Privacy Policy — Muse Group

LAST UPDATED ON FEBRUARY 26, 2021

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.

‍INTRODUCTION TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

‍This Privacy Policy and our related Privacy Notices (see below) describe how we collect, use, protect and share information about you that we obtain when you use our services, our websites or otherwise interact with us. If you are the subject of any personal data we may process, this policy also explains what your rights are.

This policy applies to our Services which include (i) all the websites on which it is published (the "Websites") (ii) our mobile apps; (iii) other online products and services provided by us through our Websites or mobile apps; and (iv) databases, distribution services, articles, surveys, newsletters, webinars and/or analytic reports.

‍HOW THIS POLICY WORKS WITH OUR OTHER PRIVACY NOTICES AND POLICIES

‍This Policy should be read together with our related Privacy Notices, in particular our Data Privacy Notice for Influencers and Other Media Contacts, our Applicant Privacy Policy and the privacy notices on our individual Services. Depending on how you interact with us, we will collect and process your personal information as follows:

If you are a user of any of our services.

We will collect and process your individual contact information and other personal data in accordance with our privacy policies associated with our individual Services and any other agreement that we may have with your business.‍

If you are an influencer or other media contact in our media database.
We will collect and process your contact information and media profile in accordance with our Data Privacy Notice – Influencers and Other Media Contacts.

If you visit or register with any of our websites (other than as a User or Influencer).
We will collect and process your individual contact information and other personal data in accordance with our privacy policies associated with our individual Services and any other agreement that we may have with your business.

If you are a supplier and you or your company provides us with goods or services.
We may collect your individual contact information in order to communicate with you and may use other information that we need in order to manage our account with your business. We will process such data in accordance with this Privacy Policy and any other agreement that we may have with you.

If you apply for a job with us
We will process your personal information in accordance with our Applicant Privacy Notice which will be sent to you when you apply.

If you are employed by us
We will process your personal information in accordance with our Employee Privacy Notice which will be provided to you when you join our staff.

We have created this Privacy Policy to inform you how we collect and process your personal information, and how we comply with our obligations to look after that information, and what your rights are.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully to understand how we will treat your information before you start to use our Websites or communicate with us. By using our Services or communicating with us about them, you acknowledge that your personal information will be processed in accordance with this Privacy Policy, and in any other applicable privacy notice or policy (see above) including any updates and amendments. Your use of our Services and any dispute over privacy is subject to this Privacy Policy and any applicable Terms of Use, including any terms available at mu.se and/or any other agreements that you enter into with us.

In the event that the provisions of any such agreements differ from or conflict with the provisions of this Privacy Policy, the applicable terms or agreement will apply.‍

HOW WE COLLECT INFORMATION FROM YOU

Information You Provide to Us‍

We collect information that you provide directly to us, including when you register as an influencer or journalist, apply for a position or contact us with questions or comments about a Service.‍

Information We Collect Through Your Use of our Services‍

We collect certain technical information using cookies and other tracking mechanisms to help us operate and provide our Services to you. This information includes, without limitation:

Information about the systems and device(s) you use to access our Services, including MAC address, IP address, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, device type, and device identifiers;
Information about your visits to the Websites, including the full URL clickstream to, through and from the Websites (including date and time);
Information about your use of our mobile apps, including the information you view in our mobile apps and the date and time you view it;
Information to facilitate your use of our Services (including to provide access to third-party websites and services), such as URL requests, destination IP addresses, or device configuration details; and
Pages you view or search for, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), your engagement with certain variable/dynamic elements of a page and methods used to browse away from the page.

If you decline to have us collect such information (for example, by disabling cookies; see Cookies & Other Tracking Mechanisms below), we may not be able to provide some or all of our Services to you.‍

Information We Collect about You from Third Parties‍

Our Services may also, from time to time, contain links to and from social media platforms. You may choose to connect with us through a social media platform and when you do, and to the extent available, we may collect additional information from you, such as your user names, profile picture, contact information, contact list, and the profile pictures of your contacts, through the social media platform. Please be advised that social media platforms may also collect information from you. We do not have control over the collection, use and sharing practices of social media platforms and encourage you to review their usage and disclosure policies and practices, including the data security practices, before using the social media platforms.

We may combine the information we collect about you from the various sources described above.‍

HOW YOUR INFORMATION MAY BE USED‍

We may use any information we collect, including personal information and technical information, as described to you at the time of collection, for the following purposes:

Providing, maintaining and improving our Services. Operating and improving our Services (e.g., administration, troubleshooting, managing account access, protecting security); evaluating our Services; developing new features, products, or services; and for other customer service and support purposes.
Tailoring content. Personalizing the information and content we display to you, including marketing, promotional and sponsored content and advertising within the Services.
Marketing and communications. Contacting you directly about your use of an account or Service for which you are registered; providing you with information about products or services, from us or third parties that may interest you; serving advertisements to you; and responding to your requests, feedback or questions.
Research and analytics. Researching and analyzing how you interact with our Services, including to monitor usage and activity trends and for statistical purposes; creating reports for customers that may include both aggregate trends and the organizations that are viewing their releases, or accessing our Services or customer websites or otherwise using our Services; and measuring or understanding the effectiveness of content, communications, Website visits, web traffic, our Services, or advertising we or our customers serve to you and other customers like you, and to deliver relevant advertising to you and other customers like you.
Legal compliance. Complying with laws, regulations and requests from law enforcement or other governmental entities; carrying out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts; and using as evidence in litigation.
Protecting rights and interests. Protecting the safety, rights or property of Muse or any third party; investigating, preventing or otherwise addressing activity that Muse, in its sole discretion, may consider to be or pose a risk of being, an illegal, unethical, or legally questionable activity.

We may also create aggregate or anonymous information about your and other users’ use of our Services for purposes similar to those listed above.‍

HOW YOUR INFORMATION MAY BE SHARED‍

We may share any information, including personal information as follows:

With our subsidiaries and affiliates, including any future subsidiaries or affiliates;
With our service providers and sub-contractors to the extent reasonably necessary to enable us provide our Services (e.g., we use a third-party platform for e-mail and cannot communicate with you without disclosing your e-mail address to our third-party e-mail provider);
With a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution or other sale or transfer of any of our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation or similar proceeding, including during planning or negotiations of such sale or transfer;
With a third party with whom we must legally share information about you;
With the company or organization you represent upon their request;
With you or other third parties with your express consent;
To comply with any court order, valid subpoena, law or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request;
To investigate potential unauthorized access or misuse of our Services or otherwise enforce or apply our Terms of Use and other agreements;
To protect our assets or rights, including for billing and collection purposes;
If we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of Muse, our customers or others, including exchanging information with other companies and organizations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction; and
With any other entity disclosed by us when you provide the information.

We may also share aggregate or anonymous data for marketing, advertising, research, compliance, or other purposes.

In the event that we receive a request from a governmental entity to provide it with your personal information, we will take reasonable attempts to notify you of such request, to the extent reasonably possible and legally permissible.‍

COOKIES & OTHER TRACKING MECHANISMS‍

Our Services also automatically information through the use of cookies or similar technologies to facilitate and enhance your use of the Site and track usage patterns. Cookies are commonly used small files that are placed on your device. For example, we collect information on the pages you have visited, your referring URL or IP address, the time of your visit and related session information, your requested page, browser type, USR agent, status of request, number of bytes in the response, and query string. The cookies that the Site uses generally fall under the following categories:

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a. Essential Cookies. Essential cookies facilitate your use and navigation of the Site. Essential cookies include session cookies, which are temporary cookies that remain in the cookie file of your browser until you close the browser.

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b. Analytics Cookies. We and our service providers use analytics cookies that collect aggregated and / or anonymous information to analyze the performance of the Site and how it is used. For example, analytics cookies show us which areas of the Site are most frequently visited. An example of a third-party analytics cookie is the Google Analytics cookie. Users may obtain information on how to opt out of Google Analytics cookies at the following URL: https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads.

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c. Third Party Marketing Cookies. These cookies collect information on your activities on the Site and other sites to display targeted marketing based on your interests.

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Some browsers offer a “do not track” (“DNT”) option. Because no common industry or legal standard for DNT has been adopted by industry groups, technology companies or regulators, we do not respond to DNT signals. We will make efforts to continue to monitor developments around DNT browser technology and the implementation of a standard. However, you may elect not to accept cookies by changing the designated settings on your web browser. Please note that some features of our Site may not function without the essential cookies.‍

SECURING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION‍

The security of your information is important to Muse, and we have implemented administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information against theft or misuse. Unfortunately, no system can guarantee complete security of your information. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information from unauthorized third parties, Muse cannot ensure or warrant the security of such information. Thus, your use of the Services and communications with us is at your own risk. You are responsible for protecting your username(s) and password(s) and for the security of information that you transmit to us over the internet.‍

CHILDREN‍

Our Services are not intended for children under 16 years of age or the relevant age of majority, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under that age. If you are under 13 years of age or the age of majority, you are not permitted to submit any personal information to us.‍

INFORMATION COLLECTION‍

Our Services may contain links to third-party websites and services, including those of social media platforms, partner networks and advertisers. Please note that these websites and services may have their own privacy policies. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the policies of any third parties. If you chose to access any websites or services linked from our Services, please check the applicable policies before you use or submit any personal information to such website or service.

Third parties unaffiliated with us may also collect information about you, including tracking your browsing history, when you use our Services. We do not have control over these third-party collection practices and advise you to adjust the settings of your browsers or install plug-ins and add-ins if you wish to minimize these third party collections.‍

PERSONAL INFORMATION TRANSFERRED FROM EEA AND/OR SWITZERLAND‍

We may share your personal data with entities within the Muse Group. Given that we are an international organization, this may involve transferring your personal data outside of the European Economic Area (“EEA”). Some of the third parties to whom we transfer your personal data 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 will ensure that we appropriate mechanisms in place to ensure the protection of your personal information, including the use of specific contracts approved by the European Commission giving your personal data the same protection as it has in Europe.

Such transfers may be made by or to us in our capacity as a data processor or as a data controller.

Further details of transfers of personal data outside the EEA are provided in our Customer Privacy Notice and our Data Privacy Notice – Influencers and Other Media Contacts.‍

LEGAL BASIS FOR PROCESSING‍

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

Where we need to process your information to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.

Where we need to process your information to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.

Where it is in our legitimate interests to do so. Our legitimate interests include our legitimate commercial interests in operating the Muse Services. We make sure that 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 our interests are overridden by the impact on you.

Where we have obtained your consent.‍

YOUR RIGHTS‍

If you reside in the EU, or if your personal information is processed in connection with one of our European businesses, you have certain rights under European data protection laws and in particular the General Data Protection Regulation. These rights include rights 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 to processing.

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.

In some cases these 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).

For further information on each of these rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, you should refer to guidance from your local Data Protection Authority: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/article-29/structure/data-protection-authorities/index_en.htm‍

You also have the right to make a complaint to your local data protection authority at any time. We hope that we would be able to resolve any concerns that you may have before you approach your data protection authority so please do contact us in the first instance.‍

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. We will not keep more data than we need.

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. We will not keep more data than we need.

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.‍

CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY‍

We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time to align with changes to our business practices and/or changes to our legal requirements. We will post the updated Privacy Policy on this page and will indicate that the updates have been made by changing the effective date first written below. We urge you to check back periodically to see whether there have been updates to our Privacy Policy.

Your continued use of the Services or communication with us about the Services after the updated Privacy Policy has been posted (or any other indication of your consent) will constitute your acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy.

Please note that we may condition your continued access to our Services on your consent to changes to this Privacy Policy.‍

CONTACT‍

If you have questions, comments or requests relating to this Privacy Policy, or wish to opt out of any usage of your information as described herein, please e-mail us at privacy@mu.se or write to us at: Ultimate Guitar, 268 Bush Street, #3044, San Francisco, CA 94104.