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Privacy Policy

Holiday Concepts complies with the:

  • National Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) in relation to its commercial activities;
  • Australian Direct Marketing Association Code of Practice in relation to how we market to our customers;
  • Spam Act 2003 (Cth) in relation to electronic marketing; and
  • Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (Cth) in the event that any telemarketing is undertaken.

How to contact us

Holiday Concepts is committed to working with its customers to obtain a fair resolution of any complaint or concern about privacy.

  • write to us at:
  • Holiday Concepts
  • Privacy Contact Officer
  • PO Box 3065 Westfield TC, Helensvale, QLD 4212 Australia
  • call our Customer Contact Centre on 1300 369 463 (option 3) between 8.30am and 5.00pm EST Monday to Friday.

Your acknowledgement of our Privacy Policy:

  • This Privacy Policy is published on our website in order to meet our obligation under National Privacy Principle 5.1 which requires us to set out our policies on the management of personal information in a clearly expressed document which is available to anyone who asks for it.
  • Without limiting the generality of the above statement, your use of this website constitutes an acknowledgement that you have been made aware of our privacy policies.
  • This policy does not create or confer upon any individual any rights, or impose upon Holiday Concepts any rights or obligations outside of, or in addition to, those rights or obligations imposed by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Spam Act 2003 (Cth), the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (Cth) or related legislation ('the legislation'). Should there be, in a specific case, any inconsistency between this statement and the Act, this statement shall be interpreted, in respect of that case, to give effect to, and comply with the legislation.
  • This policy includes examples but is not intended to be restricted in its application to such examples, therefore where the word 'including' is used, it shall mean 'including without limitation'.

Personal Information

Personal information means information we hold about you from which your identity is either apparent or can be reasonably determined.

Uses and sharing

We use personal information you provide only for purposes consistent with the reason you provided it, or for a directly related purpose.

We will not use your personal information to market to you unless we have either your implied or express consent but in situations where it is impractical to obtain your prior consent, we will ensure you have an ability to opt out of future such communications.

We do not share your personal information with other organisations unless you give us your express consent, or where sharing is otherwise required or permitted by law, or where this is necessary on a temporary basis to enable our contractors to perform specific functions.

When we temporarily provide personal information to companies who perform services for us, such as specialist information technology companies, mail houses or other contractors to Holiday Concepts we require those companies to protect your personal information as diligently as we do.

Your rights and choices

You may interact with us anonymously where this is lawful and practicable.

You have the right to request access to the personal information you provide, and to correct or update your personal information. This right is subject to certain exceptions allowed by law.

You may instruct us to remove any previous consent you provided to receive marketing communications from us.

About this Privacy Policy

We respect your personal information and your right to privacy.

At Holiday Concepts, protecting your privacy when handling your personal information is very important to us and is fundamental to the way we serve you.

At Holiday Concepts, we know that when you give us your personal information, it imposes a serious responsibility upon us. We are committed to protecting your personal information and maintaining your trust.

This Privacy Policy describes the information that may be collected by Holiday Concepts, the choices you can make about your personal information and how we protect your personal information.

Collection covered by this Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to situations in which Holiday Concepts collects your personal information, including but not limited to collection via websites operated by or on behalf of Holiday Concepts.

Websites may contain links to non-Holiday Concepts websites. Holiday Concepts is not responsible for the privacy policies of those other websites. We recommend you review the privacy policies of each site you visit.

Why we collect personal information and how we may use it

Generally, Holiday Concepts will collect personal information directly from you, and only to the extent necessary to provide an Holiday Concepts product or service, including our agency functions, or to carry out our internal administrative operations. An agency function means a service that we provide to you on behalf of another organisation, such as our our travel and cruise partners.

We may collect personal information from you when:

  • you fill in an application form;
  • deal with us over the telephone;
  • e-mail us;
  • ask us to contact you after visiting our web site; or
  • have contact with us in person.

You may also be able to transact with us anonymously where this is lawful and practicable.

We will collect personal information from you by lawful and fair means and not in an unreasonably intrusive way.

We will use your personal information only for the particular purpose that you provided it, or for a directly related purpose. We may otherwise use your personal information where that other use is:

  • required or permitted by law; or
  • with your express or implied consent.

Direct marketing and your privacy

From time to time we may use the personal information we collect from you to identify particular Holiday Concepts products and services which we believe may be of interest to you. We may then contact you to let you know about these products and services and how they may benefit you. We will generally only do this with your consent and we will always give you a choice to opt out of receiving such information in future.

Direct mail

Where we use your personal information to send you marketing information via the post we may do so with your implied consent or, if this is impracticable, we will ensure that you are provided with an opportunity to tick an "opt out" box to ensure you do not receive future such communications. By not ticking a clearly displayed "opt out" box, we will assume we have your implied consent to receive similar marketing communications in the future. We will always ensure that our opt out notices are clear, conspicuous and easy to take up.

Electronic Marketing

Where we use your personal information to send you marketing information by e-mail, SMS, MMS or other electronic means we may do so with your express or implied consent. You may give us your express consent by, for example, ticking a box on an electronic or paper form where we seek your permission to send you electronic or other marketing information. Consent may be implied from our existing business relationship or where you have directly or indirectly provided us with your electronic address.

All of our electronic marketing activities will comply with the requirements of the Spam Act 2003 (Cth).

Telemarketing

Holiday Concepts may engage in telemarketing activities to our consumer customers. Should any consumer telemarketing be done or authorised by Holiday Concepts, will to the extent that it applies, comply with the:

  • Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (Cth);
  • Do Not Call Register (Consequential Amendments) Act 2006 (Cth);
  • Telecommunications (Do Not Call Register) (Telemarketing and Research Calls) Industry Standard 2007.

Your privacy preferences and choices

Every personalised marketing contact sent or made by Holiday Concepts will include a means by which customers may opt of receiving further marketing information.

You may instruct us at any time to remove any previous consent you provided to receive marketing communications from us.

Information sharing

We have a strict duty to maintain the privacy of all personal information we hold about you. However, certain exceptions do apply. For example, where disclosure of your personal information is:

  • authorised or required by law
    e.g. disclosure to various government departments and agencies such as the Australian Taxation Office, CentreLink, Child Support Agency, or disclosure to courts under subpoena.
  • in the public interest
    e.g. where a crime, fraud or misdemeanour is committed or suspected, and disclosure against the customer's rights to confidentiality is justified.
  • with your consent
    Your consent may be implied or express and it may also be verbal or written.

Use of third party service providers

When we temporarily provide personal information to companies who perform services for us, such as specialist information technology companies, mail houses or other contractors to Holiday Concepts we require those companies to protect your personal information as diligently as we do. Stringent contractual and other quality assurance measures are used to ensure your personal information is protected.

Updating your information

It is inevitable that some personal information which we hold will become out of date. We will take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information which we hold remains accurate and, if you advise us of a change of details, we will amend our records accordingly.

Access to your personal information

Holiday Concepts will, upon your request, and subject to applicable privacy laws, provide you with access to your personal information that is held by us. However, we ask that you identify, as clearly as possible, the type/s of information requested.

Holiday Concepts will deal with your request to provide access to your personal information in a reasonable time - usually within 30 days of receipt of your request.

Holiday Concepts will not charge you for lodging such a request but we may recover from you our reasonable costs incurred in supplying you with access to this information.

Exceptions

Your right to access your personal information is not absolute. In certain circumstances, the law permits us to refuse your request to provide you with access to your personal information, such as circumstances where:

  • access would pose a serious threat to the life or health of any individual;
  • access would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others;
  • the request is frivolous or vexatious;
  • the information relates to a commercially sensitive decision making process;
  • access would be unlawful; or
  • access may prejudice enforcement activities, a security function or commercial negotiations

Freedom of Information laws

In addition to privacy laws, you may have rights to access your personal information contained in certain Holiday Concepts documents. Details on how to apply for access to these documents are contained in the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act).

Information security

Holiday Concepts is committed to keeping your trust by protecting and securing your personal information.

We employ appropriate technical, administrative and physical procedures to protect personal information from unauthorised disclosure, loss, misuse or alteration.

We limit access to personal information to individuals with a business need consistent with the reason the information was provided. We keep personal information only for as long as it is required for business purposes or by the law.

Holiday Concepts protects your personal information by complying with industry best-practice standards, including:

  • AS 8015-2005 Corporate governance of information and communication technology
  • AS/NZS ISO/IEC 17799:2001 Information technology: Code of practice for information security management
  • AS/NZS 7799.2:2003 Information security management - Part 2: Specification for information security management systems
  • AS/NZS 4360:2004 Risk Management

Information collected on this website

We may collect non-personal information from you such as browser type, operating system, and web pages visited to help us manage our web site.

We use cookies and other internet technologies to manage our website and certain online products and services. We do not use these technologies to collect or store personal information unless you have opted in to such a feature.

Our internet server logs the following information which is provided by your browser for statistical purposes only:

  • the type of browser and operating system you are using
  • your Internet Service Provider and top level domain name (for example - .com, .gov, .au, .uk etc)
  • the address of any referring web site (for example - the previous web site you visited), and
  • your computer's IP (Internet Protocol) address (a number which is unique to the machine through which you are connected to the internet)

All of this information is used by Holiday Concepts for aggregated statistical analyses or systems administration purposes only. No attempt will be made to identify users or their browsing activities, except where required by or under law.

Cookies

A "cookie" is a packet of information that allows the Holiday Concepts server (the computer that houses our web site) to identify and interact more effectively with your computer.

When you access our web site, we send you a temporary or "session cookie" that gives you a unique identification number. A different identification number is sent each time you use our website. Cookies do not identify individual users, although they do identify a user's internet browser type and your Internet Service Provider. Shortly after you end your interaction with our web site, the cookie expires or "crumbles". This means it no longer exists on your computer and therefore cannot be used for further identification or access to your computer.

Without cookies certain personalised services cannot be provided to users of our website, accordingly you may not be able to take full advantage of all of the Holiday Concepts website features if cookies have been disabled.

Cookie Policy

We use session cookies in the following manner:

  • Log-on and log-off administration - If you decide to register with our site, so as, for example, to use one of our online services, session cookies help with the log-on and log-off process. The cookies enable us to recognise your log-on ID when you log on so that we do not establish a duplicate registration record for you.
  • Transactions and site usability - We use session cookies to improve how you navigate through our website and conduct transactions. As examples, session cookies are used to maintain your online session as you browse over several pages; to store and prepopulate information so that you do not have to re-enter the same information twice

We use persistent cookies as follows:

  • Site usage measurement - Our site measurement tool uses a persistent cookie to assist us in measuring how and when our web site and its various components are used. It functions as a "visit cookie," so we can determine if you are a repeat visitor to our site. This allows us to know if we are attracting new visitors and what aspects of the site seem most useful. The cookie will expire up to a year after your last visit.

Other cookies allow us to remember certain information related to prior website interactions, such as web form submissions and user preferences. These features and cookies are strictly at your request and for your convenience.

This website uses tracking software to monitor it's visitors to better understand how they use it. This software is provided by Google Analytics which uses cookies to track visitor usage. The software will save a cookie to your computers hard drive in order to track and monitor your engagement and usage of the website but will not store, save or collect personal information. You can read Google's privacy policy here for further information http://www.google.com/privacy.html.

Cookie Management

You can configure your internet browser to accept all cookies, reject all cookies or notify you when a cookie is sent. Please refer to your internet browser's instructions or help screens to learn more about these functions.

Links to other sites

The Holiday Concepts site contains links to other sites. We are ultimately not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such web sites. We encourage you to read and understand the privacy policies on those websites prior to providing any information to them.

Some of the content appearing on the Holiday Concepts website may be supplied by third parties, for example, by framing third party web sites or the incorporation through "framesets" of content supplied by third party application service providers. In such cases Holiday Concepts will ensure that our contractual arrangements with these third parties protect your personal information in compliance with privacy laws.

Searches

Search terms that you enter when using our search engine are collected, but are not associated with any other information that we collect. We use these search terms for the purpose of aggregated statistical analyses so we can ascertain what people are looking for on our website, and to improve the services that we provide.

Also, from time to time, we may use external companies to provide us with detailed aggregate statistical analyses of our website traffic. At no time is any personal information made available to these companies, nor is the aggregate information ever merged with personal information such as your name, address, email address or other information you would consider sensitive or would compromise your privacy.

Website security and privacy

We understand that you may be concerned about the security of the personal information we collect from you online.

Accordingly, we have systems in place to ensure our online dealings with you are as secure as your dealings with us in person, or on the telephone.

In those instances where we secure your personal information in transit to us and upon receipt, we use the industry standard encryption software, Secured Socket Layer (SSL) 128 bit encryption. The URL in your browser will change to "HTTPS" instead of "HTTP" when this security feature is invoked. Your browser may also display a lock symbol on its bottom task bar line to indicate this secure transmission is in place.

For site security purposes and to ensure this service remains available to all users, we employ software programs to monitor network traffic in order to identify unauthorised attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause us damage. Except for authorised law enforcement investigations, no other attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits other than those uses identified in this policy. Unauthorised modification or misuse of information stored in this system will be investigated and may result in criminal prosecution.

Information Transfer

If Holiday Concepts transfers personal information to countries outside Australia, we will only do so in compliance with all applicable Australian data protection and privacy laws.

Holiday Concepts will take reasonable steps to protect personal information no matter what country it is stored in or transferred to. We have procedures and data transfer contracts as appropriate to help ensure this.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We will post changes to the Privacy Policy and publish the effective date when this statement is updated.

Further information on privacy

You can obtain further general information about your privacy rights and privacy law from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner by:

  • calling their Privacy Hotline on 1300 363 992
  • visiting their web site at www.privacy.gov.au (External link)
  • writing to:
The Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 1042