Privacy statement

Why do we collect data from you?

We collect information from users of our website, www.nhm.ac.uk and other domains we own, for the following reasons:

1. To provide online services personalised for individual users.
2. To answer your enquiries.
3. For participation in competitions.
4. To help us to monitor and improve our website and get feedback on our services.

The way we use information

When we ask for data from you, we will tell you what we are collecting the data for, if we are going to keep it, how you can get it removed from our systems and if we are going to share your data with any third party.

When we collect personal information from you, we do not pass it on to any third party or transfer it to areas where an adequate data protection policy is not in place, unless you tell us you are happy for us to do so.

We will respect your email privacy. We may email you occasionally with information or queries about your account or subscription with us, for example changes to your account or our services or copyright requests. However, you will not receive unsolicited marketing emails from the Natural History Museum or from third parties unless you have agreed to this. 

We ensure that third parties we use in connection with the running of these areas of the website and services (for example hosting providers) comply with our privacy policy and data protection legislation, and are subject to contractual restrictions, in order to protect your information.

Please note that we reserve the right to access and disclose individually identifiable information to comply with applicable laws and lawful government requests, to operate our systems properly and to protect both ourselves and our users.

Updating or removing your personal data

You can update your personal information or unsubscribe from any of our services at any time. 

To update your account details sign in and go to 'My account'. You will see your personal details and an option to edit your details. If you would like to close your account please email us.

If you are a NaturePlus user you can update your NaturePlus profile by visiting your profile page. Sign in to NaturePlus, go to ‘My things’ and then select ‘My profile’. 

If you have signed up to our online shop or e-news please use one of the following options to update your details or have your information removed from our systems.

• send an email to opt-out@nhm.ac.uk

• follow the unsubscribe link in the emails you receive from us
• follow the unsubscribe link from where you submitted your personal information

Cookies

When you visit the website we may send you a cookie. A cookie is a text-only string of information that a website transfers to the cookie file of the browser on your computer's hard disk so that the website can remember who you are.

Cookies may be used in the following ways:

• to compile anonymous, aggregated statistics that allow us to understand how users use the website and to help us improve the structure of the website (we cannot identify you personally in this way)
• to identify if a user is logged in (these cookies do not contain any personal data and we cannot identify your personally in this way)

For further information on cookies please go to our website Terms of Use.

Contact us

For further information, or if you have any questions relating to the handling of personal information, please read our Information Charter or contact the Data Protection Coordinator.

Updates, changes, additions to our privacy policy

If we need to change our privacy policy an updated version will be placed here. If we make any significant changes to how we store, transfer or process your personal data we may email you to let you know or ask your permission. This privacy policy was last updated on 22 May 2012.