Customisation Service Privacy Notice


Effective Date: April 20, 2023

At Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (“Samsung”), we know how important privacy is to our customers. Samsung is the data controller for the Customisation Service. 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/policy/privacy also applies to your use of Customisation Service. 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 Customisation Service.

“In some of the old devices in which you didn’t update the software to the latest version or that do not support the latest version, the granular data collection settings in the Customisation Service of your Samsung account may not be displayed properly. However, in these devices, Customisation Service does not collect the corresponding data (Call/message history (Phone), Search data (Internet), Browsing history (Internet), Location (GPS)). To provide the proper service, please update the Customization Service software to the latest version and use.”

WHAT IS THE CUSTOMISATION SERVICE?

Samsung devices, apps and services (each a “Service” and collectively, the “Services”) are designed to provide you with customised services by supporting your desires and needs in a smart and intelligent manner. Samsung’s Customisation Service provides an enhanced user experience, including customised content and recommendations, based on the information obtained about you and your use of the Services. For example, the Customisation Service can improve your user experience with the Services by offering hints and information customised for you when you use Samsung’s voice recognition service, or remembering music you used to listen to on rainy days and recommending it later. Furthermore, if you give the command, “Remind me to buy a bottle of water when I am almost home,” the Customisation Service can remember the command and remind you to purchase a bottle of water when you are almost home.

You have choices regarding how the Customisation Service uses and analyses certain types of personal information, such as your call and text message history, relationship information, event and calendar information, search terms, location data, listening & viewing information, or internet browsing history. The Customisation Service also provides you with the choice to opt out of the Customisation Service’s use of your personal information. For more information, please see the “Your Rights and Choices” section, below.


WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?

The more the Customisation Service understands and learns about you, the faster and more accurately it can provide you with customised content and information. The Customisation Service is designed to help understand your interests, preferences and location, and collects and analyzes the following types of information about you in various ways:

Device Information.
The Customisation Service will collect unique identifiers (such as an IMEI and serial number), settings information (such as language and lock settings), status information (such as connections with other devices) and other information (such as hardware and software information and Services installed or currently running on your device) about the devices on which you’ve logged into your Samsung account (your “device/devices”). The Customisation Service will also collect information about how, when and for how long you use the devices.

Information about Your Music and Photos.
The Customisation Service will collect and analyze information such as titles, genres, and artists on previously played or saved music and information about your photos, such as the times and locations at which your saved photos were taken.

Contacts and Communications Data.
The Customisation Service will access your contact list and will analyse within your devices your incoming/outgoing call and text message history to provide you with services, such as to determine your relationships with others (e.g., your family and friends), who your most important contacts are and to display information about them (e.g. missed calls), who contacts you most frequently and your preferred contact method, and to find contacts you refer to while using voice recognition.

Content information.
Content viewed or listened to on your devices (including the networks, channels, websites visited and programs), as well as content purchased, downloaded, or streamed through Samsung Services on your device and applications you have accessed through your device.

Calendar Information.
The Customisation Service will access your Device’s calendar and will collect and analyse your calendar data to learn your preferences, record special occasions and identify your location.

Internet Browsing History.
The Customisation Service will access, collect and analyse your Samsung Internet browsing history (such as visited websites, search keywords and bookmarks) to learn your interests and preferences, to display more relevant search results and provide the most appropriate information in different contexts, and to provide you with other services, as described in this Privacy Notice. Your search history from Samsung Internet browsing done in Secret mode (Incognito or Private mode) will not be collected.

Location Information.
The Customisation Service will access, collect and analyze your precise location and other information related to your location on a regular basis through Bluetooth, GPS, and Wi-Fi signals, calendar entries and other technologies and data for certain purposes, such as to provide location-related notifications or information you request. In order for the Customisation Service to collect location information, Location settings must be enabled on your device. Therefore, in some cases, the Customisation Service will request that you enable Location settings.

Samsung account and Samsung Services Data.
The Customisation Service will collect and analyze information stored in or associated with your Samsung account (such as your Samsung account ID, contact information, name, date of birth and gender). The Customiszation Service also will collect and analyze information related to your use of the Services, such as music played on your device, the websites you visit, the searches you make, your usage history of Samsung apps, your voice commands given via the voice recognition service, notifications set in Reminder, and weather data provided to you.

Customer Service Data and E-Commerce Data.
When emails submitted for Customer Service matches your Samsung account, the Customisation Service will access, collect and analyze data obtained through your interactions with Samsung Customer Service, such as records of repair and customer interactions with Customer Service personnel, your purchase history at Samsung stores and information about promotions in which you have participated.

Information Related to Third-Party Apps and Services.
By permitting the connection to a third-party app or service, you can enable the Customisation Service to utilize the data regarding your usage of these third-party apps and services, and to provide you with customised features. Through the Customisation Service, we may collect personal information about your online activities on your devices over time. We will also collect information made available through third-party platforms and apps, namely the frequency, time and duration of app usage (but no information on what actions you have performed within an app), through online databases or directories, or that is otherwise legitimately obtained.

Please be informed that Customisation Service may as part of the data categories described above also collect sensitive data or data which in combination may allow conclusions on sensitive information. Such potentially sensitive information will be eliminated from further processing and will not be used by Samsung for customised servicing nor improve personalised advertising.

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


HOW DO WE USE YOUR INFORMATION?

Customised Servicing
The Customisation Service combines and analyses your information to create a profile about you and provide your data to the Services and third-party apps you have authorised for the following purposes:
• to provide you with customised content and information;
• to analyse methods of providing you with better Services; and
• to improve and develop the Services.

Customised Advertising and Direct Marketing
Based on your separate consent to “Improve personalised advertising”, we will customise the advertising we send you with data we have collected through the Customisation Service about products and services offered by Samsung and third parties that are more relevant to your interests. Please be informed that the profile we create from the raw data will also be used to provide you with advertising, where you have separately consented to receive advertising or news and special offers from us.

For direct marketing communications in Europe, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, Samsung Electronics (UK) Limited, which is located in the United Kingdom, and our European Samsung subsidiary located in your country are Joint Controllers. Where applicable, the European Samsung subsidiary has its own local Privacy Policy on its website (www.samsung.com) to explain this.

In addition to the above, we use the information collected for the following purposes:
• to identify and authenticate you so you may use Customisation Service;
• to respond to your requests, inquiries, and instructions made through or about the Customisation Service and/or Services;
• to allow you to interact with and use participating Samsung and third-party apps and services;
• to operate, evaluate and improve the Customisation Service and Services and our business (including developing new products and services; enhancing and improving our products and services; managing our communications; analyzing our products, services and customer base; conducting market research; 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;
• to comply with and enforce applicable legal requirements, relevant industry standards and our policies, including this Privacy Notice and the Privacy Policy.

We use and combine the information we collect about you from Customisaton Service with data from other services or features you use, and your devices, as well as information about your online activities on websites and connected devices over time and across third-party websites, devices, apps and other online features and services for the purposes above.

Improve personalised advertising

If you have consented to Improve personalised advertising through your Samsung Account, in addition to any of our other advertising consents, you will see relevant advertising based on your Samsung Account data and information we collect through the Customisation Service, including app usage, search terms and/or internet browsing history and apps. If you have also consented to Use precise location data, the advertising you see will be relevant according to your precise location.

You may choose to disable Improve personalised advertising on your devices at any time via the Samsung account Settings > Security and Privacy menu in your Samsung account.
Please see Advertising section in Samsung Account Privacy Notice https://account.samsung.com/membership/policy/privacy for more detail on how your data is used for advertising.

Legal Basis for Processing

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
To promote our business interests (legitimate interest)
GDPR Article 6(1)(f)
• Operating, evaluating, and improving Customisation Service and our business
• Responding to your requests, instructions and inquiries
• 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 legal requirements and regulatory and administrative or court orders
With your consent
GDPR Article 6(1)(a)

Please note: you can withdraw your consent at any time
• Providing you with customised contents and recommendations
• Allowing you to link your Samsung account with third-party content
• Providing you personalised advertisings and direct marketing communications

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.

• Affiliates: other Samsung Electronics Group companies which we control or own;
• Business partners: partners who we work together with to provide you with Customisation Service. These business partners control and manage your personal information;
• Service providers: carefully selected companies that provide services for or on behalf of us, such as cloud platform providers. These providers are also committed to protecting your information;
• Other parties when required by law or as necessary to protect Customisation Service: for example, it may be necessary by law, legal process, or court order from governmental authorities to disclose your information. They may also seek your information from us for the purposes of law enforcement, national security, anti-terrorism, or other issues that are related to public security;
• Other parties in connection with corporate transactions: we may disclose your information to a third party as part of a merger or transfer, acquisition or sale, or in the event of bankruptcy; and
• Other parties with your consent or at your direction: in addition to the disclosures described in this Privacy Notice, we may share information about you with third parties when you separately consent to or request such sharing.

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. As long as you are an active user of Customisation Service, we will retain and process this data. Data such as your account information and device information and identifiers fall into this category.

Data we process to promote our business interests, such as your usage of Customisation Service, is only kept for as long as needed for the purposes for which it was collected. For example, this data may be collected to perform analytics so we can develop improvements to Customisation Service, or we may process data to keep a record of inquiries you made through or about Customisation Service 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 was 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 require 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 Customisation Service will involve the transfer, storage, and processing of your personal information to other countries; such countries include, without limitation, countries in the European Economic Area, Republic of Korea, United Kingdom, and India. All international data transfers are subject to legal requirements to ensure that your personal information is processed safely and as you would expect. Such measures include the use of Standard Contractual Clauses to safeguard the transfer of data outside of the EEA. To request more information or to obtain a copy of the contractual agreements in place, please see the CONTACT US section of this Privacy Notice.

HOW DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION SECURE?

We take data protection very seriously. We have put in place physical and technical safeguards to keep the information we collect secure. However, please note that although we take reasonable steps to protect your information, no website, internet transmission, computer system or wireless connection is completely secure.

YOUR RIGHTS AND CHOICES

Your Choices (including how to withdraw your consent to using the Customisation Service)

Samsung respects the choices made by you and strives to offer a variety of ways for you to control your information. You may, at any time, disable the Customisation Service via the “Customisation Service” option in the Settings menu of your Samsung account, in which case Samsung will suspend the provision of customised content and information, as well as the Customisation Service’s collection, combination and analysis of your information.

Furthermore, you can choose the categories of information that the Customisation Service may collect and analyse, as well as the Customisation Service’s support for certain Services. However, any subsequent decisions will not affect the information already collected, combined and analysed by the Customisation Service and disabling the Customization Service will not cause information previously collected and analyzed by the Customization Service to be deleted. Even if you disable the Customisation Service, you can still use the default features provided by each of the Services. You can select a variety of options, outlined below:

• To change the Customisation Service’s settings in your Samsung account, please perform the following:
a. Smartphones/Tablets: Settings > Privacy > Customisation Service
b. Smart Hub enabled devices including Smart TV: Settings > Samsung Account > My Account > Security and Privacy > Customisation Service

The specific settings above may be subject to change with updated or new device models supporting the Customisation Service. Please note that your customised user experience may change as a result of disabling the Customisation Service.

How can I delete information obtained by the Customisation Service?

Information collected and analyzed by the Customisation Service will be deleted after you delete your Samsung Account. You also may request the deletion of specific categories of data that have been collected and analyzed by the Customisation Service at any time, even before deleting your Samsung Account, via the Privacy Settings menu in your Samsung Account. Please note that, in some cases, it may take some time before the information saved on our servers is completely deleted.

What happens if I delete information collected by the Customisation Service or stop the Customisation Service’s collection of some of the information?

If you delete collected information, the accuracy and/or quality of the customised content delivered to you by the Customisation Service may decrease. Moreover, some customisation features may require information that you have deleted or to which you have denied the Customisation Service access, and it may only be possible to resume receiving those features by allowing the Customisation Service to collect and use the relevant information again.

Your Rights

Your personal information belongs to you. In accordance with applicable law, you have the right to ask us to provide details about what we have collected, and you can ask us to delete it or correct any inaccuracies. You can also ask us to restrict or limit the processing, sharing or transfer of your personal information, as well as to provide you with the personal information that we’ve collected so you can use it for your own purposes. You have the right to data portability, which means you can ask us to provide your personal information to you or to a third party in a machine-readable format. You can also object to your personal information being processed and can withdraw your consent. However, requesting the deletion of your personal information may also result in a loss of access to Customisation Service. We won’t delete data that we’re required by law to retain.

You also have the right to object to processing on the basis of legitimate interests, and to object to processing for marketing purposes, including profiling.

To make a request concerning your rights or to make an inquiry, contact us using the methods outlined in the CONTACT US section.

CONTACT US

You can contact us to update your preferences, exercise your rights, submit a request or ask us questions.

You can also contact us at:

Data Controller
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
129, Samsung-ro, Yeongtong-gu,
Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do 16677, Republic of Korea

Samsung Electronics has offices across Europe, so we can ensure that your request or query will be handled by the data protection team based in your region.

The easiest way to contact us is through our Privacy Support Page at https://www.samsung.com/request-desk.

You can also contact us at:
European Data Protection Officer
Samsung Electronics (UK) Limited
Samsung House, 2000 Hillswood Drive, Chertsey, Surrey KT16 0RS, UK

You can lodge a complaint with the relevant supervisory authority if you consider that our processing of your personal information infringes applicable law. Contact details for all EU supervisory authorities can be found at https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/article29/item-detail.cfm?item_id=612080.

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 Customisation Service or changes in related laws. The date when the document was last updated is shown at the top of this Privacy Notice.