Privacy Policy
Educational Tours, Inc. (“We” “us” or “our”) is the owner of this website (the “Website”). We can be contacted by mail at 111 S. Pfingsten Road, Deerfield, IL 60015, Attn: Privacy Officer, by email at privacyofficer@educationaltours.com, or by phone toll-free at (800) 962-0060. Educational Tours, Inc. respects your privacy and works hard to safeguard the privacy of your personal data. We realize that the Internet raises questions concerning the nature, use and confidentiality of information collected about consumers. We want you to know that we apply our long-standing commitment to safeguarding privacy to our Internet activities. This online privacy notice (the “Privacy Policy”) discloses our information practices for this Website, including what type of personal identifiable information is requested by us, how the information is used and with whom the information is shared. Please note that links on the Website to the websites of other vendors or other affiliates of Educational Tours, Inc. may be governed by privacy policies containing different information practices applicable to those sites.
Personal Information/ How We Collect Information
In order to access designated subscriber services and or certain areas within the Website, or, for example, when you register for a tour, order a service, apply for a job, or respond to a survey, sweepstakes or other promotion, we will request a user to provide certain personal information, which may include your name, postal address, e-mail address, telephone number, and if applicable credit card number. In addition, we may request certain additional information necessary to establish and maintain your account.
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act
Educational Tours, Inc. does not sell products or services for purchase by children, and will not collect or post information from a child under the age of 14 without the involvement of a parent or guardian. Educational Tours, Inc. will notify the child’s parent or guardian at the e-mail address provided by the prospective customer, alerting the parent or guardian to the child’s use of the Website and providing instructions as to how the parent or guardian can delete the child’s registration from the Website. Educational Tours, Inc. does not use personally identifying information collected from children for marketing or promotional purposes, and does not disclose such information to any third party for any purpose whatsoever.
How We Use Information
Without your prior consent, Educational Tours, Inc. will not use your personal identifiable information for any purpose other than for which it is submitted. We use the personal information we collect and you provided to us principally to provide you with the service(s) you have ordered, to let you know about other offerings which may be of interest to you, to reply to customer inquiries, handle complaints, internal record keeping, bill processing and the processing of business requests related to your Website participation. Unless you “opt out” pursuant to the provision entitled “Privacy Policy Changes and Opt-Out Rights” hereinbelow, the information you provide to the Website may also be collected, used, analyzed and/or processed by us or selected third parties on our behalf, for marketing and other business purposes. Contact information is shared with the Tour Moderator, via our on-line Tour Center for the Tour Moderator to communicate with your travel group (please see the provision entitled “Our On-line Tour Center” below).
Disclosure of Information
Educational Tours, Inc. may share your personal information within our corporate organization. In addition, for the purpose of developing and expanding our business, we may share, rent, sell or buy business assets, In such transactions, or in the event that we are acquired, customer information is generally one of the transferred business assets. We may also release personal information to appropriate governmental authorities where release is required by law (for example, a subpoena) or by a regulation, or is requested by a government agency conducting investigations or proceedings, or where we believe that disclosing this information is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against individuals who may be endangering public safety or interfering with our property or services, or with our customers' or others' use of them.
No Tracking of Personal Information
The Website is not set up to track, collect or distribute personal information not entered by visitors. Our site logs do generate certain kinds of non-identifying site usage data, such as the number of hits and visits to the Website. This information is used for internal purposes by technical support staff to provide better services to the public and may also be provided to others, but, again, the statistics contain no personal information and cannot be used to gather such information.
Collection of Non-Identifiable Information
Educational Tours, Inc. may collect non-identifiable information from user visits to the Website in order to provide better customer service. Examples of such collecting include: traffic analysis, such as tracking numbers of visitors; measuring visitor activity on the Website; Website and system administration; user analysis; and business diction making. Such information is sometimes known as “click stream data” and Educational Tours, Inc. or its contractors may use this data to analyze rends and statistics.
A Note on On-Line Privacy
If you participate in one of our chat rooms, discussion forums, or post messages to a website bulletin board, you should be aware that the information disclosed and shared will be broadly available to other persons, both inside of and/or outside of Educational Tours, Inc., who have access to that chat room, forum or bulletin board. Ultimately, you are solely responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your passwords and/or any account information. Please be careful and responsible whenever you're online. In addition, if you post personal information online that is accessible to the public, you may receive unsolicited messages from other parties in return. Please also note that a participant’s expressed opinion is his or her own and should not be considered as reflecting the opinion of Educational Tours, Inc.
Our On-line Tour Center
The on-line “Tour Center” is an added feature of traveling with Educational Tours, Inc. On the on-line Tour Center, our “Tour Moderators” have access to information that assists in the smooth running of their particular tour; this includes but is not limited to passenger and account holder contact information, account statuses (not including information on credit card numbers). Passengers and Account holders have access to their own personal information, and can alter their profiles on-line. Tour Moderators, Passengers and Account holders can view the group’s Tour Center using the schools randomly generated Booking ID # - the Booking ID only allows access to general information on the tour the group will be participating in or that the passenger is signed up to join. Once registered for a tour and having created your own user name and personal password (for those under 14, the Account Holder must be over 14), Tour Moderators, Passengers and Account holders can view and post photos, blog entries, and important notices and documents that can only be posted by the Tour Moderator.
Security
Educational Tours, Inc. intends to protect customer personal information and to maintain its quality. To achieve information security and quality, we use encryption, firewalls and other technology and security procedures to help protect the accuracy and security of your personal information and prevent unauthorized access or improper use. For example, you will note that while using some features of our Website and online services, you will need to submit a password or some other type of authenticating information. We will exercise all reasonable efforts to safeguard the confidentiality of customer personal information. However, transmissions protected by industry standard security technology and implemented by human beings cannot be made absolutely secure. Consequently, we shall not be liable for unauthorized disclosure of personal information due to no fault of ours, include , but not limited to ,errors in transmission and unauthorized acts of our staff, employees, subcontractors, and/or third parties. In the event that information such as your credit card or password is lost or stolen, then you should promptly notify us in order to enable us to cancel the lost ort stolen information and to update our records with a changed credit card and/or password.
How We Protect Credit Card Information
Keeping your personal financial information private is vitally important to us. As with all personal information, we will never rent or sell your personal financial information. Any time you are asked for a credit card number in order to complete a payment transaction or for verification purposes, that credit card number is transferred in an encrypted format. Your credit card information is not stored on the Educational Tours, Inc. web server but it is stored on our database server. In addition, your entire credit card number is stored in our database only to the extent a customer has enrolled in automatic billing. The encrypted card numbers are automatically deleted from the database one month after your trip's departure date. Notwithstanding the foregoing, please note that we do store the last four digits of your credit card number along with the card’s expiration date and card holder name if there are any issues or disputes with respect to your purchase or for charge backs. When a customer makes a payment, the information is sent to an outside authorization service for processing. This process is outside of the Web site and is used for security purposes. The service is performed on the secure servers of Moneris (which has its own privacy policy statement located at http://www.moneris.com/index.php?context=/aboutus/privacy) and E-xact, Ltd. We suggest that you read the Moneris privacy policy and E-xact’s website located at http://www.e-xact.com when using our online payment service.
Privacy Policy Changes and Opt-Out Rights
This Privacy Policy was last updated on September 2009. We reserve the right to change or update this Privacy Policy at any time. A notice of such change will be posted on this Website for thirty (30) days prior to the implementation of such change. You have the right at any time to cease permitting personal information to be collected, used or disclosed by us and/or by any third parties with whom we have shared and/or transferred such personal information. This right of termination may be exercised by contacting us by e-mail at privacyofficer@educationaltours.com or by phone toll-free at (800) 962-0060. After processing your termination request, we will delete your information from our database; however, please note that to the extent the termination request is related to a trip cancellation, we may need to retain certain information as it relates to any issues or disputes with respect to your purchase, any cancellation fees or for charge backs.
Forum; User Content
We may provide you with the capability of posting to the Website or Tour Center or otherwise supplying to Educational Tours, Inc. information (excepting personally identifiable information), data, text, music, sound, photographs, graphics, video, messages and other materials ("User Content"). By posting User Content on or through the Website or Tour Center, you agree that you are solely responsible for the origination, accuracy, completeness, ownership, publication and dissemination of, and that you, and not Educational Tours, Inc., are entirely responsible for, your User Content, obtaining and maintaining all rights, licenses, permissions, releases, approvals, clearances, credit, or attribution information relating to all User Content and paying any applicable royalties or fees in connection therewith. By submitting or sending User Content to Educational Tours, Inc., or otherwise making User Content available for display on or through the Website or Tour Center, you grant Educational Tours, Inc., its affiliates, and any third party suppliers, vendors, contractors, licensors or service providers of Educational Tours, Inc. ("Suppliers") the royalty-free, world-wide, non-exclusive license for Educational Tours, Inc. and its Suppliers to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, distribute, perform and display such User Content (in whole or part) as required to operate the Website and Tour Center. Educational Tours, Inc. does not endorse and assumes no obligation to monitor or filter any User Content posted, or otherwise made available, on or through the Website or Tour Center. However, Educational Tours, Inc. (or a designee) reserves the right (but assumes no obligation) to, at its sole discretion, refuse, edit or remove any User Content, and may take any reasonable action it deems necessary or appropriate with respect to any User Content, that, in Educational Tours, Inc.'s sole judgment, does not comply with this provision, is illegal, or is otherwise undesirable, inappropriate or inaccurate. Educational Tours, Inc. is not responsible for any failure, non-failure or delay in refusing, editing or removing such User Content.
Your Access to Information
You may review or update the available personal information that we received from you by contacting Customer Service through our e-mail address, privacyofficer@educationaltours.com. Please note that in order to better protect you and safeguard your information, we take steps to verify your identity before granting access or making corrections to your information. For questions regarding this Privacy Policy, contact by phone at toll-free at (800) 962-0060 or by email at privacyofficer@educationaltours.com.