The Whatcom Museum is committed to protecting the privacy of your personal information. The policies below are applicable to the whatcommuseum.org website (“Website”) produced and maintained by the Whatcom Museum (“Museum,” “we”). We have established this privacy policy (“Policy”) to let you know the kinds of information we may gather during your visit to the Whatcom Museum website, why we gather this information, what we use it for, and how you can manage it.

By visiting the Whatcom Museum Website, you are accepting the practices described in our Policy. If you do not agree to the terms of this Policy, please do not use the Museum Website. We reserve the right to modify or amend the terms of our Policy from time to time without notice. Your continued use of the Museum Website following the posting of changes to these terms will mean you accept those changes.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or do not see your concerns addressed here, you should contact us by email at info@whatcommuseum.org.

Types of information we collect

We collect two types of information: nonpersonal (anonymous) information and personal information. 

Anonymous information; traffic data

When you access our website, we automatically collect certain information that does not identify you individually. Generally, this information includes but is not limited to: 

  • The IP address from which you access our website
  • The type of browser and operating system you used
  • The date and time you accessed
  • The pages, documents, and links you visit

We use this anonymous information to determine how people use our website, monitor the website’s effectiveness, and consider potential improvements.

Personal information

We also collect and store information that you voluntarily provide, such as names, email addresses, physical/mailing addresses, and phone numbers. This information is used to improve the scope and content of the Museum’s services and, in some cases, to respond to you. We do not sell, rent, or otherwise distribute this information to any outside company or organization unless legally required to do so (please see the final section of this policy for more information).  

The Museum collects personal information from you when you:

  • Join or renew Museum membership
  • Make a donation 
  • Fill out a survey/form/questionnaire
  • Register for a free event
  • Send an email inquiry

Note on eNewsletters: We collect names and email addresses of all users who subscribe to our weekly/bi-monthly enewsletters. We do not sell, rent, or otherwise distribute this information to any outside company or organization unless legally required to do so (please see the final section of this policy for more information). Anyone who wishes to stop receiving this newsletter can, at any time, click on the “Unsubscribe” feature located within each newsletter. We do not sell or rent, or your email information to anyone. 

If you decide to give us personal information for a particular purpose, we may contact you about other programs or opportunities with the Museum. You will always have an immediate opportunity to decline further communication.

Cookies and Pixel tags

We use third-party services such as Google Analytics and Facebook to place “cookies” and “pixel tags” on our website to collect additional information about website visits. Cookies are small data files that are automatically sent to your browser from a web server and stored on your computer’s hard drive. Pixel tags are tiny graphical images embedded in emails or webpages that are used to determine what parts of a website a visitor has viewed, or whether an email was successfully opened. 

These technologies are used to gather information to analyze website traffic, improve our content and navigation, enhance our marketing efforts, personalize your experience, and provide online display advertising and/or offline communications tailored to your interests based on your online behavior. You may set your browser to refuse cookies from any website that you visit. You may opt-out of Google Analytics using the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

Additionally, the Museum website uses the demographics and interest reporting feature for Google Analytics for Display Advertising. The data provided by this service (such as age, gender, and interests) is used to better understand our website visitors and customize their website experience. You may opt-out of Google Analytics for Display Advertising by visiting Ad Settings

Children

The Museum’s website is intended to be accessible and enjoyed by general audiences. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13 without first providing the parent or legal guardian with notice and obtaining prior verifiable consent. 

Confidentiality and Security 

The Museum takes reasonable precautions to protect your personal information both online and off-line, but absolute security cannot be guaranteed. It is important for you to protect against unauthorized access to your password and to your computer. The Museum shall not be liable for the transfer of any personal information resulting from loss or distribution of data, the corruption of storage media, power failures, natural phenomena, riots, acts of vandalism, sabotage, terrorism, or any other event beyond the Museum’s control.

In addition, the Museum website may contain links to other sites that are not necessarily under the control of the Museum. The Museum is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites and encourages you to read the privacy policies of each website that collects personally identifiable information.

Third-party Agents

We occasionally have third party agents, subsidiaries, affiliates, and partners that perform functions on our behalf, such as marketing, analytics, credit card processing, providing customer service, fraud protection, etc. These entities have access to the Personal Information needed to perform their functions and are contractually obligated to maintain the confidentiality and security of that Personal Information. They are restricted from using, selling, distributing, or altering this data in any way other than to provide the requested services to the Website.

Emergency Situations and Legal Obligations
The Whatcom Museum may use or disclose personal information if required to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to (a) comply with RCW 42.56, other applicable law, or legal process served on us or the Museum Website; (b) protect and defend our rights or property, the Museum Website or our users; and (c) act under emergency circumstances to protect the personal safety of us, our affiliates, agents, the users of the Museum Website, or the public.​