Guest Checker Privacy Policy
Introduction
Your privacy is important to us. We are committed to protecting your privacy, which includes complying with all consumer privacy policy laws. Our staff is trained to preserve your privacy in accordance with the law and our own standards, procedures and policies.
About this Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy outlines how we manage your personal information. It also deals with what is meant by “personal information”, why and how it is held, and how it is used and disclosed.
Our Privacy Policy may change from time to time. We will notify you of any change of policy by posting a copy on our website. Our Privacy Policy was last updated on July 23, 2010.
Definitions in this Policy
“We”, “Us” and “GuestChecker” means guestchecker.com
"You" means guests who are customers of our members, and are (or will be) recorded on our database. It also means members in the appropriate context.
"Members" means bona fide business operators and persons providing accommodation and/or other goods or services to guests who have applied to guestchecker.com to access our database, who we have approved to do so, and who hold a current guestchecker.com membership.
Collecting Your Personal Information
We collect personal information from our members. We collect personal information about you that is necessary to perform our business activities and functions connected with our guest database, and to provide the appropriate services to our members.
The information we usually collect includes your name, postal and/or email address, telephone numbers, car registration number, driver's license number, and details about your guest history (for example, length of stay, or any behavior by you or your companions that results in loss or damage to our member/s).
If you wish to access your personal information, we will also collect other personal information from you, which we believe other people will not know or will not have. We only collect this information to help us identify you.
We do not collect personal information about people staying with you unless they are separately and individually customers of our members. However, we may record details of their behavior and associate it with your record if they behave in a manner that causes loss or damage to our member/s).
We do not collect “sensitive” information about you such as your political associations, religious beliefs, racial or ethnic origins, medical history or criminal record, credit card or other financial information, unless you consent in writing.
In some cases we may collect your personal information from third parties. These might include our members, an insurer, government agencies, publicly available sources of information, or any of the other organizations referred to below under “Using and Disclosing Your Personal Information”.
If we or our members ask you for personal information (or ask your consent to obtain or disclose your personal information), and you do not provide it, we/they may not be able to properly assess the risk in providing you with goods and/or services. Consequently, we/they may not provide you with the goods or services you have asked for.
How We Use Your Personal Information
We may use your personal information in order to:
- Provide services to our members (in order to conduct appropriate risk and loss-prevention check.)
- Research, maintain and develop our services, business systems and infrastructure, including testing and upgrading of these systems.
How We Disclose Your Personal Information
We may disclose your information to persons or organizations:
- Who are our members;
- Involved in providing, managing or administering aspects of our business (e.g. our lawyers, accountants, etc);
- Involved in maintaining and developing our business systems;
- Involved in any re-organization, development or expansion of our business;
- Involved in a transfer of all or part of the assets or business of our organization;
- Who are your authorized representatives (e.g. your lawyers);
- As required or authorized by law; and/or
- Where you have given your consent.
Keeping Your Personal Information Accurate and Up-to-date
We aim to make sure that personal information we collect, use or disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date. We take, and require our members to take reasonable steps to make sure this is the case. This way we can provide you and our members with better service.
If you believe your personal information is not accurate, complete or up to date, please contact us (see "Contacting Us" below).
Protecting Your Personal Information
We store information in different ways, including in paper and electronic form. The security of your personal information is vital and we take reasonable steps to protect it from misuse, loss, or unauthorized access or disclosure. Some of the ways we do this are:
- Observance of strict confidentiality requirements by all our employees;
- Document storage security policies;
- Security measures for systems access;
- Providing a private environment for confidential discussions;
- Allowing access to personal information only where the individual seeking access has satisfied our identification requirements;
- Access control in our buildings;
- The security measures described below (under “Your Privacy on the Internet”).
Your Privacy on the Internet
We take care to ensure that any personal information you give us via the Internet is protected as far as reasonably possible. Our website has electronic security systems in place, including the use of anti-virus software, a firewall, and counter-intrusion measures. The Internet is not, however, a secure environment, and is often subject to risks beyond our control.
Our Website
If you visit our site to read or download information, our Internet Service Provider may record your server address, domain name, the date and time of your visit to our site, the pages viewed and the information downloaded. This information is used for statistical and web site development purposes only.
How we handle e-mails
We will preserve the content of any e-mail message you send us if we believe we are required to do so. E-mails sent to or from our organization may be monitored for quality control, systems administration and legal /policy compliance purposes. (See, however, above under “your Privacy on the Internet” as to the drawbacks in using e-mail).
Links to Other Sites
You may be able to access external websites by clicking on links we have provided. Those other websites, however, are not subject to our privacy standards, policies and procedures. You will need to contact or review those websites directly to ascertain their privacy standards, policies and procedures.
Gaining Access To Your Personal Information
You may gain access to your personal information. This is subject to some exceptions allowed by law. We will give you reasons if we deny or limit access to your personal information.
We require all requests to access personal information to be in writing. We may provide you with a form on our website, or a username/password. If you cannot make your request in writing, please contact our Privacy Officer to discuss alternative arrangements. See our Contact Page.
We need to verify your identity before we give you access to your personal information. We will not give access to anybody who cannot satisfactorily verify their identity to us. We may also charge you a fee to cover our costs in searching for and providing you with access to your information. We will notify you of the fee before we incur any costs.
Dealing with Us Anonymously
You can deal with us anonymously where it is lawful and practicable to do so. For example, if you inquire about the range of services we provide, there is usually no need to provide your personal details.
You should be aware, however, that it is not practical for us to perform most of our functions anonymously. For example, it is not appropriate for us to answer questions about persons on our database to anonymous callers.