Respecting your privacy

At Hidden Wonders, we respect and understand that you would like to know how we collect, use, disclose and protect your personal information. This Privacy Policy explains how we (Hidden Wonders Pty Ltd) handle it in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988. We hope the below information will help you make an informed decision about how much and how you share your personal information with us. If you are sharing information on another person’s behalf, please make sure that they are aware of our Privacy Policy and give you consent to share their information with us.

What personal information do we collect and hold ?

Depending on the circumstances, the type of data we collect from you can change. However, below is a list of potential personal information we might collect and hold.

• Your name, gender, postal and or email address, telephone numbers, and date of birth, medical information, travel insurance details, passport details
• Details of the products and services you have enquired about or bought from us, any useful information needed to help you with your enquiry or to provide you the services and products you have purchased.
• Any other information about you that you or a third party has made available to us directly or indirectly (i.e our phone enquiry lines, websites, online presence or our customer surveys)

Some of the information we collect such as medical information or gender may be considered ‘sensitive information’ under the Privacy act and we will only accept this information with your consent. This information is used to help us provide you services that are tailored to your needs and interest.

When/if you visit our website, we may collect de-personalised information (i.e the pages you visit, your IP address, the date and time of your visit to our website, browser type you are using, the language) to improve your experience as a customer. Cookies are used to collect some of this information.

How do we collect your information ?

The most common way we may collect your information is when you volunteer it when you are asking information from us, making a booking, registering interest, subscribing to a newsletter or a waitlist, using our website, connecting with us through social media channels or contacting us or us contac/ting you.

Another way we receive information about you is through a third party such as:

• From people making a booking on your behalf
• From service provider companies
• In the case of an emergency or in the interest of passengers, your insurer, their agents or medical staff may disclose sensitive information about you where we/they need to act on your behalf.

Why do we collect, use, hold and disclose your information ?

Our intention in collecting your personal information is to perform our business activities and functions and to provide the best possible quality of customer service to you.

Below are the purposes we may collect, hold, use and disclose your information:

• To administer the services, we are providing to you i.e. arranging your tour booking
• Depending on your travel destination, some countries will only permit travel if you provide your advance passenger data. These requirements may differ and you are advised to check.
• To manage our relationship with you such as giving you updates about your tour booking and managing any complaints
• to contact you in the event of an emergency
• To customise our online content and processes for you to be able to provide a better experience by combining information collected from you at different times for research and analysis.
• to identify and tell you about services we think you may be interested in, including sending email newsletters or sending printed materials to your postal address
• providing relevant information, which may include sensitive personal information, to insurers, their agents and medical staff in circumstances where we/they need to act on your behalf or in the interest of passengers or in an emergency.
• for identification of fraud or error or for regulatory reporting and compliance
• When you provide your email address to the Hidden Wonders to make an online booking, your contact details may be retained even if the transaction is not completed. We capture these details through a secure service. The intention is to assist you in future with online bookings, and as a result of this you may receive a follow up enquiry email. If you receive an email you can find the information on what action, if any, you can choose that will direct us to cease any further contact with you or destroy the personal information we have collected about you.
• Please be informed that we are not permitted to store your personal information beyond the time frame necessary for the purposes for which it was collected or a related or auxiliary purpose.We may therefore delete your personal information after a reasonable period of time and, if you have not used our services for some time, you may have to re-enter or re-supply your personal information to us.
• We will not disclose your personal information otherwise than as described in this Privacy Policy without your consent unless we reasonably believe that disclosure is necessary to lessen or prevent a threat to life, health or safety or for certain action to be undertaken by an enforcement body (e.g. prevention, detection, investigation, prosecution or punishment of criminal offences), disclosure is authorised or required by law or disclosure is otherwise permitted by applicable privacy laws.

Who do we disclose your information to ?

We may disclose your personal information as follows:

We may disclose your personal information to our employees, contractors or third party service providers located in Australia or overseas for the purposes of the operation of our website or our business, fulfilling requests by you, managing your bookings, responding to your enquiries and to otherwise provide products and services to you, including, without limitation, to airlines, tour companies, travel agencies, web hosting providers, IT systems administrators, mailing houses, couriers, payment processors, data entry service providers, electronic network administrators, debt collectors, and professional advisors such as accountants, solicitors, business advisors and consultants.

We may disclose your personal information to external parties for research purposes and to identify other services you may be interested in, in accordance with our ‘Marketing and Privacy’ statement below.

We may share information with third parties in limited circumstances without your consent where we reasonably believe the disclosure is necessary to lessen or prevent a threat to life, health or safety, or for certain action to be undertaken by an enforcement body (e.g. prevention, detection, investigation, prosecution or punishment of criminal offences), where disclosure is authorised or required by law or disclosure is otherwise permitted by applicable privacy laws.

In order for you to travel abroad, we may disclose your personal information where disclosure is required by government authorities at the point(s) of departure and/or destination to process your information for immigration, border control, security and anti-terrorism purposes.

Where you provide us personal information for the purposes of booking travel related services on your behalf or on behalf of another person, we must provide such personal information to the travel providers you have selected for the purposes of completing the booking. We have no control over how travel providers use, disclose or store personal information. Please ensure you agree with the privacy practices of the travel providers you select prior to providing us your personal information for the purposes of booking travel related services with such travel providers. You acknowledge and agree that we provide your personal information to such travel providers solely as your agent and not as the principal holder and we will not be required to ensure their compliance with applicable privacy laws, this privacy policy or otherwise be liable or accountable for your personal information including without limitation their use and disclosure of your personal information.

Where we disclose your personal information to a third party overseas recipient, your personal information will generally be received in the country in which the recipient will provide the services to you or in which their business is based. Unless otherwise contemplated herein or otherwise permitted or required by applicable law, we will only disclose your personal information to these overseas recipients in connection with facilitation of your travel booking and/or to enable the performance of administrative and technical services by them on our behalf.

By using our products and services, you agree that we will not be required to ensure that third party overseas recipients comply with Australian privacy laws or otherwise be liable or accountable for how the recipient handles your personal information.

Security of Information

Hidden Wonders has implemented security procedures in order to protect personal information from loss and misuse, and from unauthorized access, modification, disclosure and interference. We regularly review security and encryption technologies and will do our best to protect your personal information.

Credit card security

All online payments are transmitted over a secure socket layer (SSL) connection.

Credit card information is transmitted immediately to a payment gateway solution via an encrypted port.

We do not store your credit card number in any of our systems, it is used only within the context of the transaction then destroyed upon receipt from an acquiring bank.

All credit card payments receive an identification number that is proof of the transaction’s acceptance into the banking system. This identification number can be used to trace any transaction back to the credit card issuer (for example, the bank that issued the MasterCard, or VISA credit card).

Personal information is destroyed or de-identified when no longer needed.

Whilst we take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is secure, as the internet is inherently insecure, any personal information or other information you transmit to us online is transmitted at your own risk.

What if you do not want to provide us with your information ?

We give you options wherever we can to stay anonymous if you wish to do so. Under certain circumstances this may not be possible for us to be able to complete your request. You may decline to provide personal information to us and/or refuse cookies in your browser. If you do so, please keep in mind that some of features or services may not function such as booking systems, discount offers, sales or special promotions.

Can we use your information for marketing our products and services ?

We may use your personal information to identify products that we believe may be of interest to you. We may communicate this via email, phone or your postal address. You can opt out from receiving this anytime by either clicking unsubscribe link in emails, or by contacting us through details provided below.

We comply with the Spam Act 2003 therefore do not share, sell or rent information to any third parties for the purposes of direct marketing.

Information on cookies

We may use cookies when you engage with us through our website(s). By using our website(s), you consent us to our use of cookies. Our website(s) may include links to third party web pages or analytical tools such as Google Anlytics. Please be informed that these are not controlled by us and it is your responsibility to check their status before using them. We make no representations or warranties in relation to the privacy practices of any third party website and we are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of any third party website. Please read their applicable privacy policies and terms of use carefully.

To find more information on cookies, please visit www.aboutcookies.org

How do you access your personal information ?

We‘ll always give you access to your personal information unless there are certain legal reasons why we can’t. You can ask us in writing to access your personal information that we hold. In some cases, we may be able to deal with your request over the phone.

We will give you access to your information in the form you want it where it’s reasonable and practical. We may charge you a small fee to cover our costs when giving you access, but we’ll always check with you first.

We’re not always required to give you access to your personal information. Some of the situations where we don’t have to give you access include when:

• we believe there is a threat to life or public safety;
• there is an unreasonable impact on other individuals;
• the request is frivolous;
• the information wouldn’t be ordinarily accessible because of legal proceedings;
• it would prejudice negotiations with you;
• it would be unlawful;
• it would jeopardise taking action against serious misconduct by you;
• it would be likely to harm the activities of an enforcement body (e.g. the police); or
• it would harm the confidentiality of our commercial information.

How do you correct your personal information ?

Contact us if you think there is something wrong with the information we hold about you and we’ll try to correct it if it’s; inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading.

Contact Us

We care about your privacy. If you have any questions, complaint or comments about this policy, please contact us on 1300 514 949 or use the contact form on our website. We are committed to resolving your complaint quickly and doing the right thing by our customers.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

This Policy may change. We will inform you of any major changes to this Policy by posting a notification on our website, correspondence via post or e-mail or you may contact us for a copy of the most up to date policy at any time.