Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

This Privacy Policy explains what personal data MuseaShelf collects, why we collect it, and what rights you have over it. It applies whenever you use museashelf.com — whether you're just browsing, or you've created an account to log visits, write reviews, and build lists.

2. What We Collect

Account information. Everyone gets an email address and a username. If you sign in with Google, your name comes along automatically as part of that sign-in (the same way it would for any "Sign in with Google" button) — we never import your Google account photo, though. If you sign in with an email code instead, no name is collected unless you add one yourself. A bio and a profile picture are always optional and always something you add yourself in Settings, regardless of how you signed in.

Activity you create. Museum visits you log, ratings, reviews, tags, favorites, planned visits, lists, and follows — including whether you've marked a given visit or list as private.

Content you submit. If you submit a new museum or exhibition, we store what you submitted, including any image you upload with it.

Reports. If you report a review, list, or profile, we store your account, what you reported, and the reason you gave. Reports are only visible to our Crew/Admin moderators — the person you reported is never shown who reported them or why.

Security and abuse-prevention data. To keep sign-in working reliably for everyone, we briefly record the email address and IP address used when requesting a sign-in code, purely to detect and block automated abuse. These records are automatically deleted after 24 hours. This data is not used for tracking or advertising.

3. Cookies

MuseaShelf sets a small handful of cookies, all strictly necessary and none of them for tracking: one keeps you signed in between visits, one protects our sign-in forms against forgery (CSRF protection), and one remembers where to send you back to after you sign in. If you sign in with Google, a couple of short-lived cookies are also set just for the few seconds that handshake takes, then discarded. We don't use advertising or analytics cookies, and we don't track you across other websites. Because every cookie we set is essential to the service working at all, none of this requires a cookie consent banner under EU/Dutch law — the same way a shopping cart cookie wouldn't.

If that ever changes — for example, if we add analytics in the future — we'll update this policy and add a consent banner before any non-essential cookie is placed.

4. How We Use Your Data

We use your data to operate the core features of MuseaShelf: authenticating you, displaying your profile, diary, and lists to the audience you've chosen (public or private), sending you sign-in codes and moderation-related emails, and keeping the platform free of spam and abuse. We do not sell your data, and we do not use it for advertising.

5. Third-Party Services

A few outside services help us run MuseaShelf, and each only sees what it needs to do its job:

• Google — if you choose to sign in with Google.
• Our email provider — to deliver sign-in codes and account-related emails.
• Cloudflare Turnstile — not active yet. Once enabled, it will run an invisible bot-detection check on repeated sign-in attempts to keep automated abuse out; we'll update this section when it goes live.
• OpenStreetMap and Wikimedia — used only to look up a museum's address or a suggested photo when someone submits a new museum; no personal data is sent.

6. Data Retention

We keep your account and activity data for as long as your account exists. Security records used for abuse prevention (sign-in code request logs, including the IP address used) are automatically deleted after 24 hours.

Account and content deletion is currently handled manually by our team, not through an automated self-service tool — contact us and we'll process your request. We're working towards a self-service option; until then, treat a request as something a person on our team will act on, not an instant automated action.

7. Your Rights

Under the GDPR, you have the right to access, correct, or delete your personal data, to receive a copy of it, and to object to how it's used. Many of these you can already do yourself — edit your profile and bio in Settings, or set individual visits and lists to private. For anything else, including a data export or account deletion, reach out via our Contact page— a member of our team will handle the request manually, since we don't yet have a self-service tool for this. If you believe we haven't handled your data properly, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with your national data protection authority (in the Netherlands, the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens).

8. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time as MuseaShelf evolves. If a change is significant — for example, adding a new type of tracking — we'll make that clear here and, where required, ask for your consent first.