Privacy Policy for Billabong Bites & Boarding
At Billabong Bites & Boarding, we are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal data responsibly. This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, use, disclose, and protect your information when you interact with our online platform, engage with our services, or contact us. Our services include vocational culinary training, short-course cooking classes for tourists, food and wine tours, hospitality consulting, event catering, bespoke culinary experiences, and surf and dine packages.
1. Information We Collect
We collect various types of information to provide and improve our services, communicate with you, and fulfil our business operations.
- Personal Identification Information: This includes your name, email address, postal address, phone number, date of birth (for age-restricted activities), and payment information when you enroll in a course, book a tour, request catering, or purchase a service.
- Demographic Information: Such as nationality (relevant for visa support or specific tour requirements), dietary restrictions, or medical conditions that may impact your participation in our culinary or boarding activities.
- Travel and Activity Preferences: Details about your interests in culinary arts, specific tours, or dietary preferences to help us tailor our offerings.
- Technical Usage Data: Information about how you access and use our online platform, including your IP address, browser type, operating system, referring URLs, pages viewed, and the dates/times of your visits. This helps us understand user behavior and improve our site's functionality.
- Communication Data: Records of your communications with us, including inquiries, feedback, and customer service interactions.
- Consent for Marketing: Your preferences regarding receiving marketing communications from us.
2. How We Collect Information
We collect information through various methods:
- Direct Interactions: When you fill out forms on our online platform, request information, register for a course or tour, send us emails, make phone calls, or interact with us in person.
- Automated Technologies: As you navigate our online platform, we may use cookies, web beacons, and similar tracking technologies to collect technical data about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns.
- Third Parties: We may receive information about you from third parties, such as payment processors, analytics providers, and business partners (e.g., booking agents for surf and dine packages) who comply with applicable privacy laws.
3. How We Use Your Information
We use the collected information for the following purposes:
- Service Provision: To provide and manage your participation in our vocational culinary training, cooking classes, tours, catering, and other experiences, including processing payments and confirmations.
- Communication: To respond to your inquiries, send administrative information (e.g., service announcements, updates, course materials), and provide customer support.
- Personalisation: To tailor our services and content to your preferences, such as recommending specific courses or tours that might interest you.
- Marketing and Promotions: To send you marketing communications regarding our services, special offers, or events that may be of interest, strictly in accordance with your preferences. You can opt out at any time.
- Improvement of Services: To understand how our services are used, conduct research, and perform analytics to improve our offerings, online platform, and user experience.
- Security and Fraud Prevention: To maintain the security and integrity of our online platform and services, and to detect and prevent fraudulent or unauthorised activities.
- Legal Compliance: To comply with applicable laws, regulations, legal processes, or governmental requests, including those related to education, tourism, and financial transactions.
4. Disclosure of Your Information
We may share your information with:
- Service Providers: Third-party vendors and partners who perform services on our behalf, such as payment processing, website analytics, marketing assistance, IT services, and customer support. These parties are contractually obligated to protect your information and use it only for the purposes for which it was provided.
- Business Partners: In cases where our services involve collaboration with other businesses (e.g., surf schools for "surf and dine" packages, specific tour operators), we may share necessary information to facilitate these combined experiences. We always ensure these partners adhere to strict privacy standards.
- Legal and Regulatory Authorities: When required by law or in response to valid legal requests, such as subpoenas, court orders, or government investigations.
- In Case of Business Transfer: If Billabong Bites & Boarding is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, your personal data may be transferred as part of that transaction, but always under strict confidentiality agreements.
We will not sell or rent your personal information to third parties for their independent marketing purposes without your explicit consent.
5. Data Security
We implement robust technical and organisational measures designed to protect your personal data from unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. These measures include using secure servers, encryption, access controls, and regular security audits. While we strive to protect your personal information, no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is 100% secure. Therefore, we cannot guarantee absolute security.
6. International Data Transfers
As an Australian-based company, our primary data processing takes place within Australia. However, some of our service providers or business partners may operate outside of Australia. When your information is transferred internationally, we ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to provide adequate protection for your data, in compliance with applicable data protection laws, such as through standard contractual clauses or reliance on recognised international compliance frameworks.
7. Your Data Protection Rights
Depending on your location and applicable data protection laws (e.g., GDPR), you may have the following rights regarding your personal data:
- Right to Access: You have the right to request copies of your personal data held by us.
- Right to Rectification: You have the right to request that we correct any information you believe is inaccurate or incomplete.
- Right to Erasure (Right to be Forgotten): You have the right to request that we erase your personal data under certain conditions.
- Right to Restrict Processing: You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data under certain conditions.
- Right to Object to Processing: You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data under certain conditions.
- Right to Data Portability: You have the right to request that we transfer the data that we have collected to another organisation, or directly to you, under certain conditions.
- Right to Withdraw Consent: Where we rely on your consent to process your personal data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details provided in the "Contact Us" section below. We will respond to your request in accordance with applicable legal requirements.
8. Data Retention
We retain your personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. When assessing the appropriate retention period, 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, and the applicable legal requirements.
9. Cookies and Tracking Technologies
Our online platform uses cookies and similar tracking technologies to enhance your browsing experience, analyse site traffic, personalise content, and deliver targeted advertising. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. Please note that if you disable or refuse cookies, some parts of our online platform may become inaccessible or not function properly.
10. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or other factors. We will notify you of any significant changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on our online platform and updating the "Last Updated" date at the top of this policy. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes.
11. Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at:
Billabong Bites & Boarding
2847 Gold Coast Highway, Unit 2C
Surfers Paradise, QLD, 4217
Australia