This Privacy Policy describes and covers our collection and usage of your personal information to provide you with the basic function of this application. Please read this Policy carefully before you agree to this Policy to start using this application. |
Effective Date: This Privacy Policy was revised and is effective as of 2025-02
This Privacy Policy applies to “Sony | BRAVIA Connect” (the “Application”) and SONY’s certain sound bar and home theatre products connected to your Application. Such SONY’s sound bar and home theatre products are those that are compatible for connection with the network (“Sound Bar and Home Theatre Products”). This Privacy Policy explains our collection, use, sharing and other practices regarding your data when you use the Application and the Sound Bar and Home Theatre Products.
The Application is a mobile application dedicated to audio/visual devices from SONY. The Sound Bar and Home Theatre Products are SONY’s sound bar and home theatre products that are connected with the Application for the Application to control such devices and can connect with the network.
In this Privacy Policy, we use “SONY,” "we," "us," and "our" to refer to Sony Corporation. “SONY Affiliates” shall mean Sony Group Corporation, which is the ultimate parent company of SONY and any legal entities controlled by Sony Group Corporation which may be located in countries/regions outside your country/region of residence.The term “control” in this context means the direct or indirect ownership of at least fifty percent (50%) of the voting interest in such corporation or the power in fact to control the management decisions of such entity. “SONY China” shall mean our local operating SONY Affiliates. This Privacy Policy only applies to the Applications and the Sound Bar and Home Theatre Products and is in addition to any other privacy policy that may apply to your interactions with SONY and SONY Affiliates or any third party, regarding their product, software or service.
If you use the Application to control a SONY’s TV (BRAVIA), please note that the usage data of the TV corresponding to the Application's commands will be collected by SONY via the TV subject to your consent to the collection of such usage data under the BRAVIA privacy policy. Such usage data is handled in accordance with the BRAVIA privacy policy, as provided by SONY. You can change the privacy settings for the collection and use of the usage data in your TV’s privacy setting.
SONY collects and uses information or data as described below (“Collected Data”). Some of these information may be considered personal information under applicable law in your jurisdiction. These are collected when you choose to provide information to us or automatically when you use the Application and the Sound Bar and Home Theatre Products (when you connect such Sound Bar and Home Theatre Products with the Application). Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Collected Data does not include data which is or has been fully anonymized, including personal data which has been rendered anonymous in accordance with legal requirements such that it is incapable of being linked back to or associated with an individual. SONY commits to maintaining anonymized data as such and may use such anonymous data without restriction.
Company internal ID (“Company internal ID”), which is a company internal identifier issued by us for unique identification in order to link the Applications and Sony China Account (defined below). If you decide to activate certain services, such as backup and restoration of service settings as described in Section 4. (A) (i), you will be required to create an account through Sony China’s account service (“Sony China Account”) according to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. When you create Sony China Account, you enter information such as an email address or phone number. For clarity, SONY does not receive such information. SONY collects Company internal ID, which has been converted to a non-personally identifiable value.
From time to time, SONY may ask you whether you would like to participate in one of our surveys. We may ask for information, such as your interests and preferences with regard to current and future products and services on the market.
You can decide not to participate in the survey by closing the browser or tabs of the survey at any point during the survey.
We collect your personal information as described in the Section 1 and process it as described in later sections of this Privacy Policy only if you give us your consent. The third parties described in Section 4 (B) each constitutes an independent and separate personal information processor, who determines its own purpose and means of processing. We provide your personal information to such third parties only if you give us your separate consent.
We obtain your consent and separate consent via the following methods:
(ⅰ) asking you to tap “Agree and proceed” accompanied with this Privacy Policy to give us your consent to our general processing of your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy;
(ⅱ) asking you to tap "Agree and start using” or “Agree and proceed” accompanied with this Privacy Policy to give us your separate consent to our improvement/development of the Application.
You can withdraw your consent regarding (ⅱ) above for Collected Data via the Application at any time by selecting "(3 dots) Menu" > "About this app" > "Privacy settings" in the Application. You can withdraw your consent regarding (ii) above for Collected Data via the Sound Bar and Home Theatre Products at any time by selecting "Devices and Information" and going to "Settings" > "Network Settings" > "Privacy Settings" in the Application. If you would like to withdraw your consent regarding (ⅰ) above, please contact SONY at www.sony.net/SonyInfo/Support/
In addition to providing you with features/functions of each Application and related services, SONY uses your Collected Data for the following purposes:
(ⅰ) Providing the functions of the Application and the Sound Bar and Home Theatre Products
SONY processes the Collected Data to provide or operate the features and functions of the Application and the Sound Bar and Home Theatre Products.
(ⅱ) Pushing updates to the Application or your Related Device
Each time you start the Application on your Installed Device, the Application sends a “request” to SONY's server to check whether any updates for the Application or the firmware of the Related Device (including Sound Bar and Home Theatre Products) are available and to send latest software or firmware in case any update should be available. For this, we only use your IP address.
(ⅲ) Providing “Help” upon your request
If Help is requested by you, certain technical information about the Installed Device, about the Application and about the Related Device (including Sound Bar and Home Theatre Products) are transferred to SONY in order to provide service to you through the Help feature. This transfer of data enables SONY to provide you with “customized” Help webpages for the Application and Sound Bar and Home Theatre Products and the specific technical issue you experience. For this, we process the following Collected Data:
(ⅳ) Improving/developing the Application
SONY uses the Collected Data (except for Section 1 (2)(i)) to improve and develop the Application, which may be linked and analyzed in conjunction with the data we collect through other Sony audio applications if you use one of those. For the collected data through those applications, please refer to the privacy policies for those applications or services.
We do not share personal information with unaffiliated third parties for their own marketing purposes but we may share non-personal information, including aggregate data and anonymized data, with third parties to the fullest extent allowed by law. In addition, SONY may share Collected Data with SONY Affiliates and third parties as follows, except the case of (C) below:
SONY may use third party service providers to process the Collected Data on its behalf for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. Such third parties service providers include, but are not limited to, IT service providers and data hosting providers. Our hosting provider is Amazon Web Services in the United States, acting as our entrusted processor.
SONY may disclose the token issued by Firebase Cloud Messaging or Apple Push Notification service (Please refer to Section 1. (B) ( i )) to Firebase, a service provided by Google Inc.(“Google”) for Android user, or Apple Push Notifications service, a service provided by Apple Inc. (“Apple”) for iOS user), in order to provide you with push notice function. To better understand how Google and Apple use the information they receive, visit:
Google,https://policies.google.com/privacy
Apple,https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/en-ww/
(B) Third parties who have their own purpose and means of processing
These third parties each determine its own purpose and means of processing your personal information received from us. To the extent permitted by the applicable law, we will inform you in this Privacy Policy the name and contact information of each third party, the categories of your personal information to be provided to the third party, and the purpose and means of the provision. We will not provide your personal information to any such third party before you give us your separate consent.
In the event that SONY sells or transfers a portion or all of its business, the Collected Data may be transferred by SONY to the purchasing or acquiring entity as part of the transaction, including any due diligence process connected to the sale or transfer. In this case, we will provide you with the name and contact information of the entity. We will continue to ensure the confidentiality of the Collected Data before such transaction occurs, and after such transaction, we will delete the Collected Data as soon as reasonably practicable.
Collected Data may be disclosed to government authorities and/or law enforcement officials if required by the applicable laws.
We may disclose Collected Data to auditors or similar external consultants like lawyers or tax advisors, to defend and exercise our legal rights (e.g. enforcing compliance with the terms of use) and as we believe necessary to comply with our legal obligations.
SONY will keep the Collected Data for as long as it is necessary for the relationship with you and the purposes detailed in Section 3 or otherwise permitted or required under applicable law.
SONY may retain Collected Data for an appropriate period to protect ourselves from legal claims, to administer our business, or to the extent permitted by applicable law, which may require us to hold the relevant Collected Data for specific periods.
Where SONY no longer requires the Collected Data, it will be destroyed or anonymized in line with internal SONY information security policies.
We will process, store and transfer Collected Data for the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy from your country/regions of residence globally to countries/regions outside your country/region of residence. Collected Data will be processed by staff operating outside your country/region of residence who work for us or for one of our Service Providers.
SONY undertakes reasonable security measures designed to protect against the loss, misuse or alteration of the Collected Data. Although SONY strives to protect the Collected Data, SONY cannot guarantee or warrant the absolute security of any Collected Data transmitted to SONY through the Application or that SONY stores on its systems or that is stored on SONY’s third party contractors' systems.
SONY is committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations regarding the collection, storage and use of the Collected Data concerning children, including the Provisions on the Network Protection of Children's Personal Information in mainland China. The Application and the Sound Bar and Home Theatre Products is intended for a general audience; these are not directed to and does not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 14. Depending on your country/region of residence, this threshold age for a child may differ. If you are a parent or guardian and are concerned that your child has provided SONY with personal information (as defined by applicable law), you should contact us as indicated below.
In some countries/regions, you have certain rights with respect to the Collected Data SONY or a SONY Affiliate holds about you. These may include (without limitation) the right to request a copy of the Collected Data that SONY or a SONY Affiliate holds about you and/or you may request that SONY or the SONY Affiliate corrects or supplements such Collected Data if it is inaccurate. You may also ask us to provide some types of the Collected Data to you, or another organization nominated by you, in a structured and machine-readable format. Where the processing of any Collected Data is based on your consent, you may withdraw consent and request SONY to suspend or terminate the relevant processing.In addition, if you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact SONY at www.sony.net/SonyInfo/Support/. 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 departments fulfilling personal information protection duties and responsibilities.
SONY reserves the right to make changes to this Privacy Policy and will notify you of any changes by prominently posting notice of the amendment on or within the Application. We may also provide notice to you in other ways, such as through contact information you have provided. You are advised to consult the posted Privacy Policy regularly for any changes.
Where the changes concern any processing that is based on your consent, we will obtain your consent (and separate consent where required) to the changes (e.g. by using tick boxes or agree buttons).
If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, or if you wish to exercise any legal right you may have in respect of the Collected Data, please contact us at www.sony.net/SonyInfo/Support/. If you wish to contact SONY China, please access and send your inquiry at SChina_Privacy_Dep@sony.com