Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to the website located at www.mschildrensmuseum.org (referred to herein as the “website”), which is operated by or for the Mississippi Children’s Museum (collectively, the “museum,” “we,” “our,” or “us”). The website allows users to find out more about the museum and its exhibits, and in some cases, to participate in interactive activities on the website. The website is only for private, non-commercial, informational and entertainment purposes.

Your privacy is important to us. To better protect your privacy, we provide this notice explaining our online information practices and the choices you can make about the way your information is collected and used. To make this notice easy to find, we make it available on our homepage and at every point where personally identifiable information may be requested.  If you have questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy, you should contact us directly at info@mcm.ms or 601.981.5469.

When this Privacy Policy references the term “personally identifiable information” or “personal information,” we mean information that identifies a particular individual, such as your full name, street address, telephone number or email address. When other information, such as a hobby or demographic-identifier, is associated with personal information, it also becomes personally identifiable information for the purposes of this Privacy Policy.

Please read the information below to learn more about our data collection policies and practices.

TYPES OF INFORMATION THAT MAY BE COLLECTED

Information You Provide Us: On some pages, you can place membership or event registration orders, make donations, and request information. The types of personal information collected on these pages may include:

  • contact information, such as your name, mailing address, email address or phone number;
  • demographic information such as your age, education, occupation and gender; and
  • financial information, such as your credit card number or similar information*.

*This information will be stored temporarily on a secured server and used only as needed to process your transaction.  It will not be maintained subsequently.

On some pages, you may also be asked to submit personal information about third parties. For example, if you order a gift membership online and want it sent directly to the recipient, you will need to submit the recipient’s name, address, and other contact information.

Site Usage Information: We may receive and store certain types of internet usage information whenever you visit the website, such as your landing page, order of pages viewed, and other click stream data. See “Log Files and Cookies” section below.

Email Communications: When you open emails from us, we may receive a confirmation notifying us that you opened the email, if your computer supports such capabilities. We also may keep track of what emails we send you.  Additionally, we keep a record of what communications you have opted to receive or not to receive.

HOW INFORMATION IS COLLECTED

Online Memberships and Donations: When you purchase a membership or make a donation to the Mississippi Children’s Museum online, we will ask you to provide us with the information we need to process your membership and/or to acknowledge your contribution. This information includes your name, billing and mailing addresses, telephone number, email address, and credit card information. Your credit card information will be stored temporarily on a secured server and used only as needed to process your transaction. We will retain your personally identifiable information for our records, in order to facilitate better customer service. In certain cases, you may be asked for additional information to complete your request, such as including your children’s names and ages for museum memberships or a recipient’s name, address and contact information for honoraria or other gifts.

Transaction Information: If you conduct a financial transaction on our website, such as buying tickets or registering for an event, we will ask you to complete an order form that will request certain information from you, including contact information, demographic information and financial information. We will use this information to complete the transaction that you have requested, i.e., to deliver the information, products, or other services that you order, and to send you an invoice (if necessary). For your protection, such information is collected and stored through encrypted means.

E-Newsletter Emails: We offer electronic newsletters to share information with you about the museum and our upcoming events and activities. You may sign up to receive an e-newsletter either by registering on our website or by becoming a member or donor of the museum. You do have to provide us with personal information when you sign up for an e-newsletter; however, you can opt out of these emails by unsubscribing at any time.

Log Files: Like many other web sites, www.mschildrensmuseum.org makes use of log files. These files log visitors to the site—usually a standard procedure for hosting companies and a part of hosting services’ analytics. The information inside the log files includes Internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, Internet Service Provider (ISP), date/time stamp, referring/exit pages, and possibly the number of clicks. This information is used to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement around the site, and gather demographic information.

Cookies: Our website uses cookies to store information about visitors’ preferences, to record user-specific information on which pages the site visitor accesses or visits, and to personalize or customize our Web page content based upon visitors’ browser type or other information that the visitor sends via their browser.

HOW WE USE THE INFORMATION COLLECTED

As applicable, the information you provide to us may be used to:

  • contact you regarding your membership or donor status
  • confirm or fulfill an order you have made
  • monitor or improve the use of the website
  • maintain website security
  • send an e-newsletter or other museum information

We use the information you provide about yourself when placing an order to complete that order.  We use the information you provide to us about a third party when placing an order to ship that order to the party and to confirm delivery. We do not share any personally identifiable information with outside parties except to the extent necessary to deliver the ordered goods and/or services.

We offer items which can be ordered and personalized for third parties. Information you provide to us to create these items is only used for that purpose, and it is only disclosed to the recipient(s) of the gift.

We use return email addresses to answer the email we receive. Such addresses are not used for any other purpose and are not shared with outside parties.

We use non-identifying and aggregate information to better design our website. For example, we can tell that X number of individuals visited a certain area on our website, or that a certain number of people filled out our registration form, but we do not disclose personally identifiable information about those individuals.

Finally, we never use or share the personally identifiable information provided to us online in ways unrelated to the ones described above without also providing you an opportunity to opt-out or otherwise prohibit such unrelated uses.

Your Access to and Control over Information

You may opt out of any future contacts from us at any time. You can do the following at any time by contacting us via the email address or phone number given on our website:

  • See what data we have about you, if any.
  • Change/correct any data we have about you.
  • Have us delete any data we have about you.
  • Express any concern you have about our use of your data.

OUR COMMITMENT TO DATA SECURITY

To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the correct use of information, we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.  For example, we use Transport Layer Security (TLS/SSL) to encrypt and transmit the information we exchange with you.  You can verify this by looking for a closed lock icon on your web browser, or looking for “https” at the beginning of the address of the web page. That way, access to data is limited through the use of technical safeguards.  We also comply with payment card industry data security standards during the processing of credit and debit card transactions.   Credit card transactions are processed through Blackbaud Merchant Service whose privacy policy can be found at https://www.blackbaud.com/company/privacy-policy/north-america.

While we use encryption to protect sensitive information transmitted online, we also protect your information offline. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, billing or customer service) are granted access to personally identifiable information. The computers/servers in which we store personally identifiable information are kept in a secure environment.

Our Commitment to Children’s Privacy: Protecting the privacy of the very young is especially important.  For that reason, we never collect or maintain information at our website from those we actually know are under 13, and no part of our website is structured to attract anyone under 13.

Links to Other Websites: Mississippi Children’s Museum is not responsible for the content or practices employed by other websites that are linked to or from www.mschildrensmuseum.org.  If you use a link to go to another website, you should consult that website’s privacy policy before providing any personal information.

Acceptance of the Privacy Policy and Notification of Changes to the Policy: By using the website, you signify your agreement to all of the terms of our Privacy Policy. We may amend this Privacy Policy at any time. If we make a material change to the way in which we collect, use, and/or share personal information, we will post a notice on the website.

How to Contact Us: Should you have other questions or concerns about these privacy policies, please call us at 601.981.5469 or send us an email at info@mcm.ms.