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THE TRAVEL GROUP
Privacy Policy
Privacy
of personal information is an important principle to The
Travel Group. We
are committed to
collecting, using and disclosing personal information responsibly and only
to the extent necessary for the travel products and services we provide.
We also try to be open and transparent as to how we handle personal
information. This document describes our privacy policies.
In order for us to handle your ongoing reservations, we require
your consent to maintain limited information about you.
Please click here to give us
that consent.
What
is personal information?
Personal
information is information about an identifiable individual. Personal
information includes information that relates to their personal
characteristics (e.g., gender, age, income, home address or phone number,
ethnic background, family status), their health (e.g., health history,
health conditions, health services received by them) or their activities
and views (e.g., religion, politics, opinions expressed by an individual,
an opinion or evaluation of an individual). Personal information is to be
contrasted with business information (e.g., an individual’s business
address and telephone number), which is not protected by privacy
legislation. In addition, due the nature of the travel agency business, we
also include in our policies and staunchly protect therein an
individual’s financial information including checking account
information and credit card information.
Who
we are?
The
Travel Group is a full service agency business, and we arrange
travel products and services for our clients with a wide spectrum of
industry suppliers. Accordingly, we deal with a number of
consultants and third parties that may, in the course of their duties,
have limited access to personal information we hold. These include
airlines, railroads, cruise lines, tour operators, computer reservations
system providers, and other travel-related vendors. We restrict their
access to any personal information we hold as much as is reasonably
possible. We also have their assurance that they follow appropriate
privacy principles in accordance with their own policies under the Personal
Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).
We
collect personal information for the following purposes:
Like
all travel agencies, we collect, use and disclose personal information in
order to serve our clients. For our clients, the primary purposes for
collecting personal information are as follows: to make and secure
reservations, to issue transportation documents and vouchers, and to
provide travel suppliers with information to complete the necessary
purchasing arrangements for a wide array of travel and tourism products.
Examples of the type of personal information we collect for those purposes
include the following: name, address, telephone, age, credit card
information, passport or visa information, Social Insurance Number, web
site cookies, and similar personal information necessary to properly
identify our clients and their entitlement to the services we arrange. We
also collect personal information from our employees and contractors to
assure our proper compliance with employment laws, remuneration, tax
payments, and other employee/contractor functions.
Protecting
personal information:
We
understand the importance of protecting personal information. For that
reason, we have taken the following steps:
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Paper
information is either under supervision or secured in a locked or
restricted area.
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Electronic
hardware is either under supervision or secured in a locked or
restricted area at all times. In addition, passwords are used on
computers. All of our cell phones are digital, which signals are more
difficult to intercept.
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Paper
information is transmitted through sealed, addressed envelopes or
boxes by reputable companies.
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Electronic
information is transmitted either through a direct line or is
anonymized or encrypted.
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Staff
are trained to collect, use and disclose personal information only as
necessary to fulfill their duties and in accordance with our privacy
policy.
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External
consultants and agencies with access to personal information must
enter into privacy agreements with us or acknowledge that they abide
by PIPEDA.
Retention
and destruction of personal information:
We
need to retain personal information for some time to ensure that we can
answer any questions you might have about the services provided and for
our own accountability to external regulatory bodies. However, we do not
want to keep personal information too long in order to protect your
privacy. We keep our client files for about two years. Our client and
contact directories are much more difficult to systematically destroy, so
we remove such information when we can if it does not appear that we will
be contacting you again. However, if you ask, we will remove such contact
information right away. We keep any personal information relating to our
general correspondence with people who are not our clients, newsletters,
seminars and marketing activities for about two months after the
newsletter, seminar or marketing activity is over. We destroy paper files
containing personal information by shredding. We destroy electronic
information by deleting it and, when the hardware is discarded, we ensure
that the hard drive is physically destroyed. Alternatively, we may send
some or all of the client file to our client.
You
can look at your information:
With
only a few exceptions, you have the right to see what personal information
we hold about you. Often all you have to do is ask. We can help you
identify what records we might have about you. We will also try to help
you understand any information you do not understand (e.g., various
industry forms, technical language, etc.). We will need to confirm your
identity, if we do not know you, before providing you with this access. We
reserve the right to charge a nominal fee for such requests. If there is a
problem, we may ask you to put your request in writing. If we cannot give
you access, we will tell you within 30 days if at all possible and tell
you the reason, as best we can, as to why we cannot give you access. If
you believe there is a mistake in the information, you have the right to
ask for it to be corrected. This applies to factual information and not to
any professional opinions we may have formed. We may ask you to provide
documentation that our files are wrong. Where we agree that we made a
mistake, we will make the correction and notify anyone to whom we sent
this information. If we do not agree that we have made a mistake, we will
still agree to include in our file a brief statement from you on the point
and we will forward that statement to anyone else who received the earlier
information.
Do
you have a concern?
Our
Privacy Policy Manager, David Elmy, can be reached at (604)
681-6345 or davide@travelg.com
to address any questions
or concerns you might have. If you wish to make a formal complaint about
our privacy practices, you may make it in writing to our Privacy Policy
Manager. S/he will acknowledge receipt of your complaint, ensure that it
is investigated promptly and that you are provided with a formal decision
and reasons in writing. For
more general inquiries, the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Canada
oversees the administration of the privacy legislation in the private
sector. The Commissioner also acts as a kind of ombudsman for privacy
disputes. The Information and Privacy Commissioner can be reached at:
112
Kent Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 1H3 as well as by:
Phone: (613) 995-8210
Toll-free: 1-800-282-1376
Fax: (613) 947-6850
TTY: (613) 992-9190
E-mail: info@privcom.gc.ca.
In
order for us to handle your ongoing reservations, we require your consent
to maintain
limited information about you. Please
click here to give us that consent.
(For additional notes on our Internet Privacy Policy, click
here.)
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