Privacy policy

When you engage with us as an audience member, donor or as a participant, we collect your information. This could be when you purchase a ticket or a membership, visit our premises, make a donation, sign up to a project, sign up to our mailing list, or register on our website. These interactions may occur online, in person or over the phone.

We may also collect information from publicly available sources as part of our fundraising practice. This may include obtaining information from individuals working on our behalf such as our development board and from organisations that book fundraising events or have memberships with us for their events.

We collect data in the following ways:

1. When you create an account on our website at sohotheatre.com or www.sohotheatreondemand.com, your account allows you to do the following:

• Purchase tickets
• Join as a member
• Make a donation
• Sign up to our mailing
• Update your communication preference

2. When you interact with us in person to:

• Purchase tickets
• Join as a member
• Make a donation
• Attend a show or event
• Attend a workshop
• Sign up to a Creative Engagement project
• Sign up to our mailing lists
• Give us your access requirements
• Give feedback

3. When you contact us by phone to:

• Purchase tickets
• Join as a member
• Make a donation
• Attend a workshop
• Sign up to our mailing list
• Give us your access requirements
• Give us your dietary requirements
• Give feedback

4. When you contact us via post:

• Join as a member
• Attend a workshop
• Sign up to a Creative Engagement project
• Give feedback

5. When you email us with any information relevant to your booking including:

• Access requirements
• Dietary requirements
• Give feedback

6. When you visit our website:

• Through your IP address given to us by your browser
• Through cookies – see our cookies policy.

7. When you purchase tickets to our shows via a third party

8. When you reply to a survey we have sent and choose to supply your email address. If you do not give us your email address, your answers will be anonymous.

9. Via Social Media

We may collect some personal data (name, address, phone number, booking details) when you enter competitions or give us booking details for customer support through social media.

We also collect and track anonymised data on our social media audiences to better understand the ‘groups’ of people who engage with us online. We use this to ensure we engage with audiences and groups of people who are new to us.

10. Via publicly available information:

• Google Companies House
• Charities Commission
• Donor Boards
• Information published in articles / newspapers

11. Via CCTV when you visit our venue

We use CCTV recording equipment in and around our premises for monitoring and security purposes in line with CCTV guidelines. For more information, please see our CCTV policy.

12. Via filming and photography in our public spaces

We will always display notices when filming or taking photographs and give individuals the option to not be captured.

We may also collect any of this information from a person working on your behalf with your consent such as a personal assistant.

• Access requirements
• Age range (surveys and recruitment)
• Bank details for direct debit instructions
• Billing address
• Contact preferences
• Date of birth
• Delivery address
• Email address
• Emergency contact details (staff and participants only)
• Ethnic origin (surveys and recruitment)
• Gender
• Imagery (CCTV, photography and video)
• Job information (staff and recruitment)
• Payment card details – we do not save these details and only retain the last four digits of your card number in our ticketing database
• Phone number
• Prefix and full name
• Whether you identify as having a disability (surveys and recruitment)

This is not an exhaustive list and we may retain different types of information for different individuals based on the service we are providing. For information on how long we retain your data for, refer to the ‘how we protect data’ section of this policy.

We also keep a record of your interactions with us in our ticketing database, such as what shows you have purchased tickets to, when you have had an active membership, any projects you may have participated in or supported and whether you have received, opened or clicked through any emails we may have sent.

We also may collect an automatically populated IP address when you use our website or email service. This public IP address is a unique number which allows a computer, group of computers or other internet connected device to browse the internet. The log file records the time and date of your visit, the pages that were requested, the referring website (if provided) and your internet browser version. This information is collected to help diagnose and manage the website, to audit the geographical make-up of users, and to establish how they have arrived at the website.

We do use cookies which retain information about your online behaviour, preferences and settings. For more information, please refer to our cookies policy.

Third Parties

We may also obtain your data from third parties, such as organisations with which we enter a co-production. These organisations should not pass on your data to us without your knowledge and only if it is required in the performance of a contract or within our legitimate interest. The third party will require your permission to share your data with us for marketing purposes and we will always notify you within 30 days of receipt of your data. You should check their Privacy Policy when you provide your information to understand fully how they will process and safeguard your data.

Social Media

Depending on your settings or the privacy policies for social media services like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, you may give us permission to access information from those accounts or services, such as your behaviour on these services and across our site. Most of this behaviour is anonymised. For more information on how to control your privacy settings for these services, go to the following links:

• Facebook – Privacy Policy
• Instagram – Privacy Policy
• LinkedIn – Privacy Policy
• Twitter – Privacy Policy
• Vimeo – Privacy Policy
• YouTube – Privacy Policy
• TikTok – Privacy Policy

We only collect information that’s necessary to carry out our business or to deliver our charitable objectives. The more ways you engage with us as an organisation, the more data we will require to provide the necessary services required. There are occasions where you can choose to not provide us with the information we require, but this will then impact the service we are able to provide.

We primarily use your information to provide services that you’ve requested. We also use your information to help understand our audiences needs, and to keep you informed about what’s happening at Soho Theatre. We will only contact you electronically with non-contractually related information when we have your consent to do so.

We collect your information

To carry out our business and to provide a service or carry out a contract with you:

• To fulfil ticket, merchandise, donation and membership requests
• To invite you to events as per your membership or sponsorship
• Process payments. Please note that we do not store any credit card or other payment information once the transaction has been completed
• Provide the best possible customer services and to help us with internal administration
• Contact you with important information relating to your booking or purchase, such as confirming your order, reminding you of an upcoming performance you’ve booked for or letting you know about changes or building works that may affect your visit

Where we have your consent to:

• Send you updates via email about what’s on, ticket or membership offers, and news
• Email you about a specific topic you’ve requested to hear more on such as specific productions and events, our Creative
• Engagement work or opportunities to support our work
• Record access requirements to ensure you have an enjoyable experience visiting us
• Capture personally identifiable information through our post show surveys
• Take pictures of you as a participant on a project
• Advertise via digital advertising platforms about what’s on, offers and news
• Share your details with other arts organisations who have co-produced work you may have seen at or in collaboration with Soho Theatre. These organisations should contact you to let you know how they collected your data and to check that you’re happy to hear from them. You will always be able to opt out of their communications by contacting them directly.

Where we have a legal obligation to:

• Use CCTV recording in and around our premises for monitoring / security purposes
• Detect and reduce fraud and credit risk

Where we have legitimate interest to:

• Learn about your interests and preferences so that we can contact you with information that is relevant to you
• Help us target our marketing communications / adverts so they’re more relevant to you
• Send relevant invitations to events, press nights or other fundraising opportunities via post or phone if we believe this would be of interest
• Receive data from our third-party ticketing agents in order to process your booking on our ticketing system
• Use your pseudonymised details to show you advertising on such Social Media platforms as Facebook and Instagram or via other third-party advertising that may appear on other websites you use. The information shared with these platforms is pseudonymised to protect your personal data
• Classify our audience into groups or segments, using booking and publicly available information. These segments help us to understand our audience better and ensure we’re sending relevant messages to each group. We may use third party processors to help achieve this. We also submit these anonymously as part of reporting to fundraising and public funding bodies (such as Arts Council England).
• Participate in the Audience Finder initiative or other initiatives as required by our Arts Council England NPO funding. This initiative builds an aggregate picture of local and national audiences across all Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisations. Their tools help us understand how our audience fits in a local and national context, and to identify new audience opportunities
• Measure and understand how our audiences respond to a variety of marketing activity so we can ensure our activity is well targeted, relevant and effective
• Analyse and continually improve the services we offer including our artistic output, our website and our other products
• Ensure we are maximising our ticket sales wherever possible
• Film and photograph the spaces in our building. We will always give notice through signage in the spaces and a way to let staff know if you would rather not be captured
• Help us run the test version of our website and CRM system that we use internally to pilot new features and ensure the smooth running of our customer services
• We are a registered charity and rely on support to maintain our work as a home for innovative artists, and to create opportunities for audiences of all ages and backgrounds to experience live and digital performance of the highest quality.

We are committed to fundraising best practice and abide by the Fundraising Regulator’s key principles and behaviours of a fundraising organisation: to be legal, open, honest and respectful. We undertake to comply with relevant law and regulations, including the Proceeds of Crime Act, Data Protection, Tax and Gift Aid legislation and Charity Commission guidance.

Another one to test

Soho Theatre will never share, sell, rent or trade your personal information to any third parties for marketing purposes without your prior consent.

We will ask for your consent to share personal information with organisations we have co-produced work with that you may have seen in our theatre or at another venue. These requests will be specific to the individual organisation so that your consent decision is informed.

We use several data processors to help us provide the services you request. These organisations are obligated to act on our instruction in relation to their use of your personal data and do not have any control over your data. We make sure anyone who provides a service to Soho Theatre enters into an agreement with us and meets our standards for data security. They will not use your data for anything other than the clearly defined purpose relating to the service that they are providing.

Below are examples of the data we may share and who we may share it with:

• Name on card, credit card number, billing address, CVV, amount of transaction and order number with Opayo, WorldPay, American Express and Lloyds Cardnet to process credit card transactions
• Name on bank account, bank account number, sort code, amount of direct debit, frequency and customer number with Encore in order to process direct debit transactions
• Name, email address and mobile number with Spektrix/DotDigital to produce e-marketing campaigns, cancellation communications, and pre & post show emails (e-marketing campaigns require consent)
• Order details, which may include your name and address, with external ticketing providers where we are selling tickets to shows that will be fulfilled by the third party
• Service providers who aggregate data for us to do benchmark reporting across the industry, specifically The Audience Agency for the purposes of the Audience Finder initiative. For more information on the data they collect, head to their Privacy Policy: https://audiencefinder.org/audience-finder-privacy-notice/
• List of major donors to funding bodies (we always respect anonymity where requested)
• Named third party organisations if you ticked the relevant opt-in box when you purchased tickets. In these instances, we may supply your personal information to that specific organisation only (we will only supply full name and email address in these data shares and only with your consent)
• Other organisations such as competition organisers if you choose to take part in such activities that need administration by third parties and you choose to opt in for contact from those organisations (we will only supply full name and email address in these data shares and only with your consent)
• Any answers you give in one of our post-show surveys via Typeform or DotDigital. For more information on how they protect your data:
  Typeform – Privacy Policy
  DotDigital – Privacy Policy
• Third party advertisers (such as Facebook or Google) to help us identify customers like our audience or to serve adverts they deem relevant to you on third party websites. The information shared with these advertisers is pseudonymised to protect your personal data
• Ticketing system provider Spektrix who provide support should our system require maintenance
  Personnel management system providers (Abellio) HRToolkit and SmartBlue (StaffSavvy), which help us to manage our teams
• When requested by the police or a regulatory or government authority investigating illegal activities

Soho Theatre is not responsible for the privacy notices and practices of other websites even if accessed using links from www.sohotheatre.com and recommends that you check the policy of each website you visit and contact its owner or the Data team if you have any concerns or questions.

Despite all our precautions, no data transmission over the internet is 100% secure. So, we cannot guarantee the security of any information which you disclose to us and so wish to draw your attention to the fact that you do so at your own risk.

Soho Theatre is committed to protecting the personal information you entrust to us. We adopt robust and appropriate technologies and policies, so the information we have about you is protected from unauthorised access and improper use e.g. your online account is encrypted and our own network is protected.

As part of the services offered to you through the Soho Theatre website, the personal information you provide may be transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA). By way of example, this may happen if any of the computer servers used to host the website are located in a country outside of the EEA. If Soho Theatre transfers your personal information outside of the EEA in this way, we will take steps to ensure that your privacy rights continue to be protected as outlined in this privacy notice.

Soho Theatre may transfer your data to the USA to organisations such as Facebook or Google. The USA has weaker data protection laws than that of the EEA and therefore we will ensure that only organisations who are a part of the EU privacy shield initiative will handle your personal information. More details on this certification can be found at www.privacyshield.gov/welcome

We will keep your information only for as long as is reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this privacy notice and to fulfil our legal obligations. We will not keep more information than we need. The retention period will vary according to the purpose, for example if purchasing a ticket only, we will typically keep your data for up to ten years from the date of your last point of engagement whereas if you have become a Soho Theatre supporter, we will hold your details indefinitely. For further information about how long we will keep your information, please contact the Data Team using the contact details outlined in this notice.

If you ask us to stop sending direct marketing communications to you, we will retain the information required (e.g. name, address or email address) to ensure we adhere with such requests.

If you have an online account with us, you can amend your personal details and email contact preferences at any time. Simply sign in on the website and access your account to make these changes. Or if you prefer, you can contact us by phoning, emailing, or writing using our contact details below.

Every email we send to you will include details on how to change your communications preferences or unsubscribe from future communications.

You can request full details of personal information we hold about you under the Data Protection Act 1998, or after 25 May 2018, The General Data Protection Regulation, by contacting the Data Team. Please send a description of the information you would like to see, together with proof of your identity to data@sohotheatre.com.

At any time you have the right to ask Soho Theatre to amend or to stop how it uses your personal information including for marketing purposes. You can do this by signing in to the website and accessing your account details or if you don’t have an account or if you prefer to, you can contact us by phoning, emailing or writing using our contact details below.

You have the right to get information held about you by us corrected. If you have any concern about the accuracy of your personal data, please let us know using the below contact details.

If you would like us to remove the personal information we hold about you, please contact us using the below contact details.

By email: data@sohotheatre.com (we’ll reply to your email within 5 working days)

By phone: 020 7478 0100

By post: Soho Theatre, 21 Dean Street, London, W1D 3NE

You have the right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority, The Information Commissioner’s Office – www.ico.org.uk

The Head of Admin & Ops is responsible for this policy, and it was reviewed in October 2022.