SmartThings: U.S. Privacy Notice

 

Effective Date: [SEP 14, 2018]

 

We at Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (¡°Samsung¡±) respect your concerns about privacy.  This U.S. Privacy Notice applies to the personal information we collect through the SmartThings products and services (formerly known as Samsung Connect), which include IoT plug-ins, devices and software (collectively, ¡°SmartThings¡±).  The Notice does not apply to information collected by other services, apps or websites provided by Samsung or its affiliated entities. 

 

In this U.S. Privacy Notice, we describe the types of information collected through SmartThings, how we may use the information, with whom we may share it and the choices available to you regarding our use of the information.  We also describe the measures we take to safeguard the information and tell you how to contact us about our privacy practices.

 

Click on one of the links below to jump to the listed section:

 

¡¤       Updates To This U.S. Privacy Notice

¡¤       How To Contact Us

 

Information We Obtain

Through SmartThings, we may obtain information about you in various ways.  The types of personal information we may obtain include:

 

¡¤       contact information, such as name, email address, mailing address and phone number;

¡¤       Samsung Account ID;

¡¤       username and password for participating third-party devices, apps, features or services;

¡¤       the precise geolocation of your device if you consent to the collection of this data;

¡¤       for users who connect video or audio recording devices to SmartThings (e.g., video cameras), the content of such video or audio recordings;

¡¤       for users who connect the Samsung Bixby voice assistant to SmartThings, the audio content obtained through Bixby;

¡¤       for users who connect Samsung Smart TV to SmartThings, information about the Smart TV content these users purchase, users¡¯ Samsung or third-party digital calendars and user coupon or gift card number;

¡¤       for devices/appliances that are connected to SmartThings, device/appliance information, such as device/appliance model, name, group name and location name assigned to the device/appliance; settings; sensor and configuration data; error and malfunction logs; usage information; mobile country code; mobile network operator; OS version; IP address; IMEI number, SIM card, WiFi-MAC address, serial number or other device/appliance identifier; and device/appliance Automation Name and Configuration information.

 

We also may collect other information about you, your devices/appliances 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 We Use The Information We Obtain

We may use the information we obtain through SmartThings:

 

¡¤       to provide the SmartThings services;

¡¤       to link your Samsung Account to connected third-party devices, apps, features or services;

¡¤       for Samsung Smart TV users, to (i) enable users to purchase Smart TV digital content, (ii) provide a history of purchased Smart TV digital content, (iii) enable users to set reminders for Smart TV digital content and (iv) enable users to receive calendar notifications on Samsung Smart TV;

¡¤       for users who enable Samsung¡¯s Customization Service, data collected through SmartThings will be used for the purposes described in the Samsung Customization Service Privacy Notice;

¡¤       to respond to your requests and inquiries;

¡¤       to communicate with you about SmartThings;

¡¤       to provide a remote management service for errors or malfunctions associated with the Samsung home appliances connected to SmartThings;

¡¤       to provide you with notifications, content, alerts, offers, promotions, marketing information, communications and advertisements in connection with Samsung products and services;

¡¤       to operate, evaluate and improve our business (including developing new products and services; enhancing and improving our products and services and SmartThings; managing our communications; analyzing our products and services, consumer base and SmartThings; aggregating and anonymizing data and performing data analytics; and performing accounting, auditing and other internal functions);

¡¤       to protect against, identify and prevent fraud and other criminal activity, claims and other liabilities; and

¡¤       to comply with and enforce applicable legal requirements, relevant industry standards and our policies, including this U.S. Privacy Notice, the Samsung Account Privacy Policy and the SmartThings Terms of Service.

 

Through SmartThings, we may collect personal information about your online activities on connected devices over time and across third-party devices, apps and other online features and services.

 

Information Sharing

 

We may share your personal information with our subsidiaries and affiliates and with service providers who perform services for us.  We do not authorize our service providers to use or disclose the information except as necessary to perform services on our behalf or to comply with legal requirements.  In addition, we may share your personal information with wireless carriers, as well as third parties that operate apps and services that you connect with SmartThings.  If you create a SmartThings Location Group, certain personal information you share with SmartThings, including your geolocation data, may be shared with members of your Location Group.

 

In addition, we may share personal information we collect through SmartThings at your request.  Samsung, our subsidiaries and affiliates, and our third-party service providers also may disclose information about you (1) if we are required to do so by law or legal process (such as a court order or subpoena); (2) in response to requests by government agencies, such as law enforcement authorities; (3) to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights; (4) when we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to prevent physical or other harm or financial loss; (5) in connection with an investigation of suspected or actual illegal activity; (6) in the event of a potential or actual sale or transfer of all or a portion of our business or assets (including in the event of a merger, acquisition, joint venture, reorganization, divestiture, dissolution or liquidation); or (7) otherwise with your consent.

 

Notice To California Residents

 

Subject to certain limits under California law, California residents may ask us to provide them with (1) a list of certain categories of personal information we have disclosed to third parties for their direct marketing purposes during the immediately preceding calendar year and (2) the identity of those third parties.  To make this request, California residents may contact us as specified in the How To Contact Us section, below. 

 

Links To Other Devices, Apps and Features

 

SmartThings may provide the ability to connect to other devices, apps and features.  These devices, apps and features may operate independently from us and may have their own privacy notices or policies, which we strongly suggest you review.  To the extent any linked device, app or feature is not owned or controlled by us, we are not responsible for its content, any use of the device, app or feature, or the privacy practices of the operator of the device, app or feature.

 

 

 

 

 

Your Choices

 

We offer you certain choices in connection with the personal information we obtain about you. To update your preferences, limit the communications you receive from us or submit a request, please contact us as specified in the How To Contact Us section of this U.S. Privacy Notice.

 

Please visit the settings on your Samsung Account for choices that may be available to you in connection with your use of SmartThings. Your Samsung Account offers choices related to sharing certain information with SmartThings and receiving certain marketing information and communications about products, services and promotions from Samsung. You also may update the personal information you share with SmartThings through the SmartThings settings, including your name, email address, account password or PIN number, user profile, device/appliance Automation Name and Configuration information, and location, group and device information. 

 

If you have enabled the Customization Service on your device, you may at any time disable the Customization Service through the settings on your Samsung Account.  If you do so, the Customization Service will not use your information to send you customized content and information.  In addition, if you disable the ¡°Customized Advertising and Direct Marketing¡± feature of the Customization Service, information collected and analyzed by the Customization Service may no longer be used to provide you with targeted advertising.  Please note that if you decline to allow SmartThings to collect or share certain information, you may not be able to use all of the features available through SmartThings.

 

How We Protect Personal Information

 

We maintain administrative, technical and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information we obtain through SmartThings against accidental, unlawful or unauthorized destruction, loss, alteration, access, disclosure or use.

 

Children¡¯s Personal Information

 

Certain SmartThings products and services are intended for use by children under age 13.  Through these SmartThings products and services, Samsung may collect device identifiers (e.g., device model, name, serial number, IMEI number, SIM card number and WiFi-MAC address), device settings and logs, and geolocation information from children under age 13. Samsung provides this information to the parent holder of the Samsung Account associated with the SmartThings device. Samsung may combine the information collected from children under age 13 with information associated with the parent¡¯s SmartThings app and the parent¡¯s Samsung Account. Samsung may share the geolocation information collected from children under age 13 with the parent¡¯s wireless carrier to provide customer service. Samsung also may share information collected from children under age 13 with its subsidiaries and affiliates, and with its service providers.

 

A parent may review and/or request to have deleted the child¡¯s personal information collected by Samsung through SmartThings, and may refuse to permit its further collection or use. To exercise these choices, please contact us as specified in the How To Contact Us section of this U.S. Privacy Notice.

 

Updates To This U.S. Privacy Notice

 

This U.S. Privacy Notice may be updated periodically and without prior notice to you to reflect changes in our personal information practices with respect to SmartThings.  We will post a notice on the SmartThings app to notify you of significant changes to this U.S. Privacy Notice and indicate at the top of this Notice when it was most recently updated.

 

How To Contact Us

 

To update your preferences, update or correct your information, submit a request or ask us questions about this U.S. Privacy Notice, please contact us at:

 

Privacy Office

Samsung Electronics America, Inc.

85 Challenger Road

Ridgefield Park, NJ 07660

or via email through the ¡°Contact Us¡± section of  https://www.samsung.com

 

If you have specific questions or requests regarding your information, please contact us by sending an email to NAprivacy@sea.samsung.com. To the extent required by applicable law, if you request access to your information, you may be able to obtain your information based on your Samsung account (e.g., information about your use of the Services, or the settings of your devices, etc.).