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Tourism Ireland – Privacy Policy
 
(last revised on 24th November 2020)

1. Who we are
We are Tourism Ireland Limited ("we", “our”, “Tourism Ireland”) whose principal place of business is at 5th Floor Bishop's Square, Redmond's Hill, Dublin, D02 TD99, Ireland and which terms shall also include our Affiliates. “Affiliates” means any entity that directly or indirectly controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with us. “Control” for purposes of this definition, means direct or indirect ownership or control of more than 50% of the voting interests of the subject entity). This privacy and cookies policy (the "Policy") refers to the websites; www.tourismireland.com  , www.tourismirelandindustryopportunities.comwww.trade.ireland.com,       www.media.ireland.com  (the "Website").
 
Your privacy is of paramount importance to us. This Policy applies to the Website, applications and services related thereto (the “Service”). This Policy is designed to protect you, our users, by informing you what personal data is collected, how we will use the information about you, with whom we share it, how long we keep it and how to contact us if you have any queries or concerns about our use of your personal information. Your use of the Website and any micro-sites is subject to your agreement with this Policy
 
In this Policy, the term “Personal Data” means data relating to a living individual who is or can be identified either from the data or from the data in conjunction with other information that is in, or is likely to come into, our possession, and includes personal data as described in Data Protection Legislation (as defined below).
 
Please read the following carefully. Entering into this Website and providing your consent to our use of your personal data in accordance with the terms of this Policy indicates that the user has reviewed this Policy and has agreed to be bound by it. If you do not agree to these terms you must leave the Website immediately. We will keep a record of your consent in this regard. If you no longer consent to our processing of your personal data, you may request that we cease such processing by contacting us via the ‘How to contact us’ facility referred to below.
 
We will handle your Personal Data in accordance with Data Protection Legislation. “Data Protection Legislation” means the Data Protection Acts 1988 to 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (“GDPR”), and any other applicable law or regulation relating to the processing of Personal Data and to privacy, including the E-Privacy Directive 2002/58/EC and the European Communities (Electronic Communications Networks and Services) (Privacy and Electronic Communications) Regulations 2011 (“E-Privacy Regulations”), as such legislation shall be supplemented, amended, revised or replaced from time to time.
 
We are a controller (as defined in Data Protection Legislation) in relation to any Personal Data which we collect from you through your or any other user’s use of the Service and the set-up of Your Account. This Policy sets out the basis on which any such Personal Data will be processed by us.
You may be a data subject (as defined in Data Protection Legislation) or you may be a controller. When you are a controller in respect of the Personal Data of other data subjects, then you must comply with all of your controller obligations under Data Protection Legislation. When you are a controller, we and you act as independent controllers, unless agreed otherwise.

2. Information we gather from you
We fully respect your right to privacy in relation to your interactions with the Service and endeavour to be transparent in our dealings with you as to what information we will collect and how we will use your information. Also, we only collect and use individual’s information where we are legally entitled to do so. Information in relation to Personal Data collected by Irish entities is available on www.dataprotection.ie, the website of the Irish Data Protection Commission (“DPC”).
 
Simply put, our function is to market the island of Ireland overseas as a tourist destination.  A core part of our business is to facilitate efforts to promote, publicise and sell tourism products and services in Ireland and Northern Ireland.  As a visitor to our Website, we invite you to opt-in to receive further information from us. The provision of your personal information is entirely at your discretion. If you do decide to opt-in, we will require certain limited personal data from you. This will include your name, and email address. We may also ask for your postal address to determine the location of your business - this assists us in deciding where best to locate networking and promotional events and also for reporting purposes.  In all cases, you can be assured that we seek only the most basic details.  
 
Website usage information is collected using cookies.  We collect and collate generic information on all our Website traffic that is only ever represented in aggregate format.  For more information please see our Cookie Policy
 
From time to time, Tourism Ireland may ask users for feedback (free text entry, quality ratings or similar) to help analyse the quality and performance of the Website. Information collected for this purpose is done so anonymously and is used to aid our understanding of customer needs and opinions only. On occasion specific quotes may be highlighted from individuals, however this is done so without personally identifying the users.
 
You may appear in images taken by Tourism Ireland or taken by a photographer on behalf of Tourism Ireland if you are attending an event, workshop, fair, familiarisation visit to the island of Ireland etc. 
Such images may be used by Tourism Ireland to publicise the various activities through all Tourism Ireland’s media channels. In such instances, attendees are photographed under the lawful basis of legitimate interests. Tourism Ireland will, where possible, minimise any potential risk by making clear that photography will be taking place, either verbally of visually, thereby allowing attendees the opportunity of making it known that they do not wish to be photographed. 
 
Any Personal Data that we collect from you for the purposes described in this Policy is hereinafter referred to together as “Your Data”.
 
We endeavour to keep Your Data accurate and up-to-date. As such, you must tell us about any changes to such information that you are aware of as soon as possible. You can change your stated interests in respect of whether or not you wish to receive direct marketing from us by clicking ‘unsubscribe’ on any direct marketing electronic communication which you receive from us.
 
Applications developed in connection with the Website for mobile devices will operate and capture information as set out above and are also subject to this Policy. Applications developed by us but deployed on other platforms such as social media channels may provide feedback to us on activity and usage specific to a user.

If you are aged under 18, please get your parent/guardian’s permission before you provide Your Data to us/use the Service.

3. Why we collect/have access to your information
We may collect information from you as necessary in the course of providing our Service. We may collect your personal information while monitoring our technology tools and services, including our website and email communications sent to and from us. We gather information about you when you provide it to us or interact with us directly.
 
We collect information about you to help us to manage your Website account and to email you with updates on tourism products and services in Ireland and Northern Ireland or email you with promotional opportunities we feel will be of interest to you. We may use the information collected from the Website to personalise your repeat visits to our Website.

We will also hold your details on file and may contact you directly about specific promotions or opportunities, with invitations to networking events, workshops or webinars or to participate in familiarisation visits to the island of Ireland or for other reasons that we feel may be of mutual business interest.  
 
We would like to send you information about products and services of ours and other island of Ireland tourism industry members which may be of interest to you. When you enter your contact details on one of our Website forms and submit you are opting-in to receive promotional information from us. If you have consented to receive communications from us, you may opt out at any time. You have a right at any time to stop us from contacting you for direct marketing purposes.  Please see ‘Right to ask us to stop contacting you with direct marketing.’
 
From time to time, we conduct joint promotional email campaigns with third parties. As part of such campaigns, if you have ‘opted in’ to receive them, we may forward promotional emails to your email address containing information on products and services that we feel may be of interest to you. Such emails may include links to the websites of third parties, and in this regard we would refer you to the section headed 'How do we protect your personal information' below. 
 
We collect IP addresses from visitors to our Website (an IP address is a number that can uniquely identify a specific computer or other network device on the internet). This allows us to identify the location of users, to block disruptive use and to establish the number of visits from different countries. We analyse this data for trend and statistics reasons, such as which parts of our Website users are visiting and how long they spend there. We do not link your IP addresses to anything personally identifiable to you.
 
We may use your Personal Data on any one or more of the following legal bases: (i) to perform a contract with you; (ii) for our legitimate business purposes in providing the Service to you (in which case, our legitimate interests will not override your fundamental privacy rights); and/or (iii) in limited circumstances, where you have given us your express consent.
 
We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are, where appropriate.
 
Note that we may process your Personal Data for more than one legal basis depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal basis we are relying on to process your Personal Data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below.
 

Purpose

Categories of data

Legal basis for processing and, where necessary, the basis of legitimate interest

To respond to an enquiry from you.

basic information, and
contact information.

Necessary to respond to a query from you to provide you with information to fulfil mutual legitimate interests. 

To register you as a customer of our website.

basic information,
contact information,
profile information

To provide you with a service where you can register your interests in our products/services and be notified of upcoming events and products that may be of interest to you. 

To register you to receive our regular ezines

Basic Information,
Contact information,
Profile information

To send you our regular ezines on products and services we have to offer, if you consent. 

To make suggestions and recommendations to you about services that may be of interest to you.

basic information,
contact information,
profile information, and
newsletter information.

Necessary for our legitimate interests (to develop our products/services and grow our business)

To administer and protect our business and this website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data).

basic information,
contact information, 
profile information,
newsletter information, and
technical information

Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business, provision of administration and IT services, network security, to prevent fraud and in the context of a business reorganisation or group restructuring exercise)

To provide and improve our Website, including auditing and monitoring its use, providing and improving our Service to you and managing and administering our relationship with you.

basic information,
contact information, 
marketing information,
technical information, and
location data.

Necessary for our legitimate interests to provide and improve our website, including auditing and monitoring its use; providing and improving our Service to you; or managing and administering our relationship with you;
Necessary to fulfil our legal, regulatory and risk management obligations.

 
Where we wish to use Your Data in any other way, we will ensure that we notify you and get your consent first. You will be given the opportunity to withhold or withdraw your consent for the use of Your Data for purposes other than those listed in this Policy.

4User uploaded data
our Data is separate from and should be distinguished from User Uploaded Data. “User Uploaded Data” is data uploaded by you or others through your Account/your use of the Service when you use e.g. the comment function, contact us function or ‘Have you a Story to Tell’ function on our ‘Website’. We strongly recommend that you avoid uploading any Personal Data in any User Uploaded Data. We reserve the sole right to review, edit or delete User Uploaded Data. We also moderate all User Uploaded Data in order to ensure that it does not contain Personal Data. Notwithstanding this, we are a Processor and you are the Controller in respect of User Uploaded Data (to the extent that it includes Personal Data).
If you are a Controller in respect of any Personal Data of other data subjects contained in User Uploaded Data, then you must comply with all of your Controller obligations under Data Protection Legislation in that regard.

5. Are there cases where we may use your information to contact you

We may contact you:

  • for administration reasons related to the Service (e.g. to provide you with password reminders or to notify you that a particular service, activity or online content has been suspended for maintenance, or in response to a question that you ask us;

  • to provide you with information about our Service, activities or online content, including sending e-newsletters or similar correspondence and updates or responding to any contact you have made with us, e.g. on our website, by email or via the ‘How To Contact Us’ facility referred to below;

  • to invite you to participate in surveys about our services (participation is always voluntary).

  • for direct marketing purposes.

6. What rights do you have
As a data subject, you have the following rights under Data Protection Legislation and we, as controller in respect of Your Data, will comply with such rights in respect of Your Data:

  • the right of access to Personal Data relating to you;

  • the right to correct any mistakes in your Personal Data;

  • the right to ask us to stop contacting you with direct marketing;

  • the right to restrict or prevent your Personal Data being processed;

  • the right to have your Personal Data ported to another data controller;

  • the right to erasure; and

  • the right to complain to the DPC if you believe we have not handled your Personal Data in accordance with Data Protection Legislation.

 
These rights are explained in more detail below, but if you have any comments, concerns or complaints about our use of your Personal Data, please contact us (see ‘How To Contact Us’ below). We will respond to any rights that you exercise within a month of receiving your request, unless the request is particularly complex or cumbersome, in which case we will respond within three months (we will inform you within the first month if it will take longer than one month for us to respond). Where a response is required from us within a particular time period pursuant to Data Protection Legislation, we will respond within that time period.

6.1 Right of access to Personal Data relating to you
You may ask to see what Personal Data we hold about you and be provided with:

  • a summary of such Personal Data and the categories of Personal Data held (see Sections 2 and 3 above);

  • details of the purpose for which it is being or is to be processed (see Section 3 above);

  • details of the recipients or classes of recipients to whom it is or may be disclosed, including if they are overseas and what protections are used for those oversea transfers (see Section 9 below);

  • details of the period for which it is held or the criteria we use to determine how long it is held (see Section 14 below);

  • details of your rights, including the rights to rectification, erasure, restriction or objection to the processing (set out in this Section 6);

  • any information available about the source of that data (see Section 2 above);

  • where your Personal Data are transferred out of the EEA, what safeguards are in place (see Section 9 below).

 
Details in respect of the above points are all set out in this Policy; however, if you need further clarification, please contact us (see ‘How to Contact Us’ below).
 
Requests for your Personal Data must be made to us (see ‘How To Contact Us’ below) specifying what Personal Data you need access to, and a copy of such request may be kept by us for our legitimate purposes in managing the Service. To help us find the information easily, please give us as much information as possible about the type of information you would like to see. If, to comply with your request, we would have to disclose information relating to or identifying another person, we may need to obtain the consent of that person, if possible. If we cannot obtain consent, we may need to withhold that information or edit the data to remove the identity of that person, if possible.
 
There are certain types of data which we are not obliged to disclose to you, which include Personal Data which records our intentions in relation to any negotiations with you where disclosure would be likely to prejudice those negotiations. We are also entitled to refuse a data access request from you where (i) such request is manifestly unfounded or excessive, in particular because of its repetitive character (in this case, if we decide to provide you with the Personal Data requested, we may charge you a reasonable fee to account for administrative costs of doing so), or (ii) we are entitled to do so pursuant to Data Protection Legislation.

6.2 Right to update your Personal Data or correct any mistakes in your Personal Data
You can require us to correct any mistakes in your Personal Data which we hold free of charge. If you would like to do this, please:

  • email or write to us (see ‘How can you contact us’ at Section 17 below);

  • let us have enough information to identify you (e.g. name, registration details); and

  • let us know the information that is incorrect and what it should be replaced with.

 
If we are required to update your Personal Data, we will inform recipients to whom that Personal Data have been disclosed (if any), unless this proves impossible or has a disproportionate effort.
 
It is your responsibility that all of the Personal Data provided to us is accurate and complete. If any information you have given us changes, please let us know as soon as possible (see ‘How to Contact Us’ at Section 17 below).

6.3 Right to ask us to stop contacting you with direct marketing
You can ask us to stop contacting you for direct marketing purposes. If you would like to do this, please:

  • Click on ‘unsubscribe’ on an email (this will be instantaneous);

 

  • Send an email via ‘How To Contact Us’ below (this can take up to 5 working days).

 
We will provide you with information on action taken on a request to stop direct marketing - this may be in the form of a response email confirming that you have ‘unsubscribed’. Unsubscribing from direct marketing does not unsubscribe you from essential electronic communications in respect of the administration of Your Account or business communications in respect of mutual legitimate business interests. 

6.4 Right to restrict or prevent processing of Personal Data  
In accordance with Data Processing Legislation, you may request that we stop processing your Personal Data temporarily if:

  • you do not think that your Personal Data is accurate (but we may start processing again once we have checked and confirmed that it is accurate);

  • the processing is unlawful but you do not want us to erase your Personal Data;

  • we no longer need the Personal Data for our processing; or

  • you have objected to processing because you believe that your interests should override the basis upon which we process your Personal Data.

 
If you exercise your right to restrict us from processing your Personal Data, we will continue to process the Personal Data if:

  • you consent to such processing;

  • the processing is necessary for the exercise or defence of legal claims;

  • the processing is necessary for the protection of the rights of other individuals or legal persons; or

  • the processing is necessary for public interest reasons.

 
6.5 Right to data portability
               
In accordance with Data Protection Legislation, you may ask for an electronic copy of your Personal Data that you have provided to us and which we hold electronically, or for us to provide this directly to another party. This right only applies to Personal Data that you have provided to us – it does not extend to data generated by us. In addition, the right to data portability also only applies where:

  • the processing is based on your consent or for the performance of a contract; and

  • the processing is carried out by automated means.


6.6 Right to erasure  
In accordance with Data Protection Legislation, you can ask us (please see ‘How To Contact Us’ below) to erase your Personal Data where:

  • you do not believe that we need your Personal Data in order to process it for the purposes set out in this Policy;

  • if you had given us consent to process your Personal Data, you withdraw that consent and we cannot otherwise legally process your Personal Data;

  • you object to our processing and we do not have any legal basis for continuing to process your Personal Data;

  • your Personal Data has been processed unlawfully or have not been erased when it should have been; or

  • the Personal Data have to be erased to comply with law.

 
We may continue to process your Personal Data in certain circumstances in accordance with Data Protection Legislation (i.e. where we have a legal justification to continue to hold such Personal Data, such as it being within our legitimate business interest to do so (e.g. retaining evidence of billing information etc.). Where you have requested the erasure of your Personal Data, we will inform recipients to whom that Personal Data have been disclosed, unless this proves impossible or involves disproportionate effort. We will also inform you about those recipients if you request it.

7. Right to complain to the DPC
If you do not think that we have processed your Personal Data in accordance with Privacy Policy, please contact us in the first instance. If you are not satisfied, you can complain to the DPC or exercise any of your other rights pursuant to Data Protection Legislation. Information about how to do this is available on the DPC website at https://www.dataprotection.ie

8. Withdrawal of Consent
If you no longer consent to our processing of Your Data (in respect of any matter referred to in this Policy as requiring your consent), you may request that we cease such processing by contacting us via the ‘How To Contact Us’ facility referred to below. Please note that if you withdraw your consent to such processing, it may not be possible for us to provide all/part of the Service to you.

9. Who we share your information with
We may share Your Data with various third parties (subject to having appropriate contracts in place)
In order to arrange events, workshops, familiarisation trips, webinars etc, we will also share your information with our tourism partners, Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Northern Ireland, and with tourism product and service providers e.g. accommodation providers, airlines, event organisers.  We will share only minimal information to facilitate these activities.
 
If we become involved in a merger, acquisition, or any form of sale of some of all of its assets, Your Data will not be transferred to any third party unless there are adequate safeguards in place with the recipient in respect of the security of Your Data.
 
We may also share Your Data with our third party suppliers who assist us in the provision of the Service.
 
Your Data may be transferred to, stored at, or accessed from a destination outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”) for the purposes of us providing the Service. It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us, another corporate entity within our group, or any of our suppliers. By submitting Your Data, you explicitly consent to this transfer, storing or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that Your Data is treated securely and in accordance with this Policy. The safeguards in place with regard to the transfer of Your Data outside of the EEA to third parties shall include (but shall not be limited to) the entry by us into appropriate contracts with all transferees of such data.
 
All information you provide to us is stored on our (or contracted third party) secure servers. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access any part of our Service, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with any person not authorised to use the Service.

10. Third Party Websites
This Policy applies to websites and services that are owned and operated by us. We do not exercise control over the sites/applications that may be linked from the Service. These other sites/applications may place their own cookies or other files on your computer, collect data or solicit personal information from you. You acknowledge that the Service that we provide may enable or assist you to access the website content of, correspond with, and purchase goods and services from, third parties via third-party websites and that you do so solely at your own risk. We make no representation or commitment and shall have no liability or obligation whatsoever in relation to the content or use of, or correspondence with, any such third-party website, or any transactions completed, and any contract entered into by you, with any such third party and the use by any such third-party of your Personal Data.  We do not endorse or approve any third-party website nor the content of any of the third-party website made available via the Service. We encourage you to carefully familiarize yourself with the terms of use and privacy policies applicable to any websites and/or services operated by third parties. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of any third parties.

11. Offensive Content
If Your Data contains any material which may reasonably be deemed to be offensive, inappropriate or objectionable or otherwise engage in any disruptive behaviour in relation to the Service, we may remove such content and/or suspend the use of Your Account. We may also remove any such material from any of our social media pages.
 
Where we reasonably believe that you are or may be in breach of any applicable laws, for example on hate speech, we may disclose your personal information to relevant third parties, including to law enforcement agencies or your internet provider. We would only do so in circumstances where such disclosure is permitted under applicable laws, including Data Protection Legislation.

12. How do we protect your personal information
We do our utmost to protect user privacy through the appropriate use of security technology. We restrict access to Your Data to employees, contractors and agents who need to know Your Data in order to operate, develop or improve the services that we provide. We ensure that we have appropriate physical and technological security measures to protect your information; and we ensure that when we outsource any processes that the service provider has appropriate security measures in place. However, our Service may contain hyperlinks to websites owned and operated by third parties. These third party websites have their own privacy policies, including cookies. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the privacy practices of such third party websites and your use of such websites is at your own risk.
 
We will implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure a level of security appropriate to the risks that are presented by the processing of Your Data. In particular, we will consider the risks presented by accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to Your Data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed.
 
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect Your Data, we cannot guarantee the security of any data transmitted to us and any such transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access. To the extent permitted by law, we are not responsible for any delays, delivery failures, or any other loss or damage resulting from (i) the transfer of data over communications networks and facilities, including the internet, or (ii) any delay or delivery failure on the part of any other service provider not contracted by us, and you acknowledge that our Service may be subject to limitations, delays and other problems inherent in the use of such communications facilities. You will appreciate that we cannot guarantee the absolute prevention of cyber-attacks such as hacking, spyware and viruses. Accordingly, you will not hold us liable for any unauthorized disclosure, loss or destruction of Your Data arising from such risks.

13. Breach Reporting
We will notify serious data breaches in respect of Your Data to the DPC without undue delay, and where feasible, not later than 72 hours after having become aware of same. If notification is not made after 72 hours, we will record a reasoned justification for the delay; however, it is not necessary to notify the DPC where the Personal Data breach is unlikely to result in a risk to the rights and freedoms of natural persons. A Personal Data breach in this context means a breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, Personal Data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed.
We will keep a record of any data breaches, including their effects and the remedial action taken, and will notify you of any data breach affecting your Personal Data (which poses a high risk to you) when we are required to do so under Data Protection Legislation. We will not be required to notify you of a data breach where:

  • we have implemented appropriate technical and organisational measures that render the Personal Data unintelligible to anyone not authorised to access it, such as encryption; or

  • we have taken subsequent measures which ensure that the high risk to data subjects is not likely to materialise; or

  • it would involve disproportionate effort, in which case we may make a public communication instead.

14. Retention of Personal Data
Your Data will be kept and stored for such period of time as we deem necessary taking into account the purpose for which it was collected in the first instance. This may include retaining Your Data as necessary to administer Your Account, comply with our legal obligations, to resolve disputes, to enforce our agreements, to support business operations, and to continue to develop and improve our Service.
 
Where we retain information for Service improvement and development, we take steps to eliminate information that directly identifies you, and we only use the information to uncover collective insights about the use of our Service, not to specifically analyse personal characteristics about you.
 

15. Amendments to Privacy Policy
We may change our Privacy Policy from time to time and at our sole discretion. The date of the most recent revisions will appear on the top of this Policy. If you do not agree to these changes, please do not continue to use the Service to submit Your Data. If material changes are made to the Privacy Policy, we will notify you by placing a prominent notice on our Service or by sending you a notification in relation to this. We will not process Your Data in a manner not contemplated by this Policy without your consent.

16. How to contact Us
If you need to contact us with regard to any of your rights as set out in this Policy, all such requests should be made in writing by email to dpo@tourismireland.com