Sony Europe Ltd. may collect information about you in several different ways. Please take care when submitting information to us, in particular when completing free text fields or uploading documents and other materials. Some of our services are automated and we may not recognise that you have accidentally provided us with incorrect or sensitive information.

Information that you provide us

Whenever you interact with Sony Europe Ltd., you may be asked to provide us with information relating to you. For example:

• Some of our services require you to create an account. When creating your accounts, we may ask you to provide a range of information, such as your name, date of birth, contact details, interests and account and newsletter preferences
• When you purchase, register, send for repair or return one of our products online, we may record the call and/or ask you to provide information such as your contact details, delivery date and place of purchase and payment information
• When you contact our customer service centres for assistance, we may keep information about the call, including your name, the product(s) you bought, the reason why you contacted us and the advice we gave you
• When you join one of our loyalty programs (where available), we may collect information relating to your use of the loyalty program and the rewards that you claim
• When you visit us at a public event, such as trade show or exhibition or participate in one of our surveys, competitions or prize draws, we may ask for information, such as your business card, name, contact details, interests and preferences
• When you use our online services, we may receive content that you choose to upload, such as product reviews, comments, photos and forum posts, or details of your interests and preferences that you choose to tell us about when, for example, selecting the services that you wish to receive

Information we may collect from other sources

We may also collect information from publically available sources and third parties, including:

• When you seek to make a purchase from us, we may carry out credit and financial checks to ensure payment is not made fraudulently and that you and/or your company have a suitable credit rating
• If you purchase products or services from a Sony retail store or center or other retailer, we may receive certain information about your purchase from that retailer We may also receive information about you from other Sony group companies that you interact with; in particular, when you link your accounts for certain Sony group services (for more information about “linked Sony accounts”, see the “Linked Sony accounts” section below).
• When carrying out business to business sales calls, we may use business contact details that are publically available

Information we may collect in relation to social networks

If you use any of our social network applications, pages or plugins or you use one of our products or services that allow interaction with social networks, we may receive information relating to your social network accounts.

For instance:

• If you log-in to one of our websites or services using your social network account, we may receive basic details from your social network profile. The basic details we receive may depend on your social network account privacy settings, however, they might include your social network ID, name, profile picture, gender and locale. We may also receive additional information from your profile if you give us permission to access it
• If you click on a 'like', '+1' or 'tweet' or similar button in one of our websites or services, we may record the fact that you have done so. In addition, the content that you are viewing may be posted to your social network profile or feed. We may receive information about further interactions with this posted content (for example, if your contacts click on a link in the posted content), which we may associate with the details that we store about you
• If you 'like', '+1' or similar one of our pages on a social network site, we may receive information about your social network profile, depending on your social network account privacy settings

For more information and for details about how you can control access to your social network profile, you should view the privacy policy and other guidance available on your social network’s website.

Information we may collect when you use websites, products and services from Sony

Some of our websites, internet-enabled products and online services provide Sony Europe Ltd. with information about your use of them, including:

• Details of the content that you view and interact with. For example, when you use our website, we may collect information about your visit, such as your browser software, which pages you view and which items you ‘clicked’ on
• Service, product or server logs, which hold technical information about your use of our service, product or websites, such as your IP address, domain, device and application settings, errors and hardware activity
• Information about where your device is physically located. For example, when you are using a geo-location service or application and you have provided consent to your location being shared
• Interests and preferences that you specify during setup of the Internet enabled product or service
• Details of your linked Sony accounts and when and how you used them (for more information about linked Sony accounts, see the “Linked Sony accounts section below).

In general, this information is collected using digital identifiers such as a device number, browser cookie or your IP address. These identifiers are used to distinguish the information provided by your browser or device from that of another user’s browser or device, and are not used to identify you personally.

However, we may associate the collected information with one of your accounts, if for instance you are logged into a service when the information is collected. Please see our Cookie policy for further details.

Sony Europe Ltd. may use the information it collects for a wide range of purposes, including:

General

Sony Europe Ltd. may use information it collects to:

• Provide you with a product or service you have requested, including checking that a payment is not made fraudulently, delivering your purchase to you or ensuring that you benefit from any relevant special offer or promotion (and fulfil its obligations under any other agreement it may have with you)
• Provide customer care, warranty, returns and other after sales services
• For staff training and quality assurance purposes, particularly in relation to our customer relations staff at our call, email and other support centres
• Ask for your opinions on Sony products and services and conduct product surveys
• Facilitate and process your searches and requests for information when you contact us about Sony Europe Ltd. and its products and services
• Conduct prize draws, contests and other promotional offers
• Consider employing you if contact us

Marketing communications

Sony Europe Ltd. may use your information to provide you with newsletters and other communications by post, email, telephone and/or text message (SMS), if you have provided your prior consent or we are otherwise permitted to do so under applicable law. See the Marketing communication section below for more details.

Personalised and targeted content, recommendations and advertisements

Sony Europe Ltd. may use the information it collects to personalise and more effectively target its stores, services, content, recommendations, adverts and communications. You may notice this personalisation and targeting when you use Sony products and services, when we contact you with marketing communications and when you visit our and third party websites and services that show advertisements from us or our advertising partners (for example, you might see an advertisement for a product that you have recently viewed on one of our websites).

The personalisation and targeting that you see on our websites or in our online advertisements and communications may make use of cookies set by us or our third party advertising partners. Please see our Cookie policy for more information. In other cases, our services may have specific settings to control personalised content and you should consult the privacy policy of the relevant service for more information.

Statistics

Sony Europe Ltd. may use your information to create anonymous, aggregated statistics about the use of our websites, products, services and loyalty programs, which we may share with third parties and/or make available to the public.

Product Improvement

Sony Europe Ltd. may use your information to develop and improve new and existing Sony products and services, recommendations, advertisements and other communications and learn more about customers’ preferences in general.

Publish your reviews, comments and content

Where you have uploaded product reviews, comments or content to our websites or services and made them publically visible, Sony Europe Ltd. may link to, publish or publicise these materials elsewhere including in our own advertisements.

Forums

Each time you create or reply to a post or thread on a website forum from Sony Europe Ltd., in addition to providing this forum service, we may also record the forum name and the time and date of your post or thread with your account details. We do this to better understand the ‘typical users’ of our forums and to select or tailor our marketing communications to reflect your forum activity. We do not use the content of your forum posts or threads for these additional purposes.

Combining the information we collect

We may link or combine the information that we collect from the different sources outlined above in the “Information that we collect” section above (including information received from other Sony group companies about your use of other Sony group products and services). Information may be linked via a unique identifier, such as a cookie or account number (particularly when you link Sony accounts - for more information about linked Sony accounts, see the “Linked Sony accounts section below). Alternatively, we may decide to combine two or more databases into a single database of customer information.

We may do this for your and/or our convenience (for example, to allow you to more easily register for a new service), to allow us to provide a more seamless customer support whenever you contact us and to provide you with better, personalised services, content, marketing and adverts.

Sharing of information by Sony Europe Ltd.

In general, Sony Europe Ltd. does not disclose information about you to third parties without your consent. However, there are exceptions:

Other Sony group companies

We may disclose information about you to other Sony group companies. They may combine this information with other details they hold about you. Unless they provide you with their own privacy policy, they may use your personal details for the purposes explained in this policy.

Sony retail stores or centers

If you choose to purchase products or services from a Sony retail store or center (whether in store, through our website or over the telephone), your purchase information may be shared by Sony Europe Ltd. with that Sony retail store or center. Your purchase information may be combined with other data that that Sony retail store or center holds about you as a customer, such as details of other purchases you have made.

Our service providers

We may use third party service providers to process information on our behalf for the purposes outlined above. For example, to fulfilling orders, delivering packages, sending postal mail and emails, sending text messages (SMS), providing marketing assistance, processing credit card payments, providing fraud checking services and providing customer services.

Our service providers operate only in accordance with our instructions, in line with this policy, and are subject to appropriate confidentiality and security obligations.

Third party newsletters

If you request or agree to receive information or newsletters from one of our business partners, we may provide that third party with your details so that they can respond to your request.

Legal and business purposes

We may use and/or disclose to third parties information about you:

• To government bodies and law enforcement agencies to prevent fraud, to comply with the law and to meet a reasonable request from such bodies
• To third parties (including professional advisors) to enforce or defend the legal rights of any Sony group company or the terms and conditions of any Sony product or service
• To a third party purchaser or seller, and its and our professional advisors, in connection with a corporate event such as a merger, business acquisition or insolvency situation

Anonymous statistics

We prepare anonymous, aggregate or generic data (including “generic” statistics) for a number of purposes as outlined above. As we consider that you cannot reasonably be identified from this information, we may share it with any third party (such as our partners, advertisers, industry bodies, the media and/or the general public).

Sharing of information by you

A number of our online services allow you to upload and share messages, photos, video and other content and links with others and/or create a publically accessible profile for your account. For example:

• The communities and forums area of our website, allows you to post comments (with your account name), which are visible to other users of that service
• Other services allow you to share a link which if clicked on may allow the recipient to access your uploaded content

You should not expect any information that you make available to others via Sony Europe Ltd.’s online services to be kept private or confidential. Content and links that you share might, for instance, be forwarded by your recipients to others. You should always exercise discretion when using such services.

What are linked Sony accounts

Your accounts for different Sony online services can be linked together so you can use the same sign in details (email address and password) to access them all (“One Sign In”). Other basic account details are also synchronised across your linked accounts, so you can more easily manage your accounts.

How are they used by Sony group companies?

This privacy policy applies to our use of information relating to your linked account(s) and your use of our online services.

Other online services from Sony are operated by different Sony group companies. The privacy policy of each service will tell you how your account details will be used in connection with that service, and which Sony group company is responsible (you can find the privacy policy for a service on its website).

However, Sony group companies may generally use information relating to your linked Sony accounts for the following purposes:

Linking accounts / synchronised basic account details

We will share basic account details with another Sony group company when you:

• link your account for our services with your account for that Sony group company’s service(s); or
• make changes to your basic account details (as these details are synchronised, changes will automatically be made across all of your linked accounts).

Customer Support

When you have linked accounts for Sony services, any Sony call, email or other support centre for those services may access your basic account details to handle your queries. As above, changes you make via customer support will automatically be made across all of your linked accounts.

News, competitions and offers from Sony

You may be offered the opportunity to sign up to receive information about Sony group news, competitions and offers. If you do, companies in the Sony group may send you their news, competitions and offers and may use your linked Sony accounts details to make this information more relevant to you.

Customer analysis

Information relating to your linked accounts may be collated and analysed by the Sony group (in a manner that does not directly identify you) for product and service development, business promotion and research purposes and the results shared with other Sony group companies and third parties (even if you do not use any of their services).

Use and disclosure for legal and corporate reasons

Any Sony group company may use and/or disclose the details of your linked Sony accounts:

• To government bodies and law enforcement agencies to prevent fraud, to comply with the law and to meet a reasonable request from such bodies
• To third parties (including professional advisors) to enforce or defend the legal rights of any Sony group company or the terms and conditions of any Sony product or service
• To a third party purchaser or seller, and its and our professional advisors, in connection with a corporate event such as a merger, business acquisition or insolvency situation

Sony Europe Ltd. is part of the Sony group, which is a global organisation. For the purposes explained in this policy, your information (including your linked account details - for more information about linked Sony accounts, see the “Linked Sony accounts” section above) may be transferred to Sony group companies (including service providers operating on their behalf) and other third parties in countries which do not have the same level of data protection laws as those in the country where you are located.

When you provide us with contact details, such as when you purchase a product, contact our customer support call centres or create an account for one of our services, you may be given the opportunity to opt-in to (or in certain cases where applicable law allows, opt-out of) receiving various newsletters and other communications by post, email, telephone and/or text message (SMS) from Sony Europe Ltd. and/or other Sony group companies. These communications may include, for instance, details about the latest Sony products and services, including upgrades and special offers in which you may be interested.

Sony Europe Ltd. may also use your information to personalise and to target more effectively its marketing communications.

You can change your marketing communication preferences at any time:

• If you would like to unsubscribe from an email sent to you, follow the ‘unsubscribe’ link and/or instructions placed (typically) at the bottom of the email. But note that:
• If you use more than one e-mail address to shop or contact Sony Europe Ltd., you will need to unsubscribe separately for each email address
• This method will only unsubscribe for newsletter or other communication that you have received and you should use one of the other methods if you wish to opt-out of all our marketing communications
• If you have registered with Sony Europe Ltd. online and have a "My Sony" account, you may log-in and amend your marketing communication preferences in the account settings
• You can contact us using the details in the “Contact us” section below in order to change your marketing communication preferences

Please note that we may occasionally send you important information about Sony Europe Ltd. products and services that you are using or have used (such as order confirmations, product safety announcements and service changes). These emails are not affected by your marketing communication preferences.

What we do to protect your information

We take a number of steps to protect your information from unauthorised access, use or alteration and unlawful destruction, including where appropriate:

• Using encryption when collecting or transferring sensitive information, such as credit card details (encryption is designed to make the data unreadable by anyone but us)
• Limiting access to the information we collect about you (for instance, only those of our personnel who need your information to carry out our business activities are allowed access)
• Putting in place physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards in line with industry standards

What you should do to protect your information

As general best practice on the Internet, it is recommended that individuals take great care with user accounts, and follow some basic rules:

• Do not use trivial passwords (such as single dictionary words)
• Do not use the same password for multiple accounts
• Do use very long passwords (at least 10 characters, but preferably much longer)
• Do use passwords which contain a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters e.g. $%^& etc.
• Do keep passwords securely (never written down, or shared with anyone) and changed periodically

Our websites use industry-wide technologies, such as “cookies” and “web beacons”, to collect information about the use of our websites and email communications. For instance, these technologies may tell us which visitors clicked on key elements (such as links or graphics) on a website or email and recognise your browser the next time you visit our websites. More information about our use of cookies and web beacons can be found in our Cookie policy

If you would like a copy of the personal information that we store about you in our customer databases, please contact us using the details given in the “Contact us” section below. You may be asked to provide some proof of identification so that we can verify that it is you making the request.

This is in addition to any legal rights you may have, which depending on where you live may include the right to access a copy of your personal information, the right to request the deletion or updating of any inaccurate personal data and the right to object, in some cases, to our processing of your personal data. You can exercise your rights by contacting us using the details given in the “Contact us” section below.

Some of our websites may contain links to other websites that are not operated by Sony Europe Ltd., including websites operated by other Sony group companies.

While Sony Europe Ltd. tries to link only to sites that share Sony Europe Ltd.’s high standards and respect for privacy, we are not responsible for the content, security or privacy practices of those other websites. You should view the privacy and cookie policies displayed on those websites to find out how your personal information may be used.

We do not knowingly seek or collect personal information from or about children without the consent of a parent or guardian.

If Sony Europe Ltd. becomes aware that personal information that has been submitted to relates to a child without the consent of a parent or guardian, Sony Europe Ltd. will use reasonable efforts to:

• Delete that personal information from its files as soon as possible
• Ensure, where deletion is not possible, that this personal information is not used further for any purpose, nor disclosed further to any third party

Any parent or guardian with queries regarding our processing of personal information relating to their child should contact us using the details provided in the “Contact us” section.

If you need further assistance or would like to make a comment, you can contact us in a number of ways:

1. Via our online web form:

www.sony-psmea.com/pro/ezone/rfi/

2. mail:

Sony Professional Solutions MEA FZ LLC
Office C50, Dubai Production City
P.O. Box 502050
Dubai, United Arab Emirates