Introduction‍

This Privacy Notice is for individual influencers and journalists in Muse’s media and influencer databases We explain more about these databases below.

We at Muse are committed to letting you know how we deal with your personal data, to giving you control over how it is used, and to protecting it. Here you will find information about what sort of information we hold about you, how and why we collect it, how we use it, and how we keep it secure. This Privacy Notice also tells you about your rights, how you can exercise those rights, and how the law protects you. Finally, it tells you how you can exercise your preferences to manage the information we have about you, and, if for any reason you do not want to be in either database, how to ask us to take you out.‍

About Muse‍

Muse is the parent company of some of the world's most well-known music technology brands. Our products and services operate under a number of different brands, including Ultimate Guitar, Audacity, StaffPad, MuseScore, Tonebridge and MuseClass. In this policy, when we refer to "Muse", “we” and “us,” we mean MuseCY Holdings Ltd. and its affiliates and their divisions.

For the purposes of European Data Protection law, Muse is the data controller of the personal data referred to in this policy.

If at any time you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or the way we use your personal data please contact us at privacy@mu.se.‍

Muse’s Media and Social Influencer Databases‍

The “Muse Media Database” and the “Muse Social Influencer Database” are referred to collectively below as “the Databases”.

The Databases are repositories of information (and in particular contact information) relating to influencers like you. We call you an "influencer" because you have the ability to influence the behaviour and opinions of others.

This term includes traditional journalists working for news publications (e.g. Print, online and broadcast), freelance journalists, and other influencers including social media influencers on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other platforms. The Media Database mainly contains information about journalist or blogger influencers. Muse Social Influencer Database contains information about social media influencers. Your personal information may be included in either or both of the Databases.‍

What personal information we collect‍

We limit the information that we collect for use in the Databases to that which we think is likely to engage with you in a meaningful and targeted way. The information includes basic information such as your name and contact details, your job title, public social media profiles, areas of interest to you, and possibly some brief biographical information about your career history.

The types of personal data we collect:

We only collect data that is necessary to conduct our business. We collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of data about you which may include some or all of the following:

• Prefix and name
• Gender
• Job title
• Educational history
• Employment history
• Work address
• Telephone number
• Fax number
• Work email address
• Personal email address (if provided to us by you)
• Twitter handle
• Profile Picture
• Link to LinkedIn profile
• Other social media handles/channels such as Instagram
• Number of social media followers
• Social media profile picture
• Other publicly available social media content
• Pitch preference (ie. how you wish to be contacted)
• Topics: “Beat” (ie. subject matters you wish to write above)
• Target groups
• Articles published about you

We do not hold any sensitive personal data about you (such as data about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union memberships, data about your health, genetic and, biometric data) unless you have clearly put such data into the public domain yourself (e.g. you have made such information available to the public by writing about it or by posting it on your social media profile).‍

How we collect your personal data‍

The vast majority of the information we hold about you is obtained from publicly available sources (including via social media APIs) or directly from you. This includes your publicly available social media profiles and websites, information about you that is published by your employer (e.g. on your publication's own website) and information from articles you may have written.

We collect your data either directly from you or your employer, or from publicly available sources such as:

• Articles or blogs you may have written
• Vlogs you may have created
• Your own website
• Your employer's websites
• Your publisher's website
• Your publicly available social media profiles (eg, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn) including via publicly available APIs provided by social media platforms.
• Telephone conversations which may be recorded by us to help us improve our training and quality
• Other publicly available online sources

We also collect data from other sources including:

• Other influencers (who may, for example, tell us if you have changed jobs, but we will not publish that information until we have independently verified it)
• Our customers
• From third parties who send us published articles.
• Your employer (if you are employed)
• Your line manager or press team tell us
  

Verification

We make take steps to verify that your contact details are correct. We may do this, for example, by contacting you or your employer directly or checking against your social media profile or websites you appear on.

Updates to personal information are also provided by influencers themselves by emailing the Muse media team at privacy@mu.se.

The purposes for which we will use your personal data

Using this information we then create an influencer profile for you and include it in one or both of the our media Databases.

As well as using the Databases to simply send communications to influencers, your personal data may also be processed in one or more of the following ways:

• Sending out press releases: we can send you press releases, emails or other communications (e.g. direct messages on social media) about things we think you might be interested in.
• Profiling and Tracking: see how we use your personal data for profiling and tracking for more information.
• Maintaining the administration of the Databases.
• Maintaining contact, handling inquiries, complaints and disputes.
• Complying with all applicable laws and regulations.

‍Legal basis for processing your personal data‍

We process your personal data in order to provide information about our services. We believe that it is in our legitimate business interests to do so. Processing your data in this way also benefits you as an influencer. You will receive focused information from us, often ahead of general release, giving you material to write about that is relevant to you and your audience. We consider and balance any potential negative impact on you and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where we believe that our interests are overridden by any unwarranted adverse impact on you. If at any time you want us to remove you from the Databases please email us at privacy@mu.se and we will process this request as soon as possible.‍

How to have your profile amended or removed‍

We want you to be in control, so if at any time you want to see or amend your influencer profile, please email us at privacy@mu.se. Similarly, if at any time you want us to take you out of the Databases altogether please email us at privacy@mu.se and we will process your request as soon as possible.‍

Children‍

The Databases are not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect personal data relating to children. If you are under the age of 16, please let us know and we will take you out of the Databases.‍

How we use your personal data for profiling‍

We may use your personal data for automated profiling purposes. The profiling we conduct and how it is used is limited. We use profiling to evaluate (amongst other things) your personal preferences, interests, behavior. We may, for example, use profiling to help understand what subjects you like to talk about (which is apparent from the nature of the content you produce) and the extent of your audience (apparent from the number of social media followers you have).

You have the right to object to us profiling with your personal data. If you would like us to stop profiling with your personal data, then please contact us at privacy@mu.se and we will remove you from the Databases.

We do not make any automated decisions based on profiling.

Email Tracking‍

In common with many of our competitors and other online service providers, we also carry out some monitoring of your engagement with the email content that you are sent by us using the Muse email platform.

To do this, Muse emails may contain a small, invisible, one-pixel image which can be used to let the us know when the email is opened. If you have images enabled on your device, when the email is opened, a message (an automatic request) is sent from your device to Muse’s server requesting the image. That request is logged by Muse and tells us that the email has been opened. A similar process may be used in relation to links or attachments in the email, with a request being sent to Muse for the content that is accessible via the links or attachments, thus telling Muse that the link or attachment has been accessed. This helps us understand what content interests you, and tailor future communications accordingly, and you benefit from receiving targeted and focused information from Muse which are of interest to you, as specifically identified by you or through the content of your published materials. However, if you do not wish this to happen then you can opt-out at any time by emailing privacy@mu.se.‍

How we share your personal data and who we share it with‍

We may share your personal data with our customers, companies within the Muse Group, and other parties detailed below. We may also transfer your personal data outside of the European Economic Area (EEA), but only when specific safeguards have been put in place in order to protect your personal data.

We may share your personal data with one or all of the following:

• Internal Third Parties: these include other companies within the Muse group of companies
• External Third Parties:
• Service providers who work on behalf of the Muse group of companies for the performance of any contract we enter into with them, for example: IT support in each country.
• Professional advisors including lawyers, accountants and insurers where we need to do so in order to comply with our legal obligations or for other business reasons.
• Authorities who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.
  

We may also share your personal data with third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy notice.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with binding contractual obligations which satisfy the requirements of the data protection legislation.

International Transfers

We may share your personal data with entities within the Muse group of companies. This may involve transferring your personal data outside of the European Economic Area (EEA). Some of the third parties to whom we may transfer your personal data (including some of our customers) are also based outside of the EEA, so their processing of your personal data will likewise involve a transfer outside the EEA. Where your personal data is transferred outside of the EEA we do so in accordance with model contracts approved by the European Commission to ensure that there is an adequate level of protection for your personal data.

Our security measures

We are committed to protecting your personal data. We put in place safeguards including robust and appropriate technologies, processes, and contractual arrangements, so that the data we have about you is protected from unauthorized access and improper use, and we will also not keep your personal data for longer than is necessary.

How long will we use your personal data?

We will keep your personal data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this privacy notice and to fulfil our legal obligations, but not longer than five years after you ask to stop receiving communications. We will not keep more data than we need.

Your rights

Under certain circumstances, if you reside in the EU or if your data is processed in connection with one of our European businesses, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data, including the right of access; the right to rectification; the right to erasure; the right to restrict processing; the right to data portability; and the right to object. If you wish to exercise your rights please contact privacy@mu.se.

We respect and honor these rights and will help you to exercise them insofar as we are able. These rights are not absolute – in some cases they will not apply to you, or to the particular use that we are making of your data, and there are exceptions (for example if we have to process the data to comply with our own legal obligations) but if that is the case we will let you know.

Your rights include the right to:

• Access your personal information (via what is commonly known as a "data subject access request").
• Require us to correct any mistakes in your information which we hold.
• Require the erasure of personal information concerning you in certain situations by submitting a Data Subject Request.
• Receive the personal information concerning you which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit those data to a third party in certain situations.
• Object at any time to processing of personal information concerning you for direct marketing.
• Object to decisions being taken by automated means (including profiling) which produce legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affect you.
• Object in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal information.
• Otherwise restrict our processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
  

Additional Information for California Consumers

The California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) provides California residents, referred to in the law as “consumers,” with rights to receive certain disclosures regarding the collection, use, and sharing of personal information, as well as rights to access and control personal information. Certain information that we collect may be exempt from the CCPA because it is considered public information (because it is made available by a government entity) or covered by another federal privacy law, such as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

To the extent that we collect personal information about you that is subject to the CCPA, that information, our practices, and your rights are described below.

Right to information regarding the categories of personal information collected, sold, and disclosed: You have the right to obtain information regarding the categories of personal information we collect, sell, or disclose. That information is provided in this Privacy Policy. We collect the categories of information described in the How We Collect Information About You section above. The categories that we use to describe the information are those enumerated in the CCPA.

LAST UPDATED ON FEBRUARY 26, 2021