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Tripadvisor is an online travel company that helps people around the world plan, book and experience the perfect trip. Our website, mobile properties, and related applications (collectively, our “Website”) are part of the Tripadvisor group of companies, which is owned and operated by Tripadvisor LLC.
We understand that providing information online involves a great deal of trust on your part. We take this trust very seriously, and make it a high priority to ensure the security and confidentiality of the personal information you provide to us when you visit our Website or use our services. Please read this Policy carefully to learn about our privacy practices. By visiting Tripadvisor’s website, www.Tripadvisor.com, or using a Tripadvisor application (an “Application” or “App”) on a mobile phone, tablet, or similar device (a “Device”) or in connection with other sites or services, you are accepting the practices described herein.
What information we collect from you
In General
We collect, store and use different kinds of information about you. This may include personal information that can identify you, including your first and last name, telephone number, postal and email addresses, user name and password, and billing information (such as your payment details). We may also request information about your travel plans, style, and preferences. You can choose not to provide information to us but, in general, some information about you is required in order for you to receive relevant offerings from Tripadvisor and its partners and enjoy other benefits of being a member. For example, only members are able to post travel reviews, participate in discussion forums, email Tripadvisor content to themselves and others and access members-only newsletters and travel planning content. In addition, some information is also required in order for you to ask us a question or initiate other transactions on our site.
Information About Others
You will have the opportunity to provide contact and travel-related information for other people through our Website. If you make a reservation for someone else through Tripadvisor, you will need to submit that individual’s personal information. You must obtain the consent of other individuals prior to providing us with their personal information, as any access to view or modify their information will be available only through your account.
Information from Other Sources
We also may periodically obtain information about you from affiliated entities, business partners and other independent third-party sources. For example, if you visit Tripadvisor by “clicking through” from a site operated by one of our business partners, and you have registered with that partner, then information about you that you have provided to that partner may be shared with us, such as contact information and demographic information. As another example, if you access third party services, such as social media services, through our Website or before coming to our Website, we may collect information such as your user name, password, and other information made available to us through those services. We will work with our existing partners and potential future partners to improve and personalize your use of our Website in accordance with the practices outlined in this section and Policy.
We have partnered with Facebook to provide personalized content on Tripadvisor for members of Facebook. If you are logged into Facebook and Tripadvisor, Tripadvisor will be personalized for you when you visit the Website, even if you are a first-time user of our Website. For example, we will show you reviews that your Facebook friends have posted on Tripadvisor and places they have visited. In order to provide you with this personalized content, Facebook provides us with information that you have chosen to make available pursuant to your Facebook privacy settings. That information may include your name, profile picture, gender, friend lists and any other information you have chosen to make available.
If you decide to turn off personalization, you can do so by locating your Tripadvisor profile picture in the top navigation bar on the right. If you have not signed in to your account, you will see a blank icon that you can click to ‘Log In’ or ‘Join’. Once logged in, you can click on your picture to expand the ‘Profile’ menu and select ‘View Profile’ where you can view, edit your profile and amend your account settings. In this section, you will have the opportunity to disconnect your Facebook account from your Tripadvisor account. You can also turn off personalization by editing your app settings on Facebook. Please note that if you have Facebook friends who are using Tripadvisor, they may also have shared information about you with us through Facebook. If you wish to prevent that sharing, you can do so by editing your Facebook privacy settings.
Automatic Information
We automatically collect some information from your computer or Device when you visit the Website. For example, we will collect session data, including your IP address, web browser software, and referring website. We also may collect information about your online activity, such as content viewed, pages visited, searches and/or reservations facilitated or made. One of our goals in collecting this information is to help us understand the interests and preferences of users and customize the user experience as well as to create audience segments (dividing users into groups based on criteria such as website usage and demographics).
Payment Information
If you make travel reservations with third-party suppliers facilitated by Tripadvisor, we will collect payment information from you, including your credit card number, cardholder name, expiration date, authentication code, and billing address. We will securely transmit this information to the supplier of the travel reservation to complete the transaction. Please note that the supplier processes your payment, not Tripadvisor, unless otherwise specified. You agree to review and be bound by the supplier’s policies and procedures before making a reservation through Tripadvisor.
Location Information and Other Information from Devices
When you use an Application on a Device, we will collect and use information about you in generally similar ways and for similar purposes as when you use the Website. In addition, we may collect information about your location if you have instructed your Device to send such information to the Application via the privacy settings on that Device, or if you have uploaded photos tagged with location information. We may use the location information collected and/or share the information collected to third parties, in order to provide you with relevant content and contextual advertising. For example, we may use your location to show you reviews of hotels, restaurants or things to do near you when you are traveling.
You can prevent the collection of geo-location information and update your choices by changing the privacy settings of your Device at any time. Please note that turning off location sharing may affect certain features of our Application. If you have any questions about the privacy settings of your Device, we suggest you contact the manufacturer of your Device or your mobile service provider for help.
Cookies and Other Web Technologies
Cookies are small data text files that can be stored on your computer’s hard drive, on your Device (if your web browser permits), in emails we send you and/or on our web pages. Our Website uses cookies for the following general purposes:
The Help portion of the toolbar on most browsers should tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable most types of cookies. Please note that if you refuse to accept cookies, you may not be able to access many of the travel tools offered on our Website.
Our sites also may use web beacons (also known as clear gifs, pixel tags or web bugs), which are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, that are placed in the code of a website page. We use web beacons to monitor the traffic patterns of users from one page within our sites to another, to deliver or communicate with cookies, to understand whether you have come to our site from an online advertisement displayed on a third-party website, and to improve site performance. We also may allow our service providers to use Web beacons to help us understand which emails have been opened by recipients and to track the visitor traffic and actions on our site. This helps us measure the effectiveness of our content and other offerings.
Display of Advertising/Your Choices
Data collected to serve you with relevant advertising
We are committed to providing you with relevant content and information across our sites. To do this, we may collect information about your travel-related searches and other site activities, such as whether you are looking for airline flights or hotels, and use this information to serve you with ads on our sites or elsewhere online that match your apparent interests. So, for example, if you search for a flight to Florida on Tripadvisor, you may see an ad for a Florida travel package on Tripadvisor or on another website you visit. You can choose not to receive relevant online advertising on other websites, based on your travel-related searches on Tripadvisor by clicking here.
Data collected by, or provided to, business partners and ad networks to serve you with relevant advertising
Many of the advertisements you see on our Website are served by Tripadvisor or its service providers. But we may also (1) share personal information about you to third parties directly and/or (2) allow third parties to collect information about your online activities through, for example, cookies and other technologies. These third parties include (1) business partners, who collect or receive information from us directly or when you view or interact with one of their advertisements on our sites or elsewhere on the Internet, and (2) advertising networks, who collect or receive information about your interests from us directly or when you view or interact with one of the advertisements they place on many different websites on the Internet. The information gathered by these third parties is used to make predictions about your characteristics, interests or preferences and to display advertisements on our sites and across the Internet tailored to your apparent interests.
Please note that we do not have access to or control over cookies or other technologies these third parties may use to collect information about your interests, and the information practices of these third parties are not covered by this Privacy Policy. Some of these companies are members of the Network Advertising Initiative, which offers a single location to opt out of ad targeting from member companies. To learn more, please click here.
Response to Do Not Track signals
Your web browser may transmit a “Do Not Track” (“DNT”) signal to Tripadvisor and other websites. Because of differences in web browsers’ default settings and the manner in which browsers incorporate DNT signals, it is sometimes unclear to site operators whether site visitors have selected the DNT setting themselves, or whether they are aware that they have a choice in determining the setting. Tripadvisor does not currently respond to DNT signals. Once the Internet industry has settled on standards related to this issue and Tripadvisor recognizes such standards, we may reevaluate this approach.
How we use your information
Tripadvisor uses the information we collect about you for the following general purposes: for registration and to manage your account, including to allow you access to and use of our Website; to communicate with you in general, including to provide information about Tripadvisor and invitations from the Tripadvisor community; to enable us to publish your reviews, forum posts, and other content to the Tripadvisor community; to facilitate your booking of travel reservations; to respond to your questions and comments; to measure interest in and improve upon our products, services, and Website; to notify you about special offers and products or services available from us or our partners that may be of interest to you; to otherwise customize your experience, including customizing the ads shown to you; to solicit information from you, including through surveys; to resolve disputes or troubleshoot problems; to prevent potentially prohibited or illegal activities; to enforce our Terms of Use; and as otherwise described to you at the point of collection.
If you have signed up as the owner or manager of a vacation rental, or listed your vacation rental property in our Destination Resources section, we will send you email messages at the email address you provide to us.
Please review "Your choices with respect to the collection and use of your information" below.
With whom we share your information
Tripadvisor may share your information with the following entities:
We also may share your information if we believe, in our sole discretion, that such disclosure is necessary:
If you choose to create a profile on our Website, certain information in your profile will be publicly viewable and identifiable via your screen name. You will have the ability to view your profile as members of the public will see it. Additionally, if you choose to participate in our member-to-member communications programs, other Tripadvisor members may contact you by using Tripadvisor as an intermediary; however, Tripadvisor will not share your email address with any other members nor display it any public manner. All Tripadvisor members have the option to turn off the member-to-member communication features at any time.
Other than as set out above, you will be notified when personal information about you will be shared with third parties, and you will have an opportunity to choose not to have us share such information.
We also may share aggregate or anonymous information with third parties, including advertisers and investors. For example, we may tell our advertisers the number of visitors our Website receives or the most popular hotels and vacation destinations. This information does not contain any personal information and is used to develop content and services we hope you will find of interest.
How you can access your information
We take reasonable steps to ensure that your information is accurate, complete and relevant to its intended use. You can access and update your contact information by visiting the Member Profile page on our Website. You can close your account by contacting us using this form. We will send you an email to confirm your request. Please note that after you close an account, you will not be able to sign in or access any of your personal information. However, you can open a new account at any time. Please also note that we may retain certain information associated with your account in our archives, including for analytical purposes as well as for recordkeeping integrity.
Your choices with respect to the collection and use of your information
How we protect your information
We want you to feel confident about using Tripadvisor, and we are committed to protecting the information we collect. While no website can guarantee security, we have implemented appropriate administrative, technical, and physical security procedures to help protect the personal information you provide to us. For example, only authorized employees are permitted to access personal information, and they only may do so for permitted business functions. In addition, we use encryption when transmitting your personal information between your system and ours, and between our system and those of the parties with whom we share sensitive information, and we employ firewalls and intrusion detection systems to help prevent unauthorized persons from gaining access to your information.
Children's privacy
Tripadvisor is a general audience site and does not offer services directed to children. Should an individual whom we know to be a child under age 13 send personal information to us, we will delete or destroy such information as soon as reasonably possible.
External links
If any part of the Website links you to other websites, those external websites do not operate under this Privacy Policy. We recommend that you examine the privacy statements posted on those other websites to understand their procedures for collecting, using, and disclosing personal information.
Visiting our Website from outside the United States
If you are visiting our Website from outside the United States, please be aware that your information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States where our servers are located and our central database is operated. The data protection and other laws of the United States and other countries might not be as comprehensive as those in your country, but please be assured that Tripadvisor does take steps pursuant to laws in the United States to ensure that your privacy is protected. By using our services, you understand that your information may be transferred to our facilities and those third parties with whom we share it as described in this Policy.
Your California privacy rights
California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please contact us at the address provided below in the “How you can contact us” section.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
Tripadvisor may change or modify this Privacy Policy in the future. We will note the date that revisions were last made to this Privacy Policy at the bottom of this page, and any revisions will take effect upon posting. We will notify our members of material changes to this Privacy Policy by either sending a notice to the email address you provided to us or by placing a notice on our Website. We encourage you to check this Privacy Policy from time to time to review the most current version.
How you can contact us
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:
Tripadvisor LLC
Attn: Legal Department, Privacy Officer
400 1st Avenue
Needham, MA 02494, USA
Please be aware that calls to and from Tripadvisor may be recorded. We may use the call recordings to monitor our customer service for quality or compliance purposes, to check the accuracy of the information you provide us, for fraud prevention purposes, or to provide training to our staff. We will retain the call recordings for as long as reasonably necessary to perform such activities and then delete them. Any personal information obtained from you during the call will be treated in accordance with the provisions of this Privacy Policy.
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