ARTA Privacy and Confidentiality Policy

Privacy of personal information is an important principle to the Association of Retail Travel Agents (ARTA). We are committed to collecting, using and disclosing personal information responsibly and only to the extent necessary for the travel agency member and associate services we provide. We also try to be open and transparent as to how we handle personal information.

What is personal information?

Personal information is information about an identifiable individual. Personal information includes information that relates to their personal characteristics (e.g., gender, age, income, home address or phone number, ethnic background, family status), their health (e.g., health history, health conditions, health services received by them) or their activities and views (e.g., religion, politics, opinions expressed by an individual, an opinion or evaluation of an individual). Personal information is to be contrasted with business information (e.g., an individual's business address and telephone number), which is not protected by privacy legislation.

Who we are?

ARTA is a not-for-profit travel agency trade association.

We collect personal information for the following purposes:

ARTA collects personal information to facilitate the provision of commercial and advocacy services to our client travel agency and individual travel industry personnel. Personal information is often collected due to some travel agencies being sole proprietorships or where individual travel industry personnel choose to avail themselves of ARTA services and programs. In addition, ARTA uses various components of personal information, particularly e-mail addresses and fax numbers, to provide ongoing support to our members, including advisories, bulletins, and training program updates. As always, this information is maintained on our secure internal and external communication servers and never commercially shared with any other party for any purpose other than directly facilitating ARTA  services.

Furthermore, and in accordance with both federal and state privacy laws, ARTA never releases, sells, nor publishes its membership list nor its demographics nor provides any information which might identify an individual or company entity. As ARTA sells memberships in furtherance of its commercial activities, notwithstanding the association's non-profit organization status, any information collected, whether it be personal or business related, is protected and can only be divulged to third parties with the express consent of the person or business entity affected.  

Any customer or member may request immediate deletion of their contact information and choose to disallow future contact by ARTA Program Marketing. ARTA fully supports anti-spam protocols, and all marketing communications provide customers with facilities to remove their contact information with immediate effect. ARTA also uses the personal information it collects to comply with legal and financial requirements imposed by various authorities on ARTA's operations.

Upon registration for any ARTA program, examples of the information we collect or store for these purposes include the following: name, address, telephone, fax, e-mail address, IATA/ARC or TIDS/TSI numbers, pre-authorized payment information, credit card information, web site cookies, and similar personal information necessary to properly identify our clients and their respective entitlement to the services we provide.

Protecting personal information:

ARTA understands the importance of protecting personal information. For that reason, we have taken the following steps:

• Paper information is either under supervision or secured in a locked or restricted area.

• Electronic hardware is either under supervision or secured in a locked or restricted area at all times. In addition, passwords are used on computers.

• Paper information is transmitted through sealed, addressed envelopes or boxes by reputable companies.

• Staff are trained to collect, use and disclose personal information only as necessary to fulfill their duties and in accordance with our privacy policy.

• External consultants and agencies with access to personal information must enter into privacy agreements with us or acknowledge that the abide by these privacy requirements.

Retention and destruction of personal information:

ARTA needs to retain personal information for some time to ensure that we can answer any questions you might have about the services provided and for our own accountability to external regulatory bodies. However, we do not want to keep personal information too long in order to protect your privacy. We keep our transaction files and data during the entire period of a client's relationship with ARTA and retain this information for about 2 years thereafter. Solely e-mail addresses and fax numbers are retained indefinitely so as to provide program updates, change bulletins, or other notices which may affect information which ARTA may have conveyed during its training and others advocacy programs. ARTA prides itself on the accuracy of its programs, and ongoing communications with our customers and members is one way we maintain the current nature of the information we share. ARTA fully supports anti-spam protocols, and all marketing and training communications provide customers with facilities to remove their contact information with immediate effect. We destroy paper files containing personal information by shredding. We destroy electronic information by deleting it and, when the hardware is discarded, we ensure that the hard drive is physically destroyed.

You can look at your information:

With only a few exceptions, you have the right to see what personal information we hold about you. Often all you have to do is ask. We can help you identify what records we might have about you. We will also try to help you understand any information you do not understand (e.g., various legal forms, technical language, etc.).

We will need to confirm your identity, if we do not know you, before providing you with this access. We reserve the right to charge a nominal fee for such requests. If there is a problem, we may ask you to put your request in writing. If we cannot give you access, we will tell you within 30 days if at all possible and tell you the reason, as best we can, as to why we cannot give you access. If you believe there is a mistake in the information, you have the right to ask for it to be corrected. This applies to factual information and not to any professional opinions we may have formed. We may ask you to provide documentation that our files are wrong. Where we agree that we made a mistake, we will make the correction and notify anyone to whom we sent this information. If we do not agree that we have made a mistake, we will still agree to include in our file a brief statement from you on the point and we will forward that statement to anyone else who received the earlier information.

Do you have a concern?

Our Privacy Policy Manager can be reached at ARTA, P.O. Box 45260, Phoenix, AZ 85064 or by contacting ARTA on the ARTA web site (www.arta.travel) to address any questions or concerns you might have. If you wish to make a formal complaint about our privacy practices, you may make it in writing to our Privacy Policy Manager. He will acknowledge receipt of your complaint, ensure that it is investigated promptly and that you are provided with a formal decision and reasons in writing.

ARTA appreciates and values your opinions. At ARTA, privacy is not a privilege, it's a right.