Privacy Policy

“Personal Information” is information that identifies you as an individual or relates to an identifiable individual. The Services collect Personal Information, including:

• Name
• Postal address (including billing and shipping addresses)
• Telephone and fax number
• Email address 
• Payment card data
• Transaction history
• Customer or member number

We collect and use Personal Information in a variety of ways, including to accomplish our business purposes, better meet your needs, fulfill your orders, facilitate customer service, inform you of Museum-related programs and offerings, analyze trends, collect statistics, and maintain our records. If you disclose any Personal Information relating to other people to us in connection with the Services, you represent that you have the authority to do so and to permit us to use the information in accordance with this privacy policy.

We may share the Personal Information and transaction history of our customers, donors, and members, with third-party service providers, such as third-party data analytics firms that combine it with information received from other organizations and businesses to produce and report recommendations to us and to other organizations and businesses. The recommendations may be related to marketing initiatives, including information about the likelihood that an individual will purchase products and support nonprofit causes by making donations and purchasing or upgrading memberships, as well as contact information. If you would like to opt out of having your information shared in this way, you may send an email message to privacypolicy@metmuseum.org. Please ensure that your request to opt out of this sharing is accompanied by your full name and one of the following: email, phone number, or mailing address so that we can locate your account in order to comply with your opt-out request. If your information has already been shared by us in the manner described above, we may direct you to submit your opt out request to the relevant third-party service provider. Please note that the privacy policies of these organizations and companies may differ from ours.

We may combine the Personal Information and transaction history of our customers, donors, and members with data that is publicly available and data that we receive from other reputable sources. We may also share such information with our third-party vendors to process transactions, to provide personalized experiences, and to analyze and understand our customer base. For details, please see Third-Party Service Providers.

The Museum occasionally asks for feedback and publishes surveys on the Services or through a reputable third-party service provider. We use the survey responses to improve our understanding of our customers and to determine how best to serve your needs.

If you would like to be removed from our mailing list, please contact us at privacypolicy@metmuseum.org.

The Museum may also use and disclose your Personal Information as necessary or appropriate, in particular when we have a legal obligation or legitimate interest to do so, including the following:

• To comply with applicable law and regulations, which may include laws outside your country of residence.
• To cooperate with public and government authorities.
• To respond to a request or to provide information we believe is necessary or appropriate, which can include authorities outside your country of residence.
• To cooperate with law enforcement, for example, when we respond to law enforcement requests and orders or provide information we believe is important.
• For other legal reasons, including to enforce our terms and conditions and to protect our rights, privacy, safety or property, and/or that of yours or others.

You may use the Services without registering or submitting any Personal Information. However, registration in The Met Store provides access to features such as your order history and address book.

If you choose to register in any of these areas of the Services, you will be asked to provide Personal Information that may include a username and password, your name, email address, postal address, telephone number, and your Membership number, if applicable. We store this information, along with your other preferences, so that you need not re-enter it when you return to the Services. You may review or change your “My Account” information in The Met Store at any time.

If you email the Museum, 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.

Email recipients may opt out from receiving promotional emails from the Museum at any time by following the “unsubscribe” instructions included in the email message. Please note that if you opt out of receiving promotional emails from us, we may still send you important administrative messages, from which you cannot opt out.

The Museum engages reputable third-party vendors to help us manage the Services, process online and offline transactions, better respond to the needs of our customers, and enhance our marketing efforts. The Museum requires its vendors who process sensitive Personal Information to maintain the confidentiality of such Personal Information to which they are provided access.

The Services may include links to third-party sites, apps, and social media platforms (“Third-Party Sites”). Clicking on those links may allow Third-Party Sites to collect or share your data. Additionally, you may share information with your friends associated with your social media account, with other users, and with your social media account provider. By doing so, you authorize us to facilitate this sharing of information. Our inclusion of a link to a Third-Party Site on the Services does not imply the Museum’s endorsement or control of the linked site or service. The use of shared information will be governed by the Third-Party Site’s privacy policy and terms of service, and the Museum encourages you to read those privacy policies and terms of service so that you understand how Third-Party Sites process information.

The Services may offer integrated tools and other social sharing features which let you share actions you take on the Services with Third-Party Sites, and vice versa. Use of such features enables you to share information with friends or the public, depending on the settings you establish with the Third-Party Sites that provide the social sharing feature. 

This privacy policy does not address, and we are not responsible for, the privacy, information, or other practices of any third-parties, including any Third-Party Sites to which the Services link.  We are not responsible for the information collection, use, disclosure, or security policies or practices of other organizations, such as Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft, RIM, or any other app developer, app provider, social media platform provider, operating system provider, wireless service provider, or device manufacturer, including with respect to any Personal Information you disclose to other organizations through or in connection with the Services. The Museum uses analytics tools provided by the social media platforms to help the Museum to understand how people interact with its social media presence, to identify trends, and to carry out joint promotional activities with those platforms. The Museum receives from the social media platform aggregated statistical information about the performance of Museum posts and promoted content, such as number of views and viewing audience. This data is aggregated and anonymized by the platforms prior to being made available to the Museum.

The Museum may also use paid advertising and paid content tools provided by the social media platforms to help carry out advertising campaigns on social media platforms and to promote Museum content on the social media platforms. The Museum receives from the social media platforms only aggregated statistical information about interactions with its ads and paid content, such as number of views, number of shares, and so on.

For more information about the purpose and scope of data collection and processing in connection with integrated third-party tools and social sharing features, or use of the social media platforms, please visit the privacy policies of the respective entities at the following links:

Facebook and Instagram
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Twitter
YouTube and Google
TikTok

“Other Information” is any information that does not reveal your specific identity or does not directly relate to an identifiable individual. The Services collect Other Information such as:

• Browser and device information
• App usage data
• Information collected through cookies, pixel tags and other technologies
• Demographic information and other information provided by you that does not reveal your specific identity 
• Information that has been aggregated in a manner such that it no longer reveals your specific identity

The Services use technologies such as “cookies” and “pixel tags” to improve the functioning of the Services and your experience. Cookies are small data files that are automatically sent to your browser from a Web server and stored on your computer’s hard drive. Cookies enable us to personalize your experience and to remember what items are in your shopping cart. “Pixel tags” are tiny graphical images embedded in emails or webpages. Pixel tags 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 traffic to the Services, to improve our content and navigation, to enhance our marketing efforts, to personalize your experience, and to provide online and/or offline advertising tailored to your interests based on your online behavior.

We may also use cookies or other technologies in online advertising to track responses to our ads. We do not currently respond to browser do-not-track signals. If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, most browsers allow you to automatically decline cookies or be given the choice of declining or accepting a particular cookie (or cookies) from a particular website.  You may also wish to refer to http://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/index.html. If, however, you do not accept cookies, you may experience some inconvenience in your use of the Services. You also may not receive advertising or other offers from us that are relevant to your interests and needs.

The Museum also works with third-party analytics and marketing partners who use technologies such as cookies and pixel tags on our behalf. We use Google Analytics, which uses cookies and similar technologies to collect and analyze information about use of the Services and report on activities and trends. This service may also collect information regarding the use of other websites, apps and online resources. You can learn about Google’s practices by going to www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/, and exercise the opt-out provided by Google by downloading the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

We use third-party advertising companies to serve advertisements regarding goods and services that may be of interest to you when you access and use the Services and other websites or online services. You may receive advertisements based on information relating to your access to and use of the Services and other websites or online services on any of your devices, as well as on information received from third parties. These companies place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser (including through the use of pixel tags). They also use these technologies, along with information they collect about your online use, to recognize you across the devices you use, such as a mobile phone and a laptop. If you would like more information about this practice, and to learn how to opt out of it in desktop and mobile browsers on the particular device on which you are accessing this Privacy Policy, please visit http://optout.aboutads.info/#/ and http://optout.networkadvertising.org/#/. You may download the AppChoices app at www.aboutads.info/appchoices to opt out in mobile apps.

The Services may provide functionality allowing you to make payments to the Museum using third-party payment services. When you use such a service to make a payment to us, your Personal Information will be collected by such third-party and not by us, and will be subject to the third-party’s privacy policy, rather than this privacy policy. We have no control over, and are not responsible for this third-party’s collection, use, and disclosure of your Personal Information.

The online Services are not directed to individuals under thirteen years of age, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under thirteen years of age.

We seek to use reasonable organizational, technical, and administrative measures to protect Personal Information within our organization. Unfortunately, no data transmission or storage system can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure, please immediately notify us in accordance with the “Contact Us” section below.

Your Personal Information may be stored and processed in any country where we have facilities or in which we engage service providers, and by using the Services you understand that your information will be transferred to countries outside of your country of residence, including the United States, which may have data protection rules that are different from those of your country. In certain circumstances, courts, law enforcement agencies, regulatory agencies or security authorities in those other countries may be entitled to access your Personal Information.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art may revise this privacy policy at any time. The “Last Updated” date indicates when this privacy policy was last revised.  Any changes will become effective when we post the revised privacy policy on the Services. In some cases (for example, if we significantly expand our use or sharing of your Personal Information) we may also tell you about changes by additional means, such as by sending an email to the email address we have on file for you. In some cases, we may request your consent to the changes.