This Privacy Policy sets out how Sony Group Corporation, (of 7-1 Konan 1-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-0075, Japan) (“Sony”, “we”, “our” or “us”) collects or processes information submitted by you for the Sony Research Award Program (“Program”), by using an online submission system of Qualtrics, LLC. (“Qualtrics”). It also describes your data protection rights, including a right to object to some of the processing which Sony carries out. More information about your rights, and how to exercise them, is set out in Section 8 below.
For the purposes of Regulation 2016/679 (the "GDPR"), Sony is the "data controller" of your personal data.
In relation to your application to the Program, we collect and use your information or data as described below (your "personal data").
Sony processes your personal data in order only to execute the Program, including the following purpose:
We will make your personal data available to other Sony Group Companies and to third-party service providers as follows:
We will share your personal data with Sony Corporation of America R&D Center US Laboratory, Sony Europe B.V. Corporate Technology Strategy Division EU, and Sony Research India Private Limited Sony Research India, solely for the purposes set forth above. In addition, we will share your personal data with Qualtrics who provides online submission system as third-party service provider. Qualtrics is engaged for the purposes of pursuing the activities outlined in this Privacy Policy on our behalf, acting as data processors.
In the event that we transfer a portion or all of our business, your information may be transferred by us to the purchasing or acquiring entity as part of the transaction. In the event we transfer your information to a purchasing or acquiring entity you will be duly informed.
We will retain, use and/or disclose any of your information as required or permitted by law, regulation or order, including to the police or other appropriate authorities, to investigate complaints made by or against you, or to protect or defend ourselves, or others, against illegal, criminal or harmful activities.
We will continue to retain your personal data for 12 months after the closing of the Program unless local law tells us to keep it for longer. Please note that we may be required to retain certain information by law. Where we no longer require your personal data, it will be destroyed or de-identified in line with our policies. When we say de-identified, we mean that we will remove information that could be used to identify you from your personal data.
Your information will be processed, stored and transferred for the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy to various countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and/or your country of residence, including Japan, India, US and Canada. Your information will be processed by staff operating outside the EEA and/or your country of residence who work for us and may be seen by such staff in those countries.
Sony takes appropriate measures to ensure that all transfers of your personal data from the EEA to countries outside the EEA meet the requirements of applicable EU data protection legislation. If you have any questions or concerns about Sony's data transfer arrangements, please contact us using the details at Section 10.
Sony undertakes reasonable security measures designed to protect against the loss, misuse or alteration of your information. Although we strive to protect your information, we cannot guarantee or warrant the security of any information transmitted to us through the Event or that we store on our systems or that is stored on our third party contractors’ systems.
Sony is committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations regarding the collection, storage and use of personal information concerning children, including the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act in the United States and applicable local legislation in other countries. If you are a parent or guardian and are concerned that your child has provided us with personal information without your consent, you should contact us as indicated in Section 10 below.
In some countries, you have certain rights with respect to your personal data. These may include the right to request a copy of your personal data that we or our group companies holds about you and/or you may request that we provide a copy, corrects, amends, deletes, erases, destroys, objects or blocks/restrict processing and/or use of your personal data if it is inaccurate. In some countries, you may also ask us to provide some types of the Information to you in a structured, machine-readable format and ask us to share (port) such data with another controller. These rights may be limited, for example if fulfilling your request would reveal personal data about another person, or if you ask us to delete Information which we are required by law to keep, or have compelling legitimate interests in keeping. If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us as described in Section 10 below. If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your questions, concerns or have any complaints about how we process personal data, you have a right to lodge a complaint with the local data protection supervisory authority.
If you reside in California, we are required to provide additional information to you about how we collect, use and disclose your personal data, and you have the right to request that we provide you with access to your personal data, delete your personal data, and to opt-out of any sale of personal data. Please refer to this California-specific information below:
CA Personal Information. Consistent with this Privacy Policy, we may collect the following categories of information about California residents ("CA Personal Information") for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, specifically:
- Identifiers: such as full name, e-mail address, etc.
Sharing your CA Personal Information for Business Purposes: In the preceding twelve (12) months, we have shared the [Identifiers] categories of CA Personal Information for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.
Sale of CA Personal Information: In the preceding twelve (12) months, we have not “sold” (as defined under the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”)) CA Personal Information.
California Consumer Rights. Subject to certain exceptions, as a California resident, you may have the following rights with respect to your CA Personal Information to request: (i) access to your CA Personal Information that we have collected, used or disclosed [or sold] within the preceding twelve (12) months; (ii) deletion of your CA Personal Information; provided that we are permitted under applicable law to retain some of your CA Personal Information and certain CA Personal Information is strictly necessary in order for us to fulfill the purposes described in this privacy policy.; and (iii) information about the CA Personal Information we have disclosed for business purposes [or sold] within the preceding twelve (12) months.
Exercising Your Rights. If you are a California resident and wish to exercise any of these rights, please: (i) contact us by sending an email to [privacy@am.sony.com] with the specific nature of your request, referencing “Your California Privacy Rights”; or (ii) call the following toll-free number [1-833-681-9900]. When submitting your request, you must include your first and last name, email address and zip code or mailing address. To the extent that you elect to designate an authorized agent on your behalf, you must provide your agent with a valid power of attorney or written permission to act for you. You may be asked to provide additional proof of identification so that we can verify your identity and validate the request. We are not responsible for requests that are not labeled or sent properly, or do not have complete information. Please note that you are limited by law in the number of requests you may submit per year. We will not discriminate against you based solely upon you exercising your rights under CCPA.
If you are a California resident, under the California “Shine the Light” law, you have the right to receive: a) information identifying any third party company(ies) to whom Sony 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 and include your name, email address, and a reference to “Your California Privacy Rights”. We are not responsible for requests that are not labeled or sent properly, or do not have complete information.
If you are a Nevada resident, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of certain personally identifiable information we have collected about you to third parties. Sony does not currently sell your personally identifiable information as those terms are defined under Nevada law. However, if you wish to submit a request to opt-out of the sale of such information in case that Sony were to engage in such a sale in the future, you may submit your request in writing to: privacy@am.sony.com. Your request must reference your Nevada rights and include your name, mailing address, zip code, and email address. Your request is subject to verification of your identity by us and validation of your request. We are not responsible for requests that do not come through the designated request mechanism or do not contain sufficient information to allow us to process your request. Sony will respond to valid requests within sixty (60) days.
This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time for any reason. We will notify or request your consent (whenever necessary under the applicable law) of any changes to this Privacy Policy.
If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or if you wish to exercise any legal right you have in respect of your personal data, please contact Sony Europe BV, who is Sony’s representative in the EU, at:
You can also get in touch by writing to Sony Europe BV, The Privacy Office, The Heights, Brooklands, Weybridge, Surrey KT13 0XW, United Kingdom, or you can contact your local Sony Group Companies at https://sony-europe.com.
If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or if you wish to exercise any legal right you have in respect of your personal data, please contact Sony Europe BV, who is Sony’s representative in the UK, at:
You can also get in touch by writing to Sony Europe BV, The Privacy Office, The Heights, Brooklands, Weybridge, Surrey KT13 0XW, United Kingdom.
If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or if you wish to exercise any legal right you have in respect of your personal data, please contact Sony Electronics Inc., at:
You can also get in touch by writing to Sony Electronics Inc., The Privacy Office, 115 West Century Rd., Suite 250, Paramus, NJ 07652, the United States.
If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our use of your personal data, or if you wish to make requests or exercise any legal right you may have in respect of your personal data, please contact us at:
Last Updated: July 15, 2021
