Last updated: December 30, 2022
Mizuho Americas LLC and its subsidiaries in the Americas, and Mizuho Bank, Ltd. and its branches and offices in the Americas (collectively, “Mizuho Americas”, “us” or “we”), respect your privacy and want you to be familiar with how we collect, use, and disclose information. Mizuho Americas includes, without limitation, Mizuho Bank (USA), Mizuho Securities USA LLC, Mizuho Capital Markets LLC, Mizuho Americas Services LLC, Mizuho Bank, Ltd., Canada Branch, and Mizuho Securities Canada Inc.
This Privacy Policy describes the types of information we may collect from you through your access and use of the Mizuho Americas website, and applications, emails, and services that reference or link to this Privacy Policy (collectively, the “Services”), and our practices for collecting, using, protecting, and disclosing such information. By accessing or using the Services, you agree to the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy.
This Privacy Policy does not apply to information collected by:
• Mizuho Americas through means other than the Services; or
• Any third party (including other entities in the Mizuho group of companies), including through any other website or application that may link to or be accessible through the Services. Such other sites and applications are governed by separate privacy terms and conditions available on such sites and applications.
Additionally, please note that certain sections or pages on the Services may contain specific or additional privacy related terms and conditions, which only apply in certain circumstances (collectively, “Additional Privacy Terms”). In the event that any Additional Privacy Terms apply and there is a conflict between this Privacy Policy and the Additional Privacy Terms, the Additional Privacy Terms will govern the sections or pages which contain such Additional Privacy Terms.
INFORMATION COLLECTION AND USAGE
Information We May Collect
Through your access and use of the Services, we, and our third party service providers, may collect the following information about you:
• “Personal Information” is information that identifies you as an individual or relates to an identifiable person. This information includes your name, telephone number, postal address and email address as well as any other information you provide to us through your use of the Services.
• “Other Information” is any information that does not reveal your specific identity or does not directly relate to an individual, such as certain browser and device information, and information collected through cookies, pixel tags and other technologies. Other Information also includes information that has been aggregated in a manner such that it no longer reveals your specific identity.
How We May Collect Information
We, and our third party service providers, may collect information about you in the following ways:
• Through your browser or device: Certain information is collected by most browsers or automatically through your device, such as your Media Access Control (MAC) address, computer type (Windows or Macintosh), screen resolution, operating system name and version, device manufacturer and model, language, Internet browser type and version and the name and version of the Services you are using. Your IP address may also be identified and logged automatically in our server log files when you access the Services, along with the time of the visit and the page(s) that were visited. Collecting IP addresses is standard practice and is done automatically by many websites, applications and other services. We use IP addresses for purposes such as calculating usage levels, diagnosing server problems and administering the Services. We may also derive your approximate location from your IP address.
• Using cookies: Cookies are pieces of information stored directly on the computer or device that you are using. Cookies allow us to collect information such as browser type, time spent on the Services, pages visited, language preferences, and other traffic data. We also gather statistical information about use of the Services in order to continually improve their design and functionality, understand how they are used and assist us with resolving questions regarding them. Cookies further allow us to select which of our advertisements or product and/or service offerings are most likely to appeal to you and display them while you are on the Services. We may also use cookies or other technologies to track responses to our online advertisements.
If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows you to automatically decline cookies or be given the choice of declining or accepting the transfer to your computer of a particular cookie (or cookies) from a particular site. You may also wish to refer to the section Cookie Settings or visit the site www.allaboutcookies.org for information on changing browser settings to manage or delete cookies. If, however, you do not accept cookies, you may experience some inconvenience in your use of the Services. For example, we may not be able to recognize your computer, and you may need to log in every time you visit. You also may not receive advertising or other offers from us that are relevant to your interests and needs.
• Using pixel tags and other similar technologies: Pixel tags (also known as web beacons and clear GIFs) may be used in connection with some Services to, among other things, track the actions of users of the Services (including email recipients), measure the success of our marketing campaigns and compile statistics about usage of the Services and response rates.
• Analytics: We use Google Analytics, which uses cookies and similar technologies to collect and analyze information about use of the Services and report on activities and trends. This service may also collect information regarding the use of other websites, apps and online resources. You can learn about Google’s practices by going to www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/, and opt out of them by downloading the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
• Physical Location: We may collect the physical location of your device by, for example, using satellite, cell phone tower or WiFi signals. We may use your device’s physical location to provide you with personalized location-based services and content. We may also share your device’s physical location, combined with information about what advertisements you viewed and other information we collect, with our marketing partners to enable them to provide you with more personalized content and to study the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. In some instances, you may be permitted to allow or deny such uses and/or sharing of your device’s location, but if you do, we and/or our marketing partners may not be able to provide you with the applicable personalized services and content.
• From you: Information such as your preferred means of communication is collected when you voluntarily provide it.
• By aggregating information: Aggregated Personal Information does not personally identify you or any other user of the Services (for example, we may aggregate Personal Information to measure the percentage of user traffic from different locations).
How We May Use Your Information
We may use your Personal Information for the following purposes, which are necessary to provide you with the Services:
• To respond to your inquiries and fulfill your requests, such as to respond to your requests for additional information about our products or services.
• To send administrative information to you, for example, information regarding the Services and changes to our terms, conditions and policies.
• To send you updates, marketing, or other communications about topics that we believe may be of interest to you, including about our products and services.
• To facilitate navigation, to display information more effectively and to recognize your computer in order to assist your use of the Services.
• To personalize your experience on the Services by presenting products and services tailored to you.
• For our business purposes, such as data analysis, audits, fraud monitoring and prevention, developing new products, enhancing, improving or modifying our Services, identifying usage trends, determining the effectiveness of our promotional and marketing campaigns and operating and expanding our business activities.
• To support and improve the functionality of the Services and ensure that the Services function properly.
• To (a) comply with applicable laws, including laws outside your state, province and country of residence, (b) to comply with legal process; (c) to respond to requests from public and government authorities, including public and government authorities outside your state, province and country of residence; (d) to enforce our terms and conditions; (e) to protect our operations or those of any of our affiliates; (f) to protect our rights, privacy, safety or property, and/or that of our affiliates, you or others; or (g) to allow us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.
How We May Disclose Your Personal Information
Your Personal Information may be disclosed for the purposes listed below, which are necessary to provide you with the Services:
• To our affiliates or third parties for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.
• To our third party service providers, such as website hosting, data analysis, payment processing, order fulfillment, fraud prevention, information technology and related infrastructure provision, customer service, email delivery, auditing and other services.
• To third parties, to permit them to send you marketing communications, consistent with your choices.
• To a third party in the event of any reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer or other disposition of all or any portion of our business, assets or stock (a “Business Transaction”), including in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings. To the extent required by applicable law, in the event that your Personal Information is disclosed to a third-party in connection with a Business Transaction, within a reasonable time of the transaction’s completion you will receive notice that that the Business Transaction has been completed and that your Personal Information was disclosed.
• To (a) comply with applicable laws, including laws outside your state, province and country of residence, (b) to comply with legal process; (c) to respond to requests from public and government authorities, including public and government authorities outside your state, province and country of residence; (d) to enforce our terms and conditions; (e) to protect our operations or those of any of our affiliates; (f) to protect our rights, privacy, safety or property, and/or that of our affiliates, you or others; or (g) to allow us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.
Uses and Disclosures of Other Information
We may use and disclose Other Information for any purpose, except where we are required to do otherwise under applicable law. If we are required to treat Other Information as Personal Information under applicable law, we may use and disclose it for the purposes for which we use and disclose Personal Information as detailed in this Policy. In some instances, we may combine Other Information with Personal Information. If we do, we will treat the combined information as Personal Information as long as it is combined.
THIRD PARTY SERVICES
This Privacy Policy does not address, and we are not responsible for, the privacy, information or other practices of any third parties, including any third party operating any site or service to which the Services link. The inclusion of a link on the Services does not imply endorsement of the linked site or service by us or by our affiliates.
In addition, we are not responsible for the information collection, use, disclosure, or security policies or practices of other organizations, such as Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft, or any other app developer, app provider, social media platform provider, operating system provider, wireless service provider, or device manufacturer.
The Services may link to social media platforms that enable online sharing and collaboration among users who have registered to use such platforms. Any content you post on official Mizuho Americas managed social media pages, such as information, opinions, pictures, or any Personal Information that you make available to other participants on these social platforms, is subject to the privacy policies of those respective platforms. Please refer to them to better understand your rights and obligations with regard to such platforms and content.
SECURITY
We seek to use reasonable organizational, technical and administrative measures that are designed to protect your Personal Information. Unfortunately, no data transmission or storage system can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, which means that there is some risk that your Personal Information could be subject to unauthorized access or compromise in the event of a cybersecurity incident, which could require you to take additional steps to prevent misuse of your Personal Information.
If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure (for example, if you feel that the security of your account has been compromised), please immediately notify us in accordance with the “Contacting Us” section below. There are also steps you can take to protect your Personal Information:
• Ensure you are on the right site: Check that you are on the real Mizuho Americas website before you sign in by checking the browser bar for a valid certificate.
• Monitor your account activity: Checking your account activity frequently can help to prevent or detect fraud earlier.
• Password management: Use passwords that are long in length and complex in nature. Complexity is achieved by using a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters. A passphrase of longer length adds more complexity to a password. Do not reuse passwords across accounts or websites, or share your password with anyone. Mizuho Americas will never ask for your password.
CHOICES AND ACCESS
Your choices regarding our use and disclosure of your Personal Information
We give you many choices regarding our use and disclosure of your Personal Information for marketing purposes. You may opt-out from:
• Receiving electronic communications from us: If you no longer want to receive marketing-related emails from us on a going-forward basis, you may opt-out by following the opt-out instructions on electronic communications we send you (as applicable), by replying back to the sender of such electronic communication with your opt-out request, by submitting a completed “Contact Us” form through the Mizuho Americas website (which is located at the footer of this page) or by contacting us.
• Our sharing of your Personal Information with affiliates for their direct marketing purposes: If you would prefer that we not share your Personal Information on a going-forward basis with our affiliates for their direct marketing purposes, you may opt-out of this sharing by submitting a completed “Contact Us” form through the Mizuho Americas website (which is located at the footer of this page) or by contacting us.
• Our sharing of your Personal Information with unaffiliated third parties for their direct marketing purposes: If you would prefer that we not share your Personal Information on a going-forward basis with unaffiliated third parties for their direct marketing purposes, you may opt-out of this sharing by submitting a completed “Contact Us” form through the Mizuho Americas website (which is located at the footer of this page) or by contacting us.
We will try to comply with your request(s) as soon as reasonably practicable. Please note that if you opt-out of receiving marketing-related emails from us, we may still send you important administrative messages, from which you cannot opt-out.
USE OF SERVICES BY MINORS
The Services are not directed to individuals under the age of thirteen (13), and we request that they not provide Personal Information through the Services.
JURISDICTION AND CROSS-BORDER TRANSFER
Your Personal Information may be stored and processed in any country where we or our affiliates have operations or in which we engage service providers, and by using the Services you understand that your information may be transferred to countries outside of your country of residence, including the United States or Canada, which may have data protection rules that are different from those of your country. In certain circumstances, courts, law enforcement agencies, regulatory agencies or security authorities in those other countries may be entitled to access your Personal Information.
DO NOT TRACK POLICY
Our Services do not respond to Do Not Track (DNT) signals. However, the Services may contain links to third-party websites that do respond to Do Not Track signals. If you are visiting such websites, you can set your preferences in your web browser to inform websites that you do not want to be tracked. You can enable or disable DNT by visiting the preferences or settings page of your web browser.
UPDATES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. The “Last Updated” legend at the top of this Privacy Policy indicates when this Privacy Policy was last revised. Any changes will become effective when we post the revised Privacy Policy on the Services. Your use of the Services following these changes means that you accept the revised Privacy Policy.
CONTACTING US
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or believe that your account information is incomplete or inaccurate, please contact us here or email [email protected].
JURISDICTION-SPECIFIC PROVISIONS
Brazil – Please refer to the Canal de Proteção de Dados for information on Banco Mizuho do Brasil S.A.’s practices with respect to the processing of Personal Information.
California – Please refer to the Mizuho California Privacy Notice for information about Mizuho Americas' practices with respect to the processing of California residents' information.
Canada – The following section applies to Mizuho Bank, Ltd., Canada Branch and Mizuho Securities Canada Inc. only:
How You Can Access, Change, or Delete your Personal Information
If you would like to request to access, review, correct, update, suppress, restrict, or delete Personal Information, object to or opt out of the processing of Personal Information, or if you would like to request to receive a copy of your Personal Information for purposes of transmitting it to another company (to the extent these rights are provided to you by applicable law), or if you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, you may contact Mizuho Bank, Ltd., Canada Branch and Mizuho Securities Canada Inc. as follows:
| Attention: | Nick Pomponio, Privacy Officer |
| Postal Address: | 100 Yonge Street, Suite 1102 Toronto, ON M5C 2W1, Canada |
| Email: | [email protected] |
| Phone: | (416) 874-1148 |
We will respond to your written requests consistent with applicable law. In your request, please make clear what Personal Information you would like to have changed or whether you would like to have your Personal Information suppressed from our database. For your protection, we may only implement requests with respect to the Personal Information associated with the particular email address that you use to send us your request, and we may need to verify your identity before implementing your request. We will try to comply with your request as soon as reasonably practicable. Please note that we may need to retain certain information for recordkeeping purposes and/or to complete any transactions that you began prior to requesting a change or deletion.
Mexico – Please refer to the Aviso de Privacidad for information on Mizuho Bank Mexico, S.A.’s practices with respect to the processing of Personal Information.