Privacy Policy

Last Update: August 2023

Privacy Notice

This privacy notice (“Privacy Notice”) (together with Our Terms of Use) applies to your use of https://merlinnetwork.org and all web pages within such domain (“Website”). The Website is owned and operated by Music and Entertainment Rights Licensing Independent Network Limited with its trading address at Aviation House, 2nd Floor, Room #02C128, 125 Kingsway, London, WC2B 6NH (“Merlin”, “Us”, “We” or “Our”). Merlin may collect and process certain information, including information that can be used to identify an individual (“personal data”). References to “Customer”, “You” or “Your” means you an individual, who is the subject of personal data.

Merlin is committed to protecting and respecting Your privacy. This Privacy Notice sets out the basis on which any personal data We collect from You, or that You provide to Us, will be processed by Us. This Privacy Notice also sets out how You can instruct Us if You prefer to limit the use of that personal data and the procedures that We have in place to safeguard Your privacy.

Please read the following carefully to understand Our views and practices regarding Your personal data and how We will treat it.

For the purpose of this privacy notice, “Data Protection Legislation” means, the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (the “GDPR”) and all data protection legislation applicable in the European Union, including the UK until any UK data protection legislation replaces or adopts the GDPR in the UK once in force and applicable. For the purpose of the Data Protection Legislation, We process Your data as a data controller.

By using the Website, by registering through the Website or by submitting information to Us (through or in connection with the Website), You signify You have read and understood Our collection, use and disclosure of Your personal data in accordance with this Privacy Notice. If You do not agree with this Privacy Notice, You must not use the Website or submit personal data to Us.

1. Information We May Collect (or Receive) About You

1.1 We may collect (or receive) and process information about You when:

(a) You contact Us, whether through the Website or otherwise (for example, via Our online form, by e-mail, post, fax or phone), as We may keep a record of that correspondence. For example, if You submit a complaint, report a problem with or Website, or otherwise liaise with Our a member of Our team, technical support or any other department in Our company;

(b) You fill in and submit information on the Website via Your PC, a mobile device or otherwise;

(d) You use and interact with the Website including Your IP address, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system, platform, mobile carrier, and Your ISP. We may collect details of Your visits to the Website (including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data);

(e) We use cookies and other technologies as described below;

(f) the information You give Us may include Your: name and address, e-mail address, Your IP address, Your phone number and/or details of Your use of the Website, including, but not limited to, traffic data, weblogs and other communication data.

1.2 We may check some of the information that You provide against third party databases to confirm that it is accurate.

2. How We May Use Your Information

2.1 We may process personal data for one or more lawful bases of processing (“Lawful Basis”) depending on the specific purpose for which we are using Your data (see below).

2.2 We may process this information for the purpose of:

(a) dealing with Your inquiries and requests, including contacting You where necessary. Lawful Basis: necessary for Our legitimate interests;

(b) notifying You about changes (e.g. changes of features or enhancements) to Our Website and/or our services. Lawful Basis: necessary for Our legitimate interests;

(c) carrying out Our obligations arising from any contracts connected to You, such as using royalty and other data to calculate any amounts payable to any of our members. Lawful Basis: necessary for Our legitimate interests;

(e) providing You access to all parts or features of the Website or Our services. Lawful Basis: necessary for Our legitimate interests;

(f) administering Your registration and/or membership and other user accounts records. Lawful Basis: necessary for Our legitimate interests;

(g) for market research, analysis and creating statistics. Lawful Basis: your consent and necessary for Our legitimate interests;

(h) to send You marketing communications, consistent with your communication preferences. Lawful Basis: necessary for Our legitimate interests;

(i) prevent, detect and investigate potentially prohibited or illegal activities, and enforce Our Terms of Use. Lawful Basis: to comply with Our legal obligations and necessary for Our legitimate interests;

(j) improving and developing the Website, apps or Our services. Lawful Basis: necessary for Our legitimate interests;

(k) ensuring that content from the Website is presented in the most effective manner for You and for Your computer or mobile device. Lawful Basis: necessary for Our legitimate interests; and

(l) comply with all the applicable laws and regulations. Lawful Basis: to comply with Our legal obligations; and

(n) debt recovery or debt tracing, crime, fraud and money laundering compliance. Lawful Basis: to comply with Our legal obligations and necessary for Our legitimate interests.

2.3 We may contact You with information, products or services that You request from Us or ones which are similar to the services We are providing to You (independently or jointly with others), unless You opted out to be contacted for such purposes. We may contact You for this purpose by post, telephone, fax, as well as by email. If You change Your mind about being contacted in the future, please let Us know.

2.4 We do not sell, rent, or otherwise provide Your personal data to third parties unless You consent to this or it is necessary to provide You with Our services or as described in this Privacy Notice. We may share information with any member of Our group of companies, which means Our subsidiaries, Our ultimate holding company and its subsidiaries, as defined in section 7 of the Irish Companies Act 2014 and section 1159 of the UK Companies Act 2006 (the “Affiliates”).

2.5 We may also gather this information and statistics for the purposes of monitoring the usage of the Website and may provide such aggregate information to third parties. These statistics will not include information that can be used to identify You.

2.6 We may use Your personal data to contact You for Your views on Our services and to notify You occasionally about important changes or developments to the Website or to Our services. Lawful Basis: necessary for Our legitimate interests.

2.7 If You choose to post messages on any online forum or other message platforms that We may make available for this purpose on the Website, We may collect that information You provide to Us. We may retain this information as necessary to resolve disputes, provide customer support and troubleshoot problems, as permitted by law. Lawful Basis: to comply with Our legal obligations necessary for Our legitimate interests.

2.8 You may ask Us to provide You with information about Our services or about services offered jointly with or on behalf of other organisations by sending Us an e-mail to info@merlinnetwork.org or writing to Us to the following address: Merlin at Aviation House, 2nd Floor, Room #02C128, 125 Kingsway, London, WC2B 6NH.

2.9 If You stop using the Website, We may continue to use and disclose Your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Notice (as amended from time to time) and as permitted by law. However, if You wish Us to stop emailing You with information in connection with the Website or Our services, please unsubscribe or send Your request to the contact details set out above.

3. Contacts Information

3.1 Where applicable, You can change Your contact details at any time by contacting us at info@merlinnetwork.org.

4. Information Security

4.1 The Internet is not a secure medium. However, We have put in place a range of security procedures on the Website, as set out in this Privacy Notice.

4.2 Please be aware that communications over the Internet, such as emails/webmails, are not secure unless they have been encrypted. Your communications may route through a number of countries before being delivered. This is the nature of the World Wide Web/Internet.

4.3 We cannot accept responsibility for any unauthorised access or loss of personal information that is beyond Our control.

4.4 We will use reasonable endeavours to implement appropriate policies, rules and technical measures to protect the personal data that We have under Our control (having regard to the type and amount of that data) from unauthorised access, improper use or disclosure, unauthorised modification, unlawful destruction or accidental loss.

4.5 We will ensure that Your personal data will not be disclosed to government institutions or authorities except if required by law (e.g. when requested by regulatory bodies or law enforcement organisations in accordance with applicable legislation).

5. To Whom Will Your Information Be Disclosed?

5.1 Your information may, for the purposes set out in this Privacy Notice, be disclosed for processing:

(a) to Our employees, Our Affiliates and their employees;

(b) to Our third-party consultants, (sub-)contractors, suppliers or other service providers who may access Your personal information when providing services (including but not limited to IT support services) to Us;

(d) to analytics and search engine providers that assist Us in the improvement and optimisation of the Website;

(e) to Our successors in title, Our prospective sellers or buyers of Our business or to Our Affiliates when we have a merger or re-organisation;

(f) to government bodies and law enforcement agencies and in response to other legal and regulatory requests;

(g) to any third-party where such disclosure is required in order to enforce or apply Our Terms of Use or other relevant agreements;

(h) to protect the rights, property, integrity or security of Our company, Our customers, or others (including, without limitation, You). This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction; and

(j) where You have consented to this, to selected third parties that may contact You about products and services which may be of interest to You in any jurisdiction where We operate.

6. Your Rights In Relation To Your Personal Data

6.1 You can write to Us at info@merlinnetwork.org any time to obtain a copy of Your personal data and to have any inaccuracies corrected.

6.2 You have the following rights, though, please note that they do not apply in all circumstances. You may:

(a) request access to Your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”);

(b) request correction of the personal data that we hold about You;

(c) request erasure of Your personal data. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with Your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to You, if applicable, at the time of Your request;

(d) object to processing of Your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about Your particular situation which makes You want to object to processing on this ground as You feel it impacts on Your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing Your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process Your information which override Your rights and freedoms;

(e) request restriction of processing of Your personal data. This enables You to ask Us to suspend the processing of Your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if You want Us to establish the data’s accuracy; (b) where Our use of the data is unlawful but You do not want Us to erase it; (c) where You need Us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as You need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) You have objected to Our use of Your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it;

(f) request the transfer of Your personal data to You or to a third party. We will provide to You, or a third party You have chosen, Your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information (i.e. not to hard copies) which You initially provided consent for Us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with You; and

(g) withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process Your personal data. If You withdraw Your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to You. We will advise You if this is the case at the time You withdraw Your consent.

6.3 If you would like to exercise any of the rights listed above, please write to: Music and Entertainment Rights Licensing Independent Network Limited, Aviation House, 2nd Floor, Room #02C128, 125 Kingsway, London, WC2B 6NH.

6.4 Please quote Your name and address. We would be grateful if You would also provide brief details of the information of which You would like a copy or which You would like to be corrected (this helps Us to more readily locate Your data).

6.5 We will require proof of Your identity before providing You with details of any personal information We may hold about You.

6.6 We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one (1) month. Occasionally, it may take Us longer than one (1) month if Your request is particularly complex or You have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify You and keep You updated.

6.7 We may charge You a reasonable fee to You when a request is manifestly unfounded, excessive or repetitive, or we receive a request to provide further copies of the same information. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with Your request in these circumstances.

7. Cookies

We use cookies to store and collect information about Your use of the Website. Cookies are small text files stored by the browser on Your equipment’s hard drive. They send information stored on them back to Our web server when You access the Website. These cookies enable Us to put in place personal settings and load Your personal preferences to improve Your experience. You can find out more about cookies at www.allaboutcookies.org, and more about the cookies We use on Our “cookies policy” available here.

8. Where We Store And Process Your Personal Data

The data that We collect from You may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area (“EEA“). It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for Us or for one of Our suppliers or Affiliate companies. Such staff may be engaged in, among other things, the fulfilment of Your request, the processing of Your payment details and the provision of support services. By submitting Your personal data, You agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that Your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Notice and applicable Data Protection Legislation.

9. Your Consent And Changes To This Privacy Notice

9.1 We reserve the right to amend or modify this Privacy Notice and if We do so We will post the changes on the Website. It is Your responsibility to check the Privacy Notice every time You submit information to Us.

9.2 In the event that the purposes for processing personal information change, We will contact You as soon as practicable and seek Your consent where such notification relates to a new additional purpose for processing and where Your consent is required by applicable Data Protection Legislation.

10. Use Of Your Personal Information Submitted To Other Website

10.1 Except as otherwise expressly included in this Privacy Notice, this document addresses only the use and disclosure of information We receive about You or collect from You.

10.2 If You disclose Your information to others (e.g. via web links), different rules may apply to their use or disclosure of the information You disclose to them. We are not responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other websites even if You accessed the third party website using links from the Website.

10.3 We recommend that You check the policy of each website You visit and contact the owner or operator of such website if You have concerns or questions.

11. Data Retention

11.1 We will only retain Your personal data for as long as You have consented to it or when is necessary to Us to provide You with Our services or fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements or any legal or regulatory requirements.

11.2 To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of Your personal data, the purposes for which we process Your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

11.3 In some circumstances You can ask Us to delete Your data: see paragraph 6.2 (c) above for further information.

11.4 In some circumstances we may anonymise Your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with You) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to You.

12. Further Information

12.1 If you want to contact Merlin regarding any matters set out in this Privacy Notice please send an email to info@merlinnetwork.org and include FAO Business and Legal Affairs- Data Protection Matter in the subject.

12.2 If You would like to let Us know about something We have done, or failed to do, whether positive or negative, please let Us know. Your comments enable Us as an organisation to learn and continuously improve Our services.

12.3 If You think there is a problem with the way we are handling Your data, You have the right to complain to the:

(a) United Kingdom’s Information Commissioners Office at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/information-commissioner-s-office ; or the

(b) Irish Data Protection Commission at https://www.dataprotection.ie/en/contact/how-contact-us

12.4 Questions, comments and requests regarding this Privacy Notice should be addressed to Merlin at Aviation House, 2nd Floor, Room #02C128, 125 Kingsway, London, WC2B 6NH or emailed to info@merlinnetwork.org.

13. Your Duty To Inform Us Of Changes

13.1 It is important that the personal data we hold about You is accurate and current. Please keep Us informed if Your personal data changes during Your relationship with Us.

13.2 If Your personal details change, please help Us to keep Your information up to date by notifying Us at info@merlinnetwork.org.

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