This Privacy Policy discloses the privacy practices for the hillsofafrica.com site and various related services (together referred to as the “site). Hills of Africa Travel, Inc., the provider of the site (referred to as “us” or “we”), are committed to protecting your privacy online. This Privacy Policy does not apply to information collected offline. Please read the information below regarding your use of this site.
By accessing or using our site, you agree to be bound by all of the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to these terms, please do not access or use this site.
The terms and conditions in this Privacy Policy are effective as of 9/16/2013. We reserve the right to revise, amend, or modify this Privacy Policy at any time and in any manner. When we change the Privacy Policy in a material way, a notice will be posted on our web site along with the updated Privacy Policy. Your use of our web site and any other services provided by us after such changes are implemented constitutes your acknowledgement and acceptance of these changes.
- Types of Information Collected
In order to provide you with a superior level of travel services, we collect two types of information about our users: Personally Identifiable Information and Non-personally Identifiable Information. Our primary goal in collecting information from you is to provide you with a smooth, efficient, and customized experience while using our site.
Personally Identifiable Information: This refers to information that lets us know the specifics of who you are. When you engage in certain activities on this site, such as ordering travel services, submitting content and/or posting content in discussion forums or other public areas, entering a contest or sweepstakes, filling out a survey, or sending us feedback, we may ask you to provide certain information about yourself by filling out and submitting an online form. It is completely optional for you to engage in these activities. If you elect to engage in these activities, however, we may ask that you provide us personal information, such as your first and last name, mailing address (including zip code), email address, employer, telephone, e-mail address and facsimile numbers, and other personal identifying information. When ordering travel services on the site, you may be asked to provide a credit card number. Depending upon the activity, some of the information we ask you to provide is identified as mandatory and some as voluntary. If you do not provide the mandatory data with respect to a particular activity, you will not be able to engage in that activity.
Non-personally Identifiable Information: This refers to information that does not by itself identify a specific individual. We gather certain information about you based upon where you visit on our site in several ways. This information is compiled and analyzed on both a personal and an aggregated basis. This information may include the Web site’s Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”) that you just came from, which URL you next go to, what browser you are using, and your Internet Protocol (“IP”) address. A URL is the global address of documents and other resources on the World Wide Web. An IP address is an identifier for a computer or device on a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (“TCP/IP”) network, such as the World Wide Web. Networks like the Web use the TCP/IP protocol to route information based on the IP address of the destination. In other words, an IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you are surfing the web, allowing web servers to locate and identify your computer. Computers require IP addresses in order for users to communicate on the Internet.
- Collection Methods and Use of Information
We do not collect any Personally Identifiable Information about you unless you voluntarily provide it to us. You provide certain Personally Identifiable Information to us when you: (a) register your email address with us; (b) enter sweepstakes or contests sponsored by us or one of our partners; (c) sign up for special offers from selected third parties; (d) send email messages, submit forms or transmit other information by telephone or letter; or (e) submit your credit card or other payment information when ordering and purchasing services. We may also collect information from you at other points on our site that state that such information is being collected.
In addition, we may also collect, or our third party ad server and/or content server may collect, certain Non-personally Identifiable Information. This information is ultimately stored in the form of store categories, and, in some cases, specific URLs. We use your IP address to diagnose problems with our servers, software, to administer our site and to gather demographic information. Our third party ad servers will also provide us with summary, but not individual, reports that will tell us how many ads were presented and clicked upon at out site.
We will primarily use your Personally Identifiable Information to provide customized services to you. We will also use Personally Identifiable Information to enhance the operation of our site, process transactions, improve our marketing and promotional efforts, statistically analyze site use, improve our service offerings, and customize our site’s content, layout, and services. We may use Personally Identifiable Information to deliver information to you and to contact you with administrative notices. We may also use Personally Identifiable Information to resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems and enforce our agreements with you, including our Reservation Terms and Conditions, and this Privacy Policy.
- Release of Information
We do not sell, trade, or rent your Personally Identifiable Information to others. We do provide some of our services through contractual arrangements with affiliates, service providers, tour operators and other third parties. Our service partners and we use your Personally Identifiable Information to operate our sites and to deliver their services. For example, we must release your credit card information to the card-issuing bank to confirm payment for travel services; release your address information to the delivery service to deliver itineraries or other items that you ordered; and provide order information to third parties that help us provide customer service.
We will encourage our service partners to adopt and post privacy policies. However, the use of your Personally Identifiable Information by our service partners is governed by the privacy policies of those service partners, and is not subject to our control.
Occasionally we may be required by law enforcement or judicial authorities to provide Personally Identifiable Information to the appropriate governmental authorities. We will disclose Personally Identifiable Information upon receipt of a court order, subpoena, or to cooperate with a law enforcement investigation. We fully cooperate with law enforcement agencies in identifying those who use our services for illegal activities. We reserve the right to report to law enforcement agencies any activities that we in good faith believe to be unlawful.
We may also provide Non-personally Identifiable Information about our customers’ sales, traffic patterns, and related site information to third party advertisers, but these statistics do not include any Personally Identifiable Information.
- Updating and Correcting Information
We believe you should have the ability to access and edit the Personally Identifiable Information that you have provided to us. You may change any of your Personally Identifiable Information in your account at any time and you may also access and correct your personal information and privacy preferences by writing us at:
Hills of Africa Travel, Inc.
PO Box 1346
Troutman, NC 28166-1346
hoainfo@hillsofafrica.com
Please include your name, address, and/or email address when you contact us.
We encourage you to promptly update your Personally Identifiable Information if it changes. You may ask to have the information on your account deleted or removed; however, because we keep track of past transactions, you cannot delete information associated with past transactions on this site. In addition, it may be impossible to completely delete your information without some residual information because of backups.
- User Choices on Collection and Use of Information
We may, from time to time, send you email regarding our travel services. In addition, if you indicated that you are interested in receiving offers or information from us and our partners, we may occasionally send you direct mail about services that we feel may be of interest to you. Only Hills of Africa Travel, Inc. (or agents working on behalf of Hills of Africa Travel, Inc.) will send you these direct mailings and only if you indicated that you do not object to these offers. If you do not want to receive such mailings, simply tell us when you give us your personal information.
You also have choices with respect to cookies, as described below. By modifying your browser preferences, you have the choice to accept all cookies, to be notified when a cookie is set, or to reject all cookies. If you choose to reject all cookies some parts of our site may not work properly in your case.
- Security of Information
At our site you can be assured that your Personally Identifiable Information is secure, consistent with current industry standards. The importance of security for all Personally Identifiable Information associated with our users is of utmost concern to us. Your Personally Identifiable Information is protected in several ways. Your Personally Identifiable Information resides on a secure server that only selected Hills of Africa Travel, Inc. personnel and contractors have access to via password. We encrypt your Personally Identifiable Information and thereby prevent unauthorized parties from viewing such information when it is transmitted to us.
In order to most efficiently serve you, credit card transactions are handled with established third party banking systems, processing agents and distribution institutions. They receive the information needed to verify and authorize your credit card or other payment information and to process (and in some cases, ship) your order.
Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet or any wireless network can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your Personally Identifiable Information, you acknowledge that: (a) there are security and privacy limitations of the Internet which are beyond our control; (b) the security, integrity and privacy of any and all information and data exchanged between you and us through this site cannot be guaranteed; and (c) any such information and data may be viewed or tampered with in transit by a third party.
- Cookies
When you use our site we will store cookies on your computer in order to facilitate and customize your use of our site. A cookie is a small data text file, which a Web site stores on your computer’s hard drive (if your Web browser permits) that can later be retrieved to identify you to us. The cookies make your use of the site easier, make the site run more smoothly and help us to maintain a secure site. You are always free to turn off our cookies if your browser permits, but some parts of our site may not work properly in that case.
- Privacy Policies of Third Party Sites
Except as otherwise discussed in this Privacy Policy, this document only addresses the use and disclosure of information we collect from you. Other sites that may be accessible through links on our site have their own privacy policies and data collection, use and disclosure practices. Please consult each site’s privacy policy. We are not responsible for the policies or practices of third parties.
- Privacy of Children Protecting children’s privacy is especially important to us. Hills of Africa Travel, Inc. recognizes that parents, guardians, or other adults often purchase our services for family use, including use by minors. We do not knowingly collect, use or disclose Personally Identifiable Information from children under 13 for marketing purposes, but because some information is collected electronically, it can appear to be the personal information of the purchaser of the services and will be treated as such by this Privacy Policy. If a child under 13 submits Personally Identifiable Information to us and we learn that the information is that of a child under 13, we will attempt to delete the information as soon as possible. If the parent of a child under 13 submits their Personally Identifiable Information, they will do so voluntarily, separately, and knowingly. It is our policy to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 and all other applicable laws. Therefore, we restrict our web site to persons 13 years of age or older.
YOU MUST BE THIRTEEN YEARS OR OLDER TO ACCESS THE HILLS OF AFRICA TRAVEL, INC. WEB SITE. IF YOU ARE UNDER THIRTEEN YEARS OF AGE, YOU ARE NOT PERMITTED TO ACCESS THE COMPANY’S WEB SITE FOR ANY REASON. DUE TO THE AGE RESTRICTIONS FOR THE USE OF THE WEB SITE, NO INFORMATION OBTAINED BY THE WEB SITE FALLS WITHIN THE CHILDREN’S ONLINE PRIVACY PROTECTION ACT OF 1998 AND IS NOT MONITORED AS DOING SO.
- International Users
Hills of Africa Travel, Inc. abides by the safe harbor framework set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use and retention of Personally Identifiable Information collected from the European Union member countries.
- Further Questions Regarding Privacy. If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or the practices of this site, please contact us by sending a letter to:
Hills of Africa Travel, Inc.
PO Box 1346
Troutman, NC 28166-1346
hoainfo@hillsofafrica.com
If you do not want Hills of Africa Travel, Inc. to keep you up to date with news and the latest information on our travel services, please notify us in writing at the above address that you do not want us to use your information for a particular purpose and we will not do so.