Collection and Usage of Information
Information voluntarily submitted by visitors to the website
There are various places on the website where users may voluntarily submit their name and email address.
- Contact Form: If users wish to send us a message, they are required to enter their name, email address & message. We require these details in order to respond to the message. The user will then receive a response. We will not use these details in any other way, nor will we provide them to any 3rd party. The user may request removal of these details from our systems by writing to info (at) thebackpackernetwork (dot) com.
- Post Submission: If users wish to submit an article to be published on our website, they are required to enter their name and email address as well as being given the option of submitting their own website address. Their email address is required in order for us to inform them as to whether or not their post will be published. Their name is required in order for us to credit them with writing the article. The option of submitting their own website address is given so that we can provide a link to it in the article as part of their creditation. If the user has created a “gravatar”, this image will appear next to their comment. If any user that submits an article wishes to have their details removed from the article and/or our systems, they should make this request by writing to info (at) thebackpackernetwork (dot) com.
- Comment Submission: If a user wishes to comment on any article/page of the website, they are required to enter their name and email address in order for us to help ensure that their comment is not spam. Our spam prevention software also analyses their IP address to root out known spammers. If the user has created a “gravatar”, this image will appear next to their comment. Users are also given the option to subscribe to their comment/all comments on that post. When they subscribe to the comments, they are sent updates on the comments every time they are made. Their email address is not used in any other way, nor will it be shared with any third parties. The user may request removal of these details from our systems and/or removal of their comment from the page, by writing to info (at) thebackpackernetwork (dot) com. They may also unsubscribe from their subscription by hitting the “unsubscribe” button at the bottom of each and every email they receive. If the user has created a “gravatar”, this image will appear next to their comment.
- Reviews on our booking system: If a user wishes to review any activity offered on the booking section of the website, they are required to enter their name and email address in order for us to help ensure that their review is not spam. Our spam prevention software also analyses their IP address to root out known spammers. The user will be notified by email if their review is published/disregarded. Their email address is not used in any other way, nor will it be shared with any third parties. The user may request removal of these details from our systems and/or removal of their review from the page, by writing to info (at) thebackpackernetwork (dot) com.
- Purchases made through our booking system: When a user makes a purchase through our booking system, they are required to provide their name and email address. This allows us to communicate with the user with regards to the booking they have made, any issues with availability, payment status etc. We will then provide the vendor who provides the service the user has booked with their name and email address so that they can communicate directly with the customer. The customer will also be provided with the vendor’s details for the same purpose. If you have provided any additional information in the ‘order notes’ section at checkout, such as accommodation, pick-up or dietary requirements, we will also pass these details on to the vendor to assist with your booking.
- Correspondence with the customer: Customers who have made a purchase on the website will be contacted solely about their booking. We may contact a customer with one follow-up email to inquire as to the quality of the experience they had and to invite them to review the experience on the website. A customer will not be emailed with any information that is not relevant to their booking, nor will they be signed up automatically to a newsletter (unless they have done so previously), we will not send them any promotional material, nor pass their information on to any other 3rd party, other than the vendor (trip organiser) with whom they have booked their trip.
- How long is a customer’s data stored: The customer’s name, email address and booking details will be stored on our website with WooCommerce for the lifetime of the website. If a customer wishes to have their details removed from our systems at any time, they can request so by writing to info (at) thebackpackernetwork (dot) com. As long as we can legally do so, we will remove a customer’s details. If the customer wishes to be removed from the vendor’s records, they must contact the vendor through the email address provided to them at the time of purchase. For more on the Terms and Conditions of our shop, please see here.
- PLEASE NOTE: Any payments made to The Backpacker Network on our booking system are made through one of two third party services, Paypal or Stripe. None of the information a user provides Paypal or Stripe is shared with The Backpacker Network, with the exception of their email address. We do not have access to a user’s billing address or their credit card details. For more information on Paypal and/or Stripe’s privacy policies, please visit their website(s). Paypal | Stripe.
- Email Newsletter Sign-up: A user who wishes to sign up for our newsletter is required to provide us with their name & email address. This address is then added to a list with a third-party provider, ConvertKit, in order for us to be able to communicate with the user via email. If the user wishes to be removed from the email newsletter list, they can hit the unsubscribe button at the bottom of every email they are sent. Alternatively, they can request removal from the list by writing to info (at) thebackpackernetwork (dot) com. Please see ConvertKit’s privacy policy here.
If a user creates a user account on our website (this is not presently an option), we will have access to their username and email address, but not their password. The user may request removal of these details from our systems and/or removal of their review from the page, by writing to info (at) thebackpackernetwork (dot) com.
Information collected automatically
When a user accesses this site, some information is automatically collected. The time the user visits the site, their IP address, the device and the browser they are using and the page from which they have been referred to the website. Certain actions are also logged, such as pages visited, the time spent on each page, clicks on links, adding a product to the basket, starting the checkout process in the shop section of the site and making a purchase. This activity is monitored by Google Analytics so that we can improve the functionality of our website for the user.
Cookies
Cookies are small pieces of information that are stored on your browser. There are two types; session cookies, which expire when you close your browser and persistent cookies, which are stored on your browser until you delete them. These cookies are how the information mentioned in the previous section (information collected automatically) are collected. Cookies also allow for the tracking of clicks on our affiliate links. If a user would like to block the usage of cookies on their browser, they should refer to their browser’s “help” section. Alternatively, you can follow the advice given here.
Affiliate Links
Here at The Backpacker Network, one of the ways we are able to earn money is when our readers click links to third party websites from our site. In order for us to be recognised as the source of traffic to these third party websites, it is necessary for a cookie to be placed in the user’s browser when they click on the link.
Our Own Affiliate Programme
In a desperate bid to compete with the big boys, we have launched our own affiliate programme. At the time of writing this privacy policy our affiliate programme is not actually running, but the software is in place. When it is running, it will use cookies to recognise the source of traffic to our website in order to credit the website that drove the traffic to us and to be able to pay them in the case the user who has visited us from their website later makes a purchase on our website.
How and why do we use the data collected?
- Data provided to us through cookies allows us to optimize the website thanks to insights we can glean from Google Analytics. If a page is not working properly, the data tells us so. If the site is not properly accessible from certain regions in the world, the data tells us so. This information is invaluable to us.
- Data provided to us through cookies allow us to track the success of our affiliate links and advertising services.
- Cookies allow us to identify users who have already been shown a popup encouraging them to join our newsletter list. We do not want to show users popups every time they visit the site as we believe this would be annoying for them.
- If a user signs up for our newsletter, we would like to send them emails. We have various motivations for this. We would like them to visit the website again and we would like them to buy something through our website and/or use one of our affiliate links to purchase something we do not provide.
- Cookies allow our emailing service to identify the pages of the website our subscribers are interested in. This allows us to personalise the material we send them in the newsletter so as to be of more interest to them.
- We need to allow users to contact us so that we can provide user support.
- We allow comments on posts as we believe the ability to comment on what a user has read, improves the user experience on the site.
- We allow reviews of the experiences on offer on our booking system as it will help clarify the quality of the services we are providing. They also allow other users of the website the opportunity to make a more informed decision as to whether or not they’d like to make a booking.
- Information provided to us (or rather the security services on our site) help to protect us and our users from illegal activity, hackers and other attacks.
Third Party Use of our User’s Information
If a user specifically asks us to share their information with a third party, we will do so. Several of the services we use on the website require certain information about our users to perform their function.
This website uses the following third-party services:
Google Analytics – This is the service that allows us to learn about our users’ behaviour on the site. The only personal information Google Analytics uses as standard practice is the user’s IP address. However, we have chosen to anonymise IP addresses in Google Analytics, meaning no personal information at all is collected. Please refer to Google’s own Privacy Policy for further information.
Facebook Pixel – This is a service that tracks user behaviour on the site in a similar way to Google Analytics. However, the Facebook pixel recognises the user by their Facebook account. We sometimes run retargeting ads to show users who have visited the site adverts specific to them through Facebook to help boost our sales. It is very unclear to us how Facebook have adapted their behaviour to fit in with new GDPR rules. Presumably, they are collecting less data than they previously were. Please visit Facebook’s Privacy Policy for more information.
Cloudflare – Cloudflare is a CDN which stores copies of our website in various places around the world in order to provide the user with a faster experience loading the website (by being able to connect to a server closer to them). Cloudflare uses a firewall that blocks certain IP addresses that it sees as suspicious. Therefore, it knows which IP addresses are visiting our website. Please refer to Cloudflare’s own Privacy Policy for further information.
Bigscoots – Our web hosting provider also have details on which IP addresses are sending and receiving information to and from our website. This is essential in order to protect the site from spam and hacking attacks. Please refer to the Bigscoots Privacy Policy for further information.
SendFox – ConvertKit is our newsletter provider. Our subscribers’ email addresses are stored at SendFox’s end. SendFox monitors our subscribers’ behaviour with emails. We are told if an email has been opened if an email has bounced, if a recipient reports them as spam and whether or not they click on a link if there is one in the message. There is an unsubscribe button at the bottom of every email subscribers are sent. Aside from this, subscribers can request removal from the list by writing to info (at) thebackpackernetwork (dot) com. Please refer to SendFox’s own privacy policy for further information.
Hotjar – Hotjar is a service that monitors users behaviour on certain pages of our site to help us to improve the layout of the page and highlight any issues in user experience. It provides a video of a user’s navigation of a page, what they clicked etc. Hotjar uses annonymous cookies, meaning there is no way of identifying any user on the website through their system. Please read Hotjar’s own Privacy Policy for more information.
Mediavine – Mediavine is the group that runs adverts on The Backpacker Network. Users are given the choice to opt-in to personalised adverts, which use cookies and IP addresses. More information on Mediavine is found below at the bottom of this page.
Paypal – Some of the payments made through the shop section go through Paypal. We do not receive billing information, card details, or any other personal information from PayPal. We do receive the email address the customer uses at PayPal, which may be different from the one they have given us when making the purchase. This can be deleted from our records as per customer request. Please refer to Paypal’s own Privacy Policy for further information.
Stripe – Some of the payments made through the shop section go through Stripe. We do not receive billing information, card details, or any other personal information from Stripe. Please refer to Stripe’s own Privacy Policy for further information.
Anonymous Data
Generic anonymous data about the demographics of our readers will occasionally be shared with advertising companies looking to work with us so as to provide an overview of which kind of ads the readers of our site may be interested in. There would be nothing in such information that could identify any particular user or group of users.
Publicly Visible Information
Users who submit a comment, an article or a review will have their name appear next to the material they have submitted if it is published. If the user has created a “gravatar” this will appear next to their name. If a user who submits an article chooses to include a link to their website in the article, this will too, be visible, on the user’s request.
Advertising
Display Ads
We run display ads, served by Mediavine Marketing, LLC. These ads will, in many cases, use cookies. Please see Mediavine’s own Privacy Policy here. There is a full section dedicated to Mediavine at the bottom of this page
Retargeting Ads
From time to time, we run retargeting ads, whether through Facebook, Google, or another service. These ads are based on users’ visits to our website. At the time of writing this Privacy Policy we are not running these ads.
Users’ Rights Regarding Their Personal Information
Opt-out/Unsubscribe: As mentioned previously, subscribers to our newsletter can unsubscribe at any time by hitting the unsubscribe button at the bottom of every email. Alternatively, they can request removal from the list by writing to us at info (at) thebackpackernetwork (dot) com. Access: Users can request access to a complete list of information we have on them by writing to us at info (at) thebackpackernetwork (dot) com. Amend: Users can amend or update the information we have on them at any time by writing to us at info (at) thebackpackernetwork (dot) com. Right to Forget: Users can request that we delete any information we have about them on our systems at any time by writing to us at info (at) thebackpackernetwork (dot) com. How long will keep your email address? If you sign up to our newsletter and you fail to open a newsletter within three months we will send you an email asking if you would like to remain a subscriber. If you fail to act on this, we will automatically delete your email from our newsletter list. Please bear in mind that we will not be legally allowed to delete certain information. We will adhere to the law in those cases.
Sensitive Personal and Other Data
Please do not share any sensitive personal information with us. “Sensitive data” is any data that tells us your:
- 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
- Data concerning health or a natural person’s sex life and/or sexual orientation
For the purpose of the trip booking, we also do not need you to send us your passport details, flight information, your home address, your credit card, debit card or bank details, nor should you send us any of these details for any of your travel companions.
3rd Party Links
The Backpacker Network uses links to 3rd party websites. We are not responsible or liable for the behaviour or privacy policies of any of these linked websites. However, we are careful with the sites we link to and do not share links to sites we do not believe to be reputable/responsible. We are not responsible or liable for any content from The Backpacker Network being republished on other websites or blogs without our permission. In the case of this occurring, we are not responsible or liable for the other content on such a website, any other behaviour committed by such a website, nor the privacy policy held by such a website.
Our policy on child protection
The Backpacker Network is a magazine aimed at adults. We do not provide products or services that would be of interest to people under the age of 18. Nor do we advertise, or do anything else that would attract readers of under 18 years old. We do not feature any content that would be inappropriate for readers under 18 years old. If we know that any visitor to our site is under 18, we do not collect any data from them.
Third Parties Working on our Site
Any 3rd party that works on the The Backpacker Network website, such as web-developers or hosting partners will be required to treat your information as strictly confidential and will not share it with anyone.
How to contact us if you have any queries about our privacy policy
This privacy policy is subject to change without notice and was last updated on 6/05/2018. If you have any questions feel free to contact us directly here: info (at) thebackpackernetwork (dot) com
Mediavine Advertising
The Website uses Mediavine to manage all third-party advertising on the Website. Mediavine serves content and advertisements when you visit the Website, which may use first and third-party cookies. A cookie is a small text file which is sent to your computer or mobile device (referred to in this policy as a “device”) by the web server so that a website can remember some information about your browsing activity on the Website. The cookie may collect information relating to your use of the Website, information about your device such as the device’s IP address and browser type, demographic data and, if you arrived at the Website via a link from a third-party site, the URL of the linking page.
First party cookies are created by the website that you are visiting. A third-party cookie is frequently used in behavioral advertising and analytics and is created by a domain other than the website you are visiting. Third-party cookies, tags, pixels, beacons and other similar technologies (collectively, “Tags”) may be placed on the Website to monitor interaction with advertising content and to target and optimize advertising. Each internet browser has functionality so that you can block both first and third-party cookies and clear your browser’s cache. The “help” feature of the menu bar on most browsers will tell you how to stop accepting new cookies, how to receive notification of new cookies, how to disable existing cookies and how to clear your browser’s cache. For more information about cookies and how to disable them, you can consult the information at www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/.
Without cookies you may not be able to take full advantage of the Website content and features. Please note that rejecting cookies does not mean that you will no longer see ads when you visit our Site.
The Website may collect IP addresses and location information to serve personalized ads and pass it to Mediavine. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices to opt-in or opt-out of this data collection, please visit http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp. You may also visit http://optout.aboutads.info/#/ and http://optout.networkadvertising.org/# to learn more information about interest-based advertising. You may download the AppChoices app at http://www.aboutads.info/appchoices to opt out in connection with mobile apps, or use the platform controls on your mobile device to opt out.
Mediavine partners with the following data processors:
- Pubmatic. You may find Pubmatic’s privacy policy through this link. The data collected on the Website may be transferred to Pubmatic and its demand partners for interest-based advertising. Statistical information and other non-cookie technologies (such as eTags and web or browser cache) may be used by third parties on this Website. Browser settings that block cookies may have no effect on these technologies, but you may clear your cache to delete such trackers. Data collected from a particular browser or device may be used with another computer or device that is linked to the browser or device on which such data was collected.
- Criteo. You may find Criteo’s privacy policy through this link. The data collected on the Website may be transferred to Criteo and its demand partners for interest-based advertising. Criteo may collect, access, and use non-identifying data to improve the Criteo Technology and other Criteo products, programs, and/or services. This non-identifying data may include on-site user behavior and user/page content data, URLs, statistics, or internal search queries. The non-identifying data are collected through the ad call and stored with a Criteo cookie for a maximum period of 13 months.
- Pulsepoint. You may find Pulsepoint’s privacy policy through this link.
- LiveRamp. You may find LiveRamp’s privacy policy through this link. When you use the Website, we share information that we may collect from you, such as your email (in hashed, de-identified form), IP address or information about your browser or operating system, with LiveRamp Inc, and its group companies (‘LiveRamp’). LiveRamp may use a cookie on your browser and match your shared information to their on- and offline marketing databases and those of its advertising partners to create a link between your browser and information in those other databases. This link may be shared by our partners globally for the purpose of enabling interest-based content or advertising throughout your online experience (e.g. cross device, web, email, in-app, etc.) by third parties unaffiliated with our website. These third parties may in turn link further demographic or interest-based information to your browser. To opt out of LiveRamp’s targeted advertising, please go here: https://liveramp.com/opt_out/
- RhythmOne. You may view RhythmOne’s privacy policy through this link. RhythmOne uses cookies and similar tracking technologies (such as mobile device identifiers and digital fingerprinting) to provide its services. RhythmOne may use aggregated information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other Websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, please visit the following webpage: http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp.
- District M. You may find District M’s privacy policy through this link.
- YieldMo. You may find YieldMo’s privacy policy through this link. If you want to opt out of receiving interest based ads from Yieldmo or exercise your right under the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) to opt-out of the sale of your personal information, you may do so through this link.
- The Rubicon Project. You may find Rubicon’s privacy policy through this link. If you want to opt out of receiving interest based ads from Rubicon or exercise your right under the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) to opt-out of the sale of your personal information, you may do so through this link. You may also utilize the Network Advertising Initiative’s opt-out page, the Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out page, or the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out page.
- Amazon Publisher Services. You may find Amazon Publisher Services’ privacy policy through this link.
- AppNexus. You may find the AppNexus privacy policy through this link.
- OpenX. You may find OpenX’s privacy policy through this link.
- Verizon Media formerly known as Oath. You may find Verizon Media’s privacy policy through this link. You may also utilize the Network Advertising Initiative’s opt-out page, the Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out page, or the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out page to opt-out of the use of cookies for interest-based advertising.
- TripleLift. You may find TripleLift’s privacy policy through this link. To opt out of receiving interest-based advertising (including retargeting) from TripleLift’s services through the use of cookies in your current browser and for more information on what it means to opt-out, please go to www.triplelift.com/consumer-opt-out.
- Index Exchange. You may find Index Exchange’s privacy policy through this link. You may also utilize the Network Advertising Initiative’s opt-out page, the Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out page, or the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out page to opt-out of the use of cookies for interest-based advertising.
- Sovrn. You may find Sovrn’s privacy policy through this link.
- GumGum. You may find GumGum’s privacy policy through this link. GumGum may (i) use place and use cookies on end users’ browsers or use web beacons to collect information about end users who visit such Publisher Websites and (ii) link such collected end user information to other end user information provided by third parties in order to deliver targeted Advertisements to such end users.
- Digital Remedy. You may find Digital Remedy’s privacy policy through this link.
- MediaGrid. You may find MediaGrid’s privacy policy through this link. MediaGrid may collect and store information about end-user interactions with this website through cookies, advertising IDS, pixels and server-to-server connections. MediaGrid was receive the following information: the page an End-User has requested and the referring/exit pages; Timestamp information (i.e., the date and time the End-User has visited the page); IP address; mobile device identifier; device model; device operating system; browser type; carrier; gender; age; geolocation (including GPS coordinates); clickstream data; cookie information; first-party identifiers’; and hashed email addresses; demographic and inferred interest information; and post-conversion data (from both online and offline behaviour). Some of this data is gathered from this website and others is gathered from advertisers. MediaGrid uses this data to provide its services. You may also utilize the Network Advertising Initiative’s opt-out page, the Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out page, or the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out page to opt-out of the use of cookies for interest-based advertising or review their privacy policy for more information.
- RevContent – You may find RevContent’s privacy policy through this link. RevContent may collect information about your browser or device, including browser type, IP Address, device type, user agent string, and operating system. RevContent also collects information about the websites you visit through their services, such as date and time of access and specific pages accessed and the content and ads you click on. You may opt-out of any personalization track by opting-out of RevContent’s data collection.
- Centro, Inc. – You may find Centro’s privacy policy through this link. You may find opt-out information for Centro’s services through the privacy policy link.
- 33Across, Inc. – You may find 33Across’s privacy policy through this link. To opt-out of personalized advertising, please visit https://optout.networkadvertising.org/?c=1.
- Conversant. LLC – You may find Conversant’s privacy policy through this link. Conversant uses information that does not directly identify you, such as information about your browser type, time and date of visit, your browsing or transaction activity, the subject of advertisements clicked or scrolled over, and a unique identifier (such as a cookie string, or a unique advertising identifier provided by your mobile device) during your visits to this and other websites and apps in order to provide advertisements about goods and services likely to be of greater interest to you. Conversant may use technologies such as cookies and other tracking technologies to collect this information. To learn more about interest-based advertising, or to opt-out, you can visit www.youronlinechoices.eu or https://www.networkadvertising.org/.