Travel agencies collect a lot of personal data. They have to, in order to do their job. Names and addresses, passport details and dates of birth are just some of the information they’ll collect as they book your holiday. Ensuring information is safe is a high priority. Macpherson Kelley undertook privacy policy audits for two large travel agency clients and identified improvements that could be made in how they handled personal data, for example, removing identifying information from feedback forms before they were forwarded to service providers.

A motor dealer client had an arrangement with a professional photography studio to share contact details of customers who bought a luxury car so they could offer them a free photo session. After a customer complained about her contact details being given unknowingly to the photographer, we recommended the client change its practice around how it offered the photo session. The advice was focused on avoiding the element of unwanted surprise. The client could either tell customers their details would be passed on to the photographer or they could provide the photographer’s details and customers could take up the offer themselves if they wanted to.