Your Privacy.
At Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc we are dedicated to protecting your privacy and safeguarding your personal, business and travel information. However you choose to provide information to us, we vigorously protect that information and adhere to the Ten Principles to ensure your personal information is protected.
Terms of Reference:
Personal information includes any factual or subjective information, recorded or not, about an identifiable individual. This includes information in any form, such as:
- Age, name, ID numbers, income, ethnic origin, or blood type-
- Opinions, evaluations, comments, social status, or disciplinary actions
- Employee files, credit records, loan records, medical records, existence of a dispute between a consumer and a merchant, intentions [for example, to acquire goods or services, or change jobs]
Personal information does not include the name, title, business address or telephone number of an employee of an organization.
The Provisions of the Privacy Act require compliance in 10 areas: We have listed those areas below, as well as information on how Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc complies with each requirement.
1. Be Accountable
Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc will comply with all ten principles of the Privacy Act
- Muriel Lee, President, is responsible for Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc's compliance with the Act.
- Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc will protect all personal information held by the company
- Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc does not transfer information to third parties except with our authorized service providers that perform certain services or functions on our behalf or as required by law. Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc does not sell or rent your personal information to anyone.
- Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc, with your explicit consent, shares personal information with a supplier to provide after hours emergency service and with ENSEMBLE TRAVEL'S head office for marketing purposes. Both of these companies are subject to our privacy policy and may only use your information to provide these services.
- Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc makes every reasonable attempt to maintain correct client information and keep private records up to date.
- Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc destroys obsolete files rather than simply discarding them.
Each client file may contain any or all of the following information, collected only with your consent.
- Name [as it appears in your passport)
- Address -- work and home
- Telephone and fax numbers -- home and/or work
- e-mail address
- Frequent flyer/hotel/car rental programs and membership numbers and ticketing options
- Credit card information including card number, card type, cardholder name, and expiration date
- Date of birth [for insurance]
- Seat/meal/allergies/ physical needs and other specific service needs
- Religious affiliation - in the event there is a death while travelling.
- Occupation/Retired information helps to fit client with the right product.
- Next of kin - in the event there is an emergency before or during travel that we can reach a person of authority either with respect to travel details or assistance to passenger.
- Passport details, Number, place of issue, date of issue, expiry date, nationality so that we can accurately access the need for entry visas for a foreign destination
- Travel arranger information including the name, telephone number and e-mail address of a person authorized to make travel arrangements for a traveler
Information collected by Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc may be used to:
- Plan and purchase travel
- Notify you of any changes to your travel arrangements
- Send marketing communications to you
- Respond to your questions or suggestions
- Improve the quality of service provided by Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc
- Provide after hours emergency service
When you make an inquiry, we use your information to create a client account. Information collected is used to confirm and process your travel registration. In addition, information collected from you when you purchase travel is used to bill your credit card and deliver your travel itinerary, either electronically, through the mail or personally delivered.
In the event your travel plans are disrupted because of mechanical, weather, or carrier business conditions, Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc may contact you to inform you of these conditions and help you make alternative travel arrangements.
As a Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc client, or a subscriber to our web site, you may receive via e-mail or regular mail, information about special promotions, surveys, contests, flight specials, trip information, or other travel opportunities with Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc and our marketing partners.
We will use your e-mail address or telephone number to respond to any question or suggestion, or request for assistance you may make.
We maintain personal information to allow us to better serve you by knowing in advance your personal preferences as they pertain to travel.
Sharing your information
Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc does not sell or rent client information to anyone.
Service providers - To provide and process the services you request, Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc shares your personal information with our authorized service providers that perform certain services or functions on our behalf. We only share information about travel either reserved or purchased through Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc. Our service providers need information about your traveler profile, as well as your credit card information, to process and confirm your travel reservation. These service providers will disclose information about your travel profile to hotel, airline, rental car and/or other travel suppliers whose products you have purchased. This information must be shared with our travel suppliers to confirm your reservation and travel preferences. Although Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc offers travel products from hotel, airline, rental car and other travel suppliers that are reputable companies, we do not place limitations on these suppliers from using or disclosing your information without your permission. Therefore, we encourage you to review the information privacy practices of any travel suppliers whose products you purchase through Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc. In addition, these travel suppliers may also contact you as necessary to obtain information about your confirmed reservation.
Our obligations
Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc may be required by law to disclose information you have provided in obtaining our travel products or services. Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc may also disclose information against someone who poses a threat to Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc's interests [such as customer fraud] or whose activities could bring harm to others. In addition, it may be necessary for Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc to provide customer information to third parties, such as credit card companies, for the purpose of resolving disputes that arise in the normal course of business.
Other web sites
There are several places throughout Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc's web site that may link you to other web sites that do not operate under Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc's information privacy practices. When you click through to these web sites, Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc's information privacy practices no longer apply. We recommend that you examine the privacy statements for all third party web sites to understand their procedures for collecting, using and disclosing your information.
How do we collect your information?
Generally information is collected:
- Verbally -- over the telephone, in person at various Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc functions and during office visits
- Electronically- via e-mail
- Written --information via subscription renewals, written correspondence and faxes
What is consent? - Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc considers consent to be an expression of permission to collect and use information for the purpose of providing client services and benefits, or for the provision of consumer information. We obtain consent by:
- Written permission via mail, e-mail or fax
- Verbal permission with a dated notation in the client's file, along with the initials of the staff who recorded the information
- Third party consent, as long as the third party is well known to Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc and/or is in a reasonable position to give such consent [e.g. the travel arranger for a commercial client or the leader of a group traveling]
In order to make our database as efficient as possible with regard to responding to customer inquiries, Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc maintains such personal information as provided by you to process travel requests [e.g. Name, address, contact information, Hotel, airline and car rental preferences, etc.
If you would like to join our mailing list and be informed of promotional offers, we may collect profile information about you as well as demographic information you provide.
5. Limit use, disclosure and retention
Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc only collects information for the purpose of processing travel requests, and for the purpose of maintaining records with regard to the purchase of travel services. With your consent we collect information for the purpose of informing you of promotions that exist from time to time. If you are a client, we retain personal profile information as well as demographic information.
All Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc employees have access to information to process travel requests. As necessary, we share information with suppliers needed to fulfill your requests.
Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc retains personal information and financial records for a period of seven years.
6. Be accurate
Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc endeavours to keep client records as up-to-date as possible, through regular communications with our clients. Personal information on individual clients can be retrieved from our database by a Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc employee in order to verify the accuracy of the information, in consultation with a client.
7. Use appropriate safeguards
Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc employees are made aware of Cruisenet Travel's Privacy Policy with regard to compliance of the Privacy Act.
Information at Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc is kept:
- In a database on the computer. Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc's computer is backed up regularly, with the backup files being kept in a fire-proof locked cabinet on site.
- Paper records are kept in a file cabinet in an area only accessible by staff. Our offices are secured in off hours.
- Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc employees are vigilant with regard to the access of client files.
Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc will always post information about our policies and practices for the management of personal information on our web site at www.cruisenet.ca. Muriel Lee, President of Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc is responsible for Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc's privacy policies and practices. All full time employees are able to update client information. Clients may contact Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc for a copy of the personal information in their files.
9. Give individuals access
Individuals may visit either Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc's office during regular office hours to review their client records. They may also request a copy of the information Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc has in their file, as long as they satisfy verification of their identity. Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc will correct information in client files on a timely basis, usually within 24 hours of notice.
10. Provide recourse
The easiest method of complaint about Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc's enforcement of Privacy Policy and procedures is to communicate directly with our company, via letter, fax, e-mail, telephone or in person. In most cases, complaints or updating can be satisfied within 24 hours. Understandably, complaints that involve more than a simple correction or updating of information should be submitted in writing so that both the complainant and Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc have a paper trail to follow in accounting for the resolution of the complaint.
Should an individual not be satisfied with the handling of a Privacy Policy complaint by a Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc employee, they should bring the complaint directly to the attention of the President of Cruisenet Tours & Travel Inc.
If still not satisfied they should bring the complaint to the attention of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada