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Privacy Policy

Our promise to our readers: I will always disclosure any financial stake in a post. Similarly, I will always tell you if something was gotten for free OR paid for by a sponsor. We want you to feel that this blog is trustworthy, authentic, and useful.

Per FTC guidelines, this website may be compensated by companies mentioned through advertising, affiliate programs, or otherwise. Any references to third party products, rates, or websites are subject to change without notice. Please do the appropriate research before participating in any third party offers.

Affiliate links:

Note that Travel Made Simple has financial relationships with some of the merchants mentioned on this site. Travel Made Simple may be compensated if consumers choose to utilize the links located throughout the content on this site and generate sales for the said merchant. You are not obligated to click on any link or buy any products that are advertised.

Travel Made Simple is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. You may find Amazon Publisher Services’ privacy policy through this link.

Travel Made Simple is also a participant with many other affiliate programs through CJ.com, Shareasale.com, Avantlink.com, Tapfiliate.com, GetYourGuide.com, Viator.com, PerformanceHorizon.com, and others. 

How do we travel?

 
Unless otherwise noted, we pay for our own trips and expenses. Rarely we receive a tour or an item in exchange for an honest review. This will always be disclosed.

GDPR compliance

* We promise that we take data safety seriously and we use your private data only to offer a personalized experience.  We use cookies to track analytics as well to personalize ads. Cookie data is shared with our advertising company, Mediavine.
* We use Flodesk for our newsletter, which you can opt out of, and Google Analytics and JetPack for analyzing website data.
* If you subscribed to our newsletter, you will receive our newsletters. You can always unsubscribe by following the link in email or by emailing us.
* If you gave us your name, it will only be used to personalize the newsletters
* We have never sold, we are not selling, and we will not sell any of your personal data provided to us
* All of our affiliates are GDPR compliant
* You have the right to:
– be informed regarding how the data is collected and used
– have access to the data about you
– ask us to change the data about you
– ask us to delete the data about you
– ask us to stop sending your newsletters

Travel Made Simple abides by GDPR regulations, so if you wish to have your information (e.g. comments removed) and you’re an EU resident, please get in touch with us. We are happy to amend/remove your information/comments/email from the mailing list if you contact us. We do not retain secondary copies of commenters/reader contact information without permission. Similarly, we do not resell or share your contact information with third parties. Similarly, once you opt out of the mailing list, you are permanently removed.

Privacy Policy (travel-made-simple.com)

Travel Made Simple, found at https://travel-made-simple.com (“Website”) is governed by the following privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”). We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting it. The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to inform you what personally identifiable information we may collect and how it may be used. This statement only applies to this Website.

What information we collect

Information You Voluntarily Submit to the Website: We may collect personal information from you such as your name or email address. For example, you may voluntarily submit information to the Website by leaving a comment, subscribing to a newsletter, or submitting a contact form.

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

Automatically-Collected Information: We automatically collect certain information about you and the device with which you access the Website. For example, when you use the Website, we will log your IP address, operating system type, browser type, referring website, pages you viewed, and the dates/times when you accessed the Website. We may also collect information about actions you take when using the Website, such as links clicked. Your information has been anonymized and only is viewed aggregately.

Cookies: We may log information using cookies, which are small data files stored on your browser by the Website. We may use both session cookies, which expire when you close your browser, and persistent cookies, which stay on your browser until deleted, to provide you with a more personalized experience on the Website.

HOW YOUR INFORMATION MAY BE USED

  • To operate and maintain the Website;
  • To send you newsletters. Each email promotion will provide an easy opt-out button;
  • To respond to your comments or inquiries;
  • To track and measure statistics/advertising on the Website;
  • To protect, investigate, and deter against unauthorized or illegal activity.

THIRD-PARTY USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We may share your information with third parties when you explicitly authorize us to share your information. Additionally, the Website may use third-party service providers to service various aspects of the Website. Each third-party service provider’s use of your personal information is dictated by their respective privacy policies.

This Website currently uses the following third-party service providers:

Google Analytics – this service tracks Website usage and provides information such as referring websites and user actions on the Website. Google Analytics may capture your IP address, but no other personal information is captured by Google Analytics. We have anonymized our Google Analytics data and never look at non-aggregated data.

JetPack – this service tracks Website usage and provides information such as how many times a particular post was viewed that day. This is similar to Google Analytics, but much less information, and does not provide any personal information about you.

Flodesk – this service is used for delivery of email updates and newsletters. We store your name and email address for purposes of delivering such communications. Please refer to Flodesk’s privacy policy for further information.

Genius Links – this service is used for Amazon affiliate links so that when you click on one of those links, you get redirected to the appropriate store based on the country you’re located in.

COOKIES

We may log information using cookies, which are small data files stored on your browser by the Website. We may use both session cookies, which expire when you close your browser, and persistent cookies, which stay on your browser until deleted, to provide you with a more personalized experience on the Website.

The Website uses cookies to store visitors’ preferences, record user-specific information on what pages users access or visit, ensure that visitors are not repeatedly sent the same banner ads, customize Website content based on visitors’ browser type or other information that the visitor sends. Cookies may also be used by third-party services, such as Google Analytics, as described herein.

Users may, at any time, prevent the setting of cookies, by the Website, by using a corresponding setting of your internet browser and may thus permanently deny the setting of cookies. Furthermore, already set cookies may be deleted at any time via an Internet browser or other software programs. This is possible in all popular Internet browsers. However, if users deactivate the setting of cookies in your Internet browser, not all functions of our Website may be entirely usable.

ADVERTISING

We are a member of the Mediavine Advertising Network, which serves content and advertisements while you visit the Website, which may use cookies, as noted above.

Mediavine Programmatic Advertising (Ver 1.1)

The Website works with Mediavine to manage third-party interest-based advertising appearing on the Website. Mediavine serves content and advertisements when you visit the Website, which may use first and third-party cookies. A cookie is a small text file which is sent to your computer or mobile device (referred to in this policy as a “device”) by the web server so that a website can remember some information about your browsing activity on the Website.

First party cookies are created by the website that you are visiting. A third-party cookie is frequently used in behavioral advertising and analytics and is created by a domain other than the website you are visiting. Third-party cookies, tags, pixels, beacons and other similar technologies (collectively, “Tags”) may be placed on the Website to monitor interaction with advertising content and to target and optimize advertising. Each internet browser has functionality so that you can block both first and third-party cookies and clear your browser’s cache. The “help” feature of the menu bar on most browsers will tell you how to stop accepting new cookies, how to receive notification of new cookies, how to disable existing cookies and how to clear your browser’s cache. For more information about cookies and how to disable them, you can consult the information at All About Cookies.

Without cookies you may not be able to take full advantage of the Website content and features. Please note that rejecting cookies does not mean that you will no longer see ads when you visit our Site. In the event you opt-out, you will still see non-personalized advertisements on the Website.

The Website collects the following data using a cookie when serving personalized ads:

  • IP Address
  • Operating System type
  • Operating System version
  • Device Type
  • Language of the website
  • Web browser type
  • Email (in hashed form)

Mediavine Partners (companies listed below with whom Mediavine shares data) may also use this data to link to other end user information the partner has independently collected to deliver targeted advertisements. Mediavine Partners may also separately collect data about end users from other sources, such as advertising IDs or pixels, and link that data to data collected from Mediavine publishers in order to provide interest-based advertising across your online experience, including devices, browsers and apps. This data includes usage data, cookie information, device information, information about interactions between users and advertisements and websites, geolocation data, traffic data, and information about a visitor’s referral source to a particular website. Mediavine Partners may also create unique IDs to create audience segments, which are used to provide targeted advertising.

If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices to opt-in or opt-out of this data collection, please visit National Advertising Initiative opt out page. You may also visit Digital Advertising Alliance website and Network Advertising Initiative website to learn more information about interest-based advertising. You may download the AppChoices app at Digital Advertising Alliance’s AppChoices app to opt out in connection with mobile apps, or use the platform controls on your mobile device to opt out.

For specific information about Mediavine Partners, the data each collects and their data collection and privacy policies, please visit Mediavine Partners.

SENSITIVE PERSONAL INFORMATION

If you leave a comment, certain information (your name as you provide it) may be publicly visible, however your email address will not be. We will not contact you using your email as this goes against GDPR regulations, so if you wish to be contacted by Travel Made Simple, please contact us directlyPlease do not request that we contact you in the comments.

At no time should you submit sensitive personal information to the Website. This includes your social security number, information regarding race or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, health information, criminal background, or trade union memberships. If you elect to submit such information to us, it will be subject to this Privacy Policy.

CHILDREN’S INFORMATION

The Website does not knowingly collect any personally identifiable information from children under the age of 16. If a parent or guardian believes that the Website has personally identifiable information of a child under the age of 16 in its database, please contact us immediately.  We will use our best efforts to promptly remove such information from our records.

CONTACT INFORMATION

If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy, please get in touch.

Privacy Policy last updated May 17th, 2022.