Introduction

The MIT Museum is committed to supporting the privacy of our website users. This Privacy Statement explains how we collect and use the personal information we collect about users.

Your personal information

You can visit the MIT Museum website without telling us who you are and without revealing any personal information about yourself.

Voluntarily provided information

In using specific features, such as web forms, on the MIT Museum website, you may be asked to provide additional information, such as your name or email address, that may be needed to contact you or to subscribe you to updates. In such cases, it is our intent that your provided information will be used only to fulfill the request(s) you make of us, and to allow us to contact you if there are any problems with your request. We will not share, exchange, or sell your email address and other provided personal information to third parties.

Automatically collected information for visitor and traffic analytics

Cookies

A cookie is a short identifier, stored on your computer, that may contain site-specific settings or identify you to a site when you make a return visit. The MIT Museum website does not use cookies, with the exception of those used by Google Analytics and Hubspot, described below. All features of the main MIT Museum website are designed to work without cookies. If you turn off cookies in your browser, you will still be able to fully experience the main MIT Museum website.

Google Analytics and Hubspot

The MIT Museum website uses Google Analytics and Hubspot to gather data about the usage of the site. The information gathered is used to improve web services for visitors. Google Analytics and Hubspot use a browser cookie for statistical analysis related to your browsing behavior on this website.

If you choose, you can opt out by turning off cookies in the preferences settings in your browser. Alternatively, to opt out of Google Analytics you can download and install Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on. For more information, visit Google Analytics Solutions and Hubspot Visitor Tracking

Basis for processing

We process your personal information collected on the MIT Museum website to facilitate our online interactions with you. We only collect and process your personal information in furtherance of MIT’s legitimate interests and/or to fulfill any contractual obligations with you.

If you have concerns about this privacy statement, any of these purposes, or how we communicate with you, please contact us at privacy@mitmuseum.edu. We will always respect a request by you to stop processing your personal information (subject to our legal obligations).

Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”)

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) requires that online service providers obtain parental consent before they knowingly collect personally identifiable information online from children who are under 13. We do not knowingly collect or solicit personally identifiable information from children under 13; if you are a child under 13, please do not attempt to register for the Services or send any personal information about yourself to us. If we learn we have collected personal information from a child under 13, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that a child under 13 may have provided us personal information, please contact us at privacy@mitmuseum.org.

Rights for individuals in the European Economic Area

You have the right in certain circumstances to (1) access your personal information; (2) correct or erase information; (3) restrict processing; and (4) object to communications, direct marketing, or profiling. To the extent applicable, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation provides further information about your rights. You also have the right to lodge complaints with your national or regional data protection authority.

If you are inclined to exercise these rights, we request an opportunity to discuss with you any concerns you may have. To protect the personal information we hold, we may also request further information to verify your identify when exercising these rights. Upon a request to erase information, we will maintain a core set of personal data to ensure we do not contact you inadvertently in the future, as well as any information necessary for MIT archival purposes. We may also need to retain some financial information for legal purposes, including US IRS compliance. In the event of an actual or threatened legal claim, we may retain your information for purposes of establishing, defending against, or exercising our rights with respect to such claim.

By providing information directly to MIT, you consent to the transfer of your personal information outside of the European Economic Area to the United States. You understand that the current laws and regulations of the United States may not provide the same level of protection as the data and privacy laws and regulations of the EEA.

Third Party Websites

The MIT Museum website may contain links to third-party sites located outside of MIT. MIT is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of these websites. We encourage you to review privacy statements and policies published by these third-party sites.

Submitting a story video

If you choose to send submit a story video to the Museum, the information you send us, including your video can be used on the website and for other promotional purposes. This information is sent to a third party for processing. Please see the Camera Tag privacy notice for more information about how this data is stored.

Retail Third Party Systems

The MIT Museum uses TixTrack Ticketure to sell tickets and programs; it uses BigCommerce as its eCommerce provider. Please consult the BigCommerce Privacy Policy and the TixTrack Privacy Policy for more information.

Additional information

We may change this Privacy Statement from time to time. If we make any significant changes in the way we treat your personal information we will make this clear on our MIT Museum website or by contacting you directly.

The controller for your personal information is MIT. If you are in the EU and wish to assert any of your applicable GDPR rights, please contact dataprotection@mit.edu.

This policy was last updated in June 2022.