Privacy Policy

Purpose of this document

At Travel Counsellors we respect the privacy of individuals and are committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information. As part of our Travel Counsellors franchise application and assessment process, and during your journey as a travel counsellor (“TC”) as part of the Travel Counsellors brand, we will need to collect and process personal information about you.

In this privacy notice, we explain how we collect and use information about you, or the individuals that work with you as part of your franchise business, in accordance with data protection law.

Our role

Travel Counsellors Limited (“Travel Counsellors”, “we”, “us”, “our”) is a “controller” under data protection legislation. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you.

If you have any questions about this notice, or our use of personal data, please contact the data protection team at DPO@travelcounsellors.com.

Data protection principles

We comply with data protection law, which says that the personal information that we hold about you must be:

• Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way.
• Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes.
• Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes.
• Accurate and kept up to date.
• Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about.
• Kept securely

Personal information we hold about you

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include any data where the person’s identity has been removed (anonymous data). Some types of more sensitive personal data require a higher level of protection such as information about an individual’s health or criminal convictions and we call this special category data.

We need to collect and process certain information about you in order for us to discuss with you and assess whether a Travel Counsellors franchise is right for you and where your application to be a Travel Counsellors franchisee is successful, to process certain information about you and the individuals who work at your franchise business in order for us to perform certain duties as a franchisor and to effectively manage and protect our business.

You are not required (by law or by any contract with us) to provide personal information to us. However, if you do not provide us with certain information when requested, we may not be able to progress your application for a Travel Counsellors franchise or where your application to be a Travel Counsellors franchisee is successful, perform the contract we have entered into with you (such as paying commission to you), or we may be prevented from complying with our legal obligations (such as to prevent fraud and money laundering).

If you express an interest in applying for a Travel Counsellors franchise or where your application to be a Travel Counsellors franchisee is successful the information that we may collect from you, or about individuals who work with you, includes:

• Your Identity Data including name, marital status, title, date of birth and gender. This will also include any ID documentation such as passport or driving licence and proof of address such as a copy utility bill and any username or similar identifier.
• Your Contact Data including your postal address and previous addresses, telephone numbers and email address. Where you become a travel counsellor, this may also include the details of any emergency contact, next of kin, spouse, dependent or TC buddy and any contact details where you provide these to us during our business relationship.
• Details on your previous experience whether in employment or as a business owner, including details about your skills, qualifications and evidence of qualifications, employment or business ownership experience, start and end dates of your previous experience, reasons for leaving and copies of your previous employment contracts (Experience Data).
• Information that we may require from you to assess your suitability for a franchise (including digital skills surveys and personality evaluation assessment) and to carry out background checks including DBS (Disclosure and Barring System), credit and director disqualification checks and records of the results of those checks (Background Data).
• Details of your franchise business, including the details set out in the Franchise Agreement and any other agreement entered into between us, your company number and VAT number, location of your business and business offices and details of people who you work with including any assistant or TC buddy (Business Data).
• Your Financial Data including your bank account and payment details including your account number and sort code, your commission levels and information of any debts or other money that you have paid or owe to us.
• Your Performance Data including franchisee training records, details of previous bookings that you have made, performance records and statistics, and information on how and when you engage with our Head Office.
• Records of our interviews with you and any communications or interactions between us, including your progression through the franchise assessment process (for example, any correspondence and your responses on our application forms and business plan) and any other correspondence between us which may include correspondence by post, email, phone, social media, instant message and chat bot, and any other information that you may choose to provide to us by whatever means (Correspondence Data).
• Business product collected whilst you are carrying out activities associated with your role as a travel counsellor including details of bookings and previous bookings that you have made, email, telephone recordings, instant messenger chat history, key stroke data for certain of our systems (where relevant for the support services we provide), TCTV video footage and photographs (Transaction Data).
• Your Technical Data including internet protocol (IP) address, your login data for our systems, 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 that you use to access our systems.
• Records maintained for security purposes or to access our premises or systems, including information about your use of the resources we make available to our franchisees for example IT and communications system including your credentials (email, username and encrypted password), and (where you attend at our premises) CCTV footage and vehicle registration number (Security Data).
• Your contributions to TCWorld, our community intranet and forums, and interactions with us, including any personal data contained in any comments or uploaded content and any personal data provided by you in any feedback or surveys you complete, or complaints that you make to us (Community Data).

Special Category Personal Data and Criminal Offence Data

We may also collect, store and use the following more sensitive types of personal information:

• Information you choose to disclose to us in connection with our diversity, equity and inclusion activities, including in respect of disabilities, marriage/civil partnership status, sex, gender, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health and religion or belief.
• Information that you disclose to us which relates to your health (for example, where you have a period of sickness or a health condition or issue that you let us know about, or if you have access requirements when visiting our premises or attending one of our events) (health data).
• Information that you disclose to us which relates to a religious or philosophical belief (for example, dietary requirements where you are attending one of our events) (religious belief data).
• Information contained in your ID documentation which may reveal your racial or ethnic origin, for example your nationality or photo (racial or ethnic origin data).
• Information about criminal convictions and offences, including details of any DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) checks (criminal offence data).

Collection of personal data

How is your personal data collected

We may collect personal data from you directly in a variety of ways during the term of your relationship with us or from business product that you generate during this time.

In addition to information you provide (directly or through the use of our systems), we may also collect information about you from third parties such as TC referrers, your former employer(s) or referees (references only) and service providers (including our personality evaluation provider and the Criminal Records Bureau for DBS checks).

Your duty to inform us of changes

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes during the course of our business relationship.

How will we use information about you

We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to do so. Most commonly, we will use your personal data for the following purposes:

1. Where we need to perform the contract we have entered into with you or in connection with the contract we are contemplating entering into with you (the franchise agreement).
2. Where we need to comply with a legal obligation.
3. Where it is necessary for legitimate interests pursued by us or a third party and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
4. In limited circumstances, with your consent, for example, in order to process more sensitive data.

We have provided a list below some of the key situations in which we will process your personal information, or the personal information of any individual that works with you. Some of the below grounds for processing will overlap and there may be several grounds which justify our use of your personal information. If you have any questions about any of the reasons for which we process your personal information, please contact the data protection team at DPO@travelcounsellors.com.

We may use your personal information for other purposes provided that they are reasonable, proportionate and compatible with the purposes set out in this notice. If we need to use personal information about you in any ways that are not set out in this policy, we will notify you first (this may be in relation to a specific matter, or we may notify you by circulating an updated version of this notice).

We may also need to process your personal information for the purposes of responding to and defending legal claims.

You will not be subject to decisions that will have a significant impact on you based solely on automated decision-making, unless we have a lawful basis for doing so and we have notified you.

We do not envisage that any decisions will be taken about you using automated means. However, we will notify you in writing if this position changes.

Special Category Personal Data

Special categories of particularly sensitive personal information, such as information about your health, racial or ethnic origin, or religious belief require higher levels of protection. We need to have further justification for collecting, storing and using this type of personal information and have appropriate safeguards when processing such data.

We will only process special category personal data in limited circumstances. The situations in which we will process your particularly sensitive personal information are listed below.

• In order to check and verify your identity, we will process the details of your ID document which may reveal your racial or ethnic origin.
• In order to assist with any access issues where you attend an event or our premises, we will process details relating to your health where you provide these to us. You may also provide us with health data in connection with your business, for example where you take a period away from your franchise business.
• We may, from to time, invite you to participate in our diversity, equity and inclusion activities, such as equal opportunities monitoring surveys. Where reasonably possible, information that we collect for these purposes will be recorded anonymously and not stored in a way which could be linked or connected to you. We aggregate this data as part of our efforts to combat discrimination and build an inclusive community.
• We may process any sensitive data that you disclose to us during our business relationship, whether directly or indirectly (for example, via our available communication channels).
• We may also hold information relating to criminal convictions. Although this data is not special category data, it is considered sensitive under data protection law. We will collect information about criminal convictions as part of our franchise sales process and on an ongoing basis by carrying out a DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check. We rely on your consent in order to carry out these checks.

Note that where we do require your consent to allow us to process particularly sensitive data, and you do not provide that consent, then we may not be able to provide your business with the support requested and, in rare circumstances, we may not be able to progress our discussions with you or continue the franchise agreement with you.

If you have any questions about any of the reasons for which we process your personal information, please contact the data protection team at DPO@travelcounsellors.com

Change of Purpose

We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal information without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

Data sharing

__Who we share your personal information with __

We will share your personal information with colleagues at Travel Counsellors, which may include members of our group and our shareholders, where this is necessary or required for the purposes for which we process your information (as set out in this notice).

We will also share your personal information with third parties where required by law, where it is necessary to administer the working relationship with you or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so, for the purposes set out in this notice. For example:

• We will share your personal information with third parties where required by law, for example the ICO, the CAA or other regulators for compliance purposes.
• We will share your personal information with service providers who support our systems and business in the provision of our services, for example software and other IT service providers in connection with software applications and equipment that you use as a franchisee (including, for example, Phenix, TC World, our email and other communication systems) and service providers within the travel industry for example GDS systems and our travel suppliers, including where you access a travel supplier’s systems through a log-in page or API link.
• We may share certain personal information to celebrate your successes, for example, customer feedback, appearances on TCTV, Gold TC announcements or attendance at anniversary days.
• We may also need to share your personal information with a third party in the context of a possible sale or restructuring of the business.

We may share your personal information with other third parties in exceptional circumstances but only where it is proportionate and lawful to do so. For example, we may share your personal information with other entities in our group as part of our reporting activities, in the context of a business reorganisation or restructure, for system maintenance or reporting, or where a group company provides us with administrative support.

Transferring information outside the UK

We may transfer the personal information we collect about you outside of the UK in order to fulfil the purposes set out in this notice. Where we do so, we will ensure that your personal information receives an adequate level of protection and will put in place appropriate measures to ensure that your personal information is treated in a way that is consistent with, and which respects, UK law on data protection.

Data security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to protect the security of your information and to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. Additionally, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal information on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

Details of the measures we have in place are available from the data protection team by contacting DPO@travelcounsellors.com.

Data retention

How long will you use my information for?

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting or reporting requirements.

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 unauthorised 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.
• The applicable legal requirements.

In some circumstances, we may anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use that information without further notice to you. Once you are no longer engaged by us, we will retain and securely destroy your personal information in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.

Your rights

You have a number of rights in respect of your personal data. If you would like any further information or to exercise any of your rights, please speak to the business coaching team or contact DPO@travelcounsellors.com.

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

• Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a data subject access request). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
• Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
• Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law.
• Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
• Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
• Request the transfer of your personal information to another party.

Fees and Charges

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in these circumstances.

What we may need from you

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.

Right to withdraw consent

In the limited circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal information for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. However, your withdrawal of consent may impact our ability to work together. To withdraw your consent, please contact DPO@travelcounsellors.com. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law.

Miscellaneous

If you have any questions about this privacy notice or how we handle your personal information, please contact the data protection team at DPO@travelcounsellors.com. You also have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) with respect to data protection issues. We would, however, appreciate the opportunity to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact the data protection team in the first instance.

We reserve the right to update this privacy notice at any time, and we will provide you with a new privacy notice when we make any substantial updates. We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal information.