Privacy Policy

Who We Are

Yugen Earthside is a Social Purpose Corporation (SPC) based in Washington State, USA. We are a travel booking platform and agency specializing in sustainable self-guided, private, and small-group tours. Our partner companies are responsible tour operators (TOs) and destination management companies (DMCs) that we have carefully evaluated prior to listing their trips on our platform or recommending their trips to clients. This Privacy Policy is intended to describe how we collect, use, and disclose Personal Information that you submit to us and that we collect through our website (“Website” or “Site”). Please read this Privacy Policy which explains how we use and protect your personal information. Our Privacy Policy covers all the platforms through which you choose to interact with us, including our mobile-enabled and social media sites. By giving us your personal information, you agree to the transfer, storing, or processing of your data in accordance with this policy. By making a booking or submitting any personal information to us, you are agreeing to us handling your personal information as set out below. If you do not agree to us using your personal information in these ways, unfortunately, we can’t process your booking and you shouldn’t use our sites. At times, we do make changes to this Policy, these changes are effective immediately, so please visit these pages regularly to keep up to date with any changes we’ve made.  You acknowledge and agree that it is your responsibility to review this site and this Privacy Policy periodically and be aware of any modifications.

Any legal or official documents may be sent to our registered agent at the physical address of:
917 Pacific Ave
Suite 408
Tacoma, WA, 98402

Questions or concerns may also be sent directly to our founder at hilary@yugenearthside.com. You have the right to lodge a complaint by contacting us at either of the above-mentioned addresses.

What Personal Data We Collect and Why 

Reservation Request

When you request more information about a trip, or to reserve a spot on a trip, you need to provide certain information such as your name, address, e-mail, and phone number. If you happen to fill in the contact page but for some reason don’t complete the booking, you will still be considered to have provided us with your information.

Information you give to us about others in your party

If you’re booking with others or for someone else, you will have to give us their information as well, for example, their name and date of birth. It is your responsibility to ensure that they are aware that you have done so, and also that they accept how we use and process their information as well as yours.

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

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.

Note: As of July 2023, comments from visitors on the site have been disabled.

Media

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

What information we collect automatically

When you visit our Website, we automatically collect certain information such as the device IP address, the date and time you visited, the hardware, software, or particular browser used, and information about your visit, including any pages you viewed and interacted with. We do this automatically, even when you don’t actually make a booking.

If you’re using a mobile device to reach us, we keep data that identifies your device, location details, and any specific settings.

Cookies

Cookies are files with a small amount of data which may include an anonymous unique identifier. Cookies are sent to your browser from a website and stored on your device. Other tracking technologies are also used such as beacons, tags, and scripts to collect and track information and to improve and analyze our Service.

You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, some portions of our services may not
perform properly.

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address, and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

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 tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

What We Do With Your Personal Information

Your personal information could be used in the following ways:

• Processing your bookings: We provide your personal information to the Travel Supplier to ensure the services you’ve selected, which may include flights, hotels, transport, insurance, and other ancillary products are provided to you. We need certain information about you and your party so we can fulfill the contractual obligations when you make a booking.
• User Accounts: The information that you provide when you set up an account allows us to provide you with additional services including the ability to manage your bookings, personal settings, and access to special offers.
• To communicate with you about your booking: We’ll need to contact you using the email or telephone number you provided to give you information relevant to your arrangements. For example, to confirm your booking, notification of any changes, security alerts, administrative messages about your arrangements, and reminders.
• Customer Services: You can contact us at any time, whether this is a general query, a question about your booking, or to report an issue. You can do this through our website, by telephone, or by email. We’ll use the information that you’ve given us to answer any questions and respond to your query or other queries you might have in the future. If you do contact us by telephone, your call may be recorded and reviewed for quality and training purposes. Recordings are only kept for a limited period and then automatically deleted unless we have a legitimate interest in keeping them for a longer period.
• Personalization of your experience: We sometimes use your data to enable us to show you the most relevant products and services we think you’ll be interested in, such as the best deals and special offers for destinations you like or have been to previously.
• Marketing: Where you make a booking, or in any other case, if you have opted-in or signed up, we may contact you with information about other products and services that we offer that are similar to those that you have already purchased or enquired about and we think may interest you based on your personal information. You can opt out of these emails at any time.

When you book or register with us, we will ask you if you would like to receive marketing communications. You can change your marketing preferences online, over the phone, using the “unsubscribe” link in our emails, by replying STOP to the shortcode in our marketing text messages, or by writing to us at any time. Of course, the choice is entirely yours, but if you say you do not want to receive marketing information from us you will miss out on receiving great offers and promotions that may be of interest to you.

You may still receive service-related communications from us. For example, confirming bookings you make with us and providing important information about the use of our products and/or services.

• Promotional Activities: If you take part in any of our promotions (such as surveys or competitions) we will need to use the information you provide to run these promotions.
• Improving our services: Sometimes we might use your data to help us improve the quality and functionality of our services. This could include eliminating bugs in our system, data analysis, testing, and statistical and survey purposes, all of which help us improve the service we offer.
• Security: We may use your data as part of efforts to keep our sites (and the information you provide to us) safe and secure, and to prevent fraud or unauthorized access/use of our sites.
• Fraudulent Claims: We may use your personal information to prevent, detect, or defend any claims/actions we believe to be potentially fraudulent or detrimental to our legitimate interests.
• Legal and regulatory compliance: We might need to use your information in relation to any legal disputes, regulatory, compliance, or criminal investigations, or if necessary, to enforce our rights.

Legal Basis for Processing Personal Data

When we process your information as described above, we will be relying on one or more of the following legal rights:

• Performance of a contract: We use your information to carry out the contract that you have with us and your Service Providers. We’ll use the information that you provide us when making a booking to conclude and process the reservations with the relevant third-party Service Providers.
• Consent: You may, through your action(s) of providing us your details, consent to us sending you marketing and promotional material. If you do kindly give us this consent, we’ll rely on this consent when contacting you. You can always withdraw your consent at any time by simply unsubscribing.
• Legitimate interest: We may use your information for our own legitimate interest, for example, to provide you with the most relevant content on our site or to promote new services, and for certain administrative and legal purposes. If you fail to complete a purchase, we may send you some follow-up emails to try and help you, or seek your feedback or offer you alternative products related to your selection.
• Business transaction: We may use your data in connection with a business transaction such as the sale of a part or the whole of our business.
• To comply with a legal obligation: We may share your personal data with regulatory authorities such as immigration, border control, security, anti-terrorism, and any other legitimate legal obligation as required.
• To protect your vital interests or those or another individual: We may share your information in the case of an emergency. For example, with insurance companies or medical personnel.

How We Store Your Data

Any information that you provide is stored on secure servers, Only authorized personnel are permitted to access your information in the course of their work with us. Our data security protections meet the “reasonable security requirements” of the New York “Shield Act”. While we do our best to protect your information, no information transferred over the internet or stored electronically can be guaranteed to be completely secure and you provide your information to us at your own risk.

We’ll only retain your information for a reasonable period of time, or for so long as either you or the law allows. 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 (if any), 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.

For Residents of the European Union

Due to the nature of our business and the arrangements you have chosen, it may be necessary for your data to be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”) and may not be subject to the same level of data protection controls as within the EEA. We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your data is handled securely.

Who We Share Your Data With

When you request more information about a trip, or to reserve a spot on a trip, we will share your first name, last name, and email address with the associated tour operator or destination management company offering that trip. At no other point will your information be shared with, or sold to, any other third parties.

Law enforcement authorities: We will disclose personal information insofar as it is required by law or where we believe it is necessary for the prevention, detection, or prosecution of potentially criminal acts, including for fraud, immigration, customs, security, or anti-terrorism purposes.

Please note that while we have procedures and security features to protect your information from access by unauthorized persons and against unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction, and damage, we don’t control the privacy practices of any of these third parties or your Service Providers and we would encourage you to review their own privacy policies where appropriate.

Furthermore, any information that you provide directly to your Service Providers or other suppliers is not covered under this Privacy Policy and we would urge to check their own privacy policies before providing any personal information.

What Rights You Have Over Your Data

You have the following rights in relation to the personal information that we hold about you:

You may request a copy of the personal information we are keeping about you by submitting a request to us at the above address.

You may ask that we correct any inaccuracies in the data, ask us to transfer it to another party, or provide it to you for transfer it to another party yourself.

You can ask us not to process your personal information for marketing purposes at any time by sending a request to the below address or clicking ‘unsubscribe’ on any of the emails that we send to you. Alternatively, you can also email hilary@yugenearthside.com and it will be done for you. We will let you know if we intend to use your data for marketing purposes.

You have the right to request that we delete all personal information that we hold about you. If there is no other reason besides you providing your consent for us to hold your data, we will delete it upon receiving your request.

We may not delete your personal information if one of the following exceptions exists:

• Information is necessary to complete the transaction;
• Information is necessary to detect security incidents;
• Information is necessary to protect against deceptive, fraudulent or illegal activity;
• Information is necessary to identify and repair errors;
• Information is necessary to promote free speech;
• Information is necessary for scientific, historical, or statistical research in the public interest;
• Information is necessary for internal uses of the company if those uses are reasonably expected by consumers;
• Information is necessary to comply with a legal obligation; or
• Information is used internally in a manner that is compatible with the context of the collection.

If you would like to exercise any of your above rights, please contact us at hilary@yugenearthside.com writing ‘Data Subject Access Request’ in the subject line. We will deal with any requests we receive in accordance with the relevant Data Protection laws.

Data Collected Through a Mobile Device

Mobile devices can be used to access our services, as well as versions of our regular website. These mobile sites work in a similar way to our main website. Sometimes we make use of something known as cross-device tracking, which allows us to track user behavior across different devices. We use this to improve the service that we provide you and for marketing activities, so advertisements shown to you on other websites may be offered based on your activities on linked devices.

Our Policy on “Do Not Track” Signals under the California Online Protection Act (CalOPPA)

We do not support Do Not Track (“DNT”). Do Not Track is a preference you can set in your web browser to inform websites that you do not want to be tracked.

You can enable or disable Do Not Track by visiting the Preferences or Settings page of your web browser.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. Google uses the data collected to track and monitor the use of our Service. This data is shared with other Google services. Google may use the collected data to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network.

You can opt out of having made your activity on the Service available to Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. The add-on prevents the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js, and dc.js) from sharing information with Google Analytics about visits activity.

For more information on the privacy practices of Google, please visit the Google Privacy & Terms web page.

How We Treat the Personal Information of Children

You are only allowed to book through our site if you are over 18 years of age. We only process information about children with the consent of the parents or legal guardians.

Links to Other Sites

Our Service may contain links to other sites that are not operated by us. If you click a third-party link, you will be directed to that third-party’s site. We strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of every site you visit.

We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites or services.

Who Exactly is Responsible for Processing Personal Information that is Collected Under the Policy

We control the processing of data over our sites – in legal terms, this means that Yugen Earthside is the Data Controller for the purposes of UK Data Protection laws.

Where We Send your Data

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

Additional Information

What third parties we receive data from

We do not receive data from any third parties.

Industry regulatory disclosure requirements

Yugen Earthside, SPC is an online travel agency (OTA). We are a platform and agency listing the trips of TOs and DMCs and selling the trips on their behalf; we are not the party responsible for booking travel arrangements or operating the purchased tours. Travelers will be connected directly with the TO or DMC responsible for operating their purchased trip.