Privacy Policy

At Stepabroad we understand that privacy is important and have set in place this Privacy Policy in accordance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) to inform you how we collect information and what we do with it. This document solely applies to the public website stepabroad.com and by using this website you understand and agree to the following terms of this Privacy Policy.

Who We Are

Stepabroad offers working holiday and internship programs to Canadians between the ages of 18 and 35 in six countries around the world. Our website address (http://www.stepabroad.com) is operated out of our office located at #812, 525 Seymour Street Vancouver, Canada. We can be contacted by phone +1 (778) 512 7837 or email travel@stepabroad.com.

What Personal Data We Collect and Why We Collect It

In order to provide our services, there are instances where we ask you to provide information about yourself. This information may include personal data such as your name, email address and phone number, as well as technical data such as information about cookies. The kinds of situations where we collect personal information include the following:

  • receiving and responding to enquiries from potential program participants
  • receiving and responding to enquiries generated from our contact form
  • managing our contests and contacting the winners
  • contacting interested participants and blog subscribers with information and updates
  • including news, offers, promotions, special events, competitions, and surveys

Social Media

Our website provides users the opportunity to interact and post content through various social media sites including, but not limited to, Facebook, GooglePlus, Twitter and LinkedIn. Your interactions with such tools and any information you provide in connection with these interactions are publicly viewable outside of our site domain. Each social media site has its own privacy policies which may be more or less protective than this Policy. If you do not wish for this information to be disclosed, then you should not use these tools. We are not responsible for information you choose to post through these social media sites.

Our site also includes social media features, such as the Facebook button and Share button. These features may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our site, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. These social media features are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our site. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it. This is explained further in the below section, ‘Who We Share Your Data With.’

Cookies

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small amount of data, which often includes a unique identifier that is sent to your computer or mobile device browser from a website’s server and is stored on your device’s hard drive. Each website or third-party service provider used by the website can send its own cookie to your browser if your browser’s preferences allow it, but to protect your privacy your browser only permits a website or third-party service provider to access the cookies it has already sent to you, not the cookies sent to you by other sites or other third-party service providers. A cookie will contain some anonymous information such as a unique identifier and the site name and some digits and numbers.

What do cookies do?

Cookies record information about your online preferences and allow us to tailor the website to your interests. Information supplied by cookies can help us to analyze your use of our site and help us to provide you with a better user experience.

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to save your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

Embedded Content From Other Websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Analytics Information

We may directly collect analytics data, or use third-party analytics tools and services including Google Analytics, to help us measure traffic and usage trends for the website. These tools collect information sent by your browser or mobile device, including the pages you visit and other information that assists us in improving our programs and services. We collect and use this analytics information in aggregate form such that it cannot reasonably be manipulated to identify any particular individual user. For more information on how Google Analytics may use your information please read their privacy policy here.

If you would like to opt out of Analytics cookies, you can do so by following the steps available in this link: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

Who We Share Your Data With

Stepabroad will not rent or sell your information to third-parties for marketing purposes. We do however share site data with our trusted partners who help us improve your experience on our site. Our partners will only collect, use and disclose your information to the extent necessary to allow them to perform the services they provide to us. These trusted partners include the following:

  • Calendly: a web application used to schedule phone consultations with interested program participants. When booking a call, they collect your name, email and phone number so we can get in touch with you. Their privacy policy can be found here.
  • GetButton: a web application used to offer our chat support services. This application uses Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp or email as a platform to host the support conversation and requires you to be logged in to your Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp or email account to use the chat application. When our team is not available to answer your enquiry, your questions will be stored in our Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp or email inbox so we can reply as soon as we are next available, at which point you will receive a response in your chosen application’s inbox. GetButton does not provide us with access or collect any additional information from your Facebook profile. You may find GetButton’s privacy policy here. If you do not wish to submit your enquiry using your Facebook or WhatsApp profile you can send your questions to our general enquiries inbox instead: travel@stepabroad.com.
  • Gravatar: a web application that allows you to upload an image that represents you online. When you participate in any Gravatar-enabled site, your Gravatar image will automatically follow you there and appear next to your name when you interact with such websites. You may find their privacy policy here.
  • ShareThis: a web application that allows you easily to share our blog content on your social networks. You may find their privacy policy here.

How Long We Retain Your Data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that submit enquiries about our programs, we store the personal information they provide for one year or until they have completed a program, whichever comes sooner.

What Rights You Have Over Your Data

If you make an enquiry or have left comments on our site, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes. You can make this request by contacting us at travel@stepabroad.com.

Do We Disclose Any Information To Outside Parties?

We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information. This does not include our trusted partners who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others rights, property, or safety. However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.

We Protect Your Data

The security of your personal information is important. Stepabroad uses commercially reasonable safeguards to preserve the integrity and security of all information collected through our site. Stepabroad, however, is not responsible for the functionality or security measures of any third party.

What Data Breach Procedures We Have In Place

In the event that any information under our control is compromised as a result of a breach of security, we will notify those individuals whose information may have been compromised as soon as possible and immediately take steps to investigate the situation. Stepabroad will then follow up with those individuals potentially affected explaining the actions we took in response to the security breach including the following:

  • a description of the circumstances of the breach
  • the day or time period over which the breach occurred
  • a description of the information that was subjected to the breach
  • a description of the steps Stepabroad has taken to reduce harm from the breach
  • steps the potentially affected individuals can take to further reduce harm from the breach
  • how those potentially affected can obtain more information
  • Stepabroad maintains a record of every breach of security safeguards for 24 months from the day or estimated time period it occurred.

Have a Concern?

Please let us know if you have any concerns about your personal information obtained through the use of this site. Our Privacy Officer will be happy to respond to your questions or concerns and can be reached at:

812 – 525 Seymour Street
Vancouver, British Columbia
V6B 3H6
Phone: 778-512-7837
Email: thomas@stepabroad.com

For more general enquiries, Canada’s Information and Privacy Commissioner oversees the privacy legislation in the private sector. The Commissioner can be reached at:

112 Kent Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 1H3
Phone: 613-995-8210 Toll-free: 1-800-282-1376
Fax: 613-947-6850 TTY: 613-992-9190
Email: info@privcom.gc.ca

Withdraw Consent

Before obtaining, using or disclosing any personal information we must obtain express or implied consent to do so. By using this website we can reasonably infer from your actions that your consent is implied. You may withdraw this consent at any time, subject to legal restrictions. To withdraw your consent, please contact our Privacy Officer listed above and actions will be taken immediately to destroy your information. Please note, that by withdrawing your consent, we will be unable to provide you with our services.