Privacy policy.
We, The Muse and SGAC understand that your privacy is important and ensures that your personal information is handled in accordance with The Data Protection Directive, and GDPR. This Privacy Policy sets out the basis on which we collect and process your personal data through your use of our website, and/or signing up for newsletters and other marketing activities either in person or online.
We are the primary data controller for the purposes of this website and our registered head office is in Vaud, Switzerland.
Any changes we make to this policy in the future will be posted on this page and, if appropriate, notified to you by email so please check this page regularly.
Last updated 5/02/2024.
PURPOSES FOR HANDLING PERSONAL INFORMATION
Personal information is information about you, such as your name, contact details and records of your dealings with us. We collect, hold, use and disclose personal information:
To process transactions and services to you
To communicate with you
To assess applications for artist professional practice programmes
To maintain our business records and to otherwise run our business
For purposes disclosed to you and to which you have consented including but not limited connections to WTM Members
Or purposes that you would otherwise reasonably expect, and
For any other purposes required or permitted by law
COLLECTION OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We collect personal information such as email address, phone numbers, fixed addresses, shipping and payment card billing address, payment card details, IP address, search criteria and search history from our business contacts, prospective clients, artists, mentors, professional practice programme participants, members and other individuals with whom we deal. We only collect personal information by lawful and fair means.
We collect information in several ways which are listed below:
In person or on wethemuse.art (“We, The Muse" Website”) or sgac.co (the "SGAC Website")
In person or on We, The Muse or SGAC’s professional practice membership or programme platform(s)
When you use or enter your personal information into wethemuse.art or sgac.co
When you are registered as a We, The Muse member or a SGAC client, or mentor / arts professional
When you sign up to our marketing campaigns (our Newsletter)
When you contact We, The Muse or SGAC by telephone, email, or chat
When you enter any event run by We, The Muse or SGAC
When completing any forms for transactional, membership, professional practice programmes or other purposes
When you download on-line material (the details of transactions you make from We, The Muse or SGAC, both in person or via the website(s))
When you click through from marketing emails to our website(s)
When you visit our website(s): we may use cookies to help make the experience of using our website(s) better. This means we will remember your previous visits and track the pages on our website(s) that you visit. When you visit wethemuse.art or sgac.co the We, The Muse or SGAC web server may automatically record your public internet protocol ('IP') address.
COLLECTION OF WEBSITE USAGE INFORMATION
Cookies are small pieces of data that websites store on a device. Cookies can improve your browsing experience because they help websites remember preferences and understand how people use different features.
Functional and Required Cookies
We, The Muse and SGAC use some necessary cookies because they allow visitors to navigate and use key features on our site. These required Cookies are as follows:
Customer and Member accounts
Shopping cart and checkout
URL redirects
Cookie Name
Crumb: Prevents cross-site request forgery (CSRF). CSRF is an attack vector that tricks a browser into taking unwanted action in an application when someone’s logged in.
RecentRedirect: Prevents redirect loops if a site has custom URL redirects. Redirect loops are bad for SEO.
CART: Shows when a visitor adds a product to their cart
hasCART: Tells SGAC that the visitor has a cart
SiteUserInfo: Identifies a visitor who logs into a client account
SiteUserSecureAuthToken: Authenticates a visitor who logs into a customer account
Commerce-checkout-state: Stores state of checkout while the visitor is completing their order in PayPal
squarespace-popup-overlay: Prevents the Promotional Pop-Up from displaying if a visitor dismisses it
squarespace-announcement-bar: Prevents the Announcement Bar from displaying if a visitor dismisses it
Analytics and Performance Cookies
We use Analytics and Performance cookies to collect information about how our visitors interact with our site. Storing these cookies is how we explore our analytics, such as traffic sources, unique visitors, and cart abandonment.
Cookie Name
ss_cid: Identifies unique visitors and tracks a visitor’s sessions on our site(s)
ss_cvr: Identifies unique visitors and tracks a visitor’s sessions on our site(s)
ss_cvisit: Identifies unique visitors and tracks a visitor’s sessions on our site(s)
ss_cvt: Identifies unique visitors and tracks a visitor’s sessions on our site(s)
ss_cpvisit: Identifies unique visitors and tracks a visitor’s sessions on our site(s)
ss_cookieAllowed: Remembers if a visitor agreed to placing Analytics cookies on their browser if a site is restricting the placement of cookies.
How to control cookies:
You can control and/or delete cookies as you wish – for details, see aboutcookies.org. You can delete all cookies that are already on your computer and you can set most browsers to prevent them from being placed.
PROCESSING AND DISCLOSURE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We will only use and disclose your personal information for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy.
We may disclose your personal information to third parties including:
Our service providers (including IT services, email marketing platforms, financial institutions, and distribution and delivery services)
Our related companies and other business partners
Our professional advisers (including lawyers, accountants and auditors)
Other parties as required or authorised by law
In so doing, we may disclose your personal information outside of the EU and Switzerland to related parties
At times we use third party platforms to manage and deliver marketing campaigns, deliver artworks, payments, refunds, IT services; to name a few. In providing these services, your personal information will, where applicable, be used by the service provider on our behalf. For example, a delivery company using your name and address to deliver your acquisition.
We will check any third party that we use to ensure that they can provide sufficient guarantees regarding the confidentiality and security of your personal information. We will have written contracts with them which provide assurances regarding the protections that they will give to your personal information and their compliance with our data security standards and international transfer restrictions. Your Personal Data may be transferred and stored outside the European Economic Area and be processed by staff who work for us or for one of our suppliers outside the European Economic Area. By submitting your Personal Data, you are agreeing to this transfer, storing or processing.
How we use your information:
We only collect the information that’s necessary to carry out our business, provide the particular service you’ve requested and to keep you up to date about our latest We, The Muse and / or SGAC news.
For our use of your personal information to comply with applicable data protection and GDPR law, that use by us needs to fall under at least one of the specific lawful reasons that are set out in applicable data protection law. Lawful reasons for using your personal data include:
Fulfilment of our contract with you – the purchase of artworks and/or services via our websites is a contract
Compliance with our legal obligations
Your direct consent for information
Further details are listed below:
Name, contact details, delivery details
Required to:
Process your acquisitions or for waitlists, process your payments and deliver the items or programmes you have purchased
Send or ring you with update messages by telephone, text message or email
Send you additional services you have requested, such as our marketing communications by post, or email
Link your in person and online records to provide you with a better purchase and / or programme experience
Give you access to services reserved for registered users, such as wait lists and guides
Provide you with help and assistance via our team
Fraud prevention and detection
Manage your online user account
Payment information
Required to:
To take payment for services and to provide refunds
Fraud prevention and detection
We do not store payment information on We, The Muse or SGAC servers.
Contact history with us
Required to:
Provide personalised service and support
Improve our service
Purchase history and wait list items
What you’ve purchased and what you’ve put on our wait list. Required to:
Deliver your purchases and/or services to you
Provide personalised support, and process returns and follow-up where necessary
How we use information about your phone or laptop, and how you use our website
Information you give us when you browse our site, including your IP address, GEO location, device type, as well as how you use our website. Required to:
Analyse broad data to improve our website usability
And to serve you the right language and currency for your location
It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.
We retain your personal information for as long as it is necessary and relevant for our operations. In addition, we may retain personal information from closed accounts to comply with legal requirements, prevent fraud and resolve disputes. Where a legal requirement obliges the retention of personal data for a specific minimum period, we will retain data for at least that period. When we determine the maximum retention duration of any personal data we hold we do so with regard to our legitimate interests to retain data, our obligation under GDPR to minimise data we hold; the nature, and sensitivity of the personal data and the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data.
SECURITY OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We make all reasonable efforts to ensure that your personal information is stored securely, both in electronic and physical form, and otherwise protect it from misuse, interference and loss caused by unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We hold your personal information in both paper-based and electronic files. Our mentors are also obliged to treat any personal information held by us confidentially.
Your payment information is completely safe. Your payment information is transmitted by SSL directly to a secure, electronic vault. At no time is your payment information stored on our servers.
We use third party platforms to manage and deliver marketing campaigns, delivery, payments, refunds, IT services; to name a few. In providing these services, your personal information will, where applicable, be used by the service provider on our behalf.
We will check any third party that we use to ensure that they can provide sufficient guarantees regarding the confidentiality and security of your personal information. We will have written contracts with them which provide assurances regarding the protections that they will give to your personal information and their compliance with our data security standards and international transfer restrictions.
PERSONAL INFORMATION COLLECTION STATEMENT
We, The Muse and SGAC collect your personal information so that we can process your transactions and provide our artworks and services to you, interact with you and otherwise operate our business.
We collect your personal information directly from you. You have the right to refuse to provide us with some or all of your personal information, however this may prevent us from processing your transactions or delivering artworks and/or services to you.
MARKETING
We may use your personal information, including your contact details, to provide you with relevant information, notify you of new artwork, services, membership and programmes, guides, artists openings and other offers that may be of interest to you as a valued We, The Muse member, SGAC collector, enthusiast, artist, mentor, professional practice participant, arts professional or business associate. To receive these communications, you need to have opted in, but if you change your mind you may opt out of receiving all marketing information from us at any time by following the instructions at the bottom of our communications. Alternatively, you may contact us at support@wethemuse.art if you do not wish your details to be used for marketing purposes.
ACCESSING, MODIFYING, AND DELETING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provides for rights of access, modification and deletion of your personal information.
Please submit your rights servicing request to support@wethemuse.art A summary of your rights is listed below:
The right of access
Your right to obtain confirmation as to whether or not personal data is being processed, and, where that is the case, access to the personal data along with details regarding the nature of processing.
The right of rectification
Your right to obtain the rectification of inaccurate personal data.
The right of portability
Your right to receive personal data they have provided to a controller in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.
The right to be forgotten
Your right to erase your personal data.
The right to restrict processing
Your right for your data to be effectively 'frozen'; stored and not further processed.
The right to object
Your right to object to how your personal data is processed including your right to object to our profiling of you as outlined in this privacy policy. This will mean that your WTM experience may be affected, however, as we will not be able to promote you to other WTM members or to our public.
If you do not feel that your data is being handled in a correct or fair manner, you have the right to contact the The Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) , the data protection supervisory authority in the Canton of Vaud, Switzerland (info.ppdi@vd.ch).
CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
We, The Muse and/or SGAC may make changes to this Privacy Policy from time to time, without notice to you. The up-to-date version of our Privacy Policy remains on our website.
We may use your personal information to provide you with information about services that may be of interest to you. You may opt out of receiving this information at any time by contacting us.
Our Privacy Policy sets out our approach to managing your personal information. It explains how you can seek to access and/or correct the personal information that we hold about you, as well as how you can make a complaint about how we handle your personal information. If you have any questions, comments or complaints, you can contact us at support@wethemuse.art
You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the The Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) , the data protection supervisory authority in the Canton of Vaud, Switzerland (info.ppdi@vd.ch).