This Privacy Policy explains how YourTravelSearches ("YourTravelSearches", "we", "us", or "our") collects, uses, and protects your personal data when you use our website at yourtravelsearches.com. We are committed to protecting your privacy and complying with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and applicable Dutch data protection law.
1. Who We Are
The data controller responsible for your personal data is:
YourTravelSearches
Keizersgracht 123
1015 CJ Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Chamber of Commerce (KvK): [Your KvK number]
Email: privacy@yourtravelsearches.com
2. Data We Collect
We collect only the personal data necessary to provide our service. Depending on how you use our website, this may include:
Data you provide voluntarily:
- Itinerary questionnaire answers: Destination, travel dates, duration, travel style, budget range, and group composition. This data is used solely to generate and personalise your itinerary.
- Newsletter subscription: Your email address, if you choose to subscribe to our newsletter or request our free travel guide.
- Contact form submissions: Name, email address, subject, and message content when you contact us.
- Community contributions: If you apply to join our community as a local guide, we collect your name, email, and expertise information.
Data collected automatically:
- Usage data: Pages visited, time spent on pages, browser type, operating system, and referring URLs via anonymised analytics.
- Cookies: See Section 8 for full details.
3. How We Use Your Data
We use your personal data for the following purposes:
- To generate and deliver personalised travel itineraries based on your questionnaire answers
- To respond to your enquiries and provide customer support
- To send you our newsletter or free travel guide, where you have explicitly opted in
- To improve our website, itinerary quality, and community knowledge base
- To comply with legal obligations
- To detect and prevent fraud or misuse of our service
4. Legal Basis for Processing
Under the GDPR, we process your personal data on the following legal bases:
- Contract (Article 6(1)(b)): Processing your questionnaire answers to generate your itinerary
- Consent (Article 6(1)(a)): Newsletter subscription and marketing communications — you can withdraw consent at any time
- Legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f)): Improving our service, website analytics (using anonymised data), and responding to contact form enquiries
- Legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c)): Where required by Dutch or EU law
5. Sharing Your Data
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal data to third parties. We may share your data with:
- Service providers: Companies that help us operate our platform (hosting, email delivery, analytics). All processors are contractually bound to protect your data and may not use it for their own purposes.
- Legal authorities: Where required by law, court order, or to protect our legal rights.
All third-party service providers used by YourTravelSearches are GDPR-compliant and where applicable, located within the European Economic Area or covered by an adequate level of data protection.
6. Data Retention
We retain your personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes described in this policy:
- Itinerary questionnaire data: Deleted or anonymised within 90 days of generation, unless you have an account
- Newsletter subscriptions: Until you unsubscribe
- Contact form data: Up to 2 years from the date of correspondence, or as required to resolve any dispute
- Legal and financial records: 7 years as required by Dutch law
7. Your Rights Under GDPR
As a data subject under the GDPR, you have the following rights. To exercise any of them, contact us at privacy@yourtravelsearches.com:
- Right of access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
- Right to rectification: Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data
- Right to erasure ("right to be forgotten"): Request deletion of your personal data
- Right to restriction: Request that we restrict processing of your data in certain circumstances
- Right to data portability: Receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format
- Right to object: Object to processing based on legitimate interests or for direct marketing purposes
- Right to withdraw consent: Where processing is based on consent, withdraw it at any time without affecting prior processing
We will respond to all requests within 30 days. If you are dissatisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens) at autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl.
8. Cookies
We use cookies and similar tracking technologies on our website. For full details on what cookies we use, why, and how to manage them, please see our Cookie Policy.
9. Security
We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, loss, destruction, or alteration. These include SSL/TLS encryption, access controls, and regular security reviews. However, no internet transmission is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
10. Children's Privacy
Our service is not directed at children under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe we have inadvertently collected data from a child, please contact us immediately at privacy@yourtravelsearches.com and we will delete it promptly.
11. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or applicable law. We will indicate the date of the most recent update at the top of this page. For significant changes, we will provide a more prominent notice. Continued use of our website after any changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.