Welcome to the World Privacy Policy and Licensees

(updated Jan 25, 2023)

Welcome to the World LLC (“WttW”), a limited liability company under the Laws of the United Arab Emirates, and its Licensees apply this privacy policy so that natural persons can safely enjoy using the services or products or website(s). We aim to explain how we collect and process your information. This policy outlines how we collect and use different types of personal and person-related information, and the reasons for doing so. You have the right to access, change or delete your personal information at any time.  You can get in touch directly with our Data Privacy Officer via the “Contact Us” section.

You should read this policy in conjunction with our cookies policy and General Terms and Conditions and ensure that you understand how we collect and use your information.

Our policies will be updated from time to time. Please refer regularly to keep yourself updated.

WttW has links on its website(s), that enable you to book direct or otherwise follow a link to the website(s) of our business clients, who offer hospitality, tourism-related and other services to the general public. These business clients have their own privacy policy and are fully responsible for the data they collect, process and store. WttW shall not provide the data it collects, processes or stores to these business clients.

This policy applies to natural persons or “users” and “customers” (or “you”) of WttW, hereunder understood, its Licensees; that is anyone ordering, registering or interacting with any product or service from any of WttW and its Licensees. This includes event attendees, subscribers, registrants, website users, app users etc.

Collection and use of your information.

The information you provide us, and that which we gather based on your activity, helps us to deliver more relevant content as well as create a more seamless experience across the products and channels through which you may access that content.

We collect and store some information about you in order to deliver products and services to you We share some of that information with trusted suppliers (including payment providers and postal services) to ensure the delivery of those products and services, or to give personalised recommendations on things we think will be of interest to you. We also collect information when you use our products and services and further details are provided below.

Information we collect.

Information you provide us which we need in order to provide you with our services and products.

There is certain personal information that we need in order to provide the products and services that you have chosen. Examples of details we collect in order to fulfil a Traveler service may include:

• Name
• Postal address (including postcode)
• Email address
• Payment details

Information we collect through your use of our products.

When you use any of our online platforms or apps we collect information that helps us to deliver the service you have chosen and to improve your experience. This is done through cookies and other technologies. Examples of the type of information we may collect are:

• Browser
• Email Provider
• The pages you read on our websites and how you got to them
• Device
• IP address
• Internet Connection
• Location (in some cases)

Information we do not track.

We do not track or collect any sensitive information about you. This includes race, religion, ethnicity, and political opinion.

How we use your information

We primarily use your information for the purpose of delivering the products and services that you have chosen and to personalize our interactions (including advertising) with you. For further details about this, and other ways we may use your information, please read the sections below.

To provide products and services

• To manage your access to our online content and apps, and send you content via push notifications, newsletters, and possible subscriptions if you have requested us to do so.
• To send you service notifications related to your product or service such as password resets and order confirmations.
• To manage customer service queries and complaints.
• To manage your privacy preferences and to ensure you only receive communications that you have requested, which may include using your details to suppress you from communications.
• To provide general location-based services (e.g. the region or country you are in), advertising or search results for our content.
• To detect and reduce fraud including fraudulent orders.
• To prevent users from posting illegal, offensive or objectionable comments on our site.

To deliver marketing and advertising

We need your consent to use your information for some specific purposes such as marketing, brand response communications and personalized advertising. Ways in which we will use your information if you consent are as follows:

• We may send marketing communications via a range of channels including email and push notifications and you can opt out of these at any time. If you give us marketing permission, we may contact you to tell you about special offers and related or similar products or services within WttW and its Licensees.

Other uses of your information

Other than where we have asked for your consent, we mainly rely on two other separate bases to lawfully use your information. First, we need to use your information in certain ways to provide our products or services to you, in accordance with our contract(s) with you. In this case, it is necessary for us to use your information so that we can deliver the products or services you have chosen. Second, as described in more detail below, in certain cases, we may use your information where necessary to further our legitimate interests, where those legitimate interests are not overridden by your rights or interests, including:

• To ensure our products (including websites and apps) are compatible with the browsers and operating systems used by most of our visitors.
• To help us improve our customer and user experience and to support new product development. We may send customer satisfaction surveys and market research questionnaires (for which we may share your information with third-party suppliers employed by us).

You have the right to object to any of the above uses of your information, please contact us if you wish to do so. We will consider all objections reasonably, but there may be legal reasons where we deem that the use of your information is still appropriate. We will explain our decision to you in a timely manner.

Social media

WttW and its Licensees may publish content on social media platforms e.g. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn through both “organic” and “paid” methods to reach current and potential users:

• “Organic” methods describe where content and/or offers are published onto a social platform so that they may appear in your social platform’s content, without being promoted or forced to appear more prominently, e.g. WttW’s Facebook Page.
• “Paid” methods describe where content and/or offers are published onto a social platform so that they will appear more prominently, or be shown to users that do not currently follow WttW and its Licensee’s social pages e.g. a promoted tweet on your Twitter Timeline.

We may place one or more social media platform “tags” on our website in order to better understand how WttW and its Licensees may be of best value to you by providing you with the most relevant content available according to what you have chosen to read on our own websites. These tags only record information around events to help us understand if you are registered or subscribed with us, so that we may use your reading preferences to provide more relevant content and/or offers to you, on social media platforms, e.g. removing subscription offers from your feed if you are a current subscriber.

We do not have direct access to your personal data on your social media platforms.

How we use your details for audience profiling

To enable us to personalise the content and advertising you see (including on social media), we may use your interaction and browsing behaviour or preferences (such as how and what you read on our websites and our apps) to create audience profiles. This is to enable content and message personalisation, and in some cases, advertising to be delivered to you or a group of users (an audience) with similar interests to you. This can be done both on our site and on those of third parties

How we work with third parties

In some instances, we disclose personal information to third parties when it is necessary to deliver a service or product or to help us improve your experience with us, or when we are required to do so by contract or law. “Third parties” include agents, subcontractors, sponsors and other associated organisations. We have in place contracts to ensure the information remains secure and limited in use, and if we do not have a legitimate business reason to pass on your information, we will ask you to give consent first. Some examples, without limitation, of when we share your information are below:

• When we send you an email or a push notification, these are delivered by marketing platforms. As part of this service, certain information such as message opens, clicks and formatting are recorded to help deliver the best email experience.
• When we test and launch new products, services or offers, we may work with trusted third parties to support us.
• To provide information for auditing purposes by official regulators.
• To enhance your profile with non-personal information.

Third parties who pass information to us

Our subscriptions services sometimes use additional information such as telephone numbers or postcodes from third parties (like list brokers, researchers or telemarketing agents, who have gathered this information lawfully) to help us to contact you with important service updates via phone or post or to help us make marketing decisions. This includes advertising (by ourselves or via advertising partners) to groups of people with particular interests. These third parties may give us access to your personal information if you have allowed them to do so.

We may also work with third parties to identify individuals who may be interested in our products and services or in some cases our sponsors/advertisers’ products and services. These third parties may give us access to your personal information if you have allowed them to do so. In any communication you receive from us, through these third parties, we make sure to identify ourselves (and them) so that you know who has access to your information.

IMPORTANT: Please note that the collection, use, and disclosure of information by these third parties are described in their own privacy policies, and consequently may differ from that set out in WttW and its Licensees’ Privacy Policy. We are not responsible for those third-party privacy policies, and you should ensure that you have read and understood all applicable privacy policies before proceeding.

Retaining and storing your information

Retention policy

We securely store your information and hold it for as long as we need to in order to provide our services and products to you in accordance with (i) applicable law, or (ii) as set out in any relevant contract you have with us.

Storing and transferring information internationally

As the internet is a global environment and we work with third parties across the globe, collecting and using your personal information may involve the transfer of this information internationally, including outside of the European Union or outside the USA. By using our products and services, you acknowledge and agree to your personal information being transferred in this way, including to jurisdictions outside the EEA or the USA.

We maintain strict policies to ensure all information that is transferred is done so safely and securely.

Keeping your information safe

We take information security seriously and have policies and procedures in place to ensure the information we hold on you remains safe. We limit who has access to your information and ensure that those who do are bound by contracts to keep your information availability restricted and safe.

Individuals under 16

WttW and its Licensees does not intentionally, or knowingly, process personal information from individuals under the age of 16.

California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)

In addition to the rights documented elsewhere in this Privacy Policy, if you are a California Resident you have some additional rights under the CCPA. These include being informed of any of your personal data that has been “sold” (were sold for this purpose is defined below) and opt-out of the future selling of your personal data to third parties.

External links

This privacy policy only applies to WttW and its Licensees’ use of data, our websites, services or products may, from time to time, contain links to use or be on external sites. WttW and its Licensees are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of such sites and we recommend that you read the privacy policies on any external sites you use. Similarly, if you are directed to our website by a third party we are not responsible for the privacy policy or practices of the third party. We strongly recommend you read their policy.

Cookies

Cookies are small files that are created in your web browser when you visit any of our websites.

You can find more information about the types of cookies that we and certain third parties use, why we use them, and how to manage them in our cookie policy here.

Brands

You can find full details of the brands which make up WttW and its Licensees on our website(s). 

Contact Us

If you have questions about this policy or about your personal information, please complete our enquiry form on our website

Alternatively, please send correspondence to us at the following address:

WttW and its Licensees

Attn: Data Privacy Manager

Address office WttW in UAE

Concord Tower, Dubai Media City,
Dubai, United Arab Emirates,
Office 2402

Your rights

You also have the right to ask for us to update, delete or stop processing information we hold about you. However, please note that there are circumstances in which complete erasure of your information or ceasing to process your information will not be possible for operational, legal and business reasons. This may include if you remain a customer for whom we need to provide services, or if you wish us to no longer contact you for marketing purposes. In this case, we may need to retain some of your details securely in order to facilitate this request by, for example, keeping you on a “do not contact” or suppression list. This will be the only purpose for which your data will be used if this is the case. In addition, as a California resident, you have the right to be informed of your information that has been “sold” and to opt out of the sale of personal data. For details on how to action these requests please refer to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) section above. We do not discriminate against individuals that exercise their data protection or privacy rights.

Changes to this policy

From time to time, we may make changes to the privacy policy. This may be in relation to changes in the law, best practices or changes in our services. These changes will be reflected in this statement, so you should check here regularly.