Privacy

Privacy Policy

At Maxim's Travel, we take privacy very seriously and we are committed to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of your personal information. We have updated our Privacy Policy to ensure that we communicate, in the clearest way possible, how we treat your personal information in the course of Maxim's Travel’s business practices and what safeguards are in place to ensure the protection of such information. We encourage you to read this Policy carefully. It will help you make informed decisions about sharing your personal information with us.

Purpose

  1. Maxim’s Travel Pty. Ltd. And its associated entities collects your personal information to enable us to provide you with your travel products and services, including assisting in arrangements with suppliers (such as hotels)

    We will use your personal information to personalise the service we provide you, including your experience on our website and provide you with information about our products and services.

    We recognise the importance of, and are committed to, managing any personal information that we collect in compliance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), which includes the Australian Privacy Principles, and other Australian privacy laws (together, “Privacy Laws”).

Scope

    1. This policy applies to all organisation’s employees, management, contractors, student interns, and volunteers.
    2. This policy describes the organisation’s objectives and policies regarding maintaining the privacy of information.

What personal information do we collect?

  1. Personal information has the meaning given under your local data protection law. Personal information generally means information which relates to a living individual who can be identified from that information, or from that information and other information in a person’s possession, including any expression of opinion, whether true or not, and whether recorded in material form or not, about an identified or reasonably identifiable individual, and any indication of intention in respect of an individual.

    Generally, the type of personal information we collect about you is the information that is needed to facilitate your travel arrangements and bookings and to arrange travel related services and/or products on your behalf. For example, we may collect details such as your name, residential/mailing address, telephone number, email address, credit/debit card details (including card type, card number, security number and expiry date), passport details, loyalty program / frequent flyer details, information about your dietary requirements and health issues (if any), and other details relevant to your travel arrangements or required by the relevant travel service provider(s) (e.g. airlines and accommodation or tour providers). When you make contact with us for other purposes, we may also collect personal information about you in relation to those purposes. For example, we may collect your personal information so we can contact you about a competition you have entered (e.g. if you win) or to respond to an enquiry or feedback you have sent to us. We also collect information that is required for use in the business activities of Maxim’s Travel and our related entities, including for example, financial details necessary in order to process various transactions, video surveillance footage used for security purposes, and other relevant personal information you may elect to provide to us.

    In some circumstances, we may collect personal information from you which may be regarded as sensitive information under your local data protection laws. Sensitive information may include (without limitation) your racial or ethnic origin, philosophical or religious beliefs or affiliations, sexual preferences or practices, criminal record and the alleged commission of an offence, membership of political, professional or trade associations, biometric and genetic information, passwords and financial information and health information, and (in the USA) any personal information relating to a child under the age of 13. We will only collect sensitive information in compliance with your local data protection laws, with your consent and/or where it is reasonably necessary for, or directly related to, one or more of our functions or activities (e.g. to make travel arrangements), unless we are otherwise required or authorised to do so by law. To the extent permitted or required under your local data protection laws, you consent to us using and disclosing your sensitive information for the purpose for which it was collected, unless we subsequently receive your consent to use it for another purpose. For example, if you provide health information to us in connection with a travel insurance application you would like to make, you consent to us using and disclosing that health information in connection with arranging that travel insurance on your behalf. A further example is if you disclose your religious beliefs to us because you are interested in, for example, certain holiday packages, in which case you consent to us using and disclosing that information in connection with facilitating your request. We will not use sensitive information for purposes other than those for which it was collected, unless we subsequently receive your consent to use it for another purpose.

How do we collect personal information?

  1. We will collect personal information directly from you unless it is unreasonable or impracticable to do so. Generally, this collection will occur when you deal with us either in person, by telephone, letter, facsimile, email, when you visit any of our websites or when you connect with us via social media. We may collect personal information about you when you purchase or make enquiries about travel arrangements or other products and services; when you enter competitions or register for promotions; when you subscribe to receive marketing from us (e.g. e-newsletters); when you request brochures or other information from us; or when you provide information, or use our services, on social media. Unless you choose to do so under a pseudonym or anonymously, we may also collect your personal information (other than sensitive information) when you complete surveys or provide us with feedback.

    In some circumstances, it may be necessary for us to collect personal information about you from a third party. This includes where a person makes a travel booking on your behalf which includes travel arrangements to be used by you (e.g. a family or group booking or a travel booking made for you by your employer). Where this occurs, we will rely on the authority of the person making the travel booking to act on behalf of any other traveller on the booking. By providing your personal information to us, either directly or through a family member, employer or other agent or representative in connection with a travel booking or related service, you will be deemed to have consented to your personal information being collected by us and used and disclosed in accordance with this Policy.

    Where you make a travel booking on behalf of another person (e.g. a family or group booking or a travel booking made for an employee), you agree you have obtained the consent of the other person for Maxim’s Travel to collect, use and disclose the other person's personal information in accordance with this Policy and that you have otherwise made the other person aware of this Policy.

    You should let us know immediately if you become aware that your personal information has been provided to us by another person without your consent or if you did not obtain consent before providing another person's personal information to us.

When we act as an agent for a travel service provider

  1. When we book and otherwise arrange travel related products and services for you, we usually do so as an agent for or on behalf of travel service providers. In this case, we usually collect personal information about you both for our internal purposes as described in this Policy, including the purpose of us processing your booking, and for the travel service provider for whom we act as agent for their internal purposes (e.g. to provide you with the booked services). As an agent, all bookings are made on your behalf subject to the terms and conditions, including privacy policy, imposed by these travel service providers. We will provide you with copies of all relevant travel service provider terms, conditions and privacy policies on request.

    Accordingly, you are deemed to consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information by us to the relevant travel service providers, and the use and disclosure of your personal information by the relevant travel service providers, for the purposes set out in this Policy and, to the extent permitted under your local data protection laws, for other purposes specified in their privacy policy. For example, if you book a flight through us, then under this Policy you consent to us collecting your personal information and disclosing that information to the airline to enable your flight to be booked and for the airline to provide the flight service to you, and, to the extent permitted under your local data protection laws, for other purposes specified in their privacy policy.

    We act as agent for or on behalf of many thousands of travel service providers around the world, so it is not possible for us to set out in this Policy all of the travel service providers for whom we act or their locations. For more information about the disclosure of personal information to travel service providers located overseas, please refer to the section below titled “Is personal information transferred overseas”.

    If you have any concerns regarding the transfer of your personal information to a travel service provider, or you wish to contact us for further information, please refer to the “Feedback/Complaints/Contact” section below.

How do we use and disclose your personal information?

  1. Where you contact us in relation to a travel booking or query, the primary purpose for which we collect your personal information is generally to provide you with travel advice and/or to assist you with booking travel and/or travel related products and services. However, the purpose for collection may differ depending on the particular circumstances as disclosed in this Policy (e.g. collection of your personal information for the purpose of your participation in a competition, provision of feedback, etc).

    By continuing to use our services and/or by providing us with personal information (or allowing another person to do so on your behalf), you consent to us using and disclosing your personal information for the purpose for which it was collected, and, where permitted by your local data protection laws, for any related secondary purpose which we believe you would reasonably expect.

    The purposes for which we collect personal information, and those secondary purposes which we consider to be directly related, include:

    1. providing you with services and tools you choose to use (for example, saving travel preferences on our website(s) to a wishlist or saving personal information to allow for pre-population of forms);
    2. identification of fraud or error;
    3. regulatory reporting and compliance;
    4. developing and improving our products and services and those of our related entities;
    5. servicing our relationship with you by, among other things, creating and maintaining a customer profile to enable our brands to service you better or presenting options on our website we think may interest you based on your browsing and preferences;
    6. involving you in market research, gauging customer satisfaction and seeking feedback regarding our relationship with you and/or the service we have provided;
    7. to facilitate your participation in loyalty programs;
    8. for research and analysis in relation to our business and services, including but not limited to trends and preferences in sales and travel destinations and use of our websites;
    9. internal accounting and administration;
    10. to comply with our legal obligations and any applicable customs/immigration requirements relating to your travel; and
    11. other purposes as authorised or required by law (e.g. to prevent a threat to life, health or safety, or to enforce our legal rights).

    Promotional/marketing material

    Where permitted by local data protection laws, we may use your personal information to send you targeted marketing activities relating to our products and services (and those of third parties) that we think may interest you, unless you have requested not to receive such information. These may include, but are not limited to, mail outs, electronic marketing (including online targeted marketing) and notifications as described below, and telephone calls). We will only use your personal information to send electronic marketing materials to you (including e-newsletters, email, SMS, MMS and iM) if you have opted-in to receive them. You can subscribe to receive e-newsletters and other electronic promotional/marketing materials by following the relevant links on our website or requesting one of our consultants to do so for you.

    Should you no longer wish to receive promotional/marketing material from us, participate in market research or receive other types of communication from us, please refer to the “Feedback / Complaints / Contact” section below. You can unsubscribe from receiving electronic marketing materials by following the unsubscribe prompt in your email, SMS, MMS, iM or other form of electronic marketing.

Is personal information disclosed to third parties?

  1. We may disclose your personal information to third parties, as set out below, and in accordance with your local data protection laws. By continuing to use our services and/or by providing us with your personal information (or allowing another person to do so on your behalf), you consent to that personal information being processed, transferred and/or disclosed by us for the purpose for which it was collected and, where permitted by your local data protection laws, for any related secondary purpose which we believe you would reasonably expect. Note that, in this Policy, where we say “disclose”, this includes to transfer, share (including verbally and in writing), send, or otherwise make available or accessible your personal information to another person or entity.

    Your personal information may be disclosed to the following types of third parties:

    • our contractors, suppliers and service providers, including without limitation:
      • in each of the circumstances set out in the section titled “How do we use and disclose your personal information?”;
      • suppliers of IT based solutions that assist us in providing products and services to you (such as any external data hosting provider(s) we may use);
      • publishers, printers and distributors of marketing material;
      • event and expo organisers;
      • marketing, market research, research and analysis and communications agencies;
      • mailing houses, freight services, courier services; and
      • external business advisers (such as lawyers, accountants, auditors and recruitment consultants);
    • our related entities and brands;
    • travel service providers such as travel wholesalers, tour operators, airlines, hotels, car rental companies, transfer handlers and other related service providers;
    • a prospective purchaser, in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganisation or sale of Maxim’s Travel, or any of our subsidiaries, business lines, related bodies corporate and franchisees, or of assets of Maxim’s Travel or any such subsidiaries, business lines, or related bodies corporate and franchisees;
    • a person making your travel booking on your behalf, where you are travelling on a booking made on your behalf by another person (for example, a family member, friend or work colleague);
    • your employer, where you are an employee of one of our corporate, business or government clients and you are participating in an event or travelling for work purposes;
    • a person who can verify to us that they have a relationship with you (e.g. a family member) where you are not contactable, the person correctly answers our required security questions and the request is, in our opinion, in your interest (for example, where the person is concerned for your welfare or needs to undertake action on your behalf due to unforeseen circumstances);
    • as required or authorised by applicable law, and to comply with our legal obligations;
    • customs and immigration to comply with our legal obligations and any applicable customs/immigration requirements relating to your travel;
    • government agencies and public authorities, to comply with a valid and authorized request, including a court order or other valid legal process; various regulatory bodies and law enforcement officials and agencies, including to protect against fraud and for related security purposes; and enforcement agencies where we suspect that unlawful activity has been or may be engaged in and the personal information is a necessary part of our investigation or reporting of the matter.

    For more information in relation to collection by travel service providers and their privacy practices and policies, see the section above titled, "When we act as an agent…".

    Other than the above, we will not disclose your personal information without your consent unless we reasonably believe that disclosure is necessary to lessen or prevent a threat to life, health or safety of an individual or to public health or safety or for certain action to be undertaken by an enforcement body (e.g. prevention, detection, investigation, prosecution or punishment of criminal offences), or where such disclosure is authorised or required by law (including applicable privacy / data protection laws).

Is personal information transferred overseas?

  1. We may disclose your personal information to certain overseas recipients, as set out below, which we will do in accordance with your local data protection laws.

    It is possible that information will be transferred to an overseas recipient (other than any of our overseas related entities) located in a jurisdiction where you will not be able to seek redress under your local data protection laws and that does not have an equivalent level of data protection as in your jurisdiction. To the extent permitted by your local data protection laws, we will not be liable for how these overseas recipients handle, store and process your personal information. By providing your personal information to us for the purpose of booking and otherwise arranging travel related products and services for you, you consent to our disclosure of your personal information to these overseas recipients for that purpose.

    1. Travel service providers located overseas

      In providing our services to you, it may be necessary for us to disclose personal information to relevant overseas travel service providers. We deal with many different travel service providers all over the world, so the location of a travel service provider relevant to your personal information will depend on the travel services being provided. The relevant travel service providers will in most cases receive your personal information in the country in which they will provide the services to you or in which their business or management is based.

      Please refer to the section above titled “When we act as an agent…” for more information about when we act as agent for travel service providers and their privacy practices and policies.

    2. Our third party service providers located overseas

      We may also disclose your personal information to third parties located overseas for the purpose of performing services for us, including the storage and processing of such information. Generally, we will only disclose your personal information to these overseas recipients in connection with facilitation of your travel booking and/or to enable the performance of administrative and technical services by them on our behalf.

      We deal with many different service providers all over the world, so it is not possible for us to set out in this Policy all of the different countries to which we may send your personal information. However, if you have any specific questions about where or to whom your personal information will be sent, please refer to the “Feedback/Complaints/Contact” section below.

Security of information

  1. Maxim’s Travel has implemented various physical, electronic and managerial security procedures in order to protect the personal information it holds from loss and misuse, and from unauthorized access, modification, disclosure and interference. Maxim’s Travel regularly reviews security technologies and will strive to protect your personal information as fully as we protect our own confidential information. Maxim’s Travel is not responsible for any third party’s actions or their security controls with respect to information that third parties may collect or process via their websites, services or otherwise.

    We will destroy or de-identify personal information once we no longer require it for our business purposes, or as required by law.

Access to and correction of personal information

  1. You are entitled to access any personal information we may hold about you in accordance with your local data protection laws. Where personal information we hold about you is not accurate, complete or up-to-date or the information is irrelevant or misleading, you may ask us to correct that personal information, and we will respond to your request within a reasonable time. We reserve the right to confirm the identity of the person seeking access or correction to personal information before complying with such a request. We reserve the right to deny you access for any reason permitted under applicable law. If we deny access or correction, we will provide you with written reasons for such denial unless it is unreasonable to do so and, where required by local data protection laws, will note your request and the denial of same in our records. If you wish to access or seek correction of any personal information we hold about you, please refer to the “Feedback/Complaints/Contact” section below.

    You must always provide accurate information and you agree to update it whenever necessary. You also agree that, in the absence of any update, we can assume that the information submitted to us is correct, unless we subsequently become aware that it is not correct.

Social Media Integrations

  1. Our websites and mobile applications may use social media features and widgets (such as “Like” and “Share” buttons/widgets) (“SM Features”). These are provided and operated by third party companies (e.g. Facebook) and either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our website or mobile application. SM Features may collect information such as the page you are visiting on our website/mobile application, your IP address, and may set cookies to enable the SM Feature to function properly.

    If you are logged into your account with the third party company, then the third party may be able to link information about your visit to and use of our website or mobile application to your social media account with them. Similarly, your interactions with the SM Features may be recorded by the third party. In addition, the third party company may send us information in line with their policies, such as your name, profile picture, gender, friend lists and any other information you have chosen to make available, and we may share information with the third party company for the purposes of serving targeted marketing to you via the third party social media platform. You can manage the sharing of information and opt out from targeted marketing via your privacy settings for the third party social media platform.

    Your interactions with these SM Features are governed by the privacy policy of the third party company providing them. For more information about the data practices of these third party companies, and to find out more about what data is collected about you and how the third party uses such data, please refer to their privacy policy directly.

IP addresses

  1. When you access our website, use any of our mobile applications or open electronic correspondence or communications from us, our servers may record data regarding your device and the network you are using to connect with us, including your IP address. An IP address is a series of numbers which identify your computer, and which are generally assigned when you access the internet. Alone, IP addresses are not personal information, as any one computer or device may be used by multiple people (i.e. it is not possible to ascertain the identity of a user simply from the computer or device being used).

    We may use IP addresses for system administration, investigation of security issues and compiling anonymised data regarding usage of our website and/or mobile applications. We may also link IP addresses to other personal information we hold about you and use it for the purposes described above (e.g. to better tailor our marketing and advertising materials, provided you have opted in to receive electronic marketing).

The use of cookies and web beacons through our websites and apps

  1. Information may be collected when you access our websites or apps, such as the time and specific page or app you visited. This information is collected through “cookies”. A “cookie” is a small piece of information, or file, that a website or app sends to your computer's hard drive while you are viewing that website or app for record keeping purposes. Most web browsers are automatically set to accept cookies. If you do not wish to receive any cookies you may set your browser to refuse cookies. However, this will mean you will not be able to take full advantage of our websites or apps.

    We, and our service providers, use the information collected from cookies for a number of reasons:

    • for statistical purposes in order to track how many users we have and how often they visit our website or apps
    • to provide you with a more personalised, convenient and interactive experience on our websites or apps

    We engage various analytic programs, including Google Analytics, to analyse the performance of our websites and apps and to provide us with reports that contain aggregated, de-identified benchmark information that assists us to understand when, and how many times, you have used our websites or apps.

Linked Sites

  1. Our websites may contain links to third party websites over which we have no control. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of any linked third party websites you visit as their privacy policy and practices may differ from ours.

Feedback/Complaints/Contact

  1. If you wish to complain about our handling of your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer using the details below.

    We will investigate all complaints and respond to you as soon as practicable. If we find a complaint justified, we will resolve it. If necessary, will change our policies and procedures to maintain our high standards of performance, service and customer care.

    If your complaint is not satisfactorily resolved, you may lodge a complaint with the Federal Privacy Commissioner. (For more information on privacy, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s (OAIC) hotline service on 1300 363 992 or visit the OAIC’s website at www.oaic.gov.au.

    If you have a privacy complaint or wish to correct, update or access the personal information that we hold about you, please contact our Privacy Officer using the following details:

    Email [email protected]
    Telephone (02) 9223 1122
    Address Privacy Officer
    Maxim’s Travel Pty. Ltd.
    Level 8, 50 Margaret Street
    SYDNEY NSW 2000

Vulnerability Disclosure

  1. We will investigate legitimate reports and make every effort to quickly resolve any vulnerability in our online services. To encourage responsible reporting, we will not take legal action against you nor ask law enforcement to investigate you providing you comply with the following guideline: Make a good faith effort to avoid privacy violations, destruction of data, and interruption or degradation of our services.

    If issues reported to us affect a third-party library, external project, or an external partner, Maxim's Travel reserves the right to forward details of the issue to that party without further discussion.

    If you believe you have found a vulnerability in our online services, please report it by email to: [email protected]

Changes to our Policy

  1. We may amend this Policy from time to time. If we make a change to the Policy, the revised version will be posted on our website at www.maxims-travel.com/Secure/Privacy. It is your responsibility, and we encourage you, to check the website from time to time in order to determine whether there have been any changes.

This privacy policy was last updated on 03rd Aug 2021

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