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Privacy Policy

Last updated: 29 April 2021

Middlesbrough Theatre and Middlesbrough Town Hall are dedicated to protecting the privacy of those who use our services. We are the data controller for your personal data and will ensure it is used and stored in accordance with the Data Protection Act (1998), the Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulations (2003) and as of the 25th of May 2018, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU 2016/679).

Middlesbrough Theatre and Middlesbrough Town Hall are venues run by Middlesbrough Council.  Middlesbrough Town Hall operates certain programmes such as Accompany and MTH Performing Arts and all data processed by these programmes is controlled by Middlesbrough Town Hall and in turn Middlesbrough Council.

Please note: This privacy statement covers websites owned and controlled by Middlesbrough Town Hall and Middlesbrough Theatre only. Links to any other websites and any information collected by these sites are not covered by this privacy statement. Since we do not control those websites, we encourage you to review the privacy policies of these third party sites.

We would encourage you to re-read our privacy statement from time to time so that you are aware of any changes in how we gather and use personal information.

Purpose of policy

Middlesbrough Town Hall and Middlesbrough Theatre are committed to protecting your personal information and being transparent about what information we hold about you.

Using personal information allows us to develop a better understanding of our patrons and in turn to provide you with relevant and timely information about the work that we do – both on and off stage. For Middlesbrough Theatre, as a registered charity, it also helps us to engage with potential donors and supporters.

The purpose of this policy is to give you a clear explanation about how we [and all of our subsidiaries] collect and use the information we collect from you directly and from third parties.

We use your information in accordance with all applicable laws concerning the protection of personal information. This policy explains:

  • Who we are
  • How we collect your personal information
  • What information we may collect about you
  • How we may use that information
  • In what, if any, situations we may disclose your details to third parties
  • Our use of cookies to improve your use of our website
  • Information about how we keep your personal information secure, how we maintain it for and your rights to be able to access it

If you have any queries about this policy, please contact the Data Protection Officer at Middlesbrough Council.

Who are we?

Middlesbrough Town Hall and Middlesbrough Theatre are entertainment, event and conferencing venues located in Middlesbrough, and run by Middlesbrough Council.

Our Privacy Policy gives you detailed information on when and why we collect your personal information, how we use it, how we keep it secure and how long we keep it for.  It also explains how you can control the data we hold, including how to update your information when it changes.

Any information you provide us with helps us to deliver a more personalised experience and smoother ticket buying process.

Contact information

By post: Middlesbrough Theatre, The Avenue, Linthorpe, TS5 6SA or Middlesbrough Town Hall, Albert Road, Middlesbrough, TS1 2QJ

By email: box office@middlesbrough.gov.uk

By phone: 01642 81 51 81 or 729 729

How do we collect your personal information?

We collect various types of information and in a number of ways:

Information you give us

For example when you register on our website, buy tickets or make a donation, we’ll store personal information you give us such as your name, email address, postal address, telephone number and card details. We will also store a record of your purchases and donations.

Information about your interactions with us

For example, when you visit our website, we collect information about how you interact with our content and ads. When we send you a mailing we store a record of this, and in the case of emails we keep a record of which ones you have opened and which links you have clicked on.

Information from third parties

We occasionally receive information about you from third parties. For example, we may use third party research companies to provide general information about you, compiled using publicly available data.

Sensitive personal data

Data Protection law recognises that certain categories of personal information are more sensitive such as health information, race, religious beliefs and political opinions. We do not usually collect this type of information about our patrons unless there is a clear reason for doing so. [As an example, we collect dates of birth about participants in our student programme of classes and courses for use when obtaining performance licences.]

A detailed listing of how we collect data is as follows:

1. When you create an account on our website at www.middlesbroughtheatre.co.uk or www.middlesbroughtownhall.co.uk your account allows you to do the following:

  • Purchase tickets
  • Sign up to receive relevant news and information
  • Update your communication preferences
  • Create an account to speed up the booking process and access print @ home tickets

2. When you interact with us in person to:

  • Purchase tickets
  • Join as a classical subscriber
  • Attend a fundraising event or workshop
  • Sign up to a Take Part class/school
  • Sign up to our mailing list
  • Give us your access requirements

3. When you contact us by phone to:

  • Purchase tickets
  • Join as a classical subscriber
  • Attend a fundraising event or workshop
  • Sign up to a Take Part class/school
  • Sign up to our mailing list
  • Give us your access requirements

4. When you contact us via post

  • Join as a classical subscriber
  • Attend a fundraising event or workshop
  • Sign up to a Take Part class/school

5. When you email us with any information relevant to your booking, including the

  • Access requirements
  • Dietary requirements for fundraising events

6. When you visit our website:

  • Through your IP address given to us by your browser
  • Through cookies

7. When you purchase tickets to our shows via a third party

8. Via social media

We may collect some personal data (name, address, phone number, booking details) when you enter competitions or give us booking details for customer support through social media.  We also collect and track anonymised data on our social media audiences to better understand the ‘groups’ of people who engage with us online.  We use this to ensure we engage with audiences and groups of people who are new to us.

9. Via publicly available information such as:

  • Google
  • Companies House
  • Information published in articles / newspapers

We may collect any of this information from a person working on your behalf with your consent such as a personal assistant.

What types of information do we collect and where from?

We only collect information that’s necessary to carry out our business. The more ways you engage with us as an organisation, the more data we will require in order to provide the necessary services required. There are occasions where you can choose to not provide us with the information we require, but this will then impact the service we are able to provide.

The information we may collect from you is as follows:

  • Prefix and full name
  • Email address
  • Billing address
  • Phone number
  • Date of birth
  • Payment card details – please note we do not save these details and therefore only retain the last four digits of your card in our database
  • Delivery address
  • Access requirements
  • Dietary requirements (for fundraising and press events only)
  • Contact and marketing preferences
  • Emergency contact details (for project participants only)

This is not an exhaustive list and we may retain different types of information for different individuals based on the service we are providing.  For information on how long we retain your data for, refer to the ‘how we protect data’ section of this policy.

We also keep a record of your interactions with us in our database, such as what shows you have purchased tickets to, when you have had an active subscription to our classical programme, any projects you may have participated in or supported and whether you have received, opened or clicked through any emails we may have sent.

We also may collect an automatically populated IP address when you use our website or email service.  This public IP address is a unique number which allows a computer, group of computers or other internet connected device to browse the internet. The log file records the time and date of your visit, the pages that were requested, the referring website (if provided) and your internet browser version. This information is collected to help diagnose and manage the website, to audit the geographical make-up of users, and to establish how they have arrived at the website.

We do use cookies which retain information about your online behaviour, preferences and settings. For more information, please refer to Middlesbrough Councils cookie policy.

Third Parties

We may also obtain your data from third parties, such as organisations with which we enter into a co-production.  These organisations should not pass on your data to us without your knowledge and only if it is required in the performance of a contract.  The third party will require your permission in order to share your data with us for marketing purposes and we will always notify you within 30 days of receipt of your data.  You should check their Privacy Policy when you provide your information to understand fully how they will process and safeguard your data.

Social Media

Depending on your settings or the privacy policies for social media services like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, you may give us permission to access information from those accounts or services, such as your behaviour on these services and across our site.  The majority of this behaviour is anonymised.  For more information on how to control your privacy settings for these services, go to the following links:

Why do we collect your personal information and how do we use it?

The main way we use your information is to provide the services you’ve requested. We also use your information to help us better understand our audience’s needs and to inform you about Middlesbrough Theatre and Town Hall news. We will only contact you electronically about non-contractually related information when we have your consent to do so.

There are three bases under which we may process your data:

Contract purposes

When you make a purchase from us or make a donation to us, you are entering into a contract with us. In order to perform this contract we need to process and store your data. For example we may need to contact you by email or telephone in the case of cancellation of a show, or in the case of problems with your payment.

Legitimate business interests

In certain situations we collect and process your personal information for purposes that are in our legitimate organisational interests. However we only do this if there is no overriding prejudice to you by using your personal information in this way. We describe below all situations where we may use this basis for processing.

With your explicit consent

For any situations where the two bases above are not appropriate, we will instead ask for your explicit consent before using your personal information in that specific situation.

In more detail, we collect your information:

To carry out our business and to provide a service or carry out a contract with you:

  • To fulfill ticket, merchandise and classical subscription requests.
  • To invite you to events or book classes as per your classical subscription.
  • Process payments.
  • Provide the best possible customer services and to help us with internal administration.
  • Contact you with important information relating to your booking or purchase, such as confirming your order, reminding you of an upcoming performance you’ve booked for or letting you know about cast changes or building works that may affect your visit.

Where we have your consent to:

  • Send you updates via email about what’s on, ticket or membership offers, and Middlesbrough Theatre, Middlesbrough Town Hall, or Middlesbrough Council news
  • Email you about a specific topic you’ve requested to hear more on such as specific productions, our community work or opportunities to support our work
  • Advertise via digital advertising platforms about what’s on, offers and news

Where we have a legal obligation to:

  • Use CCTV recording equipment in and around our premises for monitoring and security purposes.
  • Detect and reduce fraud and credit risk.

Where we have legitimate interest to:

  • Learn about your interests and preferences so that we can contact you with information that is relevant to you.
  • Help us target our marketing and development communications and adverts so that they’re more relevant to you.
  • Classify our audience into groups or segments, using booking and publicly available information. These segments help us to understand our audience better and ensure we’re sending relevant messages to each group. We may use third party processors to help achieve this.  We also submit these anonymously as part of reporting to fundraising and public funding bodies (such as Arts Council England).
  • Participate in the Audience Finder initiative or other initiatives as required by our Arts Council England NPO funding.  This initiative builds an aggregate picture of local and national audiences across all Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisations. Their tools allow us to understand how our audience in a local and national context and helps us to identify new audience opportunities.
  • Measure and understand how our audiences respond to a variety of marketing activity so we can ensure our activity is well targeted, relevant and effective.
  • Analyse and continually improve the services we offer including our artistic output, our website and our other products.
  • Ensure we are maximising our ticket sales wherever possible.
  • Help us run the test version of our website and CRM system that we use internally to pilot new features and ensure the smooth running of our customer services.

In all of the above cases we will always keep your rights and interests at the forefront to ensure they are not overridden by your own interests or fundamental rights and freedoms. You have the right to object to any of this processing at any time. If you wish to do this, please use the contact details at the end of this policy, sign into your account and amend your preferences, or unsubscribe using the link included in all emails we send.

Please bear in mind that if you object this may affect our ability to carry out tasks above that are for your benefit.

Who do we share your information with?

Middlesbrough Theatre and Middlesbrough Town Hall will never share, sell, rent or trade your personal information to any third parties for marketing purposes without your prior consent. We will ask for your consent to share personal information with organisations we have co-produced work with that you may have seen in our venue. These requests will be specific to the individual organisation so that your consent decision is informed.

We use a number of data processors in order to help us provide the services you request. These organisations are obligated to act on our instruction in relation to their use of your personal data and do not have any control over your data in their own right. We make sure anyone who provides a service for Middlesbrough Council enters into an agreement with us and meets our standards for data security. They will not use your data for anything other than the clearly defined purpose relating to the service that they are providing.

Examples of what data we may share and/or who we may share it with are as follows:

  • To the subsidiaries described above when it is necessary for them to be able to provide you with products or services that you’ve requested.
  • To our own service providers who process data on our behalf and on our instructions (for example our ticketing system software provider). In these cases we require that these third parties comply strictly with our instructions and with data protection laws, for example around security of personal data.
  • Where we are under a duty to disclose your personal information in order to comply with any legal obligation (for example to government bodies and law enforcement agencies).
  • To specific named visiting companies whose performances you have attended. In these cases we will always ask for your explicit consent before doing so.
  • Name on card, credit card number, billing address, CVV amount of transaction and order number with Sagepay in order to process credit card transactions
  • Name and email address with Dotmailer in order to produce e-marketing campaigns and pre & post show emails (e-marketing campaigns require consent)
  • Service providers who aggregate data in order for us to do benchmark reporting across the industry, specifically:
  • The Audience Agency for the purposes of the Audience Finder initiative.  For more information on the data they collect, please refer to the following links on their website: https://www.theaudienceagency.org/insight/data-collection-in-audience-finder https://www.theaudienceagency.org/insight/data-control-in-audience-finder
  • Our ticketing system provider Spektrix who provide support should our ticketing system require maintenance

Cookies

Cookies are small text files that are automatically placed onto your device by some websites that you visit. They are widely used to allow a website to function (for example to keep track of your basket) as well to provide website operators with information on how the site is being used.

We use cookies to keep track of your basket as well as to identify how the website is being used and what improvements we can make.

The different cookies used on this site are explained below:

Cookie name Purpose of cookie Cookie expires
PREF  Preferences relating to videos delivered from YouTube 2 years
SessionId Basket and other website related interactive functions When you close your browser
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE Successful operation of videos delivered from YouTube 8 months
YSC Preferences relating to videos delivered from YouTube When you close your browser
_ga Google analytics to monitor your activity on our website 2 years
_gat Google analytics to monitor your activity on our website 1 day
_gid Google analytics to monitor your activity on our website 1 day
_cfduid Website cookie to ensure the site is displayed correctly for your requirements e.g. screen size 1 year
_cflb Website cookie to ensure the site is displayed correctly for your requirements e.g. screen size 1 day

You can opt out of these cookies being used at any point by using Do Not Track setting available via most internet browsers. Further information about how to set this up is available:

Your debit and credit card information

If you use your credit or debit card to purchase from us or to make a donation, we will ensure that this is carried out securely and in accordance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). You can find more information about this standard here.

We optionally allow you to store your card details for use in a future transaction. This is carried out in compliance with PCI-DSS and in a way where none of our staff members are able to see your full card number. We never store your 3 or 4 digit security code.

How do we protect your data?

We will put in place appropriate safeguards (both in terms of our procedures and the technology we use) to keep your personal information as secure as possible. We will ensure that any third parties we use for processing your personal information do the same.

We will not transfer, process or store your data anywhere that is outside of the European Economic Area.

Maintaining your personal information

We store your personal information indefinitely such that for any subsequent purchases you make we are able to link them back to a single unique record that we hold for you on our system.

If there are aspects of your record that are inaccurate or that you would like to remove, you can usually do this by logging in to your account through our website. Alternatively please use the contact details at the end of this policy.

Any objections you make to any processing of your data will be stored against your record on our system so that we can comply with your requests.

Your rights to your personal information

You have a right to request a copy of the personal information that we hold about you and to have any inaccuracies in this data corrected. Please use the contact details at the end of this policy if you would like to exercise this right.

If you ask us to stop sending direct marketing communications to you, we will retain the information required (e.g. name, address or email address) to ensure we adhere with such requests.

What are your rights?

You should find it easy to access and amend the personal information that we hold on you, or request that we stop contacting you. It’s your data and we want to make sure you feel in control of it.

If you have an online account with us, you can amend your personal details and email contact preferences at any time. Simply sign in on the web site and access your account by selecting your name at the top of the page.

Or, if you prefer, you can contact us by phoning, emailing, or writing using our contact details below.

Every email we send to you will include details on how to change your communications preferences or unsubscribe from future communications.

You can request full details of personal information we hold about you under the Data Protection Act 1998, or after 25 May 2018, The General Data Protection Regulation, by contacting Middlesbrough Council. Please send a description of the information you would like to see, together with proof of your identity, to the data protection team.

You have the right to get information held about you by us corrected. If you have any concern about the accuracy of your personal data, please let us know using the below contact details. If you would like us to remove the personal information we hold about you, please contact us using the below contact details.

By post: Middlesbrough Theatre, The Avenue, Linthorpe, TS5 6SA or Middlesbrough Town Hall, Albert Road, Middlesbrough, TS1 2QJ

By email: box office@middlesbrough.gov.uk

By phone: 01642 81 51 81 or 729 729

You have the right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority, The Information Commissioner’s Office – www.ico.org.uk

How do I find further information?

Further information on data protection regulations and laws can be found here:

Please get in touch with us if you have any questions about any aspect of this privacy policy, and in particular if you would like to object to any processing of your personal information that we carry out for our legitimate organisational interests.

Terms and Conditions

The management reserves the right, in combination with any other statements that may be displayed on the premises to:

  1. Refuse admission of the ticket holder to the premises.
  2. Request the ticket holder to leave the premises.
  3. Refuse admission to the auditorium of latecomers or delay entry until a suitable break or interval in the performance/ event.
  4. Cancel or abandon a performance/ event for reasons beyond its control without notice and without being liable to pay any person any compensation or damage whatsoever other than at the management’s discretion a possible percentage or maximum refund to the ticket holder of the value of the ticket.