PRIVACY AND COOKIE POLICY
General
Your privacy is important to us. We value the trust you have placed in us and are committed to protecting and safeguarding any personal data you give us. This document describes how we use and process your personal data and how we use cookies. It also tells you how you can contact us if you have questions about your personal data or about cookies.
Expatfriendlylocals.com is an on-line information service providing “word of mouth” recommendations shared by its users about their experiences with any type of businesses and/ or services provider. Expatfriendlylocals.com offers on-line services through its own websites and mobile apps and through other online platforms such as partners’ websites and social media. The information that follows applies to all of these platforms. Expatfriendlylocals.com may amend this Privacy and Cookies Policy from time to time, so visit this page regularly to keep up to date. If you disagree with this Privacy and Cookies Policy, you should discontinue using our services.
Information about you
When you use Expatfriendlylocals.com you may need to provide us with personal information about yourself and perhaps other people. When you provide such information, you consent to us using such information in accordance with the following privacy policy. If you send us information about another person or business, you confirm that you do so in good faith and with full accuracy to the best of your knowledge.
When using Expatfriendlylocals.com, you are asked to register and create an account which will require some personal information, including your name, email address, telephone number, postal address, username, password, payment information (if applicable). We may also gather other information regarding your preferred languages, age category and other general information to help enable us to enhance your user experience.
You can choose not to provide personal information, but you will only have limited access to our web pages and apps and will not be able to access all areas. Only registered users (who provide verifiable personal information) will be able to post reviews, recommendations and participate in discussions. By not registering as a user, you will not receive any user only benefits, such as, newsletters, surveys, competition information, event information, loyalty rewards and special offers.
When you visit our websites, even if you do not register as a user, we may collect certain information, such as your IP address, your location, which browser you are using and other information about your computer’s operating system, application version, language settings and pages that you have looked at. If you are using a mobile device, we might collect data that identifies your mobile device, device specific settings, characteristics and location details. When you search our web pages, our system registers which means and from which websites you have come through to reach our website. We collect this information to help us understand the interests and preferences of our users and to help enhance your user experience. We may also receive information about you when you use certain social media services to assist with registration.
Unless we specifically notify you otherwise, any personal information you provide (not including content, reviews, feedback and opinions that you upload) to Expatfriendlylocals.com will only be used by Expatfriendlylocals.com or our partners for the delivery of Expatfriendlylocals.com services to you. Expatfriendlylocals.com will not share or sell personal data collected about you or personally identifiable information with third parties. Expatfriendlylocals.com will use your information for administration purposes and for the provision to you of any information and services that you have requested. We will only disclose your personal information without notice to you when we believe such disclosure to be required by law or regulation, or to be necessary to protect or defend the rights or property of Expatfriendlylocals.com or the safety of the public.
Users submitting reviews, opinions and feedback about other businesses, service providers, other people and all other users will not have their details made public, but please note that our partners (for example suppliers and technical support staff) may view and have full visibility to any content submitted. The only public information visible in the reviews section will be your username, your region, the business or service provider you are reviewing and the content of your review. All other personal information will remain visible only to Expatfriendlylocals.com and you when you are logged into our services through your user profile.
You always have the right to review the personal information we keep about you. You can request an overview of your personal data by emailing us at info@expatfriendlylocals.com. Please write 'request for personal information' in the subject line of your email and include proof of identity to help us prevent unauthorised individuals from accessing your personal data.
If the personal information we have for you is incorrect, we will update it at your request. You can also ask us to remove your personal data from our customer database by sending an email to info@expatfriendlylocals.com. Please write “request for removal of personal information' in the subject line. Please note: we may need to retain certain information for legal or administrative purposes, such as record keeping or to detect fraudulent activities. You can delete your user account at any time by signing into your account on the Expatfriendlylocals.com website and choosing to remove your account. Any previous content you have provided, such as reviews, opinions, usernames will remain the property of Expatfriendlylocals.com and cannot be deleted or amended once your account has been removed. This content will remain visible on Expatfriendlylocals.com.
Cookie Policy and IP Address Logging
We may collect information about your computer, including where available your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration and to report aggregate information to advertisers. This is statistical data about our users' browsing actions and patterns, and does not identify any individual.
Expatfriendlylocals.com uses small files called cookies to help the website to function and to improve our web-based services. Cookies are stored on your computer and used by your web browser.
You can choose not to accept cookies from Expatfriendlylocals.com by changing your browser's settings and switching off cookies. Choosing not to use cookies might make some parts of the website inaccessible, and some features may not work as expected. If you have not switched off cookies in your browser's settings, we will issue cookies when you access our site.
These are the cookies that Expatfriendlylocals.com might use:
Technical cookies: We try to give our visitors an advanced and user-friendly website that adapts automatically to their needs and wishes. To achieve this, we use technical cookies to show you our website, to make it function correctly, to create your user account, to sign you in and to manage your settings. These technical cookies are absolutely necessary for our website to function properly.
Functional cookies: We also use functional cookies to remember your preferences and to help you to use our website efficiently and effectively, for example by remembering your preferred currency and language and your searches you viewed earlier. These functional cookies are not strictly necessary for the functioning of our website, but they add functionality for you and enhance your experience.
Analytics cookies: We use these cookies to gain insight into how our visitors use the website, to find out what works and what doesn't, to optimise and improve our website and to ensure we continue to be interesting and relevant. The data we gather includes which web pages you have viewed, which referring/exit pages you have entered and left from, which platform type you have used, date and time stamp information and details such as the number of clicks you make on a given page, your mouse movements and scrolling activity, the search words you use and the text you type while using our website. We also make use of analytics cookies as part of our online advertising campaigns to learn how users interact with our website after they have been shown an online advertisement – which may include advertisements on third-party websites. However, we will not know who you are, and will only obtain anonymous data. Our business partners may also use analytics cookies to learn if their customers make use of their services and offers integrated into their websites.
The cookies we use have varying life spans. The maximum lifespan we set on some of them is five years from your last visit to our website. You can erase all cookies from your browser any time you want to.
Only Expatfriendlylocals.com has access to Expatfriendlylocals.com cookies. Cookies placed by third parties can be accessed by these third parties.
If you choose not to accept certain cookies, you may not be able to use some functions on our website. However, we do not otherwise support “do not track” browser settings. Opting out of an online advertising network does not mean that you will no longer receive or be subject to online advertising or marketing analysis. It means that the network from which you opted out will no longer deliver ads tailored to your web preferences and browsing patterns.
As well as using cookies, Expatfriendlylocals.com may sometimes use web beacons. A web beacon is a tiny graphic image of just one pixel that’s delivered to your computer either as part of a web page request or in an HTML email message. Either directly or through service providers, we use these pixels as part of our online advertisements either on our website or on third-party websites to learn whether a user who is being shown an online advertisement also uses these services; to track conversion with partner websites and to analyse the traffic patterns of users to optimise the services we bring to you.
Security
In accordance with European data protection laws, we observe reasonable procedures to prevent unauthorised access and the misuse of personal data.
We use appropriate business systems and procedures to protect and safeguard the personal data you give us. We also use security procedures and technical and physical restrictions for accessing and using the personal data on our servers. Only authorised personnel are permitted to access personal data in the course of their work.
Direct communications
We offer open communication facilities to certain registered users, depending on the category of their subscription, both private and commercial. Expatfriendlylocals.com offers you and the business and service subscribers’ different means to communicate. For security purposes, Expatfriendlylocals.com has an automated system that screens all communications for malicious content. That includes spam and the limitation of certain file types, such as: .zip, .rar and .exe. Any sensitive information such as full credit card numbers that can be used for fraud may be masked automatically. In the event communications with malicious content are detected, the communication may be blocked and/ or forwarded to the Expatfriendlylocals.com team for further investigations. Note, all communications sent and received using Expatfriendlylocals.com communication tools will be stored by Expatfriendlylocals.com. To the extent permitted by law, Expatfriendlylocals.com will only access communications between you and the business and service subscribers upon request of either you or the business and service subscriber, or if required by law, if strictly necessary for security or law enforcement purposes, or if Expatfriendlylocals.com otherwise has a legitimate interest, such as to detect and prevent fraud and misuse. Expatfriendlylocals.com does not permit anonymous content.
Data Protection Compliance
Expatfriendlylocals.com controls the processing of personal data on its websites and mobile apps. Expatfriendlylocals.com is a trading name of Word of Mouth Marketing Services operating under KvK nr. 74568590
If you have any suggestions or comments about this privacy notice, please send an email to info@expatfriendlylocals.com.