PRIVACY POLICY
Who we are
Our website address is: https://traveldescribe.com.
Summary
Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. You must not use this website or our Services if you do not accept this Privacy Policy or our Terms of Use.
Below is a summary of some key terms of this Privacy Policy. We are committed to protecting your personal information when you use our Site and we want you to be confident that your personal information is safe and secure with us. This Privacy Policy explains how we use your personal information including the following:
- where we collect your personal information from
- what personal information we collect
- how we use your personal information
- who your personal information is shared with and
- the rights and choices you have when it comes to your personal information.
Use of our Site is subject to the terms of this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. If you don’t agree to these terms, please stop using the Site immediately.
The main reason we process your personal data is to provide you with the Services that you request from us. For certain purposes set out in section 5 below, we may share your personal information with members of our Group, our partners, service providers, and regulatory or governmental bodies. We will only hold your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we hold that personal information.
To make enquiries or exercise any of your rights as set out in this Privacy Policy, please contact our Data Request Team at info@traveldescribe.com
How do we collect personal information?
- From you – Most of the personal information we collect will be direct from you when you use the Services. We will collect this information from you through the TravelDescribe website, or other similar devices, channels, or applications operated by or on behalf of us (referred to in this Privacy Policy as the “Site”).
- From our partners – If you purchase a product from one of our partners whose products are shown on our Site then they may send us information they hold relating to the product(s) you have purchased. This allows us to track sales and improve our Services.
- From our channel operators – whilst the majority of the channels on our Site are run by us, some of our channels are designed, maintained, and/or run for us by our trusted channel operators. We may receive your personal information from our channel operators and use it in accordance with section 4 below. Where our channel operators collect your personal information on a channel which is maintained by them, they will be acting as the data controller of your personal information. You can see a list of our channel operators including a link to their privacy policies here.
- From our suppliers – We will sometimes use other companies to collect and process your personal information on our behalf, for example we may use IT service providers or market research agencies. Where we use third parties we will make sure that they commit to keep your information safe.
What personal information do we collect?
- We collect and process limited personal data from you when you use the Site. The personal information we may collect when you use the Services may include your email address and postcode if you sign up to receive emails from us. We use this data, to provide your travel deals and travel tips.
- In the course of providing the Services to you, we may also store information about how you use our Site, for example, the pages viewed, the website from which you came to visit our Site, changes you make to information you supply to us, details of the quotes you request and your transactions.
- We do not knowingly collect or store any personal information about children under the age of 16. If you are aged under 16 please get your parent or legal guardian to provide us with your personal information.
- We may monitor or record your calls, emails, sms, or other communications but we will do so in accordance with data protection legislation and other applicable law. Monitoring or recording will always be for business purposes, such as for quality control and training, to prevent unauthorised use of our telecommunication systems and Site, to ensure effective systems operation, to meet any legal obligation, and/or to prevent or detect crime.
- In order to ensure the Services we provide you continue to meet your needs we may ask you for feedback on your experience of using the Site. Any feedback you provide will only be used as part of our program of continuous improvement and will not be published on the Site.
Note that it is your responsibility to check and ensure that all information, content, material, or data you provide on the Site is correct, complete, accurate, and not misleading and that you disclose all relevant facts.
How do we use your personal information?
We may use your personal information:
a.1. to enable you to access and use the Services including:
a.2. passing it to our partners including companies whose products or services are included on our Site, with a view to them providing you with an online quote. When our partners use your personal information to provide a quote they will act as data controllers of your personal information – you can see links to lists of our partners in section 5.1.3 below;
a.3. to process a transaction between you and a third party;
a.4. to track sales, which may involve us sharing data with your product provider relating to the product(s) you have purchased; and
a.5. to enable you to share our content with others, e.g. by using any ‘Email a friend’ or ‘Share this’ functionality on our Site.
b.1. to communicate with you, including some or all of the following:
b.2. sending you information about products and services which we think may be of interest to you – We will only send you this information if you give us your consent for us to do so. We will contact you via email or by other electronic means such as via social and digital media – this may include new product launches, newsletters, and opportunities to participate in market research;
b.3. sending you a confirmation email of your quote – when you obtain a quote with us, you will automatically be sent confirmation of your quote by email so that you have a record of it and can easily retrieve your quote in the future;
b.4. to personalize and improve aspects of our Services including to improve our recommendations and insights. The information we collect helps us tailor our content and improve our suggestions to you and other users about products or services that may interest you or them.
b.5. for research, such as analyzing market trends and customer demographics – If you’ve given us permission, we may contact you to ask you to assist us with market research by asking you questions about the Services and asking you if you would like to complete a review of the Services. We may sometimes ask market research companies to contact you on our behalf.
Who is your personal information shared with and by our partners?
When you use any of our Services, we may disclose your personal information to the following parties:
a.1.1. our channel operators – When you use the Services we may share your personal information with our channel operators for them to use it in accordance with the section above. Where our channel operators collect your personal information on a channel which is maintained by them, they will be acting as the data controller of your personal information provided in relation to a quote. You can see a list of our channel operators including a link to their websites.
a.1.2. our partners including companies whose products or services are included on our Site:
In order to display quotes on the Site, we or a TravelDescribe will send your personal information to our panel of partners. We need to send them your personal information so that they can generate a quote for us to display on the Site. When these companies use your personal information in this way, they will be acting as data controllers of your personal information which means that they are in charge of how they handle your data and we are not responsible for this.
On some of our journeys, you can apply and purchase our partners’ products on our Site (for example travel insurance). When you purchase a Product on our Site a contract will be entered into between you and the relevant product provider and so we will pass your personal information to them.
If you click through to any of our partners’ websites, provide them with additional information on their websites, and/or if you decide to purchase a product from any of our partners then they will be data controllers of your personal information and you should read their own privacy policy which you should find on their website.
a.1.3. Where permitted or required by law or regulation, we may also disclose information about you (including electronic identifiers such as IP addresses) and/or access your account in order to comply with legal or regulatory requirements for example:
a.1.3.1. if required to do so by any court, the Financial Conduct Authority, the Competition and Markets Authority or any other applicable regulatory, compliance, Governmental or law enforcement agency;
a.1.3.2. if necessary in connection with legal proceedings or potential legal proceedings;
a.1.3.3. in connection with the sale or potential sale of all or part of our business and/or
a.1.3.4. if we reasonably believe false or inaccurate information has been provided and fraud is suspected, details may be passed to fraud prevention agencies to prevent fraud and money laundering.
a.2. How do our partners use your personal information and who might they share it with?
In order to provide you with a quote, our partners may exchange information about you with other companies and/or carry out checks with various databases. Our partners act as data controllers in respect of this use of personal information and we are not responsible for it. We have set out below some of the common ways they will share your information:
a.2.1. Some of our partners will use your personal information to assess your circumstances (including information about any third party who is named on the policy) and verify the information that you have provided before providing a quote to you;
a.2.2. Some partners may carry out checks against data they already hold on you, (or is held by the company whose brand they administer the product for or members of their group of companies) such as data from existing products, account data, data from previous product transactions, accounts you may hold with them or loyalty scheme data to share with insurers in order to determine your premium.
Some travel partners may carry out checks with fraud prevention and credit reference agencies, both when you first run your quote and when we run an annual renewal quote. Insurers generally run these checks to ensure that they and credit partners have the necessary facts to assess your risk, verify your identity, help prevent fraud, and to provide you with their best premium and payment options). If partners do these checks, they will be quotation searches only and do not show up on your credit report in the same way that a ‘hard’ check does, but will be visible to other organizations. Both public data (e.g. the electoral roll) and private data (e.g. your personal credit history) may be checked in this way;
a.2.3. Some of our partners may also check public and private higher education sources to obtain information about your educational background and
This information exchange allows our partners to verify the information that is provided during the quote process (including information about any third party who is named on the policy), and also helps to detect fraudulent claims. Our partners may also use the data relating to your quotes and your personal information to create and improve the products and services they offer and to develop and improve their processes, credit risk systems, and policies, so they can better meet the needs of their customers.
If you decide to enter into a contract with one of our partners through any of the Site, the information you have provided to us, together with any further information requested by, and supplied by you or us to the partner, will be held by the partner for the purposes set out in their privacy policy and they will act as data controller of your personal information. Therefore, you are strongly advised to read your chosen provider’s privacy policy and satisfy yourself as to the purposes for which the provider will use your personal information before entering into the contract. We have no responsibility for the uses to which a provider puts your personal information.
TravelDescribe collects non-personally-identifying information
Like most website operators, TravelDescribe collects non-personally-identifying information of the sort that web browsers and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, language preference, referring site, and the date and time of each visitor request. TravelDescribe’s purpose in collecting non-personally identifying information is to better understand how TravelDescribe visitors use its website. From time to time, TravelDescribe may release non-personally-identifying information in the aggregate, e.g., by publishing a report on trends in the usage of its website.
TravelDescribe also collects potentially personally-identifying information like Internet Protocol (IP) addresses for logged in users and for users leaving comments on TravelDescribe.com pages. TravelDescribe only discloses logged in user IP addresses under the same circumstances that it uses and discloses personally-identifying information as described below.
Gathering Of Personally-Identifying Information
Certain visitors to TravelDescribe websites choose to interact with TravelDescribe in ways that require TravelDescribe to gather personally-identifying information. The amount and type of information that TravelDescribe gathers depends on the nature of the interaction. For example, we ask visitors who sign up for an account at TravelDescribe.com to provide a username and email address. TravelDescribe does not disclose personally-identifying information other than as described below. And visitors can always refuse to supply personally-identifying information, with the caveat that it may prevent them from engaging in certain website-related activities.
Aggregated Statistics
TravelDescribe may collect statistics about the behavior of visitors to its websites. For instance, TravelDescribe may monitor the most popular account on the TravelDescribe.com site. TravelDescribe may display this information publicly or provide it to others. However, TravelDescribe does not disclose personally-identifying information other than as described below.
Protection Of Certain Personally-Identifying Information
TravelDescribe discloses potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information only to those of its employees, contractors, and affiliated organizations that (i) need to know that information in order to process it on TravelDescribe behalf or to provide services available at TravelDescribe websites, and (ii) that have agreed not to disclose it to others. Some of those employees, contractors, and affiliated organizations may be located outside of your home country; by using TravelDescribe websites, you consent to the transfer of such information to them. TravelDescribe will not rent or sell potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information to anyone. Other than to its employees, contractors, and affiliated organizations, as described above, TravelDescribe discloses potentially personally identifying and personally-identifying information only in response to a subpoena, court order or other governmental request, or when TravelDescribe believes in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of TravelDescribe, third parties or the public at large. If you are a registered user of a TravelDescribe website and have supplied your email address, TravelDescribe may occasionally send you an email to tell you about new features, solicit your feedback, or just keep you up to date with what’s going on with TravelDescribe and our products. We primarily use our website to communicate this type of information, so we expect to keep this type of email to a minimum. If you send us a request (for example via a support email or via one of our feedback mechanisms), we reserve the right to publish it in order to help us clarify or respond to your request or to help us support other users. TravelDescribe takes all measures reasonably necessary to protect against the unauthorized access, use, alteration, or destruction of potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information.
Cookies
A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. TravelDescribe uses cookies to help TravelDescribe identify and track visitors, their usage of the TravelDescribe website, and their website access preferences. TravelDescribe visitors who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers should set their browsers to refuse cookies before using TravelDescribe websites, with the drawback that certain features of the TravelDescribe website may not function properly without the aid of cookies.
Business Transfers
If TravelDescribe, or substantially all of its assets, were acquired, or in the unlikely event that TravelDescribe goes out of business or enters bankruptcy, user information would be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party. You acknowledge that such transfers may occur, and that any acquirer of TravelDescribe may continue to use your personal information as set forth in this policy.
Privacy Policy Changes
Although most changes are likely to be minor, TravelDescribe may change its Privacy Policy from time to time, and in TravelDescribe’s sole discretion. TravelDescribe encourages visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to its Privacy Policy. Your continued use of this site after any change in this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of such change.