Privacy Policy

Overview

The San Diego Natural History Museum (also herein referred to as "SDNHM", "the Museum", or "theNAT") respects the privacy of our online visitors, and we would like you to understand how we collect, use and safeguard any personal information you provide to us on our website. We will post any changes to this policy here, and by using our website, you consent to the collection and use of information as described in our current policy. Under some circumstances, we may be required to disclose such information in accordance with the California Public Records Act or other legal requirements.

The San Diego Natural History Museum does not collect personal information about website visitors unless you choose to provide that information to us, thereby giving us permission to use that information to complete your inquiry, request or order.

The San Diego Natural History Museum does not sell personal information to outside parties. The Museum will not release e-mail addresses that you provide to us to outside parties. Names and addresses of Museum members may be exchanged with other cultural and nonprofit institutions at times. You have the right to withhold your name and address information from this exchange. Beyond this exchange of member names and addresses, the San Diego Natural History Museum will not release any personal information about you to outside parties without your consent (except in exceptional circumstances where this may be required by law or to protect legal rights).

What specific information does the Museum collect from web visitors and what does it do with this information?

The Museum does not collect any specific personal information about website visitors—such as name, postal address, or e-mail address—except when such information is knowingly, and voluntarily, provided to the Museum. Personal information is obtained from online transactions such as program registrations, online Museum Store purchases, e-mail newsletter subscriptions, E-cards (online postcards), online surveys, membership purchases, donation pledges, or intern and volunteer applications. If SDNHM is provided with such information, you are giving us permission to use that information to respond to or process your request. For monetary transactions this information is temporarily stored until the transaction has been completed.

The Museum automatically collects and stores "non-personally identifiable" information for statistical purposes. This information helps us monitor how visitors use our site. This information includes: your browser software (e.g., Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Chrome, or Safari), operating system (e.g., Windows, Macintosh, iOS, Android), name and domain of your Internet Service Provider, and the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the computer you are using. As stated above, this information does not identify you personally.

If you indicated on one of our online forms that you were interested in receiving Museum-related news and information, you will receive regular e-mails regarding Museum programs, events, and news. To have your name removed from this e-newsletter listing, please contact Marketing/Public Relations at marketing@sdnhm.org.

Information about San Diego Natural History Museum members (name and address only) may be exchanged with other San Diego cultural institutions at times. To withhold your name from this exchange, please contact membership@sdnhm.org .

Other than as described above, San Diego Natural History Museum does not sell, exchange, or release your personal information (name, e-mail address, postal address, etc.), to any third parties without your permission.

Security

The San Diego Natural History Museum website uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption to process registrations and all online purchases. (This is the standard for most browsers and servers.) This encryption prevents sensitive credit card information from being seen as it travels to our servers, therefore making it difficult for anyone to intercept or decode messages exchanged over this secure connection. Credit card information is not permanently stored on the web server. Your order information is retained for our records, but is never shared with other organizations or people.

Note: Browsers such as Safari, Chrome and Internet Explorer display an image of a locked padlock in their status bar when connected to a secure site. Secure transactions are also indicated when the prefix in the location bar of your browser switches from http:// to https://. If you do not see the padlock at the bottom of your browser's window, if the padlock is unlocked, or the protocol in the location bar is not listed as https://, then any data exchanged with a website is potentially visible to others.

Cookies

Some areas of our website might include a pixel code which may enable tracking cookies to be placed on users computers for purposes of behavioral marketing.

What is a cookie?
A "cookie" is a small text file that a website places on your computer's hard drive to customize content areas or to analyze site activity and user behavior. Cookies can not read data from your hard disk or read cookie files created by other sites--the website that creates a cookie is the only website a browser will permit to access it. Most users are unaware that "cookies" are being placed on their computers. If you wish to be alerted when this happens, or prevent it from happening, set your browser to warn you when a website attempts to place a "cookie" on your computer. Understand, however, that prohibiting the use of cookies may restrict your access to certain types of content or features on other internet sites.

What about other sites linked from the Museum website?

The San Diego Natural History Museum website contains links to other websites, both non-profit and commercial. Although every effort is made to ensure that all links are reputable and relevant, the Museum is not responsible for the content or practices that appear on these third party sites. Once you leave the San Diego Natural History Museum website, you are subject to the privacy policy of the website containing that document. We encourage visitors to review the privacy policies of any sites they visit to ensure their personal information is being protected.

What information does the Museum collect from children?

The San Diego Natural History Museum does not collect any specific personal information about children such as name, address or e-mail address unless it is knowingly provided to us. Children should always ask parents for permission before providing personal information to any website or when purchasing products or services online.

Acceptance of terms

By using the SDNHM website, you agree to the terms of our privacy policy. SDNHM reserves the right to change this privacy policy at any time, and changes posted on the website will be effective immediately.

Contacting us

If you have questions or concerns regarding this privacy policy, or request access to or changes to information about you, please e-mail us using our contact form, or send mail to:

    San Diego Natural History Museum Website P.O. Box 121390 San Diego, CA 92112-1390