PlayStation®Network: Privacy Policy
Version 1.30 (October 15, 2008)
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, informed 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 parts of North American and South America, SCEA operates PSN, a community of PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) 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 and other 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 any 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 a child under 18 years of age (or 21 in Argentina) 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. The PSN account holder is prompted to select an identifier called the Online ID, which is viewable by other PSN users and is used to send text email messages 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. In the US and Canada, if you are giving consent to allow your child under 13 to participate on 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 system IP address, IP address-related information, system Media Access Control ("MAC") address, network configurations, network devices, peripherals, USB devices, plug-ins and monitors, 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, browser activity, game activity (including game title name and length of play), forum postings, game profile, rankings, features used and presence on Friends list or block list (collectively, "passive information"). This type of information will be collected even for offline activities. 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 and activities on PSN.
Treatment of Personally Identifying Information of Children Under 13 Years of Age in the US and Canada
In order for a child in the US and Canada who is under the age of 13 to participate on PSN, the parent or legal guardian of the child must first create a Master Account for himself or herself. The parent or legal guardian will then use the Master Account to create a PSN Sub Account for the child who is under 13. The creation of a PSN Sub Account requires the parent or legal guardian to provide verifiable legal consent to our collection of the child's personal information and to the child's participation on PSN. The parent or guardian must also consent to having the child's personal information shared with SCEA's affiliates and third parties who provide online services on or through PSN for the purposes of game, system or service administration.
Providing Verifiable Parental Consent
The parent or legal guardian must provide SCEA with valid credit card information and a valid Internet-based email address. An email is then sent to the parent's Internet-based email address with a link to a secure website. 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 the Age of 13 in the US and Canada
When you create a PSN account, a PSN mailbox for that account is automatically created. You - as the PSN account holder - will be prompted to select an identifier called the Online ID that 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.
A child's Online ID will be viewable by other PSN users, and other PSN users will be able to send text email messages to the child's PSN account mailbox. The parent's Master Account will not be notified of text email messages sent to a child's Sub Account mailbox. In order to provide game services, third parties with whom SCEA contracts, including game publishers, Sony affiliated companies and other companies that provide game services, 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. "Chat" or "chatting" means voice and video discussions on PSN and may also mean text chat, 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 in their games. Please note that some games require that chat functionality to be enabled in order 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 within the particular game. Conversely, if the parent chooses to allow the child to chat on PSN generally, the child will automatically be allowed to chat, where available including in game. The parent can modify or change the chat options through his or her 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, in-game advertising 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 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, through your PSN account, you access content or services that are published or supported by a third-party publisher, your personally identifying information may be shared with that third-party publisher for purposes of game and community administration. By logging in to third-party websites or online services, you confirm that you want us to share your account details in this way. 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 personally 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. Examples of these third parties might include parties that facilitate online game services, provide customer services, or maintain 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, beta test invitations, access to restricted areas of our websites, the opportunity to be a registered user or subscriber of our websites or other services and more. 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.
For Residents of California: Your California Privacy Rights/ Information Sharing Policy
If you provide your personal information to SCEA through PSN, that information may be shared with our partners so that we can provide you with online game services. You will have an additional option to "opt-in" to have your information shared with our promotional partners, licensed software publishers, licensed peripheral makers and other licensees ("Our Partners"). This will give us the opportunity to work with Our Partners to provide you with additional material on PlayStation® and related products, which we think you will enjoy.
Beginning on January 1, 2005, California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits customers of SCEA who are California residents to request certain information regarding the disclosure of personal information to third parties which is used for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, contact our Consumer Services group through the following link: http://www.us.playstation.com/contactus.aspx?id=select or via telephone at 1-800-345-7669.
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. Please be aware that accepting this Privacy Policy means that you also consent the possible transfer of your personally identifying information outside your country of residence.
Online Communication
PSN provides several ways for users to share freely their thoughts and ideas. Users can use voice chat or video chat or send text email messages to another user's PSN mailbox. Certain games may also provide in-game chat. When using these PSN communication tools, 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 in the US and Canada under theage of 13, please see the section entitled "How SCEA Shares Personally Identifying Information of Children Underthe age of 13 in the US and Canada", above.
Recording and Distribution Functionality
Some games include functionality that allow users to record and publicly distribute footage of game play. If you are playing a multi-player online game that utilizes this feature, another user could record and distribute game play that may include your Online ID, your Friends list, your presence online, your messages and your gaming activities. If you want to ensure that your information is not shared by other users in this way, do not play multi-player online games that include this functionality.
In-Game Advertising
Dynamic advertisement serving technology enables advertisements to be temporarily loaded or cached to your system for display only in games that incorporate this technology. If you play a game that utilizes this feature, we will log information about your system and game play to ensure that advertisements are being appropriately served to you and to track information about the advertisements displayed during your gaming session. Logged data may include your Online ID, system IP address, system MAC address, in-game advertisement location, the length of time an advertisement was visible, the size of the advertisements, the angle of view and other information related to each advertisement visible during the gaming session. We may use information that we have collected about you through this process to provide you with future advertisements that we believe will be of particular interest to you. Logged data or some portion thereof will be shared with third-party companies that operate the advertisement serving technology, and these companies may share aggregated data (meaning data that includes data about your gaming session but is not specific to you) with advertisers and game publishers.
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 your password and Sign-in ID automatically, 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 stored and 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. Please be aware that accepting this Privacy Policy means that you agree with the transfer your data outside of your country of residence.
Contact Us
To obtain further information on our privacy policy, or inquire about the 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:
In the US and Canada:
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 Website:
Log in to your account and make changes as needed. Here's the link to log in and get you started: https://secureus.playstation.com/registration/signin.asp.
Once you log in, go to the My Account section of the site to access your personal information.
In Mexico and South America:
Contacto con el servicio de atencion a clients:
Argentina: 011-6770-7669
Chile: 800-261-800; (56)(2)7546333
Columbia: 01-800-550-7000
Peru: 0-801-1-7000; (51)(1)511-6100