Privacy Policy for Horizons Unlimited

Your privacy is important to us. To better protect your privacy we provide this notice explaining our online information practices and the choices you can make about the way your information is collected and used. To make this notice easy to find, we make it available on our homepage and at every point where personally identifiable information may be requested.

What information do we collect and why

It is our policy to respect the purpose for which our site visitors gave us personal information. The information you provide is used only to fulfill your specific request, unless you give us permission to use it in another manner, for example by opting in to the Ezine/newsletter mailing list.

The type of personally identifiable information we collect may include names, e-mail addresses, postal addresses (for mailing HU products only), nationality and type of motorcycle ridden.

The purposes for which we collect and use information about individuals include the following:

• sending the Horizons Unlimited Ezine/newsletter to travellers who ask for it

• obtaining and responding to feedback from travellers

• allowing people to share their experiences with fellow travellers on the HUBB, via forms (e.g. Shipping, Border Crossings) and in the Ezine

• administering the HUBB to make it the best possible experience for the motorcycle travellers' community

• contacting travellers about HUBB postings, shipping or border crossing experiences

• sending HU DVDs, t-shirts, mugs or other products to travellers who order them directly from us (for the Achievable Dream DVD series only, we also advise travellers by e-mail as new DVDs become available to order)

• organising Horizons Unlimited Travellers Meetings, including registering participants (for these events only, we request a mobile phone number for participants, to use in the unlikely situation that we have to contact them about changes or cancellations while they are on route to the event)

• advising travellers about upcoming HU Travellers Meetings in their area

• providing links to websites that we deem of interest to our readers in our Links pages or in the Ezine

Subscriptions

It is our policy to send the Ezine only to those who request it (that is, opt-in). We remove names immediately upon request through convenient unsubscribe links in every mailing. Every issue of our Ezine clearly explains how to unsubscribe.

Mailing Lists

It is our policy to not sell, rent, or loan our subscriber lists to third parties for e-mail marketing. Who is a third party? Well, the first party is you, the second party is us, so it's basically anyone who's not you or us.

While we sell advertising in our ezine and on the site to other companies, we never allow third parties any use of these subscriber lists.

We also do not buy mailing lists from other companies, so the only contact information we have is from individuals who have contacted us directly (see above).

Security and Disclosure on the Site

It is our policy to store subscriber and password files with personal information in a secure manner. We store such files in areas not accessible to Web browsers, behind password protection, or off-line.

Spammers collect e-mail addresses from html web pages using robots (spambots). We use encoded e-mail addresses that a spambot can't read (but your browser can) throughout the site, and in forms where possible, to protect e-mail addresses from being 'harvested' in this manner.

Horizons Unlimited Bulletin Board (HUBB)

When you register for the HUBB, we require a valid e-mail address to confirm your registration and to keep spammers out! Your e-mail address is ONLY visible to the Administrators (Grant and Susan). You can optionally enter information, such as name, nationality, bike, etc. to be viewable by registered users. You can access and update your personal information in the 'User Options - Profile' section at any time.

If someone needs to contact you we provide a Private Messaging system and email system via the HUBB to send you messages. You can choose, in your User Profile, to allow or disallow either.

We strongly recommend NOT putting your e-mail address in a posting. Why is this important? The HUBB pages are ordinary html web pages, like 99.99% of the web, which means that a spambot can read your e-mail address and "harvest" it, and add you to their list of people to send spam to.

Submitting information on Forms

When you submit shipment information via the Shipping form, you must register and provide us with your e-mail address so we can contact you if necessary about your shipment details. We do not accept anonymous shipment postings (to prevent shipping companies or individuals from posting advertisements under the guise of shipment details), and your full name will be included in the shipment posting, but your e-mail address is not disclosed unless YOU put it into the details of the shipment. We recommend you NOT do this, for the reasons above.

This is for YOUR protection. Your security and privacy is important to us, and we do all we can to ensure it.

Cookies

It is our policy to use cookies in a responsible manner to help our visitors, not snoop on them. 'Cookies' are small files of data that we send to your computer so the software can 'recognize' you when you return. We use two types of cookies:

We send a 'session cookie' to your computer if and when you log in to enter or edit your shipments or travellers details by entering your e-mail address and password. These cookies allow us to recognize you if you use multiple pages in our site during the same session, so that you don't need to re-enter your password multiple times. Once you log out or close your browser, these session cookies expire and no longer have any effect.

Please note that when you are finished, if you are on a shared computer, in an internet cafe etc, for your security you should always logout of ANY system you are logged into, be it here, or Hotmail / Yahoo etc. Also, you should close all browser windows, delete temporary files and the history of sites visited.

At your option (when you register for the HUBB), we also use longer-lasting cookies on the HUBB bulletin board to allow the software to recognize you as a HUBB user if you return to the HUBB using the same computer and browser.

We do NOT collect or use information from cookies to develop a profile about our visitors or shoppers.

Web Site Traffic Information

It is our policy to use web site traffic information only to try to understand our readers' preferences better and to manage the load on our servers, so as to improve our service and your experience with the site.

Because of the way that World Wide Web communication standards work, when you arrive at or leave the Horizons Unlimited Web site, we automatically receive the Web address of the site that you came from. We also collect information on which pages you visit while you are on the Horizons Unlimited site, the type of browser you use and the times you access our Web site. None of this information is linked to you as an individual.

Notification of Changes

It is our policy to be as informative as possible about changes to this privacy policy. If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes so travellers are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.

If at any point we decide to use personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time it was collected, we will notify users by way of an e-mail to the address they have registered with us, and post it on the site. Users will have a choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner. We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected.

Applicability of this Policy

This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by Horizons Unlimited via the Horizons Unlimited Web site, the HUBB, travellers' stories and information submitted on forms or via e-mail.

The Horizons Unlimited web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that Horizons Unlimited is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage travellers to be aware of this when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects personally identifiable information.

Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns about any aspect of this policy, please let us know.

Thanks for your trust and support.

Grant and Susan Johnson
Horizons Unlimited