Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy describes in detail The Great Traveller Ltd’s Privacy Policy and practices regarding our collection, use and disclosure of information about you. We understand that providing information online involves a great deal of trust on your part. We take this trust very seriously and make it a high priority to ensure the security and confidentiality of the personal information you provide to us when you visit our website or use our services.

The Great Traveller Ltd is committed to protecting our customer privacy and takes its responsibility regarding the security of customer information very seriously. We will be clear and transparent about the information we are collecting and what we will do with that information.

The data controller is The Great Traveller Ltd (referred to as “we”, “us”, “our” or “TGT” in this policy).

This Policy sets out the following:

  • What personal data we collect and process about you in connection with your relationship with us as a customer and through your use of our website
  • Where we obtain the data from
  • What we do with that data
  • How we store the data
  • Who we transfer/disclose that data to
  • How we deal with your data protection rights
  • And how we comply with the data protection rules

Definitions

"trip" – a volunteer project and/or tour as part of a package or as a single travel arrangement.

Personal Data We Collect

Personal data means any information relating to you which allows us to identify you, such as your name, contact details, booking reference number and information about your access to our website.

We collect data from you when you book a trip, submit an enquiry, create an account through the ‘My Projects’ section of the website, use our website or other websites accessible through our website or when you contact us.

Specifically, we may collect the following categories of information

  1. Name, e-mail address, telephone number, nationality
  2. Address, date of birth and medical conditions for passengers who have special medical requirements and/or dietary requirements
  3. Travel history, including information related to past services booked with us
  4. The communications you exchange with us or direct to us via letters, emails, calls, and social media

Personal details about your physical or mental health, alleged commission or conviction of criminal offences are considered “sensitive” personal data under applicable data protection laws. We will process any such data only if you have given your explicit consent, or it is necessary (for instance if you request special assistance), or you have deliberately made it public.

What do we use your personal data for, why and for how long?

Your data may be used for the following purposes:

  1. Providing products and services you request: we use the information you give us to perform the services you have asked for in relation to your trip
  2. Contacting you in the event of a trip time change or cancellation: we send you communications about the services you have asked for and any changes to such services. These communications are not made for marketing purposes and cannot be opted-out of
  3. Administrative or legal purposes: we use your data for statistical and marketing analysis, systems testing, customer surveys, maintenance and development, or to deal with a dispute or claim. Note that we may perform data profiling based on the data we collect from you for statistical and marketing analysis purposes. Any profiling activity will be carried out with your prior consent only and by making best endeavours to ensure that all data it is based on is accurate. By providing any personal data you explicitly agree that we may use it to perform profiling activities in accordance with this Privacy Policy;
  4. Security, health, administrative, crime prevention/detection:  we may pass your information to government authorities or enforcement bodies for compliance with legal requirements;
  5. Customer Services communications: we use your data to manage our relationship with you as our customer and to improve our services and enhance your experience with us; 
  6. Provide tailored services: we use your data to provide information we believe is of interest to you, prior to, during, and after your travel with us and to personalise the services we offer to you
  7. Marketing: from time to time we will contact you with information regarding promotions and ancillary products via e-communications. You will have the choice to opt in or opt out of receiving such communications by indicating your choice at the booking stage. You will also be given the opportunity on every e-communication that we send you to indicate that you no longer wish to receive our direct marketing material.

We will only process your personal data where we have a legal basis to do so. The legal basis will depend on the reasons we have collected and need to use your personal data for.

In most cases we will need to process your personal data so we can enter into our contract with you.

We may also process your personal data for one or more of the following:

  • To comply with a legal obligation (e.g. Immigration or customs requirements);
  • You have consented to us using your personal data (e.g. for marketing related uses);
  • To protect your vital interests or those of another person (e.g. in case of a medical emergency);

Only children aged 16 or over can provide their own consent. For children under this age, consent of the children’s’ parents or legal guardians is required. 

We will not retain your data for longer than is necessary to fulfil the purpose it is being processed for. To determine the appropriate retention period, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the purposes for which we process it.

When we no longer need your personal data, we will securely delete or destroy it. We will also consider if and how we can minimise over time the personal data that we use, and if we can anonymise your personal data so that it can no longer be associated with you or identify you, in which case we may use that information without further notice to you.  

Security of your personal data

We follow strict security procedures in the storage and disclosure of your personal data, and to protect it against accidental loss, destruction or damage. The data you provide to us is protected using SSL (Secure Socket Layer) technology. SSL is the industry standard method of encrypting personal information and credit card details so that they can be securely transferred over the Internet.

All payments are made externally through WorldPay via their secure online payment portal and are transmitted over SSL and stored in compliance with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS).

We may disclose your information to trusted third parties for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. We require all third parties to have appropriate technical and operational security measures in place to protect your personal data, in line with Irish and EU law on data protection rules.

Sharing your personal data

Your personal data may be shared with the following for the purpose outlined in this Privacy Policy:

  1. Government authorities, law enforcement bodies, regulators and airports in your itinerary or to which your flight may fly over for compliance with legal requirements;
  2. Trusted GDS (Global Distribution System) agents through which we book your flight;
  3. Trusted service providers we are using to run our business such as e-mail marketing service providers assisting our marketing team with running customer surveys and providing targeted marketing campaigns;
  4. Legal and other professional advisers, law courts and law enforcement bodies in all countries we operate in to enforce our legal rights in relation to our contract with you;
  5. Third party suppliers of services pursuant to your contract with us in order to fulfil our contract.
  6. Social media: You may be able to access third party social media services through our website or before coming to our website. When you are registered with your social service account, we will obtain the personal information you choose to share with us through these social media services pursuant to their privacy settings in order to improve and personalise your use of our website. We may also use social media plugins on our website. As a result your information will be shared with your social media provider and possibly presented on your social media profile to be shared with others in your network. Please refer to the privacy policy of these third-party social media providers to find out more about these practices.

My Projects Section

All data collected upon registration in the ‘My Project’ section of the website will be processed in line with this Privacy Policy.

You will have the option to stay signed-in to your ‘My Project’ account by checking the “remember me” box. This option will only apply to the computer/device and the browser that you're using when you select the box. If you do not wish to stay signed on a particular browser, simply sign out of ‘My Project’ on that browser.

We will delete any information of a travel companion collected without the companion’s consent, as soon as we become aware of it.

We keep your personal information contained in your ‘My Project’ account for as long as you hold the account. You may delete your ‘My Project’ account by contacting us via email or direct post addressed to ‘The Data Protection Officer’. Please note that general retention periods apply to any personal data we collected to enter into a contract with you or to perform that contract or because we have a legal obligation to process it.

Use of Cookies

Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer's hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow) that enables the site's or service provider's systems to recognise your browser and capture and remember certain information. For instance, we use cookies to help us remember and process the items in your shopping cart. They are also used to help us understand your preferences based on previous or current site activity, which enables us to provide you with improved services. We also use cookies to help us compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future.

You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies. You do this through your browser (like Internet Explorer) settings. Each browser is a little different, so look at your browser's Help menu to learn the correct way to modify your cookies.

If you disable cookies, some features will be disabled, it will turn off some features that make your site experience more efficient and some of your services will not function properly.

Third Party Links

Occasionally, at our discretion, we may include or offer third party products or services on our website. These third party sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. Nonetheless, we seek to protect the integrity of our site and welcome any feedback about these sites.

We along with third-party vendors, such as Google use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookies) and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) or other third-party identifiers together to compile data regarding user interactions with ad impressions, and other ad service functions as they relate to our website.

Opting out: Users can set preferences for how Google advertises to you using the Google Ad Settings page. Alternatively, you can opt out by visiting the Network Advertising initiative opt out page or permanently using the Google Analytics Opt Out Browser add on.

Do Not Track Signals

We honour do not track signals and do not track, plant cookies, or use advertising when a Do Not Track (DNT) browser mechanism is in place and we do not allow third party behavioural tracking.

Data Protection Officer

We have appointed a Data Protection Officer (“DPO”) to oversee compliance with this policy. You have the right to make a complaint at any time to a supervisory authority.

Your Data Protection Rights

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

  • Request information about whether we hold personal information about you, and, if so, what that information is and why we are holding/using it.       
  • Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
  • Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
  • Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
  • Object to processing of your personal information 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. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
  • Object to automated decision-making including profiling, that is not to be subject of any automated decision-making by us using your personal information or profiling of you.
  • Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
  • Request transfer of your personal information in an electronic and structured form to you or to another party (commonly known as a right to “data portability”). This enables you to take your data from us in an electronically usable format and to be able to transfer your data to another party in an electronically usable format.
  • Withdraw consent. In the limited circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal information for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law.

If you want to exercise any of these rights, then please contact our DPO by post at 3 Dairy Yard, Star Street, Ware, Hertfordshire, UK, SG12 7DX. You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights). We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.

Changes to Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy was last updated on May 21, 2018. We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time so please check back regularly to keep informed of any updates.