Natural History Museum shared visitor data with Meta

The Natural History Museum shared visitor data with Meta during the pandemic.

A Freedom of Information Act request by the Telegraph found data entered into online booking forms – including names, addresses and phone numbers – was shared with the parent company of Facebook and Instagram,

The museum logged 702,900 visits through its Covid-19 booking system, 140% more data entries during the pandemic than prior.

Information made available to Meta was “pseudonymised”, the museum said, and used to target advertising communications and identify new users likely to be interested in its content.

The process is legal but has been criticised by online privacy activists. Open Rights Group campaigner Jim Killock said the online booking system “hoovered up data”.

“The pandemic is not an excuse to collect anything and everything. There are continued risks of drifting into a surveillance society, and cultural institutions should ensure they play no part in that.”