Privacy Policy

Auswalk Walking Holidays Pty Ltd, an Australian company with ABN 23 665 425 874 (“Auswalk”, “we”, “us”, “our”) is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles.

We are an APP entity under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), meaning we are responsible for how your personal information is collected, held, used and disclosed.

Auswalk Walking Holidays Pty Ltd | ABN: 23 665 425 874 | Unit 4 / 844 Nepean Highway, Hampton East, VIC 3199, Australia

1. What Personal Information Do We Collect?

We collect personal information that is reasonably necessary for us to carry out our business functions and activities. This may include:

• Your name
• Your contact details (including postal address, email address and phone number)
• Payment details
• Travel preferences and requirements
• Health information, where necessary for your trip (for example dietary requirements or mobility needs)
• Passport details and nationality, required for certain international bookings
• Information you provide when you make an enquiry or booking
• Information you provide when you partially complete a booking form on our website
• Information you provide when you subscribe to our mailing list
• Information you provide when you contact us with queries or feedback
• Information about your use of our website, including IP address and browsing behaviour, collected via cookies — see our Cookie Policy for full details
• Information about how you reached our website (such as utm_source, gclid and gbraid parameters in the URL), recorded when you submit an enquiry form
• Feedback you provide in post-trip surveys

2. How Do We Collect Your Personal Information?

We may collect your personal information directly from you when you:

• Enquire about our services
• Book a trip with us
• Partially complete a booking form on our website
• Subscribe to our mailing list
• Contact us via phone, email or our website
• Participate in post-trip surveys
• Use our website

We may also collect your personal information from third parties, such as travel agents or other booking intermediaries, with your consent.

3. Why Do We Collect, Hold, Use and Disclose Your Personal Information?

We collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for the following purposes:

• To provide you with the services you have requested
• To communicate with you about your bookings and enquiries
• To follow up with you if you have partially completed a booking form on our website
• To process your payments
• To tailor your travel arrangements to your preferences and requirements
• To ensure your health and safety during your trip, where necessary
• To send you marketing materials, where you have provided your consent or as otherwise permitted by law — you can withdraw consent at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in any email or by contacting us
• To improve our website, products and services, including through analysis of website usage and post-trip survey feedback
• For our internal administrative purposes
• To comply with our legal obligations

We handle your personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). We will only use your information for the purposes described above, for purposes that are reasonably related and that you would reasonably expect, or where you have otherwise consented or we are permitted or required by law.

When you first visit our website, our cookie banner asks you to choose which non-essential cookies to allow across four categories: Necessary (always on), Preferences, Performance and Marketing. Until you make your choices, the three optional categories are off, so analytics and advertising cookies do not load. You can change your choices at any time using the “Manage cookies” link in our website footer. See our Cookie Policy for what each category covers.

When you submit an enquiry form, we record marketing source parameters from the URL (such as utm_source, gclid and gbraid) so we know which advertising campaign brought you to our website.

If your enquiry later progresses through our sales process, we may also share with Google Ads a hashed (SHA-256) version of your email address and phone number, together with the click identifier and the conversion event. The hashed data cannot be reversed by Google. We carry out both of these activities to measure the effectiveness of our advertising, which is directly related to and reasonably necessary for our business and is a use you would reasonably expect when engaging with our marketing. You can ask us to stop using your data for marketing measurement at any time by contacting us using the details in Section 10.

4. Disclosure of Your Personal Information

We may disclose your personal information to:

• Our service providers who assist us in operating our business, such as accommodation providers, transport companies, local guides, IT service providers and marketing agencies
• Our professional advisers, such as lawyers and accountants
• Travel agents or other booking intermediaries, where you have used them to make your booking
• Analytics and advertising platforms, including Google and Meta, as described in our Cookie Policy
• Google Ads, where we share hashed contact details and click identifiers for offline conversion measurement, as described in Section 3
• Government authorities or regulatory bodies, if required or authorised by law

We do not sell your personal data to third parties.

5. International Transfers of Your Personal Information

As a walking holiday company operating internationally, we may disclose your personal information to overseas recipients in order to facilitate your travel arrangements.

Countries to which data may be transferred include, but are not limited to: Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Croatia, Turkey and Switzerland.

Where we disclose personal information overseas, we take reasonable steps to ensure the recipient handles it consistently with the Australian Privacy Principles (in particular APP 8), including by entering into contractual arrangements that require the recipient to protect your information. You can request details of the safeguards we rely on by contacting us.

6. Security of Your Personal Information

We take reasonable steps to protect your personal information from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. These steps include:

• Using secure servers and encryption for online transactions and data storage
• Implementing firewalls and other IT security measures
• Limiting access to personal information to authorised personnel on a need-to-know basis
• Implementing physical security measures at our premises

When your personal information is no longer needed for the purpose for which it was collected, we will take reasonable steps to delete or de-identify it. Booking records are retained for 7 years from completion of travel for legal and tax compliance. Enquiries that did not result in a booking are retained for 2 years.

7. Access to and Correction of Your Personal Information

You have the right to request access to the personal information we hold about you, and to request corrections if you believe it is inaccurate, incomplete, out of date or misleading.

To make a request, please contact us using the details in Section 10. We will respond within a reasonable period (generally within 30 days). We may require you to verify your identity before granting access. We will not charge you for making a request.

8. Your Rights Under Australian Privacy Law

In addition to the rights of access and correction above, under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles you have the following rights:

• Right to deal with us anonymously or by using a pseudonym, where lawful and practicable
• Right to opt out of receiving direct marketing communications at any time, and to ask us not to use your data for marketing measurement (see Section 3)
• Right to make a complaint about how we have handled your personal information (see Section 9)

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details in Section 10.

9. How to Make a Complaint

If you have a complaint about how we have handled your personal information, please contact us in the first instance. We will investigate your complaint and aim to respond within a reasonable period.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC):

• Website: www.oaic.gov.au
• Telephone: 1300 363 992

10. How to Contact Us

For any questions about this Privacy Policy, to exercise your rights, or to make a complaint, please contact: connect@auswalk.com.au or +61 3 9597 9767.

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology or legal requirements. Any changes will be posted on our website and the date at the top of this policy will be updated. We encourage you to review this policy periodically. We will notify you of material changes by email where we hold your address.