1. Introduction
Beneath the Map, LLC ("Beneath the Map," "we," "us," or "our") is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our website www.beneaththemaptravel.com, use our services, or otherwise interact with us. We understand that you are entrusting us with sensitive personal information during vulnerable life transitions, and we take that responsibility seriously.
This Privacy Policy applies to all services we provide, including but not limited to custom travel experiences, group travel and retreats, homestay experiences, location scout packages, full relocation services, digital products, and any other services described on our website or in our marketing materials. By using our services or providing us with your personal information, you consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of your information as described in this Privacy Policy.
Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. If you do not agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not access our website or use our services. We reserve the right to make changes to this Privacy Policy at any time and for any reason. We will alert you about any changes by updating the "Last Updated" date of this Privacy Policy. Any changes or modifications will be effective immediately upon posting the updated Privacy Policy on our website, and you waive the right to receive specific notice of each such change or modification. You are encouraged to periodically review this Privacy Policy to stay informed of updates. You will be deemed to have been made aware of, will be subject to, and will be deemed to have accepted the changes in any revised Privacy Policy by your continued use of our services after the date such revised Privacy Policy is posted.
2. Information We Collect
We collect information that you provide directly to us, information we obtain automatically when you use our services, and information from third-party sources. The types of information we may collect include:
2.1 Personal Identification Information
We collect personal identification information that you voluntarily provide to us when you register for services, make a booking, express an interest in obtaining information about us or our services, participate in activities on our website, or otherwise contact us. This information includes your full legal name as it appears on your passport or government-issued identification, date of birth, gender identity and pronouns (if you choose to provide them), nationality and country of citizenship, passport number, passport expiration date, and passport issuing country.
We also collect contact information including your current residential address, mailing address if different from residential address, primary email address, secondary email address if applicable, primary phone number, secondary or emergency phone number, preferred method and time for contact, and social media handles if you choose to share them with us.
2.2 Travel and Booking Information
When you book travel services, homestays, or relocation packages with us, we collect comprehensive travel-related information necessary to provide our services effectively. This includes your intended travel dates and destinations, number of travelers in your party and their relationship to you, accommodation preferences and special requests, dietary restrictions and food allergies, accessibility requirements or mobility concerns, travel history to relevant destinations, previous international travel experience, language abilities and proficiency levels, and specific interests or activities you wish to pursue during your travel.
For group travel and retreats, we collect information about your travel companions, emergency contact information for all travelers, special occasion details if applicable such as birthdays or anniversaries, and preferences for single or shared accommodation.
2.3 Health and Medical Information
To ensure your safety and well-being during travel and to match you appropriately with homestay hosts or destinations, we collect certain health and medical information. This is sensitive personal information that we handle with particular care and only collect when necessary for service provision. We collect information about pre-existing medical conditions
that may affect your ability to travel safely, current medications you are taking that may require accommodation, mobility limitations or physical disabilities requiring special arrangements, dietary restrictions related to medical conditions or religious observances, mental health considerations that may affect your travel experience, history of severe allergic reactions, vaccination records as required by destination countries, and your personal physician's contact information for emergencies.
We understand that this information is highly sensitive and personal. We collect it solely to ensure your safety, provide appropriate support during travel, communicate necessary information to homestay hosts or service providers when required for your wellbeing, and comply with legal obligations related to health and safety. You have the right to decline to provide this information, but doing so may affect our ability to provide certain services safely or may result in us declining to provide services if we determine the risk is too high.
2.4 Financial and Payment Information
We collect financial information necessary to process payments for our services. This includes your billing address, credit card or debit card number, card expiration date, card security code (CVV), bank account information if you choose to pay via bank transfer, and information about any loyalty programs or travel credits you wish to apply to bookings.
For security purposes, we do not store complete credit card information on our systems. Payment processing is handled by third-party payment processors who comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). However, we may retain the last four digits of your card number and expiration date for your convenience in future bookings and for our records.
2.5 Background and Screening Information
For certain services, particularly relocation services and extended homestay experiences, we may conduct or request background screening information to ensure the safety of all parties involved. This is done with your explicit consent and may include criminal background check results where legally permitted, references from previous landlords or character references, employment verification if relevant to visa applications or relocation, credit check information if required for housing applications in destination countries, and verification of information provided during the booking process.
We only collect this information when necessary for specific services and will obtain your explicit written consent before conducting any background checks or collecting sensitive screening information.
2.6 Transformation and Personal Context Information
Beneath the Map specializes in serving individuals navigating major life transitions. To provide appropriate support, match you with suitable experiences, and create personalized transformation-focused itineraries, we may collect information about your personal circumstances and transformation goals. This includes information about recent life transitions such as divorce, job loss, career changes, empty nest, health crises, or other significant life events that are motivating your travel or relocation plans.
We also collect information about your transformation goals and what you hope to achieve through our services, support systems you have in place or lack thereof, concerns or fears about international travel or relocation, previous experiences with therapy, life coaching, or personal development work, and any other contextual information you choose to share that helps us serve you better.
This information is collected through intake forms, consultation calls, questionnaires, and voluntary disclosures during our interactions with you. You are never obligated to share this personal information, but providing it allows us to tailor our services more effectively to your needs and ensure we are providing appropriate support during your journey. This information is treated with the highest level of confidentiality and is never shared without your explicit consent except as required by law.
2.7 Communication and Correspondence
We retain records of all communications and correspondence between you and Beneath the Map. This includes emails exchanged with our team, text messages or WhatsApp messages if you communicate with us through these channels, phone call notes and summaries (we do not record calls without your explicit consent), messages sent through our website contact forms or chat features, feedback, reviews, or testimonials you provide, responses to surveys or questionnaires we send you, and any other written or verbal communications you have with us.
We retain this information to provide consistent service across multiple team members, reference previous conversations and agreements, resolve disputes or misunderstandings, improve our services based on feedback, and maintain records as required for legal and business purposes.
2.8 Automatically Collected Information
When you access our website, we automatically collect certain information about your device and how you interact with our website. This includes your IP address, browser type and version,
operating system, device type (desktop, mobile, tablet), pages you visit on our website and the order in which you visit them, time spent on each page, date and time of your visit, referring website or source that brought you to our website, search terms you used to find our website, and clicks, scrolling behavior, and other interactions with our website.
We collect this information using cookies, web beacons, and similar tracking technologies. This information helps us understand how visitors use our website, improve website functionality and user experience, identify technical issues, prevent fraud and enhance security, and deliver relevant marketing content.
2.9 Location Data
We may collect location information when you use our services, particularly during travel or when using our mobile-responsive website. This includes your general geographic location derived from your IP address, precise location data if you grant permission through your mobile device settings, location information you manually provide when inquiring about destinations, and location data that helps us provide emergency support during travel.
You can control location data collection through your device settings. However, limiting location data may affect our ability to provide certain services effectively, particularly emergency support while you are traveling.
2.10 Social Media and Third-party Information
If you interact with us through social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or TikTok, we may collect information from those platforms including your social media profile information, content you post about our services, messages you send us through social media platforms, and information about your interactions with our social media content.
We may also receive information about you from third parties including our travel partners such as Fora Travel, airlines, hotels, and tour operators, our homestay hosts in destination countries, local service providers and guides, references you provide during the booking process, background check companies if you consent to screening, and publicly available sources such as social media profiles you have made public.
3. How We Use Your Information
We use the information we collect for various purposes related to providing and improving our services, communicating with you, and operating our business legally and effectively. The specific ways we use your information include:
3.1 Service Provision and Fulfillment
The primary purpose for collecting your information is to provide the travel, homestay, and relocation services you have requested. We use your information to process and confirm your bookings, communicate with homestay hosts, local guides, and service providers on your behalf, arrange transportation, accommodation, tours, and activities as part of your itinerary, provide you with pre-departure information and preparation guidance, coordinate your arrival and ensure appropriate support is in place, match you with suitable homestay hosts based on your preferences and needs, facilitate introductions to expat communities and local contacts in destination countries, provide ongoing support throughout your travel or relocation experience, respond to your questions, requests, and concerns, and address any issues or problems that arise during service delivery.
3.2 Personalization and Customization
We use information about your interests, goals, and personal circumstances to tailor our services to your specific needs. This includes creating customized travel itineraries that reflect your interests and transformation goals, recommending destinations that align with your circumstances and objectives, matching you with homestay hosts whose family dynamics and interests complement your own, providing pre-travel counseling that addresses your specific concerns and fears, connecting you with resources and support systems relevant to your situation, and adapting our communication style and frequency to your preferences.
3.3 Safety, Security, and Emergency Response
Your safety is our highest priority. We use your information to assess whether our services are appropriate for your health and circumstances, provide necessary information to homestay hosts or service providers to ensure your safety, respond to emergencies that occur during your travel, coordinate medical care if you become ill or injured while traveling, contact your emergency contacts if necessary, work with local authorities if safety situations arise, and maintain records that help us respond effectively to any crisis.
We also use information to identify and prevent fraud, verify identities to prevent identity theft, ensure compliance with age restrictions and legal requirements, protect against liability and legal claims, and maintain the security of our systems and your data.
3.4 Communication and Customer Service
We use your contact information to communicate with you about your bookings and services, send you confirmations, receipts, and important updates, provide pre-departure information
and preparation materials, check in with you during and after your travel experiences, respond to your inquiries and provide customer support, send you post-trip surveys and request feedback, notify you about changes to our services or policies, and communicate with you about issues requiring your attention.
We respect your communication preferences and provide opportunities to opt out of non-essential communications. However, certain transactional communications related to bookings you have made are necessary and cannot be opted out of without canceling your services.
3.5 Marketing and Promotional Communications
With your consent, we use your information to send you marketing communications about our services, new destinations we are offering, upcoming group retreats and travel experiences, special offers or promotions, content we believe may interest you based on your previous interactions, invitations to events or webinars, and newsletters featuring founder stories and destination information.
You have the right to opt out of marketing communications at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in our emails, adjusting your communication preferences in your account settings if applicable, or contacting us directly to request removal from marketing lists. Opting out of marketing communications will not affect transactional communications related to services you have booked.
3.6 Improvement of Services and Business Operations
We analyze information we collect to understand how our services are being used, identify areas for improvement, evaluate the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns, understand our customer demographics and needs, develop new services or modify existing ones, train our team members to provide better service, and make strategic business decisions about which destinations to focus on and which services to expand.
This analysis may involve aggregating and anonymizing data so that it cannot be used to identify you personally. We may use this aggregated data without restriction for business intelligence and research purposes.
3.7 Legal Compliance and Protection of Rights
We use and disclose your information as necessary to comply with applicable laws and regulations, respond to lawful requests from government authorities or law enforcement,
respond to subpoenas, court orders, or legal processes, enforce our Terms and Conditions and other agreements, protect our rights, property, and safety and the rights, property, and safety of our users and others, prevent or investigate fraud, security breaches, or illegal activities, defend against legal claims or disputes, and comply with industry regulations applicable to travel services providers.
3.8 With Your Consent
We may use your information for additional purposes with your explicit consent. For example, we may ask permission to use your photos in marketing materials, share your testimonial or transformation story publicly, include you in case studies or research, introduce you to other clients with similar circumstances who might benefit from connecting, or use your information in ways not described in this Privacy Policy. You can withdraw consent at any time by contacting us, though withdrawal may not affect uses made before you withdrew consent.
4. How We Share Your Information
We do not sell your personal information to third parties. However, we do share your information in specific circumstances necessary to provide our services, operate our business, and comply with legal obligations. The categories of third parties with whom we share information include:
4.1 Service Providers and Business Partners
We work with various third-party service providers who perform services on our behalf. These providers have access to your personal information only to the extent necessary to perform their functions and are obligated to maintain the confidentiality and security of your information. These service providers include:
Fora Travel, our licensed travel agency partner through whom we book accommodations, flights, tours, and other travel services. Fora Travel receives information necessary to process bookings including your name, contact information, passport details, payment information, and travel preferences. Fora Travel is bound by its own privacy policy and industry regulations regarding protection of customer information.
Homestay hosts in destination countries who provide accommodation and cultural immersion experiences. We share information necessary for hosts to prepare for your arrival and provide appropriate hospitality including your name and contact information, arrival and departure dates, dietary restrictions and food allergies, relevant health information that affects your stay, emergency contact information, interests and preferences that help hosts prepare appropriate
experiences, and transformation goals or personal circumstances that help hosts provide appropriate emotional support.
We carefully vet our homestay hosts and require them to maintain confidentiality regarding your personal information. However, you should be aware that homestay experiences involve living in someone's home and integrating into their family life, which inherently involves some sharing of personal information through daily interactions.
Payment processors who handle credit card and bank transactions securely. These providers receive payment information necessary to process your payments and are required to comply with PCI DSS security standards. We do not store complete credit card information on our own systems.
Technology service providers including website hosting companies, email service providers, customer relationship management systems, data storage and backup providers, analytics services that help us understand website usage, and security services that protect against cyber threats.
Local guides, drivers, and tour operators in destination countries who provide specific services as part of your travel experience. We share information necessary for them to provide services safely and effectively including your name, contact information, tour dates and details, health or mobility information relevant to activities you will be doing, and dietary restrictions for meals they will be providing.
Insurance providers if you purchase travel insurance through us or if we need to file a claim on your behalf. This includes relevant health information, trip details, and circumstances of any incidents requiring insurance coverage.
4.2 Professional Advisors
We may share your information with professional advisors including lawyers, accountants, auditors, and business consultants who need access to your information to advise us on legal, financial, and business matters. These professionals are bound by professional confidentiality obligations.
4.3 Business Transfers
If Beneath the Map is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, sale of assets, bankruptcy, or other business transaction, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you via email and/or a prominent notice on our website of any such change in
ownership or control of your personal information and provide information about choices you may have regarding your information.
4.4 Legal Obligations and Protection
We may disclose your information if required to do so by law or if we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to comply with legal process such as a court order or subpoena, respond to claims that content violates the rights of third parties, protect the rights, property, or safety of Beneath the Map, our users, or the public, investigate or prevent fraud or security issues, enforce our Terms and Conditions or other agreements, or comply with government requests from law enforcement or national security authorities.
4.5 Affiliates and Related Entities
As our business grows, we may establish subsidiary companies or affiliated entities. We may share information among these related entities to provide services, improve customer experience, conduct business operations, or achieve other legitimate business purposes. All such entities will be required to honor this Privacy Policy.
4.6 With Your Consent
We may share your information with third parties when you explicitly consent to such sharing. For example, if you ask us to introduce you to another client with similar circumstances, share your testimonial with a specific organization, forward your information to a service provider you are interested in but who is not part of our standard offerings, or participate in a case study or research project. You can revoke consent for future sharing by contacting us.
4.7 Aggregated or Anonymized Data
We may share aggregated or anonymized information that cannot be used to identify you personally. For example, we might share statistics about the demographics of our clients, popular destinations, or trends in transformation-focused travel. This information does not identify individual users and may be shared publicly or with third parties without restriction.
5. International Data Transfers
Beneath the Map is based in the United States, and your information will be collected, processed, and stored primarily in the United States. However, because we provide services in multiple countries across Africa and Latin America, your information may be transferred to,
stored in, and processed in countries other than your country of residence. These countries may have data protection laws that differ from those in your country.
When we transfer your personal information internationally, we take steps to ensure it receives an adequate level of protection. This includes implementing appropriate safeguards such as standard contractual clauses approved by relevant data protection authorities, ensuring our service providers and partners commit to protecting your data adequately, encrypting data during transfer, and limiting access to data to only those who need it to provide services.
If you are located in the European Economic Area, United Kingdom, Switzerland, or other jurisdiction with comprehensive data protection laws, you should be aware that your information will be transferred to and processed in countries that may not offer the same level of data protection as your home country. By using our services, you consent to such transfers.
You have the right to obtain information about the safeguards we have in place for international transfers by contacting us using the information provided in Section 13 of this Privacy Policy.
6. Data Security
We implement appropriate technical and organizational security measures designed to protect your personal information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. These measures include:
Physical security including secure facilities with controlled access for any physical storage of documents containing personal information, locked filing cabinets for sensitive paper records, secure disposal procedures including shredding for documents no longer needed, and visitor logs and security protocols for our offices.
Technical security including encryption of sensitive data both in transit and at rest using industry-standard encryption protocols, secure socket layer (SSL) technology on our website to protect data transmitted between your browser and our servers, firewalls and intrusion detection systems to protect our networks from unauthorized access, regular security updates and patches to our systems and software, antivirus and anti-malware protection on all systems, secure backup systems to prevent data loss, and multi-factor authentication for access to systems containing personal information.
Organizational security including limiting access to personal information to only those employees, contractors, and partners who need it to provide services, conducting background checks on employees who will have access to sensitive information where legally permitted, providing privacy and security training to all team members, implementing confidentiality
agreements with employees and contractors, establishing clear policies and procedures for handling personal information, conducting regular audits of our security practices, maintaining incident response plans for potential data breaches, and regularly reviewing and updating our security measures to address evolving threats.
Despite these measures, please be aware that no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is completely secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials if you have an online account with us and for notifying us immediately if you believe your account has been compromised.
7. Data Retention
We retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, provide services you have requested, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce our agreements, and for other legitimate business purposes.
Active client data is retained for the duration of our service relationship and for a reasonable period afterward to provide customer support, address any questions or concerns, process any refunds or disputes that arise, and maintain our business records.
Booking and transaction records are retained for a minimum of seven years from the date of the transaction to comply with financial record-keeping requirements, tax obligations, respond to legal claims or audits, and maintain business and accounting records.
Health and medical information provided for safety purposes is retained only as long as necessary to provide services safely and is then deleted or anonymized unless we are required to retain it longer for legal or safety reasons.
Communication records including emails and call notes are typically retained for seven years to maintain continuity of service across team members, resolve disputes, improve our services, and comply with legal record-keeping requirements.
Marketing communications data is retained until you opt out of marketing communications or request deletion, after which we will remove you from marketing lists but may retain minimal information to honor your opt-out preferences and prevent inadvertently re-adding you.
Technical and usage data collected through our website is typically retained for two years to analyze trends, improve website functionality, and ensure security.
At the end of the applicable retention period, we will delete, destroy, or anonymize your personal information in a secure manner. However, certain information may be retained in aggregated or anonymized form that cannot identify you personally, and this information may be retained indefinitely for analytical and research purposes.
You can request information about our specific retention practices for your personal information or request earlier deletion by contacting us using the information in Section 13 of this Privacy Policy. We will honor such requests to the extent possible while complying with legal obligations and protecting our legitimate business interests.
8. Your Privacy Rights
Depending on your location and applicable laws, you may have certain rights regarding your personal information. We respect these rights and provide mechanisms for you to exercise them. Your rights may include:
8.1 Right to Access
You have the right to request access to the personal information we hold about you. This includes the right to request a copy of your personal information, confirm whether we are processing your personal information, understand what categories of information we have collected about you, know the purposes for which we use your information, and identify third parties with whom we have shared your information.
We will provide this information free of charge within a reasonable timeframe, typically within thirty days of your request. If your request is particularly complex or you have made multiple requests, we may extend this timeframe and notify you of the extension.
8.2 Right to Rectification
You have the right to request correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal information we hold about you. If you believe information we have about you is incorrect, outdated, or incomplete, you may request that we update or correct it. We will make reasonable efforts to verify the accuracy of new information before making changes.
8.3 Right to Deletion
You have the right to request deletion of your personal information in certain circumstances, including when the information is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, you withdraw consent on which processing was based and there is no other legal
ground for processing, you object to processing and there are no overriding legitimate grounds for processing, your information has been unlawfully processed, deletion is required to comply with a legal obligation, or you believe we have processed your information unlawfully.
However, we may decline requests for deletion if we need to retain the information to comply with legal obligations, establish or defend legal claims, fulfill a contract with you, protect vital interests, or for other legitimate purposes. When we cannot delete information, we will inform you of the reason and, where possible, restrict processing instead.
8.4 Right to Restriction of Processing
You have the right to request that we restrict processing of your personal information in certain circumstances, including when you contest the accuracy of the information and we need time to verify accuracy, processing is unlawful but you prefer restriction instead of deletion, we no longer need the information but you need it for legal claims, or you have objected to processing and we are verifying whether our legitimate grounds override your objection.
When processing is restricted, we will store the information but not use it except with your consent, for legal claims, to protect another person's rights, or for important public interest reasons.
8.5 Right to Data Portability
You have the right to receive personal information you provided to us in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format and to transmit that information to another controller where technically feasible. This right applies when processing is based on consent or contract and is carried out by automated means.
8.6 Right to Object
You have the right to object to processing of your personal information in certain circumstances. You may object to processing based on legitimate interests by providing specific reasons related to your situation. We will stop processing unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests or we need the information for legal claims. You also have an absolute right to object to processing for direct marketing purposes at any time, and we will stop such processing immediately.
8.7 Right to Withdraw Consent
Where we process your information based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal of consent will not affect the lawfulness of processing before the withdrawal. You can withdraw consent by contacting us using the information in Section 13 or by using opt-out mechanisms provided in our communications.
8.8 Right to Lodge a Complaint
You have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, particularly in your country of residence, place of work, or place of alleged infringement, if you believe we have processed your personal information unlawfully or violated your privacy rights. While we encourage you to contact us first to resolve concerns, you have this right independent of any dispute resolution procedures with us.
8.9 Exercising Your Rights
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the contact information provided in Section 13 of this Privacy Policy. Your request should include sufficient information for us to verify your identity and understand your request. We may need to request additional information from you to verify your identity and ensure we are providing information to the right person. We do not charge a fee for processing most privacy rights requests, but we reserve the right to charge a reasonable fee for manifestly unfounded or excessive requests, particularly if they are repetitive.
We will respond to your request within the timeframe required by applicable law, typically within thirty days. If we need more time, we will notify you of the extension and the reason. We may decline requests in certain circumstances where permitted by law, and we will explain our reasoning if we do so.
9. Cookies and Tracking Technologies
We use cookies, web beacons, pixels, and similar tracking technologies on our website to enhance user experience, analyze usage patterns, and deliver relevant marketing content. This section explains what these technologies are, how we use them, and how you can control them.
9.1 What Are Cookies
Cookies are small text files placed on your device when you visit a website. They allow the website to recognize your device and remember information about your visit such as your preferences and actions. Cookies can be "persistent" cookies that remain on your device until
they expire or you delete them, or "session" cookies that are deleted when you close your browser.
9.2 Types of Cookies We Use
Strictly necessary cookies are essential for our website to function properly. These cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You cannot opt out of these cookies without severely affecting the functionality of the website.
Functional cookies enable our website to remember choices you make such as your username, language preference, or region, and provide enhanced, more personalized features. These cookies collect anonymized information and cannot track your browsing activity on other websites.
Analytics cookies help us understand how visitors interact with our website by collecting and reporting information anonymously. We use Google Analytics and similar services to collect information about which pages are most popular, how users navigate our site, where users are located geographically, and technical information about devices used to access our site. This information helps us improve website functionality and user experience.
Marketing cookies are used to track visitors across websites and deliver more relevant advertising. These cookies may be set by third-party advertising networks with our permission. They may be used to build a profile of your interests and show relevant ads on other sites. These cookies work by uniquely identifying your browser and device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
9.3 Third-party Cookies
Some cookies on our website are placed by third-party services we use. These may include Google Analytics for website analytics, Facebook Pixel for marketing and advertising, social media platforms if we have social sharing buttons, advertising networks if we use display advertising, and booking or payment partners for processing transactions.
These third parties have their own privacy policies that govern their use of information they collect through cookies. We do not control these third-party cookies and recommend you review their privacy policies to understand how they use information.
9.4 Web Beacons and Pixels
Web beacons are small graphic images (also known as "pixels" or "clear GIFs") embedded in web pages and emails. They work in conjunction with cookies to collect information about your
interaction with our website or emails, such as whether you opened an email we sent or clicked on a link in the email. We use this information to understand the effectiveness of our communications and marketing campaigns.
9.5 Managing Cookies
Most web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. You can usually modify your browser settings to decline cookies if you prefer. You can delete cookies that have already been set on your device through your browser settings. The "Help" feature on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether.
Please note that if you choose to block or delete cookies, you may not be able to access certain areas or features of our website, and some functionality may be impaired. Specifically, declining necessary cookies will prevent you from using essential website features, declining functional cookies will result in loss of personalized features, declining analytics cookies will not affect your website experience, and declining marketing cookies will result in seeing more generic advertisements rather than targeted ones.
You can also opt out of Google Analytics specifically by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
For more information about cookies and how to manage them, visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.
10. Children's Privacy
Beneath the Map's services are not directed to children under the age of eighteen, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under eighteen without parental consent. Our services typically involve international travel and relocation, activities that are not appropriate for unaccompanied minors.
When minors travel as part of a family or with authorized adult guardians, we collect information about them necessary to provide services safely, including their name, age, date of birth, passport information, health and medical information relevant to their safety, dietary restrictions and food allergies, and special needs or accommodations required. This information is provided by parents or legal guardians and is subject to the same privacy protections as adult information.
If we discover that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child under eighteen without appropriate parental consent, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe we have collected information from a child inappropriately, please contact us immediately using the information in Section 13 of this Privacy Policy.
Parents and guardians who book services involving minors are responsible for providing accurate information about the minor, obtaining necessary permissions for the minor to travel, ensuring the minor understands the nature of the services being provided, and supervising the minor during service provision unless alternative supervision arrangements have been explicitly agreed upon.
11. California Privacy Rights
If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) provide you with specific rights regarding your personal information. This section describes your CCPA rights and how to exercise them.
11.1 California Consumer Rights
California consumers have the right to request that we disclose what personal information we have collected about you, request deletion of your personal information subject to certain exceptions, opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information (note that we do not sell personal information), request correction of inaccurate personal information, and limit the use of sensitive personal information subject to certain exceptions.
11.2 Categories of Information Collected
As described in Section 2 of this Privacy Policy, we collect the following categories of personal information: identifiers such as name, email address, phone number, IP address; personal information described in California Civil Code Section 1798.80(e) such as address, passport number, financial account information; characteristics of protected classifications such as age, gender, nationality; commercial information such as booking history and purchase records; internet or network activity information such as browsing history and website interactions; geolocation data; sensory information if you provide photos or videos; professional or employment information if relevant to relocation services; education information if relevant to relocation or visa applications; and inferences drawn from any of the above to create a profile about preferences and behavior.
11.3 Purposes for Collection
We collect this information for the business purposes described in Section 3 of this Privacy Policy, including providing services you requested, communicating with you, personalizing your experience, improving our services, complying with legal obligations, and protecting our rights and the safety of our users.
11.4 Categories of Sources
We collect personal information from you directly through forms, bookings, communications; automatically through website usage and cookies; from third parties including partners, service providers, references, and public sources; and from your device through technical information collection.
11.5 Disclosures of Personal Information
As described in Section 4 of this Privacy Policy, we disclose personal information to service providers and business partners who help us provide services, professional advisors, government authorities when required by law, and other parties with your consent or as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy.
11.6 Sale of Personal Information
We do not sell personal information as defined by the CCPA. We do not exchange personal information for monetary consideration. We do share information with service providers and partners as necessary to provide services, but these arrangements are governed by contracts that restrict their use of the information to the services they provide to us.
11.7 Exercising California Privacy Rights
To exercise your California privacy rights, please contact us using the methods described in Section 13 of this Privacy Policy. You may designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf by providing written authorization or power of attorney. We will verify your identity before responding to requests to protect your personal information from unauthorized access.
We will respond to verifiable requests within forty-five days, with the possibility of a forty-five-day extension if necessary. We will not discriminate against you for exercising your privacy rights, including by denying services, charging different prices, providing different quality of services, or suggesting you will receive different services or prices.
11.8 California Shine the Light Law
California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. As stated above, we do not sell your personal information to third parties or share it for their direct marketing purposes.
12. European Data Protection Rights
If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom, or Switzerland, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and equivalent laws provide you with certain rights regarding your personal data. This section describes those rights and our legal basis for processing your information.
12.1 Legal Basis for Processing
We process your personal data on one or more of the following legal bases:
Contract performance: Processing is necessary to perform our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract. This includes processing necessary to provide the travel, homestay, and relocation services you have booked and to process payments.
Consent: You have given clear consent for us to process your personal data for specific purposes. This includes processing of sensitive personal information such as health data, processing for marketing purposes, and any other processing to which you have explicitly consented. You have the right to withdraw consent at any time.
Legitimate interests: Processing is necessary for our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and interests. Our legitimate interests include operating our business efficiently, improving our services, ensuring security, preventing fraud, managing customer relationships, and marketing our services to those who have demonstrated interest.
Legal obligation: Processing is necessary to comply with the law, including compliance with tax laws, financial record-keeping requirements, responding to lawful requests from authorities, and other legal obligations.
Vital interests: Processing is necessary to protect someone's life, such as in emergency situations during travel.
12.2 Your Gdpr Rights
As described in Section 8 of this Privacy Policy, you have rights including the right to access your personal data, rectify inaccurate data, erase data under certain circumstances, restrict processing, data portability, object to processing, withdraw consent, and lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.
12.3 International Data Transfers
As described in Section 5 of this Privacy Policy, we transfer personal data from the EEA to countries that may not provide equivalent data protection. We implement appropriate safeguards for such transfers including standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission.
12.4 Data Protection Officer
Given the nature and scale of our operations, we are not required to appoint a formal Data Protection Officer under GDPR. However, you can contact us regarding data protection matters using the contact information in Section 13 of this Privacy Policy, and your inquiry will be directed to the appropriate team member responsible for data protection compliance.
12.5 Exercising Your Rights
To exercise any of your GDPR rights, please contact us using the information provided in Section 13 of this Privacy Policy. We will respond to your request without undue delay and in any event within one month of receipt. We may extend this period by two further months where necessary, taking into account the complexity and number of requests, and we will inform you of any such extension.
13. Contact Information
If you have questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please contact us at:
Beneath the Map, LLC
Mailing Address: 22642 SE 280th Place, Maple Valley, WA, 98038
Email: info@beneaththemaptravel.com
Phone: +1-619-701-8735
Website: www.beneaththemaptravel.com
For specific privacy-related matters, including data access requests, privacy complaints, security concerns and marketing opt-out: info@beneaththemaptravel.com.
We will make reasonable efforts to respond to your inquiry within seven business days and to resolve issues within thirty days. If your concern requires more time to investigate and resolve, we will notify you of the expected timeline.
14. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time. When we make changes, we will update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this Privacy Policy. If we make material changes that significantly affect how we collect, use, or share your personal information, we will provide prominent notice by posting a notice on our website homepage, sending an email to the address associated with your account if you have one, or through other appropriate communication channels.
We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your information. Your continued use of our services after we post changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the revised Privacy Policy, you must stop using our services.
For material changes that affect previously collected information in ways not originally disclosed when the information was collected, we will obtain your consent before applying the new policy to that information, to the extent required by applicable law.
15. Severability
If any provision of this Privacy Policy is found to be unenforceable or invalid under applicable law, such unenforceability or invalidity shall not render this Privacy Policy unenforceable or invalid as a whole. Such provisions shall be deleted without affecting the remaining provisions, and the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.
16. Entire Agreement
This Privacy Policy, together with our Terms and Conditions, constitutes the entire agreement between you and Beneath the Map regarding the privacy of your personal information and supersedes all prior or contemporaneous communications and proposals, whether electronic, oral, or written, between you and Beneath the Map with respect to this subject matter.
17. Language
This Privacy Policy has been prepared in English. To the extent any translated version conflicts with the English version, the English version shall control to the extent permitted by applicable law.
18. Acknowledgment
By using our services or providing us with your personal information, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy in its entirety, you have had the opportunity to ask questions and seek clarification about our privacy practices, you consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of your information as described in this Privacy Policy, you understand that international travel and relocation involve sharing personal information with third parties in destination countries, you understand that you have rights regarding your personal information and know how to exercise those rights, and you accept the risks associated with international data transfers and use of our services.
END OF PRIVACY POLICY
Last Updated: January 10, 2026
Effective Date: January 10, 2026
© 2026 Beneath the Map, LLC. All rights reserved.