Privacy & Terms

Privacy Policy

EMIRARTS respects your privacy. This policy explains how we collect, use, retain, and protect your personal information. It covers both this website and the EMIRARTS mobile app, which collect different things — each section below says which it applies to.

Information We Collect — This Website

You can browse the whole of this website without giving us anything. There is no sign-up, no account and no login. We collect personal information only where you choose to give it to us:

• Your email address, if you subscribe to the newsletter, together with the language you were reading in and where on the site you subscribed. It is stored in our database and sent to Mailchimp, who deliver the newsletter for us.
• Your name, email address and message, if you write to us through the contact form. These are stored so that we can reply.
• Usage data through PostHog analytics, but only if you accept analytics cookies. It is not linked to any account, because this website does not have accounts. See Cookies & Similar Technologies below for exactly what is recorded.

This website does not ask for your location, does not collect crash reports, and does not use advertising or cross-site tracking of any kind.

Information We Collect — The Mobile App

The EMIRARTS app offers accounts and features this website does not, so it collects more:

• Account information (name, email, and an optional profile photo) when you register
• Location (precise), when you use the “locate me” map feature, to show venues near you
• Product and usage data through PostHog analytics, associated with your account
• Crash data, collected at app/system level and not linked to your identity, to help us fix problems and improve app stability
• Saved events and venue preferences

How We Use Your Data

We use your data to send newsletter updates you've subscribed to, to answer messages you send us, and to understand how our website and app are used so we can improve them. In the app we also use it to personalize your experience. We never sell your data to third parties.

Cookies & Similar Technologies

A cookie is a small file a website stores on your device. We also use your browser's local storage, which works in a similar way. We keep this to a minimum, and we ask before setting anything that is not strictly necessary.

Strictly necessary. These are set for everyone and cannot be turned off, because the site cannot function without them. They do not identify you and are never used for advertising:

• Language — remembers whether you are reading in English, Arabic or French, so the site opens in the same language next time. Stored for one year.
• Your cookie choice — records what you selected on the cookie banner, so you are not asked again. Choosing “Skip” is recorded in the same way: it turns analytics off and stops us asking, and is never treated as agreement. If you instead close the banner with the ✕, we store nothing at all and it will appear again next time.
• Newsletter prompt — remembers that you closed the newsletter invitation, so it is not shown to you repeatedly.

Analytics — only with your consent. If you accept analytics cookies, we use PostHog, hosted in the European Union, to understand how the site is used so we can improve it. PostHog is not loaded at all until you accept: if you decline, or have not yet chosen, no analytics cookie is set and no analytics data leaves your browser. When enabled, it records:

• The pages you open
• The exhibitions, events and venues you view, save, or click through to book
• Searches you run, filters you apply, and language switches
• Newsletter sign-ups and dismissals
• Clicks on links and buttons, captured automatically, including the text of the element clicked

We use this in aggregate to see which content is worth commissioning more of and where the site is hard to use. We do not use it to build advertising profiles, and we do not sell or share it with advertisers or data brokers.

Content embedded from other sites. Some pages show content hosted elsewhere: a Google map on venue and event pages, and, where an article includes them, videos from YouTube or Vimeo, audio from Spotify, and posts from Instagram. These load directly from those companies, which means they can see that your browser requested the content and may set their own cookies under their own privacy policies. We do not control those cookies and receive no data from them. If you would rather avoid them, your browser's third-party cookie settings will block them.

Changing your mind. You can change or withdraw your choice at any time using the Cookie settings link at the bottom of any page. Withdrawing consent stops analytics immediately and deletes the analytics cookies and stored identifiers already on your device. You can also clear cookies through your browser settings; doing so removes your language preference and cookie choice, so the banner will appear again.

Data Retention

We keep your personal data only for as long as it is needed for the purposes described in this policy:

• Newsletter subscription data is retained until you unsubscribe.
• Messages sent through the contact form are retained for as long as is needed to deal with your enquiry and keep a record of it.
• Analytics data is retained in aggregated or anonymized form.
• In the app, account information and your saved events and venue preferences are retained while your account remains active.

When personal data is no longer required, or where we are no longer permitted to keep it, we delete or anonymize it without undue delay.

Account & Data Deletion

You may request deletion of your personal data at any time.

On this website, the only personal data we hold is your newsletter subscription and any message you sent through the contact form. Every newsletter email carries an unsubscribe link, which removes you immediately; to have contact messages deleted as well, email us at the address below.

In the EMIRARTS app, you can delete your account from your account settings, or email us at fiona.garfagnini@emir-arts.com. Once your request is verified, we will delete your account information, saved events, and venue preferences, and remove you from our newsletter list — except where we are required to retain certain information to comply with a legal obligation. We action verified deletion requests without undue delay.

Your Rights (GDPR & UAE PDPL)

Depending on where you are located, you have rights over your personal data under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the UAE Personal Data Protection Law (Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021). These include the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you
• Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data
• Request erasure of your data (the “right to be forgotten”)
• Restrict or object to certain processing of your data
• Receive your data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format (data portability)
• Withdraw your consent at any time, where processing is based on consent
• Lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority — in the UAE, the UAE Data Office

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at fiona.garfagnini@emir-arts.com. We will respond in line with applicable law.

Terms of Service

By using our APP, you agree to these terms. EMIRARTS provides an editorial and cultural listing service for the UAE through our APP.

Content displayed through our APP (exhibition dates, venue hours, pricing) is sourced from venues and may change. We recommend confirming details directly with venues before visiting.

Contact

For privacy questions, data-deletion requests, or to exercise your rights, contact us at fiona.garfagnini@emir-arts.com