SAMPAGUITA TRAVEL BUREAU
Privacy Policy
Privacy of personal information is important to Sampaguita
Travel Bureau. We are committed to collecting, using and disclosing personal
information responsibly and only to the extent necessary for the travel products
and services we provide. We also try to be open and transparent as to how we
handle personal information. This document describes our privacy policies.
What is personal
information?
Personal information is information about an
identifiable individual. Personal information includes information that relates
to their personal characteristics (e.g., gender, age, income, home address or phone
number, ethnic background, family status), their health (e.g., health history,
health conditions, health services received by them) or their activities and
views (e.g., religion, politics, opinions expressed by an individual, an
opinion or evaluation of an individual). Personal information is to be contrasted
with business information (e.g., an individual’s business address and telephone
number), which is not protected by privacy legislation. In addition, due the
nature of the travel agency business, we also include in our policies and
staunchly protect therein an individual’s financial information including
checking account information and credit card information.
Who we are?
Our travel agency, Sampaguita Travel Bureau, is
a full service agency business, and we arrange travel products and services for
our clients with a wide spectrum of industry suppliers. Accordingly, we deal with a
number of consultants and third parties that may, in the course of their
duties, have limited access to personal information we hold. These include airlines,
railroads, cruise lines, tour operators, hotels booking offices, car rental
companies, computer reservations system providers, and other travel-related
vendors. We restrict their access to any personal information we hold as much
as is reasonably possible.
We collect personal information for the following purposes:
We collect, use and disclose personal information in
order to serve our clients in making and securing reservations, to issue
transportation documents and vouchers, to provide travel suppliers with
information to complete the necessary purchasing arrangements for a wide array
of travel and tourism products and to correspond with clients, past and
present, and inform them on upcoming tours & products we offer. Examples of
the type of personal information we collect for those purposes include the
following: name, address, telephone, e-mail address, date of birth, place of
birth, credit card information, frequent flyer membership numbers, passport or
visa information, Social Insurance Number, and similar personal information
necessary to properly identify our clients and their entitlement to the
services we arrange. We also collect personal information from our employees
and contractors to ensure our proper compliance with employment laws,
remuneration, tax payments, and other employee/contractor functions.
Protecting personal information:
We understand the importance of protecting personal
information. For that reason, we have taken the following steps:
• Paper
information is either under supervision or secured in cabinets or restricted
area.
• Electronic
hardware is either under supervision or secured in a locked or restricted area
at all times. In addition, passwords are used on computers.
• Paper
information is transmitted through sealed, addressed envelopes or boxes by
reputable companies.
• Electronic
information is transmitted either through a direct line or is anonymized or encrypted.
• Staff are
trained to collect, use and disclose personal information only as necessary to
fulfill their duties and in accordance with our privacy policy.
• External
consultants and agencies with access to personal information must enter into privacy
agreements with us or acknowledge that they abide by PIPEDA.
Retention and
destruction of personal information:
We need to retain personal information for some time to
ensure that we can answer any questions you might have about the services
provided and for our own accountability to external regulatory bodies. Some files are destroyed (shredded) between 2
to 3 years from the time they were opened while Financial records are maintained
for a period of 7 years as required by CCRA rules. Our client and contact directories are much more difficult to
systematically destroy, so we remove such information when we can if it does
not appear that we will be contacting you again. However, if you ask, we will remove
such contact information right away. We may keep any personal information
relating to our general correspondence with people who are not our clients,
newsletters, seminars and marketing activities for about 12 months after the
newsletter, seminar or marketing activity is over. We use the services of a shredding company to ensure that personal
information is destroyed and not simply discarded. We destroy electronic information
by deleting it and, when the hardware is discarded, we ensure that the hard
drive is physically destroyed.
You can look at your information:
With only a few exceptions, you have the right to see
what personal information we hold about you.
Often all you have to do is ask. We can help you identify what records
we might have about you. We will also
try to help you understand any information you do not understand (e.g., various
industry forms, technical language, etc.).
We will need to confirm your identity, if we do not
know you, before providing you with this access. We reserve the right to charge
a nominal fee for such requests. If there is a problem, we may ask you to put
your request in writing. If we cannot give you access, we will tell you within
30 days if at all possible and tell you the reason, as best we can, as to why
we cannot give you access.
If you believe there is a mistake in the information,
you have the right to ask for it to be corrected. This applies to factual information and not to any professional
opinions we may have formed. We may ask you to provide documentation that our
files are wrong. Where we agree that we made a mistake, we will make the
correction and notify anyone to whom we sent this information. If we do not
agree that we have made a mistake, we will still agree to include in our file a
brief statement from you on the point and we will forward that statement to
anyone else who received the earlier information.
Do you have a concern?
Our Privacy Policy Manager, Bernadette C. Dee, can
be reached at 604 874-9533 to address any questions or concerns you
might have. If you wish to make a formal complaint about our privacy practices,
you may make it in writing to our Privacy Policy Manager. She will acknowledge
receipt of your complaint, ensure that it is investigated promptly and that you
are provided with a formal decision and reasons in writing.
For more general inquiries, the Information and Privacy
Commissioner of Canada oversees the administration of the privacy legislation
in the private sector. The Commissioner also acts as a kind of ombudsman for
privacy disputes. The Information and Privacy Commissioner can be reached at:
112 Kent Street,
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 1H3 as well as by:
Phone: (613) 995-8210
Toll-free: 1-800-282-1376
Fax: (613)
947-6850
TTY: (613)
992-9190
E-mail: info@privcom.gc.ca.
We appreciate and value your
patronage. At Sampaguita Travel Bureau,
we respect your privacy.
SAMPAGUITA
TRAVEL BUREAU
Client Consent to
Maintain and Use Personal Information
On January 1, 2004, the Government
of Canada will fully implement the Personal
Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). Accordingly,
in order to be in compliance with the Act,
Sampaguita Travel Bureau is required
to obtain consent from its customers in order to use personal information which
we may already have on file or in our data systems. The personal information
which we maintain and use is solely for the purposes of servicing the travel
arrangements which you request that we undertake and to inform you of upcoming
tours & other products we may be offering.
This information is stored,
secured, disclosed, and handled in strict accordance with PIPEDA and Sampaguita Travel Bureau’s compliant
Privacy Policy. Our complete policy is found at our web site: www.sampaguitatravel.com , posted in our office, and available
anytime for your review and consideration.
CONSENT
With regard to the provisions of the Privacy Act,
I hereby give my permission for Sampaguita Travel Bureau to maintain personal
information already on file, and to collect further information for the purpose
of making and securing reservations and issuing transportation documents,
insurance policies and completing arrangements for my travel, contacting me by
mail, fax, telephone and/or email with relevant information and other services Sampaguita Travel Bureau may offer.
Name: ______________________________ Date:_______________ Signature: ______________________________