Privacy Policy

WHALE WATCH KAIKOURA

 

Introduction

Whale Watch Kaikoura Limited collects personal information about individual users of its services.  This policy explains how we collect, use, share and protect the information we collect about you.

For more information about your rights under the Privacy Act 2020 you should consult your lawyer or visit the website of the Privacy Commissioner www.privacy.org.nz. This privacy policy also takes into account the General Data Protection Rules (GDPR) in the European Union.

Definitions

In this privacy policy:

(a)          “our”, “we”, “us” or “Whale Watch” means Whale Watch Kaikoura Limited;

(b)          “you” means you, being the person using our services and / or visiting our website;

(c)           “services” means any goods or services we provide you with, or anything else we do for you, including, but not limited to, the access of our website.

It is important that you read this privacy policy in conjunction with our Terms and Conditions for using our services.

What information we collect about you

Our basis for controlling and processing information you provide is your consent in submitting information to us, visiting our website, for legitimate interests of keeping our records and studying how people use our website and services or pursuant to a contract when you order a service from us as we need such data to fulfil our contractual obligations to you. 

When you visit our website, we collect and store the following information:

(a)          the IP address of the machine you use to access our website, and the domain name you use to access the internet;

(b)          your operating system, the type of internet browser you use, and any search engine used;

(c)           details about the way you browse;

(d)          any online transactions made;

(e)          the time and date of your visit;

(f)           the website pages (URLs) that you visit;

(g)           the domain name of website you visit when you leave our website.

When you order one of our tours you may be asked to submit information including:

  • your name;
  • your gender;
  • your country;
  • your contact details including phone, address and email;
  • your credit card information; and
  • your Covid-19 (or other) vaccination status.

You can always choose not to provide your personal information to us, but it may mean that we are unable to provide you with our services.

What we do with your information

The information we collect helps us measure the number of visits to our website. Amongst other things, it also helps us measure the effectiveness of aspects of our website, such as the reach of different advertising.

It also helps us to supply our services to you and keep in contact with you about any tours that you order from us.

Collated data may be published by us. However, none of the information published discloses specific information about any individual machines or users, except as otherwise stated below.

We do not sell information which identifies you personally.

However, we may gather more detailed information if we are concerned, for example, by security issues. If we consider it necessary, we may disclose this information to the appropriate law enforcement authorities such as the Police or the Department of Internal Affairs.

Where you choose to provide us with personal information such as your contact details by, for example, filling in an order form or signing up to a newsletter, you agree that by the act of submitting that information that it may be used to communicate with you about other services we provide you with or which we think you might be interested in. This includes, but is not limited to, email marketing. You always have the right to opt out of receiving such communications from us. By purchasing a tour ticket or signing up for a newsletter you are confirming that the use of your email address for marketing or survey purposes is an authorised use of your personal information under the Privacy Act 2020.

All information is stored on servers in New Zealand and if you are in the European Union you consent to the transfer of your personal data to us.  Such personal data may also be transferred to third party companies which provide hosting services to us offshore which also have systems in place to protect such information and you consent to such transfers.

When you access our website, a cookie is saved on the hard drive of the device you use to access the website. A cookie is a file which allows us to track and target the interests of users. For example, this helps us provide advertising which is more relevant to your interest. The information collected by cookies are shared with third parties (such as our advertisers). However, the information we share is collated and consequently anonymous. We do not share personal information which is likely to identify you. However, the information we share may be used to provide you with adverts about our products when you use our website, or visit third party websites.

Our website uses Google Analytics (information on their service is here) and we use Live Chat to provide chat functionality and their policy is here.  

For the best experience using our website, we recommend that you enable cookies when accessing our website. This will help you to enjoy all the features of our website. However, you have the choice about whether you want to allow cookies to be saved through your browser settings. You will need to consult the help menu of your specific web browser to control your cookie settings.

Regarding our website itself, you acknowledge that we are the owner of the content and intellectual property displayed on it and you agree that you will not reproduce, publish or distribute our website content without our prior written consent.

Your rights to your information

Any personal information we collect about you will be stored in a way that makes it accessible. This means that if the information we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete, then you can ask us to correct it.

We will make your personal information available to correct, as required by the Privacy Act 2020 and other regulations. We may require you to provide proof of identity before you can correct information held by us about you.

Where you request to correct your information and we consider the request reasonable, we will make the correction. If we do not consider the request reasonable, we will not make the correction but we will take reasonable steps to record that you asked for a correction.

If you want to update the personal information we hold about you, such as your contact details, you can contact us by email at res@whalewatch.co.nz.

How we protect your information

We will take reasonable steps to protect your personal information from unauthorised access, loss or other misuse.

While we will take reasonable steps to protect your personal information, personal information provided by you via the internet is done so at your own risk.

We will retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for.  To determine how long we keep it we consider the amount, sensitivity and nature of the personal data and the purposes for which we collected it.  The Contact Form data collected and other contact details submitted when ordering a tour will be stored in our servers so as to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected.

Do not forget that if you follow a link from our website to someone else’s website, that site will have its own privacy policy about the way it treats information you provide.  We make no representations about any other website that you may access via our site.

When you make purchases through our website, or transfer personal information (such as logging in to your website account), make sure you can see a ‘padlock’ symbol shown on your web browser. This indicates there is a certificate of authenticity and means the website is secure. You can open the certificate for further details by double-clicking on it.

We use Secure Socket Layer (SSL) with Go Daddy Secure Certificate Authority and Thwaite SSL CA G2 to protect the security of information transmitted on our website.

How you can opt out

If you do not wish to receive email marketing you can unsubscribe by following the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails or by contacting us by email at res@whalewatch.co.nz.

If you have any difficulty unsubscribing please contact us on +0064 3 319 7727.

If you feel that we have used your email address without your permission and contacting us has not satisfactorily resolved your concerns, you can lay a formal complaint by emailing us at admin@whalewatch.co.nz or by writing to us at:

Whale Watch Kaikoura Ltd, 
PO Box 89, 
Kaikoura 7340, 
New Zealand.

Updates to this policy

We may change this privacy policy at any time by changing, removing or adding terms to it. Changes may mean issuing an entirely new privacy policy. Any changes will be notified by updating the policy which is available on our website. Any changes will be effective from the date it is published on our website.

If you have any questions about our privacy policy please contact us on admin@whalewatch.co.nz.

It is the peak travel period in New Zealand, to save disappointment we advise you to book well ahead of your preferred day/time of travel.

To check our availability or to book now please click BOOK NOW

PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION:

  • The tour time you have booked for is when check-in begins and is not when the tour departs, for that reason there is no need for you to arrive at our office any earlier than your tour time to check-in.
  • For further information on our tour please visit FIND OUT MORE