We value all our Mused visitors and have built this website with a ‘privacy-first’ approach. That means we do not collect any personal data (information about you) when you use this website. This privacy notice explains how we collect data, what your data protection rights are and how you can get in touch with us if you are unsure about anything to do with the data we collect, store and analyse.
Who we are
Mused is owned and operated by The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), the world’s leading museum of art, design and performance. The V&A is a public body that reports to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and it is a charity exempt from registration under the Charities Act of 2011. It is governed by a Board of Trustees appointed by the Prime Minister.
Children’s privacy: Children’s code, UK GDPR & COPPA
Mused has been carefully designed and built according to the ICO’s Children’s code and in accordance with UK GDPR and COPPA rules around safeguarding children online.
UK GDPR (UK General Data Protection Regulation), COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) & the ICO’s Children’s code contains standards that online services like Mused need to follow. To comply with the obligations of the code we have built Mused around the principles of age appropriate design and data minimisation, where we avoid the collection of personal data and make sure we have high standards of privacy.
• See the ICO’s website for further information about the Children’s code
• See ICO’s website for further information about UK GDPR
• See the FTC website for further information about COPPA
If you have any questions relating to our implementation of the Children’s code, UK GDPR & COPPA, please email privacy@vam.ac.uk.
Data we collect
We do not require your personal data for you to use this site. Even if you accept cookies (see below), we cannot identify you as an individual.
We only capture personal data if you email the V&A with a query and will keep any details you give us securely. If you have any questions about your privacy and how we look after your personal data, please email privacy@vam.ac.uk.
Why we use your personal data
We rely on your consent (with your adult’s help if you are under 13) to use any personal data you give to us. By emailing us with a query, or accepting cookies (although cookie data is anonymised so we can’t identify you), you are giving us your consent. We will never contact you for marketing purposes and services by post, email or SMS text message. We do not build a picture of your activities across the V&A to market anything to you, ever. We will never sell your data.
There are no advertisements on the Mused website unless promoting V&A exhibitions or programmes that are relevant to what you are looking at on the website. These advertisements are placed without any personal data being collected.
Website analytics & cookies
This website uses cookies. For more information about what cookies are, what we use them for and how you can delete them, please read our cookie policy.
We use cookies as they help us understand how you found our website, and what pages you visited. Remember, even if you accept cookies, we cannot identify you as an individual. We use the information collected from cookies to improve the website experience for you. We use a programme called Google Analytics to understand how people interact with the website. For example, if we notice a lot of people completing certain types of quizzes, we know to make more of those. If we notice that people are not completing quizzes or articles or are not visiting certain topics, we know we need to do something about the content or the website experience to make the pages worth visiting and engaging with.
Surveys and polls – ‘A random question’
We occasionally ask you questions to gauge your opinions on relevant topics. These questions are called ‘A random question’ and are seen within and at the end of our quizzes, listicles and articles.
The surveys and polls are completely optional to answer. Your website experience will not be affected in any way if you don’t answer the questions.
We cannot tell who you are from the answers you give to surveys and polls. A summary of the information we collect is shared within the V&A.
In setting these surveys and polls, the V&A is hoping to understand the likes, dislikes and trends within its audience. This is used to inform decisions about what we put on the website and to make sure we are meeting the goals of the website and catering to our target audience.
Data sharing
Internal sharing
We will continually analyse the website experience and content performance on Mused, using using data that doesn’t identify anyone individually. We will share our learnings and insights with internal staff at the V&A (for example Marketing, Learning and Young V&A teams) to help plan other things of interest to young people.
Third parties
A number of third-party service providers are engaged by the V&A to assist in providing our services, our operations and the running and maintenance of our websites including Mused. For example, when you complete a quiz on Mused, this is enabled by a provider (WPEngine by WordPress) who hosts the website and ensures you have the best experience possible. We use another provider (Google Analytics) to understand how you engaged with a page or whether you completed a quiz. Another provider (Hotjar) helps us understand how you navigate around the website and therefore how to make that experience easier for you.
We have data processing agreements in place with third party service providers and only share anonymised data so you can’t be identified.
These providers do not decide what is done with your data and only process anonymised data on our behalf. These third parties may be located outside the European Economic Area (EEA); however, we only use providers that provide adequate protection for your information.
If you would like more information on the relevant service providers that we use, please contact us at privacy@vam.ac.uk.
Data security and retention
We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent personal data from being accidentally or unlawfully destroyed, lost, altered, or seen by people it shouldn’t be.
We regularly review our procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breaches. If there is a suspected breach, we will tell the individuals affected and the UK Data Protection Authority, the Information Commissioner’s Office, as required.
Data retention
We aim to keep personal data only for as long as it is needed for the reason it was collected. For this reason, we retain anonymised information, gathered for analytical purposes, indefinitely.
If you would like further information about data retention, please email privacy@vam.ac.uk.
Your data protection rights
You have a number of legal rights in relation to your personal data.
You have the right to:
• Ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Ask us to correct the personal data we hold about you, if you think it is wrong
• Ask us to delete your personal data when we don’t need it anymore
• Ask us not to use your personal data in certain ways
• Tell us if you are no longer happy for us to use personal data you have provided to us
You can contact us at privacy@vam.ac.uk if you wish to ask us about these rights.
Contact
Data Protection questions
Please email privacy@vam.ac.uk with any questions about data protection at the V&A, including about your data protection rights.
Data Protection Officer
The V&A has appointed an independent Data Protection Officer (dpo@vam.ac.uk). The DPO is available to advise and assist members of the public with their rights, for example by escalating an existing data protection request. The DPO of the V&A is Trilateral Research (www.trilateralresearch.co.uk).
Complaints
You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (www.ico.org.uk). We would like to try to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact privacy@vam.ac.uk or dpo@vam.ac.uk first.
Changes to this privacy notice
This privacy notice was last updated on 07 June 2023.