LINKSYS SHIELD PRIVACY NOTICE

To help you find information quickly on any particular question you might have, we have set out an index below. Just click on the question or issue you are interested in and you will be taken to the relevant section:
 
Please read this Linksys Shield Privacy Notice (“Privacy Notice”) carefully before completing the registration process and/or using the Linksys Shield service (“Service”). This Privacy Notice is provided as a separate notice of the Linksys Shield Terms of Service (the “Agreement”). In this Privacy Notice, Linksys USA, Inc. (together with its affiliates, "Linksys", “we” or “us”) provides details of how information is handled when you use the Service, including any apps (“Apps”) that facilitate use of the Service. The purpose of this Privacy Notice is to give you information about how Linksys collects, processes, stores and otherwise uses information about you, and your rights in relation to that information. If you are visually impaired, you may access this notice through your browser’s audio reader.

Please ensure you share this Privacy Notice with anybody else on your network using the Service.

In this Notice you will see references to "GDPR" - that refers to the European Union (“EU”) General Data Protection Regulation. If you are in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), the GDPR governs your rights in relation to your personal data and how organizations should protect it. In this Notice you will see references to "UK GDPR" - that refers to the UK General Data Protection Regulation. If you are in the United Kingdom, the UK GDPR governs your rights, in addition to the Data Protection Act 2018, in relation to your personal data and how organizations should protect it. You may also see references to “CCPA” – that refers to the California Consumer Privacy Act. If you are in California, the CCPA governs your rights in relation to your personal data and how organizations should protect it.

This Privacy Notice contains important information about your rights and obligations, as well as limitations and exclusions that may apply to you.  In addition, Linksys Shield uses software provided by Trend Micro. Trend Micro has a separate privacy notice located
here that covers this software. Please review this privacy policy carefully, as it provides additional details about certain additional personal data that Trend Micro collects and processes. Linksys is not responsible for the privacy practices of Trend Micro. 

Personal data may be collected by Apple or Google as part of the Linksys Shield subscription process. To see what personal data is collected and processed by Apple and Google (which is separate from personal data we collect and process), please see the privacy policies for the Apple App Store or Google Play located on your device.

We process the data that you enter or upload to the Service in accordance with this Privacy Notice and the Agreement. Certain data collected from the Service, or that you provide or make accessible as part of your use of the Service, is necessary for the essential use and functionality of the Service or to provide associated services as set forth in this Privacy Notice. These are labeled as “Required Data” under the categories of personal data below. Accordingly, you may not be able to opt-out of certain data collection practices without terminating your use of the Service.


What types of personal data does Linksys collect about you when you use the Service and what is the purpose of collection?


“Personal data” or “personal information” means any information relating to you or relating to another identified or identifiable natural person, including where such information is defined under the data protection laws applicable in the jurisdiction in which such person resides to be "personal data" or "personal information" or any other similar term and includes, without limitation, "personal data" as defined in the GDPR in respect of individuals resident in the EEA, or UK GDPR if individuals reside in the UK, “personal information” as defined in the CCPA in respect of individuals resident in California, United States, or "personal information" as defined in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) in respect of individuals resident in Australia.

Anonymized Information. When information is anonymized, personal data is removed from collected data and the remaining portion of the data is repurposed for internal or external use, such as to determine how many users use various security features of the Service. Anonymized information cannot be used to identify you.

Children’s Personal Data. The Service and Linksys products are not directed to, nor does Linksys knowingly collect personal data from children under the age of 16. If you believe we might have inadvertently collected personal data from or about a child under the age of 16, please contact us
here and we will delete it. We do not sell the personal information of minors under 16 years of age.

The following provides examples of the types of information we collect about you and how we use that information.  
 
ContextTypes of DataPrimary Purposes for Collection and Use of Data
Account Registration / Authentication DataWe collect your Linksys Smart WiFi account information (first and last name. email address, and password) when you subscribe to the Service. Your password is only stored in hashed form. When you subscribe to the Service, a License ID, consisting of a unique value associated with you, is sent to Trend Micro, telling Trend Micro that you have subscribed to the Service. This License ID then “unlocks” Linksys Shield on your Linksys product and Linksys Smart WiFi account to give you access to Linksys Shield for as long as you subscribe to the Service.

We also collect information when you are logged into your account, including your IP address, MAC address and the serial number of your router. Providing this information is required in order to authenticate your Linksys Shield account and provide you with account functionality.

Authentication Data is Required Data.
We have a legitimate interest in providing account related functionalities to our users, including securely authenticating your account with us. Account information can be used to save your preferences and transaction history; to notify you about firmware updates, service downtimes, security issues, new features and other communications about the Service; and to provide you with more efficient customer support. We also use account information to notify you about changes to the Agreement to perform our contract with you.

IP address is collected so that we know which Internet server your home network is connected to and which devices are using the Service. We have a legitimate interest in making sure the Service is working properly and troubleshooting problems with connectivity that our users may be having.

The MAC address and serial number of your Linksys product are collected because we have a legitimate interest in making sure that your Linksys product is working properly and troubleshooting problems that a particular product may have with the Service.
Customer SupportIf you report a problem or contact us for support, we will collect your name, phone number, email address and information about your home network and devices connected to your home network.

If you submit a Return Materials Authorization, we will collect your physical address and credit card number.
We use your information to perform our contract to provide you with products or services and to honor product warranties. We also have a legitimate interest in providing support to our customers and fixing issues that they bring to our attention, as well as developing new products and improving current products based on your feedback.
Service Interactions / Usage DataWe use technology to monitor how you interact with the Service. This may include device and Service settings, subscription process data, user configuration data and logs, crash and “Report a Problem” logs, performance statistics, network statistics and configurations, user preferences, data about network threats and malicious attacks and websites when the Service is accessed by you, log in/ log off data.

User configuration data may include MAC addresses of devices in your home network, user defined URLs and IP addresses, as well as category blocking preferences and time schedules related to your use of the Service. User configuration data is processed and stored at your request. We do not collect, process or store any other information about your use of the Internet or devices in your home network.

User logs may include information about specific devices’ connections to specific URLs or IP address information that is relevant to the operation of the Service based on user-defined configurations. For example, if you have blocked a specific category, and a device in your home network attempts to connect to a URL in that category, the Service will keep a log of that failed attempt.

Usage Data is Required Data.
We have a legitimate interest in understanding how you interact with our Service to better improve it and our products, to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner, and to troubleshoot issues to understand your preferences and interests in order to select offerings that you might find most useful. If you consent, user log and access data may also be used during customer support to troubleshoot issues with your use of the Service. We also have a legitimate interest in detecting and preventing fraud and ensuring that your experience on our Service is as secure as possible.
 
In addition to the information that we collect from you directly, we may also receive information about you from other sources, including third parties, business partners, our affiliates, or publicly available sources.

If you choose not to provide your personal data to us for the purposes set out in this Privacy Notice, or if we do not or are unable to collect the personal data we require, we may not be able to provide you with requested information, products or services, or to effectively conduct our relationship with you.

We may otherwise collect, use or disclose your personal data where the collection, use or disclosure is:
  • in accordance with this Privacy Notice or any agreement you enter into with us; or
  • required or authorised by applicable law.

With whom might Linksys share my personal data?

Linksys does not rent or sell personal data. We will only disclose your personal data to third parties for marketing purposes if you have granted us permission to do so, and in accordance with the Marketing section below.

Linksys may transfer personal data to third parties for the processing purposes set forth in this Privacy Notice as follows:

 
  • To Linksys-affiliated companies.  
 
  • To general service providers.  As necessary to provide the Service to you. Below is a non-exhaustive list of service providers that we may share your data with, including the related processing purposes for which it is disclosed to these service providers:
 
  • Trend Micro Incorporated (see separate Trend Micro privacy policy located here) – We provide Authentication Data and Usage Data to Trend Micro as described in this Privacy Notice to assist us with authenticating your credentials, providing support and providing updates related to the Service
  • Splunk – We provide Authentication Data and Usage Data to Splunk for analytics purposes to assist us with improving Linksys products, including the Service and products connected to the Service
  • Salesforce – We provide Authentication Data to Salesforce to help us process authentication requests and provide Usage Data to Salesforce to help us track your usage of the Service
  • Linksys USA – We provide Authentication Data, Customer Support Data, and Usage Data to Linksys USA to help us administer the systems we use to provide the Service.
 
  • To customer support service providers.  As necessary to provide you with customer support if you contact our customer support team:
 
  • Concentrix
  • CSS
  • Sutherland
  • Salesforce
 
  • To regulators, authorities, and other third parties.  As necessary to comply with the law or legal process, personal information may be transferred to regulators, courts, and other authorities (e.g., tax and law enforcement authorities), independent external advisors (e.g., auditors), and internal compliance and investigation teams (including external advisers appointed to conduct internal investigations).
 
  • To acquiring entities.  Your personal data may be transferred to third parties involved in a reorganisation, restructuring, merger, acquisition or transfer of assets of the Linksys business in whole or in part, including the successor entity, provided that the receiving party agrees to treat your personal data in a manner consistent with this Privacy Notice.
 
  • With your consent. We may ask if you would like us to share your information with other unaffiliated parties who are not described elsewhere in this policy. Please note that if you consent to the disclosure of your personal information to a third party, that third party will apply its own privacy practices.  You should carefully review the privacy notice of any third party before you consent to providing them with your personal information.

In addition, we may share aggregated anonymized information, including non-personal usage data, with third parties for a variety of purposes, including to analyze trends about home networking use, to show third parties how their products could work with Linksys products and to generally improve home networking. We've taken steps to ensure that this information cannot be linked back to you and we require third parties to keep all shared information in its anonymized form. Further, we will not attempt to reidentify the information, except for the purpose of determining whether our anonymization processes satisfy our legal obligations.

Where might Linksys transfer my personal data?


Linksys will take all necessary measures to ensure that transfers out of the country where you are located are adequately protected as required by applicable data protection law. The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, various locations globally, including the United States, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom and countries located in the EEA.

If you are located in the EEA, for purposes of the GDPR, transfers of your personal data out of the EEA (if you are a resident of the EEA) to countries that are not deemed to have adequate protection will be bound by the EU Standard Contractual Clauses (available
here) pursuant to the GDPR, which the European Commission has assessed as providing an adequate level of protection for personal data, to ensure that your data is protected adequately.

If you are located in the United Kingdom, for purposes of the UK GDPR, transfers of your personal data out of the UK to countries that are not deemed to have adequate protection, will be bound by the UK approved international data transfer agreement, which the UK Information Commissioner’s Office has assessed as providing an adequate level of protection for personal data, to ensure that your data is protected adequately.

By providing your personal data to us, you fully understand that Linksys may transfer, process and store your personal data outside of your country of residence where data protection standards may be different, and may disclose your personal data to overseas service providers who may not fully comply with the particular laws of your country.

If you are located in Australia, you consent to the collection, use, storage, and processing of your personal data outside of Australia as set out in this Privacy Notice. You consent to the collection, use, storage and processing of your personal data in other countries, without us being responsible under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) for such use (or for any breach).  Where such parties are located outside of Australia, you may have rights to enforce such parties' compliance with applicable data protection laws, but you might not have recourse against those parties under the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) in relation to how those parties treat your personal data.


How does Linksys aim to keep my personal data secure?

Linksys maintains, and takes reasonable steps to ensure that its service providers maintain, appropriate administrative, technical and physical safeguards designed to protect your personal data against accidental, unauthorized or unlawful destruction, loss, disclosure, and access. Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet is not 100% secure. If you use a computer or device that can be accessed by others, other people may be able to access unencrypted personal data. If you do not want your information to be available to others, exercise caution when using public computers or devices or when using any computer or device to which users unauthorized by you may have access.

We recommend that you take every precaution in protecting your personal data. For example, create strong passwords by using a combination of letters, numbers and symbols, change your passwords often, and make sure you use a secure browser. When creating a password for your home network, make sure you choose a unique password that you do not use for other Internet-based services. If you use the Linksys app associated with the Service, make sure you use the official Linksys app from an authorized market or store, such as Apple’s App Store or Google Play. You should also be aware that names that you give your WiFi-enabled devices, home networks and services (also known as “friendly names”) may be detectable by Linksys and by others, so you should not include personal data as part of your friendly names.

If we are required by law to inform you of a breach to your personal information, we may notify you electronically, in writing, or by telephone, if permitted to do so by law.


How long will Linksys keep my personal data?

We will only retain personal data to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, as required for legitimate business purposes as described in this Privacy Notice, or as otherwise permitted by applicable laws.  We may, for example, keep your personal data for a reasonable time after you have stopped using the Service to ensure that Linksys has the records it needs in the event of a dispute or regulatory investigation and to ensure that any ongoing obligations can be complied with, such as complying with requests from regulators. 

What rights do I have in respect of my personal data?

You have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. These can differ by country and jurisdiction. You may have the following rights:

 
  • The right to correct your data if it is inaccurate or incomplete.
  • The right to transfer personal data you have provided to us to a third party in a portable format.
  • The right to delete your personal data, unless we are required to retain it by law, or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims, or for another one of our business purposes.
  • The right to receive a copy of your personal data held in our current records. If you are outside the UK, EEA or California, we may make a reasonable charge if records must be accessed from backed up or archived records. Note that California residents may be entitled to ask us for a notice describing what categories of personal data (if any) we share with third parties or affiliates for direct marketing.
  • The right to opt-out of receiving marketing materials. The easiest way to do this is by clicking the “Unsubscribe” link in any email you receive from us.

If you are a resident in the UK, EEA, and certain other countries, you also have the following rights:
 
  • The right to withdraw your consent to our processing of personal data at any time after you have consented.
  • The right to restrict our processing of your personal data where you believe such personal data to be inaccurate, our processing to be unlawful, or that we no longer need to process such personal data for a particular purpose (unless we are not able to delete the personal data due to a legal or other obligation or because you do not wish for us to delete it).
  • The right to object to such processing on grounds relating to your particular situation, where the legal justification for our processing of your Personal Information is our legitimate interest. We will abide by your request unless we have compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests and rights, or if we need to continue to process your Personal Information to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

You can address written requests and questions about your rights to us through our online webform, located here. If you are in California, you can also contact us by phone at 800-405-8760.

Linksys has appointed DataRep as its Data Protection Representative for GDPR purposes. If you are a resident of the EEA and Linksys has processed or is processing your personal data, you can contact DataRep directly in your home country to exercise your rights. You may do so by:

 
  • Sending an email to DataRep at linksys@datarep.com. 
  • contacting DataRep on its online webform located here, or
  • mailing your inquiry to DataRep at Cuserstraat 93, Floor 2 and 3, Amsterdam, 1081 CN, Netherlands. When mailing inquiries, please mark your letters for “DataRep” and not “Linksys”.

Please refer clearly to Linksys in your correspondence. If you have any concerns over how DataRep will handle your personal data, please refer to DataRep’s privacy notice located here.

We will respond to your request promptly upon receipt. Linksys will endeavor to respond within one month of receipt, or, if further time is required, we will inform you of this and the reason for the delay. We may ask you to verify your identity before we can act on your request. We may conduct an identity verification by phone call or email. Depending on your request, we may ask for information such as your name, the email address connected to your account with us or the date of a support call you made to us. We may also ask you to provide a signed declaration confirming your identity.

In some circumstances, you may designate an authorized agent to submit requests to exercise certain privacy rights on your behalf. We will require verification that you provided the authorized agent permission to make a request on your behalf. You must provide us with a copy of the signed permission you have given to the authorized agent to submit the request on your behalf and verify your own identity directly with us.

If you are an authorized agent submitting a request on behalf of an individual in California, you must attach a copy of a completed Authorized Agent Designation Form, located
here, indicating that you have authorization to act on the consumer’s behalf. If we do not receive this information, the request will be denied.

If your Personal Information has been disclosed to a third party in accordance with this Privacy Policy, we will take reasonable steps to notify the third party of any updated information you provide to us.

If you are in the EEA, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the local data protection authority if you believe that we have not complied with applicable data protection laws. Please
click here for a list of contact details for the EEA data protection authorities. If you are in the UK, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office if you believe we have not complied with applicable data protection laws. You may also have the right to lodge a complaint with local data protection authorities in other countries.

We do not discriminate against individuals who exercise any of their rights described in this Privacy Policy. If you disagree with how we handled a request, you may appeal our decision by contacting us by email at privacy@linksys.com with the subject line “Appeal.”



Information for California Residents

California law indicates that companies should disclose whether certain categories of information are collected, transferred for consideration, or transferred for an organization’s “business purpose” as that term is defined under California law. The Service collects Identifiers and Network activity Data, which we may disclose for a business purpose with our service providers, product and service fulfilment companies, internet service providers, and government entities, law enforcement, lawyers, auditors, consultants, and other parties as required by law. We may also collect your credit/debit card information when you submit a return, which we may disclose for a business purpose with our service providers, product and service fulfilment companies, payment processors and financial institutions, and government entities, law enforcement, lawyers, auditors, consultants, and other parties as required by law. Finally, we collect account login in combination with your password, which is considered sensitive personal data under California law. We use this information to provide account-related functionality and to detect, prevent, and investigate fraud and illegal activity. You can find a list of the categories of Personal Information that we collect and share
here.

Note that we do not sell or share any Linksys Shield personal data (including sensitive personal data) for purposes of cross-context behavioural advertising. We do not discriminate against California residents who exercise any of their rights described in this Privacy Notice.


How do I contact you about my privacy rights?


Should you have any privacy-related questions or would like to exercise your rights, please contact us here or, if you are in California, call our toll-free number at 800-405-8760.

If you are in the UK for UK GDPR purposes our data controller is: 

Linksys UK Limited
Governors House
5 Laurence
Pountney Hill
London
EC4R 0BR, United Kingdom

If you are in the EEA, Linksys has appointed DataRep as its Data Protection Representative for GDPR purposes. If you are a resident of the EEA and Linksys has processed or is processing your personal data, you can contact DataRep directly in your home country to exercise your rights. You may do so by:
  • sending an email to DataRep at linksys@datarep.com,
  • contacting DataRep on its online webform located here, or
  • mailing your inquiry to DataRep at Cuserstraat 93, Floor 2 and 3, Amsterdam, 1081 CN, Netherlands. When mailing inquiries, please mark your letters for “DataRep” and not “Linksys”.

Please refer clearly to Linksys in your correspondence. If you have any concerns over how DataRep will handle your personal data, please refer to DataRep’s privacy notice located here.

Updates to this Privacy Notice

We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time, so please review it frequently. If we change our Privacy Notice, we will post the revised version here, with an updated revision date. If we make material changes to our Privacy Notice, we will notify you by email or prominently post a notice on the Linksys website.

Revised and Updated Effective August 3, 2023

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