Data protection

PRIVACY AT A GLANCE

General information

The use of our website is generally possible without providing personal data. To the extent that personal data (such as name, address, or email addresses) is collected on our pages, this is always done on a voluntary basis, if possible. These data will not be disclosed to third parties without your express consent. We point out that data transmission over the Internet (e.g., when communicating by email) may have security vulnerabilities. A complete protection of the data against access by third parties is not possible.

The use of contact data published in the context of the imprint obligation by third parties for sending unsolicited advertising and information materials is hereby expressly prohibited. The operators of the pages expressly reserve the right to take legal action in the event of the unsolicited sending of advertising information, such as through spam emails.

European Walking Tours (“We”) is responsible as the data controller for the collection and processing of your personal data in connection with its activities. Our task is to offer our customers a comprehensive range of travel services.

In this privacy policy, we explain how we process your personal data and how you can control and manage it. Our data processing may be covered by additional privacy notices, such as those in the General (Travel) Terms and Conditions or may arise from the circumstances or be legally regulated.

This privacy policy complies with the requirements of Swiss data protection law and, where applicable, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union.

Are you affected by this notice?

This privacy policy applies to you if you:

are one of our customers or in a contractual relationship with us;
are a co-traveler of one of our customers;
are interested in our products or services and, therefore, provide us with your personal data (e.g., in an agency, on our websites and apps, or at events) so that we can contact you.

If you provide us with personal data of other individuals, please ensure that you inform them about the disclosure of their personal data and encourage them to read this privacy policy. We will make sure to do the same whenever possible (e.g., if we have the contact details of the respective individual).

How can you control our processing of your personal data?

You have rights that allow you to effectively control your personal data and the way we process it. Below, we explain your rights in connection with your personal data.

If you wish to exercise the rights listed below, please submit a request by email to info@walkingtours.com or by mail to the following address:

European Walking Tours LLC
Ziggentorstrasse 1
CH-6006 Lucerne

If you have questions regarding the use of your personal data within the scope of this privacy policy, please address them to: info@walkingtours.com.

You can request information about your personal data:

If you want information about your personal data, we will provide you with a copy of the personal data you requested, along with information about its processing.

Your right to information may be restricted in cases provided by law.

You can request the correction of your personal data:

If you believe that your personal data is inaccurate or incomplete, you can request that this personal data be corrected or completed accordingly. In some cases, providing evidence may be necessary.

You can request the deletion of your personal data:

If you wish, you can request the deletion of your personal data, to the extent permitted by law.

You can object to the processing of your personal data based on legitimate interests:

If you disagree with processing based on legitimate interests, you can object for reasons arising from your individual situation. Provide us with detailed information about the specific processing and the reasons for your objection. We will cease processing your personal data unless there are compelling legitimate grounds or the processing serves the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims.

You can object to the processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes:

You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes at any time. This also applies to profiling related to such direct marketing.

You can request the restriction of the processing of your personal data:

If you dispute the accuracy of the personal data we use or object to the processing of your personal data, we will review or reconsider your request. You can request that we restrict the processing of your personal data while we review your request.

You have rights against an automated individual decision:

You generally have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, that produces legal effects or significantly affects you in a similar way. However, we may automate such a decision if it is necessary for the conclusion or performance of a contract with us, is permitted by legal regulations, or if you have given your consent.

In any case, you have the right to contest the decision, present your point of view, and request the intervention of a competent person to review the decision.

You can revoke your consent:

In cases where processing is based on your declared consent, you can revoke this consent at any time.

You can request the portability of some of your personal data:

You can request a copy of the personal data you have provided in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format. If technically feasible, you can request that we transmit this copy to a third party.

Complaint to the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner:

In addition to the rights mentioned above, you can file a complaint with the relevant supervisory authority. In Switzerland, this is the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC), Feldeggweg 1, 3003 Bern.

For what purpose and on what legal basis do we use your personal data?

Contractual Performance and Legitimate Interest

In this section, we explain the purpose for which we process your personal data and the legal basis for doing so. Primarily, we use your personal data to fulfill a contract of which you are a party or to carry out pre-contractual measures at your request. However, we may also process your personal data to fulfill our legitimate interest or that of third parties.

Your personal data is processed, in particular, when necessary for the conclusion or performance of a contract:

to conclude a (travel) contract with you. We may process personal data to register you as a new customer, conclude a contract, and fulfill it with you;
to provide you with products and services that you have acquired under the respective contract;
to conduct billing, invoicing, and collection;
to provide services related to the preparation and execution of a journey;
for insurance purposes;
to offer consulting services;
if necessary, to assist in difficulties during the journey;
to provide you access to our digital platforms. We may process personal data when you use our digital platforms for various purposes (e.g., managing your personal information or accessing travel information);
to grant you access to our premises and facilities. We may process personal data when you visit our premises to conduct appropriate access and security controls;
to communicate with you. We may process personal data when you wish to contact us, request information about our company or services, or when the contract needs to be updated;
to respond to your inquiries and assist you;
to manage the termination of the contract.

When we base a processing activity on a legitimate interest, we weigh this interest against your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms to ensure they are in a fair balance. In the course of our business as an Incoming Agency, we also use your personal data to:

develop our products and services further;
improve cybersecurity, manage our platforms and websites, and ensure business continuity;
implement IT solutions;
perform maintenance on IT systems during ongoing operations;
enhance the automation and efficiency of our operational processes and customer services (e.g., automatically filling out complaints, tracking your inquiries, and improving your satisfaction based on personal data collected during our interactions with you, such as phone recordings, emails, or chats);
enable the assertion of legal claims and defense in connection with legal disputes and regulatory proceedings;
organize contests, promotions, and conduct customer satisfaction surveys and polls.

Advertising and Marketing

If you are a customer and unless you object, we may send you offers for our products and services. We ensure that these commercial offers relate to products or services that are relevant to your needs and complement the offers you have already used. You can object to this at any time.

Consent

For certain processing of personal data, we will inform you specifically and request your consent. Of course, you can revoke your consent at any time.

In particular, we ask for your consent for:

the transmission of particularly sensitive personal data to third parties;
a tailored adaptation of our offers and products or services based on a complex profile to predict your needs and behavior;
all electronic offers for products and services that do not resemble those you have acquired, or for products and services from our trusted partners.

If necessary, we may ask for further consent for the processing of your personal data, which will not affect previously processed data.

What types of personal data do we collect?

We collect and use your personal data, i.e., all information that identifies you or allows you to be identified. Depending on the type of product or service we offer you and the interactions we have with you, we collect various types of personal data about you:

Contact information, (private or professional) postal address, email address, phone number;
Personal details, e.g., gender, birthday and age, marital status, nationality, passport details, etc.
Lifestyle, such as hobbies and interests, travel;
Travel information, such as travel dates, travel route/destination, airline, hotel, price, customer preferences, information about your fellow travelers, frequent flyer programs, etc.;
Health data, e.g., information about health-related special needs or illnesses and accidents during a journey;
Financial information, e.g., payment information, credit card number, account details;
Data about your habits and preferences regarding the use of our products and services (e.g., dietary preferences);
Data from our interactions with you, such as your comments, suggestions, needs gathered during our in-person interactions at our locations, and during telephone communication (call notes or call recordings), communication via email, chat, chatbot, exchange on our social media, and any complaints you may have raised. Your connection and tracking data (e.g., collected through cookies for non-advertising or analytical purposes on our websites), online services, other applications;
Data about your devices (mobile phone, computer, tablet, etc.), such as IP address, technical data, and unique identification data;
Personalized login data or security features used to connect you to our website and apps.

To whom do we disclose your personal data and why?

To fulfill some of the purposes described in this privacy policy, especially the execution of a journey, we may disclose your personal data to others when necessary. These may include the following:

Our service providers in the destination country (e.g., agencies, tour guides, hotel reservations, transfer and excursion services), transport service providers (e.g., airlines, trains, car rental), and accommodation providers (e.g., hotels, hostels);
Data processors who provide services on our behalf (e.g., IT services, logistics, printing services, telecommunications, debt collection, consulting and sales, as well as marketing);
Certain regulated professional groups such as lawyers, notaries, or auditors, if necessary under certain circumstances (legal disputes, auditing, etc.), as well as our insurers;
Partners for conducting advertising, market and opinion research;
Partners to assist in the investigation of crimes (e.g., fraud), the assertion, exercise, or defense of legal claims;
Authorities and official bodies (e.g., tax authorities, embassies of the destination country) in the presence of a legal or regulatory obligation (e.g., retention obligations, obtaining visas, obtaining entry requirements).

International transfer of personal data

When there are international transfers from Switzerland and the European Economic Area (EEA) to a non-EEA country (third country), it may involve the cross-border transmission of your personal data. You should be aware that your data may be transferred to your travel destinations, especially in countries in Europe, the USA, and worldwide, where our service providers and partners are located. If the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) or the European Commission has recognized that a third country provides an adequate level of data protection, your personal data may be transferred on this basis.

For transfers to a third country whose level of protection has not been recognized as adequate by the FDPIC and the European Commission, we rely either on an applicable derogation for the specific situation (e.g., when the transfer is necessary to fulfill our contract with you) or apply one of the following appropriate safeguards to ensure the protection of your personal data:

Standard contractual clauses approved by the FDPIC and the European Commission;
Binding corporate rules.

To obtain a copy of these safeguards or information on where to obtain them, you can submit a written request in accordance with paragraph 2.

How long do we retain your personal data?

We will retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfill our contractual obligations, comply with applicable laws and regulations, or for another period in consideration of our legitimate business interests, such as proper accounting and responding to legal claims or regulatory inquiries.

Data Security

We employ appropriate technical and organizational security measures to protect the personal data stored with us against manipulation, partial or complete loss, and unauthorized access by third parties (e.g., encryption of data transmission, access controls, etc.). Our security measures are continuously improved in line with technological advancements.

We take reasonable precautions to protect your data. The transmission of information over the Internet and other electronic means always involves certain security risks, and we cannot guarantee the security of information transmitted in this way.

Usage of Facebook Plugins (Like-Button):

On our pages, plugins from the social network Facebook (Facebook Inc., 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, California, 94025, USA) are integrated. You can recognize the Facebook plugins by the Facebook logo or the “Like-Button” (“Gefällt mir”) on our page. An overview of Facebook plugins can be found here: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/.

When you visit our pages, a direct connection is established between your browser and the Facebook server via the plugin. Facebook thereby receives the information that you have visited our site with your IP address. If you click the Facebook “Like-Button” while logged into your Facebook account, you can link the content of our pages to your Facebook profile. This allows Facebook to associate the visit to our pages with your user account. We point out that we, as the provider of the pages, have no knowledge of the content of the transmitted data or its use by Facebook. For more information, please refer to Facebook’s privacy policy at https://de-de.facebook.com/policy.php.

If you do not want Facebook to associate your visit to our pages with your Facebook user account, please log out of your Facebook user account.

Usage of Google Adsense:

This website uses Google AdSense, a service for integrating advertisements from Google Inc. (“Google”). Google AdSense uses so-called “cookies,” which are text files stored on your computer that enable an analysis of the use of the website. Google AdSense also uses so-called web beacons (invisible graphics). Through these web beacons, information such as visitor traffic on these pages can be evaluated.

The information generated by cookies and web beacons about the use of this website (including your IP address) and the delivery of advertising formats is transmitted to a Google server in the USA and stored there. This information may be passed on by Google to contractual partners of Google. However, Google will not merge your IP address with other data stored by you.

You can prevent the installation of cookies by adjusting your browser software accordingly; however, we would like to point out that in this case, you may not be able to use all functions of this website to their full extent. By using this website, you agree to the processing of the data collected about you by Google in the manner and for the purpose described above.

Usage of Google Analytics:

This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses so-called “cookies,” text files that are stored on your computer and that enable an analysis of your use of the website. The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website is usually transmitted to a Google server in the USA and stored there. However, if IP anonymization is activated on this website, your IP address will be shortened by Google within member states of the European Union or in other contracting states of the Agreement on the European Economic Area before transmission.

Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be sent to a Google server in the USA and shortened there. On behalf of the operator of this website, Google will use this information to evaluate your use of the website, to compile reports on website activity, and to provide the website operator with other services related to website activity and internet usage. The IP address transmitted by your browser as part of Google Analytics will not be merged with other data from Google.

You can prevent the storage of cookies by setting your browser software accordingly; however, we would like to point out that in this case, you may not be able to use all functions of this website to their full extent. You can also prevent Google from collecting the data generated by the cookie and related to your use of the website (including your IP address) and from processing this data by Google by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available under the following link: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en.

You can prevent the collection of data by Google Analytics by clicking on the following link. An opt-out cookie is set that prevents the future collection of your data when you visit this website: Google Analytics Deactivation.

For more information on terms of use and data protection, please visit https://www.google.com/analytics/terms/en.html or https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/. We would like to point out that Google Analytics has been extended on this website with the code “anonymizeIp” to ensure anonymous collection of IP addresses (so-called IP masking).

We also use Google Analytics to evaluate data from AdWords and the Double-Click cookie for statistical purposes. If you do not want this, you can deactivate it via the Ad Preferences Manager (https://www.google.com/settings/ads/onweb/?hl=en).

Usage of fusedeck (Tracking):

This website integrates the tracking solution fusedeck from Capture Media AG (hereinafter “Capture Media”). Capture Media is a Swiss company based in Zurich, which measures the use of this website on behalf of engagements and events. Tracking is done anonymously so that no reference can be made to specific or identifiable individuals.

Further information on data protection and the rights of data subjects in connection with fusedeck, including the possibility of “opt-out” (objection), can be found in the privacy policy and objection instructions.

How to track the development of this privacy policy.

In a world where technologies are constantly evolving, we regularly review and update this privacy policy as needed.

The current version published on our website is applicable. We recommend checking the latest version of this document online. We will inform you of any changes through our website or our usual communication channels.