Privacy Policy - Midea | Make Yourself At Home

Last Modified: March 12, 2024

This Privacy Policy sets out the basis upon which Midea Electronics Australia Co Pty Ltd and/or its affiliates (“Midea”) may collect, use, disclose or otherwise handle your personal data in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the “Act”) and other applicable privacy laws and regulations. For the purpose of this Privacy Policy, affiliates of Midea Electronics Australia Co Pty Ltd shall mean any other entity that directly or indirectly through one or more intermediaries, controls, is controlled by or is under common control with Midea Electronics Australia Co Pty Ltd.

We will collect personal information from you as appropriate and necessary in accordance with laws and regulations. We will take reasonable steps to protect your information from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification and disclosure.

This Privacy Policy was last updated on March 12, 2024.

Please read the Privacy Policy in its entirety. If you have any questions about the Privacy Policy, you can contact us via MideaDPO@midea.com.

This Privacy Policy applies to all persons who purchased products from, use products purchased from, or interact with Midea Electronics Australia Co Pty Ltd. By providing us with your personal information or using or continuing to use our products and services, you agree to the content of the Privacy Policy.

CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF 18

We do not solicit personal information from individuals under 18 years of age. If we are notified that we have collected or hold personal information from an individual under 18 without guardian consent, we will delete that personal information as soon as practicable. If you believe Midea may hold the personal information of an individual under 18, please contact us at MideaDPO@midea.com. 

1   Personal information Collection

1.1   Definition of personal information

Personal information is any information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, whether the information or opinion is true or not; and whether the information of opinion is recorded in a material format or not. In other words, personal information is any information that allows us to identify you directly or indirectly.

In this Privacy Policy, references to personal data should be read as references to personal information.

1.2   Circumstances of personal information collection

Your personal data may be collected if you provide it in the course of or in connection with your engagement with us; or if it has been provided to us via a third party who has been duly authorised by you to disclose your personal data to us.

Your personal data may be used by us, and Midea may disclose your personal data to third parties where necessary, for the following purposes:

(a)       Performing obligations under or in connection with your contract and/or arrangement with us;

(b)       All administrative and/or corporate related matters within our organization;

(c)        When you contact us through our authorized representatives and contact centres, email, mobile applications or other services.  

Midea shall seek your consent before collecting any additional personal data and before using your personal data for a purpose which has not been notified to you (except where permitted or authorised by law).

1.3   Scope of personal information collection

We may handle a variety of types of personal information, including any personal data provided by you, your device data, and personal information generated from the use of our services, including:

• Your name, email address, and address that you use to register with Midea.

• When you visit or use our website, we may collect information about your device, such as the hardware model, IMEI number or other unique device identifier, MAC address, IP address, operating system version, and location. We may also collect information about the use of your appliances through an Internet of Things (IoT) app, such as the device model, operating status, frequency of usage, and the use of cameras built into the device. We may also receive and record information about your conversations, audio, video, pictures, etc. in voice interaction with IoT devices.

• When you use bonded and controlled devices, we may collect the information of device model, IP address, location, and device status. We collect your current location information to provide you with services such as weather services, intelligent scene service, network functionality.

•      When you use an IoT device, we may collect information that you communicate during the voice service interaction, including the recordings of your voice commands (such as your questions, requests, and instructions), and information that you receive from the service (such as responses, answers, and content).

•      When you use an IoT device, you can view the real-time and historical video footage captured by the camera through the software. You can also save the video locally. In order to enable the said function, we may send all videos captured by the camera to your app in an encrypted manner. We will neither store your video footage on our server nor use it for any other purpose or share it with any third party.

•      When you use a product or service, we may automatically collect information about your browser and computer, such as your IP address, browser type, language used, access date and time, hardware and software feature information and web page records you need; when you apply for after-sales service, we may also collect your phone number and address.

We will back up data on a regular basis to prevent data loss due to server failure or human error, and will delete them immediately at your request.

2   How Midea handles your personal information

2.1   Legal foundation

We handle your data for the following one or more purposes:

• Where we have your consent;

• For the purpose of marketing;

• For the purpose of performing the contract we enter into with you;

• Where we are legally obligated to do so;

• When it is within our legal rights or interests. For example, to implement our policies, manage day-to-day business, aggregate data for data analysis, maintain information security, or prevent frauds.

2.2   Reasons for providing your personal information

You have the right to choose whether to provide the relevant data. We may not be able to undertake part or all of the obligations according to the service terms or provide our services if you choose not to provide your personal information.

2.3   Purposes and methods

We will use the personal information collected from you to provide you with our services. We will not use your data for any purposes that have not been previously notified to you.

2.4   Accuracy of Personal Data

We generally rely on personal data provided by you (or your authorised representative). In order to ensure that your personal data is current, complete and accurate, please update us if there are changes to your personal data by contacting us using the contact information at section 10 (Contact Us).

3   Device authorizations

When you are using our website or our applications, we occasionally request authorizations to access, including but not limited to, your storage, contacts, notifications, GPS locations, cameras, Bluetooth, NFC when providing services. You may deny the access to relevant personal information by turning off part or all of the authorizations in your device's settings.

4   Sharing, transfer or disclosure of your information

4.1   Sharing of your information

Your personal information will be kept strictly confidential and will not be shared with any other company, organization, or individual, except in the following circumstances:

• Where we have obtained your consent to share your personal information with a third party.

• Where we share your information with our staff members or the branch institutions of our company in China, United States of America, Germany and Singapore only in order to: provide further services; carry out internal management; scrutinize for or handle data leaks, illegal activities, or frauds; to maintain the integrity of the company’s IT system. We only share information with our staff members as necessary for the purposes identified in, this Privacy Policy. Authorized staff members are subject to non-disclosure agreements.

• We may share your personal information with a third-party service provider (or partner) for the purpose of offering or improving our services including but not limited to cloud services, video surveillance services, IT support, and customer service. We have data handling agreements with all relevant third-party service providers (or partners) which require them to take certain security measures in handling your personal information pursuant to the relevant laws and regulations and our requirements to safeguard your data security.

• Where we are required by law to disclose your information.

4.2   Transfer of your information

We will not transfer your information to any other company, organization, or individual except under any of the following circumstances:

•  Where we have obtained your consent for the transfer, we may transfer your information to a third party as necessary.

• In the case of merger, acquisition, or bankrupt clearance, we will demand that the new company or organization be bound by this Privacy Policy. Otherwise, we will demand the company or organization to obtain your new consent.

4.3   Disclosure of your information

We will only disclose your information under the following circumstances:

• Where we have obtained your consent, including as set out in 4.1;

• Where Midea is required to by law.

5   Limitation period for saving your information

We will retain your information in accordance with law for purposes specified in this Privacy Policy, and within any additional period as required or permitted by law. You may withdraw consent at any time.

6   Measures for information protection

We adhere to recognized key data protection principles (fairness, purpose limitation, data quality, data retention, compliance with individual rights, and security), and take reasonable steps to guarantee the security of your personal information. We have applied a range of techniques to secure your personal information to lower the risk of misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorized access, modification or disclosure. Security measures we have adopted include but are not limited to: data desensitization, data encryption, and authorization control of firewalls and data access.

In addition, we shall regularly check and update the security mechanisms used to protect data in order to provide effective protection against data misuse. If you believe that the security of your data has been compromised, or you would like to know more information about the measures we adopt to protect data, please contact us through the contact method provided in section 10 (Contact Us).

7   Storage of personal information

As a global business, we will store the personal information we collect from you in China, United States of America and Germany where that information will be subject to reasonable protections.

8   Personal information rights and their exercise

8.1 Under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) you have the right to request access to the personal information that Midea holds about you.  You may do so, at any time, by making a request for access using the contact details in section 10 (Contact Us).  Midea may require you to verify your identity before we provide you with access, and this information will be handled in accordance with this privacy policy.

If Midea is not legally required to provide access to the personal information requested by you, we will let you know the reason for this.

It is important that the personal information we hold is accurate, complete and up-to-date. You also have the right to ask us to correct information about you which is inaccurate, incomplete, out of date, not relevant or misleading.  If you wish to make a correction request, please contact Midea using the contact details in section 10 (Contact Us).

9   Change of Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy may be amended from time to time to reflect changes in practice.  Please periodically visit review our privacy policy to.

10   Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or you wish to exercise any of your rights, please send an email to our information Protection Office at the following address: MideaDPO@midea.com.

If you have a concern or complaint regarding the handling of your personal information, or a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles, please contact our Information Protection Office at MideaDPO@midea.com. 

We may ask you to put your complaint in writing and to provide relevant details. We may discuss your complaint with our personnel and our service providers and others as appropriate.  We will respond to your complaint in a reasonable period of time (usually within 30 days).

If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint, you may escalate your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, (whose contact details are as set out here) - Contact us — OAIC.