Last updated July 24, 2024.
This privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) explains the practices of Sony Music Entertainment Canada Inc. (“Sony Music Canada,” “we,” “us,” “our”) in relation to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information on our websites, online and offline services, landing pages, apps, online stores, email correspondence, and any other Sites that we control dedicated to the release of Sony Music Entertainment products or services (“Sites”). Sony Music Canada is a company organized under the laws of Ontario and whose principal office address is 99 Atlantic Avenue, Suite 800, Toronto, Ontario, M6K 3J8. If you use a site or service controlled by another Sony Music entity, that entity’s privacy policy will apply to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information.
By submitting personal information to Sony Music Canada, you agree that we may collect, use and disclose such personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and as permitted or required by law.
Subject to legal and contractual requirements, you may refuse or withdraw your consent to our collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information at any time by contacting our privacy officer, whose contact information is set out below. If you refuse or withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide you or continue to provide you with services or information which may be of value to you.
We are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy and the following sets out the basis on which any personal information we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be used and/or disclosed. We have policies and practices in place to ensure the protection of personal information. These policies and practices outline among other things how we collect, protect and destroy personal information, under what circumstances we authorized transfers of personal information, and the roles and responsibilities of our personnel who have access to the personal information throughout its life cycle. Please read the text carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal information and how we will treat it. If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, do not provide us with your personal information or use our Sites.
This Privacy Policy is divided into the following sections.
HOW WE COLLECT YOUR INFORMATION
TRANSMISSION OF YOUR INFORMATION VIA THE INTERNET
WHERE YOUR INFORMATION IS KEPT OR TRANSFERRED
WITH WHOM WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
YOUR RIGHT TO OBTAIN, CHANGE OR REMOVE YOUR INFORMATION
WHAT DO YOU DO IF YOU HAVE A COMPLAINT OR A QUESTION?
Please note that we may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our privacy practices by providing you with notice of the change. Notice includes but is not restricted to posting a link to the new Privacy Policy, posting a new Privacy Policy at https://www.sonymusic.ca/en/privacy-policy, or sending you a link to the new Privacy Policy via contact information you have provided to us. Such change will be effective with respect to your use of the Sites after Sony Music Canada has given notice of the change. Please review the Privacy Policy periodically to see whether it has changed. Any use of the Sites by you after we provide notice to you constitutes your acceptance of those modifications.
You must be 14 years of age or older to register with our Sites. Please do not register or share your personal information with us if you are under 14 years of age. Speak to your parent or guardian (the person who looks after you) to check the Sites or content first, and then explore it together if they say it’s okay.
We encourage parents and guardians to read our full Privacy Policy. While we don’t knowingly collect personal information of children under the age of 14, parents should supervise their children's online activities and consider using parental control tools available from online services and software manufacturers that help provide a child-friendly online environment. These tools can also prevent children from disclosing online their name, address, and other personal information without parental permission.
For the purpose of this Privacy Policy, “personal Information” includes any information which relates to a natural person and allows that person to be identified directly, or indirectly in combination with other information. It does not include information where all references to the identity of the relevant individual have been removed and that individual cannot be directly or indirectly identified.
We may collect, use, and disclose personal information about you, including but not limited to the following categories:
- Identification information, such as your first name, last name, preferred name, and title;
- Contact information, including your email address, street or mailing address, and telephone numbers;
- Account information, such as your username and password;
- Billing information, including billing address, order details and other commercial information;
- Demographic information, including age, date of birth, gender, interests, country and postal code;
- Preferences, including product wish lists, order history and marketing & music preferences;
- User generated content, including photos, videos and other content that you submit on our Sites, which may include metadata which can reveal information about the content, including but not limited to where and when images were taken;
- Event multimedia information, including audio, video or audio-visual recordings or photos (insofar as they may feature you) taken at events hosted by or on behalf of Sony Music Canada;
- Career information, such as your name, phone number, resume/cv, cover letter, language proficiency, and other information that you choose to add to your application for one of our roles;
- Technical information, such as internet protocol (IP) address and geolocation information, cookies and other technology on the devices you use to access the Sites;
- Internet activity information, such as browsing history, search history, and interactions with our Sites and online advertisements. In addition, we may collect information about your browsing behaviour, such as the date and time you visit the Sites, the areas or pages of the Sites that you visit, the amount of time you spend viewing the Sites, the number of times you return to the Sites, the websites that you visit before or after you visit our Sites and other click-stream data; and
- Other information you provide to us in connection with a request (including without limitation information about your health relating to access or special requirements at events or productions hosted by or on behalf of Sony Music Canada).
HOW WE COLLECT YOUR INFORMATION
(a) From you
We may collect and process personal information that you provide to us by interacting with our Sites (such as by filling in forms), or by you contacting us. This includes, but is not limited to, information provided at the time of registering to use (or become a member of) any of our Sites, subscribing to any of our services (e.g. email or SMS newsletters), purchasing products, posting material, participating in a contest or opportunity, requesting further services or applying to a job opening. If you contact us by email, you’ll be sharing with us your email address, and any other personal information you might include in your message, such as your name, address and place of employment. If you enter a Sony Music Canada contest on social media by commenting on a contest post or posting using the contest hashtag, we will collect your username, and sometimes your name, to randomly select the winners and contact you via direct message if you are a winner. When you provide us with personal information, we will only use it for the specific purpose(s) for which the information is provided or as otherwise authorized or required by law.
(b) By using cookies, web beacons or “clickstream data”
Some information may automatically be collected as you browse our Sites. Our web server automatically collects information known as "clickstream data," such as the domain name of the service providing you with Internet access, the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your browser type and version, operating system and platform, the average time spent on our Sites, pages viewed, information searched for, access times and other relevant statistics.
In addition, we may use ‘cookies’ to collect information relating to your general internet usage. This information may include IP-addresses, browser version, number of visits and similar such information relating to your navigation of the internet and our Sites. A ‘cookie’ is a small text file that is placed on your computer’s hard drive. Cookies help us to improve our Sites and to deliver a better and more personalized service, for instance by storing information about your preferences and allowing us to recognize you when you return to our Sites. In order to place cookies on your device, we may require your consent, subject to applicable law. You’ll see a cookies banner at the bottom of all our Sites. You can either “Accept All” cookies, “Reject All” cookies, or click “Manage Cookies” for more information and options. Unless you change the settings on your internet browser or have accepted all or some categories of cookies, we will only collect “Strictly Necessary Cookies” which we need so you can move around the website and access its content.
If you don’t want to receive cookies at all, you can modify your browser so that it notifies you when cookies are sent to it or you can refuse cookies altogether. Please note that if you continue to browse the Sites, you will be considered to have agreed to our use of “Strictly Necessary Cookies”.
You can withdraw your consent to our use of cookies at any time. If you wish to restrict or block web browser cookies that have been set on your device, then you can do this through your browser settings (it’s often found under “clear history” or “clear cookie cache”); the Help function within your browser should tell you how. You can also use your browser settings to delete cookies that have already been set. Alternatively, you may wish to visit www.aboutcookies.org, which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of desktop browsers. However, please note that if you select such settings you may be unable to access certain parts of our Sites.
Certain pages on our Sites may also contain “web beacons” (also known as Internet tags, pixel tags or clear GIFs). Web beacons may allow third parties to obtain non-personally identifiable information such as the IP address of the computer that downloaded the page on which the beacon appears, the URL of the page on which the beacon appears, the time the page containing the beacon was viewed, the type of browser used to view the page, and the information in cookies set by the third party. We use log files to store the data that is collected through web beacons.
(c) From third parties with your consent
If you choose to access our Sites, participate in a label or artist campaign or contest, or otherwise contact Sony Music Canada by using your account credentials from your social media accounts (such as Facebook or X) or content streaming services (such as Spotify or YouTube), or by clicking “like” or “share” on such third-party platforms, we may collect any information that you permit through your settings on those connected accounts.
At any time, you can remove Sony Music Canada’s access permissions on your account and stop the applicable platform from sharing with us further personal information relating to your account by changing the data privacy settings on your account page on the applicable platform. If you have questions about how to do this, you may email Sony Music Canada at [email protected].
(d) From purchase & subscription transactions:
You may purchase Sony Music Canada artists’ music or purchase merchandise from some of our Sites, in which case you will be directed to an externally hosted web page or sites to complete your transaction. These third-party sites will be clearly identified and link to their own privacy policies, so you know which company is collecting your personal information. You should refer to those policies for any privacy-related questions or concerns regarding your purchase.
When you make a purchase from a Sony Music Canada artist’s official store, your personal information (such as email, name, country, as provided by you at checkout or when registering an account with the store) may be shared with Sony Music Canada to fulfill your order. Where you have consented, the store may also share certain transactional data (such as what you purchased, how much you spent and your billing city, but never your payment details) and/or information about your actions and behaviours on the store, which we will use for the purpose of internal analytics so that we may measure our audience, improve our product range and enhance the Sony Music Canada user experience. We also need to keep certain transactional data for reporting and accounting purposes.
Where you have consented to receive direct marketing updates from Sony Music Canada, or you opt-in to receive marketing when checking out on the store or at a later date, we may undertake limited profiling by combining certain transactional and behavioral data (such as previous purchases and most recent billing city) with the personal information you provided when registering for marketing updates. We use this information to send you the marketing updates you’ve requested and to personalize that marketing content, which might include sending you information about other artists, products or services based on your musical preferences or use that may be of interest you. For example, we might let you know about new releases you may like, or relevant artists’ shows in your city.
(e) Other Sources of Information
We may receive information about you from other sources, including:
- Social media sites: You may choose to use interactive features on our Sites that engage with social media sites, such as Facebook and X. If you use these features, or complete one of our forms by using your social media account credentials, these third-party sites will send us personal information about you and information on how you use their platforms;
- Digital service Providers: if you choose to use features on our Sites (such as pre-save campaigns), or complete one our forms by using your streaming service account credentials, such as Spotify and YouTube, these third-party sites will send us personal information about you and information on how you use their platforms;
- Other applications: such as music/video streaming sites and social media platforms not specifically referenced above; and
- Information you disclose publicly: if you participate in an opportunity to submit photographs, writings, music, video, audio recordings, computer graphics, pictures, data, questions, comments, suggestions or other content (collectively, “User Submissions”).
The above information may be combined with personal information we already have about you, which helps us to update, expand and analyze our records, identify new customers and provide content and services that may be of interest to you.
We use personal information collected from our Sites in accordance with this Privacy Policy for the following purposes:
| Primary Purposes | |
| Purpose | Categories of personal information (as defined above in “What Information We Collect”) |
| To provide you with information, products or services that you have requested from us | All categories of information |
| Where you ask us to send marketing information to you via a medium where we ask for your consent, and you tick the box on the sign-up form giving us your permission to collect and process your personal information for the purpose of sending you such information | Identification information; Contact information; Demographic information; Preferences |
| To carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us and, as permitted by law to perform credit checks, report or collect debts owed, or protect our rights or property, our Sites, or its users | Identification information; Contact information; Account information; Billing Information; Demographic information |
| To allow you to participate in interactive features of our Sites, when you consent to do so, including:· Blogs and forums: We ask each visitor who wishes to participate in blogs and forums on the Sites to provide an email address along with the visitor's screen name to access these functions. Except for the uses described in the paragraphs above, all such email addresses are used only to protect the security and integrity of the Sites, such as to take action against visitors who post inappropriate material or harass other visitors. You are responsible and are deemed to have consented to disclosure if you post your email address or other identifying information or content to a publicly viewable interactive Sites application such as a blog or forum· Contests: For contests conducted on Sony Music Canada’s Sites, we use the personal information you provide only for the purpose of contacting you if you win a prize and sending the prize to you. We do not use contact information contained in contest entries to create mailing lists or for any other purpose without your consent. All contests that are held on this Sites are limited to persons above a certain age. Accordingly, we ask each contestant to provide their age range, as well as name, address, and e-mail address. If the year provided indicates that the contestant is underage, the information submitted is deleted. Please refer to the specific age requirements for each contest as rules may vary from contest to contest | Identification information; Contact information; Account information; User generated content |
| Provide you with access to our online recruitment service and provide you with employment opportunities | Identification Information; Contact Information; Career Information |
| To notify you about changes to our services | Identification information; Contact information; Account information |
| Secondary Purposes | |
| To ensure that content from our Sites is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer or mobile device | Preferences; Technical information; Internet activity information |
| To measure the use of our Sites and to administer and improve our Sites | All categories of information |
| To help protect you and others, we monitor use of our Sites, and we use the information we collect, including personal information, to identify fraudulent activities and transactions; prevent abuse of and investigate and/or seek prosecution for any potential threats to or misuse of our Sites; ensure compliance with the applicable terms of service and this Privacy Policy; investigate violations of or enforce these agreements; and otherwise to protect the rights and property of Sony Music Canada and its affiliates, partners, and customers. Monitoring may result in the collection, recording, and analysis of online activity or communications through our Sites | All categories of information |
TRANSMISSION OF YOUR INFORMATION VIA THE INTERNET
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Any transmission is therefore at your own risk.
Once we have received your personal information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorized access. We use current industry standard technology to maintain the confidentiality and accuracy of the personal information you provide to us. We periodically review our security measures to ensure the security of your information. However, we cannot guarantee that any information you submit to us will be free from unauthorized third-party intrusion.
Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our Sites, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share the password with anyone.
WHERE YOUR INFORMATION IS KEPT OR TRANSFERRED
By providing us with personal information, you acknowledge and agree that your personal information may be transferred to other jurisdictions for processing and storage, including in servers located across Canada and in the United States, where laws regarding the protection of personal information may be less stringent than the laws in your jurisdiction. Further, your personal information may be accessible to law enforcement, national security authorities, and the courts of such jurisdictions. Where necessary to make such transfers, we will comply with our legal and regulatory obligations in relation to the personal information.
WITH WHOM WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
Subject to the terms of this Privacy Policy, and where appropriate, we may share your personal information with the following categories of recipients:
a) Other Sony Music entities and Sony Group companies
Where you have consented to receive direct marketing communications from them, we may share your personal information with other affiliated Sony Music entities or Sony Group companies worldwide, and who may then use your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
b) Artists & artists’ representatives
Where you have consented to receive direct marketing communications from them, we may share your personal information with those artists (and their management companies) about whom you have requested to receive updates, who may then use your personal information, in accordance with this Privacy Policy, to keep you updated with information about them.
c) Other third parties
We may communicate your personal information with an acquiring organization in the event of a proposed or actual purchase (including liquidation, realization, seizure, or repossession), concession, merger, business combination, or any other type of acquisition, liquidation, transfer, translational contract, or financing of Sony Music Canada in whole or in part or of any property, share, assets, stock, or business of Sony Music Canada;
Personal information collected on the Sites may also be shared with service providers who perform functions on our behalf, such as those with whom we contract to host or operate the Sites or those with whom we contract to do promotional and marketing activities on our behalf. These service providers have agreed with us in writing to protect the confidentiality of personal information, to use personal information of Sites’ visitors only for the purposes of carrying out the operations and/or activities we specify, and not to keep the personal information after our agreement with them expires.
We may share with others, at our discretion, certain aggregate statistical data about purchases and the use of our content, which data may include demographic data such as the age range and/or geographic location of groups of users. No personal information (such as names or email addresses) will be identifiable from such statistics.
d) In special circumstances
We may disclose personal information in special cases when we have reason to believe that disclosing this data is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may be causing injury to or interference (either intentionally or unintentionally) with the rights or property of those described above in paragraph (a) or (b). We may also disclose your personal information when we believe in good faith that the law requires us to do so.
YOUR RIGHT TO OBTAIN, CHANGE OR REMOVE YOUR INFORMATION
Wherever we rely on your consent, you will always be able to withdraw that consent at any time. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdrew your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products, services, and information to you. If you wish to withdraw your consent, or delete your account for one of our websites, you can send an email to [email protected], attention: Privacy Officer.
We may rely on consent or statutory exceptions to consent when sending you commercial electronic messages. You may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us at [email protected], attention: Privacy Officer, or by following the unsubscribe instructions in any message sent to you, but please note that there may be certain important electronic messages that we may continue to send you as permitted or required by law.
You have the right to access and receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you. If you find any errors in your personal information, please contact us and we will try to correct the error or explain how you can correct it.
You also have the right to receive information on the categories of persons who have access to the personal information we may hold about you, to receive information on the source of the personal information and how long the personal information will be kept.
Your rights may be limited, for example, if fulfilling your request would reveal personal information about another person, where it would infringe the rights of a third party (including our rights), or if you ask us to delete information which we are permitted or required by law to keep. We will inform you of relevant exemptions we rely on when responding to any request you make.
To exercise any of these rights, you can get in touch with us by either writing to us at our principal address provided at the beginning of this Privacy Policy, attention: Privacy Officer, or by sending an email to [email protected], attention: Privacy Officer.
HOW LONG IS MY INFORMATION STORED
Where we collect your personal information in connection with your registration to use our Sites or services, we do this for as long as your account is active and as needed to provide you services.
Where we collect personal information for marketing or other specified purposes with your consent, we process the data until you ask us to stop (and for a short period after this to allow us to implement your requests). We also keep a record of the fact that you have asked us not to send you direct marketing or to process your personal information indefinitely so we can respect your request in future.
Where we collect personal information in connection with performing a contract or administering a contest, we keep the personal information as long as necessary to fulfil the purpose including complying with our legal obligations, resolving disputes and enforcing our agreements.
Our Sites may contain links to other websites which are outside our control and are not covered by this Privacy Policy. If you access other sites using the links provided, the operators of these sites may collect and process information from you in a way which is different to how we do so. Please review the privacy policy notices on those sites for further details.
Some of the advertisements on the Sites may be generated by third party partners. These third parties may use their own "cookies" to track how many unique users have seen, or click on, a particular advertisement. These cookies cannot be used to identify you as an individual, and are used only for statistical purposes or, for example, to provide advertisements that are more relevant to your preferences.
Sony Music Canada is not responsible for third party cookies, other than allowing them to be served via our websites. However, we may use statistical information arising from these third party cookies that is provided to us, if at all, by such third parties to improve the targeting of advertisements to users (see also 'How we collect your information' above).
If you wish to block third party cookies, you can do so in your browser's security settings.
WHAT DO YOU DO IF YOU HAVE A COMPLAINT OR A QUESTION?
If you would like further information about how we manage your personal information, have any queries or feedback relating to this policy, or wish to lodge a complaint, you may contact the office of our Privacy Officer at:
99 Atlantic Avenue, Suite 800, Toronto, Ontario, M6K 3J8
Email: [email protected], attention: Privacy Officer
Our Privacy Officer is accountable for compliance with the Privacy Laws and is responsible for coordinating the investigation of any complaints and resolving privacy-related issues. The Privacy Officer will manage any complaints received in a timely manner and provide you with a response to your complaint.
You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the relevant privacy regulator. We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the relevant privacy regulator so please contact us in the first instance. In Canada, you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or the relevant provincial privacy commissioner for your province of residence.