Privacy Policy

1. INTRODUCTION

This Privacy Policy and Notice at Collection (“Privacy Policy”) of Vegan Travel UG (“Vegan Travel” “VT,” “we,” “our,” or “us”) explains the collection, use, and sharing of information from or about you in connection with your use of the services. The term " Services" refers to our ocean, river and expedition cruises, including the selection of products, content, events, activities, excursions and services offered onboard and off-shore either directly by us, or through our affiliates or third-party business associates, as well as any other products, features, tools, materials, or other services offered from time to time through a variety of Access Points. The term "Access Points" refers to, collectively, our websites , mobile applications, onboard media, blogs, social media and other places, and other online or wireless offerings, whether accessed via computer, mobile device or other technology, any of which is owned or operated by us or on behalf. If you are an employee, contractor, or job applicant, your personal information collected in those contexts will be subject to a separate privacy notice that we provide to you where and when appropriate.

2. WHAT PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

We may collect, receive, and develop several categories of personal information about you depending on the nature of your interactions with us:

Identifiers and contact information: This may include such information as your name, mailing address, billing address including ZIP code, telephone number, email address, date of birth, and Vegan Travel account username and password.
Government Identifiers: We collect your passport information.
Purchase and preference information: This may include information about your vacation and dietary preference, information about your interests, itineraries you book and other products or services you purchase. We collect information about your dietary restrictions and assistance requirements while onboard (such as needing a wheelchair). We also collect your payment card information when you make a booking or purchase.
Demographic information: We may collect your gender, age, and zip code.
Internet Browser, Usage, and Log Data: We collect information when you view the websites, use the Services, or view or interact with Vegan Travel advertising or content through any of the Access Points. This may include your IP address; device, browser, and software characteristics (such as type and operating system); location; activity on the Services, including activities and content viewed, used, or accessed, which links you click, which pages you view and how long you spend on those pages, the timestamp of your visits or interactions, what search terms you use, ad interaction data, referral URLs, network state, device identifiers, or other unique identifiers; what links you click; and identifiers associated with browser cookies. We also collect information about your interactions with our emails, such as whether you open a message and click any links within the message. If you use our mobile app, we collect information about where you downloaded it and how often you use the app.
Location Information: We collect your general location based on your IP address.
Professional Information: If you interact with Vegan Travel on behalf of business customers, vendors, or other companies, in addition to other information described in this notice, we may also collect items like your job title, office location, compensation or payments, and engagement history with us.
Emergency Contacts: We may collect the name, address, and telephone number of someone who is not traveling with you who we can contact in case of an emergency.
Sensitive Personal Information: Some of the above information is considered sensitive personal information under privacy laws and is subject to additional rights and protections as described in this Privacy Policy. Specifically, we may collect some or all of the following sensitive personal information about you: Vegan Travel account username and password, passport information, and/or payment card details.

3. HOW WE USE PERSONAL INFORMATION

We use the personal information we collect and receive from or about you (including sensitive personal information) primarily to provide better customer service to you, to improve and customize the content you see, to help recognize you when you use other devices, to provide the Services you request, to contact you about special promotions and new Services, and for other purposes, including the following:

customizing or personalizing the Services and evaluating how well the Services perform;
customizing, targeting, or personalizing our marketing and advertising that you view and monitoring the effectiveness of our email communications and other advertising efforts;
to provide you with the Services you request, to provide you with your travel reservation booking confirmation and updates, and to manage your account, including processing payments and providing travel notifications;
remembering information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visits to, or the next time you visit, the Access Points;
to solicit information from you, including through surveys;
to resolve disputes, collect fees, troubleshoot problems, or otherwise provide customer service to you;
monitoring the effectiveness of the Access Points;
contacting you for a sweepstakes or other promotion about a product or service we believe may be of interest to you, travel-related or otherwise, either from us alone or together with another sponsor or a third party;
conducting research;
compiling aggregate data for internal and external business purposes;
monitoring the aggregate metrics such as total number of visitors, traffic, usage, and demographic patterns on the Access Points;
completing your reservations, processing your transactions, and providing the Services to you;
diagnosing or fixing technology problems;
preventing, detecting, and investigating potentially illegal or harmful activities, including fraud;
protecting our rights and your rights;
planning for, improving, and enhancing our Services;
in the case of business contacts, to administer and manage our relationship with you and your employer (such as record keeping, payments, communicating with you, tracking outcomes, and verifying your eligibility and suitability);
verifying your identity in relation to requests you make; and
any other purpose that is required or permitted by law or that is disclosed to you at the time we collect the information or that is related to a request made by you.

In addition to the above uses of personal information described in this Privacy Policy, we may aggregate information about you and other individuals together, or otherwise "de-identify" the information about you (which means that the information does not identify you personally). We may use information in these forms for any legitimate business purpose, including without limitation, for research and analysis, administration of the Services, advertising (e.g., improving our targeting efforts or our Services), and promotional purposes.

4. HOW AND WHEN WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION

We collect personal information from various sources:

Directly from you: We collect personal information directly from you when you create a profile to book a Vegan Travel cruise, contact our customer service or other means to request information from us, participate in sweepstakes or other promotions, use the Services (such as when you book travel with us, participate in onboard activities, take offshore excursions while traveling with us), or provide us with feedback, testimonials, photos, or other personal information. If you are a business contact, we also collect personal information directly from you when we communicate with you, onboard you, or provide/receive products or services to/from you.

Automatically from your devices: Like many companies, we use various technologies to automatically collect usage and interaction data when you interact with our websites, read our emails, engage with our digital advertisements and content, or otherwise interact with the Access Points. These tools include cookies, pixels, and SDKs. These technologies may be used by us directly or by third parties and service providers.

From our data partners: We get personal information from data aggregators, data licensors, and public databases.

From social media and other third-party services: We get personal information from Access Points owned or operated by third parties. For example, we may get information about you when you interact or connect with us or our Services, for example, by liking us on Facebook or following us on Instagram. The collected information may be information associated with that third-party service, or that you elect to make public using that service or have authorized the third-party service to share with us (such as your user ID, billing information, public profile information, email address, birthday, friends list, pages you have "liked" or commented on, and other account and profile data). The information we receive is dependent upon your privacy settings with the third party.

From other passengers: Occasionally we get personal information from passengers, such as when you are listed as an emergency contact or if you are onboard and someone in your party provides Vegan Travel with your information.

We combine the information we collect from or about you with information provided by other sources. We also combine information that we collect offline with information we collect online. We may also aggregate your information with other consumers’ information to understand preferences and trends within your peer group over time.

5. SHARING INFORMATION WITH THIRD PARTIES

We may share your personal information (including sensitive personal information) only in the instances described below. We may also share your information in other circumstances with your consent.

With travel and activity providers: We share personal information with airline, lodging, offshore excursion and other activity providers who work with us to provide the Services to you or when you have made reservations with them through us as part of the Services. By requesting the excursion or activity or making a reservation as part of the Services, you are authorizing and directing us to disclose to the provider the information (including personal information) required to complete the reservation and provide the travel, lodging, excursion or activity. Please note that these providers also may contact you as necessary to obtain additional information about you, facilitate your reservation with them, or respond to a review you may submit. Please note that travel and activity providers are not controlled by us, and personal information disclosed to them is subject to the applicable provider's privacy policy and security practices. Therefore, we encourage you to review the privacy policies of any provider.

With business partners and advertising companies: We may share personal information with our third party business partners: (i) with whom we jointly offer products or services or sweepstakes or other promotions, travel-related and otherwise, or (ii) whose products or services may be offered through or on the Access Points or on our cruises . We may also share personal information with advertising networks, ad servers, social media platforms, and analytics companies in connection with our and their marketing.

With referring websites: If you were referred to the Access Points from a third-party website (for example, through a link you clicked on another site that directed you to the Access Point), we may share some information about you with that referring website. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any website that referred you to our Access Points.

With social media providers: When you connect your Vegan Travel account to a third party platform or social media account, or access certain social media features through the Access Points, you share information with the social media provider, and the information you share will be governed by their privacy policies. You may be able to modify your privacy settings for these social media providers. Please consult the privacy policy of the relevant social media provider for further information. You may choose to disable such sharing of information by editing your privacy settings on that social media provider. When we serve tailored advertisements on social media platforms, we share information with the platform (either directly ourselves or through our service provider intermediaries) to help identify you as the targeted recipient of our ad.

For legal compliance: We may share personal information for legal compliance and law enforcement purposes such as: in response to subpoenas, court orders, or other legal process; with law enforcement agencies as required; to establish or exercise our legal rights; to defend against legal claims; or as otherwise required by law; to enforce our Booking Terms & Conditions or any other agreement we or another party may have with you; and/or when we believe it is appropriate to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal or suspected illegal activities or exercise, defend or protect the rights, property or safety of our company, our customers, our websites or other Access Points or others.

Mergers or corporate reorganization: If another entity acquires Vegan Travel or all or substantially all of our assets, your information may be disclosed to such entity as part of the due diligence process and may be transferred to such entity as one of the transferred assets. Also, if any bankruptcy or reorganization proceeding is brought by or against us, all such information may be considered an asset of ours and as such may be sold or transferred to third parties.

We may also aggregate and/or deidentify information and then share that aggregated or anonymized data with third parties for market and research purposes or for other purposes.

6. YOUR CHOICES ABOUT YOUR INFORMATION

You have the following choices regarding how we and third parties use certain information collected from or about you:

How to Opt-Out of Marketing Emails
You can stop receiving promotional email communications from us by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link provided in such communications. We make every effort to promptly process all unsubscribe requests. You may not opt out of Services-related communications (e.g., account verification, information about your orders, bookings, cruises, changes/updates to our websites, products or features of our Services, technical and security notices). Please allow up to 2 days to be unsubscribed from our promotional emails.
Cookies and Pixels
You may reject or delete cookies, pixels, or other tracking technology by managing them on your browser or mobile device. Please refer to your browser’s or mobile device’s technical information for instructions on how to delete and disable cookies, pixels, and other tracking tools. Depending on your mobile device, you may not be able to control tracking technologies through settings. If you have any questions about deleting or rejecting cookies and other tracking tools, you can contact us as provided in Section 15 (Your Comments and Questions). However, if you decide not to accept such tracking technology from us or from our third-party vendor’s or partner’s cookies, your ability to use some features on our websites and other Access Points may be impaired.
Push Notifications
If you use our mobile apps, we may send you push notifications from time to time. If you no longer wish to receive push notifications, you can turn them off at the device level in your app settings.
Do Not Track
Our website responds to opt-out preference signals as described further in Section 7 below.

7. YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS

Where provided for by applicable privacy laws, you may be entitled to exercise some or all of the rights described below with respect to your personal information:

Access / Right to Know: You have the right to confirm whether we process personal information about you and to request that we disclose to you the following: (i) the categories of personal information that we have collected about you (including sensitive personal information); (ii) the categories of sources from which we have collected personal information about you; (iii) the business or commercial purpose for collecting or selling your personal information; (iv) the categories of personal information that we have sold about you and the categories of outside parties to whom the personal information was sold; (v) the categories of personal information that we have disclosed about you for our business purposes and the categories of suppliers to whom the personal information was disclosed; (vi) a portable copy of the specific pieces of personal information that we have collected about you; and (vii) information about the logic involved in any automated decision-making processes used by us (if applicable), as well as a description of the likely outcome of the process with respect to you.
Modifying or Correcting Your Personal Information: You have the right to modify or request the correction or update of your personal information.
Deleting Your Information: You may request the deletion of your personal information, subject to certain exceptions.

Please note that we may deny your request, or fulfill a request only in part, based on our legal rights and obligations. For example, we may retain personal information as permitted by law, such as for tax or other record keeping purposes, to maintain an active account, and to process transactions and facilitate passenger requests.

You may designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf. When submitting the request, please ensure the authorized agent is identified as an authorized agent.

We will take reasonable steps to verify your identity prior to responding to your requests. The verification steps may vary depending on the sensitivity of the personal information and whether you have an account with us.

We will not discriminate against you because you made any of these requests.

8. RETENTION, STORAGE, AND PROTECTION

We will retain your personal information (including your sensitive personal information) for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, and for a commercially reasonable time thereafter for purposes of backup, archiving, fraud prevention, audits, or as required by German law. We rely on the following criteria to determine the appropriate retention periods: (i) the necessity of the information to provide our services to our customers; (ii) the types and sensitivity of personal information being processed; (iii) regulatory requirements that we are subject to, including laws and regulations related to tax, employment, accounting, and securities; and (iv) whether a legal claim might be brought against us, for which the information would be relevant.

We may store and process your personal information in the United States, or in the cloud, or any other country in which Vegan Travel or its subsidiaries, affiliates, or service providers or their subcontractors maintain facilities. If you are located in the U.S., Canada, the European Union or other regions with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from German law, please note that we may transfer information, including personal information, to a country and jurisdiction that does not have the same data protection laws as your jurisdiction, and you consent to the transfer of information to Germany or any other country in which Vegan Travel or its parent, subsidiaries, affiliates or service providers maintain facilities and the use and disclosure of information about you as described in this Privacy Policy. As a result, this information may be subject to access requests from governments, courts, or law enforcement in those jurisdictions according to laws in those jurisdictions.

Vegan Travel cares about the security of your information, and uses commercially reasonable physical, administrative, and technological safeguards designed to help preserve the integrity and security of all information collected through our website. We regularly review our security procedures to consider appropriate new technology and safeguards. However, please be aware that despite our efforts, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable.

9. LINKS TO OTHER WEB SITES AND SERVICES

The Access Points may integrate with or contain links to other third-party websites and services. We are not responsible for the practices employed by third party websites or services embedded in, linked to, or linked from the Access Points and your interactions with any third-party website or service are subject to that third party’s own rules and policies.

10. CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

We reserve the right to make changes to this Privacy Policy from time to time. If this Privacy Policy changes in any way, we will place an updated version on this page. Regularly reviewing this page ensures that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances, if any, we will share it with other parties.

11. YOUR COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS

If you have any questions or comments regarding our privacy policy or our websites, you can send us an email at privacy@vegan-cruises.com or contact us at +49 2506 5269969 or contact us by mail addressed to:

Vegan Travel Germany
Wolbecker Windmühle 61
D-48167 Münster
Germany