Privacy Statement – Chat RCS
This privacy statement outlines the processing conducted by Vodafone to provide you with an enhanced mobile communications experience through a specification called Rich Communications Services (‘RCS’). This service is either delivered through our Call+ and Message+ Apps or through your device manufacturer’s native messaging app.
Last updated: 23-05-2018
Who we are
Chat RCS is a service provided to you by Vodafone Sales and Services Ltd.
We are part of the Vodafone Group.
In this privacy policy:
- “we/us” means Vodafone Sales and Services Ltd;
- “third party” means someone who is not you or us; and
- “Vodafone Group” means Vodafone Group Plc and any company or other organisation in which Vodafone Group Plc owns more than 15% of the share capital.
Vodafone Sales and Services Ltd is registered in England and Wales at Vodafone House, The Connection, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 2FN, under registered number 06844137 and registered VAT number GB 569 95 32 77. Vodafone Sales and Services Ltd if registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), registration number Z1774497.
How to contact us
Your opinion matters to us – if you have any questions about our privacy policy, you can email our representative at: dataprotection.ie@vodafone.com
Personal information we collect about you
Information we collect about you
The types of information we process about you as part of the Chat RCS Apps are:
· To protect you and your device from malicious activity such as spam and viruses, the content of communications will be automatically filtered to try and identify such activity and stop it reaching your device.
· Connectivity information such as the numbers you call or send messages to and the duration of the call;
· Your location via your IP address (or you can choose to share your GPS location with your friends via the ‘share location’ feature);
· Credential information such as username and password;
· Your device details such as your IMEI number, phone number and device type;
· The App will ask for permission to access your contact book so you can message or call your contacts;
· The App will also ask for permission to access your camera and your device storage for the purposes of file transfers;
· Message and file transfer traffic data such as the numbers of the sender and recipient, the file type, name and length; and
· Content of your messages (such as any files or texts) are stored for up to 7 days in the event that the recipient is unavailable when you first send the message.
We’ll also get information about how you use our products and services, such as:
· The level of service that you receive – for example, network or service faults and other events that may affect our network services or other services;
· Details of your use of our services – for example, we can see the amount of data your device is using which we can use to assess whether our data allowances are sufficient; and
· We also collect anonymous analytics information on how our customers use the Apps in order to improve your experience and troubleshoot.
When we collect your personal information
We collect your personal information when:
· You interact with the Apps;
· You send messages or files; or
· You make calls.
Vodafone will process your personal data based on:
1. The performance of your contract or to enter into the contract and to take action on your requests. For example, we’ll need to process your network traffic data in order for you to send messages and files and make calls.
2. Vodafone’s legitimate business interests, for example, fraud prevention, maintaining the security of our network and services, direct marketing, and improvement of our services. Whenever we rely on this lawful basis to process your data, we assess our business interests to make sure they do not override your rights. Additionally, in some cases you have the right to object to this processing. For more information, visit the Your Rights section of this policy.
3. Compliance with a mandatory legal obligation, including for example accounting and tax requirements, which are subject to strict internal policies (such as retention periods), procedures, and your right to restrict usage of your data, which control the scope of legal assistance to be provided; or
4. Consent you provide where Vodafone does not rely on another legal basis. Consent is always presented to you separately and you can withdraw your consent at any time.
How we use your personal information
Provide you with your service
We use your data in order to provide you with the Chat RCS service. For example, we use your data in order for you to share your location with your contacts if you choose or to send files and messages.
Marketing & profiling
Vodafone does not use Chat RCS to send you marketing messages, however given that they are a communications platform, third parties to whom you have given your permission may send you such communications. If you wish to opt-out of those, you should contact the third party in question.
Other profiling
We also conduct real-time traffic analysis for the purposes of routing and detecting any illegitimate Application To Person (‘A2P’) – that’s companies sending you messages. We do not conduct this analysis on a personal level; all your data is aggregated and the analysis is conducted on that aggregate data.
How we share your personal information
Where applicable, we share information about you with:
· Companies in the Vodafone Group;
· Partners, suppliers or agents involved in delivering the products and services you’ve ordered or used;
· Companies who are engaged to perform services for, or on behalf of, Vodafone Limited, or Vodafone Group;
· Credit reference, fraud-prevention or business-scoring agencies, or other credit scoring agencies;
· Debt collection agencies or other debt-recovery organisations;
· Law enforcement agencies, government bodies, regulatory organisations, courts or other public authorities if we have to, or are authorised to by law; or
· A third party or body where such disclosure is required to satisfy any applicable law, or other legal or regulatory requirement.
International data transfers
We do not transfer data outside of the EEA; all data is stored in our data centres in Germany.
How long we keep your personal information for
Cessation of service
We retain data for only as long as is necessary for you to receive your service. If you choose to stop using Chat RCS, we will delete your data after 30 days.
Message and File Transfers
Message and File Transfers (FT) are stored for up to 7 days in the Store & Forward database if the recipient of your message was not available. This is subsequently deleted after the 7 days are up.
Keeping your personal information secure
We have specialised security teams who constantly review and improve our measures to protect your personal information from unauthorised access, accidental loss, disclosure or destruction.
Communications over the internet (such as emails) aren’t secure unless they’ve been encrypted. Your communications may go through a number of countries before being delivered, as this is the nature of the internet.
We cannot accept responsibility for any unauthorised access or loss of personal information that is beyond our control.
We’ll never ask for your secure personal or account information by an unsolicited means of communication. You’re responsible for keeping your personal and account information secure and not sharing it with others.
Our website may provide links to third-party websites. We cannot be responsible for the security and content of such third-party websites. So make sure you read that company’s privacy and cookies policies before using or putting your personal information on their site.
The same applies to any third-party websites or content you connect to using our products and services.
You may choose to disclose your information in certain ways such as social plug-ins (including those offered by Google, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest) or using third-party services that allow you to post reviews or other information publicly, and a third party could use that information.
Social plug-ins and social applications are operated by the social network themselves and are subject to their own terms of use and privacy and cookies policies. You should make sure you’re familiar with these.
Your rights
Below we set out details on how you can exercise your rights. If you have a question or cannot find the answer, please contact our representative’s Customer Services team (dataprotection.ie@vodafone.com).
Right to correct personal data
If you want to contact us about any of your rights or if complain about how we use your information, contact our representative’s Customer Services team (dataprotection.ie@vodafone.com).
Right to access personal data
If you want to contact us about any of your rights or if complain about how we use your information, contact our representative’s Customer Services team (dataprotection.ie@vodafone.com).
Right to data portability
If you want to contact us about any of your rights or if complain about how we use your information, contact our representative’s Customer Services team (dataprotection.ie@vodafone.com).
Right to object to use of personal data
If you want to contact us about any of your rights or if complain about how we use your information, contact our representative’s Customer Services team (dataprotection.ie@vodafone.com).
How to lodge a complaint
If you want to contact us about any of your rights or if complain about how we use your information, contact our representative’s Customer Services team (dataprotection.ie@vodafone.com). We’ll do our best to help but if you’re still unhappy, you can contact the ICO – their details are at www.ico.org.uk
Right to restrict use of your data
If you want to contact us about any of your rights or if complain about how we use your information, contact our representative’s Customer Services team (dataprotection.ie@vodafone.com).
Right to erasure
If you want to contact us about any of your rights or if complain about how we use your information, contact our representative’s Customer Services team (dataprotection.ie@vodafone.com).