privacy policy

Lonely Planet Privacy policy

At Lonely Planet, we understand that privacy is really important. So we have prepared this privacy policy to fill you in on who we are, our objectives in handling personal information that we collect, and how you can find out more about our privacy philosophy and the personal information that we collect about you.

So who are we?

Lonely Planet operates through different companies around the world that are all part of the Lonely Planet family. Individual Lonely Planet companies sometimes need to share personal information with other companies in the group to let us provide the quality products and standard of service you've come to expect of us. If corporate structure excites you, click here to learn more about the Lonely Planet family of companies.

What do we collect and why do we collect it?

There are situations in which we ask you to give us information about yourself. This information includes things like your name, address, e-mail address, and phone number. We collect, hold and use your personal information only where you have given us your permission to do so. If customers choose to purchase Lonely Planet products or services, we collect their credit card details and other identifying information in order to process orders and provide customer service. Our writers (some of whom work on contract to us) may also collect personal information in the course of gathering material for inclusion in our publications (although you won't always know who they are at the time as we need to get the real story!). Click here to read our Media privacy policy. The types of purposes for which we collect information about individuals include the following:

obtaining, responding to and managing feedback from travellers
allowing people to share their experiences with fellow travellers on our bulletin boards
processing purchase orders and providing technical support
offering on-the-road communications services contacting customers with exciting travel news and great Lonely Planet offers (but only if they have asked us to).
contacting travellers with information and updates (like exciting travel news, great offers, promotions, special events, competitions and surveys) from Lonely Planet. Our information and updates may also include information from our partners and BBC Worldwide
managing our competitions and contacting the winners
personalising or improving the way Lonely Planet content is presented to you online (see the section on "What about cookies?" for more information)

We may also collect information about individuals involved in businesses, and this is mainly for:

preparing listings and reviews in our publications
sending information about Lonely Planet and our products to our media and other industry contacts
distributing our products to distributors and retailers.

If you work for us (as an employee or under contract) we keep information about you in the context of that relationship. There are some differences in how we deal with that type of personal information because of the relationship, plus some housekeeping stuff. If you are in this group and want further information on how we deal with information about you, please contact your Human Resources manager or the person who manages your relationship with us.

But it isn't about me!

One of the best things about the Lonely Planet community is that everyone is keen to share their views and experiences with others (if you don't believe us, just check out the thousands of daily posts at the Thorn Tree and our message boards). We welcome your contributions, but remember, what's 'gossip' to you may deserve 'privacy' in someone else's eyes. So please respect the privacy of others. If you want to include information about yourself we'll take it that you understand how our services work and are happy for that information to be shared. If you are unhappy that personal information about you has been included in one of our publications or on one of our bulletin boards, please let us know. Where reasonable and possible we will remove that information at the next practical opportunity - where it has been included in one of our publications that may be the next reprint or next edition.

What about 'cookies'?

A "cookie" is a small message given to your web browser by our web server. The browser stores the message in a text file, and the message is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server. We use cookies on our website to tailor our web pages to your needs. This may include recording what region of the world you are from so we don't make the mistake of requiring you to buy stuff with British Pounds when you live in Fiji for example!

Cookies also allow us to analyse and improve the services offered by our website e.g. to provide you with the most user-friendly navigation experience. We engage independent measurement, advertising and research companies who use cookies to help us gather information about visitors to our website. We may collect your IP address (an IP address is a number that can uniquely identify a specific computer or other network device on the internet) and attach cookies to it for the purpose of improving our site and enhancing your use of it. IP addresses may be used to identify the location of users, the number of visits from different countries and also to block disruptive use. Rest assured, this information is not used to develop a personal profile of you. Lonely Planet strictly requires that these companies do not use this information for their own purposes. We do not match cookies to your registration details (that is, if you are registered with us) and we do not use cookies to track your movements after leaving this website.

Further information regarding the main cookies that we set on our site (e.g. what they are used for) - and ways to minimise the number of cookies you receive can be viewed at the More about Cookies page. Note that while you can turn off cookies, doing this will restrict your use of our website.

Security

The security of your personal information is important. Lonely Planet has in place proper security measures to protect your personal information.

You tell who?

We may share personal information amongst companies in the Lonely Planet family. We may also disclose that information to our travel writers and other contractors who help us put together Lonely Planet products and services and, where relevant, to our business partners who assist us in providing these products and services, or to successors in title to our business. This may involve transferring your data from one country to another. By giving us personal information through the Lonely Planet website or communicating with us, you acknowledge and agree to our use of your data on a global basis, but if you have any concerns about this please let us know.

The personal data that we collect from you will also be used for the purposes of enabling a third party data processor to which we subcontract data processing services (Goallover Limited) to assess such data in order to provide data veracity, integrity and validity services to Digital Window and its other clients.

If legal or health and safety issues arise we may also have to make disclosures to relevant organisations to deal with these matters.

Complaints, comments or corrections?

You generally have a right to access the personal information Lonely Planet holds about you (although there are exceptions). For some Lonely Planet services you can access your registration and keep your personal information up to date online. To access, correct, or update your other personal information, or if you have any questions about personal information, please contact us by email or by writing to us at Locked Bag 1, Footscray, Victoria 3011, Australia.

A world without lawyers...

…is a nice thought. However, for the time being the information handling activities of the Lonely Planet Group are governed by privacy laws throughout the world. For instance, in Australia that means being guided by the Australian National Privacy Principles. In Europe the regulations are based on EC Directive 95/46/EC.

Online newsletters

You want to sign up to a newsletter but you're worried it'll open the floodgates of spam. If you're concerned about privacy, here's what we will and won't do if you sign up with us.

Lonely Planet collects your email address so we can send you the newsletters you've subscribed to. You have the option to unsubscribe by returning to the newsletter's sign-up page via the Newsletters page.

Sleep easy, we will not sell your email address to marketing companies for spamming. But we may need to disclose your email address to contractors who help us provide the newsletter service, and amongst companies in the Lonely Planet family.

You can manage your subscriptions and update your email address through our newsletters page at any time. If you'd like to find out more or if you have any questions about how we handle personal information generally, please read our full privacy policy.

Complaints, comments or corrections?

Lonely Planet is keen to share the views and experiences of others but if you are unhappy that personal information about you has been included in one of our publications, please let us know. Remember, this means personal information about you as an individual, not information or opinions about your business. Where reasonable and possible we will remove that personal information at the next practical opportunity - where it has been included in one of our publications that may be the next reprint or next edition.

If you have any queries regarding personal information, please contact us at privacy@lonelyplanet.com.au or by writing to us at Locked Bag 1, Footscray, Victoria 3011, Australia.