Privacy Policy

Rustic Pathways Privacy Notice

Last updated: February 12, 2024

Since 1983, Rustic Pathways has been a leading provider of transformative travel experiences that take young people beyond a teen tour to create meaningful impact around the world. We value our reputation as one of the leading travel programs for young people and your trust means a lot to us. This Privacy Notice explains how Rustic Pathways uses the personal information we collect and receive about you.

Please be aware that we may supply different or additional notices of our information practices specific to certain programs or activities. You agree that those other terms also apply in addition to this Privacy Notice, and if any part of them conflicts, those other terms will control.

We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time. If we make changes, we will notify you by revising the effective date above and, in some cases, we may provide you with more prominent notice (such as adding a statement on the homepage of our website or sending you an email notification).

What is “personal information” (sometimes called “personal data”)?

Personal information is information about an individual person that can be linked to that person. Examples include, an identifiable individual’s name, address, telephone number, email address, passport number, travel record and credit card number.

How We Collect Personal Information.

Rustic Pathways collects personal information about you when you sign up for one of our programs, access or use our website (including to make purchases or payments), go on one of our trips, send us an email, call our customer service representatives, or otherwise interact with us. We may also receive some information from third parties, such as other companies involved in providing activities or services for a program or trip. In some cases, we combine the information you provide us with information we receive from third parties. The specific types of information we collect will depend on your interactions with us.

A. Types of Information We Handle.

1. We collect the following types of personal information that you give to us:

  • Contact information, such as name, email address, physical address, telephone number
  • Demographic information, such as birth date and gender
  • Information necessary for us to provide our programs to you, such as travel experience, interests, height, weight and clothing sizes.
  • Travel information, such as passport information, flight reservation information, hotel information, as well as confirmation codes and e-ticket numbers
  • Information related to special requests or needs, such as dietary requirements, physical restrictions or other medical needs
  • Information collected during our programs, including testimonials, photographs, video and audio recordings of individual participants
  • Records of your communications with us, such as emails, online chats and recordings of all calls to our customer service
  • Information you provide about others, such as when you purchase a gift card for someone and request that we deliver it to them
  • Payment information, such as bank account numbers, credit card number, billing address and expiration date, or gift card codes

2. Certain information is collected automatically when you access or use our website, such as:

  • Purchase Information. When you purchase or pay for a program or gift card, we collect information about the transaction, such as payment details and the date and time of the purchase.
  • Browsing and Usage Information. We log information about you when you visit and use our website, including your Internet Protocol (sometimes called “IP”) address, operating system, browser type and language, Internet Service Provider, access times, and the web page you visited before navigating to our website.
  • Device Information. We may also collect information about the computer or mobile device you use to access our website, including the hardware model, operating system and version, unique device identifiers and mobile network information.

3. We collect some information about you we get from other sources. For example, we collect information from third party companies involved in providing program activities or services, and on occasion we may obtain information from consumer insight sources (such as information about your inferred interests) to help us better understand your interests and personalize offerings. We may combine this information with other information we have about you.

4. We may automatically collect information about you using cookies, web beacons, and other tracking technologies.

Cookies are small text files placed on your device to store data that can be recalled by a web server in the same domain that placed the cookie. The text in a cookie often consists of a string of numbers and letters that uniquely identifies your device, but it can contain other information as well. Cookies help us improve our website, improve your experience, determine which areas and features of our website are popular, count visits and deliver content, including information relevant to your interests.

Our web pages may also contain electronic images known as web beacons (also called pixel tags or clear gifs) that we use to count users who have visited those websites, and gather usage and performance data. We also include web beacons in our promotional email messages or newsletters to determine whether you open and act on them.

In addition, our websites may include web beacons and cookies from our service providers, such as site analytics. Our Privacy Notice does not apply to, and we are not responsible for, third party cookies, web beacons or other tracking technologies. Please see Managing Cookies below to learn more about these third-party cookies and web beacons and some ways that you can manage them.

B. Reasons We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect about you to help us operate our business. In particular, we use the information we collect (as described in Section A above) for the following purposes:

  • administer programs and communicate with you about your trips;
  • provide and deliver programs and services, process transactions and send you related information, including confirmations, invoices, required documentation, updates, alerts and support and administrative messages;
  • respond to your comments and questions and provide customer service;
  • communicate with you about programs, services, offers, promotions, trips, news, surveys, upcoming events and other information we think may be of interest to you;
  • provide, maintain and improve our website and our programs;
  • monitor and analyze trends, usage and activities;
  • conduct research and analysis, including through surveys and focus groups;
  • personalize our programs and provide information, content or features that are targeted toward your interests;
  • link or combine with other information we receive from third parties to help understand your needs and provide you with better service;
  • investigate and prevent fraudulent transactions and other illegal activities; and
  • carry out any other purpose conveyed to you when the information was collected.

C. Sharing of Information

We value our relationship with our customers and we are not in the business of selling or transferring your information to others. We may, however, share your information as needed to operate our business, including the following:

  • when we have your permission;
  • with trusted partners who work on our behalf or with us to deliver programs or process transactions, such as third parties who provide activities or services during a trip or program, with service providers who process payments or help us to prevent fraud or deliver email;
  • as necessary to comply with applicable law or legal process, such as requests from authorities, regulators and courts;
  • to investigate and enforce violations or suspected violations of our agreements and policies;
  • to respond to complaints or legal claims or to protect the personal safety, rights or property of Rustic Pathways, our customers, employees or any other person;
  • with our current or future affiliates (which may include parent and subsidiary companies), or other companies under common control, in which case we will require those entities to follow this Privacy Notice; and
  • in connection with, or during negotiations of, any actual or proposed merger, acquisition, financing, sale of company assets, restructuring of all or a portion of our business, as well as in the event of any insolvency, receivership or bankruptcy.

In some instances, we may also share anonymized, aggregated or statistical information that cannot reasonably be used to identify you.

D. Links to Other Websites
Our website may contain links to other sites. The sites we link to operate independently of Rustic Pathways and have their own privacy and security options. They may use their own cookies, web beacons and other technology to independently collect information about you. In addition, these third-party websites may solicit personal information from you and may provide your information to third parties for uses that are different than the ways in which Rustic Pathways uses your information. We recommend you review the privacy notice of any third-party site carefully to ensure you understand what they are doing with your information.

E. Social Sharing Features

The Site may include social sharing features or other integrated tools, such as an Instagram “Like” button, which let you share actions you take on our website with other media, and vice versa. The use of such features enables the sharing of information with your friends or the public, depending on the settings you establish with the third-party company that provides the social sharing feature. This Privacy Statement does not apply to the activities of third parties when they are collecting or using data for their own purpose or on behalf of others. We are not responsible for the activities of these third parties. We encourage you to review their privacy policies to understand what they are doing with your information.

F. Children’s Privacy and Our Services

Due to the nature of our business, we may collect personal data about children from parents or legal guardians when it is necessary to provide our programs, transportation or other requested services, or to comply with the law, including federal aviation or security regulations. We may retain such personal information when needed to provide the program, transportation and related services to a child.

Our website is not directed to individuals under 13 years old. As appropriate under applicable law, parents or legal guardians with questions or requests regarding their children’s personal data may contact us as described below.

G. Security

We have reasonable and appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures in place to help safeguard your personal information. However, you should know that no company, including Rustic Pathways, can fully eliminate security risks associated with personal information. To help protect yourself, always use a strong password, do not use the same passwords to access your Rustic Pathways account that you use with other accounts or services, and protect your user names and passwords to help prevent others from accessing your accounts.

H. How Long We Keep Personal Information

We generally retain personal information for so long as it may be relevant to the purposes described above. To dispose of personal information, we may anonymize it, delete it or take other appropriate steps to destroy it. Data may remain in copies made for archival, backup and business continuity purposes for additional time.

I. Managing Cookies

The analytics providers we use include those listed below. To opt-out from these companies’ collection or use of certain types of data, and to learn more about their privacy practices, click on the links below:

Company/ Service Purpose(s) Privacy Notices Manage Settings (opt-out)
Adobe Analytics https://www.adobe.com/privacy/policy.html https://www.adobe.com/privacy/opt-out.html 
Google Analytics  Analytics https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
Facebook Pixel Analytics https://www.facebook.com/privacy/explanation https://www.facebook.com/settings
Hubspot Analytics Analytics https://legal.hubspot.com/privacy-policy http://preferences.truste.com/

Browser Controls. You can use browser controls to limit how the websites you visit are able to use cookies. Instructions for blocking or deleting cookies may be available in each browser’s privacy or help documentation. Please note that if you choose to block cookies, certain website features that depend on cookies may no longer function. Choices you make regarding cookies are specific to your browser and device. If you choose to delete cookies, settings and preferences controlled by those cookies, including your opt-out and advertising preferences, may be deleted and may need to be recreated.

Mobile Advertising. iOS and Android operating systems provide options to limit tracking and/or reset the advertising IDs.

Email. Many email clients have settings that allow you to prevent the automatic downloading of images, which will disable web beacons in the email messages you read.

J. Your Rights and Choices You can view, update certain information, and make certain privacy choices by logging in to the relevant portions of our website. For example, if you have an online account with us, you can log in and visit the profile and settings of your account. If you wish to delete your online account when it is no longer in use, please email us at privacy@rusticpathways.com, but please note that we may retain certain information as required by law or for legitimate business purposes.

Additional options available include:

  • You can unsubscribe from certain types of emails by clicking the “unsubscribe” link they contain or emailing privacy@rusticpathways.com. If you opt out, we may still send you non-promotional emails, such as emails about programs you signed up for, your account or other purchases.
  • You can opt out by contacting our Customer Services team.
  • You can opt out from certain cookie-related uses by following the instructions above.
  • In addition, individuals in certain jurisdictions have legal rights to obtain confirmation of whether we hold personal data about them, to access personal data we hold about them (including, in some cases, in portable form), and to obtain its correction, update, amendment or deletion in appropriate circumstances. They may also object to our uses or disclosures of personal data, request a restriction on its processing, or withdraw any consent, though such actions typically will not have retroactive effect. They also will not affect our ability to continue processing data in lawful ways (for example, if you opt out of the use of your telephone number for direct marketing, we might still decide to contact you by phone regarding an urgent travel situation).

To exercise any of the above rights or choices (or any other rights under applicable law), please contact us as described at the end of this Privacy Notice.

The rights and options described above are subject to limitations and exceptions under applicable law. In addition to those rights, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant supervisory authority. However, we encourage you to contact us first, and we will do our best to resolve your concern.

K. United States Law. Rustic Pathways is based in the United States and the information we collect is governed by United States law. By accessing or using our website, purchasing our programs or otherwise providing information to us, you are consenting to the transfer, processing, usage and storage of your information in the United States.

L. Contact Information. If you have any questions, comments or concerns about this Privacy Notice or about our privacy practices, please contact us at rustic@rusticpathways.com or call us at 1-800-321-4353. You may also send your privacy-related comments or questions to the following address:

Rustic Pathways LLC
Attn: Privacy Compliance
6082 Pinecone Drive
Mentor, Ohio 44060