Privacy Policy
Last revised September 9, 2003
Site59 is owned and operated by Site59.com, LLC ("Site59," "we," "us"). We provide travel packages and other goods and services ("Packages") on our web site located at http://www.Site59.com (the "Site"). Because the success of Site59 is dependent on building and maintaining goodwill with our customers, we are committed to implementing measures designed to protect the privacy of those using the Site and the services provided on the Site ("Services").
Although we respect the privacy of all those who visit our Site and use our Services, we collect information from our visitors and customers. This Privacy Policy governs your interaction with the Site, your purchase of Packages and use of the Services, and your receipt of Site59's email newsletter. Except as set forth within this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Service and other published guidelines, we do not release personally identifiable information you provide us. (Personally identifiable information includes information that can be linked to a specific individual, such as name, address, phone number, e-mail address and, when applicable, credit card information.)
This Privacy Policy covers the following areas:
- What information we gather through the Site
- How we use (and do not use) such information
- How you can change or delete your personal information
- Information about safeguards in place to protect your information
- Other important matters regarding your privacy
Please note that we review our privacy practices from time to time, and that those practices are, therefore, subject to change. We ask that you bookmark and periodically review this page to ensure continuing familiarity with the most current version of our Privacy Policy. To contact us about privacy issues, to report a violation of our Privacy Policy or to raise any other issue, please email us.
The Information We Gather
When browsing the Site, you are not required to provide any personally identifiable information, such as your name, address, phone number or e-mail address, unless and until such time as you choose to make a purchase or sign up for an email newsletter, as described below. We do not collect any personally identifiable information from you unless you provide it to us voluntarily. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children (meaning minors younger than thirteen years of age). We do not knowingly permit the Site to be used by any person under the age of eighteen (see our Terms of Service), and we require a valid credit card to make a purchase.
Making a Purchase. In order to purchase a Package through the Site, you will have to provide us with your name, your credit card number and expiration date, your credit card billing address, your telephone number, your email address, the name or names of the person(s) traveling (if not you). We may also ask you for other information, such as your frequent traveler numbers. We require this information so that we can process and fulfill your order and keep you informed of your order's status. If you are purchasing a Package for one or more travelers other than yourself, you will need to make sure that each of these other travelers agrees, in advance, that you can disclose their personally identifiable information to us.
Receiving "Opt-in" Email Messages. You may choose to sign up for our departure city-specific email, Site59 Top Picks, which contains news of Site59 deals and discounts. In order to receive the Site59 Top Picks email, you must provide us with your first name, your email address, your zip code and your preferred departure city.
Automatic Logging of Session Data. We do automatically log generic information about your computer's connection to the Internet, which we call "session data", that is anonymous and not linked to any personally identifiable information. Session data consists of things such as your IP address, operating system and browser software and the activities conducted on the Site. Your IP address is a number that lets computers attached to the Internet, such as our web servers, know where to send you data such as the pages of the Site you wish to view. We collect session data because it helps us analyze such thing as the way visitors are clicking through the Site, how many visitors are surfing to various pages on the Site, how long visitors to the Site are staying and how often they are visiting. It also helps us diagnose problems with our servers and lets us better administer our systems. Although such information does not identify any visitor personally, we can determine from an IP address a visitor's Internet Service Provider and the geographic location of his or her point of connectivity.
Use of Cookies. A "cookie" is a small text file containing a unique string of numbers or letters that is placed on an Internet users' computer. One of the ways that we collect session data is through the use of cookies. We also use cookies to process the purchase of Packages through the Site and for other technical reasons. Essentially, cookies are a visitor's identification card for the Site59 computers, or servers, that placed them there. There are many myths circulating about cookies, but you should know that cookies are only read by the server that placed them, and are unable to do such things as run programs on your computer, plant viruses or harvest your personally identifiable information. Cookies allow Site59 to serve you better and more efficiently, and to personalize your experience at Site59's web site. Of course, by changing the options on your web browser or using certain software programs you can control how and whether cookies will be accepted by your web browser. However, doing so may disable some features on the Site and make it impossible to purchase Packages from us on the Site. Please note that we do not currently sell advertising of any kind on the Site, nor do we currently have a relationship with a third party ad server.
Forums and Reviews. We can not and do not control the acts of our customers or visitors. All customers and visitors should be aware that, when they disclose personally identifiable information in our reviews section or other forum on the Site, the information may be collected and used by others to send that person unsolicited email. In the event that you encounter any person who you believe is improperly collecting or using information about you, please contact us.
How We Use (and Do Not Use) the Information We Gather
Please take some time to familiarize yourself with the different ways we use the information that we gather. In certain cases we employ other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf. Examples include delivering packages, sending postal mail and e-mail, removing repetitive information from customer lists, analyzing data, providing marketing assistance, processing credit card payments, and providing customer service. Each of these has access to the personally identifiable information necessary to perform their functions, but they are not permitted to use it for other purposes. Keep in mind, however, that we cannot and do not assume any responsibility for any actions or omissions of third parties, including the manner in which they use information received either from us or independently. Nevertheless, in the event that you encounter any third party associated with, or who claims association with, Site59 who you believe is improperly collecting or using information about you, please contact us; we will be happy to forward your message to the third party.
Personally Identifiable Information. When you purchase a Package through the Site, we communicate with the relevant airline, hotel, car rental company, entertainment venue, restaurant, or other supplier(s) of such goods or services (each, a "Supplier") to book and pay for each element of your Package. We provide such Suppliers with the personally identifiable information you provided to us which is necessary to book and fulfill your order. Ordinarily, we do not need to disclose your credit card number and expiration date to such Suppliers, since we forward payment to them ourselves. We book many elements of our Packages through our global distribution systems and provide certain of your personally identifiable information to them as well. We also use your personally identifiable information to communicate with you, if necessary, during the booking and fulfillment process, and to send you an email to confirm the booking of your Package.
Also, if you sign up to receive our Site59 Top Picks newsletter, we use the personally identifiable information that you provided at sign up to personalize the email that we send you. Such emails typically are sent on a weekly basis, and they, among other things, will clearly provide you with a method of unsubscribing, if you decide you no longer wish to receive them. In addition, we may on occasion send you an email when we have an important announcement to make or policy change to inform you of.
Non-personally Identifiable Information. We use non-personally identifiable information in aggregate form to build higher quality, more useful online services by performing statistical analyses of the collective characteristics and behavior of our customers and visitors, and by measuring demographics and interests regarding specific areas of the Site. We provide statistical information based on this data to Suppliers, advertisers, affiliates and other current and potential business partners. We may also use the aggregate data to inform these third parties as to the number of people who have seen and clicked on links to their web sites.
Changing or Deleting Personal Information
We retain your personally identifiable information indefinitely, together with the details of the Packages you have purchased through us, so that we can provide you with meaningful customer service. Once your trip is completed and paid for, however, we purge your credit card information from our database. If at any time you would like to have the rest of your personally identifiable information removed from Site59's database, please contact us and we will use reasonable efforts to comply with your request. Keep in mind, however, that there will be residual information that will remain within our databases, access logs and other records, which may or may not contain such personally identifiable information. The residual information will not be used for commercial purposes; however, we reserve the right, from time to time, to recontact former customers of Site59.
Safeguards to Protect your Information
We take reasonable precautions to protect our customers' information from unauthorized third parties. When you are prompted by the Site to enter sensitive information (such as your credit card number), that information is encrypted with the industry-standard encryption technology known as Secure Socket Layer (SSL). While on a secure page, the lock icon on the bottom of web browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator becomes locked, as opposed to un-locked, when you are just 'surfing'. In addition, the servers on which we store personally identifiable information are kept in a secure environment. However, no method of encryption or security system is impenetrable. We cannot guarantee the security of our servers, nor can we guarantee that information that customers supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted over the Internet.
Other Important Matters Regarding your Privacy
Links to Other Web Sites. The Site contains links to other Internet web sites, including affiliated web sites that may or may not be owned or operated by us. We can not and do not review all of the web sites that are linked to the Site, and we have no control over such sites. Unless otherwise explicitly stated, we are not responsible for the privacy or other practices of such sites, and the fact that we offer such links does not indicate any approval or endorsement of any material contained on any linked site. We are providing these links to you only as a convenience. Accordingly, we strongly encourage you to become familiar with the terms of use and practices of any linked site.
Private Label and Co-branded Web Sites. Whenever you are on the Site, this privacy policy applies. However, we sometimes build, host and operate web sites for other companies in the travel or travel services area or other third parties ("Partners") on or through which we provide our Packages to such Partners' customers and visitors. You will know such web sites by the fact that they either retain the logos, trademarks and style of our Partner¡s web site, or they use both our Partner¡s and our logos, trademarks and style as a result of a co-branding arrangement. In most of these cases, the sales we are consummating, and any information we collect from our Partner's customers or visitors during such sale, is collected for our Partner on their behalf and for their benefit. The collection, use and distribution of such information is governed by such Partner's privacy policy and not ours. In other less frequent cases, we may have an agreement to share the information we collect with our Partner on or through our Partners¡ web site; in such cases each party's privacy policies applies to their respective use of such information. In any case, we take reasonable steps to make clear to customers and visitors to such Partner web sites which privacy policy or policies are applicable to the collection, use and distribution of information on such Partner web sites and we provide a link to such privacy policy or policies in each place any personally identifiable information is collected.
Promotions and Sweepstakes. If and when we sponsor promotions or sweepstakes, or third parties sponsor promotions or sweepstakes in conjunction with us, either we or the third party will post relevant privacy information in the official rules and/or registration area for the promotion or sweepstakes. That privacy information, to the extent it conflicts with this Privacy Policy, will govern that particular promotion or sweepstakes.
Other Permitted Release of Information. Notwithstanding anything in this Privacy Policy to the contrary, we reserve the right to release information contained within our access logs concerning any visitor or customer when that visitor or customer is in violation of our Terms of Service or other published guidelines, or engages (or is reasonably suspected of engaging) in any illegal activity, even without a subpoena, warrant or other court order, and to release such information in response to court and governmental orders, civil subpoenas, discovery requests and as otherwise required by law. We cooperate with law enforcement agencies in identifying those who may be using our servers or services for illegal activities. We also reserve the right to report any suspected illegal activity to law enforcement individuals or entities for investigation or prosecution. Please note that if we receive a formal request to disclose your personally identifiable information in connection with legal action, we will attempt to tell you about it before we respond to such request, if permitted by law, via the email address you provided to us. In addition, if Site59 or substantially all of its assets are acquired, our customer information will most likely also be transferred in connection with such acquisition.
