Privacy Statement for DestinationsJourney.com

Last updated: 29 September 2025

DestinationsJourney.com (“we”, “our”, “us”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal information. This Privacy Statement explains how we collect, use, store, and disclose your data in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Australian Privacy Act 1988, and applicable privacy laws in the United States.

1. Purpose and Legal Basis of Processing

We collect and process personal data only when necessary for the following purposes:

Providing Services: To deliver travel-related content, newsletters, and updates that you request.
Improving User Experience: To analyse website usage and improve our services.
Communications: To respond to your inquiries, provide support, or notify you of changes.
Legal Compliance: To meet legal obligations under applicable laws.

The legal basis for processing under GDPR includes:

Consent: When you sign up for newsletters or contact us voluntarily.
Contractual Necessity: Where processing is required to provide requested services.
Legitimate Interest: We may process certain data (e.g., analytics) to improve website performance and ensure security. Our legitimate interest lies in maintaining a secure, functional, and user-friendly platform.

2. Identity of the Data Controller

The responsible entity for processing your personal data is:

Destinations Journey
Website: https://destinationsjourney.com
Email: [email protected]

3. Recipients of Personal Data

We may share your personal data only with the following categories of recipients:

Service Providers: Hosting providers, analytics services (e.g., Google Analytics), and email newsletter providers.
Legal Authorities: If required to comply with a lawful request or legal obligation.

We use the WP Statistics plugin to analyze traffic on our website. WP Statistics stores its data on our own server and does not transmit it to any third parties. Below, we describe what information we collect through WP Statistics, why we collect it, and how it is handled. If you have questions or concerns about our analytics practices, please contact us or review the WP Statistics Data Privacy guide.

We track certain details about logged-in visitors on our site. Specifically:

User ID & Page Views: If you are logged in, we associate your account (username/ID) with your page visits.
Purpose: This helps us understand how registered members use our site and improve their experience.
Local & Secure Storage: These logs are kept securely on our server and are not shared externally.
Your Choices: You can choose to browse without logging in if you prefer not to link your visits with your user account. You may also contact us to request removal of any collected data where legally applicable.

If data is transferred outside the EU/EEA, we ensure appropriate safeguards, such as:

Transfers to countries deemed to have adequate protection by the European Commission.
Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) with service providers.

4. Security Measures

We apply technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data, including:

Secure HTTPS encryption across the site.
Restricted access to personal data on a need-to-know basis.
Regular monitoring and security updates.

5. Contact Details

If you have questions regarding data protection, please contact:

Data Protection Contact / Privacy Officer
Email: [email protected]

6. Retention Period

We retain your data only as long as necessary:

Newsletter subscription data: Until you unsubscribe.
Contact form submissions: Up to 12 months, unless required longer for legal or service reasons.
Analytics data: Stored in anonymised/aggregated form wherever possible.

When data is no longer required, it will be securely deleted or anonymised.

7. Automated Decision-Making and Profiling

We do not use automated decision-making or profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects. Limited automated tools (e.g., analytics, email campaign management) may be used to tailor content, but these do not create significant decisions affecting your rights.

8. Your Rights as a Data Subject

You have the following rights under GDPR, the Australian Privacy Principles, and relevant U.S. laws (where applicable):

Access: To request a copy of your personal data.
Rectification: To correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
Erasure (“Right to be Forgotten”): To request deletion of your personal data when legally permitted.
Restriction: To limit processing in certain circumstances.
Data Portability: To receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used format.
Objection: To object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing.
Withdrawal of Consent: To withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on consent.