PRIVACY POLICY
Your Privacy
At Sony we believe that, as our online visitor, you have a right
to know our practices regarding the information we collect when you
visit our websites, and what type of information is collected. The
guidelines contained herein only apply to your visits to www.sony.com,
which is operated by Sony Corporation of America ("SCA"). This includes
web pages on www.sony.com that contain "sony.com" in their URLs,
but does not include any redirect URLs that link the user to another
internet domain. Other websites which are linked to/from www.sony.com
(including other Sony affiliates, other SCA websites, and via banner
ads) may have different policies; therefore, please review the privacy
policy notices on those websites for details.
While SCA does not generally require that you provide us with personally
identifiable information in order to visit and use the SCA websites,
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.
Collection of Information: Cookies; Personal
For each visitor to an SCA website, SCA's web server automatically
recognizes and stores information, such as the visitor's IP address/domain
name combination and any referring websites. We use this information
to understand visitor traffic patterns through our websites for purposes
such as enhancing their usability. Your computer provides this information
automatically each time you log on, unless you've activated blocking
technology available in some browsers.
When you visit SCA's websites or advertisements appearing thereon,
or use one or more of the SCA website services, 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.
Also, SCA, or third parties on its behalf, may collect anonymous
information from visits to our sites through the use of "Web Beacons." Web
Beacons are electronic Web Page images that enable us to record anonymous
data about visits to our web site. This anonymous information is
sometimes known as "clickstream data." We may use this data to analyze
trends and statistics to improve your online experience, or customer
service. No personal data is collected through the use of Web Beacons
on our sites.
Additionally, SCA may ask you to provide "personal information," meaning
individually identifiable information such as your e-mail 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, chatrooms,
on bulletin boards, to fill out a registration, or to order products
and services using these websites. SCA may combine the information
you provide on our websites with other information we may collect
from you offline or from third parties so that we can more effectively
tailor our website, services, and offerings to you. If you provide
SCA with personal information, you shall have the right, on reasonable
prior notice, to inspect, change, amend, or delete such information.
Instructions on how to update personal information will be given
at the point of data collection.
Unless you instruct us otherwise, SCA 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 removing the check from the box indicating your preference as
applicable at the place where your information is collected, or by
other means (such as an e-mail request). In addition, with each communication
you receive from SCA, you will be given the opportunity to indicate
if you do not wish to receive future communications.
Unless it is for the purposes you have requested or originally agreed,
SCA will not share the personal information you provide on the SCA
websites with any other parties, except (a) with your consent; (b)
as may be required by law or court order; (c) to persons or companies
with whom SCA contracts to carry out the internal operations of the
website or our business; or (d) under exigent circumstances to protect
the personal safety or property of our users, the public, or ourselves.
Additionally and with your consent, SCA may share your
personal information with other affiliated Sony companies -- i.e.,
(i) Sony Corporation, (ii) any company of which more than 50% of
its outstanding shares are owned by Sony Corporation, directly or
indirectly, or (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. Further,
only
with your consent, SCA may share your personal information
with specific 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. Please consult the respective privacy
policies of each of these companies for further clarification as
to their own privacy policy. SCA 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 e-mail request). If you consent to
receiving communications from any of these affiliated Sony companies,
or third parties, you will need to communicate with them directly
if you later decide that you no longer wish to receive their communications.
Until we advise you, except as indicated above for the initial decision
made with your consent to share your personal information with Sony
affiliates and/or specific third parties outside of the Sony group
of companies, changes or amendments to your personal information
must be given both to SCA and to each such Sony affiliate or other
company directly, as these changes, amendments, and/or deletions
will not be exchanged among SCA and other Sony affiliates or third
parties.
Use and Disclosure of Anonymous Aggregated Information
SCA may also collect, aggregate, and maintain anonymous information
about the visitors to our websites, such as visitors' hobbies, interests,
purchasing habits, music preferences, and the like. This data can
then be used to tailor SCA's website content and advertising to deliver
a better experience for our visitors. In addition, SCA may also share
such aggregate information about our visitors with advertisers, business
partners, sponsors, and other third parties; for example, to inform
them about the percentage of male/female visitors or percentage of
visitors within a particular age range.
Security
While SCA cannot guarantee that unauthorized access will never occur,
rest assured that SCA 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.
Notice To/Regarding Children Under the Age of 13
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 SCA learns that you are under 13 years
of age, SCA 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.
SCA 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 SCA
websites and the Internet in general. Control tools are available
from online services and software manufacturers to help create a
safer environment for children.
If a child under 13 years of age wishes to participate in any SCA
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) Before any collection of a child's personal information takes
place at a website directed to children or where SCA is knowingly
collecting children's personal information, the child will be asked
to provide his/her parent's or guardian's e-mail address. SCA will
then send an e-mail (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 SCA's database or records. Upon receipt
of the Initial Notification, a parent or guardian may respond back
to SCA to grant his/her consent or to deny consent, in which case
SCA will delete the parent or guardian's e-mail address. Upon SCA's
receipt of the parent/guardian consent, SCA will send a confirming
e-mail to the parent/guardian's e-mail address
(ii) The e-mail address of the operator collecting or maintaining
personal information from children through this website is: PIM@sonyusa.com
(iii) The types of personal information collected from children may
include the name, e-mail 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)
(iv) 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 chatroom or by other
means
(v) 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 by law.
We have required, or will require, such contractors to agree to use
personal information of website 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
(vi) SCA 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
(vii) 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 e-mail to: PIM@sonyusa.com.
(viii) If SCA desires to use a child's information for purposes other
than that for which the parent/guardian consent was previously given,
SCA will not do so without first getting the parent/guardian consent
Consent to Processing
By providing any personal information to the SCA websites, all users,
including without limitation users 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. SCA 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 make a notation near the "Privacy Policy" link on the home page of our Site. Changes to this privacy policy are effective at the time they are posted to this Site, and your continued use of this Site after posting 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 statement, please feel free to send
us an e-mail at
PIM@sonyusa.com.