Privacy Policy

We collect and use several types of information about you, including:

• Personal information, that we can reasonably use to directly or indirectly identify you, such as your name, mailing address, email address, telephone number, Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, user name or other similar identifier, billing and account information, and any other identifier we may use to contact you (“personal information”).

  We provide an opportunity for any user to unsubscribe from the Website or opt-out of contact for marketing purposes or other purposes on an ongoing basis by using the unsubscribe mechanism at the bottom of our emails.

• Non-personal information, that does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity and does not relate to an identifiable individual, such as browsing and interaction data (including pages and content viewed, time spent on each page, destinations and activities browsed or searched, filters and preferences applied during browsing, search queries entered on the Website, clickstream data, frequency and recency of visits, inferred traveler type classifications, and inferred interest profiles derived from browsing patterns), and we may derive statistical or aggregated data from behavioral interactions with the Website. For example, we may aggregate personal information to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific Website feature.
• Technical information, including your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, or information about your internet connection, the equipment you use to access our Website, and usage details.
• Non-personal details about your Website interactions, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), clickstream to, through and from our Website (including date and time), products you viewed or searched for, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), methods used to browse away from the page, or any phone number used to call our customer service number.
• Information about how you arrived at the Website, including via a search engine, social media link, email campaign, or direct visit.
• Approximate geographic location at the city or regional level, derived from your IP address. We do not collect precise GPS or street-level location data.
• Device type and screen information, including whether you access the Website on a mobile device, tablet, or desktop computer, and your screen resolution.
• Review and content interaction data, including which reviews or ratings you viewed, marked as helpful, or otherwise interacted with on the Website.
• Saved or wishlisted items, including destinations, routes, or experiences you bookmark or save for future reference on the Website.

We use different methods to collect your information, including through:

• Direct interactions with you when you provide it to us, for example, by filling in forms or corresponding with us by phone, email, or otherwise.
• User contributions. You may also provide information for us to publish or display on public Website areas or transmit to other Website users or third parties, such as when you post reviews, share routes, or submit other public content.
• Automated technologies or interactions, as you navigate through our Website. Information collected automatically may include usage details, IP addresses, and information collected through cookies, web beacons, and other tracking technologies.
• Third parties or publicly available sources, including: social login providers (such as Google, Apple, or Facebook) when you authenticate through their services; payment processors when you complete a transaction on our Website; third-party review platforms from which we source or display reviews and ratings; and Tour Guides listed on our platform, who may share traveler booking details, special requirements, or communications with us in connection with a confirmed or pending booking, without requiring a separate account on our Website.

2.1Information You Provide to Us

The information we collect directly from you on or through our Website may include:

• Information that you provide by filling in forms on our Website. This includes information provided at the time of registering to use our Website, subscribing to present or future services, posting material, and booking a service through our Website. We may also ask you for information when you report a problem with our Website.
• Records and copies of your correspondence (including email addresses), if you contact us.
• Your responses to surveys that we might ask you to complete for research purposes.
• Details of service bookings you make through our Website, including booking confirmation information and the fulfillment of your reservations. You will be required to provide payment information through our payment processor before completing a service booking.
• Your search queries on the Website.
• Booking preferences and requirements you provide when requesting a service, including your preferred travel dates, group size, trip duration for customized experiences, and any special requirements such as dietary restrictions, accessibility needs, or language preferences.

You may also provide information to be published or displayed (hereinafter, “posted”) on public areas of the Website or transmitted to other users of the Website or third parties (collectively, “User Contributions”). Your User Contributions are posted on and transmitted to others at your own risk. All User Contributions are visible to any visitor of the Website by default. Please be aware that no security measures are perfect. Additionally, we cannot control the actions of other users of the Website with whom you may choose to share your User Contributions. Therefore, we cannot and do not guarantee that unauthorized persons will not view your User Contributions.

2.2Information We Collect Through Cookies and Other Automatic Data Collection Technologies

As you navigate through and interact with our Website, we may use cookies or other automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns, including:

• Details of your visits to our Website, including traffic data, location data, logs, and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Website.
• Information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system, and browser type.

The information we collect automatically is primarily statistical information, but it may include personal information, and we may maintain or associate it with personal information we collect in other ways or receive from third parties. It helps us to improve our Website and to deliver a better and more personalized service, including by enabling us to:

• Estimate our audience size and usage patterns.
• Store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize our Website according to your individual interests.
• Speed up your searches.
• Recognize you when you return to our Website.

The technologies we use for this automatic data collection may include:

• Cookies (or browser cookies). A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our Website. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Website.
• Flash Cookies. Certain features of our Website may use local stored objects (or Flash cookies) to collect and store information about your preferences and navigation to, from, and on our Website. Flash cookies are not managed by the same browser settings that are used for browser cookies. For information about managing your privacy and security settings for Flash cookies, see Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information.
• Web Beacons. Pages of our Website and our emails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit the Company, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an email and for other related Website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain Website content and verifying system and server integrity).

We use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any personal information:

• To present our Website and its contents to you.
• To provide you with information, products, or services that you request from us.
• To fulfill the purposes for which you provided the information or that were described when it was collected, or any other purpose for which you provide it.
• To provide you with notices about your account, including booking confirmations, updates, cancellations, and other account-related communications.
• To carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts with you, including for billing and collection or to comply with legal requirements.
• To notify you about changes to our Website or any products or services we offer or provide through it.
• To improve our Website, products or services, marketing, or customer relationships and experiences.
• To allow you to participate in interactive features on our Website, including posting reviews, sharing routes, and submitting other public content.
• To facilitate and manage your service bookings, including sharing relevant booking details (such as your name, contact information, travel dates, group size, and special requirements) with the applicable Tour Guide in order to deliver the service you have requested.
• To build and maintain your traveler profile, including inferring your travel interests, preferences, and traveler type based on your browsing and interaction data, in order to recommend services and experiences relevant to you.
• To facilitate communications between you and Tour Guides through our platform in connection with pending or confirmed bookings.
• To display your User Contributions, including reviews, ratings, and other public content you submit, on our Website for other users and visitors to view.
• To investigate and resolve disputes between travelers and Tour Guides arising from bookings made through our platform.
• In any other way we may describe when you provide the information.
• For any other purpose with your consent.

We may also use your information to contact you about our own and third parties’ goods and services that may be of interest to you, as permitted by law. If you do not want us to use your information in this way, please email us at privacy@explore-velo.ca. For more information, see Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information.

We may use the information we have collected from you to enable us to display advertisements to our advertisers’ target audiences. Even though we do not disclose your personal information for these purposes without your consent, if you click on or otherwise interact with an advertisement, the advertiser may assume that you meet its target criteria.

We may disclose aggregated information about our users, and information that does not identify any individual, without restriction.

We may disclose personal information that we collect or you provide as described in this privacy policy:

• In accordance with applicable law, to a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of VELO’s assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by VELO about our customers and users is among the assets transferred.
• To contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support our business, who are contractually obligated to keep personal information confidential and use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them. Our key service providers include: analytics providers (such as Google Analytics) who assist with Website improvement and usage analysis; email delivery providers (such as Resend) who facilitate communications between users and Tour Guides and send account and booking notifications; payment processors who handle transaction processing; and third-party review platforms from which we source or display reviews and ratings.
• To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it. For example, when you complete a service booking, we will transmit relevant booking details (such as your name, contact information, travel dates, group size, and special requirements) to the applicable Tour Guide to facilitate delivery of the service.
• For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information.
• With your consent.
• To Tour Guides listed on our platform, solely to the extent necessary to facilitate and deliver the service booking you have requested, including sharing your name, contact information, travel dates, group size, trip duration, and any special requirements you have provided.

We may also disclose your personal information:

• To comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request, in accordance with applicable law.
• To enforce or apply our terms of use and other agreements, including for billing and collection purposes.
• If we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of VELO, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

We may transfer personal information that we collect or that you provide as described in this policy to contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support our business (such as analytics and search engine providers that assist us with Website improvement and optimization) and who are contractually obligated to keep personal information confidential, use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them, and to process the personal information with the same standards set out in this policy.

We may process, store, and transfer your personal information in and to a foreign country, with different privacy laws that may or may not be as comprehensive as Canadian law. In these circumstances, the governments, courts, law enforcement, or regulatory agencies of that country may be able to obtain access to your personal information through the laws of the foreign country. Whenever we engage a service provider, we require that its privacy and security standards adhere to this policy and applicable Canadian privacy legislation.

Additional information regarding international transfers and rights available to individuals located in Europe is set out in our European Privacy Addendum.

You are welcome to contact us to obtain further information about Company policies regarding service providers outside of Canada. See Contact Information and Challenging Compliance.

We strive to provide you with choices regarding the personal information you provide to us. We have created mechanisms to provide you with the following control over your information:

• Tracking Technologies and Advertising. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. To learn how you can manage your Flash cookie settings, visit the Flash player settings page on Adobe’s Website. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this Website may not be accessible or may not function properly. For more information about tracking technologies, see Information We Collect Through Cookies and Other Automatic Data Collection Technologies.
• Promotional Offers from the Company. If you have opted in to receive certain emails from us but no longer wish to have your email address/contact information used by the Company to promote our own or third parties’ products or services, you can opt-out by sending us an email stating your request to privacy@explore-velo.ca. If we have sent you a promotional email, you may unsubscribe by clicking the unsubscribe link we have included in the email.

The security of your personal information is very important to us. We use physical, electronic, and administrative measures designed to secure your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. We store all information you provide to us behind firewalls on our secure servers.

The safety and security of your information also depends on you. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password for access to certain parts of our Website, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone. We urge you to be careful about giving out information in public areas of the Website like message boards, which any Website visitor can view.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to our Website. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Website.

Except as otherwise permitted or required by applicable law or regulation, we will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Under some circumstances we may anonymize your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you. We reserve the right to use such anonymous and de-identified data for any legitimate business purpose without further notice to you or your consent.

This Website and the services offered on it are intended solely for individuals 18 years of age or older. No one under age 18 may provide any personal information to or on the Website and by accessing or using this Website, you agree that you are at least 18 years old and legally capable of entering into binding agreements.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18 years of age. If you are under 18, do not use or provide any information on this Website or on or through any of its features/register on the Website, make any purchases through the Website, use any of the interactive or public comment features of this Website, or provide any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, email address, or any screen name or user name you may use.

Certain content on this Website may include images or references to minors (e.g., in travel or tour-related media). Such content is provided for informational or illustrative purposes only and does not indicate that the Website or its services are intended for use by minors.

We are not responsible for the access or use of this Website by users below 18 who have confirmed meeting the age threshold, nor are we responsible for how users choose to engage with the contents and services offered by the online platform beyond the intended audience.

If you are a parent or guardian and believe that a minor has shared personal information on this Website, please contact us at privacy@explore-velo.ca.

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes. By law you have the right to request access to and to correct the personal information that we hold about you.

You can review and change your personal information by logging into the Website and visiting your account profile page.

If you want to review, verify, correct, or withdraw consent to the use of your personal information you may also send us an email at privacy@explore-velo.ca to request access to, correct, or delete any personal information that you have provided to us. We cannot delete your personal information except by also deleting your user account. We may not accommodate a request to change information if we believe the change would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect.

We may request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and your right to access, and to provide you with the personal information that we hold about you or make your requested changes. Applicable law may allow or require us to refuse to provide you with access to some or all of the personal information that we hold about you, or we may have destroyed, erased, or made your personal information anonymous in accordance with our record retention obligations and practices. If we cannot provide you with access to your personal information, we will inform you of the reasons why, subject to any legal or regulatory restrictions.

We will provide access to your personal information, subject to exceptions set out in applicable privacy legislation. Examples of such exceptions include:

• Information protected by solicitor-client privilege.
• Information that is part of a formal dispute resolution process.
• Information that is about another individual that would reveal their personal information or confidential commercial information.
• Information that is prohibitively expensive to provide.

If you are concerned about our response or would like to correct the information provided, you may contact our Privacy Officer at privacy@explore-velo.ca.

If you delete your User Contributions from the Website, copies of your User Contributions may remain viewable in cached and archived pages or might have been copied or stored by other Website users. Proper access and use of information provided on the Website, including User Contributions, is governed by our terms of use.

Where you have provided your consent to the collection, use, and transfer of your personal information, you may have the legal right to withdraw your consent under certain circumstances. To withdraw your consent, if applicable, contact us at privacy@explore-velo.ca. Please note that if you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide you with a particular product or service. We will explain the impact to you at the time to help you with your decision.

It is our policy to post any changes we make to our privacy policy on this page with a notice that the privacy policy has been updated on the Website home page. If we make material changes to how we treat our users’ personal information, we will notify you by email to the email address specified in your account or through a notice on the Website home page.

We include the date the privacy policy was last revised at the top of the page. You are responsible for ensuring we have an up-to-date, active, and deliverable email address for you, and for periodically visiting our Website and this privacy policy to check for any changes.

We welcome your questions, comments, and requests regarding this privacy policy and our privacy practices.

Please contact us at: privacy@explore-velo.ca.

We have procedures in place to receive and respond to complaints or inquiries about our handling of personal information, our compliance with this policy, and with applicable privacy laws. To discuss our compliance with this policy please contact our Privacy Officer using the contact information listed above.

By using VELO’s services, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to this Privacy Policy, our Terms of Service, and our Code of Conduct.