Privacy Policy
Sony Electronics Inc.
Effective: June 2001
Last Update: March 2006
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
our practices with respect to that
information. The guidelines contained
herein apply only toinformation
collected by or for Sony Electronics
Inc. and the entities it controls
(collectively, “SEL”). Thisincludes,
among other things, websites operated by
or for SEL, most of which contain
“sel.sony.com” or “sonystyle.com” in
their URLs. Sites which are linked
to/from these 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, it will
be necessary for you to provide this
information. If you choose not to
provide it for those activities, you may
not be able to participate in them.
[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 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:
For each visitor to an SEL Web site,
SEL’s Web server automatically
recognizes, collects and/or stores
information such as the visitor’s IP
address/Domain name combination and any
referring sites. SEL may use several
technologies to accomplish this.
Examples of such technologies are
cookies and Web beacons.
When you visit SEL’s Web sites or
advertisements appearing thereon, or use
one or more of the SEL Web site
services, or receive emails from SEL we
may use an industry-wide technology
called "cookies" which stores certain
information on your computer and which
will allow us to customize your
experience to better match your
interests and preferences or to simply
facilitate your signing in to use the
services. Most browsers will allow you
to erase cookies from your computer hard
drive, block acceptance of cookies, or
receive a warning before a cookie is
stored. However, if you block or erase
cookies, we may not be able to restore
any preferences or customization
settings you previously specified and
our ability to personalize your online
experience would be limited. Please
refer to your browser instructions or
“help” screen to learn more about these
functions. SEL may also itself use, or
engage third parties to use, Web beacons
for researching certain usage and
activities on our Web site. The
information collected by SEL or
requested from third parties through
these Web beacons is in an aggregate,
non-individually identifiable form and
is used to find out more about users
including demographic information and
usage patterns for more accurate
reporting and to improve the
effectiveness of our marketing. SEL may
also itself use, or engage third parties
to use, pixel tags or other technology
to research or track your usage
activities with respect to emails from
us.
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 enable you
to participate in contests, chat rooms,
on bulletin boards, to fill out a
registration, or to order products and
services using these sites. SEL may
combine the information you provide on
our Web sites with information we may
collect offline from you or from third
parties so that we can more effectively
tailor our site, services and offerings
to you.
SEL will not share the personal
information you provide with any other
parties, except (a) to other
affiliated Sony companies (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 paragraph below),
(c) as may be required by law or court
order, (d) to persons or companies with
whom 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.
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 be contacted
by checking or unchecking the box
indicating your preference, as
applicable, at the place where your
information is collected, or by clicking
here and providing the
requested information. In addition, with
each communication you receive from SEL,
you will be given the opportunity to
indicate if you do not wish to receive
future communications from the company.
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. Each of these companies may have
their own privacy policies. 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). 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. If you
wish to withdraw your consent from any
further sharing of your personal
information with third parties, 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
1 Sony Drive, MD 1E4
Park Ridge, New Jersey 07656.
Use and Disclosure of Anonymous
Aggregated Information
SEL may also collect, aggregate and
maintain anonymous information about
you, such as your hobbies, interests,
purchasing habits, music preferences,
and the like. This data can then be used
to 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 site or the percentage of visitors
within a particular age range.
Security
SEL takes great care in maintaining the
security of your personal information
and in preventing unauthorized access to
it through the use of appropriate
technology and internal procedures.
However, SEL does not guarantee that
unauthorized access will never occur.
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 personally
identifiable 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 personally
identifiable 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 Web
site 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:
-
The name, address, telephone number,
and email address of the operator
collecting or maintaining personal
information from children through
this Web site are as follows:
Sony Electronics Inc.
1 Sony Drive, MD 1E4
Park Ridge, New Jersey 07656
Telephone: 201-930-4800
e-mail address:
Privacy@am.sony.com
-
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).
-
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.
-
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 Web sites, 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.
-
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
- A
parent can review and have deleted
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
1 Sony Drive
MD 1E4
Park Ridge, New Jersey 07656
Except
as permitted by law, before any
collection of a child’s personal
information takes place at a Web site
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
or 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 Sites, 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.
Policy Governs Use: Changes to Privacy
Policy
The terms of this policy will govern the
use and any information collected while
it is in place. SEL reserves the right
to change this policy at any time, so
please re-visit this page as often as
you wish. In case of any material
change, we will change the "Last Update
Date"in this privacy policy and/or post
a notice on the site. Changes to this
privacy policy are effective as of the
stated "Last Update Date” and your
continued use of this site 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
1 Sony Drive
MD 1E4
Park Ridge, New Jersey 07656
If you
have questions regarding products or
services, please click
here
for further information.
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