Legal

Privacy policy

How Oxford Tour Guides uses the information you give us when you enquire about or book a tour.

Privacy statement

At Oxford Tour Guides we take your privacy seriously and so the contact details you supply to us will be for the sole purpose of communicating with you to organise the arrangements for your tour. Your contact number will be passed to the guide who is to take your tour so that you can liaise on the day in case of delays or problems. Similarly, Oxford Tour Guides will provide you with the name and contact number for the guide for your tour, solely to enable you to stay in touch with the guide on the day of the tour. All other communication or enquiries should be via Oxford Tour Guides. We will not pass your contact details to any third party for any other purposes.

The rest of this page explains in more detail what we collect, why, who sees it, how long we keep it and the rights you have under UK data protection law.

Who we are

Oxford Tour Guides is the data controller for the personal information described on this page.

Oxford Tour Guides
Email: info@oxfordtourguides.co.uk
Phone: +44 (0)7761 949422

What we collect

When you enquire or book

When you use one of our enquiry forms, email us or call us, we collect:

your name, email address and phone number;
the date, time and length of tour you would like, and the tour or subject you are interested in;
the number of people in your party, and the ages of any children if you tell us;
the language you would like your tour in;
anything else you choose to tell us, such as your interests, a special occasion or access needs.

If you are a travel advisor, tour operator or group organiser, we also collect your organisation's name and the details of the party you are booking for.

Please only tell us about health or mobility needs where it helps us plan your tour. We use that information only to plan a suitable route and to brief your guide.

When you pay

Once your tour is confirmed we send an invoice with a secure card payment link. You enter your card details on our payment provider's secure page, so we never see or store your full card number. We keep a record of what was paid and when.

When you visit this website

This website does not use analytics or advertising trackers, and it does not set any cookies when you first visit. Like any website, our web host and security software keep standard server logs (such as your IP address, browser type, the pages requested and the time) so that the site works and is protected from attack.

How we use your information

We use your information for the following purposes, and UK data protection law requires us to tell you the legal basis for each.

To answer your enquiry, quote a fee, match you with a guide and arrange your tour. This is necessary to take the steps you ask for before a booking and to carry out the booking (contract).
To give your guide your name and phone number, and to give you theirs, so that you can reach each other on the day (contract).
To invoice you, take payment and keep our accounts (legal obligation).
To keep this website secure and working (our legitimate interests in running a safe, reliable website).
To plan around any health or mobility needs you tell us about (your explicit consent, which you can withdraw at any time).

We do not send newsletters or marketing emails, we do not use your information for automated decision-making, and we never sell it.

Who we share it with

Your guide. Our guides are freelance, accredited Blue and Green Badge guides. They receive your name, phone number and the details they need for your tour.
Your travel advisor or tour operator, if you booked through one.
Colleges and attractions, only where we book entry for you and they need a lead name.
Service providers who handle information for us under contract: our website host, our email provider and our payment provider.
Authorities, where the law requires us to.

Services this website uses

Some parts of this website load content from other providers. When they do, your browser connects to that provider and sends it your IP address, as with any web request.

Google Fonts (Google). The fonts on this website are loaded from Google's servers. No cookies are set.
Maps (OpenFreeMap, using OpenStreetMap data). The map tiles on our maps are loaded from OpenFreeMap's servers. No cookies are set.
Language switcher (Google Translate). Only if you choose a language other than English, the page is translated by Google Translate, which loads Google's translation scripts and may set Google's own cookies. We set a cookie called googtrans to remember your choice.
Currency converter. Only if you open it, your browser fetches European Central Bank reference rates from the Frankfurter service. Your chosen currency is remembered in your browser's local storage.

Links to Tripadvisor, Google, colleges and other websites take you to sites with their own privacy policies.

Cookies and browser storage

We do not use cookies for analytics or advertising. The only items this website stores in your browser are set when you use the feature that needs them:

googtrans (cookie): remembers the language you chose. It lasts one year, or until you switch back to English.
otgCurrency (local storage): remembers the currency you chose in the currency converter, until you clear your browser's storage.

Because these are needed to provide a feature you have asked for, we do not ask for separate consent. You can delete them at any time in your browser settings. Website administrators who log in receive WordPress's own login cookies; visitors do not.

Information sent outside the UK

Google may process information in the United States. Google is certified under the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, which the UK government recognises as giving adequate protection. Our other providers process information in the UK or the European Economic Area, or under safeguards approved by UK law.

How long we keep it

Enquiries that do not lead to a booking: up to 12 months, then deleted.
Booking and payment records: six years, as required for tax and accounting.
Server and security logs: a short period, normally no more than 90 days.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you can ask us to:

give you a copy of the personal information we hold about you;
correct anything that is wrong or incomplete;
delete your information, where we no longer need to keep it;
restrict or object to how we use it;
send your information to you or another organisation in a portable format;
stop using information you gave us with your consent.

Email info@oxfordtourguides.co.uk to make a request. There is normally no charge, and we will reply within one month.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office: ico.org.uk, telephone 0303 123 1113.

Children

We do not knowingly collect information directly from children. Parents, teachers and group leaders who book for children may tell us their ages, which we use only to plan the tour.