Sony Electronics Inc.
Effective: June 2001
Last Update: March 2016
Your Privacy
At Sony, we believe you have a right to know what type of information we may collect when you interact with us and/or use our products, and our practices with respect to that information. This Privacy Policy applies to all data collection, use and sharing by Sony Electronics Inc. ("SEL") in any medium, online, mobile, or offline, including any website, feature, application, widget or online service that is owned or controlled by SEL and that posts a link to this Privacy Policy. Sites which are linked to/from our sites including sites of other Sony affiliated companies (e.g., Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment America) and via banner ads may have different policies; therefore, please review the privacy policy notices on those sites for details.
While SEL does not generally require that you provide us with personally identifiable information, (for example, in order to visit and use the SEL sites), please note that in order to participate in some activities or use certain features, it will be necessary for you to provide this information.
Notice to California Residents - Your California Privacy Rights:
If you are a California resident, you have the right to receive: a) information identifying any third party company(ies) to whom Sony Electronics Inc. may have disclosed, within the past year, Personal Information (as defined herein) pertaining to you and your family for that company's direct marketing purposes; and b) a description of the categories of Personal Information disclosed. To obtain such information, please email your request to Privacy@am.sony.com.]
Collection of Information:
SEL may ask you to provide "Personal Information",
meaning individually identifiable information such as your email address, name, mailing address, telephone number, social security number, credit card number, or persistent identifier (such as a customer number held in a cookie) which is associated with individually identifiable information, to, among other things, enable you to participate in contests, chat rooms, on bulletin boards, to obtain product or service support, to fill out a registration, or to order products and services. SEL may combine the information you provide with other information we may collect from you or your devices or from third parties so that we can more effectively tailor our sites, services and offerings to you.
SEL will not share the Personal Information you provide with any other parties, except
(a) to other Sony "Affiliates" (i.e., (i) Sony Corporation, (ii) any company of which 50% or more of its outstanding shares are owned by Sony Corporation, directly or indirectly, and (iii) any company with the name "SONY" as a part of its trade name) who may want to contact you about products, services or other offerings that may be of interest to you (SEL and such Affiliates being collectively referred to as "Sony"), (b) with your consent (see below), (c) as may be required by law or court order, (d) to persons or companies SEL engages to carry out or provide support for the operations of the sites or our business, or (e) to appropriate third parties, including law enforcement or other government agencies, in connection with a criminal investigation, fraud prevention, or other legal action or if SEL reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to protect SEL, its customers, or the public. Sony may also provide data from transactions that it believes to be fraudulent to third parties that provide fraud prevention services to Sony and other merchants.
Unless you instruct us otherwise,
SEL may contact you to provide information about products, services, promotions, contests, or other activities or offerings that may be of interest to you. You can instruct us whether or not you wish to receive such information by checking or unchecking the box indicating your preference, as applicable, at the place where your information is collected. In addition, with each commercial email you receive from SEL or any of its business units, you will be given the opportunity to indicate if you do not wish to receive future commercial emails from SEL or the SEL business unit which sent it to you.
You can also click below to adjust your communication preferences:
- To opt out of information related to consumer products, click here.
- To opt out of information related to professional products, click here.
- To opt out of information related to Future Lab Program, click here.
With your consent,
SEL may share your Personal Information with third parties outside of the Sony group of companies who may want to contact you about products, services or other offerings that may be of interest to you. SEL will seek to obtain your consent at the place where the information is collected either by an "opt-out" or "opt-in" method, or by other means (such as an email request). Each of these companies may have their own privacy policies. We do not control and are not responsible for these other parties, their privacy policies or their use or treatment of your Personal Information or other information. We and our Affiliates make no representation regarding how any third parties use, manage, store, treat or maintain your Personal Information or other information and you should therefore carefully review all such third parties' privacy policies. If you consent to receiving communications from any of these third parties, you will need to communicate with them directly if you later decide that you no longer wish to receive their communications. (i) if you wish to withdraw your consent from any further sharing of your Personal Information with third parties for marketing purposes related to consumer products, you may do so by clicking here and providing the requested information and (ii) if you wish to withdraw your consent from any further sharing of your Personal Information with third parties for marketing purposes with respect to professional products, you may do so by clicking here and providing the requested information.
For instructions on how to request changes to the Personal Information you have provided to SEL,
please send an email to: Privacy@am.sony.com or write to us at:
Sony Electronics Inc.
Personal Information Management Office
115 West Century Road Suite 250
Paramus, NJ, 07652
System Information.
We may collect your computers', network enabled devices', systems' and/or networks' IP addresses and message information for system administration, record keeping, capacity planning, volume and other operational reasons, as well as for advertising and royalty reporting as necessary in the conduct of our business. When you use our services, our systems may record this information, which may be stored with your registration, order or other information you provide to us. This may allow us, among other things, to determine which other websites linked you to us.
We collect and maintain Personal Information and/or other information about visitors to our websites, devices and users of devices that access or use our services and websites, as well as anyone who sends us information or communications, and recipients of our communications. Much of this information we may gather directly by asking (e.g., hobbies, interests, purchasing habits, music preferences, difficulties in using a particular feature), but we also aggregate information in a non-personally identifiable manner using our technology, such as visitors' and users' browsing or use activities, the domain or mobile phone area code or device number and carrier from which a visitor accesses or clicks through to a website, page views, downloads, streaming and the like. We use such information to enhance and customize our websites and services and the advertising and promotions we make available to attempt to create a better experience. We aggregate information (meaning it does not identify any individual) to analyze trends and statistics to improve your online experiences, our websites, services, and customer support. If you visit our use the websites or have registered or provided us with Personal Information about yourself, it is likely that "cookies"(how we use "cookies" is described in the section below entitled "Cookies") allow us to identify you and associate you with your registration, your devices, your applicable Account, user name or ID, information and preferences.
Cookies.
When you visit any of our websites, advertisements appearing thereon, use one or more of the SEL website services, or receive emails from SEL, we may use technology commonly referred to as a "cookie" which stores small bits of data on your computer. While actual "cookie" technology is currently among the most common, we may use a wide variety of technological tools, means and mechanisms (e.g., XML technology, clickstream data, etc.) to help us to customize your experience to better match your interests and preferences and otherwise improve and enhance the services we provide. We will use the term "cookie" to refer to any and or all of these tools, means and mechanisms, whether they are currently available and in use, developed or discovered in the future or otherwise. We use cookies in a variety of ways. For example, we use cookies to save your user ID, Account number or other information (so you do not have to re-enter it each time you visit or use our services) and to help us keep count of your return visits to our websites and, in some cases, to our advertisers' or partners' or co-branded websites, which helps us determine which services, promotions, features, content and functions users like best. In general, browsers or separately purchased software tools may allow you to erase cookies from your hard drive. You acknowledge and understand that erasing cookies may limit or restrict your ability to use any or all the features and functions of our websites and services. We may also use technology to detect the absence or presence of any versions of software or software updates installed on your computer and to track and monitor content you are downloading, streaming, using or otherwise accessing. Any or all of these activities can occur periodically or when necessary, without any other specific notice to you. We may also use cookies to identify your computer each time we automatically update or attempt to update your software. Cookies allow us to transmit and arrange for automatic installation of updates, modifications and even full re-installations of software on your computer to address security, digital rights management, interoperability or performance issues or to enhance the range of features and functions available through our websites. Any or all of these activities can occur periodically or when necessary, without any other specific notice to you.
Research and Tracking Techniques.
SEL may also itself use, or engage third parties to use, Web beacons, pixel tags, passive capture technologies or other technologies for purposes such as researching and tracking certain usage, site interaction, and other activities on our websites, on certain network enabled devices, and in emails you receive from us. The information collected by SEL or requested from third parties through these technologies is typically in an aggregate, non-personally identifiable form. However, in some cases, the information collected may include personally identifiable information provided by the user where SEL deems it advantageous to collect such information for purposes such as improving the usability of our website and customer support.
"Do Not Track" Signals.
Note that your browser settings may allow you to automatically transmit a "Do Not Track" signal to websites and online services you visit. There is no consensus among industry participants as to what "Do Not Track" means in this context. Like many websites and online services, SEL currently does not alter its practices when it receives a "Do Not Track" signal from a visitor's browser. To find out more about "Do Not Track," you may wish to visit http://www.allaboutdnt.com.
In addition, note that third parties may collect personal information about your online activities over time and across different websites when you visit our websites or other online websites and services.
Use and Disclosure of Anonymous Aggregated Information
SEL may also collect, aggregate and maintain anonymous information about you, such as your hobbies, interests, purchases, downloads, page visits, music preferences, and the like. This data can then be used to, among other things, tailor SEL's promotions, advertising, and communications to deliver a better experience for you. SEL may also share such aggregate information with advertisers, business partners, sponsors, and other third parties; for example, to inform them about the percentage of male/female visitors to our sites.
Advertising, Analytics and Similar Third Party Services and Your Choices
We may partner with third party advertising companies to either display advertising on our websites or to manage our advertising on other sites, and we may use third party analytics service providers to evaluate and provide us with information about the use of our websites and viewing of our content. Ad network providers, advertisers, sponsors, analytics service providers and/or similar third parties may set and access their own cookies, web beacons and embedded scripts on your device, may collect, set and use unique or non-unique identifiers, and they may otherwise collect or have access to information about you.
We and our network advertisers may target advertisements and offers to you, both on our websites and elsewhere online, based on your visits to our websites and online services and those of third parties. Cookies, web beacons, and other technologies, including those set by third party network advertisers, may be used to, among other things, target advertisements, limit the number of times you see the same advertisements, conduct research regarding the usefulness of certain advertisements to you, track how our users interact with our websites, link various devices you may use, and learn more about users. We may share information about our users with third party companies for the same purposes. We may use a variety of companies to serve advertisements. Some of these third parties may collect personal information from you over time when you visit our websites and services or other websites and services. This Privacy Policy does not cover any use of information that such third parties may have collected themselves from you. You may be able to opt out of certain targeted advertising by visiting TRUSTe's website here. These opt-outs may be device specific and may not work on all devices. Please be aware that if you choose to block cookies, some advertising preferences that are dependent on cookies may not be able to be respected. Also, know that even if you opt out of targeted online advertising, you will continue to receive generic ads online.
Security, Retention and Monitoring
Unless otherwise required by law, we are not responsible for monitoring or recording any activity (including but not limited to any communications) on any website, feature, application, widget or online service ("SEL Properties") owned or controlled by Sony Electronics Inc., although we reserve the right to do so. To help protect you and others, we monitor use of such Properties, and we use the Personal Information and other information we collect, in order to: identify fraudulent activities and transactions; prevent abuse of and investigate and/or seek prosecution for any potential threats to or misuse of SEL Properties; investigate violations of or enforce applicable terms of service and this Privacy Policy; and otherwise to protect the rights and property of SEL, its Affiliates, partners, and customers. Monitoring may result in the collection, recording, and analysis of online activity or communications through the SEL Properties. If you do not consent to these conditions, you must discontinue your use of the SEL Properties.
We seek to maintain reasonable security measures designed to help protect your information (including Personal Information) against unauthorized or accidental disclosure, access, misuse, loss, or alteration. There is no such thing as perfect security. Although we strive to protect your information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of such information.
We may retain information about you as long as it is necessary for us to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Policy. In addition, we may retain your information for an additional period as is permitted or required to, among other things, comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce agreements. Where and when required by applicable law, we shall delete your information. Even if we delete your information from active databases, the information may remain on backup or storage media.
Notice To/Regarding Children Under the Age of 13
SEL believes that children using the Internet require special protection, and we urge parents or guardians to explain Internet safety to their children. Parents are urged to spend time online with their children to become familiar with the types of content available on the SEL sites and the Internet in general. Control tools are available from online services and software manufacturers to help create a safer environment for children.
If you are under 13 years of age, you should not provide any Personal Information (for example, your last name, home address or e-mail address) on these sites without the knowledge and permission of your parent or guardian. If SEL learns that you are under 13 years of age, SEL will not maintain or use any Personal Information about you without the verifiable consent of your parent or guardian, except as allowed by law. This may mean that you will be unable to participate in some activities on the sites without that verifiable consent. If a child under 13 years of age wishes to participate in any SEL website activity, or wishes to take advantage of a product or service offering available to children, and to do so necessitates the furnishing of any of the child's Personal Information, please note the following:
(i) The name, address, telephone number, and email address of the operator collecting or maintaining Personal Information from children through this website are as follows:
Sony Electronics Inc.
115 West Century Road Suite 250
Paramus, NJ, 07652
Telephone: 201-930-4800
e-mail address: Privacy@am.sony.com
(ii) The types of Personal Information collected from children may include the name, email address, home address, telephone number and/or any other information reasonably necessary for the child to participate in a particular activity. This information may be collected directly and/or passively (e.g., through a Web server that automatically recognizes and stores information such as a visitor's IP address/domain name combination).
(iii) The information collected may be used for purposes such as fulfillment of a requested transaction, record keeping, marketing back to the child, or making it publicly available through a chat room or by other means.
(iv) Unless specific consent is obtained from the child's parent or guardian, the child's Personal Information will not be disclosed to third parties who are not contractors hired to carry out the internal operations of the websites, other than as may be required or permitted by law. We have required, or will require, such contractors to agree to use Personal Information of site visitors only for the purposes of carrying out these operations and to keep such information confidential. A parent or guardian has the option of consenting to the collection and use of the child's Personal Information without consenting to the disclosure of that information to third parties.
(v) SEL is prohibited from conditioning a child's participation in an activity on the child's disclosing more Personal Information than is reasonably necessary to participate in such activity; and
(vi) A parent can review and request deletion of the child's Personal Information, can refuse to permit further collection or use of the child's information, and can revoke or limit consents previously given. For instructions on how to do so, please send an email to Privacy@am.sony.com or write to us at:
Sony Electronics Inc.
Personal Information Management Office
115 West Century Road Suite 250
Paramus, NJ, 07652
Except as permitted by law, before any collection of a child's Personal Information takes place at a website directed to children or where SEL is knowingly collecting children's Personal Information, the child will be asked to provide his/her parent's or guardian's e-mail address so that SEL can contact the child's parent or guardian. SEL will then send an email (the "Initial Notification") to the parent/guardian indicating, among other things, the information that the child is requested to provide, the intended use(s) of the information and information on how the parent/guardian can, at their election, delete the child's information from SEL's database or records. Upon receipt of the Initial Notification, a parent or guardian may respond back to SEL to grant his/her consent or to deny consent in which case SEL will delete the parent/guardian's email address and any other Personal Information, if any, previously obtained for securing parental consent. Upon SEL's receipt of the parent/guardian consent, SEL will send a confirming email to the parent/guardian's email address or take such other action as may be required to verify the consent. If SEL desires to use a child's information for purposes other than that for which the parent/guardian consent was previously given, SEL will not do so without first getting the parent/guardian consent.
Consent to Processing:
By providing any Personal Information to SEL, all persons, including without limitation persons in the member states of the European Union, fully understand and unambiguously consent to the collection and processing of such information in the United States of America, and/or in territories or countries outside of the United States of America, and understand and acknowledge their consent, notwithstanding that some governmental authorities may consider the level of protection of such data in the United States not equivalent to that required within the European Union or any other jurisdiction.
Consent to Assignment:
By providing any Personal Information to SEL, you will be deemed to have consented to SEL's disclosure and transfer to, as well as the use by, (a) any party who acquires all or any portion of any SEL service or business unit, whether through merger, acquisition, assignment, or sale, of your Personal Information or other information about you that we have obtained and that is governed by this Privacy Policy and which is related to such service or business unit ; and (b) any party who acquires all or substantially all of the assets of SEL, whether through merger, acquisition, assignment or sale, of your Personal Information or other information about you that we have obtained and that is governed by this Privacy Policy.
Your Communications:
We may, but we do not have an obligation to, monitor your communications, such as messages, to, from, within or directly related to our services and sites to ensure that our policies regarding use and our terms and conditions are being complied with and not being violated (e.g., no obscenity, defamation or abusive language, no content that may infringe rights), and we have the right to block, remove and/or report any such communications and activities as appropriate. We may keep records of users' messages and, among other things, the email addresses involved.
Links to Other Sites:
From time to time we may offer links to other websites from our sites. Other websites may also reference, advertise, or link to our sites. However, we do not endorse or sponsor other websites, are not responsible for the privacy policies, practices or the content of such websites, expressly disclaim any statements or assertions made on such websites, and deny all liability associated with your use of, and the content on, such other websites. You may arrive at one of these websites through clicking on a banner advertisement, as part of a co-branding arrangement, or simply by selecting a link on any of our website pages. These websites might issue their own cookies or collect Personal Information, so please use caution when visiting an external site. You should also be aware we sometimes permit third parties to offer subscription and registration-based services on our services. We are not responsible for the actions or policies of such third parties with respect to Personal Information or other information you may give them, and you should carefully read and understand the applicable privacy policy whenever you provide Personal Information to anyone.
Policy Governs Use: Changes to Privacy Policy
The terms of this Privacy Policy will govern the use of any information collected while it is in place. SEL reserves the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time, so please re-visit this page often. In case of any material change, we will change the "Last Update Date" in this Privacy Policy and/or post a notice. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective as of the stated "Last Update Date" and your continued use of the SEL Properties on or after the "Last Update Date" will constitute acceptance of, and agreement to be bound by, those changes.
Questions:
If you have any questions or comments about our Personal Information practices or about this Privacy Policy, please feel free to send us an email at Privacy@am.sony.com or write us at:
Sony Electronics Inc.
Personal Information Management Office
115 West Century Road Suite 250
Paramus, NJ, 07652
If you have questions regarding products or services, please click here for further information.