Privacy Policy

Empire Travel recognizes the importance of privacy and the sensitivity of personal information. We are committed to collecting, using and disclosing personal information responsibly and only to the extent necessary to carry out business on behalf of our clients. Further, Empire Travel is licensed under the Travel Industry Act, 2002 and accordingly is required to keep confidential the information obtained in the course of conducting business on behalf of our clients.

About Our Company & Business

Empire Travel is a full service travel agency business, and fully licensed to conduct business in Ontario under the terms of the Travel Industry Act, 2002.

Empire Travel arranges travel products and services for our clients worldwide through our network of preferred industry suppliers. Accordingly, we deal with a number of consultants and third parties that may, in the course of their duties, have limited access to personal information we hold in order to make such travel arrangements. These suppliers include airlines, railroads, cruise lines, tour operators, computer reservations system providers, and other travel-related vendors. We restrict their access to any personal information we hold as much as is reasonably possible. We also have their assurance that they follow appropriate privacy principles in accordance with their own policies under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

What Is Personal Information?

Personal information is any information about an identifiable individual that is recorded in any form. Personal information can relate to one’s personal characteristics, for example, gender, age, income, home address or telephone number, ethnic background, family status, their health or their activities and views. Personal information is to be contrasted with business information, for example, an individual’s business address and telephone number, which is not protected by privacy legislation.

Due to the nature of travel agency business, we include in our policies and staunchly protect therein an individual’s financial information including checking account information and credit card information.

Managing Personal Information

Like all travel agencies, we collect, use, and disclose personal information in order to serve our clients. The primary purposes for collecting personal information are as follows: to make and secure reservations, to issue transportation documents and vouchers, and to provide travel suppliers with information to complete the necessary purchasing arrangements for a wide array of travel and tourism products. Examples of the type of personal information we collect for those purposes include the following: name, address, telephone, age, credit card information, passport or visa information, Social Insurance Number, website cookies, and similar personal information necessary to properly identify our clients and their entitlement to the services we arrange.

Protecting Personal Information

We understand the importance of protecting personal information. For that reason, we have taken the following steps:

Paper-based information is under supervision.
Electronic hardware is under supervision. In addition, passwords are used on computers.
Paper-based information is transmitted in sealed, addressed envelopes or boxes by reputable companies.
Electronic information is transmitted through a direct line.
Staff are trained to collect, use and disclose personal information only as necessary to fulfill their duties and in accordance with our privacy policy.
External consultants and agencies with access to personal information must acknowledge that they abide by PIPEDA.

Retention and Destruction of Personal Information

We need to retain personal information for some time to ensure that we can answer any questions you might have about the services provided and for our own accountability to external regulatory bodies. However, we do not want to keep personal information longer than necessary in order to protect your privacy. We keep our client files for 7 years. Our client and contact directories are much more difficult to systematically destroy, so we remove such information when we can if it does not appear that we will be contacting you again. However, if you ask, we will remove such contact information immediately. We also keep personal information relating to people who may not be currently active clients with Empire Travel for purposes of mailing lists for newsletters and marketing activities. This information will be deleted on request. We destroy paper files containing personal information by shredding. We destroy electronic information by deleting it and, when the hardware is discarded, we ensure that the hard drive is physically destroyed.

You can look at your information:

With only a few exceptions, you have the right to see what personal information we hold about you. Often all you have to do is ask. We can help you identify what records we might have about you.

We will need to confirm your identity, if we do not know you, before providing you with this access. We reserve the right to charge a nominal fee for such requests. We may ask you to put your request in writing. If we cannot give you access, we will tell you within 30 days if at all possible and tell you the reason, as best we can, as to why we cannot give you access. If you believe there is a mistake in the information, you have the right to ask for it to be corrected. This applies to factual information and not to any professional opinions we may have formed. We may ask you to provide documentation that our files are wrong. Where we agree that we made a mistake, we will make the correction and notify anyone to whom we sent this information. If we do not agree that we have made a mistake, we will still agree to include in our file a brief statement from you on the point and we will forward that statement to anyone else who received the earlier information.

If you wish to make a formal complaint about our privacy practices, you may make it in writing to our Privacy Policy Manager. She will acknowledge receipt of your complaint, ensure that it is investigated promptly and that you are provided with a formal decision and reasons behind these decisions in writing.

The Information and Privacy Commissioner of Canada oversees the administration of the privacy legislation in the private sector. The Commissioner also acts as the ombudsman for privacy disputes.

The Information and Privacy Commissioner can be contacted at:

112 Kent Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 1H3

Telephone: (613) 995-8210
Toll-free: (800) 282-1376
Fax: 613) 947-6850
TTY: 613) 992-9190
Email: info@privcom.gc.ca