PLAYSTATION®Network Privacy Policy
Effective Date: November 17, 2006
Sony Computer Entertainment America ("SCEA") is committed to respecting the privacy rights of PLAYSTATION®Network “PSN” users. We recognize that our users, including parents and their children using PSN, need to know how SCEA treats any personally identifying information they may share with us when they access the goods and services available on PSN. This privacy policy is intended to provide you with information about how we collect, use and store the information that is provided to us via PSN, so that you can make appropriate choices for yourself and for your family. For additional information about our privacy practices, not specific to PSN, please go to www.us.playstation.com and click on the privacy policy icon at the bottom of each page of the site.
PSN and the PSN Privacy Policy
In North America, SCEA operates PSN, a community of PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system users and a network of online games, other media and content, and communication services. Users can purchase network goods and services, including game content and game services, from SCEA through PSN and can participate in network community activities. By using PSN, you assent to the application of SCEA's PSN Privacy Policy to your personally identifying information. If you do not agree to this policy, please do not use PSN. We reserve the right to make changes to the PSN Privacy Policy at any time. If we make a material change to the PSN Privacy Policy, we will notify you by posting the change on PSN or in this Privacy Policy and, if necessary, give you additional choices regarding the change. Please check back from time to time to ensure that you are aware of these changes. Your continued use of PSN will signify your acceptance of these changes.
Collection of Personally Identifying Information through PSN
Users must provide us with their date of birth, name, address and email address in order to set up a PSN account. If you are setting up a Sub Account for another adult under your Master Account, the Sub Account holder must provide the same type of information: date of birth, name, address and email address. If you are setting up a Sub Account for a child under 18 years of age for whom you are legally responsible, you must provide this information for the child and consent to our use of their personally identifying information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. For more information on Sub Accounts and Master Accounts, please see the Terms of Service and User Agreement. In addition to the information collected above, when a user creates a PSN account, a PSN mailbox for that account is automatically created and the PSN account holder selects an identifier called the Online ID which is viewable by other PSN users and used to send text emails to the PSN account mailbox. The Online ID is considered personally identifying information. You may choose to provide valid credit card information at the time of registration. If you make a purchase through PSN, you may be required to provide valid credit card information at the time of purchase. If you are giving consent to allow your child under 13 to participate in PSN, we require that you provide valid credit card information.
Collection of Non-Personally Identifying Information through PSN
SCEA may also collect information such as your IP address or information from your PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system unit and information about how you use PSN and your PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system unit, including, for example, downloads, game activity (including game title name and length of play), forum postings, game profile, rankings and presence on buddy or ignore lists (collectively, “passive information”). This type of information will be collected even for offline gameplay. SCEA may also place cookies on your PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system unit’s hard drive. Cookies are bits of electronic information that keep records of the places you have visited on PSN and to keep track of your purchases on PSN.
Treatment of Personally Identifying Information of Children Under 13 Years of Age
In order for a child under the age of 13 to participate on PSN, parents or legal guardians of children under the age of 13 must create PSN sub accounts for those children, as long as they provide verifiable legal consent to our collection of their child’s personal information and to their child’s participation in PSN. To set up a Sub Account for a child under 13, a parent or guardian must first set up a Master Account for himself or herself through which the parent or guardian can then set up a Sub Account for the child. The parent or guardian must then consent to having the child’s personal information shared with third parties who provide online game services through PSN, for the purposes of game administration.
Providing Verifiable Parental Consent
The parent or legal guardian must provide SCEA with valid credit card information and a valid Internet-based e-mail address. An email is then sent to the parent’s Internet-based email address with a link to a secure web site. The parent completes the remainder of the account registration on the parent’s personal computer, providing the name, address and email address of the child and will be provided with options to control his or her child’s access to content and ability to chat with other PSN users.
How SCEA Shares Personally Identifying Information of Children Under 13
When a PSN account is created, a PSN mailbox for that account is automatically created and the PSN account holder selects an identifier called the Online ID which is viewable by other PSN users and used to send text emails to the PSN account mailbox. The Online ID is considered personally identifying information. Please note that a child’s Online ID will be viewable to other PSN users and other PSN users will be able to send text emails to the child’s PSN account mailbox. The parent’s Master Account will not be notified of text emails sent to a child’s Sub Account mailbox. In order to provide game services, third parties with whom SCEA contracts, including game publishers and other Sony affiliate companies may need a user’s Online ID and relevant non-identifying account information. The Online ID is the only personally identifying information from a child under the age of 13 that SCEA will share with a third party. If the parent does not provide us with consent to disclose the child’s Online ID, a PSN account cannot be set up for the child.
A parent or guardian also has the option when setting up the Sub Account to decide whether the child can chat with others on PSN generally and on game sites. Chat or chatting means voice and video chat on PSN and may also mean text chat on a game site, but does not mean text email messages (see previous paragraph for discussion of text email messages). If the parent chooses not to allow the child to chat on PSN generally, we will forbid game publishers from allowing the child to chat on game sites. Please note that some games require chat to play. If the parent chooses not to allow the child to chat on PSN, the child may not be able to play certain games. If the parent has chosen not to allow the child to chat on PSN but later wants to allow the child to chat, the parent may either modify the parental controls for the child’s Sub Account or the parent may be given another opportunity to provide verifiable parental consent at a specific game site. Conversely, if the parent chooses to allow the child to chat on PSN generally, the child will automatically be allowed to chat online in game sites, where available. The parent can modify or change these options through its Master Account at any time.
How We Use Your Information
Unless you tell us you want to receive marketing materials from us, personally identifying information collected through PSN will be saved and used to administer PSN, including providing you with online gaming services, gaming- and content-related commerce services and community services and ensuring compliance with the PSN Terms of Service and User Agreement and this Privacy Policy. SCEA collects information that you provide, information contained in financial transaction records and information contained in records of your other PSN activities.
Information obtained from users who contact our Consumer Services department will be maintained by the Consumer Services department, so that we may use it to assist users with current or future service issues.
We may use your personally identifying information and records for defense in a lawsuit, investigation or other action if your personally identifying information, records or profiles are relevant to the lawsuit, investigation or action.
In addition, SCEA may use your personally identifying information for marketing and demographic studies. For example, SCEA may use your Online ID to cross-reference passive information with non-personally identifying information in your profile, such as your gender or age, in order to develop aggregated information about who uses PSN and how. Such studies may be conducted by us or by an outside firm hired by us.
How we Share Your Information with Third Parties for Game Administration Purposes
If you access content or services on PSN that are published or supported by a third party, your personally identifying information may be shared with that third party publisher for purposes of game administration. Personally identifying information that we share with a third party publisher is subject to that publisher’s privacy policy. You may be given the option to provide the same or additional personal identifying information directly to the third party publisher pursuant to the third party publisher’s privacy policy. Please review carefully all terms and conditions of any third party privacy policy.
We may also disclose your personally identifying information to other Sony Computer Entertainment companies, Sony affiliates and certain third parties that we have engaged to assist us in providing the PSN service to you, including facilitating online game services, including customer services, or maintaining our database records. This includes, but is not limited to, fulfillment houses, transaction managers, credit card services, online network services and data management companies.
Finally, SCEA may share information with appropriate third parties, including law enforcement or other similar entities, in connection with a criminal investigation, investigation of fraud, infringement of intellectual property rights, or other activity that is suspected to be illegal or may expose consumers or SCEA to legal liability.
How We Use or Share Your Information for Marketing Purposes
At the time of registration, you will be given the option to receive marketing materials from SCEA through its PlayStation Underground loyalty program. You will be given a separate option to allow us to share your personally identifying information with SCEA’s third party publishers, other Sony companies and affiliates and promotional partners to receive marketing materials for additional goods and services. Please contact Consumer Services if you would like to know what companies, if any, SCEA has shared your personal information with and what information has been shared. Membership in the PlayStation Underground loyalty program is free and grants the member certain rights which may include, but are not limited to, discount offers, game news, free demo discs, access to restricted areas of our websites, the opportunity to be a registered user or subscriber of our websites or other services, and more. When you join the PlayStation Underground loyalty program, your name and address are provided to Ziff Davis, the publisher of the Official PlayStation Magazine, only for the purpose of sending you a free issue. As a PlayStation Underground Member, you may be asked, but are not required, to provide demographic information that will be connected to your personally identifying information, to create your PlayStation Underground Member profile. This information is compiled so that we can create an experience that better serves the needs and interests of our PlayStation Underground Members.
Transfer of Your Information in the Event of Sale or Acquisition
In the event that SCEA sells its PSN business or has its PSN business acquired, your personally identifying information may be transferred to the purchasing or acquiring entity.
Online Communication
PSN provides several ways for users to freely share their thoughts and ideas. Users can voice chat, video chat or send text emails to another user’s PSN mailbox. Certain games may also provide in-game chat. PSN participants must adhere to the PSN Terms of Service and User Agreement as well as any additional terms and conditions that SCEA provides. This privacy policy will apply to any information we collect when users utilize PSN communication tools. We ask our users to respect the privacy of others. Disclosure of phone numbers, addresses, or other personal information, which may violate someone else's privacy is prohibited. Additionally, we prohibit the disclosure by any user of his or her own personally identifying information other than the user’s own Online ID. We reserve the right to delete any content that violates this rule or any other term or condition posted and reserve the right to ban any user who has violated this requirement. For details on online communication for children under the age of 13, please see the section entitled “How SCEA Shares Personally Identifying Information of Children Under 13”, above.
Accuracy & Security
We seek to maintain reasonable security measures in order to attempt to protect against the loss, misuse or alteration of the personally identifying information under our control. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as perfect security. As a result, although we strive to protect your personally identifying information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us through or in connection with our website or that we store on our systems or that is stored on our service providers' systems. Please keep your Sign-in ID and password secret to prevent unauthorized access and use of your PSN account. If you have set your “Auto Sign-in” setting to populate automatically your password and Sign-in ID, please make sure you change the setting to [Auto Sign-In Off] before you let anyone else use your PSN account or give your PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system unit to anyone else, including returning the unit to a retailer or to SCE.
We provide you with access to your data through an Account Management feature on PSN for purposes of verifying and correcting personally identifying information.
International Privacy
Personal data and information will be processed by us in the U.S. where data protection and privacy regulations may not offer the same level of protection as in other parts of the world, such as the European Union.
Contact Us
For further information on our privacy policy, or for questions on information that we may have collected from you, or should you wish to have your name removed from the PlayStation Underground mailing list, please contact us by either of the following methods and we will be happy to review, update, or change your record status as appropriate :
By Phone at:
1-800-345-7669 (800-345-SONY), live rep support M-SAT 6am-8pm PST, SUN 7am-6:30pm PST; auto support 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.
By Mail at:
SCEA, Consumer Services Department
P.O. Box 5888
San Mateo, CA
94402-0888
On the Web Site:
Log into your account and make changes as needed. Here’s the link to log in and get you started: https://secureus.playstation.com/Registration/SignIn.
Once you login, go to the My Account section of the site to access your personal information.