Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Made4Music ("we", "us", "our"), operator of The Internet Monument (the "Service"), collects and uses your personal data when you use https://theinternetmonument.com. We process personal data in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

1Who we are

The data controller is:

Made4Music
Burgemeester Smitsplein 8
4921ET - Made
The Netherlands
Chamber of Commerce (KvK): 72217774
Contact: hello@theinternetmonument.com

2What we collect

When you claim a place on the monument, you provide:

• A first name — displayed publicly on the monument.
• A country, and optionally a city — displayed publicly.
• An optional short message (up to 30 characters) — displayed publicly.

To process your payment and keep the monument fair, we also handle:

• Payment information, handled by our payment provider Mollie (see section 5). We receive a payment reference and status, not your full card or bank details.
• A one-way hashed version of your IP address, used only to limit abuse and rate-limit submissions. We do not store your raw IP address.
• Timestamps for when a place is submitted and approved.

We do not collect participant email addresses, last names, phone numbers, or photographs.

3What is shown publicly

The monument is, by design, a public and permanent record. The first name, country, optional city, optional message, monument number, on-screen coordinates and date of inclusion are displayed publicly and indefinitely. Please do not submit information you are not comfortable making permanently public. Because the monument is permanent, an approved place cannot be edited, transferred or removed (see also our Terms & Conditions).

4Why we process your data and our legal basis

• To provide the Service (display your place on the monument and issue your certificate) — legal basis: performance of a contract.
• To process payment — legal basis: performance of a contract.
• To prevent abuse and fraud (hashed IP, rate limiting, content moderation) — legal basis: our legitimate interest in protecting the Service.
• To comply with legal obligations, such as keeping records required for tax and accounting.

5Payment processing (Mollie)

Payments are processed by Mollie B.V., a licensed payment service provider in the Netherlands. When you pay, you are taken to Mollie's secure checkout and enter your payment details there. We do not see or store your full card or bank account details. Mollie processes your payment data as an independent controller under its own privacy policy, available at mollie.com/privacy.

6Sharing your data

We share personal data only where necessary:

• With Mollie, to process payments.
• With our hosting and email providers, who process data on our behalf as processors.
• Where required by law or to protect our legal rights.

We never sell your personal data, and we do not use it for third-party advertising.

7How long we keep your data

Because the monument is permanent, the publicly displayed information (first name, location, message, number, coordinates, date) is retained indefinitely as part of the permanent record. Payment and transaction records are kept for as long as required by Dutch tax and accounting law (generally seven years). Hashed IP data used for abuse prevention is kept only as long as needed for that purpose.

8Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to access, rectify, or request erasure of your personal data, to restrict or object to processing, and to data portability. Please note that, given the permanent nature of the monument, certain information forms part of an immutable public record; where this conflicts with a request, we will explain the limits and handle any lawful request to the extent possible. To exercise your rights, contact us at hello@theinternetmonument.com. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens).

9Cookies

The Service uses only a strictly necessary session cookie to keep your submission secure (for example, to protect against cross-site request forgery). We do not use tracking or advertising cookies.

10Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The "last updated" date at the top reflects the latest version. Significant changes will be reflected on this page.

11Contact

For any privacy question or request, email us at hello@theinternetmonument.com.