Micro-patronage is about many people giving a little, openly and on equal terms. We want to treat your personal data the same way: collect as little as possible, explain everything plainly, and leave you in control. This policy follows the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Latvia’s Personal Data Processing Law.
Who we are
Micropatronage.art is a manifesto website about participatory support for the arts. It is run by Bruno Mellis, independent visual artist, registration no. 42103112628, Bikernieku iela 22, Riga, LV-1006, Latvia. Bruno is the data controller, which means he is responsible for the personal data described on this page.
There is no large company behind this site, and no data department. If you have any question, idea or request about your data, write to hello@micropatronage.art and a real person will answer.
What we collect
When you sign the Manifesto, we collect:
- your name;
- your role, organisation or city, if you add one;
- your statement on why you support the Manifesto;
- the country you sign from, which we work out from your internet connection (IP address) when you submit the form. We store only the country, never your IP address;
- the date you signed.
When you subscribe to updates, we collect your email address, and the date and way you subscribed, so we can show that you agreed.
When you use the contact form, we collect your name, email address and message.
That is all. We do not ask for payment details. We do not use advertising or tracking cookies, and we do not build profiles of visitors. To count visits we use Cloudflare Web Analytics, which sets no cookies and does not store your IP address. We never sell, rent or trade your data.
What is published
Your name, role, statement and a flag for your country are shown publicly on the Sign the Manifesto page, and recent statements may also appear on the home page. Anyone who visits the website can see them. We only publish them if you tick the box agreeing to publication.
Your email address and contact messages are never published.
New signatures are checked automatically for blocked words and links; those that match are held until we review them by hand. We may decline to publish, or later remove, statements that are abusive, unlawful or unrelated to the Manifesto. This keeps the space open and respectful for everyone.
Email updates
If you choose to subscribe, we will email you about the achievements and developments of the micro-patronage movement: new signatories, events, projects and milestones. Nothing else, and never on behalf of anyone else.
- Subscribing is always your free choice and is never required to sign the Manifesto.
- Every email has an unsubscribe link. One click and you are off the list.
- You can also unsubscribe by writing to hello@micropatronage.art.
- We do not share your email address with other organisations, campaigns or advertisers.
Our emails are sent through Brevo, which handles your address only on our instructions (see "Where your data is stored").
Why we use your data
The GDPR asks us to name a legal basis for each use. Here they are:
| Purpose | Data used | Legal basis (GDPR) |
|---|---|---|
| Showing public support for the Manifesto | Name, role, statement, country, date | Your consent, given when you sign and tick the publication box (Art. 6(1)(a)) |
| Sending movement updates | Email address | Your consent, given when you subscribe (Art. 6(1)(a)); also Latvia’s Law on Information Society Services |
| Replying to your messages | Name, email, message | Our legitimate interest in answering enquiries you send us (Art. 6(1)(f)) |
| Keeping the signature wall free of spam and abuse | Submitted signatures | Our legitimate interest in a safe, honest public space (Art. 6(1)(f)) |
Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time, as easily as you gave it. Withdrawing does not affect what happened before. We do not make automated decisions about you that have legal or similar effects; the automatic word check only holds a signature for human review.
Where your data is stored
We use a small number of trusted services. They process data only on our behalf, under data processing agreements, and may not use it for their own purposes.
| Service | What it does | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Sanity (Sanity AS, Norway / Sanity US, Inc., USA) | Stores signatures and contact messages | EU (Belgium via Google Cloud); international transfers safeguarded by EU Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) |
| Cloudflare (Cloudflare, Inc., USA) | Hosts the website and counts visits without cookies | Global; certified under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework |
| Brevo (Sendinblue SAS, France) | Stores subscriber emails and sends updates | EU data centres (France, Germany and Belgium) |
When data travels outside the European Economic Area, it is protected by an EU adequacy decision (such as the EU–US Data Privacy Framework) or by the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses.
The website’s fonts are served from our own website; your browser does not contact any third-party font service.
How long we keep it
- Signatures stay published for as long as the Manifesto is online, or until you ask us to remove yours.
- Email address is kept while you are subscribed. When you unsubscribe, we delete it within 30 days.
- Contact messages are kept for [12 months] after our last reply and then deleted.
If the Manifesto website closes, we will delete the personal data it holds.
Your rights
Your data belongs to you. At any time, and free of charge, you can ask us to:
- see the personal data we hold about you, and get a copy;
- correct your name, role, statement or country;
- remove your signature from the website, which withdraws your consent;
- unsubscribe from email updates and have your address deleted;
- delete your contact messages or any other data about you;
- restrict or object to how we use your data, where we rely on legitimate interest;
- receive your data in a common, machine-readable format, or have it sent to someone else (data portability).
Just write to hello@micropatronage.art. We will respond within one month, and we will do our best to answer sooner. We may ask for a little information to confirm it is really you.
Complaints
If you feel we have not handled your data fairly, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to a data protection authority. In Latvia this is the Data State Inspectorate (Datu valsts inspekcija), Elijas iela 17, Riga, LV-1050, www.dvi.gov.lv. You can also contact the authority in the EU country where you live or work.
References and links to other websites
To show the wider context of micro-patronage, we publish references to related materials that are publicly available on the internet: articles, research, projects and initiatives.
- Authorship is respected. All copyright (autortiesības) stays with the original authors and publishers. We do not claim any of this work as our own.
- We point, we do not copy. We give the title, author or source, and a link to the original. Where we quote, we use short excerpts with clear attribution, as allowed for quotation under Latvian and EU copyright law.
- Inclusion is not endorsement. Listing a reference shows context for the movement. It does not mean the author supports the Manifesto, or that we endorse everything in their work.
- Other websites have their own rules. When you follow a link, you leave micropatronage.art. That site’s own privacy policy and cookies apply, and we are not responsible for them.
If you are an author or rights holder and want a reference corrected, credited differently or removed, write to hello@micropatronage.art. We will respond promptly and in good faith.
Children
The Manifesto is open to everyone who shares its ideas. If you are under 13, please ask a parent or guardian before signing or subscribing, as Latvian law requires their consent for online services at that age.
Changes to this policy
If we change how we handle personal data, we will update this page and the date at the top. If a change is significant, we will also tell subscribers by email before it takes effect.