Privacy Policy For Online And Electronic Use
Your Privacy Rights/The Met Privacy Policy for Offline Use
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is strongly committed to protecting the privacy of its online guests, customers, Members, donors, and friends. We do not collect personally identifiable information about individuals—such as their names and postal and/or email addresses—except when it is knowingly provided by such individuals. We believe that maintaining privacy on the Web is very important and we hope you will read this privacy policy carefully so that you will clearly understand both our commitment to you and your privacy and our method of collecting and using information. The terms of this privacy policy shall govern all interactions with the Museum through either the Museum's website or email. A link to the privacy policy can be found on the Museum's home page and on every page on the Museum's website. By using the Museum's website or communicating with the Museum by email, you agree to the terms of this privacy policy.
Information Provided by Visitors
When You Register in My Met Museum
When You Shop Online in The Met Store
When You Make a Donation or Purchase a Membership Online
When You Complete an Online Survey
How the Museum Uses Information Provided by Visitors
Information Collected Automatically
Cookies
Cookies for Registered Users
Cookies for Met Store Customers
Children Under Thirteen Years of Age
Email Communications
Emails and Newsletters
"Email a Friend" Feature
Emailing the Museum
Data Security
Third-Party Service Providers
Contact Information
Changes to Privacy Policy
Information Provided by Visitors
When You Register in My Met Museum
You may use the Metropolitan Museum's website without registering or submitting any personally identifiable information. However, in order to have access to certain features, such as "My Met Gallery," "My Met Calendar," and the Museum's email newsletters, you must register in My Met Museum so we can personalize the site to better meet your needs.
If you decide to register with us online, you will be asked to provide personally identifiable information that may include a user name and password, your name, email address, postal address, telephone number, and your Membership status.
We store this information, along with your other preferences, on our secured server so that you need not reenter it when you return to the site.
If you select the "Remember My Log-in" feature when registering, the site will display your information on the order form in Check Out when you shop in The Met Store, purchase or renew a Membership, make a donation, purchase tickets to a benefit event, or return to My Met Museum.
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When You Shop Online in The Met Store
The Museum will ask you to provide personally identifiable information necessary to fulfill your order or catalogue request that can include your name, billing and shipping addresses, telephone number, and credit card number.
This is the same information requested when you place an order by telephone or through the mail.
For online orders or when you request a catalogue online, we also require your email address so you can receive order and shipping confirmation emails and so we can communicate with you if we have difficulty processing your order or catalogue request (see Emails and Newsletters).
When you make a purchase online in The Met Store, your credit card information will be temporarily stored on a secured server (see Data Security).
We will retain the personally identifiable information you provided with your order for our records, to facilitate customer service, and to inform you of our products and promotional offers (see How the Museum Uses Information Provided by Visitors).
As part of our commitment to your privacy, The Met Store supports and adheres to the guidelines and practices outlined in The Direct Marketing Association Privacy Promise.
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When You Make a Donation or Purchase a Membership Online
The Museum will ask you to provide personally identifiable information necessary to process and service your Membership and/or donation that may include your name, billing and shipping addresses, telephone number, email address, and credit card number. When you make a donation or purchase a Membership online, your credit card information will be temporarily stored on a secured server (see Data Security). We will retain the personally identifiable information you provided for our records and to facilitate customer service (see How the Museum Uses Information Provided by Visitors). You may also be asked for additional information required to complete and service your request, such as the names of your children when joining The Met Family Circle. For our policy concerning children under thirteen years of age who use this site, please see Children Under Thirteen Years of Age.
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When You Complete an Online Survey
The Museum occasionally posts surveys on its website. Your participation in these surveys is on a completely voluntary and anonymous basis unless we inform you otherwise. We use the information in the responses to the survey to understand our visitors better and to determine how best to serve them. Information collected in our surveys is never sold, rented, or shared with third parties for marketing purposes (see Third-Party Service Providers).
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How the Museum Uses Information Provided by Visitors
The Metropolitan Museum uses the information you provide to personalize the site so that we can better meet your needs (see When You Register in My Met Museum), fulfill your online order, facilitate customer service in The Met Store or in the Membership section, and inform you of our products and promotional offers (see When You Shop Online in The Met Store and When You Make a Donation or Purchase a Membership Online).
The Museum never shares with third parties any personally identifiable information you provide when purchasing a Membership or making a donation online, through the mail, in person, or on the telephone except as required by law. Member and Donor names are deleted from The Met Store catalogue mailing list when it is shared with other companies.
The Museum may share the information you provide when you purchase an item online in The Met Store or request a catalogue (such as your name and your postal address) with other reputable organizations or companies whose products and services might interest you but whose privacy policies may differ from the Metropolitan Museum's.
If you prefer not to have your personally identifiable information shared in this way, you may check the "Please do not make my name available" box on the order form when you check out in The Met Store. You may also send us an email at customer.service@metmuseum.org requesting that we not share your personally identifiable information with third parties for marketing purposes (see Customer Service online in The Met Store).
The Museum never shares with third parties any personally identifiable information you provide when purchasing a Membership or making a donation online, except as required by law.
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Information Collected Automatically
Cookies
This website automatically collects some non-personally identifiable information about you when you request pages through your browser. We place cookies on website visitors' computers to collect aggregate information for site traffic analysis, such as the number of visitors and the number of pages viewed. (Cookies are small files that reside in a visitor's browser.) The aggregate information we collect through cookies helps the Metropolitan Museum monitor how you and other visitors use the site, allowing us to provide an optimal experience and better service; this information is never used to identify you personally. However, the Museum's website has been designed to provide nearly full functionality without the use of cookies. You can set your Web browser to reject cookies, but you will lose the ability to register in My Met Museum or place an item in your shopping basket online in The Met Store (see Cookies for Registered Users and Cookies for Met Store Customers).
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Cookies for Registered Users
The Museum's website requires the use of cookies to register or sign in. Cookies allow you immediate access to the website's "My Met Gallery" and "My Met Calendar" features.
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Cookies for Met Store Customers
Cookies allow you to maintain the contents of your shopping basket as you navigate other areas of our site outside The Met Store. When you return to The Met Store, your shopping basket will retain the items you previously selected. If you reject the cookies and you leave The Met Store before making a purchase, you will lose the information in your shopping basket.
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Children Under Thirteen Years of Age
We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under thirteen years of age.
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Email Communications
Emails and Newsletters
The Metropolitan Museum regularly sends email newsletters to our registered visitors. Registered visitors may subscribe or unsubscribe to an email newsletter at any time by changing their email preferences in My Met Museum. On occasion, the Museum may send emails to individuals such as registrants and Members who have provided us with their email address, informing them of Museum events or promotions we think might be of interest to them. The Met Store also sends promotional emails to customers and those individuals who have requested a catalogue or email. Email recipients may always opt out of any email category at any time by following the unsubscribe instructions included in the email message.
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"Email a Friend" Feature
If you use the Museum's "Email a Friend" feature (in the online calendar) or "Email This Event To a Friend" feature (in Special Exhibitions), your friend's email address will not be retained on our website or used in any way by the Museum.
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Emailing the Museum
The Museum tries to respond to email messages requiring a response within seven business days. We try to respond to customer service inquiries related to a purchase in The Met Store within forty-eight hours (see Customer Service online in The Met Store). If you email the Museum, your message and email address will be forwarded to the appropriate department within the Museum. The Museum may choose to save this information. The Museum is pleased to hear from you. However, any message, material, business information, ideas, concepts, or other information sent to the Museum by email will be treated as non-confidential and non-proprietary.
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Data Security
The Metropolitan Museum makes every reasonable effort to ensure that all of the transactions that occur on our website are secure. All credit card numbers submitted to the site are encrypted using "Secure Socket Layer" (SSL) encryption. SSL technology is an industry standard for protecting sensitive information as it is transmitted over the Internet.
To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the correct use of information, we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and administrative procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.
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Third-Party Service Providers
The Metropolitan Museum may engage reputable third-party vendors in order to help us manage our website and allow us to better service our visitors and customers. The Museum requires its vendors by contract to maintain the confidentiality and security of Museum information to which they are provided access and restricts the vendors from using the information in any way not expressly authorized by the Museum.
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Contact Information
If you have any questions regarding this privacy policy, please contact:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Website
1000 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10028-0198
Email: privacypolicy@metmuseum.org
Telephone: 212-396-5280
Fax: 212-396-5151
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Changes to Privacy Policy
The Metropolitan Museum of Art may revise its privacy policy at any time. We encourage you to visit this page periodically to review our current policy so that you will always know what information we gather and how we may use that information.
Update effective December 23, 2004.
