Privacy and Cookie Policy

Who We Are

Departure Guides (“we,” “us,” or “our”) operates the travel guide website at departureguides.com. This Privacy Policy applies to all pages and content hosted on this domain.

If you have any privacy-related questions, you can reach us via our contact form.

What We Do Not Collect

We want to be explicit about what we don’t do, because we believe this is as important as describing what we do:

• No cookies. Departure Guides does not set any cookies on your device — not session cookies, not preference cookies, not analytics cookies. None.
• No tracking pixels. We do not use tracking pixels, web beacons, invisible images, or similar technologies to monitor your behaviour.
• No advertising trackers. We do not run advertising on this site and do not load any third-party ad networks or behavioural targeting scripts.
• No analytics that identify you. We do not use services such as Google Analytics or Meta Pixel that track individual users across sessions or sites.
• No accounts or profiles. Reading our guides requires no registration, login, or account of any kind.

What We Do Collect

The only personal information we collect is your email address — and only if you choose to contact us voluntarily through our contact form. When you submit the contact form, we receive:

• Your email address (required to reply to you).
• Your name, if you choose to provide it.
• The content of your message.

We do not collect any other personal information. We do not ask for your phone number, address, date of birth, or payment details.

Our web host may collect standard server log data (such as your IP address, browser type, and the pages requested) for operational and security purposes. This data is not personally identified, linked to a name or email address, or shared with third parties. Log data is retained for a short period and then deleted automatically.

How We Use Your Information

If you contact us, your email address and message are used solely to:

• Respond to your enquiry.
• Follow up on any matter you raised with us.

We do not use your email address to send you newsletters, marketing messages, or any unsolicited communications. We do not add you to any mailing list. We do not profile you or make automated decisions based on your data.

How We Share Your Information

We do not sell, rent, trade, or otherwise share your personal information with any third party for commercial purposes — full stop.

Your data may be disclosed only in the following narrow circumstances:

• Legal obligation: If we are required to disclose information by a court order, applicable law, or a legitimate government authority.
• Service providers: Our website is hosted on a third-party web host. That host may process server logs as described above. Any such processor is bound by confidentiality obligations and may not use the data for their own purposes.

Data Retention

We retain contact form messages and associated email addresses only for as long as necessary to respond to your enquiry and manage any follow-up. We do not keep contact records indefinitely.

If you would like us to delete any message or email address you submitted, simply contact us and we will do so promptly.

Your Rights

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you.
• Correct any inaccurate information.
• Request deletion of your data.
• Object to or restrict processing of your data.
• Data portability — receive a copy of your data in a structured format.

Because we hold so little personal data (only contact form submissions), these rights are straightforward to exercise. Please contact us with any such request and we will respond promptly.

If you are located in the European Economic Area, United Kingdom, or Canada, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority if you believe your rights have not been respected.

Third-Party Links

Our travel guides contain links to third-party websites — such as official tourism boards, transit authority sites, booking platforms, and local business pages. Once you leave Departure Guides, this Privacy Policy no longer applies. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of any external sites you visit, as their practices may differ significantly from ours.

Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect the limited personal data we hold from unauthorised access, loss, or misuse. Our site is served over HTTPS. However, no method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes will be reflected by a new “Effective date” at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this policy periodically. Continued use of the Site after a change constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.