1. Who we are and purpose of this policy

Imperial War Museums (IWM) is the UK’s national museum for the history of conflict involving UK and Commonwealth forces from 1914.  We work to record, inform and educate on the causes, course and consequences of modern warfare.

We are funded in part by Government, but generate the majority of our own funding to enable the work we do.  To help achieve this, we are supported by the IWM Trading Company Limited, which oversees the commercial aspects of our operation including the Membership Scheme.  Your data is, therefore, jointly held by Imperial War Museums and Imperial War Museums Trading Company Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of IWM.  Whenever we mention IWM in this policy, we mean both organisations.

We take the privacy of our audience and users very seriously. This Privacy Policy outlines how your personal information is collected, used and treated as part of the terms and conditions of your IWM membership. It is closely linked to the full IWM Privacy policy, and should be read in conjunction with that.  The full IWM Privacy Policy will apply to any Members who engage with IWM in another capacity for additional services.  You can find the full IWM Privacy Policy here . For all personal information we hold we undertake to:

  • Tell you about how your data is used, either at the time we collect it (if we collect it directly from you) or as soon as is practical afterwards (if we collect it from a third party).
  • Keep it securely and make it available only to those within the organisation who need to see it.  Where we share data with other organisations, we will tell you first wherever possible (sometimes there may be legal reasons not to).
  • Where your data is processed by other organisations on our behalf, make sure that the processing is clearly defined, secure and governed by a contract.
  • Respect your rights over your personal data.
  • Inform you about major changes to this policy.  

This policy is effective from 25 May 2018. 

 

  1. Who this policy covers

This policy covers IWM Members, Friends of Duxford and Friends of IWM who have converted their membership to IWM’s Membership scheme.

It also gives further details about how information relating to former Friends of Duxford and Friends of IWM who have not converted their membership will be managed.    

   

3. Who to contact with questions about how your data is used

IWM’s Data Protection Officer is Jon Card, the Executive Director of Collections and Governance, who manages IWM’s Information Governance team.

If you have any queries about the content of this policy, or how your data is managed, you can contact him and the IWM’s Information Governance team at [email protected] or by post at Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road, London SE1 6HZ (marking the envelope for the attention of the Data Protection Officer).  You can also contact him by phone by calling IWM’s main switchboard on (020) 7416 5000.

You can also contact the Membership team directly at [email protected] or 0207 416 5000.

 

4. Your rights over your information

You have the right to:

  • Have a copy of the personal information IWM holds about you.
  • Correct inaccurate information or have incomplete information completed.
  • Have your data erased (‘right to be forgotten or ‘right to erasure’) in certain circumstances.
  • Restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
  • Data portability – have your information supplied in a commonly used format and transmitted to another organisation.
  • Object to the processing of your personal information.
  • Object to automated decision making or profiling.

Further information on these rights can be obtained from the Information Commissioner’s website at: https://ico.org.uk/

You can exercise these rights by contacting the IWM’s Data Protection Officer as detailed in Section 2 above. 

If you are unhappy about the response you receive from IWM, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s office by writing to the Information Commissioner at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, or via their website at https://ico.org.uk/

 

5. How we use your information for Membership

We only collect the personal information we need to help administer your Membership, to personalise your experience of Membership and develop our Membership offer.

 

How we collect your information for Membership

Our Membership team collect information from you:

  • When you sign up to become a member
  • Each time you use your card to visit a branch or exhibition or to access member discounts.
  • When you book tickets for IWM events and member events
  • When you log in to your membership account online.
  • When you interact with and respond to IWM emails
  • When you contact the membership team directly in person, by phone, post or by email.
  • If you have transferred your membership from the Friends of IWM or the Friends of Duxford, we will also transfer your old membership data to the new scheme.

What information we collect

  • Name(s) and address, email, phone number(s) and other relevant contact details.
  • Records of transactions with IWM when using your membership to access branches, purchase event tickets and access member discounts.
  • Records of interactions with IWM through attendance at IWM branches and events.
  • Information about your relationship with IWM through direct correspondence and interactions with membership emails.

How we use your information for Membership

We will use the information we collect from you to effectively process and service your membership in order to fulfil the contract we have with you and to comply with legal obligations relating to financial management and auditing. We will do this by:

  • Sending you information about your membership renewal.
  • Sharing regular updates via Member e-News emails. These will include information about IWM, your membership, how to access your benefits and how to get further involved in supporting IWM. All membership emails will include an option for you to unsubscribe at any time.
  • Processing your membership payments and ensuring transactions are recorded.
  • Scanning membership cards to check entitlement to free entry and discounts.
  • We will also use the information we collect to exclude you from being targeted with IWM membership marketing.  Please see Section 6 of our main Privacy Policy for further information.

In addition, we may use the information we collect to encourage you to renew your membership within the year that it has lapsed or to contact you for feedback on your membership experience in order to develop our offer.  We may also use the information collected when scanning membership cards to help us understand how and when our members visit, whether you access our offers and to help us send you more relevant communications. On occasion we might use the information we have about you to invite you to take part in fundraising initiatives which directly relate to your specific interests. You can opt out of this at any time.

We believe that using your data in these ways meets our legitimate interests and is reasonable, proportional, not unexpected or unnecessarily intrusive and does not override your basic rights.

Family Membership

Children under 16 are included in family memberships and are members of IWM. We collect their names and dates of birth to ensure their right to free admission at our sites. Email addresses for children under 13 are only collected with the consent of a parent or guardian.   Children on family memberships are excluded from all membership communications. Member e-News emails will be sent to the adult members of the family membership only.

How long we keep your information for Membership

Membership data will be held for 6 years after it has become inactive (for the primary purpose of financial auditing but also in case you decide to reactivate your membership). This also applies to data held on Friends of IWM and Friends of Duxford.

Friends of IWM

On 6 March 2018 the Friends of IWM voted in favour of dissolving the Charity and transferring all assets (including all data held on members) to IWM. This therefore means that the Friends of IWM data will be handled in accordance with the Privacy Policy for IWM Membership.

Data held on Friends of IWM who have not transitioned over to the new IWM scheme will be kept on file for 6 years after the data became inactive (for the sole purpose of financial auditing).

 

7. Policy Updates

This policy was agreed on 25 May 2018

Revisions were made to Section 5 in October 2021 to provide further information on digital marketing.