Privacy Policy: Sail Connections

Privacy Policy

As at February 2019

General Use of Information

Sail Connections (2010) Ltd. brokers sailboat holiday charters in all the world’s best sailing destinations. When you use our services you are trusting us with your information. We respect your privacy and are committed to maintaining your confidence in us. We work hard to protect all the information we collect while conducting our business.

At Sail Connections we have some fundamental principles:

We don’t ask you for personal information unless we truly need it. 
We don’t share your personal information with anyone except when necessary to conduct our business, comply with the law, or protect our rights.
We don’t store personal information unless required for the on-going operation of our services.
We put you in control of your information.
To conduct our business we must collect and hold information in a variety of paper and electronic forms. We and our trusted partners acting on our behalf use personal information:

·       to provide goods and services to you.

·       to make a tailored website available to you

·       to manage any accounts you hold with us

·       to verify your identity

·       with your agreement, to contact you electronically about offers, products and services that we think may interest you

·       for market research purposes - to better understand your needs

·       to manage customer service interactions with you

In addition to our own in-house information systems, we utilise the following outside trusted providers: Hubspot, Campaign Monitor, Zapier, Wufoo, Facebook, Xero and Google (Analytics, Adwords, GSuite). Other trusted partners we must share personal information with to complete our business obligations are the internationally-based charter boat operators with which we have a business association, and on-line charter boat booking services: Sedna, Booking Manager, Mister Booking, Boat Booker, Yacht Booker Tui Extranet and Nausys.

We only allow such providers to handle your personal data when we are satisfied that they apply appropriate data protection and security controls.  We also require that service providers only use your data to provide services to Sail Connections Ltd. and to you, and for no other purposes.

Our trusted providers all have their own privacy policies published on their websites.

Website Interaction

Our main marketing interface is the website sailconnections.com. When using our website you are agreeing to its conditions of use. There we collect non-personally-identifying information of the sort that web browsers and servers typically make available. This comes in the form of such data as browser type, language preference, referring site, and date and time of each website visitor request. Our purpose in collecting non-personally identifying information is to better understand how our visitors use our website. From time to time we may release non-personally-identifying information in the aggregate, e.g., by publishing a report on our website’s usage trends.

When you visit our website the third party service, Google Analytics collects for us standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We use this to learn things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is processed only in a way which does not identify anyone. We do not make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of people visiting our website.

Cookies

A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and which the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. We use cookies to help us identify and track visitors, their usage of our website, and their website access preferences. Visitors who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers should set their browsers to refuse cookies before using our website; noting that certain features of our websites may not function properly without the aid of cookies.

Aggregated Statistics

We may collect statistics about the nature of visits to our website, and we may display this information publicly or provide it to others in summary form. However we will never disclose personal information other than as described below.

Gathering Personal Information

Certain visitors to sailconnections.com choose to interact with us in ways that require our business to gather personally-identifying information. The amount and type of information we gather depends on the nature of the interaction.

For example, we ask visitors who request quotes to provide personal information such as name, phone number and email address. Where an enquiry develops into a full sale, we naturally require more information including passport and bank account numbers in order to complete our contract. This may include some basic information on minors, (name, age, passport number). We limit such information to what is absolutely necessary to meet our business obligations.

 In each case, Sail Connections collects personal information only insofar as is necessary or appropriate to fulfil the purpose of the visitor’s interaction with us.

We do not share personally-identifying information other than as described in this policy. Website visitors and other enquirers can refuse to supply personally-identifying information, with the caveat that it may prevent them from engaging with us effectively.

Newsletters 

If you have contacted us and supplied your email address or joined our email list, we may occasionally send you an e-newsletter. We collect personal information as part of the registration process for our e-newsletter, we use that information to tell you about the sailing holiday market and events, and to communicate as needed to obtain or provide general business-related information. That can include checking we have correct records and enquiring as to your level of satisfaction with our services.

We use trusted provider Campaign Monitor to deliver our newsletter. We gather statistics around email opening and clicks using industry standard technologies to help us monitor and improve our e-newsletter. We do not rent or trade email lists with other organisations or businesses.

You can unsubscribe to general mailings at any time of the day or night by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any of our emails, or by emailing our office.

Other forms of Information-gathering

We also hold business-related personal information obtained from time to time by telephone, email correspondence, social media, letter and meetings.  

Protection of Personal Information

We disclose personal information only to those of our staff and trusted partners needing access in order to process it on our behalf or to provide you with our services. Some of our employees, contractors and affiliated organizations may be located outside of your home country. By using our website you consent to the transfer of such information to them.

We will not rent or sell personal information to anyone. Other than to our employees, contractors and affiliated organizations as above, we disclose personal information only when required to do so by law, or when we believe in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of ourselves, third parties or the public at large.

All of the personal information we hold is protected by individually-assigned passwords and up-to-date internet security systems.

Retention of Information

At Sail Connections, we regularly conduct repeat business and enact transactions that occur sometimes years after the initial enquiry. The nature of our business therefore requires that we keep information indefinitely. We will not however retain personal information longer than we consider necessary to maintain our customer relationship.

You are entitled to view, amend, or delete your personal information we hold at any time. Please email your request to our data protection officer Sue Assad, [email protected].

Privacy Policy Changes

We may change our published Privacy Policy from time to time at our sole discretion. However we will not reduce your rights under this policy without your explicit consent.

We encourage visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to our Privacy Policy. Your continued use of this site after any change constitutes acceptance of such change.

Website disclaimer

While we endeavour to keep the information on our website up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.

Through this website you are able to link to other websites over which we have no control as to their nature, content and availability. The inclusion of any links on our website does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorsement the views expressed within the linked websites.

Every effort is made to keep our website up and running smoothly. We will not be liable for any event arising from our website being temporarily unavailable due to technical issues beyond our control.

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