Scubago Privacy Policy

Effective date: November 15, 2019

Unless otherwise defined in this Privacy Policy, the terms used in this Privacy Policy have the same meanings as in our Terms and Conditions, accessible from https://scubago.com/terms

This page informs you of our policies and your choices regarding the collection, use and disclosure of personal data when you use our Service and the choices you have associated with that data.

Scubago uses your data to provide and improve the Service. By using the Service, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy.

1. Introduction

1.1 Definitions

  • Personal Data
    Personal Data means data that can be used to identify a living individual.
  • Usage Data
    Usage Data is data collected automatically either generated by the use of the Service or from the Service infrastructure itself (for example, the duration of a page visit).
  • Cookies
    Cookies are small files stored on your device (computer or mobile device).
  • Data Controller
    When this policy mentions “we,” “us,” or “our,” it refers to Scubago that is responsible for your information under this Privacy Policy (the “Data Controller”).
  • Data Processors (or Service Providers)
    Data Processor (or Service Provider) means any natural person or legal entity who processes the data on behalf of the Data Controller.
    We may use the services of various Service Providers in order to process your data more effectively.
  • Data Subject (or User)
    Data Subject is any living person who is using our Service and is the subject of Personal Data.
  • Payment provider
    The party that facilitates payments for the Scubago Platform.

2. Information we collect

There are several categories of information we collect.

2.1.1 Information that is necessary for the use of the Scubago Platform.

We ask for and collect the following personal information about you when you use the Scubago Platform. This information is necessary for the adequate performance of the contract between you and us and to allow us to comply with our legal obligations. Without it, we may not be able to provide you with all the requested services.

  • Account Information.
  • When you sign up for a Scubago Account, we may require certain information such as your first name, last name, email address, and date of birth.
  • Profile and Listing Information.
  • To use certain features of the Scubago Platform (such as booking or creating a Listing), we may ask you to provide additional information, which may include your address, phone number, and a profile picture.
  • Identity Verification Information.
  • To help create and maintain a trusted environment, we may collect identity verification information (such as images of your government issued ID, passport, national ID card, or driving license, as permitted by applicable laws) or other authentication information.
  • Payment Information.
  • To use certain features of the Scubago Platform (such as booking or creating a Listing), we may require you to provide certain financial information (like your bank account or credit card information) in order to facilitate the processing of payments.
  • Communications between Scubago, Operators and Guests
  • When you communicate with Scubago or use the Scubago Platform to communicate with Guests or Operators we collect information about your communication and any information you choose to provide.

2.1.2 Information you choose to give us.

You may choose to provide us with additional personal information in order to obtain a better user Activity when using Scubago Platform. This additional information will be processed based on our legitimate interest or when applicable, your consent.

Additional Profile Information. You may choose to provide additional information as part of your Scubago profile (such as gender, preferred language(s), city, and a personal description). Some of this information as indicated in your Account settings is part of your public profile page, and will be publicly visible to others.

Account, respond to surveys, post to community forums, participate in promotions, communicate with our customer care team, share your Activity with us (such as through Operator Stories), or use other features of the Scubago Platform.

2.1.3 Information that is necessary for the use of the Payment Services.

The Payments Data Controller needs to collect the following information necessary for the adequate performance of the contract with you and to comply with applicable law (such as anti-money laundering regulations). Without it, you will not be able to use Payment Services:

Payment Information. When you use the Payment Services, the Payments Data Controller requires certain financial information (like your bank account or credit card information) in order to process payments and comply with applicable law.

Identity Verification and Other Information. If you are a Operator, the Payments Data Controller may require identity verification information (such as images of your government issued ID, passport, national ID card, or driving license) or other authentication information, your date of birth, your address, email address, phone number and other information in order to verify your identity, provide the Payment Services to you, and to comply with applicable law.

2.1.4 Information We Automatically Collect from Your Use of the Scubago Platform and Payment Services.

When you use the Scubago Platform and the Payment Services, we automatically collect personal information about the services you use and how you use them. This information is necessary for the adequate performance of the contract between you and us, to enable us to comply with legal obligations and given our legitimate interest in being able to provide and improve the functionalities of the Scubago Platform and Payment Services.

Geo-location Information. When you use certain features of the Scubago Platform, we may collect information about your precise or approximate location as determined through data such as your IP address or mobile device’s GPS to offer you an improved user Activity.

Usage Information. We collect information about your interactions with the Scubago Platform such as the pages or content you view, your searches for Listings, bookings you have made, and other actions on the Scubago Platform.

Log Data and Device Information. We automatically collect log data and device information when you access and use the Scubago Platform, even if you have not created an Scubago Account or logged in. That information includes, among other things: details about how you’ve used the Scubago Platform (including if you clicked on links to third party applications), IP address, access dates and times, hardware and software information, device information, device event information, unique identifiers, crash data, cookie data, and the pages you’ve viewed or engaged with before or after using the Scubago Platform.

Cookies and Similar Technologies. We use cookies and other similar technologies when you use our platform, use our mobile app, or engage with our online ads or email communications. We may collect certain information by automated means using technologies such as cookies, web beacons, pixels, browser analysis tools, server logs, and mobile identifiers. In many cases the information we collect using cookies and other tools is only used in a non-identifiable without reference to personal information.

For example, we may use information we collect to better understand website traffic patterns and to optimize our website Activity. In some cases we associate the information we collect using cookies and other technology with your personal information. Our business partners may also use these tracking technologies on the Scubago Platform or engage others to track your behavior on our behalf.

Pixels and SDKs. Third parties may use cookies, web beacons, and other storage technologies to collect or receive information from our websites and elsewhere on the internet and use that information to provide measurement services and target ads.

Users can opt-out of the collection and use of information for ad targeting by contacting Scubago via scubago.com/contact with a description of your request and validation information. Users can access a mechanism for exercising such choice by going to http://www.aboutads.info/choices and http://www.youronlinechoices.eu/. For more information on our use of these technologies, see our Cookie Policy.

Do Not Track Signals. While you may disable the usage of cookies through your browser settings, the Scubago Platform currently does not respond to a “Do Not Track” signal in the HTTP header from your browser or mobile application due to lack of standardization regarding how that signal should be interpreted.

Payment Transaction Information. For payments we collect information related to your payment transactions through the Scubago Platform, including the payment instrument used, date and time, payment amount, payment instrument expiration date and billing postcode, PayPal email address, IBAN information, your address and other related transaction details. This information is necessary for the adequate performance of the contract between you and the payment provider and to allow the provision of the Payment Services.

2.1.5 Information We Collect from Third Parties.

Scubago and its payment provider may collect information, including personal information, that others provide about you when they use the Scubago Platform and the Payment Services, or obtain information from other sources and combine that with information we collect through the Scubago Platform and the Payment Services. We do not control, supervise or respond for how the third parties providing your information process your Personal Information, and any information request regarding the disclosure of your personal information to us should be directed to such third parties.

Third Party Services. If you link, connect, or login to your Scubago Account with a third party service (e.g. Google), the third party service may send us information such as your registration, friends list, and profile information from that service. This information varies and is controlled by that service or as authorized by you via your privacy settings at that service.

Other Sources. To the extent permitted by applicable law, we may receive additional information about you, such as demographic data or information to help detect fraud and safety issues, from third party service providers and/or partners, and combine it with information we have about you. For example, we may receive background check results (with your consent where required) or fraud warnings from service providers like identity verification services for our fraud prevention and risk assessment efforts. We may receive information about you and your activities on and off the Scubago Platform through partnerships, or about your Activities and interactions from our partner ad networks.

2.2 Children’s Data.

Our websites and applications are not directed to children under 16 and we do not knowingly collect any personal information directly from children under 16. If you believe that we processing the personal information pertaining to a child inappropriately, we take this very seriously and urge you to contact us using the information provided under the “Contact Us” section below.

3 How we use the information we collect

We may use, store, and process personal information to
(1) provide, understand, improve, and develop the Scubago Platform,
(2) create and maintain a trusted and safer environment (such as to comply with our legal obligations and ensure compliance with Scubago Policies) and
(3) provide, personalize, measure, and improve our advertising and marketing.

3.1 How we use the information to provide, improve, and develop the platform

We may use the personal information to provide, improve, and develop the Scubago Platform such as to:

  • enable you to access and use the Scubago Platform,
  • enable you to communicate with Operators or other Guests,
  • operate, protect, improve, and optimize the Scubago Platform and Activity, such as by performing analytics and conducting research,
  • provide customer service,
  • send you service or support messages, updates, security alerts, and account notifications,
  • to operate, protect, improve, and optimize the Scubago Platform and Activity, and personalize and customize your Activity (such as making Listing suggestions, ranking search results), and facilitate claims, we conduct profiling based on your interactions with the Scubago Platform, your search and booking history, your profile information and preferences, and other content you submit to the Scubago Platform.

We process this personal information for these purposes given our legitimate interest in improving the Scubago Platform and where it is necessary for the adequate performance of the contract with you.

3.2 How we use the information to Create and Maintain a Trusted and Safer Environment.

We may use the personal information to create and maintain a trusted and safer environment such as to:

  • detect and prevent fraud, spam, abuse, security incidents, and other harmful activity,
  • conduct security investigations and risk assessments,
  • verify or authenticate information or identifications provided by you (such as to verify your Accommodation address or compare your identification photo to another photo you provide),
  • conduct checks against databases and other information sources, including background or police checks, to the extent permitted by applicable laws and with your consent where required,
  • omply with our legal obligations,
  • Resolve any disputes with any of our Guests or Operators and enforce our agreements with third parties,
  • enforce our Terms of Service and other policies, and
  • in connection with the activities above, we may conduct profiling based on your interactions with the Scubago Platform, your profile information and other content you submit to the Scubago Platform, and information obtained from third parties. In limited cases, automated processes may restrict or suspend access to the Scubago Platform if such processes detect activity that we think poses a safety or other risk to the Scubago Platform, our community, or third parties. If you challenge the decisioning based on the automated process, please contact us as provided in the Contact Us section below.

We process this personal information for these purposes given our legitimate interest in protecting the Scubago Platform, to measure the adequate performance of our contract with you, and to comply with applicable laws.

3.3 How we use the information to provide, personalize, measure, and Improve our Advertising and Marketing.

We may use the personal information to provide, personalize, measure, and improve our advertising and marketing such as to:

  • send you promotional messages, marketing, advertising, and other information that may be of interest to you based on your preferences (including information about Scubago or partner campaigns and services) and social media advertising through social media platforms such as Facebook or Google),
  • personalize, measure, and improve our advertising,
  • administer referral programs, rewards, surveys, sweepstakes, contests, or other promotional activities or events sponsored or managed by Scubago or its third party partners,
  • conduct profiling on your characteristics and preferences (based on the information you provide to us, your interactions with the Scubago Platform, information obtained from third parties, and your search and booking history) to send you promotional messages, marketing, advertising and other information that we think may be of interest to you,
  • enrolling in an email subscription will not affect the frequency of administrative emails that we may send in connection with any Scubago Account. No fee is charged for sending promotional emails to you, but third-party data rates may apply. Note that you may not be able to take advantage of certain promotions if you do not have an Scubago Account, and
  • invite you to events and relevant opportunities (for example, when you share your Operator story, we may use the information provided to reach out to you to invite you to relevant events).

We will process your personal information for the purposes listed in this section given our legitimate interest in undertaking marketing activities to offer you products or services that may be of your interest.

3.4 How the payments provider uses the personal Information collected.

Our payments provider may use the personal information as a part of its payment services such as to:

  • Enable you to access and use the payment Services.
  • Detect and prevent fraud, abuse, security incidents, and other harmful activity.
  • Conduct security investigations and risk assessments.
  • Conduct checks against databases and other information sources.
  • Comply with legal obligations (such as anti-money laundering regulations).
  • Enforce the Payment Terms and other payment policies.
  • With your consent, send you promotional messages, marketing, advertising, and other information that may be of interest to you based on your preferences.

The payment provider processes this personal information given its legitimate interest in improving the Payment Services and its users’ Activity with it, and where it is necessary for the adequate performance of the contract with you and to comply with applicable laws.

4 Disclosure of Data

4.1 Sharing between Guests and Operators.

To help facilitate bookings or other interactions between Guests and Operators, we may need to share certain information, including personal information, with Operators, as it is necessary for the adequate performance of the contract between you and us, as follows:

  • When you as a Guest submit a booking request, certain information about you is shared with the Operator, including your profile, full name, the full name of any additional Guests, your cancellation history, and other information you agree to share. When your booking is confirmed, we will disclose additional information to assist with coordinating the trip, like your phone number.
  • When you as a Operator have a confirmed booking, certain information is shared with the Guest (and the additional Guests they may invite, if applicable) to coordinate the booking, such as your profile, full name, phone number, and Accommodation or Activity address.
  • When you as a Guest invite additional Guests to a booking, your full name, travel dates, Operator name, Listing details, the Accommodation address, and other related information will be shared with each additional Guest.

We don’t share your billing and payout information with other Guests and Operators.

4.2 Profiles, Listings, and other Public Information.

The Scubago Platform lets Operators and Guests publish information, including personal information, that is visible to the general public. For example:

  • Listing pages are publicly visible and include information such as an Activity’s precise location, Listing description, calendar availability, public profile photos, aggregated demand information (like page views over a period of time), and any additional information you choose to share.
  • After completing a booking, Guests and Operators may write Reviews and rate each other. Reviews and Ratings are a part of your public profile page and may also be surfaced elsewhere on the Scubago Platform (such as the Listing page).
  • If you submit content in a community or discussion forum, blog or social media post, or use a similar feature on the Scubago Platform, that content is publicly visible.

Based on our legitimate interest to promote the Scubago Platform we may display parts of the Scubago Platform (e.g., your Listing page) on sites operated by Scubago’s business partners, using technologies such as widgets or APIs. If your Listings are displayed on a partner’s site, information from your public profile page may also be displayed.

Information you share publicly on the Scubago Platform may be indexed through third party search engines. In some cases, you may opt-out of this feature in your Account settings. If you change your settings or your public-facing content, these search engines may not update their databases. We do not control the practices of third party search engines, and they may use caches containing your outdated information.

4.3 Additional Services by Operators.

Operators may need to use third party services available through the Scubago Platform to assist with managing their Availability or providing additional services requested by you. Operators may use features on the Scubago Platform to share information about the Guest (like check-in and check-out dates, Guest name, Guest phone number) with such third party service providers for the purposes of coordinating the stay or providing other services. Operators are responsible for third party service providers they use and ensuring those service providers process Guest information securely and in compliance with applicable law including data privacy and data protection laws.

4.4 Compliance with Law, Responding to Legal Requests, Preventing Harm and Protection of our Rights.

Scubago may disclose your information, including personal information, to courts, law enforcement, governmental authorities, tax authorities, or authorized third parties, if and to the extent we are required or permitted to do so by law or if such disclosure is reasonably necessary:

  • (i) to comply with our legal obligations,
  • (ii) to comply with a valid legal request or to respond to claims asserted against Scubago,
  • (iii) to respond to a valid legal request relating to a criminal investigation or alleged or suspected illegal activity or any other activity that may expose us, you, or any other of our users to legal liability (See more information on Scubago’s Law Enforcement Guidelines here),
  • (iv) to enforce and administer our Terms of Service, the Payment Terms or other agreements with Guests and Operators, or
  • (v) to protect the rights, property or personal safety of Scubago, its employees, its Guests and Operators, or Guests and Operators of the public. For example, if permitted due to the forgoing circumstances, Operator tax information may be shared with tax authorities or other governmental agencies.

These disclosures may be necessary to comply with our legal obligations, for the protection of your or another person’s vital interests or for the purposes of our or a third party’s legitimate interest in keeping the Scubago Platform secure, preventing harm or crime, enforcing or defending legal rights, facilitating the collection of taxes and prevention of tax fraud or preventing damage.

Where appropriate, we may notify Guests and Operators about legal requests unless:

  • (i) providing notice is prohibited by the legal process itself, by court order we receive, or by applicable law, or
  • (ii) we believe that providing notice would be futile, ineffective, create a risk of injury or bodily harm to an individual or group, or create or increase a risk of fraud upon Scubago’s property, its Guests and Operators and the Scubago Platform.  In instances where we comply with legal requests without notice for these reasons, we may attempt to notify that Member about the request after the fact where appropriate and where we determine in good faith that we are no longer prevented from doing so.

4.5 Service Providers.

Scubago and uses a variety of third-party service providers to help us provide services related to the Scubago Platform. Service providers may be located inside or outside of the European Economic Area (“EEA”).

For example, service providers may help us:

  • (i) verify your identity or authenticate your identification documents,
  • (ii) check information against public databases,
  • (iii) conduct background or police checks, fraud prevention, and risk assessment,
  • (iv) perform product development, maintenance and debugging,
  • (v) allow the provision of the Scubago Services through third party platforms and software tools (e.g. through the integration with our APIs), (vi) provide customer service, advertising, or payments services, or
  • (vii) process, handle or assess insurance claims or other similar claims. These providers have limited access to your personal information to perform these tasks on our behalf, and are contractually bound to protect the personal information and only use the personal information in accordance with our instructions .

Scubago will need to share your information, including personal information, in order to ensure the adequate performance of our contract with you.

4.6 Business Transfers.

If Scubago undertakes or is involved in any merger, acquisition, reorganization, sale of assets, bankruptcy, or insolvency event, then we may sell, transfer or share some or all of our assets, including your information in connection with such transaction or in contemplation of such transaction (e.g., due diligence). In this event, we will notify you before your personal information is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

4.7 Aggregated Data.

We may also share aggregated information (information about our users that we combine together so that it no longer identifies or references an individual user) and other anonymized information for regulatory compliance, industry and market analysis, research, demographic profiling, marketing and advertising, and other business purposes.

5 Other Important Information

5.1 Analyzing your Communications.

We may review, scan, or analyze your communications on the Scubago Platform for fraud prevention, risk assessment, regulatory compliance, investigation, product development, research, analytics, and customer support purposes. For example, as part of our fraud prevention efforts, we scan and analyze messages to mask contact information and references to other websites. In some cases, we may also scan, review, or analyze messages to debug, improve, and expand product offerings. We use automated methods where reasonably possible. However, occasionally we may need to manually review some communications, such as for fraud investigations and customer support, or to assess and improve the functionality of these automated tools. We will not review, scan, or analyze your messaging communications to send third party marketing messages to you, and we will not sell reviews or analyses of these communications.

These activities are carried out based on Scubago’s legitimate interest in ensuring compliance with applicable laws and our Terms, preventing fraud, promoting safety, and improving and ensuring the adequate performance of our services.

5.3 Third Party Partners & Integrations

The Scubago Platform may contain links to third party websites or services, such as third party integrations, co-branded services, or third party-branded services (“Third Party Partners”). Scubago doesn’t own or control these Third Party Partners and when you interact with them, you may be providing information directly to the Third Party Partner, Scubago, or both. These Third Party Partners will have their own rules about the collection, use, and disclosure of information. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of the other websites you visit.

Parts of the Scubago Platform may use third party services such as Google MapsEarth services, including the Google Maps API(s), and Stripe and Paypal payments. Use of these respective services is subject to their privacy policies such as Google MapsEarth Additional Terms of Use, and the Google Privacy Policy, Stripe Privacy Policy and Paypal Privacy Policy

6 Your Rights

Consistent with applicable law, you may exercise any of the rights described in this section before your applicable Scubago Data Controller and Payments Data Controller. See here for information on data subject rights requests and how to submit a request. . Please note that we may ask you to verify your identity and request before taking further action on your request.

6.1 Managing Your Information.

You may access and update some of your information through your Account settings. If you have chosen to connect your Scubago Account to a third-party application, like Facebook or Google, you can change your settings and remove permission for the app by changing your Account settings. You are responsible for keeping your personal information up-to-date.

6.2 Rectification of Inaccurate or Incomplete Information.

You have the right to ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete personal information about you (and which you cannot update yourself within your Scubago Account).

6.3 Data Access and Portability.

In some jurisdictions, applicable law may entitle you to request certain copies of your personal information held by us. You may also be entitled to request copies of personal information that you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format and/or request us to transmit this information to another service provider (where technically feasible).

6.4 Data Retention and Erasure.

We generally retain your personal information for as long as is necessary for the performance of the contract between you and us and to comply with our legal obligations. In certain jurisdictions, you can request to have all your personal information deleted entirely.” Please note that if you request the erasure of your personal information:

  • We may retain some of your personal information as necessary for our legitimate business interests, such as fraud detection and prevention and enhancing safety. For example, if we suspend an Scubago Account for fraud or safety reasons, we may retain certain information from that Scubago Account to prevent that Member from opening a new Scubago Account in the future.
  • We may retain and use your personal information to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations. For example, Scubago may keep some of your information for tax, legal reporting and auditing obligations.
  • Information you have shared with others (e.g., Reviews, forum postings) may continue to be publicly visible on the Scubago Platform, even after your Scubago Account is cancelled. However, attribution of such information to you will be removed. Additionally, some copies of your information (e.g., log records) may remain in our database, but are disassociated from personal identifiers.
  • Because we maintain the Scubago Platform to protect from accidental or malicious loss and destruction, residual copies of your personal information may not be removed from our backup systems for a limited period of time.

6.5 Withdrawing Consent and Restriction of Processing.

If we are processing your personal information based on your consent you may withdraw your consent at any time by changing your Account settings or by sending a communication to Scubago specifying which consent you are withdrawing. Please note that the withdrawal of your consent does not affect the lawfulness of any processing activities based on such consent before its withdrawal. Additionally, in some jurisdictions, applicable law may give you the right to limit the ways in which we use your personal information, in particular where (i) you contest the accuracy of your personal information;
(ii) the processing is unlawful and you oppose the erasure of your personal information;
(iii) we no longer need your personal information for the purposes of the processing, but you require the information for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims; or
(iv) you have objected to the processing pursuant to Section 6.6 and pending the verification whether the legitimate grounds of Scubago override your own.

6.6 Objection to Processing.

In some jurisdictions, applicable law may entitle you to require Scubago not to process your personal information for certain specific purposes (including profiling) where such processing is based on legitimate interest. If you object to such processing Scubago will no longer process your personal information for these purposes unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for such processing or such processing is required for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

Where your personal information is processed for direct marketing purposes, you may, at any time ask Scubago to cease processing your data for these direct marketing purposes by sending an e-mail to opt-out@Scubago.com.

6.7 Lodging Complaints.

You have the right to lodge complaints about our data processing activities by filing a complaint with our Data Protection Officer who can be reached via scubago.com/contact or with a supervisory authority.

7.  International Transfers

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

If you are located outside Netherlands and choose to provide information to us, please note that we transfer the data, including Personal Data, to the Netherlands and other countries and process it there.

Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of such information represents your agreement to that transfer.

Scubago will take all the steps reasonably necessary to ensure that  your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and no transfer of your Personal Data will take place to an organisation or a
country unless there are adequate controls in place including the security of your data and other personal information.

8. Security

We are continuously implementing and updating administrative, technical, and physical security measures to help protect your information against unauthorized access, loss, destruction, or alteration. Some of the safeguards we use to protect your information are firewalls and data encryption, and information access controls. If you know or have reason to believe that your Scubago Account credentials have been lost, stolen, misappropriated, or otherwise compromised or in case of any actual or suspected unauthorized use of your Scubago Account, please contact us following the instructions in the Contact Us section below.

9. Modification of this Policy

We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to modify or replace these Terms at any time. If a revision is material we will try to provide at least 30 days notice prior to any new terms taking effect. What constitutes a material change will be determined at our sole discretion.

By continuing to access or use our Service after those revisions become effective, you agree to be bound by the revised terms. If you do not agree to the new terms, please stop using the Service.

10. Contact us

We welcome and encourage you to ask questions, provide feedback, comments or give suggestions for improvements to the Scubago Platform (“Feedback“). You may submit Feedback by emailing us, through the  “Contact”  section of the Scubago Platform, or by other means of communication. Any Feedback you submit to us may be used by us for any business purpose and will be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary to you.