In certain circumstances, we will seek your express permission when we collect information that is regarded under certain data privacy regulations to be sensitive in nature (e.g., information revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, or health conditions).

DATA TRANSFERS ACROSS INTERNATIONAL BORDERS:

As a global company, we endeavor to provide you with the same outstanding service in New York City, as you would find in Paris or Beijing. To achieve this goal, we have established a global network comprised of properties, offices, data centers, trusted marketing partners, service providers, customer contact centers, and trained associates around the globe. The nature of our business and our operations require us to transfer your information, including personally identifiable information (PII), to other group companies, properties, centers of operations, data centers, or service providers that may be located in countries outside of your own. Although the data protection and other laws of these various countries may not be as comprehensive as those in your own country, Starwood will take appropriate steps to ensure that your PII is protected and handled as described in this Privacy Statement. Japan residents, please click here for information regarding the Japan Personal Information Protection Act.

ACCESS TO PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION:

To ensure that your personally identifiable information (PII) is accurate and up to date, we encourage you to regularly review and update your information as appropriate (e.g., in the event your home or e-mail address changes, or you wish to add an additional method for us to communicate with you). If you are a Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) program member, you can review and update your individual membership profile on-line or with the assistance of a Starwood customer service representative. If you are not a SPG program member you can review and update your PII by contacting our Consumer Affairs Privacy Office and requesting an access form. Please note that in an effort to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of your PII, you may be asked to provide proof of identity (or other authentication materials) together with the completed access request form. Access to PII from non-SPG program members cannot be provided by telephone.

If, upon review, you wish to deactivate your SPG program member profile, or update your PII, we will endeavor to do so in a timely manner. Occasionally, information that you request to be removed will be retained in certain files for a period of time in order to properly resolve disputes or to troubleshoot problems. In addition, some types of information may be stored indefinitely on "back up" systems or within log files due to technical constraints, or financial or legal requirements. Therefore, you should not always expect that all of your PII will be completely removed from our databases in response to your request.

SECURITY SAFEGUARDS:

Starwood recognizes the importance of information security, and is constantly reviewing and enhancing our technical, physical, and logical security rules and procedures. All Starwood owned web sites and servers have security measures in place to help protect your personally identifiable information against loss, misuse, and alteration while under our control. Although "guaranteed security" does not exist either on or off the Internet, we safeguard your information using both procedural and technical safeguards, including password controls, "firewalls" and the use of up to 128-bit encryption based on a Class 3 Digital Certificate issued by VeriSign, Inc. This allows for the use of Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), an encryption method used to help protect your data from interception and hacking while in transit.