Privacy notice

Privacy Notice

This privacy notice provides information on what personal information we collect from you, how and why it is collected, when and with whom it might be shared, and how long it will be kept. It also provides information on your rights to decide how it might be used, how you can access it, require it to be deleted or corrected and your rights to complain.   

It is produced in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. It is to be read in conjunction with our Mailing list Privacy NoticeTWAM Enterprises’ Privacy Notice and TWAM Development Trust’s Privacy Notice. Further information about each of these is provided within this notice. 

This privacy notice has been drafted with simplicity and clarity in mind. It does not provide exhaustive detail of all aspects of our collection or use of personal data. We will provide additional information at the point we seek to collect personal data for any other purpose not covered below and we are happy to provide any further explanation on any area of this notice if required. 

Who we are

North East Museums (formerly Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums) is a regional museum, art gallery and archives service which manages the following venues: Arbeia, South Shields Roman Fort, Discovery Museum, Great North Museum: Hancock, Hatton Gallery, Laing Art Gallery, Segedunum Roman Fort, Shipley Art Gallery, South Shields Museum & Art Gallery, Stephenson Steam Railway and Tyne & Wear Archives. 

We are supported by the four local authorities of the area (Newcastle, Gateshead, North Tyneside and South Tyneside). We have separate agreements with Sunderland City Council to manage its archives and with Newcastle University, to manage the Great North Museum: Hancock and Hatton Gallery.

Newcastle City Council is the lead authority and is registered with the Information Commissioner as the Data Controller, with overall responsibility for the collection and processing of your personal information. 

The Data Protection Officer for Newcastle City Council is Phil Slater: 

Address: 

Data Protection
Newcastle City Council
Floor 6
Civic Centre
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 8QH
Email: dataprotection@newcastle.gov.uk
Tel: (0191) 2116511  

We collect information for various purposes as outlined below: 

  • To provide you with information about our events, exhibitions, courses, activities or services and those of our partner organisations: Newcastle Gateshead Cultural Venues (NGCV) and The Late Shows. This is primarily done via our free, mailing list (please see the Mailing list Privacy Notice for more information). 
  • To arrange school visits or educational experiences  
  • To provide you with information about our community engagement programmes 
  • To gather feedback through surveys or evaluation forms 
  • To process Freedom of Information requests  
  • To respond to queries, comments or complaints 
  • To seek permission for the use of photographs, video or audio recordings 
  • To process donations of money to our Development Trust 
  • To process deposits, donations or loans to our collections 
  • To provide you with ticket or registration information for events, workshops and exhibitions 
  • To process orders, for example from our online shop 
  • To monitor use of our website (please see the ‘Cookies’ section below); 
  • To monitor the flow of visitors within our venues (please see ‘internet enabled devices’ section below) 

If we intend to process data for any other purposes to those outlined above, you will be advised of this at the point the data is collected.

Cookies  

Cookies are small text files stored by the browser (e.g. Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge or Safari) on your computer or mobile phone. They allow websites to store such things as user preferences. This information is used to track visitor use of the website and to compile statistical reports on website activity.  

This site uses three types of cookies:  
* Site performance cookies - used to improve your experience and store your preferences   
* Anonymous analytics cookies - used to track user metrics and activity  
* Strictly necessary cookies - used to store your personal privacy selections 

These cookies cannot be used to identify individuals; they are used for statistical purposes only. 

You may receive other third-party cookies, by interacting with parts of the site which share functionality with third parties. For example, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media networks. 

For further information visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org. You can set your browser not to accept cookies and the above websites tell you how to remove cookies from your browser. 

Internet enabled devices 

If your smartphone, tablet or another device is Wi-Fi enabled, it can still be detected by the free Wi-Fi service even if you have not signed into it. Newcastle City Council records data about the location and type of devices on our premises that are Wi-Fi enabled so that we can monitor the flow of visitors around the venues and improve our services. No personal data is collected during this process. However, if you do not wish for the above information to be recorded, you can disable the Wi-Fi function on your device.  

How long we keep your information

We will retain your information for as long as is considered necessary for the purpose(s) for which it was collected (including as required by applicable law or regulation).  

Please see our retention schedule in Appendix 1 for our standard retention periods.  

There may be specific circumstances in which we need to, or would like to, retain your data for a non-standard period of time. If we intend to hold your data for a different length of time than that specified in Appendix 1, we will inform you at the point of collecting your data. 

Archiving in the public interest

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 permit organisations such as museums, galleries, archives and libraries to process personal data (including sensitive personal data) without consent, subject to appropriate safeguards, where necessary for “archiving purposes in the public interest”, 

Archiving in the public interest means securing the permanent availability of records considered to have “enduring value” (i.e. records which have been subject to an appraisal process and deemed worthy of permanent preservation)., 

Archiving in the public interest permits Tyne & Wear Archives to collect information, for a wide range of current and potential future purposes, including: 

  • enabling research and investigation of all kinds, including academic, historical or genealogical research 
  • enabling long-term accountability, such as public inquiries and other official investigations like cold case murder investigations 
  • enabling the discovery and availability of personal, community and corporate identity, memory and history 
  • enabling the establishment and maintenance of rights and obligations and of precedent decisions 
  • enabling educational use 
  • enabling commercial and non-commercial re-use. 

Who we share your information with

Along with the Local Authority and Universities whose services we manage (see ‘Who We Are’ section) we may also share your information with our associated organisations, listed below, for the purposes described. Otherwise, we will only share your information with 3rd parties if we have gained your specific consent to do so at the point the data is collected. 

TWAM Enterprises Ltd

TWAM Enterprises Ltd (company number 10940488) manages some commercial activities such as retailing, catering and venue hire. 

If you contact us about catering we will pass your contact details on to TWAM Enterprises or one of their catering providers so they can help with your enquiry.  

You can access TWAM Enterprises' Privacy Notice here: https://www.twmuseums.org.uk/t...

TWAM Development Trust

TWAM Development Trust (TWAMDT) is a charitable company (Companies House registration number 7334262 and Charity Commission number 1137867).  

TWAM Development Trust fundraises from individual donors, trusts and foundations in order to support our museum and gallery activities. By doing this the Trust is able to help us achieve our strategic vision of ensuring everyone has access to museum, gallery and archive provision, are able to use this access and to value it for the significant and positive impact that it makes upon their lives. 

If you contact us about giving, we will pass on your contact details to the Development team who report to the TWAM Development Trust.  

You can access TWAM Development Trust’s Privacy Notice here: https://www.twmuseums.org.uk/g...

Exhibitions by TWAM Ltd

Exhibitions by TWAM Ltd (company number 12106351) has been established to manage all exhibition production activities.  

If you contact, or are contacted by us in relation to our Exhibition programme, we may share your details with Exhibitions by TWAM Ltd, in order to facilitate the management or production of exhibitions.  

ERIC North East

ERIC North East is managed by a partnership representative of a wide variety of stakeholders including wildlife recorders, statutory bodies, local authorities and wildlife trusts. It is operated by North East Museums and is housed in the Great North Museum: Hancock in Newcastle upon Tyne. We may share your contact details with ERIC North East to help them build links with government and conservation organisations, local authorities and ecological consultancies, in order to inform conservation decisions about the species and habitats of the North East of England. 

Access to personal information and correction

Whilst we strive at all times to ensure that your personal information is accurate and up to date, we recognise that on occasions we may get it wrong or your details may change. You can ask us to correct or remove your personal information by contacting us as detailed below in the “How to contact us” section. 

You can request a copy of information that we hold about you, by submitting a request in writing as set out in the “How to contact us” section below. 

How to contact us

We aim to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information. We will not prioritise our interests as an organisation over your interests as an individual. We will always aim to balance our interests with your rights. We will only use personal information in a way and for a purpose that is in accordance with this notice. For these reasons, we take any correspondence we receive very seriously.  

If you wish to make a complaint, request further explanation about any issues relating to this privacy notice, or make a suggestion for improving our processes relating to the way we use personal data, then please contact us at corporategovernance@twmuseums.org.uk or in writing at the following address: Corporate Governance, North East Museums, Discovery Museum, Blandford Square, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4JA.  

You may opt out from receiving marketing communications from us, change your contact preferences or ask to have your personal data removed or corrected in our records at any time by writing to us at: Communications, North East Museums, Discovery Museum, Blandford Square, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4JA, or by sending an email to communications@twmuseums.org.uk. Please ensure that you state your full name and postcode in the letter or email so that we may locate your record on our database.  

If you are not satisfied with our response, or you feel we have not answered within a reasonable timescale, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, using the details outlined in the section below. 

Information Commissioner's Office

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is the UK’s independent body set up to uphold information rights. You can make a complaint to the ICO about our use of your information at any time on 0303 123 1113 or via their website at https://ico.org.uk/. Of course, we'd like to try and help you with any problems you are having first, so please consider raising any issue or complaint you have with us beforehand. Your satisfaction with our services is very important to all of us and we will always strive to resolve any problems and complaints you have. You can contact us at: corporategovernance@twmuseums.org.uk

Changes to this privacy notice

We keep our privacy notice under regular review. You are advised to visit this page periodically in order to keep up to date with any changes. By continuing to use our services you will be deemed to have accepted such changes. This privacy notice was last updated on 25 November 2024.  

Appendix 1 – lawful basis for processing data and retention schedule

The GDPR states that personal data can only be processed if there is a legal ground to do so. The GDPR provides six legal grounds under which personal information can be processed lawfully and stipulates that an organisation’s privacy notice must include reference to this. 

Information on the legal basis for processing of personal information by North East Museums is set out below. 

The lawful basis for processing are set out in Article 6 of the GDPR. At least one of these must apply whenever you process personal data:  

(a) Consent: the individual has given clear consent for you to process their personal data for a specific purpose. 

(b) Contract: the processing is necessary for a contract you have with the individual, or because they have asked you to take specific steps before entering into a contract. 

(c) Legal obligation: the processing is necessary for you to comply with the law (not including contractual obligations). 

(d) Vital interests: the processing is necessary to protect someone’s life. 

(e) Public task: the processing is necessary for you to perform a task in the public interest or for your official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law. 

(f) Legitimate interests: the processing is necessary for your legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party unless there is a good reason to protect the individual’s personal data which overrides those legitimate interests. (This cannot apply if you are a public authority processing data to perform your official tasks.) 

The retention periods for our standard data processing is set out below. If we intend to process data for any other purpose, you will be advised of the retention period at the point the data is collected.  

 

Data processing area / teamData SourceType of data CollectedLawful Basis for ProcessingStandard retention period
General EnquiriesEmail / LetterFull name, phone number, email address or contact address aDuration of open enquiry
Tickets for Events and ExhibitionsTicket Source / EventbriteName, address, email, contact preference, disability and access information if appropriateb2 years after event / exhibition has taken place 
Archives and CollectionsLoans / depositName, address, contact detailsbDuration of the deposit, donation or loan 
Archives and CollectionsenquiriesName, address, email; occasionally personal info relating to enquiryaDuration of open enquiry
Archives and CollectionsItems in collections (archiving in the public interest)Potentially covers all types of personal data. eIndefinitely
LearningBoxes of Delightname of teacher and email addressbUntil the end of academic year the enquiry is for 
LearningSchool Bookingsname of school contact/lead adult attending, email address, contact numberaUntil the end of academic year the enquiry is for
LearningSchool Mailing Listname of school contact and email addressa3 years
LearningArts AwardFull name, phone number, email address or contact address 
aOnce application has been submitted 
LearningNewsletter to schoolsFull name, email address, job title and organisationf3 years
Learningbusiness to business contacts with cultural organisations and local schoolsFull name, phone number, email address, job title and organisationf3 years
Community programmescontacts for individual participantsName, address, contact details a3 years
Surveys/QuestionnairesVarious; online, face to face, paper basedVaries according to survey but can cover Name, address, email, contact details, disability and access information if neededa6 months after end of project / event
Photos/Video/AudioStandard formsName, email, phone numbera6 months after end of project / event
Photos/Video/AudioMedia contentVisual / audio contenta6 months after end of project / event (unless archived in the public interest)
VolunteerVolunteer websitepersonal details name, address, disability disability and access information if neededb3 years
ERIC North EastNewslettersFull name, emaila3 years
ERIC North Eastbusiness to business contactsFull name, phone number, email address, job title and organisationf3 years
ERIC North EastSmall grants applicationsFull name, phone number, email address, job title and organisation (if applicable)bOnce grant decision has been made
ERIC North East
Research databaseFull name, phone number, email address, access requirements aIndefinitely
ComplaintsEmail / LetterFull name, phone number, email address or contact address a6 months
FOI RequestsFOI recordsFull name, phone number, email address or contact addressc3 years
Health & Safety record keepingH&S reporting forms / recordsFull name, date of birth, phone number, email address, contact address cUp to 50 years depending on type of record
FinancePurchase order systemFull name, phone number, email address, contact address c7 years

For our mailing list Lawful Basis for processing, please refer to Privacy Notice here 

For TWAM Development Trust’s Lawful Basis for processing, please refer to Privacy Notice here

For TWAM Enterprises Ltd’s Lawful Basis for processing, please refer to Privacy Notice here