Introduction
This Privacy Policy explains how we use any personal information we collect about you in line with UK data protection laws. For the purposes of this Policy, references to “we”, “us” and “our” mean Secret Compass Ltd.
Secret Compass Ltd is a privately-owned, specialist travel company and agent providing fixed-departure expeditions, adventure holidays, TV and film project consultancy and risk management services. We need to collect, use and disclose information in order to provide our range of business services, which includes taking and managing information in relation to a safety and risk management of a given TV or Film project. We are committed to the protection of personal information, and maintaining organisational and technical procedures to safeguard the privacy and confidentiality of all information provided to us.
By providing personal information to us (either directly or consenting another person to do so on your behalf), you agree that this Policy will apply to how we handle your personal information and you consent to us collecting, using and disclosing your personal information as detailed in this Policy. If you do not agree with any part of this Policy, you must not provide your personal information to us. If you do not provide us with your personal information, or if you revoke the consent that you have given under this Policy, this may affect our ability to provide our services to you.
How do we collect personal information?
We will actively collect personal information from you where it is fair, reasonable and practical to do in order to provide you with our products and services. Generally, we will collect this information when we deal with you in person, by email, telephone, letter, when you use our website, and when you connect with us on social media.
How we collect your information via forms on our website.
Secret Compass owns and operates the website at www.secretcompass.com and www.secretcompasstv.com. Our websites provide site visitors with information about our services. We have a number of forms embedded into the website which users can choose to fill in which collect information, including personally identifiable information, including but not limited to full name, address, email, and in some cases information which is considered to be personal or sensitive. Examples of these forms are the following:
i. Newsletter sign ups. If you are interested in receiving electronic updates, alerts and news about our products and services, you must provide us with an updates. We will use information you provide in an ‘Contact Form’ or direct email address and opt in.
ii. Contact us. If interested in specific services, we may also ask for optional information, such as how you found us, to help us provide you with relevant updates. We will use information you provide in an ‘Contact Form’ or direct updates. We will use information you provide in an ‘Contact Form’ or direct email for internal use and, if you provide consent, send you relevant marketing material.
iii. Feedback Information. This site provides an email address that permits you to send us your own comments, and any other information you choose to include. If you have worked with us, we may request comments and feedback information relevant to you via a feedback form or email to improve our products and services, and serve you better as an individual in the future.
How we collect your information from third parties.
We work with a number of partners who advertise our products and services, and in some circumstances, we may collect personal information to assist with our delivery of services to you . By providing personal information to us directly or indirectly through third parties to make any necessary arrangements and gather relevant information on your behalf, you are consenting to the collection, use and disclosure of information in accordance with this Policy. If you believe your information has been provided to us without your consent, please refer to the Contact Information/Complaints sections below.
What information do we collect?
The type of personal information we collect about you is the essential information we need to provide you with the relevant services that have been agreed, and deliver the services we are contracted to provide you with upon confirmation of services. The specialist nature of our work requires personal information which may be considered to be sensitive by UK data protection laws, in order to manage the risk of operating in remote parts of the world and assist us in the event of an emergency; medical or otherwise.
Personal Information
Generally, the type of personal information we collect about you is the information needed to facilitate your general wellbeing and safety for the period we have been engaged, and has been agreed. For example, we may collect details such as your name, address, telephone number, email address, passport details, emergency contact and other details relevant to your travel arrangements with us. When you make contact with us for other purposes, we may also collect personal information about you in relation to those purposes, such as responding to feedback.
Sensitive Information.
In some circumstances, we may ask you for personal information that is considered sensitive under UK data protection law. With regards to projects which have Secret Compass consultants deployed on them we may need to ask you for a health declaration in relation to current medications, allergies and past medical, surgical and psychiatric history in accordance with our Terms and Conditions. This essential information will allow us to prepare for any medical condition that may require additional medical support or resources and/or affect the risk management of the project.
How do we use and disclose your personal information?
From the point of contact inquiry right through to completion of a project, our primary purpose is to collect the information necessary to provide you with advice on our company, our products and our services and/or assist you with specialist consultancy. However, this purpose could differ in certain circumstances (ie, the collection of personal information for your participation in consumer research, a competition or customer feedback).
By continuing to use our services and/or by providing us with personal information (or allowing another person to do so on your behalf), you consent to us using and disclosing your personal information for the purpose for which it was collected, and, where permitted by your local data protection laws, for any related secondary purpose which we believe you would reasonably expect. The purposes for which we collect personal information, and those secondary purposes which we consider to be directly related, may include:
a. Creating and maintaining our relationship with you , in order to supply you with relevant information, advice and support related to our products and services;
b. Involving you in market research to gauge customer satisfaction and feedback;
c. Complete medical screenings to make a detailed risk assessment of medical support required;
d. To produce a debrief report to gauge deployment success and individual behaviour and medical to protect us against legal ramifications of any incidents that could arise from travel to remote areas including but not limited to; altitude, illness, disease, natural disasters, terrorism, civil unrest, war and accidents;
e. Research and analysis (eg. mapping trends and preferences to develop and improve our products and services)
f. Internal accounting and administration;
g. Regulatory reporting and compliance;
h. Identification of fraud or error;
i. Other purposes as authorised or required by law (ie, health and safety, to prevent threat to life, to enforce our legal rights).
Promotional marketing material.
We may occasionally use your personal information to send you targeted marketing and promotional activities to promote products and services we believe may be of interest to you. UK data protection law may require you to opt-in to receive this information. These marketing activities could include, but are not limited to:
i. Electronic marketing (including, e-newsletters, email, SMS, MMS and iM)
ii. Direct marketing (leaflets, brochures and letters)
iii. Telephone calls
If you wish to no longer receive any marketing/promotional material from us by electronic marketing you can request to not receive this information at any time, by following the unsubscribe prompts. To opt-out of market research and other forms of communication, please refer to the contact section below.
If you participate in partnership marketing activities with Secret Compass and another company, you will be provided with the choice of receiving news from all companies involved.
Who will have access to your information?
Secret Compass is committed to the purpose limitation, integrity and confidentiality of your personal information. Your information will be used only by authorised persons where it is relevant and limited to the necessary information required for that particular purpose alone. For example, your personal identification information will be shared to obtain permits for your destination from regulatory bodies, but as medical declaration is not essential information it would not be shared in this instance.
The persons who will where necessary have access to your information may include but are not limited to:
a. Secret Compass Employees. Internal staff fulfil the role of Data Controllers. Data Controllers exercise organisational measures to manage purpose limitation, authorising the use of personal information for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes as described in this Policy.
b. Medical Advisors. In the circumstances where an individual’s medical declaration, submitted via our Medical DeclarationForm, requires further assessment from a qualified medical professional, Secret Compass employees will pass on the declaration to our Medical Advisor. The Medical Advisor will use this information plus any other relevant information we hold, to assess physical and mental health, provide medical risk mitigation advice, suggest medical equipment or supplies and advise our risk
management procedure. This may include further email and phone discussions.
c. Contracted Consultants. In order to enact Secret Compass’s Risk Management Policy, it is necessary to provide certain sensitive and/or personal data to our contracted consultants. As contracted by Secret Compass, these persons will abide by the terms of use described in this Policy.
Is your information transferred overseas?
In some circumstances your information will be shared with Secret Compass’s partners or relevant organisations overseas as discussed in section 6. Only information deemed necessary by Secret Compass will be provided and only for specific uses as detailed above. When booking a trip with Secret Compass, you must be aware of and accept that information infrastructures and data policies in many destinations will not be equivalent to the UK or Europe.
How do we store your information?
Information submitted to Secret Compass verbally, by email or other electronic communication or through form submissions on our website will be stored in a number of digital locations. Access to these are limited to approved Secret Compass staff, protected by encryption and monitored routinely for attempted breaches or incursions. Digital copies of information and communications are held by Secret Compass for a period of 10 years from the last update to ensure access and compliance in the event of any legal proceedings. Where paper copies of pertinent data are required, for example for reference on expedition where digital access is not available, these copies are entrusted to approved Secret Compass personnel and destroyed when no longer of use. Where Secret Compass’s website is used to make payments, this information is not stored by Secret Compass and cannot be accessed by Secret Compass staff.
Security of Information
Secret Compass takes the protection of your personal and sensitive information very seriously and actively monitors their information systems for signs of misuse. Information held by Secret Compass will only be accessed by approved, relevant members of staff and third parties as described above, and where possible, data which is shared will first be anonymised or removed from context. Secret Compass undertakes to inform all customers of any potential data breaches, or suspected unauthorised access to this data, in a timely manner. Secret Compass operates a secure website certified independently and information submitted through website forms are encrypted.
Access, amendment and removal of personal information.
If you suspect any information on you is being held without your consent or was provided to Secret Compass by a third party, please contact Secret Compass. At any time, you may request access to your personal information as held by Secret Compass, subject to any legal restrictions or proof of identity, and you may also request amendments insofar as these do not restrict the ability of Secret Compass to complete our contract with you. Where amendments and/or removal of personal information is requested, you will accept that this may impede Secret Compass’s ability to deliver the contracted service and may result in a termination of that contract. If you require any reasonable adjustments to be made to either this policy, or to the accessed format of your data as held by Secret Compass, the company will endeavour to provide this, for example in large text, in a format which can easily be translated etc.
Cookies.
This site uses cookies, which are small text files that store non-personally identifiable information about you, either temporarily in connection with your Internet Protocol (IP) address (known as a temporary or session cookie, and deleted once you close your browser window) or more permanently on the hard drive of your computer (known as a permanent or persistent cookie). This Site uses session cookies so that you do not have to fill in the same information from page to page within secretcompass.com & secretcompastv.com. If you elect not to receive cookies, you may be able to view some, but not all, of the content on this Site.
IP Addresses.
This site uses Internet protocol (IP) addresses. IP addresses are unique identifiers automatically assigned to each computer when logging onto the Internet. IP addresses allow us to collect much of the same information we collect through cookies, including browser type, what pages you visit, and how long you stay on the site. In general, IP addresses allow us to identify problems with our servers, prepare aggregate demographic information and other information regarding this use of this site, and improve the functions of this site.
Contact Information.
Secret Compass Ltd are at 14 Whitehouse Street, Bristol, BS3 4AY. Please contact us by email at info@secretcompass.com or by telephone on the office number 0207 096 8428. The office opening hours are UK GMT Monday – Friday 09:00 – 17:30.
Changes to this Policy.
From time to time we will update this policy. If we make any changes to this Policy, they will be published on our website at: https://secretcompass.com/privacy-policy/ You must take responsibility, and we encourage you to check this Policy for any updates.
Last updated 20 Oct 2023