Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Dream Spirit Travels ("we," "our," or "us") operates the website dst.travel (the "Service"). We are committed to safeguarding your privacy and being transparent about how we handle your data.

This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and your rights and choices — including how data is used in connection with advertising technologies such as Google Ads. It also reinforces our position as a private entity independent of government control or affiliation.

By accessing or using our Service you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy, our Terms & Conditions, and our Cookies Policy.

Our registered address is: Unit 7 Initial Business Centre, Wilson Business Park, Manchester, UK, M40 8WN.

2. Information We Collect

a. Personal Data You Provide

When you use our Visa Assessment, Country Discovery, or Trip Planning tools, or when you contact us, you may voluntarily provide:

• Full name and email address
• Phone number
• Nationality, passport details, and travel document information (for Visa Assessments)
• Travel preferences, intended destinations, and budget constraints
• Any other information you choose to submit through our forms

b. Automatically Collected Data (Usage Data)

When you visit our Service, we automatically collect:

• IP address, browser type and version, operating system
• Pages visited, time and date of visit, time spent on each page
• Referring URL, click-stream data, and unique device identifiers
• Approximate geographic location (derived from IP address)

c. Data Collected via Cookies & Tracking Technologies

We use cookies, web beacons, pixel tags, and similar technologies to collect information about your browsing behaviour. This includes data collected by Google Ads, Google Analytics, and remarketing/conversion tags. For full details, see Section 5 (Cookies & Tracking Technologies) below and our Cookies Policy.

3. How We Use Your Information

We process your data on lawful bases including consent, contract performance, legitimate interest, and legal obligation. Specifically, we use your information to:

• Provide and maintain our Service: generate visa assessments, country recommendations, and trip plans based on your profile.
• Personalise your experience: tailor content and recommendations to your preferences.
• Communicate with you: respond to enquiries, send service updates, and (with your consent) marketing communications.
• Advertising & remarketing: deliver relevant advertisements via Google Ads and other advertising platforms; measure ad performance through conversion tracking.
• Analytics & improvement: understand how our Service is used so we can improve functionality, content, and user experience.
• Security & fraud prevention: detect, investigate, and prevent fraudulent or unauthorised activity.
• Legal compliance: fulfil our legal and regulatory obligations.

4. Advertising & Third-Party Technologies

We use third-party advertising services to promote our Service and deliver relevant content to you. These include, but are not limited to:

a. Google Ads & Google Marketing Platform

We use Google Ads (including Search, Display, and Remarketing campaigns). Google may use cookies and similar technologies to collect or receive information from our Service and other sites and apps, and use that information to provide measurement services and target ads. Specifically:

• Conversion Tracking: When you interact with a Google ad and take an action on our Service (e.g. submit a visa assessment), a conversion cookie is placed on your device. This helps us measure the effectiveness of our advertising.
• Remarketing: We use Google Remarketing tags to show ads to visitors who have previously interacted with our Service. This means you may see our ads on other websites within the Google Display Network.
• Google Analytics: We use Google Analytics to collect anonymous, aggregated statistics about how visitors use our Service. Google Analytics may set cookies on your device to track sessions and identify returning visitors.

b. Other Advertising Partners

We may work with additional advertising networks and partners who use cookies and similar technologies to collect data for targeted advertising. These partners are bound by their own privacy policies.

c. How to Opt Out of Personalised Advertising

You can opt out or manage personalised advertising through the following:

• Google Ads Settings: adssettings.google.com
• Network Advertising Initiative (NAI): optout.networkadvertising.org
• Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA): optout.aboutads.info
• Your Online Choices (EU): youronlinechoices.eu
• Device Settings: Adjust your mobile device advertising ID settings (e.g. "Limit Ad Tracking" on iOS or "Opt Out of Ads Personalisation" on Android).

5. Cookies & Tracking Technologies

We use the following categories of cookies:

• Strictly Necessary Cookies: Required for the operation of our Service (e.g. session management, security). These cannot be disabled.
• Performance & Analytics Cookies: Help us understand how visitors interact with our Service (e.g. Google Analytics). These collect anonymous, aggregated data.
• Advertising & Targeting Cookies: Used by us and our advertising partners (e.g. Google Ads, remarketing pixels) to deliver relevant ads and measure campaign performance.
• Functionality Cookies: Remember your preferences and settings to enhance your experience.

Managing Cookies: You can control and delete cookies through your browser settings. Note that disabling cookies may affect the functionality of our Service. For detailed instructions, visit our Cookies Policy.

Most modern browsers allow you to: view what cookies are stored; delete individual or all cookies; block third-party cookies; block cookies from specific sites; block all cookies; and clear all cookies when you close the browser.

6. Disclosure of Data

a. Service Providers

We may share your data with trusted third-party service providers who assist in operating our Service, including hosting, analytics, customer support, and payment processing. These providers are contractually bound to use your data only for the services they provide to us.

b. Advertising Partners

We may share anonymised or pseudonymised usage data with advertising partners such as Google for the purposes of ad targeting, remarketing, and conversion measurement as described in Section 4.

c. Legal Requirements

We may disclose your Personal Data in good faith belief that such action is necessary to:

• Comply with a legal obligation or lawful request by public authorities
• Protect and defend the rights or property of Dream Spirit Travels
• Prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Service
• Protect the personal safety of users of the Service or the public
• Protect against legal liability

d. Business Transfers

If Dream Spirit Travels is involved in a merger, acquisition, or asset sale, your Personal Data may be transferred. We will provide notice before your data is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

7. International Data Transfers

Your information, including Personal Data, may be transferred to — and maintained on — servers located outside of your country, state, province, or other governmental jurisdiction where data protection laws may differ from those in your jurisdiction.

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom, or another region with laws governing data collection and use, please note that we may transfer data to countries outside these regions. In such cases, we ensure adequate protection through:

• Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) approved by the European Commission
• Adequacy decisions by relevant authorities confirming an adequate level of data protection
• UK International Data Transfer Agreements (IDTAs) where applicable
• Other lawful transfer mechanisms recognised under applicable data protection law

8. Data Retention

We retain your Personal Data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. The retention period depends on the context:

• Account data: Retained for as long as your account is active, plus a reasonable period afterwards for legal or business purposes.
• Assessment/tool data: Retained for up to 24 months to allow you to revisit past results.
• Usage & analytics data: Anonymised and retained for up to 26 months (aligned with Google Analytics defaults).
• Marketing & advertising data: Retained until you withdraw consent or opt out.
• Legal obligations: Data may be retained for longer periods where required by law (e.g. tax records, regulatory requirements).

When data is no longer needed, it is securely deleted or irreversibly anonymised.

9. Security of Data

The security of your data is critically important to us. We implement a range of technical and organisational measures to protect your Personal Data, including:

• SSL/TLS encryption for all data in transit
• Encryption of sensitive data at rest
• Access controls and authentication protocols
• Regular security assessments and vulnerability testing
• Staff training on data protection and security best practices

While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Data, no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security, but we are committed to promptly addressing any breach in accordance with applicable laws.

10. Your Rights Under GDPR (EEA & UK Residents)

If you are a resident of the European Economic Area (EEA) or the United Kingdom, you have the following data protection rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the UK GDPR:

• Right of Access (Art. 15): Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Right to Rectification (Art. 16): Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Right to Erasure / "Right to be Forgotten" (Art. 17): Request deletion of your personal data under certain conditions.
• Right to Restrict Processing (Art. 18): Request that we limit how we use your data.
• Right to Data Portability (Art. 20): Receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format.
• Right to Object (Art. 21): Object to the processing of your personal data, including for direct marketing and profiling purposes.
• Right to Withdraw Consent (Art. 7): Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing.
• Right Not to be Subject to Automated Decision-Making (Art. 22): You have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, that produces legal or similarly significant effects.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at info@dst.travel. We will respond within 30 days. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk or your local supervisory authority.

11. Your Rights Under CCPA/CPRA (California Residents)

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) grant you the following rights:

• Right to Know: You can request details about the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected, the sources, the business purpose, and the categories of third parties with whom we share it.
• Right to Delete: You can request that we delete the personal information we have collected from you, subject to certain exceptions.
• Right to Correct: You can request that we correct inaccurate personal information.
• Right to Opt-Out of Sale or Sharing: You may opt out of the "sale" or "sharing" of your personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising. Dream Spirit Travels does not sell your personal information. However, sharing data with advertising partners (e.g. Google Ads for remarketing) may constitute "sharing" under CPRA. You can opt out using the links in Section 4(c) above.
• Right to Limit Use of Sensitive Personal Information: You may request that we limit the use of sensitive personal information to purposes necessary to perform the Service.
• Right to Non-Discrimination: We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA/CPRA rights.

To exercise these rights, email us at info@dst.travel. We will verify your identity before fulfilling your request and respond within 45 days.

12. Additional International Rights

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have additional rights:

• Brazil (LGPD): You have rights to access, correction, anonymisation, portability, and deletion of data, and you may revoke consent at any time.
• South Africa (POPIA): You have the right to request access to your information, request corrections, object to processing, and lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator.
• Canada (PIPEDA): You can request access to and correction of your personal information. We will respond within 30 days.
• Australia (Privacy Act 1988): You have rights to access and correct your personal information and may complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

If your jurisdiction is not listed above but provides data protection rights, please contact us and we will endeavour to honour your legal rights.

13. Children's Privacy

Our Service is not directed to individuals under the age of 16 ("Children"). We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under 16. If you are a parent or guardian and you become aware that your child has provided us with Personal Data, please contact us at info@dst.travel. If we become aware that we have collected Personal Data from a child without verification of parental consent, we will take steps to remove that information from our servers promptly.

This commitment is in compliance with the U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the GDPR provisions on children's data (Article 8), and the UK Age Appropriate Design Code.

14. Links to Other Sites

Our Service may contain links to other sites that are not operated by us, including advertising partner pages, government websites for visa information, and social media platforms. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that third party's site. We strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy and Terms of every site you visit. We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites or services.

15. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last Updated" date at the top. Where required by law, we will obtain your consent or provide additional notice (such as via email or a prominent notice on our Service). We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes.

16. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, wish to exercise your data protection rights, or want to make a complaint, please contact our Data Protection Team:

For EU/UK residents, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority. In the UK this is the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) — ico.org.uk.