1. Introduction
At German Tours, we respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy policy will inform you about how we look after your personal data when you visit our website and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.
This privacy policy aims to give you information on how German Tours collects and processes your personal data through your use of this website, including any data you may provide through this website when you book a tour, sign up for our newsletter, or contact us.
It is important that you read this privacy policy together with any other privacy notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data.
2. Data We Collect
We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:
- Identity Data includes first name, last name, username or similar identifier.
- Contact Data includes email address, telephone numbers, and address.
- Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you and other details of products and services you have purchased from us.
- Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.
- Profile Data includes your interests, preferences, feedback, and survey responses.
- Usage Data includes information about how you use our website, products, and services.
- Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.
We do not collect any Special Categories of Personal Data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health, and genetic and biometric data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offenses.
3. How We Use Your Data
We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:
- Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
- Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
- Where we need to comply with a legal obligation.
Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data although we will get your consent before sending third party direct marketing communications to you via email or text message. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us.
Purposes for which we will use your personal data
We have set out below a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so:
| Purpose/Activity | Type of data | Lawful basis for processing |
|---|---|---|
| To register you as a new customer | Identity, Contact | Performance of a contract with you |
| To process and deliver your order including: Manage payments, fees and charges; Collect and recover money owed to us | Identity, Contact, Financial, Transaction, Marketing and Communications | Performance of a contract with you; Necessary for our legitimate interests (to recover debts due to us) |
| To manage our relationship with you including: Notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy policy; Asking you to leave a review or take a survey | Identity, Contact, Profile, Marketing and Communications | Performance of a contract with you; Necessary to comply with a legal obligation; Necessary for our legitimate interests (to keep our records updated and to study how customers use our products/services) |
| To enable you to participate in a prize draw, competition or complete a survey | Identity, Contact, Profile, Usage, Marketing and Communications | Performance of a contract with you; Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how customers use our products/services, to develop them and grow our business) |
4. Data Security
We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorized way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.
5. Data Retention
We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements.
6. Your Legal Rights
Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. These include the right to:
- Request access to your personal data.
- Request correction of your personal data.
- Request erasure of your personal data.
- Object to processing of your personal data.
- Request restriction of processing your personal data.
- Request transfer of your personal data.
- Right to withdraw consent where we are relying on consent to process your personal data.
If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details below. You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we could refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it could take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.
7. Cookies
You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly. For more information about the cookies we use, please see our Cookie Policy.
8. Changes to the Privacy Policy
We keep our privacy policy under regular review. This version was last updated on April 14, 2025. Historic versions can be obtained by contacting us.
It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.
9. Contact Us
If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our privacy practices, please contact us in the following ways:
German Tours GmbH
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +49 30 1234 5678
Postal address: Berliner Str. 123, 10115 Berlin, Germany
You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI), the German supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.bfdi.bund.de). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the BfDI so please contact us in the first instance.