Privacy Policy

We, Star Media Group Berhad (ROC 10894D), together with our subsidiaries and affiliates (collectively, “Star Media Group”) respect the privacy of individuals with regard to personal data and are committed to protecting the privacy of our users, and strive to provide a safe, secure user experience. This privacy policy is formulated in accordance with the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 ("Act"), which describes how your information (“Personal Data”) is collected and used and your choices with respect to your Personal Data. For absolute clarity, any reference to “we”, “our” or “us” in this Privacy Policy shall include any member of Star Media Group. The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices for this website, The Star Online (“Website”) and if relevant, for the use of, or subscription to, or purchase of any products and/or services offered by Star Media Group.

1. Information collected by Star Media Group

   Our website servers do not automatically recognize specific information about individual users on our websites. In addition, our servers do not automatically record information regarding a user's e- mail address unless the user supplies it.

   We collect information about users during the registration process for certain parts of our site; through their participation in certain activities, including contests, forums, and polls; and through the use of cookies. When you request pages from our server, it automatically collects some information about your preferences, including your internet protocol (“IP”) address. We use this to help diagnose problems with our server, and to administer our websites.

   The user-supplied information collected through the registration process, surveys, contest entry forms, polls or other similar vehicles is used to improve the content of our site, or used for our marketing purposes. It is not shared with other organizations for commercial purposes unless specifically stated herein.

2. Purpose of Personal Data collected

   Personal Data that you provide to us voluntarily on our websites and the other related channels may be processed for the following purposes (collectively, "Purposes"):

   • to manage, verify and complete transactions with you;
   • to manage and verify your membership for our customer loyalty scheme (where applicable);
   • to direct market our products and/or services to you;
   • to understand and analyse our sales, and your needs and preferences;
   • to develop, enhance, market and provide products and services to meet your needs;
   • to enable you to participate in promotions and contests;
   • to process exchanges or product returns;
   • to improve our services;
   • to respond to your requests or complaints;
   • to send you updates on products, news and event updates, rewards and promotions, special privileges and initiatives offered by Star Media Group and/or its partners and/or advertisers;
   • to process your payment transactions including without limitation to credit control services; and
   • to comply with any regulatory, statutory or legal obligation imposed on us by any relevant authority.

   Although the precise details of the Personal Data collected will vary according to the specific purpose (such as contests, forums, surveys etc.) whether via online or otherwise, we may typically collect the following Personal Data from or in relation to you:

   • Name;
   • Address;
   • Phone number(s);
   • Date of birth;
   • Email address;
   • Gender;
   • Identity card number or passport number

3. Use and Disclosure

   We may disclose your Personal Data within Star Media Group for the Purposes set forth hereinabove in accordance with the terms and conditions set out herein.

   We are responsible for the Personal Data under our control, including Personal Data disclosed by us to a Vendor (often referred to as the data processor). "Vendor" in this Privacy Policy means in relation to Personal Data, any person or entity (other than our own employee) who processes the Personal Data on behalf of us. "Processing", in relation to Personal Data means for example obtaining, recording, holding or using the Personal Data in carrying out any operation or set of operations on the Personal Data including organization, compilation, retrieval disclosure of the Personal Data for verification purposes.

   We take every measure to provide a comparable level of protection for Personal Data should the information be processed by a Vendor.

   We use and disclose aggregated non-personally identifying information collected through this Website as part of our organization's process of constantly improving this Website, and the products and services offered by Star Media Group.

4. Impact of Non Provision of Personal Data

   Please note that in the event that sufficient Personal Data is not supplied, or is not satisfactory to us, then your application or request for any of the above Purposes may not be accepted or acted upon or your request to browse some information on this Website, or the use of, or subscription to, or purchase of any products and/or services offered by Star Media Group may be denied or affected.

5. Storage and Retention of Personal Data

   Your Personal Data shall be stored either in hard copies in our offices or in servers located in Malaysia. It may be necessary to transfer your Personal Information to third party services providers based/located outside Malaysia. By continuing usage of the Website, products and/or services of Star Media Group, you hereby consent to such transfer.

   Any Personal Data supplied by you will be retained by us as long as necessary for the fulfilment of the Purposes stated in paragraph (2) above or is required to satisfy legal regulatory, accounting requirements or to protect our interests.

   Save and except as provided in paragraph (15) hereof, we do not offer any online facilities for you to delete your Personal Data held by us.

6. How Email and 'Contact Us' messages are being handled

   We may preserve the content of any email or "Contact Us" or other electronic message that we receive.

   Any Personal Data contained in those messages will only be used or disclosed in ways set out in this Privacy Policy.

   The message content may be monitored by our service providers or employees for purposes including but not limited to compliance, auditing and maintenance or where email abuse is suspected.

7. Communication or Utilization of Personal Data

   Through your use of telecommunications services to access this Website and/or any other sites operated and/or managed by Star Media Group, your communications data (e.g. IP address) or utilization data (e.g. information on the beginning, end and extent of each access, and information on the telecommunications services you accessed) are technically generated and could conceivably relate to Personal Data.

   To the extent that there is a compelling necessity, the collection, processing and use of your communications or utilization data will occur and will be performed in accordance with the applicable data privacy protection legal framework.

8. Automatic Collection of Non-Personal Data

   When you access this Website and/or use of any product/services offered by Star Media Group, we may automatically (i.e., not by registration) collect non-personal data (e.g. type of Internet browser and operating system used, domain name of the website from which you came, number of visits, average time spent on the site, pages viewed).

   We may use this non-personal data and share it within Star Media Group to monitor the attractiveness of this Website and improve their performance or content.

   For example, we may collect:

   • Device information— such as your hardware model, IP address, other unique device identifiers, operating system version, browser type and settings, such as language and available font settings, and settings of the device you use to access our Website.
   • Usage information— such as information about your usage of the Website, products and/or services offered by Star Media Group , the time and duration of your usage and other information about your interaction with content offered by Star Media Group, and any information stored using cookies, mobile ad identifiers, and similar technologies that we have set on your device. For detailed information about our use of cookies, web beacons, and other technologies, see Online Tracking and Advertising in paragraph 9 below.
   • Location information— such as your computer’s IP address, your mobile device’s global positioning system (GPS) signal or information about nearby WiFi access points and cell towers that may be transmitted to us when you use certain Services.

9. Online Tracking and Advertising

   How We Use Cookies, Web Beacons, and Similar Technologies and How to Disable These Technologies

   We and any third parties duly appointed/authorized by us to provide content, advertising, or functionality or measure and analyze advertisement performance on our Website (collectively, “Authorized Third Parties”), may use cookies, web beacons, mobile advertising identifiers, and similar technologies to facilitate administration and navigation, to better understand and improve our Website, to determine and/or improve the advertising shown to you here or within the online sites operated and/or managed by Star Media Group, and to provide you with a customized online experience.

   Cookies. Cookies are small files that are placed on your computer when you visit the Website. Cookies may be used to store a unique identification number tied to your computer or device so that you can be recognized as the same user across one or more browsing sessions, and across one or more sites. Cookies serve many useful purposes. For example:

   • Cookies can remember your sign-in credentials so you do not have to enter those credentials each time you visit a Website.
   • Cookies can help us and the Authorized Third Parties understand which parts of our Website are the most popular because they help us see which pages and features users access and how much time they spend on the pages. By studying this kind of information, we are better able to adapt our Website and provide you with a better experience.
   • Cookies help us and the Authorized Third Parties understand which advertisements you have seen so that you don’t receive the same advertisement each time you visit our Website.

   Most browsers accept cookies automatically, but can be configured not to do so or to notify the user when a cookie is being sent. If you wish to disable cookies, refer to your browser help menu to learn how to disable cookies. If you disable browser cookies or flash cookies, it may interfere with the proper functioning of our Website.

   Beacons. We, along with the Authorized Third Parties, also may use technologies called beacons (or “pixels”) that communicate information from your device to a server. Beacons can be embedded in online content, videos, and emails, and can allow a server to read certain types of information from your device, know when you have viewed particular content or a particular email message, determine the time and date on which you viewed the beacon, and the IP address of your device. We and third parties use beacons for a variety of purposes, including to analyze the use of the Website and products and/or services offered by Star Media Group and (in conjunction with cookies) to provide content and advertisements that are more relevant to you.

   Local Storage & Other Tracking Technologies. We, along with third parties, may use other kinds of technologies, such as Local Shared Objects (also referred to as “Flash cookies”) and Hypertext Markup Language revision 5 (HTML5) local storage, in connection with our Website. We also may use unique identifiers associated with your device, such as mobile advertising identifiers. These technologies are similar to the cookies discussed above in that they are stored on your device and can be used to store certain information about your activities and preferences. However, these technologies may make use of different parts of your device from standard cookies, and so you might not be able to control them using standard browser tools and settings. For HTML5 local storage, the method for disabling HTML5 will vary depending on your browser. For Flash cookies, information about disabling or deleting information contained in Flash cookies can be found here.

   Additional Choices With Respect To Targeted Advertising

   As described above, we and the Authorized Third Parties may use cookies and other tracking technologies to facilitate serving relevant advertisements to you. For example, these technologies help us determine whether you have seen a particular advertisement before, tailor advertisements to you if you have visited our Website before, and avoid sending you duplicate advertisements. You can learn more about certain types of targeted advertising by visiting our Audience Interest Marketing (AIM) page.

   Due to differences between using apps and websites on mobile devices, you may need to take additional steps to disable tracking technologies in mobile applications. Many mobile devices allow you to opt-out of targeted advertising for mobile applications using the settings within the mobile application or your mobile device. For more information, please check your mobile settings. You also may uninstall our applications using the standard uninstall process available on your mobile device or app marketplace.

10. Public Forums

    This Website makes information sharing, feedback, forums, and/or message boards available to its users. Please remember that any information that is disclosed in these areas becomes public information and you should exercise caution when deciding to disclose your Personal Data. We request that users treat each other with courtesy and mutual respect.

11. Job Applicants

    Personal Data provided in connection with an application for employment will be used to determine your suitability for a position within Star Media Group and, if applicable, your terms of employment or engagement.

    Your information may also be used to monitor our recruitment initiatives and equal opportunities policies.

    Your details may be disclosed to third parties to verify or obtain additional information including education institutions, current/previous employers and credit reference agencies. Credit reference agencies record these searches and you can contact us to find out which agencies we used. Unsuccessful applications may be retained to match your skills to future job opportunities.

12. Confidentiality

    Personal Data held by us will be kept confidential in accordance with this Privacy Policy pursuant to any applicable law that may from time to time be in force.

    Any questions, comments, suggestions or information other than Personal Data sent or posted to this Website, or any part of the this Website by users will be deemed voluntarily provided to us on a non-confidential and non-proprietary basis.

    We reserve the right to use, reproduce, disclose, transmit, publish, broadcast and/or post elsewhere such information freely without further reference to you.

13. Security

    This Website has security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. When a user is asked to provide his/her credit card information, we provide a secure environment through our partners' systems (using industry standard SSL or SET protocols) for this purpose.

    For the internet, unfortunately, no data transmission over the internet can be guaranteed as completely secure. So while we strive to protect such Personal Data, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any Personal Data transmitted to us and individuals do so at their own risk. Once any Personal Data comes into our possession, we will take reasonable steps to protect that information from misuse and loss and from unauthorized access, modification or disclosure.

    A username and password may be essential for you to use some sections of this Website. For your own protection, we require you to keep these confidential and to change your password regularly (if required).

14. Links

    This Website contains links to other sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such sites. We have established relationships with advertisers and/or business partners but such relationships are generally technical in nature, or content collaborations. If any advertisers and/or business partners access to any information entered by users in our database, this fact shall be disclosed to the user upon initiating the registration process. Users who feel they do not wish their information to be shared by anyone other than the Website may then opt out of completing the registration.

15. Right of Access to Personal Data

    Under the Act, you have the right of access to your Personal Data held by us on payment of a prescribed fee and to request correction of the Personal Data that is inaccurate, incomplete, misleading or not up-to-date. If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy or if you wish to request access to your Personal Data or if you wish to correct your Personal Data or if you wish to withdraw your consent for future marketing communication, you may send your request in writing to:

    Address :

    Star Media Group Berhad (ROC 10894D)

    Menara Star

    15 Jalan 16/11

    46350 Petaling Jaya

    MALAYSIA

    
    or
    
    

    Email : customerservice@thestar.com.my

16. Changes to Privacy Policy

    We reserve the right to amend this Privacy Policy from time to time without prior notice. Any changes to the Privacy Policy will be uploaded onto our Website and therefore, we encourage you to check/visit the Website from time to time for any changes on a regular basis.

In the event of conflict between the English and Bahasa Melayu versions of the Privacy Policy, the English version of the Privacy Policy shall prevail.