TheTrainHacker.com understands that your privacy is important to you, and that you care about how your personal data is used and shared online. We respect and value the privacy of everyone who visits this website, www.thetrainhacker.com (the “Site”) and will only collect and use personal data in ways that are described here, and in a manner that is consistent with our obligations and your rights under the law.
Please read this Privacy & Cookie Policy (“Policy”) carefully and ensure that you understand it. Your acceptance of our Policy is deemed to occur upon your first use of the Site. If you do not accept and agree with this Policy, you must stop using the Site immediately.
1. Definitions and Interpretation
In this Policy the following terms shall have the following meanings:
| Terms | Meanings |
|---|---|
| “we”, “us”, “our” |
Viridis Media Limited, trading as TheTrainHacker.com, registered in England under company number 07447133, whose registered address is Kishens Limited, 3 Montpelier Avenue, Bexley, Kent, England, DA5 3AP |
| “cookie” | Small text file placed on your computer or device by the Site when you visit certain parts of the Site and/or when you use certain features of the Site. Details of the cookies used by the Site are set out in section 5, below |
| “personal data” | Any and all data that relates to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified from that data. In this case, it means personal data that you give to us via the Site. This definition shall, where applicable, incorporate the definitions provided in the EU Regulation 2016/679 – the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) |
2. What does this policy cover?
This Policy applies only to your use of the Site. The Site may contain links to other websites. Please note that we have no control over how your data is collected, stored, or used by other websites and we advise you to check the privacy policies of any such websites before providing any data to them.
3. Your rights
As a data subject, you have the following rights under the GDPR, which this Policy and our use of personal data have been designed to uphold:
- The right to be informed about our collection and use of personal data
- The right of access to the personal data we hold about you (see section 11) The right to rectification if any personal data we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete (please contact us using the details in section 16)
- The right to be forgotten – i.e. the right to ask us to delete any personal data we hold about you (We only hold your personal data for a limited time, as explained in section 5 but if you would like us to delete it sooner, please contact us using the details in section 16)
- The right to restrict (i.e. prevent) the processing of your personal data
- The right to data portability (obtaining a copy of your personal data to re-use with another service or organisation)
- The right to object to us using your personal data for particular purposes
- The rights with respect to automated decision making and profiling
If you have any cause for complaint about our use of your personal data, please contact us using the details provided in section 16 and we will do our best to solve the problem for you. If we are unable to help, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK’s supervisory authority, the Information Commissioner’s Office.
4. What data do we collect?
We may collect some or all of the following personal data and store it in a cookie for up to 12 months for the purpose of displaying relevant content and advertising (please also see section 5 on our use of cookies and similar technologies). This information does not directly identify you:
- IP address & country
- web browser type and version screen size
- preferred settings such as measurement units
When completing a feedback form or newsletter signup request the following additional information may be recorded:
- name
- contact information such as email address
- location information such as city/town, country, longitude and latitude and the first part of a postcode
- demographic information such as preferences, requirements and interests
5. Cookies
We use cookies on the Site to provide you with a better user experience. We track how you use the Site, to keep you logged into the Site where applicable, to display relevant content and advertising. Our cookie is saved for a period of up to 12 months.
Cookies are used for the following purposes:
- Service cookies – help the Site work efficiently remembering user settings
- Analytics cookies – anonymously track website traffic and browsing patterns
- Advertising cookies – used to tailor advertising on the Site, build an audience profile and to measure how many times adverts have been viewed
We also use third party cookies from the following partners:
| Third-party | Analytics | Advertising |
|---|---|---|
| ✓ | ✓ | |
| Google (Adwords, Analytics, Adsense, Adwords, Search Console) | ✓ | ✓ |
Some third party cookies will be saved for specific time periods, while others may last indefinitely. Your web browser should provide you with the controls to manage and delete cookies from your device. Please see your web browser options.
For further information visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.
6. Third-party tracking & affiliate marketing
The Site contains advertising and affiliate marketing links. These are typically served by our marketing partners who track impressions, clicks and transactions, usually by using cookies, on behalf of their advertiser clients and affiliate partners.
By accepting our Policy you consent to the use of third-party tracking (including cookies) from our marketing partners shown below:
- ACP Rail International
- affilinet GmbH
- AWIN Ltd.
- Amazon Associates
- CJ Affiliate by Conversant Europe Ltd.
- GetYourGuide Deutschland GmbH
- JAPAN EXPERIENCE
- Performance Horizon Group Ltd.
- ShareASale.com Inc.
- Skimbit Ltd
- Tradedoubler AB
- Tradetracker UK
- Voyagin Co. Ltd.
- Webgains Ltd.
7. How does affiliate marketing work?
Clicking on affiliate marketing adverts or links will track your actions by using a cookie saved to your device. Your actions are usually recorded as a referral from our Site by this cookie. In most cases, we earn a commission from the advertiser or advertising partner, at no cost to you, when you make a purchase on their website.
We use marketing partners in this way to help generate an income from the website, which allows us to continue our work and provide you with the best overall experience and valued information for free.
8. Online advertising
Advertisements displayed on the Site are delivered by certain third-party advertising companies, such as Google. No information which identifies you, for example, your name, address, email address or telephone number, is used to provide this advertising.
In order to display advertising most likely to be relevant to you, these third-party advertisers may place or recognise a unique cookie on your browser. This cookie does not collect personal information about you nor is it linked to any identifiable information about you.
If you would like more information about online advertisements and your choices about how this information may used by these companies, please click here.
You can opt out of, or customise, these advertisements using the Google Ads Preferences Manager.
9. Feedback requests
If you have a question or comment for us, we ask you to fill in our feedback form. It will ask you to provide your contact details such as your name and email address. Your personal details will only be used according to your request and will remain safely stored without being passed to any third party.
10. Newsletter signups
Under the GDPR we use “the Consent Lawful Basis” for anyone subscribing to our newsletter. We only collect certain data about you, as detailed in the “What data do we collect?” section above. We send newsletters from an Email Marketing Service (EMS) provider. An EMS is a third party service provider of software that allows us to send out newsletter campaigns to a list of subscribers.
When you subscribe to our newsletter you will receive an email to confirm your email address. Once confirmed you will be added to our EMS to receive newsletters. Your email address will be stored securely in our newsletter database and our EMS. You will be asked to renew your subscription every 2 years. If you do not renew your subscription within this period your email address will be automatically unsubscribed from the newsletter within the EMS.
Newsletter emails contain tracking beacons / tracked clickable links or similar server technologies in order to track subscriber activity within newsletter messages. Where used, such messages may record a range of data such as; times, dates, IP addresses, opens, clicks, forwards, geographic and demographic data. Such data, within its limitations will show the activity each subscriber made for that email campaign.
Any messages we send are in accordance with the GDPR and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). We provide you with an easy method to withdraw your consent (unsubscribe) or manage your preferences at any time. See newsletter messages for instructions on how to unsubscribe. Our EMS provider is GetResponse. We may hold the following information about subscribers within our EMS system:
- Name
- Email address
- Location information such as city/town, country, longitude and latitude and the first part of a postcode
- IP address
- Subscription date & time
- Confirmation date & time
We do not share this information with any third party.
11. How do we use your data?
All personal data is processed and stored securely, for no longer than is necessary in light of the reason(s) for which it was first collected. We will comply with our obligations and safeguard your rights under GDPR at all times.
Our use of your personal data will always have a lawful basis, either because it is necessary for our performance of a contract with you, because you have consented to our use of your personal data (e.g. by subscribing to emails or agreeing to our Policy). Specifically, we may use your data for the following purposes:
- Providing and managing your access to the Site
- Personalising and tailoring your experience on the Site
- Replying to emails from you
- Supplying you with emails that you have opted into (you may unsubscribe or opt-out at any time)
With your permission and/or where permitted by law, we may also use your data for marketing purposes which may include contacting you by email with information, news and offers on our services. We will not, however, send you any unsolicited marketing or spam and will take all reasonable steps to ensure that we fully protect your rights and comply with our obligations under GDPR and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.
You have the right to withdraw your consent to our using your personal data at any time, and to request that we delete it.
We do not keep your personal data for any longer than is necessary in light of the reason(s) for which it was first collected. Data will, therefore, be retained for the following periods (or its retention will be determined on the following bases):
Every 2 years you will be required to renew your opt-in status to receive emails from us. If you choose not to opt-in, we will unsubscribe you from the newsletter and you will stop receiving emails from us.
12. Do we share your data?
Subject to section 13, we will not share any of your data with any third party for any purpose unless otherwise stated in this Policy.
In certain circumstances, we may be legally required to share certain data held by us, which may include your personal data, for example, where we are involved in legal proceedings, where we are complying with legal obligations, a court order, or a governmental authority.
We may compile statistics about the use of the Site including data on traffic, usage patterns, user numbers, sales, and other information. All such data will be anonymised and will not include any personally identifying data, or any anonymised data that can be combined with other data and used to identify you. We may from time to time share such data with third parties such as prospective investors, affiliates, partners, and advertisers. Data will only be shared and used within the bounds of the law.
13. What happens if our business changes hands?
We may, from time to time, expand or reduce our business and this may involve the sale and/or the transfer of control of all or part of our business. Any personal data that you have provided will, where it is relevant to any part of our business that is being transferred, be transferred along with that part and the new owner or newly controlling party will, under the terms of this Privacy Policy, be permitted to use that data only for the same purposes for which it was originally collected by us.
In the event that any of your data is to be transferred in such a manner, you will not be contacted in advance and informed of the transfer.
14. How can you control your data?
We aim to give you strong control over our use of your data for direct marketing purposes (including the ability to opt-out of receiving emails from us which you may do by unsubscribing using the links provided in our emails).
15. How can you access your data?
You have the right to ask for a copy of any of your personal data held by us (where such data is held). Under the GDPR, no fee is payable and we will provide any and all information in response to your request free of charge.
16. Contacting us
If you have any questions about the Site or our Policy, please contact Data Protection Officer via our contact us form or by post at:
TheTrainHacker.com
c/o Kishens Limited
3 Montpelier Avenue
Bexley
Kent
DA5 3AP
UK
Please ensure that your query is clear, particularly if it is a request for information about the data we hold about you.
17. Changes to our privacy policy
We may change our Policy from time to time (for example, if the law changes). Any changes will be immediately posted on the Site and you will be deemed to have accepted the terms of the revised Policy on your first use of the Site following the alterations. We recommend that you check this page regularly to keep up-to-date.