Privacy Policy
With effect from 31 July 2021, Richard Tower is the Data Controller for information that you submit via our various channels.
You can contact Richard about data privacy as follows:
a) Via our contact page
b) Telephone: 07913 549483
Data That We Hold About You
When you make an enquiry or book a guided walk with us, we ask you to provide your name, address, email address and phone number. This is so that we can communicate effectively with you about your enquiry or booking. This information is held electronically in our website cloud storage facility indefinitely, unless you ask us to remove it.
On the day of your guided walk, or sometimes in advance, we ask you to complete a registration and medical form. This is in paper format. The information we request includes confirmation of your name and address, where you are staying (if relevant), an emergency contact name and phone number, and details of any existing injuries or medical conditions that you have. The information on this form is requested so that if necessary, we can make provision for any existing medical conditions that you may have. It is also essential information that would be needed in case of an accident or medical emergency involving you, during the walk. Your guide(s) will carry this form with them during the day of the walk. In the case of you suffering a medical problem or accident that involved emergency services being called, or attending, we would share this information with relevant medical professionals or members of a mountain rescue team. You can choose whether you wish us to return the form to you after the walk, or whether you wish us to retain it for use on future walks in the same calendar year. If you have authorised us to hold the form containing your data, and you do participate in further walks, you have the opportunity to update the information on the form. You can also request that we destroy the form or return it to you at any time. At the end of each calendar year, any forms that we have been holding are destroyed.
If you sign up for our e-newsletters, the following information will be stored in Richard Tower’s MailChimp on-line account: Name, e-mail address, what type of walks you are interested in. Also whether you prefer to received emails from us in plain text or html format. MailChimp data is held in the USA, and they have a data privacy shield. You are able to update your information or unsubscribe from our list at any time.
If you respond to one of our occasional market research surveys, the answers that you supply will be used to help inform our decisions when we are planning future walks or other outdoor activities. It will be shared with Rachel Bolton and Richard Tower. Data from sureys will be retained for no more than 12 months. The privacy policy of SurveyMonkey will also apply and will be provided via a link at the time of completing the survey.
If you agree to join one of our WhatsApp groups to share walk information and photographs, we will add your mobile phone details. You can leave the group at any point, or ask us to remove you from the group and we will do this on your behalf.
Photographs
We often take photographs during our guided walks which sometimes feature our customers undertaking hill walking activities. During the walk, we will ask you if you are happy for us to take photographs that have you in them, and whether we may use these for promotional purposes in social media or on our website. If you prefer us not to use photographs featuring yourself, we won’t take any, or will delete them immediately that we know your wishes. If you agree to us taking photographs and using them, you can ask at any time in the future for them to be removed from our website or from social media, should you change your mind.
Health Declaration Form
Prior to taking part in one of our guided walks we will ask you to complete a health declaration form on our website that is provided by the third party company, currently JotForm. Information submitted on the form will go to Richard Tower and Rachel Bolton, and if another walk leader is guiding your walk, the information will be passed to them. The information will be retained for the remainder of the calendar year. The privacy policy for JotForm can be found here. If you prefer not to submit this information on-line, you can request a PDF version of the form to be printed off and handed over in paper format.
Google Analytics
This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google Ireland Limited. If the responsible body for the data processing that occurs via this website has their basis outside of the European Economic area and Switzerland, then the associated Google Analytics data processing is carried out by Google LLC. Google Ireland Limited and Google LLC. will hereinafter be referred to as “Google”.
Google Analytics uses “cookies”, which are text files saved on the site visitor’s computer, to help the website analyze their use of the site. The information generated by the cookie (including the truncated IP address) about the use of the website will normally be transmitted to and stored by Google.
Google Analytics is used exclusively with the extension “_anonymizeIp ()” on this website. This extension ensures an anonymization of the IP address by truncation and excludes a direct personal reference. Via this extension Google truncates the site visitor’s IP address within member states of the European Union or other parties to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional situations will the site visitor’s full IP address be transmitted to Google servers in the United States and truncated there. The IP address, that is provided by the site visitor’s browser in using Google Analytics will not be merged by Google with other data from Google.
On behalf of the site operator, Google will use the information collected to evaluate the use of the website, to compile reports on website activity and to provide other website and internet related services to the site operator (Art. 6 (1)( f) GDPR). The legitimate interest in data processing lies in the optimization of this website, the analysis of the use of the website and the adaptation of the content. The interests of the users are adequately protected by the pseudonymization of their data.
Google LLC. offers a guarantee to maintain an adequate level of data protection on the basis of European standard contractual clauses. The data sent and linked to the Google Analytics cookies, e.g. user IDs or advertising IDs will be automatically deleted after 50 months. The deletion of data whose retention period has been reached is carried out automatically once a month.
The website visitor may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings in their browser. The website visitor can also prevent Google from collecting information (including their IP address) via cookies and processing this information by downloading this browser plugin and installing it: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
The website visitor can prevent data collection via Google Analytics on this website by clicking here. An “Opt-out Cookie” shall then be applied which shall prevent any future collection of the site visitors data when visiting this website.
Further information concerning data processing and use by Google, the settings and deactivation possibilities can be found in the Google Privacy Policy as well as in the Google Ads Settings.
reCAPTCHA
We use the reCAPTCHA service provided by Google LLC (Google) to protect your submissions via internet submission forms on this site. This plugin checks if you are a person in order to prevent certain website functions from being (ab)used by spam bots (particularly comments). This plugin query includes the sending of the IP address and possibly other data required by Google for the Google reCAPTCHA service. For this purpose your input will be communicated to and used by Google. However, your IP address is previously truncated by Google within member states of the European Union or in other states which are party to the agreement on the European Economic Area and is, as such, anonymized. Only in exceptional cases is a full IP address transmitted to a Google server in the United States and truncated there. On behalf of the operator of this website, Google will use this information to evaluate your use of this service. The IP address provided by reCaptcha from your browser shall not be merged with any other data from Google.
This data collection is subject to the data protection regulations of Google (Google Inc.). For more information about Google’s privacy policy, please visit: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en.
By using the reCAPTCHA service, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes set out above.
Your Rights
If at any point you believe the information we hold on you is incorrect, you can request to see this information and have it corrected or deleted. If you wish to raise a complaint on how we have handled your personal data, you can contact Richard Tower to have the matter investigated. If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are processing your personal data not in accordance with the law, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office https://ico.org.uk/