Who we are

We are Andrew and Amy, travellers and travel bloggers from the UK. Our website address is: http://ourbigfattraveladventure.com.

Disclosures

Partnerships

Our Big Fat Travel Adventure sometimes works with travel-related companies to promote services or products in return for compensation in the form of free or discounted services, products or a fee. We choose which brands to work with very carefully, have full control over the published article, only write honest reviews and will never recommend a product that is unsuitable for you as one of our readers.

Affiliate links

Some of the links on http://ourbigfattraveladventure.com are affiliate links meaning we may receive a small commission from purchases you may make through them at no extra cost to you. We only link to companies or brands we would be happy to use ourselves.

Amongst other programs, Our Big Fat Travel Adventure is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to www.amazon.co.uk.

Privacy policy

At Our Big Fat Travel Adventure we take your personal information very seriously and we value the protection of your personal information. The purpose of this privacy policy is to be open and transparent about how we collect any of your personally identifiable information (PII) and what we do with it. PII is information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person, or to identify an individual in context. In order to clearly understand how your PII is collected, stored, used or handled by us then please read on.

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

Information you voluntarily submit

Comments – If you leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also your IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Contact forms When you fill-in a contact form on our site you must enter your name, email address and your message – any other information you choose to submit is entirely voluntary. This information is required in order for us to respond to any questions or queries you may have. We also have alternative methods of contacting us.

Automatically-Collected Information

We automatically collect certain information about you and the device with which you access the Website. For example, when you use the Website, we will log your IP address, operating system type, browser type, referring website, pages you viewed, and the dates/times when you accessed the Website. We may also collect information about actions you take when using the Website, such as links clicked.

Cookies

We may log information using cookies, which are small data files stored on your browser by the Website. We may use both session cookies, which expire when you close your browser, and persistent cookies, which stay on your browser until deleted, to provide you with a more personalized experience on the Website. No personal information is stored in these cookies and addresses — it’s simply a way to identify your computer.

  • If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
  • If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
  • When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

How your information may be used

We may use the information collected in the following ways:

  • To operate and maintain the Website;
  • To send you promotional information, such as newsletters. Each email promotion will provide information on how to opt-out of future mailings;
  • To send you administrative communications, such as administrative emails, confirmation emails, technical notices, updates on policies, or security alerts;
  • To respond to your comments or inquiries;
  • To provide you with user support;
  • To track and measure advertising on the Website;
  • To protect, investigate, and deter against unauthorized or illegal activity.

Third-party data collection

We may share your information with third parties when you explicitly authorize us to share your information.

Additionally, the Website may use third-party service providers to service various aspects of the Website. Each third-party service provider’s use of your personal information is dictated by their respective privacy policies.

The Website currently uses the following third-party service providers:

Embedded content from other websites – Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if you have visited the other website. These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Google Analytics – We use this service to track website usage in order to measure our audience and ensure that we deliver relevant and useful content. You can read Google’s privacy policy here.

Google Adsense – We use this service to display ads when you visit our website. Google Adsense uses cookies to ensure that the ads are relevant to you. You can read Google’s privacy policy here.

MailChimp – We use this service for the delivery of emails and newsletters. You can read MailChimp’s privacy policy here.

Easy Digital Downloads – We use this service to sell our e-book, Easy Digital Downloads uses PayPal to securely process payments. You can read PayPal’s privacy policy here.

TEFL UK – We work with TEFL UK, an organisation which offers TEFL courses both online and in-house. If you send us a message asking to sign up for a TEFL UK course, we will forward your name and email address onto TEFL UK in order for you to obtain your discount. If you do not want your information passed on then we cannot provide you with this service. You can read TEFL UK’s privacy policy here.

Teacher recruitment – We occasionally recruit teachers to work for our old employer Washington English Center, if you are contacting us regarding this recruitment then in order to apply for any available positions we will need to pass on personal information such as your name, email address, telephone number, CV and any information you include on it. If you do not want such personal information passed on then we cannot provide you with this service.

At this time, your personal information is not shared with any other third-party applications. This list may be amended from time to time in the Website’s sole discretion.

Except when required by law, we will not sell, distribute, or reveal your email addresses or other personal information without your consent; however, we may disclose or transfer personal information collected through the Website to third parties who acquire all or a portion of our business, which may be the result of a merger, consolidation, or purchase of all or a portion of our assets, or in connection with any bankruptcy or reorganization proceeding brought by or against us.

Anonymous data

From time to time, we may use anonymous data, which does not identify you alone, or when combined with data from other parties. This type of anonymous data may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses. Examples of this anonymous data include analytics or information collected from cookies.

Cookies

The Website uses cookies to store visitors’ preferences, record user-specific information on what pages users access or visit, ensure that visitors are not repeatedly sent the same banner ads, customize Website content based on visitors’ browser type or other information that the visitor sends. Cookies may also be used by third-party services, such as Google Analytics, as described herein.

Users may, at any time, prevent the setting of cookies, by the Website, by using a corresponding setting of your internet browser and may thus permanently deny the setting of cookies. Furthermore, already set cookies may be deleted at any time via an Internet browser or other software programs. This is possible in all popular Internet browsers. However, if users deactivate the setting of cookies in your Internet browser, not all functions of our Website may be entirely usable.

Advertising

Display Advertising

We may use third-party advertising companies to serve content and advertisements when you visit the Website, which may use cookies, as noted above.

Retargeting Ads

From time to time, the Website may engage in remarketing efforts with third-party companies, such as Google, Facebook, or Instagram, in order to market the Website. These companies use cookies to serve ads based on someone’s past visits to the Website.

Affiliate Program Participation

The Website may engage in affiliate marketing, which is done by embedding tracking links into the Website. If you click on a link for an affiliate partnership, a cookie will be placed on your browser to track any sales for purposes of commissions.

Our Big Fat Travel Adventure is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and links to Amazon.co.uk.  As part of this Amazon Associates program, the Website will post customized links, provided by Amazon, to track the referrals to their website. This program utilizes cookies to track visits for the purposes of assigning commission on these sales.

Newsletters

On the Website, you may subscribe to our newsletter, which may be used for advertising purposes. All newsletters sent may contain tracking pixels. The pixel is embedded in emails and allows for an analysis of the success of online marketing campaigns. Because of these tracking pixels, we may see if and when you open an email and which links within the email you click. This behavior will not be passed on to third parties.

Rights related to you personal information

Opt-out – You may opt-out of future email communications by following the unsubscribe links in our emails. You may also notify us at [email protected] to be removed from our mailing list.

Access – You may access the personal information we have about you by submitting a request to [email protected].

Amend – You may contact us at [email protected] to amend or update your personal information.

Forget – In certain situations, you may request that we erase or forget your personal data. To do so, please submit a request to [email protected].

Please note that we may need to retain certain information for recordkeeping purposes or to complete transactions, or when required by law.

Sensitive personal information

Under no circumstances will we ask for nor should you submit sensitive personal information to the Website. This includes your social security number, information regarding race or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, health information, criminal background, or trade union memberships. If you elect to submit such information to us, it will be subject to this Privacy Policy.

Children’s information

The Website does not knowingly collect any personally identifiable information from children under the age of 16. If a parent or guardian believes that the Website has personally identifiable information of a child under the age of 16 in its database, please contact us immediately at [email protected] and we will do everything in our power to promptly remove such information from our records.

How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

If you send us an email or a message using our contact form, the information you provide us is retained indefinitely. This is so that we can have a record of previous conversations and provide you with a better-informed service.

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

Contact information

If you need to contact us for any reason, please use our contact form.