Privacy Policy

1. Scope and who we are

TripMates Club ("TripMates", "we", "us" or "our") is a travel community platform where travellers can create profiles, connect with other users, publish posts and blogs, join communities, discover approved travel companies and packages, and send enquiries to travel companies. This Privacy Policy applies to TripMatesClub.com and TripMates Club features that link to it.

For privacy questions, contact privacy@tripmatesclub.com. For general support, contact support@tripmatesclub.com.

2. Information we collect

Account and authentication information

• Name, username, email address, phone number (if provided), account type, password hash and email-verification status.
• Login/session information such as session identifiers, IP address, device/browser user-agent, login timestamps and security/authentication attempts.
• If you use Google or Facebook login, the provider account identifier and profile information the provider makes available to TripMates for authentication, such as name, email and profile picture.

Profile and social information

• Profile photo, cover photo, display name, bio, headline, city/country, travel interests, travel styles, preferred destinations, website and social links.
• Friend requests, friendships, follows, blocks, community memberships, saves, reactions, comments, reviews and notification preferences.
• Profile/privacy settings, including search visibility and who may contact or send friend requests to you.

Content and communications

• Posts, captions, photos, videos, YouTube links, locations you choose to add, blogs, comments, replies, reviews, community content and reports.
• Private chat messages and chat attachments. Access to private conversation attachments is restricted to authenticated conversation members.
• Draft information stored in your browser for features such as post drafts or package-enquiry drafts.

Company, package and enquiry information

• Company Page information such as business name, description, category, services, website, contact information, office locations, logo/cover images and social links.
• Package information such as destination, itinerary, images, pricing, inclusions and exclusions.
• When you submit a company or package enquiry: your name, email, phone/WhatsApp number, requirement/notes, related company/package and submission time.

3. How we use information

We process information only for legitimate platform purposes and, where required, with your consent. Uses include:

• Creating and securing your account; authenticating logins; preventing fraud, abuse and unauthorized access.
• Displaying your profile and content according to your visibility choices.
• Operating the Feed, search, recommendations, friend/follow features, communities, chat, notifications, saves and moderation tools.
• Providing Company Pages, package discovery, reviews and traveller-to-company enquiry functionality.
• Sending transactional emails such as verification, password reset, moderation and enquiry messages.
• Enforcing our Terms, investigating reports, maintaining platform safety and complying with lawful requests.
• Improving reliability, performance, security and user-facing features.

We do not sell personal data. We do not use personal data for targeted credit decisions, surveillance or sale to data brokers.

4. Google and Facebook sign-in

You may choose to sign in with Google or Facebook. We use the provider data made available through the authorized sign-in flow to identify or create your TripMates account and to reduce signup friction.

If your TripMates profile still uses the default/no profile image and the provider supplies a profile picture, TripMates may download a validated, optimized local copy and use it as your profile photo. We do not overwrite a profile photo that you manually uploaded to TripMates.

You can revoke TripMates access from your Google or Facebook account settings. Revoking provider access does not automatically delete information already required for your TripMates account; you may separately request correction or deletion as described below.

5. When we share information

We do not sell your personal information. We may disclose limited information in these circumstances:

• Other TripMates users: according to the visibility of your profile, posts, comments, reviews, communities and other social activity.
• Travel company owners: when you submit an enquiry, the relevant Company Page owner receives the contact details and requirement you submit so they can respond. The company may then process that lead under its own privacy obligations.
• Service providers: hosting, infrastructure, email delivery, security and other vendors that help operate TripMates, subject to appropriate confidentiality/security obligations.
• Google and Meta: when you choose their login/authorization services, according to the permissions you approve and their policies.
• AI service provider: when you intentionally use AI Assist, the text and any image you submit for that feature may be sent to our configured AI provider (currently OpenAI) to generate the requested assistance. Do not submit sensitive personal information to AI Assist unless necessary.
• YouTube and linked services: when a page contains an embedded YouTube video or you follow an external link, that third party may receive technical request information and may apply its own privacy/cookie practices.
• Legal and safety: where disclosure is required by law, valid legal process, a competent authority, or is reasonably necessary to protect rights, safety, security or investigate abuse.
• Business changes: in connection with a merger, restructuring, acquisition or transfer of the platform, subject to applicable law and appropriate safeguards.

6. Public content and search engines

TripMates includes public browsing. Content you mark public — including public profiles, posts, blogs, approved Company Pages, packages, reviews and communities — may be visible without login, shared by others and discoverable through search engines where indexing is enabled. Do not publish information you do not want publicly associated with you.

Changing a visibility setting or deleting content may stop future display on TripMates, but copies may remain temporarily in caches, search indexes, backups, screenshots or content previously shared by other users.

7. Data retention

We retain information for as long as reasonably necessary to provide the service, maintain security, resolve disputes, prevent abuse and meet legal obligations. Retention varies by data type and context.

• Account/profile data is generally retained while your account remains active.
• Public or social content remains until deleted, removed through moderation or otherwise no longer required for the platform.
• Security/authentication records may be retained for fraud prevention and incident investigation.
• Certain registration/account records may need to be retained after account cancellation where applicable law requires it, including intermediary record-retention obligations.

When retention is no longer necessary, we will delete, anonymize or otherwise securely dispose of data as appropriate and technically feasible, subject to lawful retention requirements.

8. Security

We use reasonable administrative and technical safeguards designed to protect data, including password hashing, CSRF protection, session controls, login-rate limits, ownership/permission checks, upload validation and restricted access to private chat attachments. No online service can guarantee absolute security.

If we become aware of a personal-data incident that requires notice under applicable law, we will take appropriate response and notification steps.

9. Your privacy choices and rights

Depending on applicable law, you may have rights to access, obtain a copy of, correct, update or request erasure of personal data; withdraw consent; restrict certain processing; and raise a grievance.

• Edit profile information and privacy settings from your TripMates account.
• Use Settings → Your Data to download an available JSON copy of account information.
• Remove individual posts, blogs, reviews, saved items and other content where the product provides a delete/remove control.
• Request account/data deletion or another privacy action by emailing privacy@tripmatesclub.com from the email associated with your account. We may verify identity before fulfilling a request.

Data deletion requests: include your TripMates username and registered email, but do not send your password. We will process valid requests subject to legal, security, fraud-prevention and record-retention requirements.

10. Children

TripMates Club is intended for adults. You must be at least 18 years old, or the age of legal majority where you live if higher, to create and use an account. We do not knowingly offer the platform to children. If you believe a child has provided personal data in violation of this requirement, contact privacy@tripmatesclub.com.

11. International processing

TripMates may use service providers or infrastructure located in countries other than your own. Where personal data is transferred or processed internationally, we take steps intended to comply with applicable transfer restrictions and protect the information appropriately.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as TripMates features, providers or legal requirements change. We will update the date above and, where a material change affects how we use data that requires renewed consent, provide an appropriate notice or consent request.

13. Contact, privacy requests and grievances

For a content or safety complaint, please include the relevant URL, username/content identifier, a clear description of the issue and any supporting information. We will handle grievances in accordance with applicable law and our moderation procedures.