Privacy Policy
Respect for Customer and User Privacy
ecoTravel Portugal, owner of www.ecotravel-portugal.com, understands and respects the importance of your privacy and considers the security of its customers’ personal information vital. This Privacy Policy sets out the basis on which any personal data we acquire from customers through this website, or provided by the customer, will be processed and stored by us. We are committed to protecting your personal information and being transparent about what information we collect and what we do with it. Therefore, please read the following information carefully.
According to the new General Data Protection Regulation Act, approved by the European Commission (GDPR, EU Regulation 2016/679), we, Ecotravel Lda., trading as ecoTravel Portugal, are the Data Controller for this website www.ecotravel-portugal.com. As our customer, you are aware of the rules contained in our Privacy Policy, as well as ensuring that the other members of your part are aware of the same content and that they agree to provide their personal data, in order to proceed with the booking or another purchase on their behalf.
By making a reservation/order or submitting your personal data through this website, you agree to the transfer, storage, or processing as set out. We will take all legally necessary steps to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.
Personal Data Collected and Reasons
ecoTravel Portugal maintains a database with the records of its customers, which it stores for 20 years after the first contact. The data present in this database are solely the data provided by the customers themselves at the time of their registration or subsequently requested for reservation purposes, being collected under the terms approved by the National Data Protection Commission by ecoTravel Portugal, the entity responsible for the file, headquartered at Praça Mouzinho de Albuquerque nº113, store 70 (Shopping Brasília), 4100-359 Porto, Portugal.
ecoTravel Portugal automatically records certain personal data that the customer has provided. The type of data stored will be information such as “name”, “contact”, and “email address”. In some cases, we may need other more sensitive personal data such as “citizen card and/or passport number”. All information about personal data requested is solely and exclusively for organizing the requested trip or tourist service. All personal data provided will be treated as “sensitive” in nature and, therefore, deserve the utmost respect and care from ecoTravel Portugal.
In the case of a reservation, the customer can make the payment by VISA/Mastercard credit card online. In this way, you will be redirected to the Redunicre page, a certified partner entity that processes payments, where you will be asked to enter your card details. In this sense, Redunicre and our bank are the only entities that process the customer’s card data and guarantee the transmission of encrypted data. ecoTravel Portugal only receives the information with the result of the authorization and instructions to proceed with the order.
In no situation will information be requested about philosophical or political beliefs, party or union affiliation, religious faith, private life, and racial or ethnic origin, as well as data related to the health or sexual life (including genetic data) of customers. When we are preparing your trip, the customer may provide us with other types of information, such as dietary requirements and food intolerances, medical/health conditions, disabilities, or other similar special information to ensure that your specific needs are met.
Therefore, ecoTravel Portugal guarantees that it has implemented and will continue to implement the security measures of a technical and organisational nature necessary to guarantee the security of the data provided, in order to prevent its alteration, loss, processing and/or unauthorised access, taking into account the nature of the data stored and the risks to which it is exposed.
If the customer wishes to exercise the rights of access, rectification, cancellation or opposition that the GDPR grants them, it can do it through the website or send an email to info@ecotravel-portugal.com.
Other Ways to Obtain Personal Data
ecoTravel Portugal also reserves the right to collect personal data in the following circumstances: if the user responds to a promotion through this website, fills out a questionnaire, subscribes to the newsletter or other marketing material, reports a problem, among other similar situations. In this case, we may keep a record of your email address, with the possibility of removal. Alternatively, the user can simply send us an email to info@ecotravel-portugal.com.
Personal data obtained by outsourced sources:
In addition to this data provided by the user/customer, we may receive information from other suppliers and certified partners, to whom we point the responsibility to ensure the full compliance with the privacy policies required by the GDPR:
- if you book one of our programs through a travel agent or third-party tour operator, certain personal data (as applicable to your booking) will be shared with ecoTravel Portugal in order to provide the services that the customer has requested (even if this commercial relationship doesn’t come to an end);
- if the customer provides us feedback through a social media channel or other feedback tool or software, the feedback (but not the personal data) will be processed by that company and shared with ecoTravel Portugal;
- if you contact ecoTravel Portugal at [+351] 226 191 095 our telephone management software partner keeps a record and shares the information exclusively with ecoTravel Portugal. The data collected are: “telephone/mobile number”, “date” and “duration” of the call, “network information”. If you contact us through any of the phones/mobile phones available in the company, your number may be associated with your booking/request (if there is no business relationship, the number will be forgotten);
- If you contact ecoTravel Portugal through the chat window available on the website (Zendesk Chat), this partner will retain your chat history with ecoTravel Portugal through this software, the number of visits to the website, the page of the website where the user is located, your browser, computer system, IP location, and duration of the visit to our website. This provider is committed to sharing only the personal data of our user with us;
- We may also record your visits to this website, including (but not limited to) traffic data, location data, IP address, operating system, and browser type. These are statistical data about the actions and browsing patterns of our users and do not identify any individual.
Transfer of the Obtained Personal Data
When a customer fills out a form on our website and/or ends the booking process with ecoTravel Portugal, some personal information provided will need to be transmitted, processed and stored by relevant third-parties, such as:
- Travel partners, such as airlines, airports, hotels, insurance companies, ground support agents, tour operators, or river operators, among other tourism service providers associated with the request (as applicable to your reservation). Some of these third parties may be located outside the European Economic Area, and these organizations may not be subject to the same level of control concerning the new GDPR law;
- data and technology management partners that enable us to administer the services we provide (external CRM for organizing/monitoring leads and for improving the experience of customers; and Optitravel – billing tool agency management software);
- credit card or ATM payment facilitators, which help us to process customer payments and to assist us in detecting and preventing fraudulent payments or bookings (Redunicre, IfThenPay, EasyPay and Pagtur);
- email Marketing platforms, ensuring the encryption of our databases, which include subscriber “name” and “email address”;
- Government bodies or other authorities in Portugal (or other countries), to ensure the safety of oneself and other passengers. This includes immigration, border control, security, and anti-terrorism officials. Even if it is not mandatory to provide information to these authorities, we may exercise our right to assist them when we deem it appropriate.
Treatment and Storage of Personal Data
When a customer fills out a form on our website and/or ends the booking process with ecoTravel Portugal, some personal information provided will need to be transmitted, processed and stored by relevant third-parties, such as:
- Travel partners, such as airlines, airports, hotels, insurance companies, ground support agents, tour operators, or river operators, among other tourism service providers associated with the request (as applicable to your reservation). Some of these third parties may be located outside the European Economic Area, and these organizations may not be subject to the same level of control concerning the new GDPR law;
- data and technology management partners that enable us to administer the services we provide (external CRM for organizing/monitoring leads and for improving the experience of customers; and Optitravel – billing tool agency management software);
- credit card or ATM payment facilitators, which help us to process customer payments and to assist us in detecting and preventing fraudulent payments or bookings (Redunicre, IfThenPay, EasyPay and Pagtur);
- email Marketing platforms, ensuring the encryption of our databases, which include subscriber “name” and “email address”;
- Government bodies or other authorities in Portugal (or other countries), to ensure the safety of oneself and other passengers. This includes immigration, border control, security, and anti-terrorism officials. Even if it is not mandatory to provide information to these authorities, we may exercise our right to assist them when we deem it appropriate.
Use of Personal Data in Marketing
If the user does not make an inquiry or purchase with ecoTravel Portugal, we will only send information and offers by email if they subscribe to our newsletter (double opt-in) to receive our information and/or promotions. Thus, only users who have expressly agreed to receive marketing material will be included in these databases.
These personal data consented by the user (“name” and “email address”) are shared with a secure and certified external platform, from which we manage the database and proceed with sending Email Marketing. We will not transmit the data to third parties with whom we do not have a protocol, who do not guarantee the security and encryption of the database, and who are not Email Marketing and Marketing Automation companies. We impose on these partners the strict adherence to GDPR norms and confidentiality regarding the stored data, with their disclosure being clearly prohibited.
If you choose not to receive more Marketing information, you can unsubscribe from the newsletter and, consequently, it will be automatically erased from our databases for Marketing purposes.
Retention of Personal Data
When the user makes a purchase with ecoTravel Portugal, sends an availability request, or fills out another form on our website, their personal information will be retained to ensure we offer the best possible service. Thus, we keep personal data for as long as necessary to use your information as established in this Privacy Policy. This means up to 20 years concerning reservations/purchases or marketing communication (or another time that may be necessary for our legal and audit purposes or as required by law).
Rights of Individual Relative to Personal Data Provided
Although we do our best to protect your personal data, and always act in accordance with the strict GDPR norms, the transmission of information over the Internet is not completely secure. Therefore, we cannot guarantee the complete security of your data transmitted to our website. When we receive your information, we take all reasonable and legal measures to keep your personal data protected and try to prevent any unauthorized access, use, or loss of your data, by implementing appropriate security measures and limiting access, including internally. All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers, and any payment transaction will be encrypted using TLS technology. We do not store customer card data internally, and when we provide an access password (personal and non-transferable) to a reserved area of our website, you must keep it and will be responsible for keeping that password confidential.
In addition, if we detect any breach or suspicion about violation of personal data, we will notify the competent authorities immediately, as required by law.
Our Approach to Personal Data Security
Although we do our best to protect your personal data, and always act in accordance with the strict GDPR norms, the transmission of information over the Internet is not completely secure. Therefore, we cannot guarantee the complete security of your data transmitted to our website. When we receive your information, we take all reasonable and legal measures to keep your personal data protected and try to prevent any unauthorized access, use, or loss of your data, by implementing appropriate security measures and limiting access, including internally. All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers, and any payment transaction will be encrypted using TLS technology. We do not store customer card data internally, and when we provide an access password (personal and non-transferable) to a reserved area of our website, you must keep it and will be responsible for keeping that password confidential.
In addition, if we detect any breach or suspicion about violation of personal data, we will notify the competent authorities immediately, as required by law.
Links from Our Website to Other Websites
The blog on our website (or other support pages) contains hyperlinks to other relevant sites that align with the discussed theme. If the customer chooses to follow an external hyperlink to any other website outside the ecoTravel group, they should understand that these companies have their own Privacy Policy which may not be the same as ours. In this regard, we do not accept any responsibility for these policies or third-party websites. We advise checking and accepting their policies before sending them any personal data.
Cookies
Due to the way communication standards work on the Internet, accessing websites may involve the use of cookies. A cookie is a small file sent to the customer’s computer that is stored on the user’s hard drive. Some of these cookies are essential for this site to function correctly, to allow a user to make a reservation on the site, to fulfill their requests, and to improve the user experience on our platforms.
The cookies that we use do not extract information from the user’s hard drive, do not steal personal information, or do not read cookie files created by suppliers/competitors.
If the user does not accept the use of cookies, they will not be able to use the website www.ecotravel-portugal.com. Alternatively, the user can delete all cookies at any time after using our website by accessing their browser preferences.
Cookies Policy
The ecoTravel Portugal website uses cookies to provide you a better browsing experience.
Strictly Needed:
(listed asap)
These are cookies that are essential for the properly work of the website and allow customers to make a booking or to check the availability, permitting us to access the booking requests.
Third-Party Cookies:
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Statistics Cookies: they mantain anonymous data about the use of our website, in order to analyze and improve the service provided.
_hjClosedSurveyInvites, _hjDonePolls, _hjMinimizedPolls, _hjDoneTestersWidgets, _hjMinimizedTestersWidgets, _hjIncludedInSample
Statistics Cookies: mantain details of visitor behavior patterns anonymously and randomly.
SID, LOGIN_INFO, PREF, SSID, HSID, VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE
Cookies used by YouTube to store user preferences and some of them contain enough information to be followed.
Google Ads e Remarketing by Google
Cookies used in online campaigns.
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Conversation cookies: cookies to store the “Zopim Live Chat” (Zendesk), used to provide a live support window on our websites. It requires the use of two types of cookies: identifying the device during visits and saving user preferences.
Purpose of the Personal Data
Personal data is obtained for the following purposes:
- activity linked to a travel agency or tour operator;
- provide important information to suppliers chosen for the service requested by the customer;
- send SMS messages with intentions exclusively related to the booking and trip’s logistics;
- management, administration, extension and improvement of services in which the user decides to subscribe and register;
- study of users’ use of the services;
- verification, update and development of statistical systems and analyzes;
- advertising, promotion and commercial prospecting activities if duly accepted by the user.
The user/customer of the website www.ecotravel-portugal.com thus consents to ecoTravel Portugal processing their personal data. Furthermore, the user will expressly consent that personal data may be transferred to:
- national and international authorities responsible for tourism, terrorism or crimes against human rights for their own security purposes;
- any legal entity affiliated or owned by ecoTravel Portugal or the tourist companies that provide the contracted service, being obliged to use it only for a correct execution of each service requested by the customer;
- any third-party certified that complies with the GDPR standards, in order to guarantee the security of the personal data, the management and organization of the booking and customer process and platforms associated with Marketing activities.
Changes to the Privacy Policy
ecoTravel Portugal reserves the right to update or change this Privacy Policy. However, you may request a copy of an earlier version of this page.
