Smooth Trips PRIVACY POLICY:
Our website address is: https://staging.smoothtrips.com.
Disclaimer: Smoothtrips.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, as an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
This privacy policy sets out how Smooth Trips uses and protects any information that you give Smooth trios when you use this website.
Smooth Trips is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.
Smooth Trips may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes. This policy is effective from February 20, 2024.
Please note that Smooth Trips is a travel blog, not a multi-national corporation. Most of the data that is collected on this website is automatic or done in the background. The only time we’d have your personal data (Like name and email address) is if you manually entered it into the site somewhere. We are not in the business of taking information or data from our users. The only reason our website takes any data at all is to help us better serve you.
If you’re worried about us using your data incorrectly, or selling it to a third-party like Facebook and other large companies have been accused of doing, that’s not the case. We only use the data you give us freely and are not trying to get any information from you that doesn’t help us serve you better.
Our website (like almost all websites online today) will store cookies in your browser. These cookies can not only help your user experience, but they also allow us to earn commissions through our affiliate partners.
When we recommend a product and you click the link and make a purchase, sometimes (not always) we are rewarded with a commission. These transactions will NEVER cost you an extra cent and in many cases, you actually receive a discount for using our links. Cookies are what make this possible, so by allowing our website to use cookies, you’re actually helping keep this site running. Without cookies, we wouldn’t make any commissions and therefore wouldn’t be able to offer so much amazing content for free.
What personal data we collect and why we collect it
We may collect the following information:
- name and blog URL
- email address (Only with your consent)
- other information relevant to customer surveys and/or offers when user is prompted
- Google Analytics tracking data (anonymous data that we use to see how many people visit our site)
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.
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.
Contact forms
When you enter your email to contact us, we are automatically given your email so that we can reply. We will not use the email to send you any promotional emails, only to reply to whatever questions you have and we will not send more emails unless our email conversation continues. We use a plugin to embed our contact form, which tells us the email you entered so that we can reply.
Cookies
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 have an account and you log in to this site, 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.
Analytics
We use Google Analytics to track the visitors on this site so that we know how many people we have visiting our blog.
Who we share your data with
We do not share or sell your data with any third-party.
How long we retain your data
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.
If you’ve entered your email to receive our newsletter or a free product (ie: our free ebooks), then we will keep that data until you unsubscribe from our lists, or until we feel that we’re not serving you any more. If you haven’t expressed interest in our emails for 90 days or more, we may delete your information entirely from our email servers.
What rights you have over your data
If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
Where we send your data
We don’t send your data to any third-party or sell your data, however, when you leave a comment, it may be checked through an automated spam detection service called Askimet. You may find their Privacy Policy here: https://akismet.com/tos/. Also, if you have entered your email to our site, we may use your email address to also send you offers and information on Facebook, Instagram and the Facebook ads network.
Email Newsletters
The only time that we actually use your email to send you a message is if you request that we do so. On this blog, you will see optin forms that ask for your first name and email address. If you do choose to enter this information, we will send you an emails including whatever special offer you requested, as well as some emails to help you travel, earn money from travel or save money for travel. We NEVER share your email with anyone and you can unsubscribe from all of our emails at any time.
What we do with the information we gather
We require this information to understand your needs and provide you with a better service, and in particular for the following reasons:
- Internal record keeping.
- We may use the information to improve our products and services.
- We may periodically send promotional emails about new products, special offers or other information which we think you may find interesting using the email address which you have provided. ONLY when you have opted in to receive these emails.
- From time to time, we may also use your information to contact you for market research purposes. This is just so that we can better provide you with the best travel advice and travel products.