In order to provide you with the best understanding of how WeChat is designed with your privacy in mind and to better understand your rights regarding your data, WeChat requires that you first review the following important information, consent to the latest version of our WeChat Privacy Policy, and provide additional required info about yourself.
Thank you for using our products and services! 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. 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.
If you register an account to use WeChat then we will need some information from you to set this up (e.g., to set up a profile and validate your phone number). To set up your account, we will need a nickname, your mobile number, and a password. You can further refine and populate your profile with additional information. If you use the services available within WeChat (such as posting photos to your Moments and Time Capsule or following Official Accounts), we will process information to allow the services to operate. More...
We use your information to provide WeChat to you, allow you to communicate with other users, and to use the features of the WeChat Open Platform. We use your information for account set-up, to facilitate communications, provide support, allow you to access features of WeChat, and to improve WeChat. WeChat uses contact channels provided by you, such as mobile number or email address, for verifying and protecting your account and for important administrative reasons and does not use these channels for promotional or marketing reasons. More...
We do not share your information with any third parties, except where we need to in order to provide the service (e.g., use SMS service providers for account validation; for mapping services; for other point-of-interest services; using our affiliates around the world to help us to deliver WeChat) 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 policy. Any third party (selected by us) with whom we share user data is required to provide the same or equal protection of user data as stated in this policy. More...
Our servers are located in Ontario, Canada and Hong Kong. We also have support, engineering and other teams that support the provision of WeChat to you, located around the world. Your data may be accessed from such locations. Rigorous internal control measures are undertaken to strictly limit access to your data by designated team members. More...
The time we retain your 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. If you instruct us to delete your WeChat account, your information is deleted within 60 days of the latter of verification of account ownership and receiving your account deletion request. More...
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, erasing the data, restricting how your data can be used, objecting to its use, and getting a copy of your information. More...
If there are any significant changes to this Privacy Policy, we will update the policy here and notify you before the change becomes effective.
If you have any concerns or complaints, please contact us here.
Data Controllers:
Users located in the European Economic Area and Switzerland: Tencent International Service Europe BV.
Users located outside of the European Economic Area or Switzerland (subject to the below): Tencent International Service Pte. Ltd.
If you either:
register by linking a mobile number that is made available to you in the People’s Republic of China (except for Taiwan, Hong Kong, or Macau) (being the "PRC") ((i.e., a contact number that uses international dialing code +86)); or
have contracted with 深圳市腾讯计算机系统有限公司 (Shenzhen Tencent Computer Systems Company Limited) for Weixin or WeChat (for example, if you have downloaded Weixin or WeChat from the PRC iOS App Store or from a PRC Android app store),
you are subject to the Weixin Terms of Service and Weixin Privacy Policy and not this Privacy Policy.
Data Protection Officer:
Email: dataprotection@wechat.
Postal mail: 26.04 on the 26th floor of Amstelplein 54, 1096 BC Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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.
Last Updated: 2024-12-16
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:
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 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. Alternatively, if you are using the latest version of WeChat, you can also check whether you are a WeChat or Weixin user by verifying the service name listed in the header at the top of the "Chats" screen. If you see "WeChat" in the header then you are a WeChat user, whereas a Weixin user will see "Weixin" (or "微信" for users viewing in a Chinese language interface).
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 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 (as determined by your currently registered mobile number) in Australia, Brazil, California, Canada, Chinese Taiwan, Hong Kong SAR, Indonesia, Japan, Macau SAR, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Türkiye, 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
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 dataprotection@wechat.com 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.
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.
Please note that this Privacy Policy only applies to WeChat. If you use any other products or services please refer to the privacy policy for that particular product or service.
If you do not agree to the processing of your personal information in the way this Privacy Policy describes, please do not provide your information when requested and stop using WeChat. By using WeChat you are acknowledging how we process your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy.
In this Privacy Policy, "we", "our" or "us" refers to:
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.
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 dataprotection@wechat.com or via postal mail at Buitenveldertselaan 1-5, 1082 VA, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (Attention: Data Protection Officer, Legal Department). We have representatives for data protection purposes listed here.
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.
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:
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 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. Alternatively, if you are using the latest version of WeChat, you can also check whether you are a WeChat or Weixin user by verifying the service name listed in the header at the top of the "Chats" screen. If you see "WeChat" in the header then you are a WeChat user, whereas a Weixin user will see "Weixin" (or "微信" for users viewing in a Chinese language interface).
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.
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 a 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 dataprotection@wechat.com.
"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):
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:
"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.
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.
Where applicable, it also identifies the legal basis under which we process your data under applicable data protection laws
We do not retain Personal Information for longer than is necessary unless we are required or permitted to do so under applicable laws. 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. For further details on how long we keep your data, please refer to the retention periods set out below.
| Information | Purpose of Processing | Retention Period |
|---|---|---|
| Registration data and log in data. Your name, alias, Apple ID, Facebook ID, IP address, account identifier, mobile number, region, location as determined by your currently registered mobile number, 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 as well as the tools we use to detect account violations and enhance the safety and quality of accounts; - 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, or until you unlink your WeChat account from your Apple or Facebook account, whichever is earlier. 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; - for troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, security, fraud-detection and account management; and - to develop and improve tools we use to detect account violations and enhance the safety and quality of WeChat accounts. | 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. |
| Personal settings. These include personal account settings viewable to you but not shared with other users such as settings to customize your WeChat experience, personal annotations and details that you add to your own account and to your contacts. Legal Basis (Relevant Jurisdictions only): Necessary to provide you with services customized to your preferences. | To provide you services customized to your preferences. | 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 and friends list. Your on-device contact list and your WeChat list of group chats and friends 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; - (in relation to your list of group chats and friends list) to develop and improve tools we use to detect account violations and enhance the safety and quality of WeChat accounts; 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. | - 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 when you manually choose to geo-tag a location in your post: 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; - for security, fraud detection, and account management; and - for moderation of content or behaviour that is prohibited by applicable laws and regulations, or which otherwise violate WeChat's terms of service or other rules applicable to WeChat users. | 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. |
| Country/Region Data unique identifier number (UIN) assigned to users, wuid, where you are located (as determined by your IP address and currently registered mobile number). Legal Basis (Relevant Jurisdictions only): It is in our legitimate interest to display adverts to you based on your country/region. Note that such location-based ads are not available to users in the EU and UK. | Depending on where you are located, we use this information to display location-based advertising to you based on your country/region. | We do not store this information. We process this momentarily after which it 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.
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.
All WeChat users will be able to use the WeChat Guardian Mode function, under which certain option for sending and receiving friend requests and visibility of Moments shared to non-friends will be restricted. WeChat Guardian Mode also enables the designation of an individual (called a "Guardian") who will have the ability to impose restrictions on a specific user's use of WeChat by suspending or restricting specific functions such as Official Accounts and Mini Programs. For a complete list of the relevant functions and more information in relation to the WeChat Guardian Mode function, please refer to the function's terms of use available here. We will not collect personal information of those functions that have been restricted as part of the WeChat Guardian Mode, for the duration that such relevant restrictions are active.
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:
| 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;
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.
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 any of you or your recipient adds any of your communications, shares the relevant chat externally such as by saving it to Favorites or including the chat history when reporting a chat for abuse, or when the administrator of your group chat has added a Group Notice, in which case the Group Notice will be retained so it can be accessed by group members in the future..
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.
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.
Children under the age of 13 (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; we will however only process the year and month of your birth. 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.
This Section 11 (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, Indonesia, Japan, Macau SAR, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Türkiye, 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.
You may have certain rights in relation to the personal information we hold about you. Some of these only apply in certain circumstances (as set out in more detail below). 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"). To exercise any of your rights, please complete the request form here.
This section also applies to users resident in Argentina, Canada 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.
This section also applies to users resident in Argentina, Canada 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 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
Our Representatives in Certain Jurisdictions
| Jurisdiction | Representative | Address | Contact details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Korea | Tencent Korea Yuhan Hoesa | 152, Taeheran-ro, Gangnam-gu (Gangnam Finance Center, Yeoksam-dong), Seoul, Korea | dataprotection@wechat.com |
| Serbia | Karanovic & Partners o.a.d. Beograd | Resavska 23, Belgrade, 11000, Serbia | local.representative@karanovicpartners.com |
| Thailand | Tencent (Thailand) Company Limited | 8 T-One Building, Floor 10th, 11th & 12th (Unit 3-5), Soi Sukhumvit 40, Sukhumvit Road, Khwaeng Phra Khanong, Khet Khlong Toei, Bangkok 10110, Thailand | localrepresentative@tencent.co.th |
| Türkiye | Özdağıstanli Ekici Avukatlık Ortaklığı. | Nidakule Ataşehir Kuzey, Begonya Sok. No:3 Kat. 17 D: 162 / 34746 Ataşehir / İstanbul, Türkiye Özdağıstanli Ekici Avukatlık Ortaklığı is our data controller representative and its authority is limited to the authorities stipulated under the Law on Protection of Personal Data w. no 6698. Özdağıstanli Ekici Avukatlık Ortaklığı is not authorised for any other matters such as conduct in WeChat, bans, investigations, civil or criminal complaints. | tencent@iptech-legal.com |
The terms of this Addendum apply to residents of California under the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) and other applicable laws. The CCPA provides California residents with certain legal rights such as access, deletion, disclosure, or “do not sell.” These rights are not absolute and are subject to certain exceptions.
Collection and Disclosure of Personal Information
Over the past 12 months, through your use of WeChat, we may have collected and disclosed the following categories of personal information from or about consumers, as defined in the CCPA:
We collect personal information for the following purposes:
For additional information about what each type of personal information is used for, see this chart in the main portion of the Privacy Policy.
We disclose personal information to the following types of entities:
In the past 12 months, we have not sold personal information of California residents within the meaning of “sold” in the CCPA.
Rights under the CCPA
If you are a California resident and the CCPA does not recognize an exemption that applies to you or your personal information, you have the right to:
We aim to fulfill all verified requests within 45 days pursuant to the CCPA. If necessary, extensions for an additional 45 days will be accompanied by an explanation for the delay.
How to Exercise Your Rights
First, you may wish to log into your account and manage your data from there.If you are a California resident to whom the CCPA applies, you may exercise your rights, if any, to other data by contacting us at dataprotection@wechat.com.
The following section applies for the purposes of users located in Korea only.
Children under the age of 14 must not use WeChat for any purpose without first obtaining parental/guardian consent to the Privacy Policy (both for the parent/guardian themself and on their child's behalf). We do not knowingly collect Personal Information from any children under the age of 14 without such consent. Please contact our Data Protection Officer if you believe we have any Personal Information from any children under the age of 14 without such parental/guardian consent – we will promptly investigate (and remove) such Personal Information.
The Personal Information (including your personal location information) we provide to third parties located outside of Korea for the WeChat service is as follows:
| Identity of the recipient and contact information of Chief Privacy Officer | Location (and jurisdiction) of the recipient (or as otherwise stated in the recipient's privacy policy) | Purposes of use of Personal Information by the recipient | Items of Personal Information to be provided | Date and method of transfer | Period of retention and use of Personal Information by the recipient |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operators of third party services that allow log in via WeChat Please refer to the privacy policy of the relevant third party service for contact information. | Where the servers of the third party services are located | Access to third party services in accordance with your request | User alias Profile photo Gender Region | Transmitted from time to time | Retained for such time as stated in the privacy policy of the relevant third party service. |
| Adyen N.V. dpo@adyen.com | The Netherlands | Verifying payment card information in relation to parental/guardian consent | Payment card information | Transmitted from time to time | Retained for such time as stated in the privacy policy of the relevant third party service. |
| Google Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. http://policies.google.com/privacy | USA | Translation service | Text to be translated | Transmitted from time to time | Retained for such time as stated in the privacy policy of the relevant third party service. |
| Microsoft Operations Pte Ltd. https://privacy.microsoft.com | USA | Translation service | Text to be translated | Transmitted from time to time | Retained for such time as stated in the privacy policy of the relevant third party service. |
| Meta Platforms, Inc. https://www.facebook.com/privacy/policy/ | USA | Sharing of Your Moments posts in accordance with your request | Your Moments post to be shared | Transmitted from time to time | Retained for such time as stated in the privacy policy of the relevant third party service. |
| PTW (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. dataprivacy@ptw.com | Singapore and Malaysia | Customer support services | Information as may be necessary to handle your customer support queries | Transmitted from time to time | Retained for such time as stated in the privacy policy of the relevant third party service. |
The mandatory retention periods for Personal Information required by law in Korea is as follows:
| Items | Relevant Statute | Retention Period |
|---|---|---|
| Records related to entering into and withdrawing from a contract | Act on the Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce | 5 years |
| Records related to payment and other supplies of money | Act on the Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce | 5 years |
| Records related to consumer complaints and dispute settlement | Act on the Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce | 3 years |
| Records related to labelling | Act on the Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce | 6 months |
| Service visit logs | Protection of Communications Secrets Act | 3 months |
| Telecommunication logs | Protection of Communications Secrets Act | 12 months |
Destruction of Personal Information
We destroy Personal Information upon the extinguishment of need for such Personal Information, such as the expiration of its retention period and achievement of its purpose for processing, except where there is a law or regulation that requires us to retain that Personal Information. Inactive accounts are automatically deleted after 180 days (except if you have a positive balance in your WeChat Pay or Weixin Pay account or are the administrator of an Official Account or Mini Program).
The destruction procedure of Personal Information (including your personal location information) is as follows:
Domestic Privacy Representative
Pursuant to the Article 32-5 of Act on the Promotion of the Use of the Information Network and Information Protection, the information regarding the domestic agent is as follows:
Personal Location Information
Purposes for which your personal location information is processed: To provide location information-based services as described in our Terms and Conditions of Location-Based Service.
Period for retaining your personal location information: Retained for the minimum period necessary to provide you with location-based services.
Grounds for retaining the data verifying the collection, use and provision of location information and period of retaining the data: In accordance with Article 16(2) of the Act on the Protection and Use of Location Information ("Location Information Act"), we will automatically record data verifying the collection, use, and provision of location information in a location information system, and preserve the data for 6 months or longer.
Notification under the Article 19(3) of the Location Information Act: After you share your personal location information with a third party, we may be required to notify you of the relevant details (i.e. who will get the information, as well as the date, time and purpose of the sharing) via WeChat or other permitted methods.
Rights of the legal guardian of a child and methods for exercising those rights under the Article 26(1) of the Location Information Act: Where the legal guardian of any of the following persons (hereinafter referred to as "Child"):
gives consent to the use or provision of personal location information regarding the child, for the protection of the child's health or safety, we shall deem that the child has consented to such use or provision.
For the protection of the health or safety of the child, the legal guardian who intends to consent to the use or provision of personal location information of the child must submit a written consent to us at dataprotection@wechat.com along with a document proving that he/she is the legal guardian.
The legal guardian can exercise all of the rights of the subject of personal location information if he/she agrees to the use or provision of personal location information for a child.
Contact Information of Location Information Officer:
You are using the WeChat Open Platform because you activated a service from a third-party by following an Official Account, opening a Mini Program, or using WeChat Login on a third-party app or web site. When activating a service, a small amount of data about you (user alias, profile photo, region, gender) is transferred and stored on our secure servers in the China mainland in order to make this information accessible to the third-party service. Transfers of data outside of the European Economic Area are governed by the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses as specified in the WeChat Privacy Policy. Any other information you disclose to the 3rd-party service (e.g. contact info) is governed by the 3rd-party service operator's Privacy Policy and WeChat does not have access to such information.
If you don't wish to use the WeChat Open Platform, learn how to remove my data from the WeChat Open Platform.
Last Updated: 2024-12-16
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:
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 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. Alternatively, if you are using the latest version of WeChat, you can also check whether you are a WeChat or Weixin user by verifying the service name listed in the header at the top of the "Chats" screen. If you see "WeChat" in the header then you are a WeChat user, whereas a Weixin user will see "Weixin" (or "微信" for users viewing in a Chinese language interface).
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 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 (as determined by your currently registered mobile number) in Australia, Brazil, California, Canada, Chinese Taiwan, Hong Kong SAR, Indonesia, Japan, Macau SAR, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Türkiye, 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
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 dataprotection@wechat.com 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.
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.
Please note that this Privacy Policy only applies to WeChat. If you use any other products or services please refer to the privacy policy for that particular product or service.
If you do not agree to the processing of your personal information in the way this Privacy Policy describes, please do not provide your information when requested and stop using WeChat. By using WeChat you are acknowledging how we process your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy.
In this Privacy Policy, "we", "our" or "us" refers to:
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.
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 dataprotection@wechat.com or via postal mail at Buitenveldertselaan 1-5, 1082 VA, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (Attention: Data Protection Officer, Legal Department). We have representatives for data protection purposes listed here.
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.
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:
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 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. Alternatively, if you are using the latest version of WeChat, you can also check whether you are a WeChat or Weixin user by verifying the service name listed in the header at the top of the "Chats" screen. If you see "WeChat" in the header then you are a WeChat user, whereas a Weixin user will see "Weixin" (or "微信" for users viewing in a Chinese language interface).
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.
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 a 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 dataprotection@wechat.com.
"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):
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:
"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.
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.
Where applicable, it also identifies the legal basis under which we process your data under applicable data protection laws
We do not retain Personal Information for longer than is necessary unless we are required or permitted to do so under applicable laws. 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. For further details on how long we keep your data, please refer to the retention periods set out below.
| Information | Purpose of Processing | Retention Period |
|---|---|---|
| Registration data and log in data. Your name, alias, Apple ID, Facebook ID, IP address, account identifier, mobile number, region, location as determined by your currently registered mobile number, 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 as well as the tools we use to detect account violations and enhance the safety and quality of accounts; - 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, or until you unlink your WeChat account from your Apple or Facebook account, whichever is earlier. 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; - for troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, security, fraud-detection and account management; and - to develop and improve tools we use to detect account violations and enhance the safety and quality of WeChat accounts. | 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. |
| Personal settings. These include personal account settings viewable to you but not shared with other users such as settings to customize your WeChat experience, personal annotations and details that you add to your own account and to your contacts. Legal Basis (Relevant Jurisdictions only): Necessary to provide you with services customized to your preferences. | To provide you services customized to your preferences. | 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 and friends list. Your on-device contact list and your WeChat list of group chats and friends 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; - (in relation to your list of group chats and friends list) to develop and improve tools we use to detect account violations and enhance the safety and quality of WeChat accounts; 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. | - 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 when you manually choose to geo-tag a location in your post: 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; - for security, fraud detection, and account management; and - for moderation of content or behaviour that is prohibited by applicable laws and regulations, or which otherwise violate WeChat's terms of service or other rules applicable to WeChat users. | 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. |
| Country/Region Data unique identifier number (UIN) assigned to users, wuid, where you are located (as determined by your IP address and currently registered mobile number). Legal Basis (Relevant Jurisdictions only): It is in our legitimate interest to display adverts to you based on your country/region. Note that such location-based ads are not available to users in the EU and UK. | Depending on where you are located, we use this information to display location-based advertising to you based on your country/region. | We do not store this information. We process this momentarily after which it 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.
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.
All WeChat users will be able to use the WeChat Guardian Mode function, under which certain option for sending and receiving friend requests and visibility of Moments shared to non-friends will be restricted. WeChat Guardian Mode also enables the designation of an individual (called a "Guardian") who will have the ability to impose restrictions on a specific user's use of WeChat by suspending or restricting specific functions such as Official Accounts and Mini Programs. For a complete list of the relevant functions and more information in relation to the WeChat Guardian Mode function, please refer to the function's terms of use available here. We will not collect personal information of those functions that have been restricted as part of the WeChat Guardian Mode, for the duration that such relevant restrictions are active.
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:
| 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;
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.
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 any of you or your recipient adds any of your communications, shares the relevant chat externally such as by saving it to Favorites or including the chat history when reporting a chat for abuse, or when the administrator of your group chat has added a Group Notice, in which case the Group Notice will be retained so it can be accessed by group members in the future..
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.
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.
Children under the age of 13 (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; we will however only process the year and month of your birth. 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.
This Section 11 (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, Indonesia, Japan, Macau SAR, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Türkiye, 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.
You may have certain rights in relation to the personal information we hold about you. Some of these only apply in certain circumstances (as set out in more detail below). 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"). To exercise any of your rights, please complete the request form here.
This section also applies to users resident in Argentina, Canada 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.
This section also applies to users resident in Argentina, Canada 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 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
Our Representatives in Certain Jurisdictions
| Jurisdiction | Representative | Address | Contact details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Korea | Tencent Korea Yuhan Hoesa | 152, Taeheran-ro, Gangnam-gu (Gangnam Finance Center, Yeoksam-dong), Seoul, Korea | dataprotection@wechat.com |
| Serbia | Karanovic & Partners o.a.d. Beograd | Resavska 23, Belgrade, 11000, Serbia | local.representative@karanovicpartners.com |
| Thailand | Tencent (Thailand) Company Limited | 8 T-One Building, Floor 10th, 11th & 12th (Unit 3-5), Soi Sukhumvit 40, Sukhumvit Road, Khwaeng Phra Khanong, Khet Khlong Toei, Bangkok 10110, Thailand | localrepresentative@tencent.co.th |
| Türkiye | Özdağıstanli Ekici Avukatlık Ortaklığı. | Nidakule Ataşehir Kuzey, Begonya Sok. No:3 Kat. 17 D: 162 / 34746 Ataşehir / İstanbul, Türkiye Özdağıstanli Ekici Avukatlık Ortaklığı is our data controller representative and its authority is limited to the authorities stipulated under the Law on Protection of Personal Data w. no 6698. Özdağıstanli Ekici Avukatlık Ortaklığı is not authorised for any other matters such as conduct in WeChat, bans, investigations, civil or criminal complaints. | tencent@iptech-legal.com |
