SmartThings Privacy Notice

Effective Date: Oct 6, 2021

At Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (“Samsung”), we know how important privacy is to our customers. Samsung is the data controller for SmartThings. We created this Privacy Notice to make sure you understand how we collect and use your personal information.

Our Privacy Policy at https://account.samsung.com/membership/terms/privacypolicy also applies to your use of SmartThings. Our Privacy Policy contains more information about how we use your data. It also includes information about your rights and how to contact us. Please read our Privacy Policy in addition to this Privacy Notice. However, this Privacy Notice shall always prevail over the Privacy Policy in relation to how we use your information for SmartThings.

WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?

Through SmartThings, Samsung obtains and maintains information about you in various ways.

Information You Provide Directly

Information About Your Use of SmartThings

In addition to the information you provide, we will collect information about your use of our SmartThings through software on your devices and by other means. We will collect:

We will also collect information about your Smart TV and other devices you add and connect to with the SmartThings app and the SmartThings Hub, and your use of these devices, in ways that we will describe to you at the time of collection or otherwise with your separate consent.

We do not knowingly or intentionally collect any sensitive personal data from you. However, please note that we cannot guarantee that sensitive information is not unintentionally shared with us while using the SmartThings app and other Home IoT Devices, such as the content of your images or audio or video recordings when you connect image, audio or video recording devices to SmartThings. If you submit information to SmartThings that is sensitive in nature, that will also be collected and processed for the purposes listed below, however we will not use that data for marketing, to provide customised recommendations, or for the improvement of our services.

We also may collect other information about you, your devices and apps, and your use of SmartThings in ways that we describe to you at the time of collection or otherwise with your consent.

HOW DO WE USE YOUR INFORMATION?

We use the information collected for the following purposes:

Samsung processes personal information for the purposes described above. Samsung’s legal basis to process personal information is outlined below:

Keeping our promising to you

(performance of contract)

GDPR Article 6(1)(b)

  • Identifying and authenticating you
  • Providing you with SmartThings and services and features you request in the SmartThings app, such as enabling you to control your Home IoT devices in the SmartThings app
  • Providing you with customised content, such as providing recommendations
  • Allowing you to interact with other Samsung and third-party content

To promote our business interests

(legitimate interest)

GDPR Article 6(1)(f)

  • Operating, evaluating, and improving SmartThings and our business
  • Responding to your requests, instructions and enquiries
  • Providing you with technical support and maintenance service for errors
  • Maintaining adequate security measures
  • Protecting against liability, including complying with industry standards and enforcing our policies

To comply with the law, regulatory obligations and legal processes

GDPR Article 6(1)(c)

  • Complying with applicable statutes and regulatory and administrative or court orders

With your consent

GDPR Article 6(1)(a)

  • Providing marketing notifications (such as via push notifications, emails, and text messages)
  • Providing you with SmartThings, such as when you choose to share audio, video and image clips
  • Processing your location information to provide location-based features and services
  • Providing you with customised content, such as the Customisation Service
  • Allowing you to link your Samsung account with third-party content

WHO DO WE SHARE YOUR INFORMATION WITH?

We will disclose your information internally within our business and to the following entities, but only for the purposes described above.

HOW LONG DO WE RETAIN YOUR INFORMATION AND WHERE DOES IT GO?

How long your data will be retained depends on the legal basis relied upon to process your data. For example, data we process to perform our contract with you requires us to keep the data throughout the time you use SmartThings. As long as you are an active user of SmartThings, we will retain and process this data. Data such as your account information, device information and identifiers fall into this category.

Data we process to promote our business interests, such as your use of SmartThings, is only kept for as long as needed for the purposes for which they were collected. For example, this data may be collected to perform analytics so we can develop improvements to SmartThings, or we may process data to keep a record of enquiries you made through or about SmartThings to improve your customer service experience.

In addition, we may also process your data based on your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we will stop processing your data that relies on your consent, but it will not impact the processing of data collected prior to your withdrawal until the purposes for which such data were collected have been achieved.

Please note, although we aim to retain your data for the time period described above, your data may be processed longer, pursuant to applicable law. For example, if a specific statute mandates we retain a certain piece of data, we will comply and retain that data until the required retention period expires.

As long as your data is retained by us, your data will always be subject to appropriate safeguards.

Your use of SmartThings will involve the transfer, storage, and processing of your personal information to and in other countries; such countries include, without limitation, countries in the European Economic Area, the Republic of Korea, United States, Canada, India, and the Philippines. All international data transfers are subject to legal requirements to ensure that your personal information is processed safely and as you would expect.

UPDATES TO THIS PRIVACY NOTICE

This Privacy Notice may be updated to let you know about changes in how we collect and process your information in SmartThings or changes in related laws. The date when the document was last updated is shown at the top of this Privacy Notice.

version: 1.7.0

Last version