Personal information is information that can be used to directly or indirectly identify you. Personal information also includes information that is linked to information that can be used to directly or indirectly identify you. Personal information does not include information that has been irreversibly anonymized or aggregated so that it can no longer enable us, whether in combination with other information or otherwise, to identify you. To the extent we process de-identified information, we will maintain and use the information in de-identified form.
Here is a description of the types of personal information we may collect and how we may process it:
What Personal Information We Collect
Depending on the products and services you use, we may collect and have collected, including within the preceding 12 months, different kinds of personal information from or about you:
- Personal identifiers, including name, username, email address, phone number, and mailing or shipping address.
- Commercial information, including the products or services purchased or considered by customers, information about your Western Digital account and authentication information; billing address, shipping address, and contact details.
- Financial information, including certain limited credit or debit card information.
- Personal characteristics, such as demographic data, including your location, age, gender, income level, employment, or level of education.
- General location information. Where available, our services may use GPS, the location inferred from your IP address, and other technologies to determine the approximate, location of the computers, phones, or other devices on which you install or access our products or services.
- Internet or other electronic network activity information, including browsing history, search history, and information regarding your interaction with our products and services, such as the type of device you use, your device configuration, your device’s unique identifier, the IP address of your device, your operating system, the type of Internet browser that you use, usage information, diagnostic information, browsing information, session summary information, CPU and other usage statistics, API calls, service crash information, network status, storage utilization, search terms, and file attributes (including attributes for photos, videos, music, and documents).
- Professional or employment-related information, such as position, role, occupation, previous work experience or current or former employer.
- Inferences drawn from personal information, such as information about your interests or purchase preferences.
- Sensitive Personal Information, specifically credit or debit card information that is used by our payment processor to help fulfill a transaction you have requested.
In addition to the above categories of personal information, you may choose to provide us with additional personal information, such as when you create an account, fill in a form, provide us a photograph, or submit an application for employment.
How We Collect Personal Information
- Information you provide: We may collect the personal information you provide when you use our products and services, create an account, contact us, participate in a survey, participate in community discussions or chat rooms, apply for employment, sign-up to receive our marketing communications, interact with us at in-person events, or otherwise interact with us.
- Information about payments: If you make a purchase, we may collect personal information in connection with the purchase.
- Information about use of our products and services: When you use our products and services, including our websites and web, mobile, and desktop applications, or view our emails or advertisements, we may collect information from or about the computers, phones, or other devices on which you install or access our products or services. We may gather some of this information automatically. Please read our Cookie Statement for more information on how we use web tracking technologies and the choices you have.
- Information from third parties: We collect information from third parties, including business partners, marketing agencies, and service providers. This may include your contact information from marketing partners when we engage in joint marketing or co-branding activities, your IP address or location information from service providers to offer certain products and services relevant to your location, and data from your social networks to authenticate your product use with us, or that you grant permission to our products or services to access.
- Information from public sources: We may collect information from government sources and records and other publicly available information.
How We Use Your Personal Information
We may use personal information for the purposes described in this Privacy Statement. Generally speaking, we use personal information to provide, improve, develop, and personalize your experience with our products and services, to communicate with you, to offer you targeted advertisements and services, and to protect us and our users. We may do so with your consent, for compliance with a legal obligation, for the performance of a contract with you, or for our legitimate interests, to the extent permitted by applicable laws. Western Digital Technologies, Inc. collects, processes, and determines how to process your personal information as data controller for the following purposes:
- Providing, improving, developing, and personalizing your experience with our products and services: We may use personal information to help us provide, improve, develop, and personalize your experience with our products and services. This includes using personal information for purposes such as data analysis, research, and audits. We may perform such processing based on your consent or our legitimate interest in offering you products and services and for business continuity. If you enter a sweepstakes, contest, or other promotion, we may use the personal information you provide to administer those programs. Some of these activities have additional rules, which may contain further information about how we use personal information, so we encourage you to read those rules carefully before participating.
- Communicating with you: We may use personal information to respond to your inquiries and communicate with you about important notices, including notices related to your account, products, services, transactions, or changes to our policies and terms. Such processing is undertaken because it is necessary for the performance of a contract with you or is based on our legitimate interest in interacting with you to provide you with our products and services. We may also use personal information to communicate with you about your employment requests. Our privacy notices to applicants and employees provide additional information concerning the personal information we collect and how we use personal information in connection with your employment requests. Subject to your prior express consent, we may use personal information to send you marketing communications in relation to Western Digital’s own products and services, and we may share your personal information with third-party partners who may send you marketing communications in relation to their products and services. If you no longer wish to receive email communications for marketing purposes, please Contact Us to opt-out. We may use your information to process and respond to your requests when you contact us.
- Offering and measuring targeted advertisements and services: We may use personal information to provide you with personalized advertisements, including on third-party websites and applications, and to determine the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns. Please read our Cookie Statement for more information on how we use web tra
