Privacy Policy for Arete Adventures
Introduction
Arete Adventures is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information. This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, use, disclose, and protect the information you provide when using our site and services related to our curated philosophical travel experiences, small group tours, bespoke itineraries, educational workshops, ethical travel consulting, and retreat planning. By using our services, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy.
Arete Adventures operates from our offices at 147 Front Street East, Suite 305, Toronto, Ontario, M5A 1E3, Canada.
Information We Collect
We collect various types of information to provide and improve our services to you.
- Personal Identification Information: This includes your name, email address, postal address, phone number, date of birth, passport details (for travel bookings), and other similar identifiers when you book a tour, request a bespoke itinerary, register for a workshop, or contact us.
- Travel Preferences and Health Information: Details about your travel preferences, dietary requirements, mobility needs, and relevant health information that might impact your travel experience or require special arrangements, which you voluntarily provide.
- Payment Information: When you make a booking, we collect payment details such as credit card numbers or other financial account information. This data is processed securely by third-party payment processors, and we do not store sensitive payment card details on our servers.
- Correspondence: Records of communications when you contact us through our online platform, email, or phone.
- Website Usage Data: Information about how you access and use our site, such as your IP address, browser type, operating system, referring URLs, pages viewed, and the dates and times of your visits. This helps us understand user behaviour and improve our platform.
- Cookies and Tracking Technologies: We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to track the activity on our site and hold certain information. You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent.
How We Use Your Information
The information we collect is used to:
- Provide and Manage Services: Process your bookings, secure flights, accommodations, and ground transportation, manage educational workshops and discussions, and create bespoke itineraries according to your requests.
- Communicate with You: Send you booking confirmations, updates about your travel arrangements, respond to your inquiries, and provide customer support.
- Personalize Your Experience: Tailor our service offerings and communications to your interests and preferences, including suggesting relevant philosophical travel experiences or workshops.
- Improve Our Services: Analyze usage trends, conduct research, and gather feedback to enhance our online platform, refine our travel offerings, and improve the overall quality of our services.
- Security and Fraud Prevention: Detect and prevent fraudulent or illegal activities, and protect the security of our site and services.
- Legal Compliance: Fulfill legal and regulatory obligations, including those related to travel security and payment processing.
- Marketing: Send you promotional materials and special offers that may be of interest to you, based on your consent where required. You can opt-out of these communications at any time.
Disclosure of Your Information
We may share your information with trusted third parties under specific circumstances:
- Service Providers: We engage third-party companies and individuals to facilitate our services, including but not limited to accommodation providers, airlines, local guides, transport companies, payment processors, and IT service providers. These third parties have access to your personal information only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose.
- Business Transfers: In the event of a merger, acquisition, or asset sale, your personal information may be transferred as a business asset. We will provide notice before your personal information is transferred and becomes subject to a different Privacy Policy.
- Legal Requirements: We may disclose your personal information if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g., a court or a government agency).
- Protection of Rights: We may disclose information when we believe it is appropriate to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding potential violations of our policies, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person, or as evidence in litigation in which we are involved.
- Aggregated Data: We may share aggregated or anonymized data that does not directly identify you for analytical or marketing purposes.
International Data Transfers
As a travel agency, it is often necessary for us to transfer your personal data to countries outside of your own, including to countries with different data protection laws than those in your jurisdiction. For example, when you book an international tour, your personal information will be shared with service providers in the destination country.
We take appropriate measures to ensure that your personal information receives an adequate level of protection when transferred internationally, such as by entering into standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission, or by ensuring that the recipients are certified under an approved data transfer mechanism.
Data Security
We place great importance on the security of your personal information. We implement a variety of security measures, including physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards, to protect your data from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. These measures include using secure servers, encryption, firewalls, and access controls.
While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. Therefore, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
Data Retention
We retain your personal information only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, typically for the duration of our relationship with you and for a reasonable period thereafter to facilitate any follow-up services, resolve disputes, or comply with legal obligations.
Your Data Protection Rights
Depending on your location and applicable data protection laws (such as GDPR), you may have the following rights regarding your personal information:
- The Right to Access: You have the right to request copies of your personal data.
- The Right to Rectification: You have the right to request that we correct any information you believe is inaccurate or complete information you believe is incomplete.
- The Right to Erasure: You have the right to request that we erase your personal data, under certain conditions.
- The Right to Restrict Processing: You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
- The Right to Object to Processing: You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
- The Right to Data Portability: You have the right to request that we transfer the data that we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions.
- The Right to Withdraw Consent: Where we rely on your consent to process your personal information, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the contact details provided below. We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe and in accordance with applicable data protection laws.
Links to Other Websites
Our online platform may contain links to other websites that are not operated by us. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that third party's site. We strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of every site you visit. We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites or services.
Children's Privacy
Our services are not intended for anyone under the age of 18 (Children). We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your Children have provided us with personal information, please contact us. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from Children without verification of parental consent, we take steps to remove that information from our servers.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.
Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, our data practices, or if you would like to exercise your data protection rights, please contact us:
Arete Adventures
147 Front Street East, Suite 305, Toronto, Ontario, M5A 1E3, Canada