Opera North is committed to protecting your privacy and data. We will use the information that we collect about you in accordance with data protection law.
WHO WE ARE
Opera North Limited is a charity, a performing arts organisation, and owner of the Howard Assembly Room. Our income comes from tickets, Arts Council England, local authorities led by Leeds City Council, individual donors and supporters, business sponsors, trusts, foundations and as generated by Opera North Trading Limited. We operate the website www.operanorth.co.uk and the wireless internet technology (Wi-Fi) available at the Howard Assembly Room and the Howard Opera Centre.
Opera North Limited is registered as a charity in England and Wales number 511726 and a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales number 1550778.
Opera North Trading Limited (company number 09231729) is 100% owned subsidiary of Opera North Limited and carries out commercial trading activities to generate income for Opera North Limited.
We aim to be clear when we collect your data and not do anything with it which you wouldn’t reasonably expect. Developing a better understanding of our customers and supporters through personal data allows us to provide you with relevant and timely information about the work that we do both on and off stage. It helps us to make better decisions about events and programming, to fundraise more efficiently and, ultimately, to reach our goal of sharing extraordinary experiences every day inspired by opera and music, with people of all ages and backgrounds across the north of England and beyond.
This Privacy Policy sets out the ways in which we use your data and how you can hold us accountable for that.
WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?
You give us your information on multiple occasions, such as when you buy a ticket or book a table over the counter, by phone or online via our websites; by signing up for one of our other events, workshops or education programmes; by updating your preferences on our websites; by participating in competitions; by giving feedback or corresponding with Opera North; or by making a donation. We also keep your details when you sign up to receive emails from us. If you have joined our Access Membership Scheme, we will note your needs and preferences for attending our performances in your customer account. For more information on our Access Membership Scheme please visit operanorth.co.uk/access.
The information we hold about you may include:
- Your name, postal address, telephone number and email address
- Logins for our Wi-Fi
- Date of birth, age
- Ticketing history
- Dining history
- Links to and information from social media accounts
- Credit or debit card details
- Bank details Donations history
- Gift Aid status and attendance at fundraising events
- Memberships history
- Relevant connections, for example to seat friends together at fundraising events, for facilitating booking on behalf of another person, for Corporate Partner contacts
- Details of university, school, course if relevant, for example for the University of Leeds partnership
- Particular access needs
- Image and likeness (as captured on videos or photographs we use for promotional purposes, like our Audience Reaction videos)
- Internet history (from using our Wi-Fi, where such history needs to be retained by law)
- The network addresses of any devices which access our Wi-Fi and the times they have accessed our Wi-Fi
- Your preferences for how we communicate with you about our activities
- Information that is available publicly (see below for more details)
- Sensitive information if required (see below for more details)
We maintain a record of your transaction history when you book tickets, make purchases in our restaurant or bars, make a donation or sign up as a member. You may choose to store your payment card details in your account for use in a future transaction. None of our staff members are able to see your full stored card number and we never store your 3 digit security code.
We keep a record of the emails we send you, and we may track whether you receive or open them, so we can make sure we are sending you the most relevant information. We may then track any subsequent actions you take online, such as buying a ticket.
In addition, we record CCTV images of you when you are in and around the Howard Assembly Room, the Box Office or the Howard Opera Centre, for monitoring and security purposes.
Cookies
We use cookies on our website which collect information about you automatically so that we can remember you, enable online transactions by keeping track of your basket, and to help improve your experience by learning how the websites are used. See our Cookie Policy on our website for more details. To evaluate and improve the experience on our websites we collect anonymised aggregated technical information, which can include IP address, log-in information, browser type and version, user’s device, operating system and platform; and information about your visit to our websites including journey to, through and from our sites (including time and date), pages you viewed or searched for, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), and methods used to browse away from the page and/or website.
Social media platforms
We, and our third party digital marketing agencies, engage with individuals on social media, through messages we have broadcast or news or event information, or adverts which may be tailored to your interests. We may receive non-personally identifying demographic or analytical data from social media platforms to help us evaluate the effectiveness of advertising, but only if you have allowed this in your settings, and under the terms of the privacy policy of the social media site.
Information from public sources
For a small number of people, we may seek additional information from publicly available sources to gain a better picture of their interests and preferences, aiding our understanding of individuals who may choose to support us, guiding us in approaching those with the ability and willingness to make gifts and giving an improved experience to our current and potential supporters. Types of information we may seek include hobbies and interests, career, donations to other organisations (this could include publicly declared donations to political parties), wealth and assets and family (adults only, unless provided personally by the individual concerned). We may also look for images in the public domain to help identify guests attending special events. Examples of the publically available sources we may use include official websites of companies, charities and other arts organisations, newspaper websites and archives, Companies House, the Charity Commission, West Yorkshire Lieutenancy and Trustfunding online.
Information from other sources
We may also collect information about you from other sources, such as:
- ticket agents who transfer information to us when you book a ticket for a production or other event at Opera North
- other arts organisation or partners that Opera North works with, but only if you have given consent. You should check that organisation’s privacy notice when you provide your information to understand fully how they will process and safeguard your data
- information about how you use our website from analytics providers such as Google
Our websites may contain links to websites, plug-ins and applications that are operated by other organisations. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow those organisations to collect or share data about you. We do not control those websites and this Privacy Policy does not apply to those websites. Please consult the terms and conditions and privacy policy of those websites to find out how they collect and use your personal data and to establish whether and for what purpose they use cookies.
SENSITIVE INFORMATION
Sometimes we ask you to provide sensitive information, for example:
- if you require wheelchair access, an assistance dog, assisted hearing for audio descriptions, BSL interpretation, seats near the exit, step-free access or a seat for an essential companion; or
- if you or a child is participating in a workshop, details of any allergies or health information that may affect your or the child’s participation or for us to use in the case of a medical emergency during the workshop.
- if you are using our Wi-Fi and, in order to comply with a legal requirement, we obtain data regarding your use of our Wi-Fi and computer network, including the web pages you have visited, and the applications and services you have used.
For members of the Access Membership scheme, we record the information so that you can book seats including free companion seats and wheelchair spaces online. Any access information recorded helps us to find the best seats tailored to your needs, and we will log your proof of eligibility so that you don’t need to show us your evidence each time you book.
You may give us additional information about children, if they are participating in events and services we provide, such as Little Singers, members of our Youth Ensembles or Orchestra Camp, for example date of birth, age, size for uniforms, next of kin details, voice type or instrument and attainment level, any specific needs and bursary places. We only collect information we need to facilitate participation, to plan activities appropriately, for safeguarding and health and safety requirements, for monitoring purposes and to manage age-specific activity and development. As with all the personal information we hold, sensitive information is held securely and restricted to those who need to use it. We will delete information when we no longer need it.
HOW DO WE USE YOUR DATA?
We aim to be clear with you about how we use your personal data and only to use your personal data in ways which you would reasonably expect.
We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly we will use your data:
- to perform a contract with you, such as when you book a table or a ticket for a production or other event, become a member or give a donation or when we need to contact you with important information relating to your booking
- as part of our legitimate interests as an arts charity to provide you with and improve our services. This might include sending you information by post about news, events, services, offers and opportunities to get closer to the company and support Opera North and the Howard Assembly Room
- to comply with a legal obligation, such as when you exercise your rights under data protection law or when we have to report to or respond to a request from government or law enforcement officials (such as reporting Gift Aid details to HMRC) or to meet national security or law enforcement requirements or prevent illegal activity
- based on your consent, for example when you have specifically consented to use of your information, for example to send you updates via email about what’s on, offers, news or about supporting us or sharing your details with our partner organisations where you’ve consented to this.
If there is any important change to your booking, we will contact you. This information, alongside your purchase and/or donation history, is used to select and inform you of other relevant events, offers or services we think may be of interest to you, as well as opportunities to support our work as an arts charity.
We use your data to:
- Ensure we know how you prefer to be contacted
- Provide you with the event tickets or respond to information you have asked for
- Help give you the best possible customer service and experience, and for you to send us your feedback
- Administer your ticket sale, table booking, donation or membership, including processing Gift Aid and to manage our relationship with you
- Tell you about changes in our services or new services, events, offers, competitions or opportunities to support us that we think you’ll find of interest
- Show you (and people like you) adverts via social media platforms and Google products for our services, events, offers, competitions or opportunities to support us. You can opt out of targeted advertising on these platforms, but this may make the advertising you see less relevant.
- Occasionally invite you to participate in customer research
- Tell us about your interests and booking preferences so that we can contact you with information tailored to you
- Improve our services and our website through data and statistical analysis and research
- Record and investigate health and safety incidents should they happen at our events, venues or activity programme
- Verify your identity for security purposes
- Prevent fraud
- Manage our business, including keeping financial records.
If you do not want to receive information by post or email about events, offers, services, our fundraising activities or customer research, you have the option to change your contact preferences at any time by logging into your account online, or by contacting the Data Management team via the contact details at the end of this Privacy Policy.
To provide you with timely, relevant information, invitations or opportunities to support the company, we use an automated process in the ticketing system to look at what you choose to attend and how often, for example only once for a famous or a less familiar opera, or more often for a concert or musical, or whether you are a donor or member.
To help us understand preferences and build a picture of the characteristics of different audience groups, we may also apply survey data and the audience profiles created by The Audience Agency (a national agency for England, supported by Arts Council England). This gives us important information to help us with strategic planning. We also enable selected partners including The Audience Agency to automatically extract an anonymised form of our booking data, for the purposes of informing our strategic planning and support our ability to secure funding to develop and protect the future of the company. With the Audience Agency, this also fulfils Arts Council England reporting requirements as part of our funding agreement. These organisations also use the anonymous data for national and regional research into patterns of arts attendance in England (for example comparison sales trends over time and geographical comparisons).
SHARING YOUR INFORMATION
We will not share any of your personal details with any other third parties without your agreement, unless required in order to fulfil our contract with you (such as when you book a ticket or buy a membership), or allowed by law.
We may share your personal information with our trusted service providers, sub-contractors and agents that we may appoint to perform functions on our behalf and in accordance with our instructions, including payment providers, ticketing and table booking system providers, email distribution services, marketing service providers, IT service providers, postal mailing providers, accountants, auditors and lawyers. We may share your personal information which is then hashed into randomised code, with social media platforms for the purposes of targeting advertising and completing data analytics.
We will never sell your personal data to any other agencies or companies.
When booking a ticket, you may be given the choice to also hear from the arts organisation or promoter presenting the event you have booked to see. Under these circumstances and only with your consent we will pass your data securely to the relevant company and they will be in touch with you to ask if you would like to hear from them in the future, along with their own privacy policy. Should you wish to change your communication preferences with them, please get in touch with them directly.
Where you have given consent, we may receive your information from third party organisations, such as JustGiving, if you have made a donation to Opera North. Please check the organisation’s own privacy policy for details about how they process your data.
We may need to disclose your details if required to the police, regulatory bodies or legal advisers or if required to by law or where we need to protect you or other people from harm. CCTV images may be shared with the police for the purposes of crime prevention and detection.
GIVING YOU CONTROL
With your consent, we will email you about news, events, services, offers and opportunities to support us. Services might include education activity, such as family or adult activities, or information about our restaurant
If you set your communication preferences from 24 May 2018, we will send you information by post with your consent. If you opted in to hear from us by post before 24 May 2018, we will continue to contact you by post until you tell us otherwise, using our legitimate interests as an arts charity as outlined above.
You can opt out from these communications at any time – every email we send you will give you a link to unsubscribe, and you can call or write to us using the information at the end of this Privacy Policy if you want to change your preferences.
The accuracy of your personal information is important to us. Please help us keep our records up-to-date by telling us when your contact details or other personal information change or if you change your mind about how you want us to contact you. You can update your personal details and your communication preferences by logging in to your customer account on our websites, where you can also tell us what you’re most interested in.
If you have opted out of marketing or fundraising communications, we may still get in touch with you regarding your booking. For example, we may email you to give you important information about the show you’ve booked for, with any changes that affect you.
If you have bought tickets or asked to hear about us through one of the venues we tour to, your personal data will be held by that venue under their terms and privacy policy, and will only be shared with us if you have given consent. If you would like to change your contact details or preferences, you will also need to contact the relevant venue direct.
Please be aware that if you fail to provide us with your personal information or ask us to stop using your information, we may not be able to provide certain services to you: we will let you know if this is the case.
HOW WE KEEP YOUR DATA SAFE
Your personal data will be held and processed on Opera North’s secure servers, which are protected by relevant security software and firewalls. Where possible we aim to keep a single record for each customer. Your data is always held securely and we have put in place appropriate security measures to keep it safe. In addition, we limit access to it to those of our employees, agents, contracts and trusted service providers who have a need to know it.
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator when required to do so.
Access to customer information is strictly controlled. It is held in the UK and we do not transfer your data outside the European Economic Area (EEA), except that we may use Survey Monkey when we carry out surveys who transfer data to their group company located in the USA under the terms of the EU-US Privacy Shield. For further information, please see section 10 of their privacy policy.
We cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our website before it reaches us, and any transmission is therefore at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use security features as outlined above to keep your information safe.
HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION?
We will only keep your personal information in accordance with data protection law for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Where your information is no longer required, we will ensure it is disposed of, deleted or cached in a secure manner.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of the information, the purposes for which we process your personal information and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
CHANGES TO THIS POLICY
We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make any significant changes in the way we treat your personal information, we will make this clear on our website or by contacting you directly.
YOUR RIGHTS
In certain circumstances, you have the following rights related to your personal data:
- The right to request a copy of personal information we hold about you
- The right to request us to correct information that’s wrong, delete it or to request that we only use it for certain purposes
- The right to object to our processing of your data, including for direct marketing purposes
- The right to request that we provide your personal information to you or another organisation in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format
- The right to change your mind and ask us to stop using your data, for example, by unsubscribing from marketing emails. Please be aware that if you ask us to stop using your information, we may not be able to provide you with certain services: we’ll let you know if that is the case.
- The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office or Fundraising Regulator
CONTACT US
Please contact us if you have any questions about our Privacy Policy, the information we hold about you, or if you wish to be removed from any communications or data processing activities or if you want us to update your information:
- Email us via datamanager@operanorth.co.uk
- Write to us at: Data Management team, Opera North, Howard Opera Centre, 8 Harrison Street, Leeds LS1 6PA
- Call us on 0113 223 3600
Last updated: 15/2/2023
