PRIVACY POLICY AND YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS
Last modified: May 24, 2018
This Privacy Policy describes how Harmonix Music Systems, Inc. (“Harmonix,” “we,” “us” or “our”) collects, uses and otherwise processes information, including personal data, that we collect from and about our Users (defined below).
1. WHEN THIS PRIVACY POLICY APPLIES.
This Privacy Policy applies to the information, including personal data (or equivalent term), that Harmonix collects and processes about users, players, customers, purchasers, and/or subscribers (each a “User”) of our software, games, applications, content, websites and other activities and services (collectively, our “Services”), including, but not limited to, those Services made available through gaming consoles, personal computers, mobile devices, digital distribution platforms, social networking websites or any versions thereof. This Privacy Policy does not apply to any websites, services, products or applications maintained by other companies or organizations to which we may link.
This Privacy Policy is intended to provide our Users with information about how we collect, use, disclose, and otherwise process their personal data, the choices Users have related to our processing of their personal data, and how Users can exercise their access and other rights over their personal data.
By providing your information to us through the Services, or otherwise using any of our Services, you understand, acknowledge and unconditionally accept that Harmonix may process your information, including personal data, in accordance with this Privacy Policy. IF YOU DO NOT WANT THIS PRIVACY POLICY TO APPLY TO YOU, PLEASE DO NOT USE OR COMMUNICATE WITH US VIA ANY OF OUR SERVICES. If you access the Services through a digital distribution platform, social networking website or mobile version thereof, you may be required to also read, accept and comply with its privacy policy.
2. INFORMATION THAT WE COLLECT
Harmonix collects information, including personal data, directly from Users, automatically via use of the Services, and in some cases, from third parties. The information that Harmonix collects about Users (which may be combined across Services and features) varies depending upon the particular Services used, and may involve the following:
A. Registration. To the extent we offer user registration on the Services, to register as a member of any of the Services, you may be required to provide us certain information that is identified on the registration page. Depending upon the Service, this may include your name, a user name and password, and other information, such as your country of residence, email, contact information and date of birth. Additional information may be requested during the registration process (but not required). Certain Services will not be available if you decline to provide the required information.
B. Information from Third Party Accounts. You may be able to connect certain third-party accounts (each a “Third Party Account”) – such as Xbox Live, PlayStation®Network, Facebook, etc. – to your use of the Services, so that, among other things, you can connect with your friends and network and share game information. In addition to linking a Third Party Account, we also may allow you to login to certain Services through certain third party accounts, including Facebook http://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/ (each a “Third Party Account”). If you choose to login this way, you are asked to share certain information with us (which may include name, email, friends and public profile information); the specific information and whether it is required or optional is stated on the permissions page when you login with the Third Party Account.
C. Subscriptions and Purchase Information. If you make a purchase or sign up for certain subscription-based Services, you are required to provide your payment information, including name, billing and shipping address and details, payment type, as well as credit card number or other payment account details (e.g., PayPal) to the third party from which you are purchasing such items. We do not collect, receive, process or store any payment information, including credit card or debit card numbers, or other third-party payment account credentials (e.g., PayPal); this information is collected directly by these third parties. Depending upon the Service, we may receive your username, name and information on the items that you have purchased (including entitlements).
D. User / Device Identifiers. When you access, play or use our Services, we may collect IP address, MAC address, console identifiers (e.g., XUID and PUID), and other device identifiers; we may also assign account holders a unique user identifier, which we use to identify and link relevant information to your User account (e.g., in-game information such as statistics, scores, and achievements). In an effort to provide a safe and fair gaming environment to all Users, we may employ "anti-cheating" software or applications during the use of certain Services to prevent fraudulent activities and behaviors that may negatively affect the experiences of a User. When creating a profile for certain Services, we may collect data about your personal computer in order to create a hash of machine components.
E. Subscribing to Emails, and Participating in Sweepstakes, Contests, Surveys and Similar Activities. Users can sign up online or in-person (e.g., at tradeshows) to receive direct marketing communications from us, including emails about game launches, developments, and upcoming releases. If you agree to receive direct marketing communications from us, we collect your email address, and we may also collect your name, date of birth, preferences, and, if relevant, information about the Services and other games you use. We may also run contests, sweepstakes, surveys or other events or activities (collectively, “events”) on our websites and social media channels. Information collected for these events may include your name, date of birth, email address, and other information. To the extent you win a prize in a sweepstakes, you may be required to provide your mailing address and tax-related information.
F. Your Communications. When you email us, call us, or otherwise send us communications regarding the Services, we collect and maintain a record of your contact details, communications and our responses. We may also maintain records of the in-game communications and information that you post in chat sessions, forums, and in other areas of the Services.
G. Your Activities, Stats, Friends and Preferences. We collect usage and preference details related to your use of the Services, including, but not limited to, language, in-game purchases, game-play statistics, scores, persona, characters, achievements, rankings, time spent playing, click paths, game profile, preferences, friends) and other data that you provide to us as a User.
H. Automatically Collected Information. We also may automatically or indirectly collect information about you, your computer or mobile device (such as when you use our Services, read our emails, through social media channels). We (and our third-party providers) may record log files and use cookies, pixel tags, local shared objects, java script, and other mechanisms to collect this information about you. For more information, see the How We Collect Your Information section below.
I. Information from Third Party Sites. We also may use third party tools to help us manage and analyze our social media presence, and report on comments, mentions and other content that is posted about us on social media sites and other public channels and forums. These third parties’ activities, and their information collection and sharing practices, are subject to the terms of the relevant social media site, channel or forum. We will use this information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
Children. Harmonix does not knowingly request or collect personal data from children younger than 13 years of age. If you believe that we may have unintentionally collected personal data from a child under 13, contact us as set forth at the bottom of this Privacy Notice, and we will take action as necessary to securely delete such information.
Unless otherwise specified above, generally we collect your information, including personal data, on a voluntary basis. However, as noted above, if you decline to provide certain information that is marked mandatory, you may not be able to access certain Services and we may be unable to fully respond to your inquiry.
3. HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION
Generally, we may use the information, including personal data, that we collect from you for the purposes and lawful bases described below:
For the performance of our agreement with you. The information referred to under Section 2 A, B, C, D, E, F and G above may be used to provide our Services to you, including to run contests, sweepstakes or other events or activities in which you participate; improve your gameplay experience; provide tailored customer services and support; matching; and to handle your questions and requests.
To comply with a legal obligation to which Harmonix is subject. Any information referred to above in Section 2 may be used to maintain appropriate business records; comply with lawful requests by public, governmental and other regulatory authorities or the courts in any relevant jurisdiction; and to comply with applicable laws and regulations; or as otherwise required by law.
For our legitimate commercial interests. The information referred to under Section 2 D, E, F, G and H above may be used to improve and develop our products and services; analyze the use of our Services and generate aggregate statistics about our User community; personalize your experiences (e.g., for your geographic area); send or display targeted marketing; facilitate software updates; assist in security and fraud prevention; for system integrity (preventing hacking, cheats, spamming, etc.); facilitate our business operations and maintain appropriate business records; operate company policies and procedures; facilitate our response to legal process (e.g., a court order, warrant or subpoena); enable us to merge, sell, acquire, or transfer assets; and for other legitimate business purposes permitted by applicable law.
Use of information based on your consent. We may use personal data about you based on your express consent, for example to send you marketing communications, surveys, news, updates and other communications. Users may be able to withdraw their consent at any time in accordance with applicable laws; please see the Communications Choices and the Access, Amendment, and Other User Rights sections below for information on how to withdraw your consent.
4. HOW WE MAY SHARE YOUR INFORMATION
Harmonix may disclose your information, including personal data, as follows:
Service Providers and Processors. We may engage vendors, agents, service providers, and affiliated entities to provide services to us or to Users on our behalf, such as support for the internal operations of our websites, products (such as our games) and services (e.g., message board operations, and technical support processing), as well as related offline product support services, data storage and other services. In providing their services, they may access, receive, maintain or otherwise process personal data on our behalf. Our contracts with these service providers do not permit use of your personal data for their own marketing and other purposes.
Affiliates. We may also share your information with our affiliate companies for purposes of assisting us to operate and market our Services. Our affiliate companies are subject to this Privacy Policy when they use your information.
Legally Required. We may also disclose your information if we believe we are required to do so by law, or that doing so is reasonably necessary to comply with legal processes; when we believe necessary or appropriate to disclose personal data to law enforcement or other governmental or regulatory authorities or the courts (in any relevant jurisdiction worldwide), such as to investigate actual or suspected fraud or violations of law, breaches of security, or breaches of this Privacy Policy; to respond to any claims against us; and, to protect the rights, property, or personal safety of Harmonix, our customers, or the public.
Corporate Transaction. In addition, your information may be disclosed as part of any proposed or actual merger, sale, and transfer of Harmonix assets, acquisition, bankruptcy, or similar event.
With Consent. We may also disclose your information to any other affiliated or third parties where you have consented or requested that we do so. For example, if you win a contest or sweepstakes, we may disclose the names of winners online, and we may also share your information with third party partners and co-sponsors, where relevant; in such cases, we will clearly notify you of the sharing, and you will have the choice not to participate or to otherwise object to such sharing. Where required by applicable law, we will publish information online or in the local press and to relevant regulators identifying the winner(s) of a context or sweepstake regardless of whether or not you consent to the same.
Notwithstanding anything else in this Privacy Policy, we may share aggregate or de-identified information with third parties for research, marketing, analytics and other purposes, provided such information does not identify a particular individual and the individual cannot be re-identified.
5. HOW WE COLLECT YOUR INFORMATION
We collect some information from you when you provide it to us directly, such as via an online form or when you talk with our customer experience team. We and third parties also use certain technologies described below to collect information.
We and our third-party providers may use cookies, clear GIFs/pixel tags, JavaScript, local storage, log files, and other mechanisms to automatically collect and record information about your browsing activities, gaming performance and use of the Services. We may combine this “activity information” with other personal data we collect about you. Generally, we may use this activity information to understand how our Services are used, track bugs and errors, provide and improve our Services, establish matchmaking, verify account credentials, allow logins, track sessions, prevent fraud, and protect our Services, as well as for targeted marketing and advertising, to personalize content and for analytics purposes.
Below, is a summary of some of the activities we may engage in. For more detailed information about these mechanisms and how we collect activity information, see our Cookie Policy below.
6. THIRD PARTY ADVERTISING
We may work with third party ad networks, channel partners, measurement services and others (“third party ad companies”) to display advertising on our Services, and to manage our advertising on third party sites, mobile applications and online services. We and these third party ad companies may use cookies, pixels tags, and other tools to collect activity information on our Services (as well as on third party sites and services), as well as IP address, device ID, cookie and advertising IDs, and other identifiers, general location information, and, with your consent, your device’s geolocation information; we and these third party ad companies use this information to provide you more relevant ads and content and to evaluate the success of such ads and content.
For example, we may work with Facebook (see their privacy policy at http://www.facebook.com/policy.php, and ad preferences page http://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads) to display targeted ads to you in Facebook. We may also work with others, such as Google Ads and DoubleClick (see their privacy policy at http://www.google.com/policies/privacy and ad preferences page at http://www.google.com/settings/u/0/ads/authenticated?hl=en), to display ads to you on other third- party sites, based on your use of our Services, activity information, and other interactions with us.
Custom Audiences and Matching. Unless you have opted out, we may share certain information (such as your email address) with third parties – such as Facebook and Google – so that we can better target ads and content to our Users, and others with similar interests, within their services. These third parties use the personal data we provide to help us target ads and to enforce their terms, but we do not permit them to use or share this data with other third-party advertisers. You can opt-out of our sharing your personal information to target you this way by emailing us at [email protected]. If you opt out, we will process your opt out in a reasonable amount of time.
As noted above, you may control how Google, Facebook and other third parties display certain ads to you, as explained further in their respective privacy policies and ad preferences pages. You can also obtain more information about targeted advertising, and how to opt-out of receiving targeted ads from many third-party ad networks (including Facebook and Google), through the following:
For U.S. Users:
http://www.networkadvertising.org/optout_nonppii.asp (Network Advertising Initiative)
http://www.aboutads.info/choices (Digital Advertising Alliance)
For Users in the EU: http://www.youronlinechoices.eu (European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance)
For Users in Canada: http://youradchoices.ca/choices/ (Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada)
Opting out of participating ad networks does not opt you out of being served advertising. You may continue to receive generic or “contextual” ads on our Services. You may also continue to receive targeted ads on other websites, from companies that do not participate in the above programs.
7. DO-NOT-TRACK REQUESTS
Currently, our systems do not recognize browser “do-not-track” requests. You may, however, disable certain tracking as discussed above (e.g., by disabling cookies), and you may also opt out of certain third-party ad networks as discussed above. Please see our Cookie Policy below for more information.
8. THIRD PARTY FEATURES
Our Services may include or incorporate social media and other third-party features (e.g., widgets, buttons, and plugins), which are operated by third party platforms and networks such Facebook, Steam, Twitch, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and others. These features are hosted by the respective third-party operator even though they appear on our Services, and the third party may collect your IP address, URL, date and time stamp, browser details and the like, subject to their own privacy policies.
9. COMMUNICATIONS CHOICES
If you agree we may send direct marketing communications to you about our Services, events and promotions, we may also send you surveys, news, updates and other communications via email. If you wish to stop receiving direct marketing and these other communications from us, you may opt out as set forth below in the Access, Amendment, and Other User Rights section below. If you opt out of direct marketing communications, we may to the extent permitted by applicable law, still send you non-promotional communications, such as those about your account or our ongoing business relations. For example, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance, we might send you an email. Generally, you may not opt-out of these communications, which are not promotional in nature.
In some of our mobile Services, with your consent, we may send push notifications from time-to-time in order to update you about the game, events or promotions that we may be running. If you no longer wish to receive these types of communications, you may turn them off at the device level.
10. SECURITY OF YOUR INFORMATION
The security of your information, including your personal data, is important to us. Harmonix takes steps to protect against possible breaches of our Services and the personal data we maintain. However, no website or Internet transmission is completely secure. Thus, Harmonix cannot and does not guarantee that unauthorized access, hacking, data loss, or other breaches will never occur. We urge you to take steps to keep your information and personal data safe, such as choosing a strong password and keeping it private, as well as logging out of your User account, and closing your web browser when finished using the Services.
11. PERSONAL DATA RETENTION
We will retain your personal data as long as necessary for purposes for which the personal data was collected and is used by us, as stated in this Privacy Policy. If you wish to request that we no longer use your personal data to provide the Services to you please contact us as set forth in the Access, Amendment, and Other User Rights section below. However, if you withdraw consent or otherwise object to our collection, use and disclosure of your personal data, you may not be able to use the Services. Further, to the extent permitted by applicable law, we will retain and use your personal data as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, maintain appropriate business records, and enforce our agreements.
12. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS OF DATA
Harmonix is headquartered and has operations in the United States, and has service providers in the United States and throughout the world. As such, we and our service providers may transfer your personal data to, or access it in, jurisdictions (including the United States and other jurisdictions where our service providers have operations) that do not provide equivalent levels of data protection as your home jurisdiction. We will take steps to ensure that your personal data receives an adequate level of protection in the jurisdictions in which we process it, including through appropriate written data processing terms and/or data transfer agreements.
13. THIRD PARTY LINKS
Our websites may contain links to third party sites that are not owned or controlled by Harmonix. We are not responsible for the collection and use of your information by these third-party sites. We recommend that you read the privacy notice of the website to which you link before you submit any personal data.
14. USER GENERATED CONTENT
You may choose to disclose information (including personal data) about yourself in the course of contributing user generated content to our Services such as forums. Information that you disclose in any of these forums is unencrypted public information, and may be accessed by members of the public, who are not subject to this Privacy Policy. In addition, when you enter certain public areas of our Services, your username and other public profile information may be viewable by others. You should have no expectation of privacy as to any information you post or display in our forums or games, or in your profile, or that you otherwise make available on our or through our Services.
15. ACCESS, AMENDMENT AND OTHER USER RIGHTS
Registration. To the extent we offer User registration on the Services, if you are a registered User of the Services and logged into the Services, you may review, update or delete certain Information collected by the Services by adjusting your profile settings at each Service. However, personal data that is necessary to check eligibility, such as date of birth or age, cannot be deleted, but may be modified with sufficient verification of the correct Information. We will allow you to change the password portion of your User ID, as well as certain other information you have given us in order to keep your information current, but once you select a user name you will not be able to change that user name provided to us during registration and which is associated with your User ID.
Marketing Communications and Events. You may change your email preferences and opt out of marketing communications through links provided in our marketing communications provided to you. Certain Information collected for certain entries into promotions are subject to corporate and regulatory record keeping requirements and will not be deleted upon the user's request, unless the entrant is a child under the age of 13 years old.
Third Party Accounts. To manage information we receive about you from a Third Party Account where you access and use our Services, you will need to follow the instructions at that Third Party Account for updating your information and changing your privacy settings. You may also be able to manage certain aspects of information collection and use by going to the settings of your device and reviewing the permissions of the applications you are using.
In addition, Users may also have the right to request that certain personal data be exported to another provider where technically feasible, and, under certain conditions to object to or restrict our use of certain personal data. You may contact our Privacy Administrator as set forth below to access or amend your personal data, to request that we delete or stop processing your personal data, to withdraw your consent to our processing, and, if you are an EEA resident, to exercise your opt-out rights or place a data portability request.
If you wish to request removal of any content you have posted, you should also contact our Privacy Administrator as set forth below.
Privacy requests should be directed to the Privacy Administrator at [email protected], or Privacy Administrator, Harmonix Music Systems, Inc., 40 Broad Street, Floor 7, Boston, MA 02109. Please keep in mind that certain Services will not be available if you withdraw your consent, or otherwise delete or object to our processing of certain personal data. We will respond to your request in accordance with applicable law, and we will inform you if we do not intend to comply with your request.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory data protection authority.
16. YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS
We do not share personal data collected online with unaffiliated third parties for their own direct marketing purposes and will not do so unless you agree to such disclosure. If you are a California resident and you still believe your information has been shared or you have general questions about how your information may have been shared, you may contact us by requesting a list of the third parties to which we have disclosed personally identifiable information about you for their own direct marketing purposes. You may make one request per year. In your request, please attest to the fact that you are a California resident and provide a current California address for your response. You may request this information in writing by contacting us at via email at [email protected] or by regular mail at: Harmonix Music Systems, Inc., 40 Broad Street, Floor 7, Boston, MA 02109, Attn: Your California Privacy Rights, c/o Privacy Administrator. Please allow up to thirty (30) days for a response. All requests must be labeled "Your California Privacy Rights" on the email subject line or envelope or post card. For all requests, please clearly state that the request is related to "Your California Privacy Rights", include your name, street address, city, state, zip code and e-mail address (your street address is optional if you wish to receive a response to your request via email) and indicate your preference on how our response to your request should be sent (email or postal mail). We cannot accept requests via the telephone or by facsimile. We are not responsible for notices that are not labeled or sent properly, or do not have complete information.
17. CONTACT DETAILS
The controller for your personal data is Harmonix Music Systems, Inc., 40 Broad Street, Floor 7, Boston, Massachusetts 02109.
If you have any questions, complaints or comments regarding our Privacy Policy or practices, please contact our Privacy Administrator via email at [email protected] or by regular mail at:
Privacy Administrator
Harmonix Music Systems, Inc.
40 Broad Street, Floor 7
Boston, MA 02109
18. U.S. GOVERNING LAW
The Services are designed and targeted to U.S. audiences and are governed by applicable U.S. state laws and U.S. federal laws. We make no representation that these Services are operated in accordance with the laws or regulations of, or governed by, other nations. By participating in our Services' activities, you certify that you meet the age and other eligibility requirements for these Services as set forth in our Terms of Use Agreement. If you do not meet the age and other eligibility requirements, please discontinue using the Services immediately as your continued use of the Services indicates that you are agreeing to the collection, use, disclosure, management and storage of your information as described in this Privacy Policy. If you are located in the European Union or elsewhere outside of the U.S., you use the Services at your own risk and initiative and you, not we, are responsible for compliance with any applicable local and national laws. By using these Services, participating in any Service activities and/or providing us with your information, you understand that we will collect, transfer, store, process and/or deal with your information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and U.S. law. Consequently, you hereby waive any claims that may arise under the laws and regulations of, or that apply to you in, any other country or jurisdiction.
19. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
This Policy is current as of the date last modified as set forth above. We reserve the right to revise this Privacy Policy at any time by posting an updated Privacy Policy without advance notice to you. Such revisions shall be effective immediately upon posting and your continued use of any Service will signify your acceptance of, and agreement to be bound by, these revisions. Notice of material changes with regard to personal data we have previously collected from you will be posted on the Services' homepage or will be provided by e-mailing you or notifying you upon login about these changes; the form of such notice is at our discretion. However, we encourage you to check this Privacy Policy and Terms of Use Agreement often for updates.
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COOKIE POLICY
Our website (the “Site”) may use cookies to distinguish you from other users of our Site. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our Site and also allows us to improve our Site. This Cookie Policy provides you with information about the types of cookies we may use and the purposes for using those cookies.
Your Consent
By continuing to use our Site, you are agreeing to our placing cookies on your computer in order to analyze the way you use our Site. Please read this Cookie Policy carefully for more details about the information we may collect when you use this website. If you do not wish to accept cookies in connection with your use of this Site, you must stop using our Site.
What is a cookie?
A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that are placed on your browser or the hard drive of your computer. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer's hard drive. Some cookies are “persistent cookies" – these remain on a user’s device for the period of time specified in the cookie, and are activated each time the user visits the website. Other cookies are "session cookies" - these are temporarily stored on a user’s device; once you close the browser, all session cookies are deleted.
First vs. third-party cookies
We may use both first and third party cookies on our Site. Whether a cookie is 'first' or 'third' party refers to the domain placing the cookie. First-party cookies are those set by a website that is being visited by the user at the time. Third-party cookies are cookies that are set by a domain other than that of the website being visited by the user. If a user visits a website and another entity sets a cookie through that website this would be a third-party cookie.
What cookies may we use and why?
We may use Strictly Necessary, Functionality, and Performance, Targeting cookies.
Strictly Necessary: allow you to move around the website and use essential features like secure areas. These cookies are a condition of using our Site and services. Without these cookies, services you have asked for cannot be provided. We may use these cookies to remember information you have entered on forms during a web browser session; to identify you as being logged in to our Site; and to route users to specific applications of a service, or specific servers.
Functionality: used to provide services or remember settings to improve your visit. We may use these cookies to remember settings you've applied and show you when you're logged in to the website.
Performance: collect information about how you use our Site (e.g., which pages you visit, and if you experience any errors). They do not collect any information that could identify you. We may use Performance cookies to compile statistics on how our Site is used; to see how effective our advertisements are, including those on third party sites; to provide feedback to partners that one of our visitors also visited their website; to help us improve the website by measuring any errors that occur; and to test different designs of our Site.
Targeting: linked to services provided by third parties, such as 'Like' buttons and 'Share' buttons. Third parties provide these services in return for recognizing that you have visited our Site. We may also use Targeting cookies to provide advertising agencies with information on your visit so that they can present you with advertisements in which you may be interested.
How to delete and block our cookies
You may delete, review and block cookies by adjusting your browser settings. However, if you block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our Site. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies as soon you visit our Site. Turning off or deleting cookies will not prevent device identification and related data collection from occurring. For further information about deleting or blocking cookies, please visit: http://www.aboutcookies.org/Default.aspx?page=2.
Your choices about third party cookies
Currently, we use the following third party cookies for Performance and Targeting:
Google Analytics
We use Google Analytics to provide web analytics data about how our Site is used. For more information about Google analytics cookies, please see Google's help pages and privacy policy. To opt-out of Google Analytics, you can download and install the Google Analytics opt-out Browser add-on.
More information about how third party cookies are used for targeted advertising and how to opt out of some third party ad networks can be found at: http://www.youronlinechoices.eu or http://www.aboutads.info/.
Copyright © 2018 Harmonix Music Systems, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.