PlayStation®Network: Privacy Policy

PlayStation® Network Europe Limited will collect personal information about you when you access or use PlayStation®Network (PSN), including the PlayStation®Store and associated in-game stores, online gaming and virtual communities. This Privacy Policy tells you how we will use this information and how you can contact us about this.

1. Creating a PSN Account

There are two types of PSN accounts: Master Accounts and Sub Accounts. For more information about this, please see our Terms of Service and User Agreement. When we use the term "you" in this Privacy Policy, we are referring to any PSN account holder.

When you register a Master Account with PSN, we collect information from you, such as your name, email address, postal address, date of birth, gender, language, password and any parental control options. We may also ask you to complete market research surveys. If you create any Sub Accounts, we will collect information from you about the Sub Account holders. You must obtain the consent of the Sub Account holder to provide this information and for us to store and use their personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

2. Your Online ID

When you register a Master or Sub Account, you choose an Online ID. Your Online ID is your public nickname while you are in PSN and is available to all PSN users. Your Online ID will be displayed while you are playing games online or chatting with other users. Other users, such as people whom you meet or play online, can use your Online ID to send you messages or chat. If you accept other users as your "Friends" in PSN, they can check what you are doing within PSN at any time. Your Online ID, "About Me" statement, avatar, language, country and gaming statistics may be displayed in-game or on websites related to the game. Online gameplay may be recorded and distributed outside PSN, including your Online ID and messages to other players.

We recommend that you don't include any information which could be used to identify you in your Online ID or other public statements.

3. Using PSN

Each time you sign in to PSN, we will collect information automatically without further notice to you, for example:

If you buy funds for your PSN wallet or make any other payments via PSN, you must provide your payment details, such as credit card numbers, cardholder name, commencement and expiry date, and security codes, in order to process your payment. Credit card details will be stored for future purchases, unless you remove them from your account via your PSN Account Management area. We will keep a record of your payments into your PSN wallet and the purchases you make via PSN.

4. What do we do with your information?

We use your personal information to operate PSN and to provide the products and services you ask for, including online gaming, community features, communications, downloads, subscriptions, beta trials, promotions, in-game advertising and competitions. We also use your personal information to maintain your account (including ensuring the accuracy of the billing on your account), to deal with your customer service requests and to carry out research and analysis to improve our products and services, and, as permitted by law, for marketing and promotional purposes.

We use your payment details in order to process your purchases and to carry out credit checks. We may provide your payment details to banks and to other relevant third parties in order to complete your purchase and obtain payment. We keep records of transactions for our internal records and for internal auditing, accounting, compliance and legal purposes.

From time to time, we will send you administration messages about PSN (for example, if you lose your password or if changes are made to the PSN Terms of Service and User Agreement or this Policy). We will also give you the option of receiving marketing information about new products, services and promotions, either from us or from other companies. If you choose to receive such marketing information, we may also use and disclose your personal information to relevant third parties for this purpose. We may use information which we have about you to send you marketing which we believe will be of particular interest to you.

We will use your information to enforce the PSN Terms of Service and User Agreement and any rules or codes of conduct applying to your use of PSN. In exceptional circumstances, we may 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 activities which we consider to be illegal, criminal or harmful.

5. Who else has access to your information

Your information will be available to other Sony Computer Entertainment companies, and to companies who help to operate PSN and to process your payments for us (for example, companies who support our IT systems, carry out credit checks and monitor communications). They will comply with this Privacy Policy and we will be responsible for their use of your information.

You may also be invited to use your PSN account details to log in to online game features, online services and websites offered by other companies who are not part of the Sony Computer Entertainment group, such as third party game publishers. If you use your PSN account to access these services, we will share your account details with those companies, so that they can provide these services to you and conduct their own research and analysis on these services. For example, we will share gameplay information and your parental control options with the publishers of games which you play online. We are not responsible for how these companies use your personal information. They may have their own privacy policies governing how they will use your information, which we encourage you to access and read before using any service supported by them. By using your PSN account details to log in to third party websites or online services, you confirm that you want us to share your account details in this way.

Your information may be available to third parties during negotiations for a transfer of all or part of our business and may be transferred by us as part of that business.

6. Transfer of your information outside Europe

As PSN is a global service, your information will be transferred for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy to countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA), such as the United States, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, and may be seen by other users in those countries. Data protection laws in these countries may not offer the same level of protection as in the EEA and you may have fewer legal rights in relation to your information. If you are not happy for this transfer to take place, you should not access and use PSN.

7. In Game Advertising

Some games incorporate dynamic advertisement serving technology which enables advertising to be temporarily uploaded into the game on your console and replaced while you are online. If you play these games, we will log information from your console to ensure that the appropriate advertising is presented at the right location within the game and to calculate number of unique and repeat views of advertising. Logged data may include IP address and console MAC address, in game location, length of time an advert was visible, size of the advert and angle of view. We may use information which we have about you to present adverts which we believe will be of particular interest to you. Logged data will be shared with third party companies who operate the advertisement serving technology.

8. Monitoring of Communications

We cannot monitor the whole of PSN and make no commitment to do so. However, we reserve the right in our sole discretion to monitor and record your online activity and communication throughout PSN and to remove any content from PSN at our sole discretion, without further notice to you. Any data collected in this way, including the content of your voice and text communications, the time and location of your activities, and your Online ID and IP address, may be used by us to enforce the PSN Terms of Service and passed to the police or other appropriate authorities. By accepting this Privacy Policy, you expressly consent to this.

9. Changing Details and Unsubscribe

If you want to change or update your details, you can do so via your PSN Account Management area.  If you want to opt-out of receiving marketing information, you can also do so via your PSN Account Management area.  We will aim to process your request within 28 days.

10. Cookies

We use cookies to store specific information about you and to track your access to and use of PSN, and to operate PSN, including recognising your country/language selection for PlayStation®Store. Cookies are small text files automatically sent by us to your system, stored on your system and then sent back to us by your system each time that you access and use PSN. By accepting the PSN Terms of Service and User Agreement and this Privacy Policy, you consent to our use of cookies for this purpose.

11. Security

We take commercially reasonable steps to protect your personal information. This includes setting up processes and procedures to minimise unauthorised access to or disclosure of your information. However, we do not guarantee that we will eliminate all risk of misuse of your personal information by intruders. It is important that you keep your password secret to prevent unauthorised access to and use of your PSN account and any payment details which you have saved for your account. Remember to turn "Save Password" off before letting anyone else use your PSN account or giving your PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system unit to anyone else, including for return to a shop or for repair.

12. Children

You must be 18 to hold a Master Account on PSN. Children under 18 may only hold Sub Accounts associated to a Master Account held by their parent or legal guardian. Depending upon the age of the child and local laws, we may email the parent or guardian of any child registered on PSN in order to confirm the parent or guardian's consent to registration and to use of their child's personal information as explained in this Privacy Policy.

13. Contact us

You are legally entitled to know what information we hold about you and how that information is used.  If you would like to know what information we currently hold about you, please contact customer services via the contact details on the About Us page or write to Data Protection Officer, PlayStation® Network Europe Limited, 10 Great Marlborough Street, London W1F 7LP, United Kingdom.  We will require you to provide proof of identity and may charge a small administration fee.

14. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may make changes to this Privacy Policy from time to time. To access a printable, current copy of this Privacy Policy, go to http://network.eu.playstation.com/tosua/index.html on your PC. Please check regularly to ensure that you are aware of any changes.

You will be notified of material changes by a posting as you sign in to PSN or by email to your current email address as registered on PSN. Your continued use of PSN (via a Master Account or Sub Account) after any changes signifies your acceptance of these changes. If you do not accept material changes to this Privacy Policy you must stop using PSN. If you are a Master Account Holder and there are funds remaining in your wallet, you must contact us and we will close your account (and any associated Sub Accounts) and refund any unused wallet funds. You will not be able to access PSN.

Version 4.1 (15 October 2008)