix what breaks.

Why do you collect it?

We use your information to fulfil orders, confirm and manage class bookings, handle commissioned work, answer your messages and keep your studio membership in order. We also use it to meet our legal and tax obligations and, where you have agreed, to send occasional notes about new firings or upcoming workshops.

What is your legal basis for using it?

We rely on performing our contract with you when we process an order, a booking or a commission. We rely on our legitimate interest in running and improving the studio for basic analytics and security. We rely on legal obligation for keeping sales and tax records. Where we send marketing, we rely on your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.

Who do you share it with?

We share information only with the service providers who help us operate: our payment processor, the courier that delivers your order, and the booking and email tools we use to run classes. Each of these handles your information on our instructions and only for the task we have given them. We do not sell your information to anyone. We will disclose information to authorities only where the law genuinely requires it.

How long do you keep it?

We keep order and booking records for as long as needed to provide the service and then for the period required by tax and accounting law. Membership details are kept while your membership is active and for a short period afterwards. Marketing contact details are kept until you ask us to stop or unsubscribe. When information is no longer needed, we delete it or make it anonymous.

How do you keep it safe?

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your information, including encrypted connections for the website, restricted access to our records and careful selection of the providers we work with. No system is ever completely secure, but we work to keep the risk low and to act quickly if something goes wrong.

What can you do about your information?

You can ask us for a copy of the information we hold about you, ask us to correct it if it is wrong, or ask us to delete it where we no longer need it. You can object to certain uses, ask us to limit how we use it, and withdraw consent for marketing at any time. To exercise any of these rights, contact us using the details below and we will respond within a reasonable period.

Do you collect information from children?

Our shop, classes and memberships are intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect information from children. Where a young person attends a family workshop, we deal with the booking adult. If you believe a child has given us information without a parent's involvement, please contact us and we will remove it.

What about cookies on this site?

This website does not set tracking cookies. The only thing it writes to your browser is a small local-storage entry that remembers the cookie choice you made, so the banner does not come back on every page. Our separate cookie policy names that entry and explains how to clear it.

How do orders, class requests and commissions reach you?

The shelf on our home page has no automatic checkout. When you press “Add to order”, “Reserve a seat” or “Request a brief” you are taken to our contact details, and the request itself reaches us by telephone, by email at info@blue-windmill.com or in person at the studio. Whatever you tell us that way goes into our order and booking notebook: your name, a contact number or address, the piece or class you want, the date, and whether it is for pickup or delivery.

We ask for nothing beyond that. We do not need your date of birth, and we will not ask for a photograph of you to book a wheel.

What do you keep about studio visits and classes?

On the day of a class we note who attended and which level they joined, so we can see who is ready for the intermediate course. If you tell us about a wrist, back or skin problem, or anything that affects how you work at the wheel, we use it only to set up your bench comfortably and we do not pass it on.

Pieces you make carry a small tag with your first name until they are fired, which is the only place your name travels on the studio floor. We sometimes photograph work in progress for our own records; we ask before a photograph shows your face, and we do not publish one without your agreement.

What do couriers and delivery partners see?

Shop pieces ship anywhere in Japan. To deliver your parcel, the courier needs your name, delivery address and a phone number that can be reached on the day, and that is all we hand over. Pickup orders involve no third party at all: you collect from the Kuramae studio during opening hours, Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 18:00.

How long do you keep order, booking and membership records?

Order and commission records are kept for up to seven years, which is the longest period Japanese bookkeeping and tax rules ask a business like ours to hold supporting papers. Class attendance notes are kept for the length of your involvement with the studio and then deleted. Membership details are kept while your shelf is in use and removed a short time after you leave, once any final firing is settled. Anyone who asked for firing news is kept on that list only until they tell us to stop.

What are your rights under Japanese law?

We handle personal information in line with Japan’s Act on the Protection of Personal Information. Under it you can ask us to tell you what we hold about you, to correct anything that is wrong, to stop using it or to delete it where we no longer need it for the purpose we collected it. We will confirm who is asking before releasing anything, so please expect a short question about your last order or class.

Some of the booking or email tools we use may keep their servers outside Japan. If that applies to a tool that holds your details, we choose providers that protect personal data to a comparable standard and we will tell you which one on request.

How do I reach the person who looks after this?

Questions about your information go to the studio itself, not to a call centre. Email info@blue-windmill.com, call +81 3-5822-4713 or come by 3-11-6 Kuramae between 10:00 and 18:00, Tuesday to Sunday. Please say which order, class or date you are asking about so we can find the right page of the notebook quickly.

Will this notice change?

We may update this notice when our practices change or the law requires it. The current version always lives on this page, and the date below tells you when it last changed. Significant changes will be made clear when you next visit or book.