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Okavango.com Privacy Policy

Welcome to Okavango.com's Privacy Policy. We value your privacy and are committed to protecting the personal information you share with us. This policy explains how we collect, use, protect, and delete your data.

As a tour operator, we need to collect personal information from you and your traveling parties to provide our services. We take all reasonable steps to ensure that your data is treated securely and in compliance with this Privacy Policy.

Please note that we may update and review this policy page periodically. We recommend checking this page from time to time to ensure that you are satisfied with any changes.

About this privacy policy

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) and the UK Data Protection Act 2018 (and any law which replaces it, including the UK Data Protection Bill), we (Okavango.com) have a legal obligation to safeguard the personal information we collect. As the "Data Controller," we are responsible for deciding how your personal information is used.

Our privacy policy covers the following topics:

Consent
Types of information we collect
How we collect your personal information
Why we collect your date and how we use it
How we handle your information
How we protect your data
What choices you have
Updates or changes to this privacy policy

We will handle and maintain your personal data in compliance with the appropriate lawful basis and with your consent, and we will never trade it for marketing purposes. We will only request your consent in specific instances and contexts where we outline how we plan to use your personal data. By disclosing your personal data, you consent to the transfer, storage, and processing of your information. We will take all reasonable steps to guarantee that your data is treated securely and in accordance with our privacy policy.

If you provide us with someone else's personal data, you must ensure that they have explicitly given you authorization to do so on their behalf. Additionally, you should ensure that they comprehend how their personal data may be used by us, where appropriate.

2. Types of information we collect

We may collect some or all of the following information about you or other members of your group:

First name, surname, and contact details such as telephone number, email address, postal address, date of birth, gender, best time to call you, number and ages of travelers in your party, departure/return dates, preferred airports, passport details
Card and payment information, as well as financial data
Sensitive data such as health, medical, dietary, mobility, disability, criminal convictions when traveling through countries where this is important, or other requirements relevant to the service you are inquiring about or your contract with us
Data collected or created from any surveys we conduct
Data gathered or generated from any competitions or promotions we run
Correspondence, messages, and communications, including those between you and us, as well as those between us and third parties, related to any booking or booking inquiry or the performance of any contract
Information created concerning the performance of any booking or other contract made with or through us, including details about anything that happened during any holiday or other travel services, and information relating to payments to be made
We may collect information about your visits to, browsing of, and use of our website, unless your web browser blocks this. The range of data we collect will depend on how you interact with our website.

This information may include:

Your IP address (a unique identifier allocated to your computer for your connection to the internet)
Your computer device details (PC, tablet, smartphone, watch, etc.)
The web browser you used (e.g., Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Chrome)
Your operating system (e.g., Windows, Windows Phone, OSX, iOS, Android, Linux, etc.)
Your time-zone
Your browser plug-ins
Any web-page you came from, identified as the referrer web page address by your web browser
Cookies
Page response times
Download error
Pages and parts of pages you visit
Usage you make of our website, including enquiries and searches undertaken
Products you viewed
Products you requested through the website
Length of visit to website and pages
Page interaction information (such as scrolling, keys pressed, mouse clicks, touches, and mouse-overs)
Holiday photos and videos that you take and share with us during or after your trip
Blog/diary entries you send us during or after your trip
Advanced passenger information (API)

3. How we collect your personal information

When you visit our website

When using our web contact forms to submit an enquiry or ask a question, we will collect personal information from you. This includes your name, contact information, details of your preferred destinations and countries, and any additional details of your travel plans that you voluntarily provide to us.
We may collect standard information by default, such as your domain and IP (Internet Protocol) address, computer, browser, operating system, internet connection, referral information, and search terms via tools like Google Analytics. We can analyse how visitors use our website using your IP address. This identifies your computer or service provider, or information about your browser type, authentication identifiers, and other software and hardware information. If you access our website through a mobile or other device, we may collect your mobile device identifier, geolocation data (including your precise location), or other transactional information for that device. We may combine this information with other information that we have collected to make our website and our communications to you more targeted to your interests.
We may use cookies to store small pieces of information on your computer to simplify your interaction with us. Cookies also help us analyse web traffic and improve our website's content. For more information, please refer to our Cookie Policy.
To understand how web visitors interact with our website, we may use Google Analytics. This helps us track pages visited, browsing duration, and user actions such as submitting a holiday request or signing up for our newsletter. Please see Google's privacy policy for more details.
We may disclose impersonal information to relevant third parties about our website's traffic profile, including internet advertising companies like Google and Facebook. This helps us target advertisements on our website and/or other websites more effectively. Please refer to our cookie page for more information about cookies used on our website and how to remove them.
When you upload an image to our customer photo gallery, we may collect your name, email address, and the images or video content that you agree to let us use.

When you sign up to our newsletter

When you sign up to our email newsletter on our website:

We will ask for your first name, surname, and email address. We use this information to send you the newsletters you have subscribed to, and we keep it indefinitely. However, you can opt-out at any time.
We may collect additional information from you such as your date of birth, booking history (if you're an existing customer), enquiry history (if you have ever enquired about any of our holidays), and personal interests. This information helps us communicate with you better and tailor our messages to your preferences.
We may also collect details of your email activity, including links you click and web browsing activity, to send you more relevant communications.
We may use the information collected to personalize and target our online and social media advertising.

You can unsubscribe from our newsletter at any time by emailing info@okavango.com.

When you request a quotation (travel plan) from us:

We will require you to provide your name, phone number, email address, postal address, and information about the group members traveling with you (with their explicit consent) so we can provide you with a quote. We keep this information indefinitely and rely on legitimate interests as the basis of consent.
We collect details about your travel arrangements, including passport and flight information.
We also collect any communication related to your inquiries to efficiently run our business.
If you request a quotation, you have the option to subscribe to our newsletters, which you can unsubscribe from at any time. However, please note that even if you opt-out of promotional newsletters, you may still receive service-related communications from us, such as booking confirmations and important travel information.

When you confirm a booking with us

When you make a booking with us, we collect:

We collect information related to quoting and booking travel services, including details about family and travel companions, such as names, emergency contacts, and special service needs, like disability, medical or dietary restrictions, passport information, dates of birth, insurance information, criminal convictions when travelling through relevant countries, visa information, nationality, and country of residence. This may also include disclosure of religious beliefs.
We collect information about purchases, including what was bought, when it was bought, how it was paid for, and other payment information. We do not store payment details.
We gather social preferences, interests, and activities to provide better-tailored services.
We are legally obligated to collect Advance Passenger Information (API) for passengers traveling to certain destinations. This information includes details such as names, passport information, and nationality. We share this information with airlines to aid in aviation safety and security. We keep this information indefinitely to comply with our legal obligations.
We offer the option to subscribe to our newsletters when booking a holiday. You can subscribe and unsubscribe at any time. However, please note that even if you unsubscribe from promotional newsletters, you may still receive service-related communications from us, such as booking confirmations and important information about your enquiry.
We may also retain communications related to enquiries to ensure our business runs efficiently.

Important note regarding the personal data you provide about other individuals:

According to the terms of this policy, we may use personal data about other individuals provided by you, including those people on your booking, including minors.

Before providing the personal data of other travellers or guests on your trip, please confirm with them that they explicitly consent to you sharing their personal details with us. Additionally, make sure they understand how we may use their personal data.

Please inform them about our privacy policy and provide them with our contact details if they have any questions. If any of these third parties wish to speak to us directly about the trip or our use of their data, please let us know.

When you call us

When you phone us, we may collect:

Telephone information including phone numbers, call duration and call recordings that we use for training and quality control.
No card details are recorded during call recording.

When you use our online web chat

Our website offers an online chat feature, which collects personal information from you on our behalf. The third party providing this feature is responsible for processing this data and keeps it indefinitely in accordance with their Terms of Service. Rest assured that we only receive this information from them and take measures to ensure its security.

When you return from a Sabi Sands safari

After your return, we may collect:

Feedback and information relevant to customer surveys, competitions, feedback and market research.
Blog content from your travels that you send us and you give us consent to use in our website or for marketing purposes.
Photos or videos that you’ve taken in any Rickshaw holiday that you send over or upload to our customer gallery.

4. Why we collect your data and how we use it

We collect your data:

To communicate with you about your holiday

We may contact you using your email address or phone number to communicate about your holiday, providing you with information and updates regarding your enquiry or booking. We may also use this information to respond to your inquiries or requests.

Our use of your information in this way is based on our legitimate interest to ensure we can assist you in finding the best destination and planning your ideal holiday. We are committed to protecting your rights whenever we rely on our legitimate interests.

To provide you with the holiday you’ve booked with us

When you book trips with us, we'll ask you to provide certain details about your travel arrangements, including your passports, emergency contacts, travel insurance arrangements, preferences, special requirements, frequent flyer club membership, visa requirements, and flights. We'll also ask for details about any friends or family accompanying you as part of your booking.

We use this information to help organize your trip, make bookings on your behalf, and ensure that you (and any friends or family) receive the products and services set out in your itinerary. We collect this information to fulfill our contract with you and provide the quality of service we strive for.

If you're a regular guest, we may retain some of this personal information so that we can use it when you next book with us. This helps us improve our customer journey and ensure we take care of our regular customers.

To improve customer service

Your personal information helps us provide efficient customer service and support. We aim to provide the best service possible, so when you contact us via email or phone, we may use your personal data to assist you with your queries. We may also record calls or collect information from our Live Chat feature to ensure quality service and for training purposes.

We collect this information to fulfill our legitimate business interests, such as training our travel specialists to provide excellent travel advice and support to our customers.

In some cases, we may also collect sensitive personal information, such as details about your health conditions, disabilities, access requirements, special dietary requirements, or criminal convictions in countries where relevant. We collect this information directly from you to ensure that your trip is suitable for your needs and to keep you safe during your travels with us. We may require your explicit consent to process this information.

To improve our products and day-to-day operations

In order to protect your personal data, prevent fraud, and ensure health and safety, we monitor how our services are used. This enables us to identify and respond to security incidents, accidents, and other events that may arise. In some cases, we may need to use personal data to manage these situations, including for medical and insurance purposes. Our goal is to ensure that our services are safe and secure for you to use.

To personalise user experience

We may utilize personal data for conducting market research and internal research and development. We use this data to enhance our product range, services, IT systems, security, know-how, and our communication approach towards you.

Our goal is to ensure that marketing communications about our products and services, as well as those of our suppliers and retail partners, including online advertising, are relevant to your interests. In order to achieve this, we may use your personal data to gain a better understanding of your interests. This allows us to predict what other products, services, and information you may be most interested in. As a result, we can tailor our communications to make them more engaging and relevant to you.

By examining your browsing behavior and purchases, we can better comprehend you as a customer and provide personalized offers and services.

Furthermore, we may measure your responses to marketing communications relating to our products and services. This enables us to offer you products and services that better cater to your needs as a customer.

To improve our website

To improve our products and services, we may use any feedback you provide. We also monitor and record user interactions with our website to understand consumer behavior and improve the user experience. In order to collect technical information about you when you visit our website, we may collect the internet domain you use, your IP address or other device identifier, your browser type and version, the operating system and platform that you are using, the screen resolution of your device, the dates and times when you access our website, the full URLs of the pages you visit and the websites or links that you use to access our website, details of products or services that are viewed, and the length of visits to certain pages of the website. We use cookies to collect this information, and you can find more information about our use of cookies in our cookie policy.

We use this information to manage and secure our website (such as troubleshooting and testing) and to improve the overall user experience. We do not attempt to identify individual users or their usage habits from this data.

We collect this information to fulfill our legitimate interests as a business to ensure that our website is appropriate for our customers, including by displaying information that our customers are interested in. We also rely on our legitimate interest in measuring customer satisfaction and troubleshooting any website issues. If required by law, we may seek and rely on your consent.

To process payments

We may use the information that users provide about themselves when placing an order only to provide service to that order. We do not share this information with outside parties except to the extent necessary to provide the service.

To run a promotion, competition, survey or other website feature

We will rely on your consent or on our legitimate interests (depending on whether we are marketing or carrying out market research), whilst always ensuring that your rights are protected.

Promotions and competitions

We need to process your personal data so that we can manage any promotions and competitions you choose to enter, including those we run with our suppliers and partners. For example, we wouldn’t be able to notify you if you win a prize unless we have your contact details.

Customer research

In order to enhance our understanding of you as a customer and offer services and marketing communications tailored to your interests (including relevant online advertising), we may merge the personal information obtained when you make a booking with personal data gathered from other sources, including our website.

Customer surveys

We may invite you to take part in customer surveys, questionnaires and other market research activities to understand your needs and provide you with a more personalised experience, but also to better inform our other guests.

Social media

When you interact with us on social media, such as by tagging us in a post or messaging us directly, we may collect information about you, such as your username, to enable us to respond to your comments and inquiries. Our goal is to provide our customers with the best possible experience, while safeguarding your rights. We rely on our legitimate interests to collect this information.

Guest photo gallery

When you upload holiday images or videos to our customer gallery on our website, we collect certain personal data, such as your name, email address, and content. By uploading the content, you agree to grant Okavango.com the right to use it for commercial use in perpetuity and worldwide, in any media, without the need to credit you unless otherwise agreed in writing. We also collect your name and email address to associate the uploaded content to its original owner and to attribute the rights to that content if necessary. This information is stored in a secure database on our servers, and we only use it to substantiate and act upon any claims or removal requests for the associated content. We take the security and privacy of your personal data seriously and only collect it for the purpose of protecting your rights while ensuring the best possible experience for our customers.

To send promotional marketing emails

If you have agreed to receive our newsletters, we may use your email address to send you newsletters containing holiday ideas and inspiration. Additionally, we may use the data we collect from you (either directly or through our website or advertising) to measure the effectiveness of our marketing communications and determine your interests.

We will rely on your consent to directly contact you about our offerings. However, in other situations, we will rely on our legitimate interests to carry out efficient and appropriate marketing and advertising for our services, always ensuring that your rights are protected. You can unsubscribe from our newsletters or withdraw your consent at any time by emailing info@okavango.com or using the 'unsubscribe' option in any promotional email.

5. How we handle your information

The privacy of your personal data and that of your travel companions is of utmost importance to us. We do not sell, distribute, rent, or lease your personal information to any third parties, unless we are required by law to do so or have obtained your explicit consent. We assure you that we will never share, rent, or exchange your personal data to any third parties for marketing purposes. We value your privacy and will handle your information with care and respect. However, we may disclose your personal data to our trusted partners who are involved in providing the holiday services you have booked and who require this information to deliver the services to you.

Who we share your data with:

We may share your personal information with selected trusted third party business partners and service providers who help us perform services related to the contracts we enter into with you. These partners may include local businesses in the destinations you are traveling to, as well as Travelspirit, hotels, guides, and drivers. When we share information with these third parties, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service, and we make every effort to ensure that your information is kept secure and is not used for their own direct marketing purposes.
We may share your personal information with our holding company, Idlewild Africa Travel BV, and its subsidiary brands.
We may share your personal information with any other third parties if necessary to comply with legal obligations or enforce agreements. For example, we are required to provide airlines with a passenger's mobile phone number and email contact details under IATA Resolution 830d, so the airline can inform the passenger of any operational difficulties.
We may share your personal information with any other third parties if it is necessary to protect our or your rights, property, or safety and/or those of others.
We may integrate some third-party web applications to enhance our customer experience, such as Trustpilot. In such cases, we may share your first name and email address with these third parties so that they can invite you to review your holiday experience. This is part of our post-holiday process to understand how we can improve our services.

It is important to note that some of our providers may be based in countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA) that may not have data protection legislation as robust as the EU and The Netherlands. However, we take steps to protect your privacy rights in accordance with this privacy notice. Specifically, we ensure that our overseas partners have entered into a formal agreement with us and meet our data security standards, which means they will only use your data for the purpose of providing the service you have requested. We only disclose the necessary personal information to deliver the service.

At Okavango.com, we process this data to meet our legal obligations under EU law and to fulfill the contract you have agreed to. If we cannot provide this information to relevant suppliers, whether in the EEA or elsewhere, we cannot continue to process your booking. By booking with us, you consent to the sharing of your information with relevant parties as outlined in this Privacy Policy.

6. How we protect your data

At Okavango.com, we are committed to ensuring the security and protection of your personal information. To prevent unauthorized access or disclosure, we have implemented physical, electronic, and managerial measures both online and offline.

Our website, www.Okavango.com, is protected by the highest level of online security. All the information you provide to us is stored securely on our servers and protected by the best available firewalls. We do not store any payment details. Payment transactions are processed through our trusted partner Worldline. Our system is constantly monitored to validate data and user authorization.

We take full responsibility for ensuring the proper security measures are in place to protect your information. We need to share your information with relevant suppliers such as airlines, local partners, hotels, tour guides, and transport companies, etc., to arrange your travel arrangements. In some cases, we may also need to share information with security or credit checking companies, public authorities such as customs or immigration, as required by law.

Please note that, as your holiday will take place outside the European Economic Area (EEA), the data protection laws in your destination may not be as robust as those in the EU and The Netherlands. We will not share your information with anyone who is not responsible for your travel arrangements. This also applies to sensitive information such as details of disabilities or dietary/religious requirements, or criminal convictions where applicable. If we cannot share this information with the relevant suppliers, we cannot provide your booking. By making a booking with us, you consent to us sharing your information with relevant parties.

Please be aware that the personal data we collect from you may also be processed by our staff or our supplier's staff operating outside the EEA who provide support services.

If you ask us to stop sending you direct marketing communications, we will retain only the minimum information necessary (such as name, address, or email address) to comply with your request.

Retention of Personal Data

Our intention is to retain your information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected as outlined in this privacy notice. We will not retain more information than is required. If you require further clarification on this matter, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@okavango.com.

7. What choices you have

You can unsubscribe from email communications

We strive to create engaging promotional content that you will enjoy receiving. However, we understand that your preferences may change and you may wish to unsubscribe from future marketing communications. Rest assured, each email we send you will contain clear instructions on how to opt-out. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the 'unsubscribe' link located at the bottom of any of our emails, or by sending us an email at info@okavango.com.

You can amend or ask us to stop contacting you

At any time, you have the right to ask Okavango.com to amend or stop how it uses your personal information including for marketing purposes. You can contact us by emailing us using our contact details below.

If you have booked a trip with us, however, we will need to gather, distribute and retain your personal details according to the terms set out in this privacy policy otherwise we would be unable continue to process your booking and fulfil your contract.

You can ask us to remove your personal information

If you would like us to remove the personal information we hold about you, please contact us using the below contact details.

You can request what date we hold about you

You have the right to check that your personal data is being processed lawfully and to see what personal data we hold about you by means of something called a “subject access data request”. This may be subject to an administration fee to meet our costs in providing you with details of any personal data we hold about you. For more details on how to do this, please contact by sending an email to info@okavango.com.

You can file an official complaint

In the unlikely event that you need to, please note that you have the right to file a complaint with the supervisory authority, Dutch Data Protection Authority (Dutch DPA). You can find more information at their website.

8. Updates or changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy periodically and without notice to ensure our compliance with the law and to maintain our high standards. To stay informed, please check this page regularly. Any changes to the policy will be posted here.

We have aimed to create a clear and easy-to-understand Privacy Policy. However, if you have any feedback on how we can improve it, or if you have any queries regarding the collection, use, or disclosure of your personal information, please feel free to email us at info@okavango.com.

Last updated: March 2023.

Who we are

Okavango.com is a trade name of Idlewild Africa Travel BV. Idlewild Africa Travel is a company registered in The Netherlands with number 70511268. Our address is: Idlewild Africa Travel BV, Muurhuizen 104, 3811 EL, Amersfoort, The Netherlands.