Here at South America Backpacker, the privacy of our readers is a top priority for us. The following is a statement to inform our site visitors of how and why any information about them is used. If you have any questions about this policy, please contact us at info (at) southamericabackpacker (dot) com.
Contents
Collection and Usage of Information
Information voluntarily submitted by visitors to the website
There are various places on the website where users may voluntarily submit their name and email address.
- Contact Form: If users wish to send us a message, they are required to enter their name, email address & message. We require these details in order to respond to the message. The user will then receive a response. We will not use these details in any other way, nor will we provide them to any 3rd party. The user may request removal of these details from our systems by writing to info (at) southamericabackpacker (dot) com.
- Post Submission: If users wish to submit an article to be published on our website, they are required to enter their name and email address as well as being given the option of submitting their own website address. Their email address is required in order for us to inform them as to whether or not their post will be published. Their name is required in order for us to credit them with writing the article. The option of submitting their own website address is given so that we can provide a link to it in the article as part of their creditation. If the user has created a “gravatar”, this image will appear next to their comment. If any user that submits an article wishes to have their details removed from the article and/or our systems, they should make this request by writing to info (at) southamericabackpacker (dot) com.
- Comment Submission: If a user wishes to comment on any article/page of the website, they are required to enter their name and email address in order for us to help ensure that their comment is not spam. Our spam prevention software also analyses their IP address to root out known spammers. If the user has created a “gravatar”, this image will appear next to their comment. Users are also given the option to subscribe to their comment/all comments on that post. When they subscribe to the comments, they are sent updates on the comments every time they are made. Their email address is not used in any other way, nor will it be shared with any third parties. The user may request removal of these details from our systems and/or removal of their comment from the page, by writing to info (at) southamericabackpacker (dot) com. They may also unsubscribe from their subscription by hitting the “unsubscribe” button at the bottom of each and every email they receive. If the user has created a “gravatar”, this image will appear next to their comment.
- Reviews on our booking system: If a user wishes to review any activity offered on the booking section of the website, they are required to enter their name and email address in order for us to help ensure that their review is not spam. Our spam prevention software also analyses their IP address to root out known spammers. The user will be notified by email if their review is published/disregarded. Their email address is not used in any other way, nor will it be shared with any third parties. The user may request removal of these details from our systems and/or removal of their review from the page, by writing to info (at) southamericabackpacker (dot) com.
- Purchases made through our booking system: When a user makes a purchase through our booking system, they are required to provide their name and email address. This allows us to communicate with the user with regards to the booking they have made, any issues with availability, payment status etc. We will then provide the vendor who provides the service the user has booked with their contact details so that they can communicate directly with the customer. The customer will also be provided with the vendor’s details for the same purpose. Customers who have made a purchase on the website may be contacted with a follow-up email to inquire as to the quality of the experience they had and to invite them to review the experience on the website. If a customer wishes to have their details removed from our systems at any time, they can request so by writing to info (at) southamericabackpacker (dot) com. If the customer wishes to be removed from the vendor’s records, they must contact the vendor through the email address provided to them at the time of purchase. PLEASE NOTE: Any payments made to South America Backpacker on our booking system are made through one of two third-party ervices, Paypal or Stripe. None of the information a user provides Paypal or Stripe is shared with South America Backpacker, with the exception of their email address. We do not have access to a user’s billing address or their credit card details. For more information on Paypal and/or Stripe’s privacy policies, please visit their website(s). Paypal | Stripe.
- Email Newsletter Sign-up: A user who wishes to sign up for our newsletter is required to provide us with their email address. This address is then added to a list with a third-party provider, ConvertKit, in order for us to be able to communicate with the user via email. If the user wishes to be removed from the email newsletter list, they can hit the unsubscribe button at the bottom of every email they are sent. Alternatively, they can request removal from the list by writing to info (at) southamericabackpacker (dot) com. Please see ConvertKit’s privacy policy here.
If a user creates a user account on our website (this is not presently an option), we will have access to their username and email address, but not their password. The user may request removal of these details from our systems and/or removal of their review from the page, by writing to info (at) southamericabackpacker (dot) com.
Information collected automatically
When a user accesses this site, some information is automatically collected. The time the user visits the site, their IP address, the device and the browser they are using and the page from which they have been referred to the website. Certain actions are also logged, such as pages visited, the time spent on each page, clicks on links, adding a product to the basket, starting the checkout process in the shop section of the site and making a purchase. This activity is monitored by Google Analytics so that we can improve the functionality of our website for the user.
Cookies
Cookies are small pieces of information that are stored on your browser. There are two types; session cookies, which expire when you close your browser and persistent cookies, which are stored on your browser until you delete them. These cookies are how the information mentioned in the previous section (information collected automatically) are collected. Cookies also allow for the tracking of clicks on our affiliate links. If a user would like to block the usage of cookies on their browser, they should refer to their browser’s “help” section. Alternatively, you can follow the advice given here.
Affiliate Links
Here at South America Backpacker, one of the ways we are able to earn money is when our readers click links to third-party websites from our site. In order for us to be recognised as the source of the traffic to these third party websites, it is necessary for a cookie to be placed in the user’s browser when they click on the link.
Our Own Affiliate Programme
In a desperate bid to compete with the big boys, we have launched our own affiliate programme. At the time of writing this privacy policy our affiliate programme is not actually running, but the software is in place. When it is running, it will use cookies to recognise the source of traffic to our website in order to credit the website that drove the traffic to us and to be able to pay them in the case the user who has visited us from their website later makes a purchase on our website.
How and why do we use the data collected?
- Data provided to us through cookies allows us to optimize the website thanks to insights we can glean from Google Analytics. If a page is not working properly, the data tells us so. If the site is not properly accessible from certain regions in the world, the data tells us so. This information is invaluable to us.
- Data provided to us through cookies allow us to track the success of our affiliate links and advertising services.
- Cookies allow us to identify users who have already been shown a popup encouraging them to join our newsletter list. We do not want to show users popups every time they visit the site as we believe this would be annoying for them.
- If a user signs up for our newsletter, we would like to send them emails. We have various motivations for this. We would like them to visit the website again and we would like them to buy something through our website and/or use one of our affiliate links to purchase something we do not provide.
- Cookies allow our emailing service to identify the pages of the website our subscribers are interested in. This allows us to personalise the material we send them in the newsletter so as to be of more interest to them.
- We need to allow users to contact us so that we can provide user support.
- We allow comments on posts as we believe the ability to comment on what a user has read, improves the user experience on the site.
- We allow reviews of the experiences on offer on our booking system as it will help clarify the quality of the services we are providing. They also allow other users of the website the opportunity to make a more informed decision as to whether or not they’d like to make a booking.
- Information provided to us (or rather the security services on our site) help to protect us and our users from illegal activity, hackers and other attacks.
Third Party Use of our User’s Information
If a user specifically asks us to share their information with a third party, we will do so. Several of the services we use on the website require certain information about our users to perform their function.
This website uses the following third-party services:
Google Analytics – This is the service that allows us to learn about our users’ behaviour on the site. The only personal information Google Analytics uses is the user’s IP address (which it does not share with us). No other personal information is collected. Please refer to Google’s own Privacy Policy for further information.
Microsoft Clarity – We partner with Microsoft Clarity and Microsoft Advertising to capture how you use and interact with our website through behavioral metrics, heatmaps, and session replay to improve and market our products/services. Website usage data is captured using first and third-party cookies and other tracking technologies to determine the popularity of products/services and online activity. Additionally, we use this information for site optimization, fraud/security purposes, and advertising. For more information about how Microsoft collects and uses your data, visit the Microsoft Privacy Statement.
Cloudflare – Cloudflare is a CDN which stores copies of our website in various places around the world in order to provide the user with a faster experience loading the website (by being able to connect to a server closer to them). Cloudflare uses a firewall that blocks certain IP addresses that it sees as suspicious. Therefore, it knows which IP addresses are visiting our website. Please refer to Cloudflare’s own Privacy Policy for further information.
Bigscoots – Our web hosting provider also have details on which IP addresses are sending and receiving information to and from our website. This is essential in order to protect the site from spam and hacking attacks. Please refer to Bigscoots’ own privacy policy for further information.
Paypal – Some of the payments made through the shop section go through Paypal. We do not receive billing information, card details, or any other personal information from PayPal. We do receive the email address the customer uses at PayPal, which may be different from the one they have given us when making the purchase. This can be deleted from our records as per customer request. Please refer to Paypal’s own Privacy Policy for further information.
Stripe – Some of the payments made through the shop section go through Stripe. We do not receive billing information, card details, or any other personal information from Stripe. Please refer to Stripe’s own Privacy Policy for further information.
Anonymous Data
Generic anonymous data about the demographics of our readers will occasionally be shared with advertising companies looking to work with us so as to provide an overview of which kind of ads the readers of our site may be interested in. There would be nothing in such information that could identify any particular user or group of users.
Publicly Visible Information
Users who submit a comment, an article or a review will have their name appear next to the material they have submitted if it is published. If the user has created a “gravatar” this will appear next to their name. If a user who submits an article chooses to include a link to their website in the article, this will too, be visible, on the user’s request.
Advertising
Display Ads
We run display ads, served by Mediavine Marketing, LLC. Please refer to the “Mediavine Advertising” section at the bottom of this page for more information.
Retargeting Ads
From time to time, we run retargeting ads, whether through Facebook, Google, or another service. These ads are based on users’ visits to our website. At the time of writing this Privacy Policy we are not running these ads.
Users’ Rights Regarding Their Personal Information
Opt-out/Unsubscribe: As mentioned previously, subscribers to our newsletter can unsubscribe at any time by hitting the unsubscribe button at the bottom of every email. Alternatively, they can request removal from the list by writing to us at info (at) southamericabackpacker (dot) com.
Access: Users can request access to a complete list of the information we have on them by writing to us at info (at) southamericabackpacker (dot) com.
Amend: Users can amend or update the information we have on them at any time by writing to us at info (at) southamericabackpacker (dot) com.
Forget: Users can request that we delete any information we have about them on our systems at any time by writing to us at info (at) southamericabackpacker (dot) com. Please bear in mind that we will not be legally allowed to delete certain information. We will adhere to the law in those cases.
Sensitive Personal Information
Please do not share any sensitive personal information with us. We don’t want it, and you don’t need to give it to us, so don’t!
3rd Party Links
South America Backpacker uses links to 3rd party websites. We are not responsible or liable for the behaviour or privacy policies of any of these linked websites. However, we are careful with the sites we link to and do not share links to sites we do not believe to be reputable/responsible. We are not responsible or liable for any content from South America Backpacker being republished on other websites or blogs without our permission. In the case of this occurring, we are not responsible or liable for the other content on such a website, any other behaviour committed by such a website, nor the privacy policy held by such a website.
Our policy on child protection
South America Backpacker is a magazine aimed at adults. We do not provide products or services that would be of interest to people under the age of 18. Nor do we advertise, or do anything else that would attract readers under 18 years old. We do not feature any content that would be inappropriate for readers under 18 years old. If we know that any visitor to our site is under 18, we do not collect any data from them.
Third Parties Working on our Site
Any 3rd party that works on the South America Backpacker website, such as web developers or hosting partners will be required to treat your information as strictly confidential and will not share it with anyone.
How to contact us if you have any queries about our privacy policy
This privacy policy is subject to change without notice and was last updated on 6/05/2018. If you have any questions feel free to contact us directly here: info (at) southamericabackpacker (dot) com
Mediavine Advertising
Mediavine Programmatic Advertising (Ver 1.0)
The Website works with Mediavine to manage third-party interest-based advertising appearing on the Website. Mediavine serves content and advertisements when you visit the Website, which may use first and third-party cookies. A cookie is a small text file which is sent to your computer or mobile device (referred to in this policy as a “device”) by the web server so that a website can remember some information about your browsing activity on the Website.
First party cookies are created by the website that you are visiting. A third-party cookie is frequently used in behavioral advertising and analytics and is created by a domain other than the website you are visiting. Third-party cookies, tags, pixels, beacons and other similar technologies (collectively, “Tags”) may be placed on the Website to monitor interaction with advertising content and to target and optimize advertising. Each internet browser has functionality so that you can block both first and third-party cookies and clear your browser’s cache. The “help” feature of the menu bar on most browsers will tell you how to stop accepting new cookies, how to receive notification of new cookies, how to disable existing cookies and how to clear your browser’s cache. For more information about cookies and how to disable them, you can consult the information at https://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/.
Without cookies you may not be able to take full advantage of the Website content and features. Please note that rejecting cookies does not mean that you will no longer see ads when you visit our Site. In the event you opt-out, you will still see non-personalized advertisements on the Website.
The Website collects the following data using a cookie when serving personalized ads:
- IP Address
- Operating System type
- Operating System version
- Device Type
- Language of the website
- Web browser type
- Email (in hashed form)
Mediavine Partners (companies listed below with whom Mediavine shares data) may also use this data to link to other end user information the partner has independently collected to deliver targeted advertisements. Mediavine Partners may also separately collect data about end users from other sources, such as advertising IDs or pixels, and link that data to data collected from Mediavine publishers in order to provide interest-based advertising across your online experience, including devices, browsers and apps. This data includes usage data, cookie information, device information, information about interactions between users and advertisements and websites, geolocation data, traffic data, and information about a visitor’s referral source to a particular website. Mediavine Partners may also create unique IDs to create audience segments, which are used to provide targeted advertising.
If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices to opt-in or opt-out of this data collection, please visit Opt Out – NAI: Network Advertising Initiative. You may also visit http://optout.aboutads.info/#/ and http://optout.networkadvertising.org/# to learn more information about interest-based advertising. You may download the AppChoices app at YourAdChoices.com | AppChoices to opt out in connection with mobile apps, or use the platform controls on your mobile device to opt out.
For specific information about Mediavine Partners, the data each collects and their data collection and privacy policies, please click here.