Privacy of personal information is an important principle for all of us at Further Afield Travel and Tours Inc. 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.

Definition

“Personal Information” means any information about an identifiable individual including information such as home address, phone number, age, gender, religion, ethnic background, family status, political affiliations and health. Personal information does not include the name, title, business address or telephone number of an employee of an organization.

Who are we?

Our travel agency, Further Afield Travel and Tours Inc. (operating as Further Afield Travel and Tours), is a full service travel agency business, specializing in group travel (escorted tours). 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 reservation 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), where applicable.

We collect personal information for the following purposes:

• To make and secure reservations
• To issue transportation documentation and vouchers
• To provide travel suppliers with information to complete the necessary purchasing arrangements for a wide array of travel and tourism products
• To facilitate subscribe to our e-travel newsletter, distribution of our travel menu and various other mailings

Examples of the type of personal information we collect:

• Name
• Address
• Telephone
• Age
• Credit card information
• Passport or Visa information
• Social Insurance Number
• Physical and health limitations
• Next of kin information

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.

Consent

The knowledge and consent of the customer are required for the collection use or disclosure of information except where required or permitted by law.

Protecting Personal Information

We understand the importance of protecting personal information. For that reason, we have taken the following steps:

• Paper information is either under supervision or secure in locked filing cabinets within our after hours locked office
• Electronic hardware is either under supervision or secured in a locked office
• Passwords are used on computers
• Cell phones are digital, making information more difficult to intercept
• Electronic information is transmitted either through a direct line or is anonymized or encrypted
• Staff are trained to collect, use and disclose personal information only as necessary to fulfill their duties and in accordance with our privacy policy
• External consultants and agencies with access to personal information must enter into privacy agreements with us or acknowledge that they abide by PIPEDA
• At Further Afield Travel and Tours Inc. we do not sell or make available customer lists to third parties

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. We keep our client paper files about seven 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 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.

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 to do is ask. We can help you identify the records we might have about you. We will also try to help you understand any information you do not understand.

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 from you on the point and will forward that statement to anyone else who received the earlier information.

We will make our complete policies and practices relating to the management of your personal information readily available to you.

Do you have a concern?

Our Privacy Policy Manager can be reached at (905) 640-0418 or at info@furtherafieldtravel.ca to address any questions or concerns. If you wish to make a formal complaint about our privacy practices, you may make it in writing to our Privacy Policy Manager. Our Privacy Policy Manager will acknowledge receipt of your complaint, ensure this it is investigated promptly and that you are provided with a formal decision and reasons in writing.

For more general inquires, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner oversees the administration of the privacy legislation in the private sector. The Commissioner also acts as a kind of ombudsman for privacy disputes. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner can be reached at:

Information Centre

1.800.282.1367
1.819.994.5444
Fax: 1.819.994.5424
TTY: 1.819.994.6591
www.priv.gc.ca

When you visit www.furtherafieldtravel.ca there is no registration necessary and email addresses are not collected unless you are completing our e-Travel Newsletter form or are requesting information through info@furtherafieldtravel.ca.

We utilize standard Web server log files to help us count our visitors and evaluate our site’s technical capacity. We use this information to find out how many people visit our website and to make our pages more useful to our customers.

Our website has links to tourist information sites. This policy discloses practices for our website only. Once you link to another site, you are subject to the privacy and security policies of the new site. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of all web sites that you visit, particularly if you share personal information.