Metris Arts Consulting Privacy Policy

Metris Arts recognizes the importance of protecting your personal information. We feel responsible to respect the wishes of individuals who provide us with personal data, so we aim to be transparent about how we process personal data. Our privacy policy outlines how the data we collect is used and protected through our client-commissioned projects and through our marketing and communications. By using Metris’ website, subscribing to our emailing list, or participating in our research, you are accepting the practices described in this policy.

What data do we collect and why?

As a firm that does research and evaluation work, Metris uses a number of tools to generate insights for our clients. This can vary from secondary research, such as literature reviews, statistical analysis, and other datasets that are either published or publicly available. Many of our projects also call for the use of primary research with business owners, community organizers, artists, audience members, and neighborhood residents. This is generally achieved through online and in-person surveys, interviews, and focus groups.

In order to keep in touch with our clients, colleagues, and people interested in our work, we also store limited personal data to be able to share updates through newsletters and SMS messages.

General principles and processes

Metris Arts Consulting is committed to keeping personal data safe and secure. We maintain all necessary physical, electronic, and procedural security measures to help safeguard client data and personal information. Third parties that provide us with support or services (i.e. subcontractors or sub-consultants) may also receive client data or personal information. We require them to maintain security measures similar to ours with respect to such information.

Our security measures include using IT companies and platforms that protect our IT infrastructure from external attack and unauthorized access. We also have internal policies outlining our data protection approach.

Metris will take reasonable measures to ensure personal data is accurate, complete, current, relevant, and only being used to complete the work product for our clients.

We are happy to provide people with access to the personal information that we have collected about them upon request. We will also correct any information that is inaccurate or incomplete, update consent status, or have all of personal information deleted upon request.

Client information

We treat all information we receive from our clients as confidential and do not use the information for any purpose other than to complete the work product. We keep client information secure at all times, and prevent the unauthorized disclosure of it by our employees or any third parties.

Research Participant information

We collect data and information in our work for research purposes. Our use of that information is generally limited to the specific research contract for a client. We obtain informed consent from our research participants before conducting surveys, interviews, or focus groups for personal data to be used in a specific project covered by a contract between Metris Arts Consulting and a client.

We may ask research participants if their details can be retained and used for follow-up activities not connected to the initial research, such as to receive future information from Metris Arts Consulting. In these instances, we will also seek explicit consent from research participants for any additional use of data.

Individual responses provided by participants in our research are strictly confidential. They will not be shared directly with our clients, nor published for public consumption. The only exceptions are instances where it is important to the research that individual responses should be directly identifiable. Examples of these instances might be attributing quotations, or materials provided for case studies by named individuals. We will also seek explicit consent from research participants for the disclosure of this information.

We do not lease, sell, or give personal information to third parties for the purposes of directly marketing any products or services. In some cases we may need to share personal information with third parties that provide research services in support of specific research projects. Any third party that receives personal data from us is obligated to follow all of the same privacy protection regulations as followed by Metris Arts Consulting.

We do not contact children under the age of 18 without consent from a parent or guardian.

Metris Newsletter subscribers and website visitors

At Metris, we manage our own company email newsletter through a password protected Mailchimp account, which only Metris employees have access to. Our newsletters are available to anyone that proactively opts-in and gives their explicit consent to receive it. We do not lease, sell, or give this personal information to third parties. We also give all of our subscribers the option to opt-out at the bottom of every newsletter we send them.

In order to identify data traffic patterns we use cookies, which are small text files that are transferred to your browser by our website (www.metrisarts.com). They do not provide any information which might disclose your identity, but they may identify your computer, your browser and your internet settings, though Metris does not use cookies for this purpose. You can change the storing of cookies in your browser settings at any time.

Metris Arts Consulting also uses Google Analytics to measure our website’s activity and engagement, which also requires the use of cookies. Google uses this data only to provide us with information of how the website is used, and does not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. The information generated by Google cookies about your use of the platform and your IP address will be stored by Google on its servers in the United States. You can disable these cookies through your browser settings or by installing the browser plug-in available under https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en-GB.

The information we collect from Google is processed in a way that does not identify anyone. We do not make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website.

Text/SMS Campaigns

When a research/planning participant or client has expressly opted in, Metris may send periodic text/SMS messages to coordinate or promote research/planning activities. No mobile information will be shared with third parties/affiliates for marketing/promotional purposes. All other categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may make updates to our Privacy Policy from time to time. The most recent version of this will always be available on our website. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on our website. These changes are effective immediately, after they are posted to www.metrisarts.com.