This website is owned and operated by Yoga Escapes ABN: 87 456 753 486 and may be referred to as ‘we’, ‘our’ and ‘us’ throughout this Privacy Policy. The terms ‘you, ‘participant’, ‘customer’ or ‘traveller’, refers to any and all users of our Website or Services. By using our Website located at yogaescapes.com.au (may be referred to as our ‘Website’), or booking one of our services (may be referred to as (Tour/Retreat, ‘Offering’ or ‘Service’),’ you agree to this Privacy Policy.

This Privacy Policy relates to the collection and use of personal information you may supply to us through your conduct on our Website and participation on one of our Tours/Retreats.

We recognise the importance of protecting the privacy of information collected about visitors to our Website, in particular information that is capable of identifying an individual (‘personal information’). This Privacy Policy governs the manner in which your personal information, obtained through our Website, will be dealt with.

The following information describes our compliance with Australian Privacy Principles in the Australian Privacy Act. We do not make any representations about third party web sites that may be linked to our Website.

This Privacy Policy should be reviewed periodically so that you are updated on any changes; we welcome your comments and feedback.

Your Consent

When you provide us with your personal information via our Website or otherwise, you are expressly consenting to us collecting your personal information. Further, by using our Website or booking any of our Services, you consent to this privacy policy.
 

Collection of your Personal Information

Your privacy is important to us. We do not collect personal information unless it is necessary for one or more of our functions or activities. When we collect personal information, we do so only by lawful and fair means. In the course of our business, it is not practicable for us to provide you with our Services without collecting specific personal information such as your name, contact details, payment details, and relevant health information. Should you choose not to provide us with your personal information, we will be unable to provide you with our Services.
 
We are committed to ensuring that the personal information we collect is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures such as SSL encryption of personal information, to safeguard and secure personal information and protect it from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification and disclosure.
 
We take every care to ensure that any personal information we collect, use or disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date, and as much as possible, limited to data which is essential to our ability to provide you with goods and services. We also make every effort to ensure that your details are only modified by you or a third party authorised by you. Where reasonably possible, we seek to work with information and records which have been de-identified.

WhatsApp Yoga Escapes Community Communications

WhatsApp is a freeware, cross-platform, centralised instant messaging and voice-over-IP service that allows users to send text, voice messages and video messages, make voice and video calls, and share images, documents, user locations, and other content. Messages and calls are end-to-end encrypted. No one outside of the Yoga Escapes Community, not even WhatsApp, can read of listen to them. As a third-party communication service, WhatsApp have their own privacy policy, which can be accessed at https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/privacy-policy.  

Yoga Escapes have selected WhatsApp to facilitate group communications prior to, during and post tour/retreat. About a month before your tour/retreat start date, you will receive an email encouraging you to install WhatsApp onto your device and a subsequent invitation via WhatsApp to join our WhatsApp Yoga Escapes Community.

This part of our policy outlines our practices concerning the collection, use, and disclosure of personal data when you participate in our WhatsApp Yoga Escapes Community. More information about our WhatsApp Yoga Escapes Community can be found in our Terms and Conditions.

When you participate in our WhatsApp Yoga Escapes Community, we may collect and process the following types of personal information:

• Contact Information: We may collect and store the contact information you provide to us, such as your name and phone number.

• WhatsApp Group Data: We collect information related to your participation in WhatsApp group chats, including messages you send, images, and other content shared within the group. Please be aware that his information is also readily available to all Yoga Escapes Community participants on your tour/retreat.

You can elect to opt out of our WhatsApp Yoga Escapes Community at any time by emailing us at hello@yogaescapes.com.au. While you have the option to either not accept your invitation or simply leave the community once joined, the Yoga Escapes Retreat Directors will require this written notification so that necessary alternatives can be arranged for relevant alerts and important announcements as part of our duty of care to you.

 
Confidentiality of Personal Information & Health Records

Personal information collected includes but is not limited to, name, address, contact details and occupation of the patient; date of consultation; date of birth/age; presenting complaint including duration; past and family history; relevant lifestyle history, details of previous treatments and current medications; known allergic reactions; and findings from pathology tests or other investigations. See below under ‘Security’ for information regarding instances where we are required by law to share this information with authorities.

Maintaining the high standard of confidentiality in line with professional health industry association standards and ethical practice, any health information you provide remains confidential. By using our Website and/or consulting with Anna Harris of Samādhi Wellness for professional naturopathic advice or health assessment, you expressly provide your consent for us to obtain your health information including history or treatment with another professional for emergency care where relevant. Your permission will also be sought prior to providing such information to other health care professionals, such as in the case of referrals or second opinions should such a need arise.

Samādhi Wellness (natural healthcare consultations) and Luxe Tribe Wellness Dispensary (natural healthcare and travel supplements) maintain their own privacy policies that must be agreed to should you choose to render these services separately from Yoga Escapes.

If you request us to transfer your personal information to a recipient outside of Australia, the international recipient will not be required to comply with the Australian Privacy Principles. Yoga Escapes cannot and will not be liable for any mishandling, loss or unauthorised disclosure of your information in such circumstances.

 
Sharing of your Personal Information

The use of our Website and booking of any of our Services provides express permission for your personal information to be accessible to Yoga Escapes employees and/or subcontractors. Further, we may engage third parties and commercial partners to provide services on our behalf, or for your health and wellbeing, including, but not limited to; local tour operators, Ayurvedic practitioners and/or hospitals/doctors in the case of an emergency. These organisations will be permitted to obtain only the personal information they need to deliver their service. We may also engage with third-party vendors to collect non-personally identifiable information about our Website visitors.

Using your Personal Information

Generally, we use your personal information in order to carry out our business activities, and in our efforts to expand and improve the Services we provide to our customers.  
 
This may include:

• Providing you with information about our Services, including dealing with any enquiries or issues.

• Everyday business purposes that involve the use of personal information such as the processing of bookings.

• Providing you with marketing communications, newsletters and alerts, surveys and invitations and offers for products including new Services/Offerings that may be of interest per your preferences

• To administer and manage promotions and competitions

• To assess your eligibility for Services such as practitioner support

• To consider appropriate health solutions/products

• To evaluate our products and services, and conduct consumer research - where possible, data will be de-identified for these activities

• To communicate with you about our products and services; and

• To amend or update our records.

For each visitor to reach our Website, we expressively collect the following anonymous, non-personally identifiable information, including but not limited to browser type, version and language, operating system, pages viewed while browsing the site, page access times and referring website address. This collected information is used solely internally for the purpose of gauging visitor traffic, trends and delivering personalised content to you while you are on this website.

Social Media Clause

Consent for Image Use:

1.    We may capture and use photographs, videos, or other media that feature participants during our Tours/Retreats.

2.    Your participation in our Tours/Retreats serves as your implied consent for the use of your likeness in such media.

Purpose of Image Use:

1.    Images featuring participants may be used for promotional purposes on our official social media platforms, including but not limited to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and our Website.

2.    These images may also be used in promotional materials such as brochures, flyers, and advertisements.

Anonymity and Privacy:

1.    While we may use images of participants, we will make efforts to protect your privacy by not disclosing any personally identifiable information (ie: name, address or contact details, or by ‘tagging’ you into an image) without your explicit consent/request.

2.    If you have concerns about the use of specific images or would like to request the removal of a particular image, please contact us at hello@yogaescapes.com.au to advise.

Right to Opt-Out:

1.    You absolutely have the right to request that your likeness not be used in our promotional materials and on our social media platforms.

2.    To opt-out, please contact us at hello@yogaescapes.com.au to provide your request in writing.

Third-Party Use:

We are not responsible for the use of images captured by other tour/retreat participants or any third parties. This clause applies only to images captured by the Yoga Escapes Retreat Directors.

Minors:

For participants under the age of 18, we will seek parental or legal guardian consent for image use, as required by applicable laws and regulations.

Changes to This Clause:

We reserve the right to modify this social media clause as needed. Any changes will be posted on our Website, and your continued participation in our Tours/Retreats will indicate your acceptance of our Privacy Policy.

Contact Information:

For any questions, concerns, or requests related to the use of images, please contact us at hello@yogaescapes.com.au.

Security

Wherever possible, we will destroy or de-identify any personal information which is no longer required. Yoga Escapes will never give, sell, trade or otherwise disclose any personal information about you to a third party unless: 

1.    You have provided us with your explicit consent; or

2.    To comply with applicable laws and regulations, to respond to a subpoena, search warrant or other lawful request for information we receive, or to otherwise protect our rights.

Various measures are in place to protect the personal information we hold from loss, misuse, and unauthorised disclosure. For a safer, more secure website that ensures all pages, content, and data is secure, our Website is SSL encrypted. This ensures that no data can be intercepted as it goes over the network. You can look for cues that tell that it’s safe to buy from a website - the most powerful indicator that you can trust a website is the padlock icon that appears when an online store is fully encrypted. You may also note the HTTPS in the browser search bar, which also indicates that the website is secure.
 
We use SquareSpace (and associated applications) to power our Website. You can read more about how SquareSpace uses your personal information here: https://www.squarespace.com/privacy.

We may also use Google Analytics to help us understand how our customers use our Website; you can read more about how Google uses your personal information here:  https://policies.google.com/privacy.  You can also opt-out of Google Analytics here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

We may also list selected products on Google, such as Google Workspace; Google's privacy policy may be different to ours, and they will collect your information per their policy here: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-US. 
 
Our credit card transactions are processed through the Stripe payment gateway. As selected by you, these payment gateways will receive your transaction information when you make payments through Yoga Escapes; this will include payment method information (such as credit or debit card number, or bank account information), purchase amount, date of purchase, and payment method. The Stripe privacy policy can be found here: https://stripe.com/en-au/privacy. Should you choose to purchase an Offering on our Website, the Stripe privacy policy will apply.

We utilise QuickBooks for our accounting purposes. All customer information is entered for the purpose of raising invoices and tracking deposits. You can view their privacy policy here: https://www.intuit.com/privacy/statement.
 

Cookies

We use cookies when you visit our Website. Cookies are a technology that places a small file on your computer's browser and collects and processes data about website visitors. Third parties, including Facebook and Google, may use cookies, web beacons, and other storage technologies to collect or receive information from this website and elsewhere on the internet and use that information to provide measurement services and provide you with targeted ads. This information includes, but is not limited to the time, date, URL of webpages visited; browser software; device category; geolocation; duration of visit, clicks a webpage. 
 
By using our Website, you agree to the placing of these sorts of cookies on your device and accessing them when you visit our website in the future. While using our Website, we may use cookies for:

1.    Site functionality purposes: cookies which allow you to navigate our site and use many of the e-commerce features such as ‘Add to Cart’ or ‘Add to Favourites’.

2.    Analytical purposes: cookies used to measure and analyse user activity on our website in order to help us understand how to improve website functionality and ordering experience. 

3.    Marketing purposes: these cookies allow third party websites, such as Facebook and Google, to display relevant interest-based advertising and track the effectiveness of these advertisements. 

If you do not wish to allow cookies then you may elect to disable cookies, using your browser settings. Please note by disabling cookies, your user experience may be affected and you might not be able to take advantage of certain functions of our website.
 
Please note that we cannot alter our Website’s data collection and use practices should our Website encounter a Do Not Track signal from your browser.
 

European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

In some circumstances, the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provides additional protection to individuals located in Europe. Although you may be located in Europe, this alone does not provide you protection under the GDPR. Our Website does not specifically target customers located in the European Union, and we do not monitor the behaviour of individuals in the European Union, as such, the GDPR does not apply to users of our Website.
 

Contact us about your Personal Information

The Australian Privacy Principle 12 permits you to obtain access to the personal information we hold about you in certain circumstances, and Australian Privacy Principle 13 allows you to correct inaccurate personal information subject to certain exceptions. You are welcome to contact us in order to access your personal information, to seek to correct it or to make a complaint. You can also update your personal information anytime by accessing your account on the website.
 
For privacy enquiries you may send us a message via our Contact Us page, or email us at hello@yogaescapes.com.au. We will respond to your requests for access to your personal information as soon reasonably possible, including in such cases where we are unable to provide you with access (in cases where we no longer hold the information). All health professionals are required to keep and maintain health records for a minimum period of two years (Australian Government Department of Health, 2020).
 

Complaints Procedure

If you have a complaint concerning the manner in which we maintain the privacy of your personal information, please Contact Us. We may seek further information from you to clarify your concerns. If we agree that your complaint is well founded, we will work with you to rectify the problem. If you remain dissatisfied with the outcome, you may refer the matter to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
 

Data Retention

We do not impose any charge for a request for access to your personal information, but we may charge you a reasonable fee for our costs associated with providing you with access and retrieval costs. For complaints about privacy, we will establish, in consultation with you, a reasonable process including time frames for seeking to resolve your complaint with you.
 
When you make a booking through our Website, we are required to maintain your order information (including the personal information therein) for five (5) years, starting from when the record was prepared or obtained, or transactions were completed (or acts they relate to), whichever is the later (Australian Government, 2020).

Changes and Updates to our Privacy Policy

Yoga Escapes reserve the right, to modify or remove portions of this Privacy Policy at our discretion, at any time, without prior notice and with immediate effect. This Privacy Policy is in addition to, and forms part of, the Terms and Conditions applicable to our Website and Services. If you are not in agreement with Privacy Policy or our Terms and Conditions, you should not access or use our Website or Services.

Disclaimer

Although all possible measures have been made to ensure the safety and security of our Website visitors and users, we cannot guarantee the security of any information that is transmitted to or by us over the Internet. The transmission and exchange of information is carried out at your own risk. Yoga Escapes cannot and will not be held liable for any unintentional or accidental dissemination of information, unauthorised disclosure, viruses and any subsequent damages or loss resulting from the use of our Website or communications such as emails or third party or social media systems such as Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram.