Privacy Policy of Emerald Isle Odysseys
Emerald Isle Odysseys ("we," "our," or "us") is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal data. This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, and disclose information from and about you when you visit our site, use our services, or otherwise interact with us. Our services include bespoke tour planning, luxury travel experiences, cultural immersion holidays, historical site visits, adventure tourism packages, guided hiking and cycling tours, sustainable eco-tourism initiatives, and corporate incentive travel.
1. Information We Collect
We collect various types of information in connection with the services we provide.
Information You Provide to Us Directly:
- Personal Identifiers: Name, address (physical and email), telephone number, date of birth, passport details, visa information, and nationality, collected when you make a booking, request a quote, or register for an account.
- Financial Information: Payment card details (processed securely by third-party payment processors), bank account details for refunds, if applicable. We do not store full payment card numbers on our servers.
- Travel Preferences and Special Requirements: Details about your travel preferences, dietary restrictions, mobility impairments, health information relevant to travel (e.g., allergies, medical conditions), and emergency contact information, to ensure your safety and comfort during our tours.
- Communications: Content of your communications with us, including emails, phone calls, and feedback forms.
Information Collected Automatically:
- Usage Data: Information about how you interact with our site, such as pages visited, order of pages visited, time spent on pages, and referring URLs.
- Device Data: Information about the device you use to access our site, including IP address, browser type, operating system, and device identifiers.
- Cookies and Similar Technologies: We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to track activity on our site and hold certain information. For more information, please see our Cookie Policy [if applicable, otherwise state it's part of this Private Policy].
Information from Third Parties:
- We may receive information about you from partners, affiliates, or other third parties who provide services related to your travel, such as accommodation providers, airlines, or local tour operators. This information is typically shared to facilitate your booking and tailor your experience.
2. How We Use Your Information
We use the information we collect for various purposes, primarily to provide and improve our tourism services.
- To Provide Services: To process your bookings, arrange travel logistics, personalize your tour experiences, and provide customer support.
- To Communicate with You: To send booking confirmations, updates about your travel, important service announcements, and respond to your inquiries.
- For Marketing and Promotions: To send you marketing communications about our services, special offers, and news that we believe may be of interest to you, based on your preferences. You can opt-out of these communications at any time.
- For Internal Operations: For internal record keeping, budgeting, reporting, improving our service offerings, and developing new products.
- For Security and Fraud Prevention: To protect our site, services, and customers from fraud, unauthorized access, and other illegal activities.
- To Comply with Legal Obligations: To meet our legal and regulatory requirements, including those related to travel and taxation.
3. Legal Basis for Processing Personal Data (GDPR)
We process your personal data based on the following legal grounds, as required by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):
- Performance of a Contract: Processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract (e.g., fulfilling your tour booking).
- Legitimate Interests: Processing is necessary for our legitimate interests or those of a third party, provided those interests are not overridden by your fundamental rights and freedoms (e.g., improving our services, marketing, security).
- Consent: Where you have given explicit consent for specific processing purposes (e.g., for sending marketing communications or processing sensitive data like health information). You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.
- Legal Obligation: Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject.
4. Sharing Your Information
We may share your personal data with third parties in the following circumstances:
- Service Providers: With third-party vendors and service providers who perform services on our behalf, such as payment processors, IT support, marketing agencies, and analytics providers.
- Travel Partners: With airlines, hotels, local tour operators, transport companies, and other partners essential for the fulfillment of your travel arrangements. This may include sharing sensitive personal data (e.g., dietary or health requirements) with relevant partners to ensure your needs are met.
- Legal and Regulatory Requirements: If required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g., a court order or government agency).
- Business Transfers: In connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business to another company.
5. International Data Transfers
As our services involve international travel, your personal data may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area (EEA), including countries where data protection laws may be less stringent than those in the EEA. When we transfer your data internationally, we implement appropriate safeguards to ensure your personal data remains protected in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable data protection laws. These safeguards may include:
- Adequacy Decisions: Transferring data to countries deemed to provide an adequate level of data protection by the European Commission.
- Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs): Implementing Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission, which provide contractual obligations for data protection.
- Explicit Consent: Obtaining your explicit consent for specific international transfers where appropriate and necessary for fulfilling your travel arrangements.
6. Data Retention
We retain your personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, including for the purpose of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data, and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
7. Your Data Protection Rights
Emerald Isle Odysseys respects your rights regarding your personal data. Under GDPR, you have the following rights:
- The Right to Access: You have the right to request copies of your personal data. We may charge you a small fee for this service.
- The Right to Rectification: You have the right to request that we correct any information you believe is inaccurate. You also have the right to request that we complete the information you believe is incomplete.
- The Right to Erasure (Right to Be Forgotten): 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.
If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you. To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the contact details provided below.
8. Security Measures
We have implemented appropriate technical and organizational security measures designed to protect the security of any personal information we process. However, please remember that we cannot guarantee that the internet itself is 100% secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, transmission of personal information to and from our site is at your own risk. You should only access the services within a secure environment.
9. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The updated version will be indicated by an updated "Revised" date and the updated version will be effective as soon as it is accessible. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy frequently to be informed of how we are protecting your information.
10. How to Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, our data practices, or if you wish to exercise any of your rights, please contact us at:
Emerald Isle Odysseys
315 Merrion Strand
Sandymount, Dublin, D04 X7X8
Ireland
Phone: +353 1 543 2109
Email: bookings@emeraldisleodysseys.ie
11. Right to Lodge a Complaint
If you are a resident of the European Economic Area (EEA), and you believe that our processing of your personal data is not in compliance with the GDPR, you have the right to lodge a complaint with your supervisory authority. In Ireland, the data protection authority is the Data Protection Commission (DPC).