To offer you a more personalised experience, we (and the third parties we work with) collect info on how and when you use Skyscanner. It helps us remember your details, show relevant ads and improve our services. More info is in our Cookie Policy.
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Friday, 20 December 2019
We'll only ever collect, use and share your information in ways that are described in this policy.
We're committed to the confidentiality and security of the personal data you give us.
Update your profile and communication preferences at any time.
Along with our Terms of Service, Skyscanner Travel Service Terms of Service and Cookie Policy, this policy explains how we collect and handle your information across all of our websites, mobile apps and other services. We'll review this policy from time to time to make sure it's up-to-date. If we make changes, we'll post the latest version here. When we make significant changes, we'll let you know when you next access our services, or by other communications.
You'll come across the term 'personal data' a lot in this policy. By that, we mean any information relating to you as an identifiable individual. For example, this includes information that may of itself identify you such as your name, contact details, trip itinerary, internet protocol ("IP") address, cookie strings or device IDs, as well as information that may not on its own identify you, but which we store alongside such identifiers, such as how you are using our services or the country you are in when you do so.
We can only speak for ourselves so this policy doesn't cover the collection or use of your information by the majority of the airlines, online travel agents, hotels, car hire companies or other travel companies (let's call them "Travel Suppliers") we feature. That means when you buy travel with most of the Travel Suppliers you'll find on Skyscanner, your information will be processed by them in accordance with their own privacy policy and terms and conditions. But don't worry, we'll always give you the links so you can read them before making a booking.
The only exception to this is where you book travel directly with a Skyscanner group company operating under the 'Skyscanner' brand. In this scenario your information will be processed by us and that Skyscanner group company in accordance with the terms of this policy and the Skyscanner Travel Service Terms of Service. We'll use the term "Skyscanner Travel Service" in this policy when we're referring to these bookings.
We only use your information where you've given us your consent, where its necessary to deliver the services you've requested, where it's necessary to exercise or comply with legal rights or obligations, or for normal business purposes of the kind set out in this policy.
When we need to do so to deliver our services or facilitate the performance of a contract you've entered - or are entering - into, such as making a booking with us or a Travel Supplier.
We may use essential cookies and similar technologies on your device for some of these purposes, as explained in more detail in our Cookie Policy.
To improve or optimise our services and to otherwise protect or further our legitimate interests. This includes pretty serious reasons like fraud prevention and security but also fun ones like product enhancement so we can keep making Skyscanner even better for our travellers.
Where we process your personal data based on a legitimate interest we will only do so where the processing is relevant, adequate and limited to what is necessary for the purpose it was collected for. And of course, we'll always ensure our legitimate interests don't unfairly impact on your own rights and freedoms.
We will obtain your consent for purposes such as:
Where we process your personal data based only on your consent, you can withdraw this consent at any time either by using the functionality provided within the appropriate product feature or by contacting us.
We may need to retain and use your information in connection with legal claims, or for compliance, regulatory and auditing purposes. For example, we may retain information where we are required by law, or if we are compelled to do so by a court order or regulatory body. Also, when you exercise any applicable legal rights you have to access, amend or delete your personal data, we may request identification and verification documents from you for the purpose of confirming your identity.
Everyone who uses our services will have bits and pieces of information about them collected, stored and processed. However, we don't collect more information than we need.
We can't help you plan and book your dream trip without information. So, when you use our services, we have to collect, keep and share some personal data and ask that you agree to that in line with this policy. We collect information in three ways:
Information you choose to give us might include personal data needed for you to book travel for yourself and others. This ranges from the dates and destination you choose in a search, to the basic stuff for making a booking with a Travel Supplier such as names and contact details. You may also include personal information when you contact our customer service teams, such as by telephone or using our live chat in the app It can also include content like the reviews or photographs you upload to our services to share with other travellers. Most importantly, it's always up to you whether or not you choose to give us this kind of information.
We generate or collect some information from your computer or device automatically as you use our services. This includes stuff like your IP address, information about the device and browser you are using to access our services, the website URL you visited us from and the third party sites you visit when you click on links to exit the Skyscanner site. It also includes details of the bookings you have made via Skyscanner. We may also know your location from your mobile or your IP address. This helps us to improve your experience, tailor our customer support services for you and make sure you receive the content that's most relevant to you.
Sometimes we're given information about you from third parties, depending on how you choose to interact with us. For example, when you come to our website via a promotional partner, or when you log into your Skyscanner account using our social network login feature. And, if you've made a booking with a Travel Supplier, we might collect information from them about whether you went ahead with your trip, what you booked and whether your booking was successful. We may also collect information about you from fraud prevention services providers we cooperate with to prevent misuse of your personal data.
Our services are not intended for children under 16 years of age, and no one under the age of 16 should provide any information to, on or via our services. We don't knowingly collect personal data from children under 16, and will delete any that we learn we have collected or received that was not provided by, or with express consent on behalf of, the child's parent or legal guardian.
Depending on how you interact with our services, we may collect or process the following categories of personal data via the three different ways explained above.
We only keep your data for as long as we need it, or are required to for legal reasons. We'll then either delete it or anonymise it so it doesn't identify you. We treat data differently depending on what it's used for, but you can ask us to delete your personal data at any time.
We keep your personal data only for as long as we need to. This depends on why it was collected, or if we have a continuing legal basis to do so (such as to fulfil a contract between us, perform a service you requested or for our legitimate interests). Rest assured, if we no longer have a reason or legal requirement to process your personal data, we will delete it or store it in a way so that it no longer identifies you.
We have different retention policies for different types of personal data, taking into account:
Also, if you have an account with us, we will keep personal data such as your email address, name and other details so you can log in and access our services for as long as you have an account. We may keep other information indefinitely - such as site activity linked to an IP address - which we use to help us understand our travellers, improve our products and services and protect our business interests.
We may also delete User Content, which may include personal data, in accordance with our terms of service and community guidelines.
No matter how long the retention period, you can ask us to delete your personal data in certain circumstances. Find out more about how you can manage your personal data in the What are your choices and rights? section of this policy.
We share your information only where you ask us to, where it's a necessary part of doing business with you and providing you with the services, or where we need to for legal reasons. Companies you book with via Skyscanner (like airlines or hotels) will collect your data in line with their own policies. Sometimes companies that advertise via our services may also collect your information (see Do we use cookies or other similar technologies?). Finally, companies that help us deliver our services will also collect and use your data on our behalf.
We share information relating to our users with selected third parties who provide us with a variety of different services that support the delivery of our services (let's call them "Third Party Processors"). These Third Party Processors range from providers of technical infrastructure to customer service and authentication tools. We require any Third Party Processor which handles information on our behalf to do so pursuant to contractual terms which require that the information is kept secure, is processed in accordance with applicable data protection laws, and used only as we have instructed and not for that Third Party Processor's own purposes (unless you have explicitly consented to them doing so).
Third Party Processors may be located in, or process your information, outside of the country in which you are based. Where appropriate we will take steps to ensure that recipients outside your country comply with your country's privacy laws. For example, if our use of a Third Party Processor involves the transfer of personal data from within Europe to a location outside of the European Economic Area, we will put in place appropriate measures to ensure that the personal data is adequately protected in that location, most often by applying European Commission-approved standard contractual clauses alongside robust security checks.
The types of Third Party Processors we may share elements of your personal data with include:
If you are buying travel from a Travel Supplier within the Skyscanner platform, any personal data you submit as part of the booking process will be shared with the relevant Travel Supplier and any third party that Travel Supplier may use in order to enable the booking to be completed or amended (including, where necessary, for fraud-detection and identity verification purposes). In this scenario, we'll make sure that you get an opportunity to review the Travel Supplier's privacy policy and terms and conditions before you complete your purchase. We recommend that you carefully review these documents in order to understand how that Travel Supplier will use your information and who they will share it with.
In order to prevent and detect fraud, we may share information about you with the fraud prevention services providers we cooperate with ("Fraud Prevention Providers").
When you use the Skyscanner Travel Service, your personal information will be processed by us and the relevant Skyscanner group company to fulfil your travel booking and to assist with any customer support queries, changes or amendments that might need to be made to your travel plans. Your personal information may also be shared with Travel Suppliers whose inventory is available to book via the Skyscanner Travel Service. These Travel Suppliers may in turn share your data with their own Travel Suppliers in accordance with their own privacy policy. Please see the full list of Travel Suppliers used in the Skyscanner Travel Service for more information about who these suppliers including links to their privacy policies.
Depending on where the relevant Travel Supplier has sourced the underlying ticket from and the type of ticket you are looking to purchase, your personal data may be shared with one of the following third party online reservation systems that are commonly used to process travel bookings known as 'Global Distribution Systems' ("GDS"):
GDS | Location |
---|---|
Sabre | USA |
Travelport | UK |
Amadeus | Spain |
Travelsky | China |
Sirena-Travel | Russia |
GDS may process your personal data to fulfil a travel booking, issue tickets and related travel documentation or for authentication and fraud prevention purposes.
When we share your personal data within our networks and those of Travel Suppliers, or when you contact our customer service team, your personal data will be processed by the provider of the telecommunications infrastructure ("Communications Providers").
Travel Suppliers, Communications Providers, Fraud Prevention Providers and GDS may be located in, or process your information, outside of the country in which you are based. For example, if you are booking a flight that operates within a particular country you should expect that your personal information will be transferred to, and be processed by Travel Suppliers, Communications Providers and GDS, that are located in that country. The regulations in these countries may not provide the same level of protection of personal data as the regulations in your own country of residence.
We will also share personal data with third parties you expressly authorise us to, such as where we run a promotion in conjunction with a partner and you instruct us to share your email address with that third party for the purpose of receiving promotional emails.
Publicly accessible personal data included in User Content such as your name, likeness and the content of reviews and posts may be shared and/or made available to carefully selected third parties with whom we have a contractual relationship for the purpose of displaying this content for their similar travel-related services.
We may share and/or make available your publicly accessible personal data such as your name, profile picture, reviews, traveller photos and posts to carefully selected third parties with whom we have a contractual relationship.
Find out more about how you can manage your personal data when it is shared in this way in the What are your choices and rights? section of this policy
Certain information may also be collected from you by third parties such as advertisers, marketing networks and affiliates (see the How do we advertise? section below) using cookies and similar technologies. For example your IP address and events relating to your activity like searches you have carried out or pages you have viewed on Skyscanner may be collected and transmitted to these third parties to allow them to serve relevant advertising to you across the web. The information that is collected in this way will never include your name, contact details or other information that would enable you to be identified in the offline world. You can find out more about advertising in Skyscanner, including how you can opt out of certain types of advertising in the How do we advertise? section of this policy and in our Cookie Policy.
We may disclose your information where necessary to enforce our Terms of Service or other agreements, or to a prospective or ultimate buyer if Skyscanner itself (or part of our business) is sold. We may also disclose your information if necessary to prevent, detect or prosecute illegal or suspected illegal activities, including fraud, or to prevent other damage or where necessary in response to legally binding requests, legal action against us, or to enforce our rights and claims.
Safeguarding your privacy is embedded in our culture and we use a combination of industry-standard methods to protect it.
Keeping your personal data secure is our highest priority. We limit access to only those Skyscanner group employees who have to come into contact with your information to do their jobs and deliver our services.
Unfortunately, no website or app can guarantee complete security but we have created an organisation-wide security programme designed to keep your personal data as safe as possible. It uses a range of technical, organisational and administrative security measures and best-practice techniques, depending on the type of data being processed. For example, the computer systems we use to store your data have access limitations and in-cloud based servers that use industry-standard disc encryption. We use TLS and HTTPS encryption to protect your personal data when we transfer it across the internet. And we carry out security assessments on Third Party Processors who handle your data.
To make sure we maintain a culture of 'Privacy by Design', we provide thorough data protection and privacy training to all Skyscanner group employees. We develop our services with the goal of using the minimum amount of personal data possible, including through use of data minimisation techniques like anonymisation and pseudonymisation. Also, whenever we develop or update our services in ways that involve the collection or use of new forms of personal data, we conduct a privacy impact assessment to understand, and reduce, the likelihood of any unintended impact on you.
Your data is securely stored in data centres around the world - the exact location depends on where you are when you use Skyscanner. Your data will only be processed by suppliers who provide appropriate contractual safeguards for the information they process. Sometimes your data may be stored in countries with different levels of security to your own but we always make sure their standards meet ours.
We store the information we collect from you on secure servers in various locations, depending on where you are in the world when you access our site. Currently, we use servers that are located in Ireland, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Singapore and Russia. These servers are provided and/or supported by third parties acting under our instruction (see When is your information shared with or collected by third parties? for more information).
Sometimes the countries that your data is transferred to, or stored in, may have different, or less stringent, data protection and security standards than your own. However, subject to the local laws in these countries, we'll provide the safeguards needed to protect your data regardless of location. We do this through a combination of appropriate technical, organisational and administrative security measures, and by putting in place the necessary legal contracts to backup these requirements. For example, we will only store European users' personal data outside the European Economic Area where a European Commission-approved method of validating the transfer has been put in place.
If you have a question about the steps we take to safeguard your personal data, please contact us using the details set out in this Privacy Policy (see Who are we and how can you contact us?).
You'll see various adverts when you use our services and might also see adverts about Skyscanner when you're on other platforms. These adverts might come from us or from third parties and may be personalised to make them more relevant to you. The information used to personalise adverts you see may include your details of what you've searched for on Skyscanner or general location information at a city or airport level, but will never include your name, contact details or other information that would enable you to be identified in the offline world. If you want to manage how your information is used for advertising purposes, you can find out more below and in our Cookie Policy.
You'll often see adverts while using our services. These will either be delivered by us directly or by third party advertising solution providers we partner with (let's call them "Third Party Ad Solutions").
The majority of these adverts will be personalised to make them relevant to you and will fall into two different categories. Firstly, adverts that are personalised for you based either on contextual information that is specific to something you may be looking at or have searched for but which is not linked to you as an individual (for example, if you have searched for a flight to London this search data will be reflected in the URL of the results page you have landed on, and this data within the URL may then be used by us to decide to include an advert relating to a hotel in London within that webpage) or on information collected by us or by Third Party Ad Solutions whilst you use our services, such as your general location (by city or country) and your Skyscanner searches or booking history ("Skyscanner-related Information"). So, for example, if you've booked a flight to Rome, you'll see adverts about hotels in Rome, rather than hotels in Paris (Paris is lovely, but this could be a bit annoying!). Skyscanner-related Information will never include your name, contact details or other information that would enable you to be identified in the offline world. Secondly, adverts that are personalised for you based on information that we have no visibility or control over, and which is instead collected from you by Third Party Solutions when you have been using other non-Skyscanner websites or platforms ("non-Skyscanner Platforms"). Collectively, we refer to these as "interest-based" advertisements.
The information required to deliver these interest-based advertisements will be stored by Third Party Ad Solutions alongside your IP address and/or a cookie ID, so that you can be served the adverts without the Third Party Ad Solutions needing to store any information that would enable you to be identified in the offline world, like your name or address.
When you are opted-in to ads personalisation we may also use information we collect via cookies and similar technologies to show you personalised ads, marketing and promotions on Skyscanner, or to send you communications where you have opted in to receive these. For example, where you book a flight using Skyscanner or redirect from Skyscanner to make a booking on one of our partner sites, we may use the information we collect via cookies and similar technologies to personalise the ads we show you or to send you personalised marketing communications relevant to your booking based on information like your destination, the time you are travelling, the services you've selected or which travel supplier you are travelling with. We may also use this information to provide you with relevant information about the destination you are travelling to such as City Guides or up to date weather information or to request reviews and recommendations about the places you have visited.
You might also see adverts for our services once you've left Skyscanner and are using non-Skyscanner websites. For example, this would happen where a non-Skyscanner Platform that you use makes advertising space available for sale and Skyscanner, or a Third Party Ad Solution that we work with, purchases that space. Similar to the adverts you see whilst using Skyscanner, these adverts may be personalised and served to you because of information that Third Party Ad Solutions have collected about you, either when you were using our services or when you were using other non-Skyscanner Platforms. For example, if you have searched for a flight from Edinburgh to London on Skyscanner or another non-Skyscanner Platform, and we have asked Third Party Ad Solution to show our advert to individuals that have expressed an interest in travelling to London, the Third Party Ad Solution may categorise you within that group and serve you our advert.
You can find information about how to tailor your advertising preferences in our Cookie Policy. You can opt-out of your information being used for advertising purposes by deselecting the "Personalise my Ads" option accessible at www.skyscanner.net/privacy-settings or via the Privacy Settings option in the Skyscanner app. This will stop your information being used for advertising purposes by any of the Third Party Ad Solutions. When you opt-out of or block interest-based advertising that's delivered by Third Party Ad Solutions, you'll no longer receive advertisements from those Third Party Ad solutions on Skyscanner or on other websites as you move around web. However, you'll continue to receive interest-based advertising that's delivered by us when you're on our services based on contextual information.
We use cookies and similar technologies to help deliver, optimise, personalise and analyse our services and for advertising purposes.
We use a combination of cookies and other technologies such as pixels/web beacons and tracking codes (explained below) to collect information for use in line with the purposes set out in this policy.
A cookie is a small data file that is stored on your computer or device. Cookies record things like your preferences and settings, helping to give us the information we need to provide you with the most consistent and relevant experience. We also use cookies to record information about experiments or new improvements we might test to track how you use our services and find out whether they were effective.
Cookies on our website may be set by us, third parties we're working with, or independent third parties (such as advertisers).
Web beacons or pixels are small, transparent image files inside a web page or email. We use them to understand how you interact with our services, or if you've redirected to a Travel Supplier's website or app. We might use the pixel to confirm if you went on to book with them, and what you booked. We also use pixels to gather information such as whether you've opened an email, so that we can improve our communications to you.
Tracking codes are snippets of code placed in the page to measure things like visits and interactions. We use tracking codes to find out more about how you interact with our services, the adverts you see and more generally, how you use us.
Please see our Cookie Policy for more information and details of the types of cookies and similar technologies we use.
If you've got a Skyscanner account, you can access, edit, download or delete the key personal data associated with your profile at any time by going to your Profile. From here you can also manage your subscription and marketing preferences.
You also have rights in relation to the personal data we have about you, which we explain in more detail below. You can exercise these rights by getting in touch with us via our Help Centre.
If you are a California resident, learn more about your rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act.
You have the right to ask us for a copy of your personal data; to correct, delete or restrict processing of your personal data; and to obtain the personal data you have provided to us in a structured, machine readable format. In addition, you can object to the processing of your personal data in some circumstances (in particular, where we don't have to process the data to meet a contractual or other legal requirement, or where we are using your personal data for the purposes of direct marketing). Where we have asked for your consent, you may withdraw consent at any time. If you ask to withdraw your consent to Skyscanner processing your data, this will not affect any processing which has already taken place at that time.
These rights may be limited, for example if fulfilling your request would reveal personal data about another person, or if you ask us to delete information which we are required by law or have compelling legitimate interests to keep. If you have unresolved concerns, you have the right to complain to a data protection authority.
To the extent that you're unable to satisfactorily exercise any of these rights via your Profile, you can do so by contacting our Data Protection Officer by post at Skyscanner, Quartermile One, 15 Lauriston Place, Edinburgh EH3 9EN, marked for the attention of the Legal Team, or electronically via our Help Centre.
If you have unresolved concerns, you have the right to complain to a data protection authority.
Skyscanner is provided by Skyscanner Limited, a company registered in the UK with company number 04217916 and registered office address at Floor 11, Regent's Place, 338 Euston Road, London, United Kingdom, NW1 3BT.
You can contact us via our Help Centre.
Skyscanner is provided by Skyscanner Limited, a company registered in the UK with company number 04217916 and registered office address at Floor 11, Regent's Place, 338 Euston Road, London, United Kingdom, NW1 3BT. Skyscanner Limited is the Data Controller of any information collected from you by us.
Where you use the Skyscanner Travel Service to book travel, your information will be processed by us and other companies within the Skyscanner group as a joint data controller. In such circumstances, Skyscanner Limited and the relevant company within the Skyscanner group (the identity of which will be made clear to you during the booking process) will jointly determine the purposes and means of processing your personal data in accordance with this policy.
In relation to any travel bookings you make with a company within the Skyscanner group, Skyscanner Limited is responsible for the collection and processing of your personal data in accordance with this privacy policy. Skyscanner Limited is also responsible for informing you about how your personal data will be processed, providing communications to you relating to your booking including ancillary services and providing you with customer support. Where you have consented to your personal data being used to receive updates, news and travel information, Skyscanner Limited will be responsible for the processing of your personal data in this way.
You are in control of the personal data you submit to Skyscanner Limited or any Skyscanner Travel Supplier as set out in the What are your choices and rights? section of this Privacy Policy. Where you submit a data subject request in accordance with your rights, Skyscanner Limited shall be responsible for dealing with the request and responding to you on behalf of any Skyscanner Travel Suppliers.
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