Privacy Policy

This page outlines our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Please read them carefully before using this site.

Privacy Policy

TravelFreak.com collects some Personal Data from its Users.

Users may be subject to different protection standards and broader standards may therefore apply to some. Users can contact the Owner, to learn more about such standards.

This document can be printed for reference by using the print command in the settings of any browser.

Owner and Data Controller

TravelFreak, LLC
4030 Wake Forest Road, STE 349
Raleigh, NC, 27609, USA

Owner contact email:

Types of Data collected

Among the types of Personal Data that travelfreak.com collects, by itself or through third parties, there are: Trackers; Usage Data; number of Users; session statistics; first name; email address; last name.

Complete details on each type of Personal Data collected are provided in the dedicated sections of this privacy policy or by specific explanation texts displayed prior to the Data collection.

Personal Data may be freely provided by the User, or, in case of Usage Data, collected automatically when using travelfreak.com.

Unless specified otherwise, all Data requested by travelfreak.com is mandatory and failure to provide this Data may make it impossible for travelfreak.com to provide its services. In cases where travelfreak.com specifically states that some Data is not mandatory, Users are free not to communicate this Data without consequences to the availability or the functioning of the Service.

Users who are uncertain about which Personal Data is mandatory are welcome to contact the Owner.

Any use of Cookies – or of other tracking tools — by travelfreak.com or by the owners of third-party services used by travelfreak.com serves the purpose of providing the Service required by the User, in addition to any other purposes described in the present document and in the Cookie Policy.

Users are responsible for any third-party Personal Data obtained, published or shared through travelfreak.com.

Mode and place of processing the Data

The Owner takes appropriate security measures to prevent unauthorized access, disclosure, modification, or unauthorized destruction of the Data.

The Data processing is carried out using computers and/or IT enabled tools, following organizational procedures and modes strictly related to the purposes indicated. In addition to the Owner, in some cases, the Data may be accessible to certain types of persons in charge, involved with the operation of travelfreak.com (administration, sales, marketing, legal, system administration) or external parties (such as third-party technical service providers, mail carriers, hosting providers, IT companies, communications agencies) appointed, if necessary, as Data Processors by the Owner. The updated list of these parties may be requested from the Owner at any time.

The Data is processed at the Owner’s operating offices and in any other places where the parties involved in the processing are located.

Depending on the User’s location, data transfers may involve transferring the User’s Data to a country other than their own. To find out more about the place of processing of such transferred Data, Users can check the section containing details about the processing of Personal Data.

Unless specified otherwise in this document, Personal Data shall be processed and stored for as long as required by the purpose they have been collected for and may be retained for longer due to applicable legal obligation or based on the Users’ consent.

The purposes of processing

The Data concerning the User is collected to allow the Owner to provide its Service, comply with its legal obligations, respond to enforcement requests, protect its rights and interests (or those of its Users or third parties), detect any malicious or fraudulent activity, as well as the following: Advertising, Displaying content from external platforms, Managing contacts and sending messages, Traffic optimization and distribution, Registration and authentication provided directly by travelfreak.com, Tag Management, Analytics, Contacting the User, Content commenting, Heat mapping and session recording, Commercial affiliation and Hosting and backend infrastructure.

For specific information about the Personal Data used for each purpose, the User may refer to the section “Detailed information on the processing of Personal Data”.

Detailed information on the processing of Personal Data

Personal Data is collected for the following purposes and using the following services:

Advertising

This type of service allows User Data to be utilized for advertising communication purposes. These communications are displayed in the form of banners and other advertisements on travelfreak.com, possibly based on User interests.

This does not mean that all Personal Data are used for this purpose. Information and conditions of use are shown below.

Some of the services listed below may use Trackers to identify Users or they may use the behavioral retargeting technique, i.e. displaying ads tailored to the User’s interests and behavior, including those detected outside travelfreak.com. For more information, please check the privacy policies of the relevant services.

Services of this kind usually offer the possibility to opt out of such tracking. In addition to any opt-out feature offered by any of the services below, Users may learn more on how to generally opt out of interest-based advertising within the dedicated section “How to opt-out of interest-based advertising” in this document.

Mediavine Programmatic Advertising (Ver 1.1)

The Website works with Mediavine to manage third-party interest-based advertising appearing on the Website. Mediavine serves content and advertisements when you visit the Website, which may use first and third-party cookies. A cookie is a small text file which is sent to your computer or mobile device (referred to in this policy as a “device”) by the web server so that a website can remember some information about your browsing activity on the Website.

First party cookies are created by the website that you are visiting. A third-party cookie is frequently used in behavioral advertising and analytics and is created by a domain other than the website you are visiting. Third-party cookies, tags, pixels, beacons and other similar technologies (collectively, “Tags”) may be placed on the Website to monitor interaction with advertising content and to target and optimize advertising. Each internet browser has functionality so that you can block both first and third-party cookies and clear your browser’s cache. The “help” feature of the menu bar on most browsers will tell you how to stop accepting new cookies, how to receive notification of new cookies, how to disable existing cookies and how to clear your browser’s cache. For more information about cookies and how to disable them, you can consult the information at All About Cookies.

Without cookies you may not be able to take full advantage of the Website content and features. Please note that rejecting cookies does not mean that you will no longer see ads when you visit our Site. In the event you opt-out, you will still see non-personalized advertisements on the Website.

The Website collects the following data using a cookie when serving personalized ads:

  • IP Address
  • Operating System type
  • Operating System version
  • Device Type
  • Language of the website
  • Web browser type
  • Email (in hashed form)

Mediavine Partners (companies listed below with whom Mediavine shares data) may also use this data to link to other end user information the partner has independently collected to deliver targeted advertisements. Mediavine Partners may also separately collect data about end users from other sources, such as advertising IDs or pixels, and link that data to data collected from Mediavine publishers in order to provide interest-based advertising across your online experience, including devices, browsers and apps. This data includes usage data, cookie information, device information, information about interactions between users and advertisements and websites, geolocation data, traffic data, and information about a visitor’s referral source to a particular website. Mediavine Partners may also create unique IDs to create audience segments, which are used to provide targeted advertising.

If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices to opt-in or opt-out of this data collection, please visit National Advertising Initiative opt out page. You may also visit Digital Advertising Alliance website and Network Advertising Initiative website to learn more information about interest-based advertising. You may download the AppChoices app at Digital Advertising Alliance’s AppChoices app to opt out in connection with mobile apps, or use the platform controls on your mobile device to opt out.

For specific information about Mediavine Partners, the data each collects and their data collection and privacy policies, please visit Mediavine Partners.

Analytics

The services contained in this section enable the Owner to monitor and analyze web traffic and can be used to keep track of User behavior.

Google Analytics 4 (Google LLC)

Google Analytics 4 is a web analysis service provided by Google LLC (“Google”). Google utilizes the Data collected to track and examine the use of travelfreak.com, to prepare reports on its activities and share them with other Google services.

Google may use the Data collected to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network.

In Google Analytics 4, IP addresses are used at collection time and then discarded before Data is logged in any data center or server. Users can learn more by consulting Google’s official documentation.

Personal Data processed: number of Users; session statistics; Trackers; Usage Data.

Place of processing: United States – Privacy Policy – Opt Out.

Commercial affiliation

This type of service allows travelfreak.com to display advertisements for third-party products or services. Ads can be displayed either as advertising links or as banners using various kinds of graphics.

Clicks on the icon or banner posted on the Application are tracked by the third-party services listed below, and are shared with travelfreak.com.

For details of which data are collected, please refer to the privacy policy of each service.

Amazon Affiliation

Amazon Affiliation is a commercial affiliation service provided by Amazon.com Inc.

Personal Data processed: Trackers; Usage Data.

Place of processing: United States – Privacy Policy; Luxembourg – Privacy Policy.

Contacting the User

Contact form (travelfreak.com)

By filling in the contact form with their Data, the User authorizes travelfreak.com to use these details to reply to requests for information, quotes or any other kind of request as indicated by the form’s header.

Personal Data processed: email address; first name; last name.

Content commenting

Content commenting services allow Users to make and publish their comments on the contents of travelfreak.com.

Depending on the settings chosen by the Owner, Users may also leave anonymous comments. If there is an email address among the Personal Data provided by the User, it may be used to send notifications of comments on the same content. Users are responsible for the content of their own comments.

If a content commenting service provided by third parties is installed, it may still collect web traffic data for the pages where the comment service is installed, even when Users do not use the content commenting service.

Comment system managed directly (travelfreak.com)

Travelfreak.com has its own internal content comment system.

Personal Data processed: email address; first name; last name.

Displaying content from external platforms

This type of service allows you to view content hosted on external platforms directly from the pages of travelfreak.com and interact with them. Such services are often referred to as widgets, which are small elements placed on a website or app. They provide specific information or perform a particular function and often allow for user interaction.

This type of service might still collect web traffic data for the pages where the service is installed, even when Users do not use it.

Google Fonts (Google LLC)

Google Fonts is a typeface visualization service provided by Google LLC that allows travelfreak.com to incorporate content of this kind on its pages.

Personal Data processed: Trackers; Usage Data.

Place of processing: United States – Privacy Policy.

Heat mapping and session recording

Heat mapping services are used to display the areas of travelfreak.com that Users interact with most frequently. This shows where the points of interest are. These services make it possible to monitor and analyze web traffic and keep track of User behavior.

Some of these services may record sessions and make them available for later visual playback.

Hotjar Heat Maps & Recordings (Hotjar Ltd.)

Hotjar is a session recording and heat mapping service provided by Hotjar Ltd.

Hotjar honors generic “Do Not Track” headers. This means the browser can tell its script not to collect any of the User’s data. This is a setting that is available in all major browsers. Find Hotjar’s opt-out information here.

Personal Data processed: Trackers; Usage Data; various types of Data as specified in the privacy policy of the service.

Place of processing: Malta – Privacy Policy – Opt Out.

Hosting and backend infrastructure

This type of service has the purpose of hosting Data and files that enable travelfreak.com to run and be distributed as well as to provide a ready-made infrastructure to run specific features or parts of travelfreak.com.

Some services among those listed below, if any, may work through geographically distributed servers, making it difficult to determine the actual location where the Personal Data are stored.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) (Amazon Web Services, Inc.)

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a hosting and backend service provided by Amazon Web Services, Inc.

Personal Data processed: various types of Data as specified in the privacy policy of the service.

Place of processing: United States – Privacy Policy.

Managing contacts and sending messages

This type of service makes it possible to manage a database of email contacts, phone contacts or any other contact information to communicate with the User.

These services may also collect data concerning the date and time when the message was viewed by the User, as well as when the User interacted with it, such as by clicking on links included in the message.

Mailgun (Mailgun Technologies, Inc.)

Mailgun is an email address management and message sending service provided by Mailgun Technologies, Inc.

Personal Data processed: Trackers.

Place of processing: United States – Privacy Policy.

MailerLite (UAB “Mailerlite”)

MailerLite is an email address management and message sending service provided by UAB “Mailerlite”.

Personal Data processed: email address; first name; Trackers.

Place of processing: Lithuania – Privacy Policy.

Registration and authentication provided directly by travelfreak.com

By registering or authenticating, Users allow travelfreak.com to identify them and give them access to dedicated services. The Personal Data is collected and stored for registration or identification purposes only. The Data collected are only those necessary for the provision of the service requested by the Users.

Direct registration (travelfreak.com)

The User registers by filling out the registration form and providing the Personal Data directly to travelfreak.com.

Personal Data processed: Trackers.

Tag Management

This type of service helps the Owner to manage the tags or scripts needed on travelfreak.com in a centralized fashion.
This results in the Users’ Data flowing through these services, potentially resulting in the retention of this Data.

Google Tag Manager (Google LLC)

Google Tag Manager is a tag management service provided by Google LLC.

Personal Data processed: Trackers.

Place of processing: United States – Privacy Policy.

Traffic optimization and distribution

This type of service allows travelfreak.com to distribute their content using servers located across different countries and to optimize their performance.

Which Personal Data are processed depends on the characteristics and the way these services are implemented. Their function is to filter communications between travelfreak.com and the User’s browser.

Considering the widespread distribution of this system, it is difficult to determine the locations to which the contents that may contain Personal Information of the User are transferred.

Cloudflare (Cloudflare, Inc.)

Cloudflare is a traffic optimization and distribution service provided by Cloudflare Inc.

The way Cloudflare is integrated means that it filters all the traffic through travelfreak.com, i.e., communication between travelfreak.com and the User’s browser, while also allowing analytical data from travelfreak.com to be collected.

Personal Data processed: Trackers.

Place of processing: United States – Privacy Policy.

Information on opting out of interest-based advertising

In addition to any opt-out feature provided by any of the services listed in this document, Users may learn more on how to generally opt out of interest-based advertising within the dedicated section of the Cookie Policy.

Travelfreak.com uses Trackers. To learn more, Users may consult the Cookie Policy.

This section applies to all Users in the European Union, according to the General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”), and, for such Users, supersedes any other possibly divergent or conflicting information contained in the privacy policy. Further details regarding the categories of Data processed, the purposes of processing, the categories of recipients of the Personal Data, if any, and further information about Personal Data can be found in the section titled “Detailed information on the processing of Personal Data” within this document.

The Owner may process Personal Data relating to Users if one of the following applies:

  • Users have given their consent for one or more specific purposes.
  • provision of Data is necessary for the performance of an agreement with the User and/or for any pre-contractual obligations thereof;
  • processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the Owner is subject;
  • processing is related to a task that is carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the Owner;
  • processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the Owner or by a third party.

In any case, the Owner will gladly help to clarify the specific legal basis that applies to the processing, and in particular whether the provision of Personal Data is a statutory or contractual requirement, or a requirement necessary to enter into a contract.

Unless specified otherwise in this document, Personal Data shall be processed and stored for as long as required by the purpose they have been collected for and may be retained for longer due to applicable legal obligation or based on the Users’ consent.

Therefore:

  • Personal Data collected for purposes related to the performance of a contract between the Owner and the User shall be retained until such contract has been fully performed.
  • Personal Data collected for the purposes of the Owner’s legitimate interests shall be retained as long as needed to fulfill such purposes. Users may find specific information regarding the legitimate interests pursued by the Owner within the relevant sections of this document or by contacting the Owner.

The Owner may be allowed to retain Personal Data for a longer period whenever the User has given consent to such processing, as long as such consent is not withdrawn. Furthermore, the Owner may be obliged to retain Personal Data for a longer period whenever required to fulfil a legal obligation or upon order of an authority.

Once the retention period expires, Personal Data shall be deleted. Therefore, the right of access, the right to erasure, the right to rectification and the right to data portability cannot be enforced after expiration of the retention period.

The rights of Users based on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Users may exercise certain rights regarding their Data processed by the Owner.

In particular, Users have the right to do the following, to the extent permitted by law:

  • Withdraw their consent at any time. Users have the right to withdraw consent where they have previously given their consent to the processing of their Personal Data.
  • Object to processing of their Data. Users have the right to object to the processing of their Data if the processing is carried out on a legal basis other than consent.
  • Access their Data. Users have the right to learn if Data is being processed by the Owner, obtain disclosure regarding certain aspects of the processing and obtain a copy of the Data undergoing processing.
  • Verify and seek rectification. Users have the right to verify the accuracy of their Data and ask for it to be updated or corrected.
  • Restrict the processing of their Data. Users have the right to restrict the processing of their Data. In this case, the Owner will not process their Data for any purpose other than storing it.
  • Have their Personal Data deleted or otherwise removed. Users have the right to obtain the erasure of their Data from the Owner.
  • Receive their Data and have it transferred to another controller. Users have the right to receive their Data in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format and, if technically feasible, to have it transmitted to another controller without any hindrance.
  • Lodge a complaint. Users have the right to bring a claim before their competent data protection authority.

Users are also entitled to learn about the legal basis for Data transfers abroad including to any international organization governed by public international law or set up by two or more countries, such as the UN, and about the security measures taken by the Owner to safeguard their Data.

Where Personal Data is processed for a public interest, in the exercise of an official authority vested in the Owner or for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the Owner, Users may object to such processing by providing a ground related to their particular situation to justify the objection.

Users must know that, however, should their Personal Data be processed for direct marketing purposes, they can object to that processing at any time, free of charge and without providing any justification. Where the User objects to processing for direct marketing purposes, the Personal Data will no longer be processed for such purposes. To learn whether the Owner is processing Personal Data for direct marketing purposes, Users may refer to the relevant sections of this document.

Any requests to exercise User rights can be directed to the Owner through the contact details provided in this document. Such requests are free of charge and will be answered by the Owner as early as possible and always within one month, providing Users with the information required by law. Any rectification or erasure of Personal Data or restriction of processing will be communicated by the Owner to each recipient, if any, to whom the Personal Data has been disclosed unless this proves impossible or involves disproportionate effort. At the Users’ request, the Owner will inform them about those recipients.

Additional information about Data collection and processing

The User’s Personal Data may be used for legal purposes by the Owner in Court or in the stages leading to possible legal action arising from improper use of travelfreak.com or the related Services.
The User declares to be aware that the Owner may be required to reveal personal data upon request of public authorities.

In addition to the information contained in this privacy policy, travelfreak.com may provide the User with additional and contextual information concerning particular Services or the collection and processing of Personal Data upon request.

For operation and maintenance purposes, travelfreak.com and any third-party services may collect files that record interaction with travelfreak.com (System logs) or use other Personal Data (such as the IP Address) for this purpose.

More details concerning the collection or processing of Personal Data may be requested from the Owner at any time. Please see the contact information at the beginning of this document.

Changes to this privacy policy

The Owner reserves the right to make changes to this privacy policy at any time by notifying its Users on this page and possibly within travelfreak.com and/or – as far as technically and legally feasible – sending a notice to Users via any contact information available to the Owner. It is strongly recommended to check this page often, referring to the date of the last modification listed at the bottom.

Should the changes affect processing activities performed on the basis of the User’s consent, the Owner shall collect new consent from the User, where required.

Definitions and legal references

Personal Data (or Data)

Any information that directly, indirectly, or in connection with other information — including a personal identification number — allows for the identification or identifiability of a natural person.

Usage Data

Information collected automatically through travelfreak.com (or third-party services employed in travelfreak.com), which can include: the IP addresses or domain names of the computers utilized by the Users who use travelfreak.com, the URI addresses (Uniform Resource Identifier), the time of the request, the method utilized to submit the request to the server, the size of the file received in response, the numerical code indicating the status of the server’s answer (successful outcome, error, etc.), the country of origin, the features of the browser and the operating system utilized by the User, the various time details per visit (e.g., the time spent on each page within the Application) and the details about the path followed within the Application with special reference to the sequence of pages visited, and other parameters about the device operating system and/or the User’s IT environment.

User

The individual using travelfreak.com who, unless otherwise specified, coincides with the Data Subject.

Data Subject

The natural person to whom the Personal Data refers.

Data Processor (or Processor)

The natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which processes Personal Data on behalf of the Controller, as described in this privacy policy.

Data Controller (or Owner)

The natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which, alone or jointly with others, determines the purposes and means of the processing of Personal Data, including the security measures concerning the operation and use of travelfreak.com. The Data Controller, unless otherwise specified, is the Owner of travelfreak.com.

travelfreak.com (or this Application)

The means by which the Personal Data of the User is collected and processed.

Service

The service provided by travelfreak.com as described in the relative terms (if available) and on this site/application.

European Union (or EU)

Unless otherwise specified, all references made within this document to the European Union include all current member states to the European Union and the European Economic Area.

Cookie

Cookies are Trackers consisting of small sets of data stored in the User’s browser.

Tracker

Tracker indicates any technology – e.g Cookies, unique identifiers, web beacons, embedded scripts, e-tags and fingerprinting – that enables the tracking of Users, for example by accessing or storing information on the User’s device.

Legal information

This privacy policy relates solely to travelfreak.com, if not stated otherwise within this document.

Latest update: February 21, 2024