USING & SAFEGUARDING PARAMOUNT’S ASSETS
Why it matters
Company assets take many forms (see list below). Inappropriate use or a failure to protect assets can have a direct negative impact on our ability to do business efficiently and profitably. Everyone has a shared responsibility to prevent loss, damage, theft, unauthorized, or improper use or waste of Company assets.
Corporate assets include but are not limited to:
- Physical assets, such as the space in which we work, film, books and records, and business equipment.
- Financial assets like cash, securities, receivables, and investments.
- Proprietary information, including intellectual property such as trade secrets, media content, patents, trademarks, and copyrights, show names, and titles, as well as confidential business information.
- Contract rights and licenses.
- Information and communication systems and data, including electronic data or messages stored in (or sent by or to) those systems, or when pertaining to Company business.
Note: company information located or held on personal devices, equipment and/or storage is still subject to these policies.
Examples of prohibited activities:
- Using a Paramount information system to engage in procuring or transmitting material that is in violation of harassment or discrimination laws or other Paramount policies.
- Making fraudulent offers of products, items, or services originating from any Paramount information system or conducting any business other than Paramount business.
- Destroying, modifying, or abusing any computer hardware, software, networking equipment, printers, other information systems, and any information that could be relevant in a legal matter.
- Using a non-encrypted laptop, tablet, mobile device, or external storage device to copy or save sensitive, confidential, and/ or personal information.
- Storing sensitive or personally identifiable information on any laptop, tablet, mobile device, or external storage device unless required by your job function and in accordance with our Information Security Policies.
What it looks like in our day-to-day work
- Never using Paramount’s brands, titles, shows, etc., for non-work-related activities unless approved in writing or sanctioned by Paramount Legal.
- Acknowledging that all documents, data, recordings, equipment, or other items utilized in the course of our work are and will remain Paramount property even when stored on a non-company device or location used for company business; this includes private social media communications if Paramount work is conducted on those platforms or if they are used to post business sensitive or confidential information. Use caution in creating personal documents on company computers and devices as they may not stay personal and will remain Paramount property. This policy will always take local law into account.
- Reviewing all vendors who handle creative or content-related assets, in conjunction with the Paramount Content Security Team.
- Never sharing company trade secrets and other proprietary information with anyone without prior approval from management.
- Returning any and all Company property at the conclusion of employment with Paramount.
- Making only reasonable and incidental personal use of company assets, including equipment and employees’ time.
- When using Paramount technology, any software or hardware installs must be performed in accordance with Paramount Information Security Policies. This avoids the potential to introduce malicious programs into the network or server (e.g., viruses, worms, Trojan horses, spyware, malware, ransomware, or infected executable files).
- Using email and voicemail in accordance with Paramount’s Information Security Policies.
- Being aware that all communications and voicemail using Paramount’s systems are not private communications. The Company may monitor their contents. Such monitoring is always conducted in accordance with local law.
For more information, review our Information Security Policies or contact Information Security.
PROTECTING PARAMOUNT DATA AND PERSONAL INFORMATION
Paramount Commitment to Privacy and Information Security
At Paramount, we respect and protect the privacy and security of information that individuals entrust to us and are committed to collecting, using, and protecting personal information in compliance with all applicable privacy and data protection laws. We protect personal information by maintaining privacy and information security programs designed to address operational and legal risk.
Why it matters
It is everyone’s responsibility at Paramount to comply with applicable privacy and data protection laws and regulations that govern the collection, handling, sharing, and safeguarding of personal information of our customers, employees, vendors, and business partners. Failure to comply with these laws or individuals’ privacy and data protection expectations could harm our employees and customers and lead to significant fines and legal costs, reputational harm, and erosion of public confidence.
What is Personal information?
Personal Information is any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. An identifiable person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier, such as a name, an identification number, a location, an online identifier (which could include an IP address) or one or more factors specific to that person’s physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural, or social identity. It includes information that relates to, describes, is capable of being associated with, or could be reasonably linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household.
What it looks like in our day-to-day work
- Privacy is Paramount. Comply with all applicable Paramount policies relating to privacy, security, and confidentiality. For more information, visit the Privacy Hub.
- Less is more. We should only collect, use, access, and retain personal information that is necessary and relevant to a specific business purpose. Be transparent and fair. Provide notice to individuals about how their personal information will be collected, used, and shared, including, where possible, offering individuals choice regarding the use of their personal information.
- Think before you share. Only share personal information with those who have a business need to know it. Check with Legal, Information Security, and the Privacy Group before sharing personal information with any vendors or business partners to ensure proper controls and contractual terms are in place.
- Let it go. Get rid of personal information once the purpose for which you collected is completed unless retention is required by applicable law.
- See something, say something. Immediately notify the Information Security Team, your direct supervisor or Legal or if you suspect or learn that any of Paramount’s systems, data, content, or personal information has been compromised.
Paramount Information Security and Privacy policies:
How to protect Paramount’s information
Always consult and abide by Paramount Security and Privacy policies and be aware when encryption or other safeguards are required. It is particularly important when your role requires you to use restricted, non-public, confidential information, and/or personal information. When you engage any third parties (including without limitation business partners, vendors, co-production companies) who may have access to Paramount information including without limitation restricted, non-public, confidential information, and/or personal information about Paramount customers/consumers or workforce, they should comply with Paramount policies including without limitation demonstrating relevant controls regarding information collection, use, security, and disclosure. Always consult with your Paramount legal representative before collecting, using and/or sharing any restricted, non-public, confidential information, or personal information.
Key steps to protect Paramount’s information
Implementing and maintaining reasonable technical, administrative, and physical security measures, practices, and procedures to safeguard the Paramount computer network and its electronic systems, and to prevent the unauthorized access, use, modification, disclosure, loss of, or disposal of any personal information, including:
- Never sharing your network login credentials with anyone.
- Limiting access to those who need to know the information for its designated purposes.
- De-identifying personal information where possible by employing methods like aggregation, hashing, tokenization, anonymization, encryption, etc.
- Using approved secure mechanisms to send or transfer personal information within or outside the Company.
- Ensuring records containing personal information are maintained, stored, and disposed of in accordance with Paramount’s policies and procedures.
For more information, contact the Information Security Team and visit the Privacy Hub.
RESPECTING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
Why it matters
As a company with significant intellectual property assets that we vigorously protect, we are highly respectful of the intellectual property rights of others. We recognize that acts of piracy and other types of infringement not only impact our bottom line but also have negative impacts on the economy as a whole. In addition to being illegal, such acts result in loss of jobs, wages, and revenue. These losses affect us individually, as well as our friends, colleagues, and business partners. We each have a responsibility to refrain from any activity that violates the intellectual property rights of anyone, including Paramount.
What’s included in intellectual property?
“Intellectual property” includes, among other things, copyrights, patents, rights of publicity, rights of privacy, rights to reputation (i.e., the right not to be defamed), open-source licenses, service marks, trademarks, and trade secrets.
Examples of intellectual property infringement:
- Uploading, downloading, streaming, emailing, or otherwise distributing music, movies, television shows, books, articles, software, photographs, interactive games, or other copyrighted materials without first obtaining permission to do so from the relevant rights holder(s).
- Duplicating, distributing, selling, displaying, or performing the intellectual property of others without first obtaining permission from the relevant right holder(s).
- Developing or producing new material such as music, movies, television shows, books, articles, software, interactive games, or photographs using, incorporating, deriving from, or otherwise based on, the intellectual property of others without first obtaining permission from the relevant rights holder(s) or otherwise securing approval from the Legal Department.
What it looks like in our day-to-day work
- Following all intellectual property laws, including copyrights, trademarks, patents, trade secrets, rights of publicity, rights of privacy, rights to reputation (i.e., the right not to be defamed) and open-source licensing (collectively, “intellectual property”).
- Never duplicating, distributing, performing, displaying, or otherwise using the intellectual property of others, without the permission of the owners of any and all such rights, unless otherwise authorized by law. Likewise, never using or permitting others to use Paramount’s assets, technology, or other resources to infringe, harm or otherwise violate the intellectual property rights of others.
- Consulting with the Legal Department before engaging in any commercial or business relationship with an entity or individual whom you suspect may not respect the intellectual property rights of Paramount or the intellectual property rights of others.
- Never accessing or doing business with any website, application, software, business, or service that enables or promotes piracy or other types of intellectual property infringement.
- Obtaining permission from Paramount before using Paramount’s brands, titles, content, or other intellectual property.
- Never using unlicensed software on any Paramount system or hardware device or when otherwise performing work for Paramount.
- Never copying or downloading software without permission from our Technology Department.
Frequently asked questions
A: You cannot copy or distribute the article to others without the proper permission from the copyright holder. Consult the Legal Department to ensure that any such actions are permissible.
A: Only Paramount content for which you have permission to post may be distributed and posted online. Obtain Paramount’s permission before using its content, logos or other intellectual property on personal websites, blogs, or other media.
A: Please reach out to the Legal Department and/or send an email to the Content Protection team if you are unsure whether a particular website or service is engaged in intellectual property infringement.
Works made for hire; assignment of intellectual property rights:
Any work of authorship or other copyrightable work connected to Paramount’s business that an employee prepares or creates (alone or with others) within the scope of such employee’s employment is considered a “work made for hire” under the U.S. Copyright Act. Under U.S. copyright laws, Paramount is considered both the author and copyright owner of such works. That means Paramount has the sole right to exploit, license or otherwise make use of all copyright rights in and to such works in any manner Paramount decides.
If any such work is for any reason not legally a “work made for hire” under applicable law, and with respect to any invention, discovery, concept, process, method, technique or anything else that you (alone or with others) develop, create, prepare, discover, conceive or reduce to practice within the scope of your employment with Paramount, you agree to promptly execute all necessary legal documents to assign and transfer all of such rights, title and interest in and to all of the foregoing to Paramount. Nothing in this provision limits, restricts or constitutes a waiver of any rights of Paramount in or to any of the foregoing.
For more information, contact a member of your Legal department. To report the suspected infringement of any of Paramount’s Intellectual Property rights (including but not limited to instances of piracy) please email Paramount’s Content Protection team.