PRIVACY POLICY


School Tours of America is committed to ensuring that your privacy and that of your minor child is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you or your minor child can be identified when using this website, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement. Before collecting, using, or disclosing the information of any child under the age of sixteen (16), School Tours of America will first obtain verifiable consent of the parent or guardian of the minor child.

WHAT THIS PRIVACY NOTICE COVERS

This privacy policy sets out how School Tours of America uses and protects any information that you give School Tours of America when you use this website. The Privacy Notice will explain:

  • What types of personal data we collect and why we collect it.
  • When and how we may share personal data both within School Tours of America and with our business partners and other.
  • Your choices regarding your data including access, updates and erasure.

School Tours of America reserves the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time. Such changes, modifications, additions or deletions shall be effective immediately upon notice thereof, which may be given by means including, but not limited to issuing an email to the e-mail address listed by registered users or posting the revised Privacy Policy (or changes, modifications, additions or deletions). You acknowledge and agree that it is your responsibility to maintain a valid e-mail address as a registered user, review this site and this Privacy Policy periodically and to be aware of any modifications. If we materially change the kinds of information change the kinds of information we collect, change how we use the information, or offer the information to new and different third parties, the parent of the minor child will be informed and a new verifiable consent will be requested.

WHAT WE MAY COLLECT

We may collect the following information when you or your minor child register for services or browse our website or mobile apps:

  • name;
  • address, email address, phone number and date of birth;
  • your account login details, such as your username and the password you choose;
  • demographic information such as postcode, preferences and interests;
  • Information about your browsing behavior on our website and mobile apps;
  • Information about when you click on one of our advertisements, including advertisements on other websites;
  • Information about the way you access our digital services, including operating system, IP address, online identifiers and browser details;
  • Social preferences, interests and activities.

We may collect the following information when you buy our products for yourself or on behalf of your minor child:

  • Passenger information, passport details, other ID document details; Insurance details;
  • Insurance details;
  • Relevant medical data and any special, dietary, religious or disability requests;
  • Information about your purchases, including what you bought, when and where you bought it, how you paid for it and credit or payment information;
  • Information about your browsing behavior on our website and mobile apps;
  • Information about when you click on one of our advertisements, including advertisements on other websites;
  • Information about the way you access our digital services, including operating system, IP address, online identifiers and browser details;
  • Social preferences, interests and activities.

We may collect the following information when you contact us or we contact you to take part in promotions, competitions, surveys or questionnaires about our services:

  • Personal data you provide when you connect with us, including by email, mail, and telephone or through social media, such as your name, username and contact details.
  • Details of emails and other digital communications we send to you that you open, including any links within those communications that you click on.
  • Your feedback and contributions to customer surveys and questionnaires.

Other sources of personal data:

  • We may use personal data from other sources, such as specialist companies that supply information, retail partners, and public registers.
  • Your insurance company, their agents and medical staff may exchange relevant personal data and special categories of personal data with us in circumstances where we/they need to act on your behalf or in the interest of other customers or in an emergency.
  • If you log-in using your social network credentials to connect to our platforms and online services e.g. Facebook, Google+, Twitter, you will agree to share your user details with us. For example, your name, email address, date of birth, location and any other information you choose to share with us.

Personal data you provide about others:

  • We use personal data about other individuals provided by you, such as those people on your booking.
  • By providing other people’s personal data, you must be sure that they agree to this and you are allowed to provide it. You should also ensure that, where appropriate, they understand how their personal data may be used by us.

WHAT WE DO WITH THE INFORMATION WE GATHER

We may use your personal data in a variety of ways and in particular for the following reasons:

TO PROVIDE THE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES YOU REQUEST

We may need to process your personal data or that of your minor child so that we can manage your account or booking, provide you with the products and services you want to buy and help you with any orders and refunds you may request.

TO MANAGE AND IMPROVE OUR PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND DAY-TO-DAY OPERATIONS

We use personal data to manage and improve our products, websites, mobile apps, customer loyalty or recognition programs and other services. We monitor how are services are used to help protect your personal data, detect and prevent fraud, other crimes and misuse of services. This helps ensure that you can safely use our services. We may use personal data to respond to and manage security operations, accidents or other similar incidents, including medical and insurance purposes. We may use personal data to carry out market research and internal research and development, and to develop and improve our product range, services, IT systems, security and the way we communicate with you.

TO PERSONALIZE YOUR EXPERIENCE

We want to ensure that marketing communications relating to our products and services, including online advertising, are relevant to your interests. To do this we may use your personal data to better understand your interests so that we can try to predict what other products, services and information you might be most interested in. This enables us to tailor our communications to make them more relevant and interesting for you. Looking at your browsing behavior and purchases helps us to better understand you as a customer and it allows us to provide you with personalized offers and services. We may also measure responses to marketing communications relating to products and services we offer, which enables us to offer you products and services that meet your needs as a customer. If you do not want to receive personalized services from us, you can change your preferences online, over the phone or by emailing us at any time. We will update our records as soon as possible.

TO MAKE CONTACT WITH YOU AND INTERACT WITH YOU

We want to serve you better as a customer so if you contact us, for example by email, mail, telephone or social media, we may use the personal data to provide clarification or assistance to you. 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 retail partners. For example, if you win a prize. We may invite you to take part in customer surveys, questionnaires and other market research activities carried out by School Tours of America and by other organizations on our behalf. To help us to better understand you as a customer, and to be able to provide you with services and marketing communications (including online advertising relevant to your interests), we may combine the personal data we collect when you make purchases in-shop with personal data collected from our websites, mobile apps and other sources. We do not sell your personal data or that of your minor child to third parties.

MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKET RESEARCH

From time to time we may send you relevant offers and news about our products and services in a number of ways, including by email. We may also send you information about other companies’ products and services that we believe may be of interest to you. We will only do this if you previously agreed to receive these marketing communications. When you book or register with us we will ask you if you would like to receive marketing communications. You can change your marketing preferences online, over the phone, using the “unsubscribe” link in our emails, replying STOP to the short code in our marketing text messages or by writing to us at any time. Of course, the choice is entirely yours, but if you say you do not want to receive marketing information from us you will miss out on receiving great offers and promotions that may be of interest to you. You may still receive service-related communications from us. For example, confirming bookings you make with us and providing important information about the use of our products and/or services. We would like to hear your views to help us improve our products and services, so we may contact you for market research purposes. You always have the choice about whether to participate or continue in our market research.

SHARING PERSONAL DATA WITH SUPPLIERS AND RETAIL PARTNERS

In order to provide products or services you have requested, we may share your personal data or that of your minor child with suppliers of your travel arrangements, including airlines, hotels and transport companies. We also work with carefully selected suppliers that carry out certain functions on our behalf. For example, companies that help us with IT services, storing and combining data, marketing, market research, processing payments and delivering products and services. We may need to share personal data to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights; this includes providing personal data to others for the purpose or preventing fraud and reducing credit risk. When we share personal data with other organizations, we require them to keep it safe, and the must not use your personal data for their own marketing purposes. We only share the minimum personal data that enables our suppliers and retail partners to provide their services to you and us.

SHARING PERSONAL DATA WITHIN SCHOOL TOURS OF AMERICA

Our privacy notice applies to all of the services offered by School Tours of America but excludes services that have separate privacy notices that do not incorporate this Privacy Notice. We may share the minimum personal data necessary with other companies and members of School Tours of America for example, to provide the products and services you request; to manage and improve our products, services and day-to-day operations; to help to personalize your experience; where appropriate, to make contact and interact with you; and if allowed and appropriate, for marketing or marketing research purposes. We may also share personal data with an organization we sell or transfer (or enter into negotiations to sell or transfer) any of our businesses or any of our rights or obligations under any agreement we have with you. If the transfer or sale goes through, the organization receiving your personal data can use your data in line with this Privacy Notice.

PROTECTING YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorized access or disclosure, we have put in place physical, electronic and managerial procedures reasonably expected to safeguard and secure the information we collect online. The security of your data also depends on you. For example, where we have given you or where you have chosen a password for access to certain services, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We put in place appropriate protections to make sure your personal data remains adequately protected and that it is treated in line with this Notice. These protections include and are not limited to, appropriate contract clauses and appropriate security measures.

DATA RETENTION

We will retain your personal data for only as long as it is necessary for the uses set out in this Privacy Notice and/or to meet legal and regulatory requirements. After this period, we will securely erase personal data. If the data is needed after this period for analytical, historical or other legitimate purposes, we will take appropriate measures to anonymize this data.

HOW WE USE COOKIES

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer's hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyze web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences. We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyze data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes. Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us. You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES

Our website or mobile apps may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any in formation which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this Privacy Policy. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

SOCIAL MEDIA FEATURES

Our websites or mobile apps may contain social media features such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest that have their own privacy notices. Please make sure you read their terms and conditions and privacy notice carefully before providing any personal data as we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these features.

CONTROLLING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

You have a right to ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you, although you should be able to access online the personal data associated with your account or booking. You may request details of personal information which we hold about you. Please include any details to help us identify and locate your personal data. Where we can provide data access, we will do so free of charge except where further copies are requested in which case a small fee will be payable based on administrative costs. If you believe that any information we have pertaining to you is incorrect or incomplete, please write to or email us as soon as possible. We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect. You can also ask for your information to be rectified or erase, to object to the processing of your personal data and, where technically feasible, to ask for the personal data you provided us to be transferred to another organization. We will update or erase your data, unless we have to keep it for legitimate business or legal purposes.

Parents have a right to revoke their consent and ask that information about their children be deleted from the website’s database. When you revoke consent we will stop collecting, using or disclosing information about your child. Keep in mind that School Tours of America may end a child’s participation in an activity if the information we collected was necessary for participation in that activity. You can also contact us if you have complaint about how we collect, store or use your personal data. We aim to resolve your complaints but if you are dissatisfied with our response, you may complain to the local data protection authority. Please submit your request or complaint in writing to:

School Tours of America, LLC
PO BOX 550379
Houston, TX 77255            OR    email us at info@sta-mail.com

Please note that we may ask you to verify your identity before we can act on your request or complaint. We may also ask you for more information to help ensure that you are authorized to make such a request or complaint when you can contact us on behalf of someone else.

LEGAL BASIS FOR PROCESSING PERSONAL DATA

We will only collect and use your personal data if at least one of the following conditions applies:

  • We have your consent;
    • Example: Customer account
    • You give us permission to process your personal data when you register for a customer account.
  • It is necessary for a contract with you or to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract;
    • Example: To provide the products and services you request
    • We need to process your personal data so that we can manage your account or booking, provide you with the products and services you want to buy and help you with any orders and refunds you may ask for.
  • It is necessary for us to comply with a legal obligation;
    • Example: Sharing personal data with regulatory authorities
    • So that you can travel, it may be mandatory (as required by government authorities at the point(s) of departure and/or destination) to disclose and process your personal data for immigration, border control, security and anti-terrorism purposes, or any other purposes which they determine appropriate.
  • It is necessary to protect your vital interests or those of another individual;
    • Example: In an emergency
    • Your insurance company, their agents and medical staff may exchange relevant personal data and special categories of personal data with us in circumstances where we/they need to act on your behalf or in the interest of other customers or in an emergency.
  • It is in the public interest or we have official authority;
    • or Example: Security operations
    • We may use personal data to respond to and to manage security operations, accidents or other similar incidents, including medical and insurance purposes.
  • It is in our or a third party’s legitimate interests and these are not overridden by your interests or rights.
    • Example: To personalize your experience

    We may use your personal data to better understand your interests so that we can try to predict what other products, services and information you might be most interested in. This enables us to tailor our communications to make them more relevant and interesting for you. Where we need to process special categories of personal data, for example health data for medical reasons, we will only do so if one or more additional conditions apply. For example, we have your explicit consent; it is necessary to protect the vital interests of you or another individual and you are physically or legally incapable of giving consent; it is necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; it is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest.

    KEY TERMS

    Online advertising: Marketing messages that you may see on the internet.

    Special categories of personal data: This are categories of personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin; political opinions; religious or philosophical beliefs; trade union membership; genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person; health data; and data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation.

    US Secure flight Data: The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) requires you to provide your full name, date of birth and gender for the purpose of watch list screening. Failure to provide details may result in denial of transport or denial of authority to enter the boarding area. TSA may share information you provide with law enforcement or intelligence agencies or others under its published system of records notice. Please see the TSA website for more details.