WECHAT PRIVACY POLICY

Last Updated: 2022-09-09

SUMMARY

Thank you for using WeChat! We respect your concerns about privacy and appreciate your trust and confidence in us.

Here is a summary of the information contained in this privacy policy ("Privacy Policy"). This summary is to help you navigate the Privacy Policy and it is not a substitute for reading everything! You can use the hyperlinks below to jump directly to particular sections in the Privacy Policy.

DOES THIS PRIVACY POLICY APPLY TO YOU?

This Privacy Policy only applies to you if you are a WeChat user, meaning that you have registered by linking a mobile number that uses an international dialing code other than +86 ("non-Chinese Mainland mobile number").

This Privacy Policy does not apply to you if you are a Weixin user. You are a Weixin user if you have either:

registered by linking a mobile number that uses international dialing code +86 ("Chinese Mainland mobile number"); or
contracted with 深圳市腾讯计算机系统有限公司(Shenzhen Tencent Computer Systems Company Limited) for Weixin.

If you are a Weixin user, you are subject to the Weixin Agreement on Software License and Service of Tencent Weixin and Weixin Privacy Protection Guidelines and not this Privacy Policy.

You can also check whether you are a WeChat or Weixin user by clicking "Me" > "Settings" > "About" and then clicking the link to the "Terms of Service". If you see the WeChat – Terms of Service then you are a WeChat user. If you see the Agreement on Software License and Service of Tencent Weixin then you are a Weixin user.

If you subsequently change your phone number (either from a Chinese Mainland mobile number to a non-Chinese Mainland mobile number, or vice versa) you will be required to convert your account (to either a WeChat or Weixin account, depending on your new phone number). If you convert your Weixin account to a WeChat account, this Privacy Policy applies to you from the date our system records such conversion. If you convert your WeChat account to a Weixin account, this Privacy Policy ceases to apply to you from the date our system records such conversion.

WHAT INFORMATION DO YOU NEED TO PROVIDE WECHAT?

When you register for a WeChat account, we will need your mobile number and an alias. You can further refine and populate your profile with additional information. If you use certain functions available within WeChat (such as posting photos to your Moments), we will process your information to provide these functions. More Information

HOW DO WE USE YOUR INFORMATION?

We use your information to provide WeChat to you, allow you to communicate with other users, allow you to use the features available on WeChat, and to improve and support your WeChat experience. If you are a parent or guardian who has granted permission for your child to use WeChat then we retain the contact information you have provided to ensure we can validate any requests or queries you may have in relation to your child's WeChat account. More Information

WHO DO WE SHARE YOUR DATA WITH?

We do not share your information with third parties, except where we need to in order to provide the service (e.g., SMS, location and mapping service providers) or if we are instructed to by a court, authority or compelled by law. We use these third party services solely to process or store your information for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy . Any third party with whom we share user data is required to provide the same or equal protection of user data as stated in this Privacy Policy. More Information

WHERE DO WE PROCESS YOUR DATA?

Our servers are located in Singapore and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region ("Hong Kong SAR"). We also have support, engineering and other teams that support the provision of WeChat to you, located around the world (including Singapore and the Netherlands), who will have access to your information. Rigorous internal control measures are in place to strictly limit access to your data by designated personnel. More Information

HOW LONG DO WE KEEP HOLD OF YOUR DATA?

How long we retain information for depends on the type of information – for example, log-in data is retained for up to 90 days from the date the data is collected. We do not retain your information for longer than the time period prescribed by law. More Information

HOW CAN YOU EXERCISE YOUR RIGHTS OVER YOUR DATA?

Depending on where you live, you may have special rights over your data and how we can use it. These include how you can access the data, erase the data, restrict how your data can be used, object to our use, and get a copy of your information. More Information

JURISDICTION-SPECIFIC ADDENDA

If you are a user located in Australia, Brazil, California, Canada, Chinese Taiwan, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Japan, Macau SAR, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom or Vietnam, there are additional jurisdictional-specific terms that apply to you. You can see these by visiting this page.

HOW WILL WE NOTIFY YOU OF CHANGES?

If there are any significant changes to this Privacy Policy, we will update it here and notify you before the change becomes effective. More Information

DATA CONTROLLER

If you are a WeChat user located in the European Economic Area ("the EEA"), the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland ("the UK") or Switzerland: Tencent International Service Europe B.V., a Dutch company, located at Buitenveldertselaan 1-5, 1082 VA, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; and
If you are a WeChat user located outside of the EEA, the UK, Switzerland or the Chinese Mainland: WeChat International Pte. Ltd., a Singaporean company located at 10 Anson Road, #21-07 International Plaza, Singapore 079903.

CONTACT US

If you have any questions or complaints regarding this Privacy Policy or the use of your Personal Information, please contact our Data Protection Officer via email at [email protected] or via postal mail at Buitenveldertselaan 1-5, 1082 VA, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (Attention: Data Protection Officer, Legal Department).

Please note that if you are a resident in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland you have the right to lodge a complaint with your country's data protection authority.

If you have an unresolved privacy or data use concern that we have not addressed satisfactorily, please contact our third party dispute resolution provider (free of charge) at https://feedback-form.truste.com/watchdog/request.

INTEROPERABILITY WITH WEIXIN

WeChat is interoperable with Weixin, such that you are able to communicate with Weixin users and view one another's Moments and Status posts. You may also be able to use certain features operated by Weixin, in accordance with the applicable terms. You may view the list of features operated by Weixin here. When you interact with a Weixin user (or vice versa), or use or receive notifications or invitations from any feature operated by Weixin, (together “Interoperable Interaction”), we will share your information with Weixin to the extent necessary to facilitate the Interoperable Interaction. Your Interoperable Interactions will also be subject to the Weixin Privacy Protection Guidelines.

1. INTRODUCTION

Welcome to WeChat!

When you use the WeChat mobile app, desktop app, or the websites www.wechat.com or help.wechat.com (together, "WeChat"), certain of your Personal Information (defined below) will be collected and processed by us.

This Privacy Policy explains the when, how and why when it comes to processing of your Personal Information in connection with WeChat, and sets out your choices and rights in relation to that Personal Information.

In this Privacy Policy, "we", "our" or "us" refers to:

if you are a WeChat user located in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland: Tencent International Service Europe B.V., a Dutch company, located at Buitenveldertselaan 1-5, 1082 VA, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; and
if you are a WeChat user located outside of the EEA, the UK, Switzerland or the Chinese Mainland: WeChat International Pte. Ltd., a Singaporean company located at 10 Anson Road, #21-07 International Plaza, Singapore 079903.

Each of the above entities is also the data controller for users located in the abovementioned jurisdictions.

Any capitalised terms used in this Privacy Policy have the same meaning as the equivalent defined terms in the WeChat Terms of Service, unless they are defined otherwise in this Privacy Policy.

CONTACT

If you have any questions or complaints regarding this Privacy Policy or the use of your Personal Information, please contact our Data Protection Officer via email at [email protected] or via postal mail at Buitenveldertselaan 1-5, 1082 VA, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (Attention: Data Protection Officer, Legal Department).

Please note that if you are a resident in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland you have the right to lodge a complaint with your country's data protection authority.

By using WeChat you agree to the processing of your Personal Information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the processing of your Personal Information in the way this Privacy Policy describes, please do not provide your Personal Information when requested and stop using WeChat.

2. SCOPE AND APPLICATION

This Privacy Policy only applies to you if you are a WeChat user.

This Privacy Policy does not apply to you if you are a Weixin user. You are a Weixin user if you had either:

registered by linking a Chinese Mainland mobile number; or
contracted with 深圳市腾讯计算机系统有限公司 (Shenzhen Tencent Computer Systems Company Limited) for Weixin.

If you are a Weixin user, you are subject to the Weixin Agreement on Software License and Service of Tencent Weixin and Weixin Privacy Protection Guidelines and not this Privacy Policy.

This Privacy Policy does not apply to Personal Information collected by third party services that you may access through the WeChat platform (e.g., features operated by Weixin such as Advanced Search, Channels, Top Stories, and WeBeans; Weixin Open Platform services including Official Accounts, Mini Programs, and Weixin Login; Weixin Pay or WeChat Pay; or third-party web site viewed via the internal browser), and Personal Information that you choose to share with a Weixin user. Please refer to the privacy policy of the relevant third party service. For more information, please see the section entitled "Who do we share your data with?" below.

If you are using WeChat on behalf of a company, partnership, association, government or other organisation (your "Organisation"), you agree to notify such persons in your Organisation whose Personal Information (defined below) we collect or you provide to us ("Connected Persons"), and you agree to obtain such Connected Persons' consent to the processing of their Personal Information in accordance with this Privacy Policy as required by applicable laws and regulations. When this Privacy Policy refers to "you"or "your", this includes you and any Connected Persons. If you or any Connected Persons would like to request for your Personal Information to be removed from our database, please contact us at [email protected].

3. DEFINITIONS

"Location Data" is information that is derived from your GPS (GPS coordinates), WiFi (approximate city location), IP address (country location), or public posts that contain location information (the location you geo-tag). Location Data will be disclosed (either to us, to other users, or both):

when you use location-based features and when you share your location with other WeChat and/or Weixin users; and
when you access WeChat, we automatically derive Location Data from your IP address, device, or internet service for security purposes including to prevent fraudulent log-ins and connections to your account.

You may disable the collection and use of your location data through device-level settings.

"Log Data" is information that is automatically collected when you use WeChat, including:

device attributes, such as your mobile carrier and network-related information, your device version and resettable identifiers, configuration information made available by your WeChat mobile app or desktop or web browser, and your IP address;
information about your viewing history on WeChat, such as social media profiles visited and details of other content accessed or requested by you;
general information about your communications on WeChat, such as the user that you have communicated with, the time, date and duration of your communications (but not the content of such communications), statistics about your use of WeChat, and traffic data; and
metadata, which means information related to items you have made available through WeChat, such as the date, time or location that a shared photograph or video was taken or posted.

"Personal Information" is any information, or combination of information, that relates to you, that can be used (directly or indirectly) to identify you, which we process in connection with your use of WeChat. Please see the section entitled "How do we use your information?" below for examples.

"Shared Information" is information that you include in your publicly-visible WeChat profile, information you make available to other users via WeChat (e.g., via your Moments and Status posts), information about you that is made available by another user via their use of WeChat or Weixin, and Location Data.

4. HOW DO WE USE YOUR INFORMATION?

This section provides more detail on the types of Personal Information we collect from you, purpose of processing, and retention periods for each type of Personal Information.

For users resident in a Relevant Jurisdiction, it also identifies the legal basis under which we process your data. For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, a "Relevant Jurisdiction" includes the EEA, UK, Switzerland, Brazil, Thailand, and Turkey.

We do not retain Personal Information for longer than is necessary unless we are required to do so under applicable laws. For further details on how long we keep your data, please refer to the retention periods set out below. If we are required to retain your Personal Information beyond the retention periods set out below, for example to comply with applicable laws, we will store it separately from other types of Personal Information. Aggregated registration data (which does not contain Personal Information) is retained for spam prevention and system security purposes.

Information	Purpose of Processing	Retention Period
Registration data and log in data. Your name, alias, Apple ID, IP address, mobile number, region, Facebook account, email address used to register a WeChat account and date of registration. Legal Basis (Relevant Jurisdictions only): Necessary to perform our contract with you to create your WeChat profile and provide WeChat services.	- To set up your WeChat account and facilitate your log in; - to facilitate communication between users of WeChat and Weixin; - to facilitate your use of Weixin features; - to enforce our terms, conditions, and policies; - to place VoIP calls using WeChat; - to communicate with you to notify you about changes to WeChat; - to provide you with personalised user support; - to develop new and improve existing services; - to provide language and location customisation; - to protect any rights, property or safety of ours, our affiliate companies, or other users of WeChat; and - to administer WeChat and for troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, security, fraud-detection, account management, and survey purposes.	Registration data is retained until your account is deleted. Log in data is retained for a period of 3 months from the date of such log in.
Shared Information - profile data. Any information that you include in your publicly-visible WeChat profile, which includes your WeChat ID, name, gender, region, and photo. Legal Basis (Relevant Jurisdictions only): Necessary to perform our contract with you to provide your WeChat profile and provide WeChat services.	- To allow your profile data to be shared with other WeChat and Weixin users; - to allow you to use your WeChat ID to log in to or otherwise connect with third party services; - to facilitate your use of Weixin features; - to provide you with personalised user support; - to provide language and location customisation; - to develop new and improve existing services and app experience; - to maintain and administer the WeChat platform; and - for troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, security, fraud-detection and account management.	Until you request removal of the Shared Information or your account is deleted, whichever is earlier (however, the data may be cached on third party services and retained in accordance with their own privacy policies).
Shared Information – profile media. This comprises all of the information you make available to other users or information about you that is made available by other WeChat and Weixin users, including Moments and Status posts. Legal Basis (Relevant Jurisdictions only): Necessary to perform our contract with you to provide your WeChat profile and provide WeChat services.	- To allow your profile media to be shared with other WeChat and Weixin users; - to provide location customisation; - to develop new and improve existing services and app experience; - to maintain and administer the WeChat platform; and - for troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, security, fraud-detection and account management.	Until you request removal of the Shared Information or your account is deleted, whichever is earlier (however, the data may be cached on third party services and retained in accordance with their own privacy policies).
Information for additional account security (if you choose to secure your account). Password, Emergency Contacts, Managed Devices, email address, and QQ ID. Legal Basis (Relevant Jurisdictions only): Necessary to perform our contract with you to provide and secure your WeChat account.	To provide additional security for your account.	Until you request removal of the information or your account is deleted, whichever is earlier.
Chat data. Content of communications between you and another user or group of users. We do not permanently retain chat data on our servers and it only passes through our servers so that it can be distributed to your intended recipients. Chat data is only stored on your device and the devices of the users that you have sent communications to, unless your recipient adds any of your communications to their Favorites or it is a message that the owner or administrator of your group chat added as a Group Notice. Legal Basis (Relevant Jurisdictions only): Necessary to perform our contract with you to provide the chat services of WeChat.	To provide our communication service.	Chat messages are automatically and permanently deleted from our servers within 3 hours of delivery to the recipient's device, and in any event, permanently deleted after 72 hours of you sending them. Chat media such as images, audio, videos, and files are automatically and permanently deleted from our servers after 120 hours of you sending them.
Contacts list. Your on-device contact list. Legal Basis (Relevant Jurisdictions only): Necessary to perform our contract with you to provide WeChat and connect you with your friends.	- To connect you with other WeChat and Weixin users; and - to facilitate your use of WeChat Out.	Until you request removal or amendment of the Personal Information or your account is deleted, whichever is earlier.
Log Data. See definition above. Legal Basis (Relevant Jurisdictions only): It is in our legitimate interest to ensure the security of our services, manage registrations and improve our services.	- For troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, security, fraud detection, and account management.	Permanently deleted 3 months from the date of collection.
Location Data. See definition above. Legal Basis (Relevant Jurisdictions only): Necessary to perform our contract with you to provide WeChat location-based services. Please note that your use of location-based services is subject to the terms of use and privacy policies of third party service providers that power the location-based services of such services, such as Foursquare.	- To facilitate your use of location-based services such as: - sharing your real time location via chat, which relies on your GPS; - manually geo-tagging a location in a Moments or Status post; - People Nearby and Shake, which rely on your GPS; - for security, fraud detection and account management; and - to provide language and location customisation.	Location data used for location-based services: - Location data shared via chat is permanently deleted after 72 hours from the time of your sharing. - Moments and Status: retained until you delete such post or your account is deleted, whichever is earlier. - People Nearby and Shake: permanently deleted after 1 hour from the time of you leaving the function. Location data used for all other purposes is retained for a period of 3 months from the date of collection.
Payment card information – parental/guardian consent. In order to comply with laws protecting children, payment card information of a parent/guardian is collected to verify parental/guardian consent where a Child attempts to create a WeChat account, and the payment card information is verified via a third party payment processing service. After a verification request has been performed by the third party payment processing service, WeChat only retains the date of verification and hashed payment card number. Legal Basis (Relevant Jurisdictions only): We process this data in accordance with our obligations under applicable laws.	To verify parental/guardian consent where a Child attempts to create a WeChat account.	Until the parent/guardian or user requests removal of the payment card information and only if the user has reached the age of majority under relevant local laws.
Text for which you request a translation. Legal Basis (Relevant Jurisdictions only): Necessary to perform our contract with you.	To provide you with translation of the text as requested by you.	Text to be translated and translated text is hashed and cached for 24 hours from the time you request for translation.
Customer Support Information Communications with and any information that you or other users provide to our customer support team. Legal Basis (Relevant Jurisdictions only): Necessary to perform our contract with you to provide and support WeChat.	- To investigate the issue and provide customised customer support; - to develop new and improve existing services and app experience; and - for security, fraud detection, and account management.	Until your account is deleted, unless otherwise required by law.
Access tokens. Access tokens that facilitate the linkage of your WeChat account with your third party social media accounts. Legal Basis (Relevant Jurisdictions only): Necessary to perform our contract with you to provide WeChat services.	If you connect third party social media accounts to your WeChat account, we process access tokens to facilitate your log ins and your sharing of content between these accounts.	Until you unlink your WeChat account from these third party social media accounts.
Surveys. If you participate in a survey, we may request certain Personal Information from you. The purpose of the survey and the identity of the service provider providing the survey (if we engaged a service provider), will be notified to you prior to you completing the survey. Legal Basis (Relevant Jurisdictions only): We collect this information with your consent.	- To better understand how you access and use WeChat; - to develop new and improve existing services and app experience; - to improve WeChat and respond to customer requests and preferences; and - and for any purposes enumerated in the survey itself.	Until your account is deleted or as otherwise stated in the survey itself, whichever is earlier.
Marketing preferences. Whether you would like to receive or be excluded from marketing (including personalised advertisements) Legal Basis (Relevant Jurisdictions only): Consent.	To ensure we deliver marketing in accordance with your preferences.	Until your account is deleted.
Your interests, derived from your in-app behaviour. This only applies to users in jurisdictions where personalised advertisements are available within Moments.	We use this information to deliver advertisements that we think are of interest to you.	Until your account is deleted.

We may also pseudonymise or aggregate Personal Information for analytical purposes. This helps us develop new and improve existing services, conduct fraud detection and account safety analysis, analyse usage trends, and provide third party service providers with basic statistics about how their service is being used by WeChat users.

SENSITIVE PERSONAL INFORMATION

In some jurisdictions, certain types of Personal Information, such as information about your race, religious, political or philosophical views, sexual orientation, and health, are characterised as sensitive and are subject to stricter regulation than other types of Personal Information.

WeChat does not require you to provide sensitive Personal Information to use the service. By posting or communicating any sensitive Personal Information within WeChat, you consent to such information being available within the privacy controls you have selected.

SHARED INFORMATION

You can control which Shared Information is made public to other users of WeChat and Weixin via the privacy settings in WeChat. After you delete Shared Information, it may still be separately cached, copied, or stored by, or remain public through, other users or third parties who are not affiliated with and not controlled by us. Please consider carefully what you post and communicate through WeChat.

PERSONAL INFORMATION WITHIN YOUR CONTENT

If any of your Personal Information comprises Your Content (as defined in the WeChat Terms of Service), we and our affiliate companies may (subject to this Privacy Policy) use such Personal Information in accordance with the "Your Content" section of the WeChat Terms of Service. Your Content will be processed to ensure compliance with the WeChat Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy.

We will not transfer your Personal Information to third parties except as specified below, or where you consent to such transfer.

Only where necessary will we share your information with selected recipients, including:

related group companies. We share your Personal Information within our group of companies, and these related group companies may only use your Personal Information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. These related group companies include Tencent International Service Europe B.V. (located in the Netherlands), Aceville Pte. Ltd. (located in Singapore), and Oriental Power Holdings Limited (located in Hong Kong SAR) for the purposes of providing WeChat to you, assisting us in carrying out the purposes set out under the "How do we use your information?" section above, and carrying out our obligations and enforcing our rights under the WeChat Terms of Service or this Privacy Policy;
service providers. We engage service providers to supply services to support or improve WeChat. These include SMS, VOIP, payment card processing and verification, translation, location and mapping, customer service, and content delivery service providers. These service providers are required to provide the same or equal protection of user data as stated in this Privacy Policy and are prohibited from retaining, using, or disclosing your information except as necessary to provide services to us;
third party services. When you:
- log in to WeChat using third party authentication services;
- share content from WeChat to third party services;
- share content on WeChat from third party services;
- access content of non-Weixin third party services from WeChat; or
- link your WeChat contact list with your list on third party services,
  we may receive information about you from such third party services and/or share your information with such third party services.
  Third party services may collect information (including personal information and log data), and set cookies on your device. This Privacy Policy only applies to information collected by us, and does not apply to information collected by third parties.

Interoperability with Weixin
WeChat is interoperable with Weixin, such that you are able to communicate with Weixin users and view one another's Moments and Status posts, in accordance with the applicable terms. You may also be able to use certain features operated by Weixin. You may view the list of features operated by Weixin here. When you interact with a Weixin user (or vice versa), or use or receive notifications or invitations from any feature operated by Weixin, (together “Interoperable Interaction”), we will share your information with Weixin to the extent necessary to facilitate the Interoperable Interaction. Your Interoperable Interactions will also be subject to the Weixin Privacy Protection Guidelines. Official Accounts and Mini Programs accessible via WeChat are developed, operated, and owned by third parties unrelated to WeChat (unless otherwise stated in the relevant Official Account or Mini Program). When you interact with such Official Accounts and Mini Programs, your information will be collected, retained, shared and/or stored by the relevant Official Account or Mini Program in accordance with their own privacy policies and not this Privacy Policy.
If available in your jurisdiction, you may be able to access Weixin Pay and WeChat Pay via the WeChat platform. Due to regulatory requirements, Weixin Pay and WeChat Pay are operated by different licensed entities in different jurisdictions. When you use any of the Weixin Pay or WeChat Pay payment services, your information will be collected, retained, shared and/or stored by the relevant Weixin Pay or WeChat Pay entity and/or their affiliates in accordance with their respective privacy policies and not this Privacy Policy. We will also share your information with these entities to the extent necessary to facilitate your use of these services.
You can control which third parties have access to your information and you can withdraw your agreement to the sharing of your information by following the instructions set out here. Please note however that if you ask us not to share your information with certain third parties, you may no longer be able to use those third party services;

advertising partners. We may share with our advertising partners reports about trends and the performance of their advertisements to help them better understand their audience. We do not share information that personally identifies you, such as name or email address, unless you give us permission to do so;
third parties or related group companies in the event of a merger, acquisition, restructuring, or sale of assets, or by operation of law or otherwise, we will transfer your information to such entity accordingly so that your service can continue. Under these circumstances, we will always require the third parties or related group companies to comply with this Privacy Policy;
government, public, regulatory, judicial and law enforcement bodies or authorities. There are circumstances in which we are legally required to disclose your information, including (i) to comply with a legal obligation or request, such as a court order, subpoena or other legal process, (ii) to enforce our terms, (iii) to address issues relating to security or fraud, or (iv) where there is an imminent emergency involving risk of death, serious physical injury to a person or any risk of harm to a child, and in both cases, provided that the requesting entity has valid jurisdiction to obtain your Personal Information. Our Law Enforcement Data Request Guidelines are available here; and
third parties pursuant to your request, for example, pursuant to your data portability request.

6. WHERE DO WE PROCESS YOUR DATA?

WeChat is a global platform. Our engineering, technical, and other support teams are based in our offices around the world (including Singapore and the Netherlands), and may have incidental access to certain of your information, for example, in order to fix technical issues that you report. The Personal Information that we collect from you will be transferred to, stored at, or processed in Singapore and Hong Kong SAR. We rely on the European Commission's model contracts for the transfer of personal data to third countries.

7. SECURITY OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We are committed to maintaining the privacy and integrity of your Personal Information no matter where it is stored or accessed. We protect your Personal Information through the use of information security and access policies that limit unauthorised access to our systems, and technological protection measures such as encryption that ensure confidentiality of your Personal Information during transmission and in storage.

We do not permanently retain chat data between you and other users on our servers. Chat data only passes through our servers so that it can be securely distributed to your intended recipients. Chat data is only stored on your device and the devices of the users that you have sent communications to, unless your recipient adds any of your communications to their Favorites or it is a message that the owner or administrator of your group chat added as a Group Notice.

Although we will implement and maintain reasonable measures to protect your Personal Information, please note that as any transmission of information via the internet is never completely secure.

8. ADVERTISING

You may choose to stop receiving personalised advertising from us by following the opt out instructions included in the Settings section of WeChat or by contacting us at [email protected].

9. COMMUNICATIONS FROM US

We may send you service-related announcements via WeChat, email, or SMS when necessary, such as when we temporarily suspend WeChat for maintenance, or security, or privacy reasons. You may not opt-out from these service-related announcements which are not promotional in nature.

10. AGE RESTRICTIONS AND PARENTAL/GUARDIAN CONTROLS

Children under the age of 16 (or such applicable age of majority under relevant local laws of the user) ("Child") must not use WeChat for any purpose without first obtaining parental/guardian consent to and acknowledgment of this Privacy Policy (both for themselves and on their Child's behalf). In certain jurisdictions, you may be required to provide your date of birth; this is only processed on your device and not sent to our servers. We do not knowingly collect Personal Information from any Child without such consent and acknowledgment. Please contact our Data Protection Officer if you believe we have any Personal Information from any Child without such parental/guardian consent and acknowledgment so that we can promptly investigate and remove such Personal Information.

11. YOUR RIGHTS

This Section 10 (Your Rights) only applies to users located in a Relevant Jurisdiction, unless otherwise specified.

If you are a user located in Australia, Brazil, California, Canada, Chinese Taiwan, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Japan, Macau SAR, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and Vietnam, the terms set out under the name of your jurisdiction in this page apply to you in addition to the terms set out in our Privacy Policy.

Please note that in order to protect your information, we will need to verify your identity before responding to any request to exercise your rights ("DSR Request").

For users in a Relevant Jurisdiction, we will respond to your DSR Request without undue delay and in any event within one month (although this may be extended by a further two months in certain circumstances, such as where the request involves substantial volumes of information or is otherwise complex). To exercise any of your rights, please complete the request form here.

Access & Correction

This section also applies to users resident in Argentina, Canada, India and Russia.

You have the right to request access to your Personal Information we hold about you, how we use it, and who we share it with. We may not be able to provide you with certain Personal Information if providing it to you would interfere with another person's rights (e.g. where providing the Personal Information we hold about you would reveal information about another person).

You also have the right to correct that information if it is inaccurate or incomplete.

You can access and correct your Personal Information by logging into your WeChat account at any time. For example, you can delete certain Location Data via your device settings or the "Clear Location" option within WeChat.

If you want us to correct your Personal Information that you are unable to correct using your account, please complete the request form here.

Where we agree to correct your Personal Information, we will use reasonable steps to inform any third party to whom we have disclosed the relevant Personal Information so that they can rectify the Personal Information too.

Erasure

This section also applies to users resident in Argentina, Canada, India and Russia.

You can delete your account, or remove certain Personal Information, by logging into your WeChat account and following the account deletion instructions here. Subsequent to account deletion, aggregated registration data is retained for spam prevention and systems security purposes.

Note that we will not be able to delete your account if you have a positive balance in your Weixin Pay or WeChat Pay account or are the administrator of an Official Account or Mini Program.

If there is any other Personal Information you believe we process that you would like us to erase, please complete the request form here.

You may request that we erase the Personal Information we hold about you where:

you believe that it is no longer necessary for us to hold your Personal Information;
we obtained your consent to process the Personal Information and you withdraw that consent (and we have no other valid legal grounds for processing the Personal Information);
you believe we are unlawfully processing your Personal Information; or
you are or were under the age of 16 (or such applicable age of majority under relevant local laws) when we collected the Personal Information and we can verify this.

You may exercise your right to restrict our processing your Personal Information (as described below) whilst we consider a request to erase your data.

We may retain the Personal Information if there are valid legal grounds for us to do so (e.g., for the defence of legal claims, freedom of expression or some other legal obligation) but we will let you know if that is the case.

Where you have requested that we erase your Personal Information that we have made public and there are valid legal grounds for erasure, we will use reasonable steps to inform any third party to whom we have disclosed the relevant Personal Information so that they can erase it too.

Restriction of Processing to Storage Only

This section also applies to users resident in Russia.

You have a right to require us to stop processing your Personal Information other than for storage purposes in certain circumstances. However, we may process it if there are other valid legal grounds for us to do so (e.g., for the defence of legal claims or for another's protection).

Where we agree to stop processing the Personal Information, we will use reasonable steps to inform any third party to whom we have disclosed the relevant Personal Information so that they can stop processing it too.

You may request we stop processing and just store the Personal Information we hold about you where:

you believe the Personal Information is not accurate (for the period it takes for us to verify whether it is accurate);
we wish to erase the Personal Information as the processing is now unlawful (but you want us to retain the Personal Information and just store it instead); or
we wish to erase the Personal Information as it is no longer necessary for our purposes (but you require it to be stored for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims).

Portability

You have the right to receive a copy of certain of your Personal Information in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format. This comprises any Personal Information we process on the basis of your consent (e.g., Shared Information and content saved to Favorites) or pursuant to our contract with you (e.g., profile data), as described in the section "How do we use your information?". You can exercise your right to export your data by following the instructions here.

You also have the right to request that we transfer that Personal Information to another party. If you wish for us to transfer the Personal Information to a third party, please ensure you provide details of such party. Note that we can only make such transfers where it is technically feasible. We are not responsible for the security of the Personal Information or its processing once received by the third party.

Objection

This section also applies to users resident in Russia.

You may object to our use of your Personal Information that we use on the basis of our legitimate interests (e.g., when we use your Personal Information to ensure account security). If you object to such processing, please complete this request form.

To the extent provided by applicable laws and regulations, you may withdraw any consent you previously provided to us by following the instructions set out here.

12. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We may from time to time revise this Privacy Policy. We will update the revised version here along with the "last updated" date, and notify you via WeChat or other means, as appropriate, before the change becomes effective.

13. LANGUAGE

We have provided translations of this Privacy Policy, but in the event of any conflict between the local language version and the English version, unless otherwise prescribed by applicable laws, the English version shall prevail.