Exploration Vacation: Privacy Policy

Effective Date: 5-25-2018

Who We Are

Exploration Vacation, ExplorationVacation.net is owned by Cindy Carlsson, LLC, a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) registered in Minnesota.

We understand that your privacy is important to you and that you care about how your information is used and shared online.

Our site only collects and uses information in ways that are consistent with your rights and our obligations under the law. Namely, data is processed:

When you give specific and express consent for us to do so
When necessary for the performance of a contract where you are a party to that contract (for example, if you buy something, we will need to collect payment and delivery information in order to deliver that product to you)
When necessary for compliance with a legal obligation
When necessary to protect the vital interest of the data subject (you) or of another natural person
When necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by us, except where such interest is overridden by your interest or fundamental rights and freedoms.

This Policy applies to our use of any and all data collected by us in accordance with your use of our site. Please read it and our Cookie Policy, Terms and Conditions, and Disclaimer and ensure that you understand them before using this site.

YOU ARE CONSIDERED TO HAVE ACCEPTED OUR PRIVACY POLICY WHEN YOU FIRST USE OUR SITE. If you do not agree to and accept our privacy policy, then you must stop using this website.

By using our site, you are also certifying that you are an adult, at least 18 years of age.

Data Controller Contact Information

Cindy Carlsson, LLC
Saint Paul, Minnesota
xplormore at explorationvacation.net

This document governs the privacy policies for the website www.ExplorationVacation.net

It was developed to comply with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) imposed by the European Union. It covers the collection, use, and security of data on EU residents. These requirements go beyond those of the United States; however, since EU residents may access this website, it is being managed to conform with the more stringent regulations in the EU.

Table of Contents

Information we collect and why we collect it

Generally, you control the amount and type of information that you provide to us when using our website.

Cindy Carlsson, LLC has no interest in collecting your data except to understand in aggregate who is visiting the website and what they are looking at OR to respond to individual comments and requests for information. Unless you contact us directly via a comment or email, Cindy Carlsson, LLC does not know who you are or where you are located.

Personal Information Collected on this Website

Personal data means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (‘data subject’); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier, or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural, or social identity of that natural person. In many ways it is the same as personally identifiable information. However, personal data is broader in scope and covers more data.

No personally identifiable information is collected on this website from anyone who simply browses the website.

The only personally identifiable information collected on this website is gathered in the comment area and on specified sign-up forms, where fields are provided so you can provide your name and email address to leave a comment or receive a download, newsletter, or other emails on updates, giveaways, or other offers. This information is collected to respond to the comments or questions site users post.

For additional detail on how we collect and use personally identifiable information, please see the list of tools below.

Anonymous Information Collected on this Website

We record anonymous data. Most of the information that we collect from this website is anonymous information, such as the pages you visit. Other anonymous data we may collect might include the name of your internet service provider, the website that you used to link to our site, the websites that you visit from our site, and your IP address.

The data is used for statistical purposes only, but you, as the individual user, remain anonymous. We use this anonymous information to help improve the content of this site and to compile aggregate statistics about individuals using our site for internal market research purposes.

For additional detail on how we collect and use anonymous information, please see the table below.

Cookies

Cookies are small text files placed on your computer or device by our site when you visit certain parts of our site.

When you visit our website, we may assign your computer one or more cookies to facilitate access to our website, personalize your online experience, and record information about your visit.

Through the use of a cookie, we also may automatically collect information about your online activity on our website, such as the web pages you visit, the links you click on, and other actions you take while on our website.

The cookies do not store any personally identifiable information about you.

Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies.

If you choose to decline cookies, please note that some of the features and services of our website may not function properly. We also use cookies for purposes such as maintaining continuity during an online session; gathering data about the use of our site; monitoring online promotions; and for anti-fraud and information security purposes.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g., videos, images, articles, etc.).

Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Links to Other Sites

Our website does contain links to affiliate and other websites. Our site does not claim nor accept responsibility for any privacy policies, practices, and/or procedures of other such websites. Therefore, we encourage all users and visitors to be aware when they leave our website and to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. The aforementioned Privacy Policy agreement applies only and solely to the information collected by our website.

Through affiliate links, identifying information may be carried over to an outside site to show that you visited that site from our site to ensure proper commissions are issued.

Our legal basis for collecting and processing personal data

Our legal basis for collecting and processing your PD is based on and the necessity for the performance of a contract or to take steps to enter into a contract.

How we collect your data

Automatic Information

We automatically receive information from your web browser or mobile device. This information includes the IP address of your computer/the proxy server you use to access the Internet and the country in which your address originates. It may also include your Internet service provider’s name, your web browser type, type of mobile device, your computer operating system, and data about your browsing activity when using our website. We use this information to secure our website and analyze trends to help improve our website.

When entering and using our website

When you enter and use our website and agree to accept cookies, some of these cookies may contain your personal data.

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site, we collect the data shown in the comments form.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Email and contact forms

Our website contains links that enable visitors to communicate with us offline by email and through contact forms. When you contact us, we may collect some or all the following information: your email address, first name, last name, location, and any other information you willingly choose to provide. You should limit the information you provide to us that is only necessary to answer your questions.

Advertising

We don’t host outside advertising on this website, nor do we track visitors for advertising purposes. No personal data is collected, stored, or used for this purpose.

We do use affiliate links through Stay 22, Travel Payouts, and Skimlinks. This process requires users to accept data collection for tracking purposes in order to follow the affiliate link. Once the user has accepted, tracking data will be collected to link any purchase to our account.

Analytics

Our website uses Independent Analytics to collect information about the use of our website. Unlike Google Analytics, it collects limited information on IP address, device, browsing behavior, etc. (See more details under Tools below.)

Tools Used

The following is a list of the tools used and the data collected.

Akismet Anti-spam

Data Collected: IP Address, Comment Content, User-Agent, Referrer URL, User Metadata
How It’s Collected: Automatically via comment submissions and form inputs
Why It’s Collected: Detect and prevent spam in comments and contact forms
Legal Basis: Legitimate Interest, Consent in some jurisdictions

Wordfence

Data Collected: IP Address, Login Information, User Metadata, Browsing Behavior Related to Security
How It’s Collected: Automatically via server logs, user login attempts, and security scanning scripts
Why It’s Collected: Protect website from security threats, monitor for malicious activity
Legal Basis: Legitimate Interest

Comments

Data Collected: Name, Email Address, Comment Content, IP Address, Browser Information
How It’s Collected: User input in comment form fields
Why It’s Collected: Facilitate user interaction, moderate content, prevent spam
Legal Basis: Legitimate Interest, Consent when required

Independent Analytics

Data Collected: IP Address, Device Information, Browsing Behavior, Referrer URL, Session Duration
How It’s Collected: Automatically via tracking scripts and cookies
Why It’s Collected: Analyze website traffic and user behavior to improve services
Legal Basis: Legitimate Interest, Consent required for cookies in some regions

Stay22

Data Collected: Location Data, Search Queries, Booking Details, IP Address
How It’s Collected: User input in search forms and automatic location detection
Why It’s Collected: Provide map and accommodation search services to users
Legal Basis: Legitimate Interest, Consent where applicable

TravelPayouts

Data Collected: User Search Data, Booking Details, IP Address, Referral Information
How It’s Collected: User input during booking and referral tracking codes
Why It’s Collected: Affiliate marketing, track referrals and commissions
Legal Basis: Legitimate Interest, Consent for tracking where required

Skimlinks

Data Collected: Browsing Behavior, Click Data, Referral URLs, Device Information
How It’s Collected: Automatically via affiliate tracking scripts and cookies
Why It’s Collected: Affiliate marketing, monetize outbound links
Legal Basis: Legitimate Interest, Consent for tracking cookies

Mailchimp

Data Collected: Name, Email Address, Subscription Preferences, Engagement Data (e.g., opens, clicks)
How It’s Collected: User input during subscription, tracking via emails and related cookies
Why It’s Collected: Email marketing, subscription management, campaign analytics
Legal Basis: Consent

Cloudflare

Cloudflare sets this cookie to track users across sessions to optimize user experience by maintaining session consistency and providing personalized services. It’s a necessary cookie that only lasts for one session.

Also sets a cookie for bot management. This is a necessary cookie that is retained for 1 hour.

Cookie Yes Consent

CookieYes sets this cookie to remember users’ consent preferences so that their preferences are respected on their subsequent visits to this site. It does not collect or store any personal information of the site visitors. This is a necessary cookie that is retained for 1 year.

Who we share your data with

We contract with the third parties listed in the table above to supply products, services, and a good user experience on our behalf. These include payment processing, delivery of goods, search engine facilities, advertising, and marketing.

In some cases, these parties may require access to some or all of your data. When that is the case, we take all reasonable steps to ensure that your data will be handled safely, securely, and in accordance with the law.

We do NOT sell or rent your personal data for marketing purposes.

Where we send your data

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website, we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

Information collected using Google Analytics is retained for a maximum of 26 months.

Information submitted through forms, such as email forms or contact forms, is retained until such a time as the data subject chooses to unsubscribe or invokes their right under GDPR to be forgotten.

How your information is used

We use the information we receive from you to:

Provide products and services you have requested or purchased from Cindy Carlsson, LLC
Personalize and customize our content
Make improvements to our website
Contact you with updates to our website, products, and services
Resolve problems and disputes
Provide marketing and advertising we believe may be of interest to you

Communications and Emails

When we communicate with you about our website, we will use the email address you provided in the communication or when you registered as a member or user. We may also send you emails with promotional information about our website or offers from us or our affiliates if you opt-in to receiving such information. You can change your contact preferences at any time through your account or by sending an email with your request to: explormore at explorationvacation.net

We will not sell, rent, or trade your email address to any third party without your permission, except in the sale or transfer of our business or if we file for bankruptcy. Nor is your address shared with anyone beyond our third-party service provider, MailChimp.

You leave comments on the website at your own risk. While there is only a limited amount of personal information visible on the website itself, it is a public forum. In addition, we have the email address for anyone commenting stored in WordPress. We do not save or compile these email addresses in any other place, but if you get a private response to a comment posted on the website, this is how we knew how to reach you.

Sharing information with affiliates and other third parties

We do not sell or rent your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes.

We may provide your personal data to third-party service providers we hire. These may include, but are not limited to payment processors, data management services, law firms, auditors, shopping cart and email service providers, and shipping companies.

Legally required releases of information

We may be legally required to disclose your personal information if disclosure is

Required by subpoena, law, or other legal process;
Necessary to assist law enforcement officials or government enforcement agencies;
Necessary to investigate violations of or otherwise enforce our Legal Terms;
Necessary to protect us from legal action or claims from third parties, including you and/or other visitors; or
Necessary to protect the legal rights, personal/real property, or personal safety of our company, visitors, employees, and affiliates.

Disclosures to successors

If the ExplorationVacation website is sold or merges in whole or in part with another business that would become responsible for providing the website to you, we retain the right to transfer your personal information to the new business. The new business would retain the right to use your information according to the terms of this privacy notice as well as to any changes to this privacy notice as instituted by the new business.

We also retain the right to transfer your personal information if our company files for bankruptcy and some or all of our assets are sold to another individual or business.

What happens if you don’t give us your personal data

If you do not provide us with enough PD, we may not be able to provide you with all our products and services. However, you can access and use some parts of our website without giving us your PD.

Your rights over your data

If you have an account on this site or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us.

You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Similarly, if you have subscribed to our email list, you can unsubscribe at any time and make a request to the site administrator to have all personal data obtained via our email marketing service erased.

Resident Rights of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Nebraska, Oregon, Texas, Tennessee, Utah, or Virginia

If you reside in one of the above states, a state-based data privacy law may give you rights over your data. These rights include:

The right to correct any inaccuracies regarding your data
The right to request we delete your data
The right to obtain a copy of your data that has been collected
The right to opt out of targeted advertising. Please note that opting out does not mean you will no longer see ads, you will simply no longer see targeted ads.

Rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

When using our Site and submitting personal data to us, you may have certain rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other laws. Depending on the legal basis for processing your personal data, you may have some or all of the following rights:

The right to be informed: You have the right to be informed about the personal data we collect from you, and how we process it.

The right of access: You have the right to get confirmation that your personal data is being processed and have the ability to access your personal data.
The right to rectification: You have the right to have your personal data corrected if it is inaccurate or incomplete.
The right to erasure (right to be forgotten): You have the right to request the removal or deletion of your personal data if there is no compelling reason for us to continue processing it.
The right to restrict processing: You have a right to ‘block’ or restrict the processing of your personal data. When your personal data is restricted, we are permitted to store your data, but not to process it further.
The right to data portability: You have the right to request and get your personal data that you provided to us and use it for your own purposes. We will provide your data to you within 30 days of your request. To request your personal data, please contact us using the information at the bottom of this privacy notice.
The right to object: You have the right to object to us processing your personal data for the following reasons:

- Processing was based on legitimate interests or the performance of a task in the public interest/exercise of official authority (including profiling);
- Direct marketing (including profiling); and
- Processing for purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics.
- Rights in relation to automated decision-making and profiling.

Automated individual decision-making and profiling: You will have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you.
Filing a complaint with authorities: You have the right to file a complaint with supervisory authorities if your information has not been processed in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation. If the supervisory authorities fail to address your complaint properly, you may have the right to a judicial remedy.

For details about your rights under GDPR, visit https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/

Transferring personal data from the European Union

Personal data that we collect from you may be stored, processed, and transferred between any of the countries in which we operate, specifically the United States. Wherever we transfer, process, or store your data, we will take reasonable steps to protect it. We will use the information we collect from you in accordance with our privacy notice.

By using our website, services, or products, you agree to the transfers of your personal data described within this section.

Managing your personal data

Retaining and destroying your personal data

We only retain information that we collect from you for as long as we need it for website security, legal, business, or tax purposes. Your information may be retained in electronic form, paper form, or a combination of both. When your information is no longer needed, we will destroy, delete, or erase it.

If you leave a comment on this website, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

Updating your personal data

You can update your personal data using services found on our website or by contacting Cindy Carlsson, LLC using the contact information found at the top of this privacy notice for help. However, we may keep your PD as needed to enforce our agreements and to comply with any legal obligations.

Revoking your consent for using your personal data

You have the right to revoke your consent for us to use your PD at any time. Such an optout will not affect disclosures otherwise permitted by law including but not limited to: (i) disclosures to affiliates and business partners, (ii) disclosures to third-party service providers that provide certain services for our business, such as computer system and data management services, (iii) disclosures to third parties as necessary to fulfill your requests, (iv) disclosures to governmental agencies or law enforcement departments, or as otherwise required to be made under applicable law, (v) previously completed disclosures to third parties, or (vi) disclosures to third parties in connection with subsequent contests or promotions you may choose to enter, or third-party offers you may choose to accept.

If you want to revoke your consent for us to use your personal data, email us with your request to explormore at ExplorationVacation.net

Protecting the privacy rights of third parties

If any postings you make on our website contain information about third parties, you must make sure you have permission to include that information in your posting. While we are not legally liable for the actions of our visitors, we will remove any postings about which we are notified, if such postings violate the privacy rights of others.

Links to other websites

Exploration Vacation may contain links to other websites. These websites are not under our control and are not subject to our privacy notice. These websites will likely have their own privacy notices. We have no responsibility for these websites and we provide links to these websites solely for your convenience. You acknowledge that your use of and access to these websites are solely at your risk. It is your responsibility to check the privacy notices of these websites to see how they treat your PD.

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the same way as if the visitor has visited the other website directly. These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Protecting children’s privacy

Even though our website is not designed for use by anyone under the age of 18, we realize that a child under the age of 18 may attempt to access our website. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 18.

If you are a parent or guardian and believe that your child is using our website, please contact us. Before we remove any information, we may ask for proof of identification to prevent malicious removal of account information. If we discover that a child is accessing our website, we will delete his/her information within a reasonable period of time.

You acknowledge that we do not verify the age of our users, nor do we have any liability to do so.

Changes to our privacy policy

We may change this privacy policy as we deem necessary or as required by law. Any changes will be posted on our site and you will have been deemed to have accepted them on your first use of our site following alterations. You should check this page regularly to ensure you are keeping up to date.

How to contact us

Should you have any questions, concerns regarding our site or this privacy policy, or data privacy rights requests, you may contact us at 1080 Laurel Avenue, Saint Paul, Minnesota or at xplormore at explorationvacation.net

Link to all legal notices, policies, and disclaimers