Privacy Policy
Last Updated: 18 January 2007
Your privacy
At Lonely Planet, we understand that privacy is really important. So we have prepared this Privacy Policy to fill you in on who we are, our objectives in handling personal information that we collect, and how you can find out more about our privacy philosophy and the personal information that we collect about you.
So who are we?
Lonely Planet Images (LPI) is a division of Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd. Lonely Planet operates through different companies around the world that are all part of the Lonely Planet family. Individual Lonely Planet companies sometimes need to share personal information with other companies in the Lonely Planet family to enable us to provide a high quality and personalised service in your region. The Lonely Planet family of companies is made up of Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd in Melbourne, Lonely Planet Publications Inc in Oakland California, Lonely Planet Publications Limited in London, and Lonely Planet S.L. in Barcelona (we know what you are thinking, but world conquest is not on our agenda!).
What do we collect and why do we collect it?
LPI collects and hold personal information such as names, addresses, e-mail addresses, and phone numbers. We also collect and securely store credit card details of customers who purchase images on-line.
The types of purposes for which we collect information about individuals include the following (we'll generally explain more about why we collect information when we actually collect it - but there are some exceptions):
- sourcing and adding photographers' images to our ever expanding photo library;
- processing customers' purchase orders;
- sending newsletters to photographers and keeping in touch with them;
- obtaining and responding to feedback from customers and photographers;
- sending newsletters and updates to customers (but only if they have asked for them); and
- providing our rights protection service.
We will use your contact details, in the course of our business relationship, to let you (and your organisation know) more about us, our products, and upcoming events, and in preparing documentation in the provision of our services. If at any time you don't want to hear from us, please let us now.
If you work for us (as an employee or under contract) we keep information about you in the context of that relationship. There are some differences in how we deal with that type of personal information because of the relationship, plus some housekeeping stuff. If you are in this group and want further information on how we deal in the information about you contact your Human Resources manager or the person who manages your relationship with us.
What about "cookies"?
A "cookie" is a small message given to your web browser by our web server. The browser stores the message in a text file, and the message is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.
We make limited use of cookies on our website to allow customers and photographers to log in to the right parts of the site and keep their session open for the whole time they are logged in. Most browsers allow you to turn off cookies, and the help menu on your browser will tell you how. However switching off cookies will mean that you are unable to use the site. We do not use cookies to track an individual's movements after leaving the site.
Security
The security of your personal information is important. Lonely Planet has in place proper security measures to protect your personal information.
You tell who?
We may share personal information amongst companies in the Lonely Planet family. We may also disclose that information to our contractors who help us put together the LPI services and, where relevant, to our business partners who assist us in providing these service, or to successors in title to our business. This may involve transferring your data from one country to another. By giving us your personal information through the Lonely Planet Images website or communicating with us, you acknowledge and agree to us using your data in these ways and on a global basis, but if you have any concerns about this please let us know.
We will generally provide you with more details about who we tell and why we tell them when we ask you to give us your personal details. There are some limited exceptions to this (for instance, where under Australian or other privacy laws we are permitted to rely on exemptions relating to handling of employee information, or information sharing between related companies in the Lonely Planet family). If legal or health and safety issues arise we may also have to make disclosures to relevant organisations to deal with these matters.
Complaints, comments or corrections?
Once you register for our site, you can access and update your LPI account on-line. If you have any other questions about personal information, please contact us by e-mail privacy@lonelyplanet.com.au or by writing to us at Locked Bag 1 (or visiting us at 90 Maribyrnong Street) Footscray, Victoria 3011, Australia, or by calling the LPI Administrative Officer on +61 3 8379 8181.
A world without lawyers...
...it's a nice thought. However, for the time being the information handling activities of the Lonely Planet Group are governed by privacy and anti-spam laws throughout the world. For instance, in Australia that means being guided by the Australian National Privacy Principles and Spam Act. In Europe the regulations are based on EC Directive 95/46/EC.