Privacy of personal information is an important principle to WD World
Travel. We are committed to collecting, using and disclosing personal
information responsibly and only to the extent necessary for the travel
products and services we provide. We also try to be open and
transparent as to how we handle personal information. This document
describes our privacy policies.
What is personal information?
Personal information is information about an identifiable individual.
Personal information includes information that relates to their
personal characteristics (e.g. gender, age, income, home address or
phone number, ethnic background, family status), their health (e.g.
health history, health conditions, health services received by them) or
their activities and views (e.g. religion, politics, opinions expressed
by an individual, an opinion or evaluation of an individual). Personal
information is to be contrasted with business information (e.g. an
individual's business address and telephone number), which is not
protected by privacy legislation. In addition, due the nature of the
travel agency business, we also include in our policies and staunchly
protect therein an individual's financial information including
checking account information and credit card information.
Who we are?
Our travel agency, WD World Travel, is a full service agency business,
and we arrange travel products and services for our clients with a wide
spectrum of industry suppliers. Accordingly, we deal with a number of
consultants and third parties that may, in the course of their duties,
have limited access to personal information we hold. These include
airlines, railroads, cruise lines, tour operators, computer
reservations system providers, and other travel-related vendors. We
restrict their access to any personal information we hold as much as is
reasonably possible. We also have their assurance that they follow
appropriate privacy principles in accordance with their own policies
under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act
(PIPEDA).
We collection personal information for the following purposes:
Like all travel agencies, we collect, use and disclose personal
information in order to serve our clients. For our clients, the primary
purposes for collecting personal information are as follows: to make
and secure reservations, to issue transportation documents and
vouchers, and the provide travel suppliers with information to complete
the necessary purchasing arrangements for a wide array of travel and
tourism products. Examples of the type of personal information we
collect for those purposes include the following: name, address,
telephone, age, credit card information, passport or visa information,
Social Insurance Number, web site cookies, and similar personal
information necessary to properly identify our clients and their
entitlement to the services we arrange. We also collect personal
information from our employees and contractors to assure our proper
compliance with employment laws, remuneration, tax payments, and other
employee/contractor functions.
Protecting personal information:
We understand the importance of protecting personal information. For that reason, we have taken the following steps:
- Paper information is either under supervision or secured in a locked or restricted area.
- Electronic
hardware is either under supervision or secured in a locked or
restricted area at all times. In addition, passwords are used on
computers. All of our cell phones are digital, which signals are more
difficult to intercept.
- Paper information is transmitted through sealed, addressed envelopes or boxes by reputable companies.
- Electronic information is transmitted either through a direct line or is anonymized or encrypted.
- Staff
are trained to collect, use and disclose personal information only as
necessary to fulfill their duties and in accordance with our privacy
policy.
- External consultants and agencies with access to
personal information must enter into privacy agreements with us or
acknowledge that they abide by PIPEDA.
Retention and destruction of personal information:
We need to retain personal information for some time to ensure that we
can answer any questions you might have about the services provided and
for our own accountability to external regulatory bodies. However, we
do not want to keep personal information too long in order to protect
your privacy. We keep our clients files for about 2 years. Our client
and contact directories are much more difficult to systematically
destroy, so we remove such information when we can if it does not
appear that we will be contacting you again. However, if you ask, we
will remove such contact information right away. We keep any personal
information relating to our general correspondence with people who are
not our clients, newsletters, seminars and marketing activities for
about 6 months after the newsletter, seminar or marketing activity is
over. We destroy paper files containing personal information by
shredding. We destroy electronic information by deleting it and, when
the hardware is discarded, we ensure that the hard drive is physically
destroyed. Alternatively, we may send some or all of the client file to
our client.
You can look at your information
With only a few exceptions, you have the right to see what personal
information we hold about you. Often all you have to do is ask. We can
help you identify what records we might have about you. We will also
try to help you understand any information you do not understand (e.g.,
various industry forms, technical language, etc.).
We will need to confirm your identity, if we do not know you, before
providing you with this access. We reserve the right to charge a
nominal fee for such requests. If there is a problem, we may ask you to
put your request in writing. If we cannot give you access, we will tell
you within 30 days if at all possible and tell you the reason, as best
we can, as to why we cannot give you access. This applies to factual
information and not to any professional opinions we may have formed. We
may ask you to provide documentation that our files are wrong. Where we
agree that we made a mistake, we will make the correction and notify
anyone to whom we sent this information. If we do not agree that we
have made a mistake, we will still agree to include in our file a brief
statement from you on the point and we will forward that statement to
anyone else who received the earlier information.
Do you have a concern?
Our Privacy Policy Manager, John Peterson, can be reached at 604 687
8836 to address any questions or concerns you might have. If you wish
to make a formal complaint about our privacy practices, you may make it
in writing to our Privacy Policy Manager. He will acknowledge receipt
of your complaint, ensure that it is investigated promptly and that you
are provided with a formal decision and reasons in writing.
For more general inquiries, the Information and Privacy Commissioner of
Canada oversees the administration of the privacy legislation in the
private sector. The Commissioner also acts as a kind of ombudsman for
privacy disputes. The Information and Privacy Commissioner can be
reached at:
112 Kent Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 1H3 as well as by:
Phone: 613 995 8210
Toll-free: 1-800-282-1376
Fax: 613 947 6850
TTY: 613 992 9190
E-mail: info@privcom.gc.ca
We appreciate and value your patronage. At WD World Travel, privacy is not a privilege, it's a right.
WHO IS CANADA TRAVELS?
We are an international travel management company dedicated to meeting
the business and professional needs of our clients while providing
exceptional personal service.
Our company's philosophy is to provide you with the "best" customer
service in the industry. Our corporate mandate is to always "fly" the
extra mile.
CanadaTravels.com is a subsidiary of
WD World Travel Ltd.