Privacy Policy

Introduction

The Whitney Museum of American Art (“Museum”) is committed to protecting the privacy of its visitors, online guests, customers, members, donors, and friends. This privacy policy governs the way we collect and use information both online and offline, and explains the types of information we collect and how we use it.

By visiting our website, purchasing tickets online or otherwise providing personal information, you are accepting the practices described in our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not use the website, purchase tickets online or otherwise provide personal information.

Information You Provide

The Museum collects personal information from you when you engage in online or in person transactions such as purchases, registrations, making a donation or becoming a member. Additionally, personal information may be transmitted as part of a form submission or in connection with other programs, activities, services, or resources available on our website.

We may gather personal information that you give us, including your name, address, phone number, e-mail address, payment information, and transaction history.

For example, we collect personal information on our website when you:

  • Create an account
  • Purchase tickets
  • Purchase a membership
  • Make a donation
  • Purchase merchandise
  • Purchase or redeem a gift membership
  • Fill out a “Contact Us” request
  • Subscribe to a mailing list
  • Request information about Exhibitions and Programs
  • Participate in certain education programs (for example, when you complete an online application)
  • Communicate with use through the website, including completion of any online forms

In addition, we may collect personal information outside our website via:

  • In person ticket or membership sales
  • By phone
  • On-Site (for example during an event, a visitor may choose to complete a form and hand it to a staff member, for example in connection with membership or subscription)
  • Returning mail to us, such as membership renewal solicitations
  • Completing a survey mailed to you
  • Completing contact information on forms at local events

How We Combine Personal Information

We may combine information gathered from the website and information that we have received, gathered, acquired, or stored from other sources, both information collected offline by the Museum and information received from third parties into a single customer record. We also use and/or combine information that we collect offline or receive from third-party sources (e.g., contact information from government funders or grantor information) to edit, enhance, and/or check the accuracy of your customer record.

How Personal Information is Used

If you provide us personal information we will use this information to respond to your inquiry or request, or to fulfill your order. We may also use it to contact you to provide information about other Museum activities, programs, membership and fundraising opportunities, products and special events that may interest you. You may opt-out of having your information used by the Museum for these purposes, or you may update your contact information anytime, by contacting us via the following e-mail addresses: privacy@whitney.org.

With Whom Personal Information is Shared

The Museum may share your personal information with other organizations, such as other non- profits, art institutions, or with other companies that may be of interest to you, for informational, fundraising, or related purposes. In addition, all information we do share with other institutions is provided subject to confidentiality obligations limiting the nature of the use of your information and restricting the further dissemination of your information. If you do not wish to have your personal information shared with other institutions for these purposes, you may opt out at any time by contacting us via the above email address.

In addition, the Museum also engages third-party vendors in order to help us manage the website, process online and offline transactions, better respond to the needs of our visitors, and enhance our marketing efforts. This includes third-party analytics vendors such as Google Analytics and other marketing partners who serve advertisements across the Internet, offline, and sometimes on the websites on the Museum's behalf. They may use information about your visits to the website and other sites to personalize advertisements for goods and services. We and our third-party vendors or partners use analytics data for a variety of purposes such as to improve the design and content of our website, to help us learn things like what pages are most attractive to all of our visitors and what promotions visitors like to see, and to gauge the success of our advertising campaigns. 

For more information about the purpose and scope of third-party vendor data collection and processing please refer to their respective privacy policies, including:

The Museum may also use or disclose your personal information if required to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to (a) conform to applicable law or comply with legal process served on the Museum; (b) protect and defend the Museum’s rights or property, the website, or the Museum’s users; and (c) act under emergency circumstances to protect the personal safety of Museum affiliates, agents, or the users of the website or the public.

Opt-Out

If you prefer not to have your personal information shared with third parties for marketing purposes, or would like to be removed from our mailing list, please contact us at privacy@whitney.org

If for any reason you do not wish to receive further email from the Museum, please follow the instructions for unsubscribing included within the body of the message that was sent to you, or e-mail a message containing your name and address to privacy@whitney.org.

Information Collected Automatically

Cookies and Pixel Tags
The Museum’s website uses cookies and pixel tags to distinguish you from other users, provide a better experience when you browse our website, and improve our site’s performance and usefulness. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies and pixel tags.

A cookie is a small data file that websites can place on your hard drive when you visit. A cookie file can contain information such as a user ID that tracks the pages you’ve visited within that site. The cookies on this website are primarily used to recognize that a user has visited the website previously and to track user traffic patterns. A pixel tag is a tiny graphical image embedded in emails or webpages. Pixel tags are used to determine what parts of a website a visitor has reviewed, or whether an email was successfully opened. Third parties, including Facebook, may use cookies, web beacons, and other storage technologies to collect or receive information from our website and elsewhere on the internet and use that information to provide measurement services and target ads.

If you prefer not to receive cookies through the site, you can set your browser to warn you before accepting cookies and refuse the cookie when your browser alerts you to its presence. You also can refuse all cookies by turning them off in your browser. You do not need to have cookies turned on to use any pages within our website. For more information about cookies, including how to set your browser to reject cookies, visit www.allaboutcookies.org.

Security

The online transactions conducted on the Museum website and on site are protected by security features, including encryption and tokenization, designed to prevent the unauthorized release of your personal financial data. All credit card information complies with current PCI standards and will be tokenized and held on third party sites.

While the Museum endeavors to create a secure and reliable website, please be advised that the confidentiality of any communication or material transmitted to/from this website over the Internet cannot be guaranteed. Accordingly, the Museum and its employees, agents, officers, directors, legal representatives, predecessors, successors and assigns are only responsible for information after receipt and while in our custody and control. You assume the sole and complete risk for using this website and must make your own determination as to these matters.

Links to Other Sites

Users may find content on the Museum’s site that links to the sites and services of our partners, sponsors, or other third parties. In many cases, these links represent cooperative projects or are established with persons or entities that have a significant connection to or relationship with our site. Although every effort is made to ensure that any referrals are to reputable and relevant sources, the Museum does not control the content or links that appear on these sites. In addition, these sites or services, including their content and links, may be constantly changing. These sites and services may have their own privacy policies and customer service policies, or no policy at all. The Museum encourages visitors to review the privacy policies of any sites they visit to ensure their Personal Information is being protected.

Children Under 13 Years of Age

The Museum does not knowingly collect personal information from children under thirteen years of age. Children should always ask parents/ guardians for permission before providing personal information to any website or purchasing any products or services online. The Museum urges all parents/ guardians to participate in their children’s exploration of the Internet and to teach them about protecting their personal information while online.

Data Protection Privacy under the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”)

The GDPR protects personal data collected from citizens of European Union Member States. The Museum collects and stores certain personal data through our website, in person or over the phone for the reasons set forth above.

In order for the Museum to collect this information, you must consent to the collection of your personal data. The Museum will only use your personal data for the purposes established in this policy, unless we discover another purpose that is in line with the Museum’s original purpose for collection. In the event that you do not consent to the collection of your personal data, then the Museum may not be able to completely and fully provide you with all of our services.

The Museum will store your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfill the purpose for which the personal data was collected and processed, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, accounting or reporting requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period for your personal data, we will consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use of disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve these purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements. Upon expiration of this time frame, the Museum will securely erase and destroy all of your collected personal data, in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.

Personal Data
The term “personal data” includes information such as your name, address, email address, telephone number, IP address, credit card information, website cookies, and location. Personal information does not include data from which you can no longer be identified due to encryption or anonymity.

Rights to your Personal Data under the GDPR
If the GDPR applies to you, then you have particular rights as an individual under this regulation, including the right to:

  • Request access to your personal data stored by the Museum and request certain information in relation to its processing;
  • Request a change and/or update be made to your personal data stored by the Museum; and
  • Request restriction of processing of your personal data;
  • Request erasure of your personal data stored by the Museum; and
  • Object to the processing of your personal data.

To exercise one of these rights, please contact the Museum at privacy@whitney.org.

Withdrawal of Consent
The Museum acknowledges that even though you may initially consent to the processing of your personal data, you may want to withdraw your consent from time to time. You may withdraw your consent from the processing of personal data either entirely or in part. To withdraw your consent, please contact privacy@whitney.org.

Questions or Concerns
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the rights established under the GDPR, please feel free to contact the Museum at privacy@whitney.org or

Privacy Officer
Whitney Museum of American Art
99 Gansevoort Street
New York, NY 10014

This website is published in the United States and is subject to laws of the United States. If you are located in a country outside the United States and voluntarily submit personal information to the Museum, you thereby consent to the general use of such information as provided in this Privacy Policy and to the transfer of that information to, and/or storage of that information in, the United States. The Museum shall not be liable under any circumstances for damages resulting from use of information collected from visitors to the website.

Changes to the Privacy Policy

Please note that the Museum may revise this Privacy Policy at any time. You agree to be bound by this Privacy Policy and any modifications to this Privacy Policy by your continued use of the website, purchasing tickets, or otherwise providing personal information. We encourage you to periodically visit this page to review our most current policy. Your continued use of the website following the posting of changes to these terms will indicate your acceptance of those changes.

Last updated January 17, 2024