PRIVACY POLICY
Welcome to our website.
Loom Cluster Inc is an independent organisation with relationships around the world and we use personal information in order to operate effectively. Building our understanding of our supporters and audiences through their personal data helps us to make better decisions, fundraise more efficiently and so help shape the future of our mission.
We are committed to respecting and protecting any personal data you share with us, or that we get from partner organisations. We aim to be clear about when we collect your data and what we will do with it.
Who is the Holder?
This website was created and published by Loom Cluster Inc, which is headquartered in Windhoek, Namibia and office in Switzerland. Loom Cluster Inc operates the websites loomcluster.com; loomcluster.org; library.loomcluster.org and is therefore responsible for the collection, processing and use of your personal data and the compliance of the said data processing. We of course abide by the statutory provisions of the Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP), the Ordinance to the Federal Act on Data Protection (OFADP), the Telecommunications Act (TCA) and, if applicable, other data protection provisions, in particular the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union (GDPR).
This page is used to inform website visitors regarding our policies with the collection, use, and disclosure of Personal Information if anyone decided to use the Loom Cluster Inc website. This policy describes how and why Loom Cluster Inc uses your personal information, how we protect your privacy and your choices regarding this information.
If you choose to use our website, then you agree to the collection and use of information in relation with this policy. We will not use or share your information with anyone except as described in this Privacy Policy. Please read the policy carefully as by providing your personal data to Loom Cluster Inc, you will be deemed to have consented to the processing of such data.
The terms used in this Privacy Policy have the same meanings as in our Terms and Conditions, which is accessible at loomcluster.org, unless otherwise defined in this Privacy Policy.
This policy is effective from 30th April 2023.
How we collect information about you
We collect information in a number of ways. You may give us your Personal data in order to:
Attend one of our events
Purchase one of our products
Register as a volunteer or advocate
Make a donation in support of our work
Join one of our professional networks or advocate groups
Join our Directory
Participate in one of our exhibitions, education projects or other creative programmes
Add your work to our Collections
Borrow from our Collections
Loan a work to us
Submit a research enquiry
Partner in one of our research programmes
When you sign up for Loom Cluster e-newsletters
Set up a user account on our website
When you provide feedback or email us
When you apply for a job at Loom Cluster
Otherwise communicate with us
We may collect information when you visit our website. For a better experience while using our website, we may require you to provide us with certain personally identifiable information, including but not limited to your name, phone number, and postal address. The information that we collect will be used to contact or identify you.
We may also gather information about you from your use of our website, such as which pages are most visited, which events are of most interest and other statistics.
When you use our website, we collect your personal information using cookies and other tracking methods.
Cookies
Our website uses these “cookies” to collection information and to improve our services. Cookies are very small text files saved to your computer used to track user navigation around a website. The cookies collect information such as the number of visitors to the site, which pages they visited and whereabouts they came to the site from. This information is anonymous and cannot be used to identify you personally.
Your browser help text will contain information about how to reject cookies from our Site. Rejecting cookies from our Site will not affect your ability to experience the site although it will prevent us from tailoring the website to your interest. You have the option to either accept or refuse these cookies, and know when a cookie is being sent to your computer.For further information about the cookies that we use, please visit our dedicated Cookies page.
Service Providers
We may employ third-party companies and individuals due to the following reasons:
To facilitate our Service;
To provide the Service on our behalf;
To perform Service-related services; or
To assist us in analysing how our Service is used.
We want to inform our users that these third parties have access to your Personal Information. The reason is to perform the tasks assigned to them on our behalf such as hosting providers, marketing, mail carriers, IT companies. However, they are obligated not to disclose or use the information for any other purpose.
We also use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google Inc. (www.google.com) to collect information about how our visitors use and navigate our website. We use this information to analyse website usage, produce reports on website activity, to improve our website and to ensure we provide the best services for our users needs.
Users can prevent the cookie-generated data relating to their website usage (including their IP address) from being collected and processed by Google by downloading and installing the browser plugin available from the link below: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en
Third party cookies
During your visits to the website you may be delivered cookies by third-party websites. When you visit a page with content embedded from, for example, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest or YouTube, you may be presented with cookies from these websites. Loom Cluster Inc does not control the dissemination of these cookies. You should check the third-party websites for more information about these.
You may provide information to us indirectly:
Third parties, for example our payment service providers, may share your information with us.
Eventbrite or similar third party ticketing sites
Sponsors or commercial and creative partners who are participating in joint activities with Loom Cluster Inc
Fundraising sites
We also may receive data about you from subcontractors acting on our behalf that provide us with technical, payment or delivery services, and from business partners and advertising networks. You should check any privacy policy provided to you where you give your data to a third party.
We may gather information from other sources:
Social Media
The website of Loom Cluster Inc features links to our social media profiles on the following social networks:
Facebook Inc., 1601 S. California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA,
Instagram Inc., 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA
Pinterest, Inc., 808 Brannan St, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA,
Twitter Inc.,1355 Market Street, Suite 900, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA
LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company, Wilton Place, Dublin 2, Ireland
YouTube, a service operated by Google Inc.
Some content (text and photos, username) that is published on social networks and directly related to Loom Cluster Inc may be picked up for display on the aforementioned sites. Settings or the privacy policies for social media and messaging services like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter may give us permission to access information from those services, for example when you publicly tag us in a photo. If you click on one of the social network icons, you will be connected to the social network in question. However, you will need to sign into your user account or already be signed in.
Publicly available information
We supplement information from publicly available sources such as non-profit organisation websites and annual reviews, corporate websites, public social media accounts.
Potential new supporters and donors
We may collect information on potential new supporters or donors who might be interested in becoming involved with Loom Cluster Inc (for example publicly available information on philanthropists or people with a public profile), but will only do this where we have a legitimate interest and have carried out a legitimate interest assessment.
What information do we collect?
We will collect personal details appropriate to the service you choose to sign up to or the product you buy. We collect, store and use the following kinds of personal information:
Your name
Your contact details (including postal address, telephone number, e-mail address, employer contact details, and/or social media identity)
Your date of birth
Your gender
Your bank or credit card details where you provide these to make a payment. These are stored in accordance with Payment Card Industry regulations
If you volunteer for us or apply for a job with us, information necessary for us to process these applications and assess your suitability (which may include employment status, previous experience depending on the context, as well as any unspent criminal convictions or pending court cases you may have)
Information about your activities on our website(s) and about the device you use to access these, for instance your IP address and geographical location
If you are a membership newsletter subscriber, information about your Membership and contact details
Where you have left us a legacy, any information regarding next of kin with which you may have provided us to administer this information as to whether you are a taxpayer to enable us to claim Gift Aid
Audience monitoring data, including age, nationality and ethnicity information;
Any other personal information you provide to us.
In addition to your personal data, we may also ask for your preferences so that we can send you information that is tailored to your interests.
Certain types of personal information are in a special category under data protection laws, as they are considered to be more sensitive. Examples of this type of sensitive data would be information about health, race, religious beliefs, political views, trade union membership, sex life or sexuality or genetic/biometric information.
We only collect this type of information about our supporters to the extent that there is a clear reason for us to do so, for example where we ask for information for the purpose of providing appropriate facilities or support, or in order to monitor the effectiveness of our outreach programmes.
Wherever it is practical for us to do so, we will make why we are collecting this type of information clear and what it will be used for.
How we use your information
Loom Cluster Inc will use your personal information for the following purposes:
To provide you with the services, products or information you have requested from us. This could include fulfilling sales contracts you have entered into with us, or servicing your subscriptions with us.
Where you have given your consent, provide you with information by email, which we feel may interest you. This could include requests for your support.
Where we have a legitimate interest, provide you with information about our work or our activities by post. This could include requests for your support.
To list Membership details in our online listing page, if you have signed to our Membership newsletter.
To telephone you if you have provided us with your telephone number and have not registered with the Telephone Preference Service.
For customer service or administrative purposes (for example we may contact you regarding a donation you have made or an event you have registered or booked a ticket for).
To manage and promote our exhibitions, collections and other events.
For internal record keeping, including the management of any feedback or complaints.
Contact you to respond to your queries (if you email us with a question, for example).
To target communications and messages to you and to identify similar groups of prospective users.
To track user visits to our website and record navigation across our website and in addition to track whether our emails are opened and read.
To invite you to participate in surveys or research.
To use IP addresses to identify your approximate location, to block disruptive use, to record website traffic or to personalize the way our information is presented to you.
Working with suppliers and partners
In some cases we work with external suppliers and partners to provide certain services. All partners and suppliers will be screened to ensure they comply with legislation and where required data processing and confidentiality agreements will be in place.
Sending marketing communications
By signing up for the newsletter, you expressly agree that we can use your address and your personal data for marketing purposes, such as sending newsletters about Loom Cluster Inc. Our e-newsletters include information about our latest activities, events, publications, research and fundraising, and satisfaction surveys. We may also include highlights from activities delivered by external organisations as well as information and offers from the partner organisations that support our work.
We operate an opt-in only communication policy. This means that, except as set out below, we will only send marketing communications to those that have explicitly stated that they are happy for us to do so.
We will collect information on open rates and click through to assess and improve our newsletters and any other information you provide whilst subscribing through this form.
We may use information you have given us directly, for example the record of your previous donations to and/or relationship with us such as your location and demographics, as well as the type of activity you have been involved with, to tailor our communications with you about future activities.
Loom Cluster Inc relies on the Mailchimp services for mailing its newsletter; a distribution platform of the U.S. provider Rocket Science Group, LLC. Mailchimp processes the data you enter for the purpose of subscribing to the newsletter. Data processing is not carried out without your expressive consent. You can revoke this consent at any time via the "unsubscribe newsletter" link featured in the newsletter. Distributing the newsletter with the aid of Mailchimp allows us to ascertain whether the newsletter has been accessed and what links have been clicked. If you do not wish to be subject to such an analysis, you must unsubscribe from our newsletter.
Events
When you have registered to attend a Loom Cluster Inc organized event we will, where relevant, send you information about the event including logistics, timings, accessibility, advanced information about the content of the event and follow up information, including post event surveys.
When a third party has provided your information as part of an event, we will use that information only to organise the event for which it has been provided and will not store the data longer than required.
Managing your contact preferences
We make it easy for you to tell us how you want us to communicate, in a way that suits you. Our forms will always have clear marketing preference questions and we include information on how to opt out when we send you marketing. If you don’t want to hear from us, you can change your preferences at any time. Just let us know when you provide your data or visit our website to manage your preferences or unsubscribe.
If you’ve decided you don’t want to be contacted for marketing purposes, we may still need to contact you for administrative purposes. This may include where we are processing a donation you’ve made and any related Gift Aid, thanking you for a donation or participation in an event, activities relating to your participation in any Loom Cluster Inc activities such as exhibitions, Collections loans, research, initiatives or programmes, volunteering activities you have undertaken with us or in relation to products or services you have purchased from us.
How we may contact you
By email
We will contact you by email if you have given us your email address and we are emailing you to provide the service you have requested.
We may also contact you by email if you have bought a service or goods from us and we want to contact you about similar goods or services.
We may in addition contact you for marketing purposes by email if you have given us your consent to do so.
This may include requests for your support through a variety of different fundraising initiatives such as requesting donations, inviting you to attend special events, or encouraging you to purchase tickets or products. If you enter your contact details into one of our online forms, we may use this information to contact you, even if you don’t click submit on the form, but we will only do this to see if we can help with any problems you might be experiencing with the form or with our website.
By post
If you have provided us with your postal address, we may send you direct mail about our work and our fundraising campaigns, unless you have told us that you would prefer not to receive such information. We will carry out a legitimate interest assessment to ensure that we are satisfied that you would reasonably expect such communications from us and would not consider it to be intrusive. For example, we may want to post you an invitation to an event we think you may be interested in. You may not have given us your data yourself. If we have received your data from a third party, we will only contact you if you have given the third party clear consent to enable us to do so. Otherwise, if you have not given us your data yourself, we will only contact you by post where we have a legitimate interest to do so.
By telephone
If you haven’t supplied us with your telephone number, before telephoning you (unless it is in connection with the service we are delivering to you) we will check with the Telephone Preference Service.
Business to business communications
If we are communicating to you on a business-to-business basis we will contact you by post or email, unless you have let us know that you would prefer us not to do so.
Legitimate interest
We consider that we have a legitimate interest in furthering the aims of Loom Cluster Inc by engaging the public in the exhibitions and experiences we offer so that we can document and disseminate Africa and its Diaspora’s narratives around the world. In order to do so, we need to be able to tell people about our work and to raise funds by donations and sponsorships or through our commercial activities.
If you have not given us your data yourself and we have not received it from a third party, we will only contact you if you fall into one or more of the categories below:
You are a known philanthropist or connected with a trust or foundation,
You are the owner/employee of a commercial enterprise with an interest in African textile, dress, ornaments and/or craft audiences
You are a known textile, dress and ornament enthusiast, maker, and collector or involved in craft or education.
You are a publicly recognizable figure.
How we keep your information safe
Security measures
We value your trust in providing us your Personal Information, thus we are striving to use commercially acceptable means of protecting it. But remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure and reliable, and we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
We use appropriate technical and organizational security measures to protect data concerning you and stored by us from manipulation, partial or total loss, and unauthorized access by third parties. Loom Cluster Inc agrees to test, verify and regularly evaluate the effectiveness of technical and organizational measures in order to guarantee continuous improvement in the security of processing.
We also take our own in-house data protection very seriously. Our employees, and the service providers acting on our behalf are required to maintain confidentiality and comply with the legal provisions on data protection. Moreover, access to personal data is only granted to the extent that it is necessary.
How long we keep your information for
We keep your personal information for as long as required to deliver the service we are providing or for archival purposes and in accordance with legal requirements and tax and accounting rules. If you have not engaged with us for a period of three years and we do not need to keep your personal data for archival, legal or business reasons, we will delete or suppress your personal information. Where your information is no longer required, we will dispose of it securely. If you have told us that you do not want to hear from us at all or by a particular channel, we will hold the minimum amount of your personal data on a suppression list to ensure we comply with your request.
Sharing your information with other organisations
We will never sell or rent your information to third parties for marketing purposes. However we may disclose your information to third parties in connection with the other purposes set out in this policy.
These third parties may include:
Business partners, suppliers and sub-contractors who may process information on our behalf;
If you are a researcher, a volunteer, any joint funders of research, host institutions and external members of our committees;
External moderators and advisors who are part of our projects, programmes and initiatives;
Advertisers and advertising networks;
Analytics and search engine providers;
IT service providers.
Where we are under a legal or regulatory duty to do so, we may disclose your details to the police, regulatory bodies or legal advisors, and/or, where we consider this necessary, to protect the rights, property or safety of Loom Cluster Inc, its personnel, visitors, users or others.
Other websites and links
Our website may contain links to other websites which are outside our control and are not covered by this privacy notice. If you access on a third-party link, you will be directed to that website. Therefore, we strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of these websites. Note that we do not operate these external sites and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites or services.
Children's Privacy
We do not knowingly collect personal identifiable information from children under 16. In the case we discover that a minor, especially children under the age of 16, has provided us with personal information, we immediately delete this from our database. If you are a parent or guardian (legal representative) and you are aware that your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us so that we will be able to do necessary actions. In order to fulfill such a request, we require a copy of an official document certifying that you are the child’s parent or are otherwise responsible for the child’s upbringing.
How to change or delete your data
The users have the right to be informed and the right of access; meaning to receive information about the personal data that we store about you free of charge upon request. In addition, you have the right to rectification, to erasure and to restrict processing; meaning to correct inaccurate data and the right to delete your personal data, as far as there is no statutory storage obligation or another legal basis for the processing in the sense of art. 6 (GDPR) that allows us to continue processing the data.You also have the right to reclaim from us the data you have given us (right to data portability). You have the right to object and rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.
You have the right to ask us to amend or stop using your personal information, including for marketing purposes, at any time. You may opt out of marketing emails, or change any of your preferences, at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in our marketing emails or by visiting our website.
The accuracy of your information is important to us. You can edit your information, including your address and contact details at any time. If you would like to change your preferences or update the details we hold about you, please contact: info@loomcluster.com.
You have a right to ask for a copy of the information we hold about you. If there are any discrepancies in the information we provide, please let us know and we will correct them. Enquiries will take up to 30 days to process. On request, we also pass the data on to a third party of your choice. You have the right to receive the data in a common file format. You can reach us for the aforementioned purposes via the e-mail address info@loomcluster.com. We may, at our sole discretion, require proof of identity to process your requests.
Complaints
If you believe that the processing of your personal data has been carried out unlawfully and are unhappy with any aspect of how we are using your personal information we’d like to hear about it. We appreciate the opportunity this feedback gives us to learn and improve.
You have the right to file a complaint to a data protection supervisory authority at any time.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
The constant development of our services may lead to changes in the characteristics of the processing of your personal data described up to now. Consequently, this privacy policy may be subject to changes and additions over time, which may also be necessary with regard to new regulatory measures regarding the protection of personal data. Therefore, we invite you to periodically check the contents: where possible, we will try to inform you promptly on the changes made and their consequences.
In any case, the updated version of the privacy statement will be published on this page, with indication of the date of its last update. These changes are effective immediately, after they are posted on our website.
Contact Us
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions about our Privacy Policy, please let us know by contacting us using the e-mail address info@loomcluster.com