1. Who is responsible The controller of WorldTrip Club account data is: David Clarke Correspondence address: Unit 174360 PO Box 7169 Poole, BH15 9EL United Kingdom Contact for privacy questions and requests: [email protected]. You may also write to the address above. The service is intended for adults aged 18 or over. At registration we record your declaration of adulthood with your acceptance of the terms. Routine registration does not ask for your date of birth or an identity document. If you believe that a child has an account, contact us so that we can assess the report and take appropriate action. 2. What we collect You provide your name or display name, username, email, password and chosen settings. Passwords are stored as hashes. Optional information includes your bio, residence country, links, avatar, travel declarations, visits, dates, cities, journal text and photos. We also process friendships, private messages, reports, notification status, membership applications and membership records, plus the versions and dates of legal-document acceptances. We receive technical data such as IP addresses, browser/device information, session identifiers and security logs when you use the website. The travel map uses places you select; it does not require automatic tracking of your live location. 3. Why we use it Account operation, requested travel/social features and any agreed membership rely on performing our contract with you. Security, preventing abuse, maintaining the service and handling reports rely on our legitimate interests in a safe, functioning community, balanced against your rights. Legal duties are the basis for records or disclosures required by law. Optional preferences use consent where required, and you may withdraw it. Acknowledging this policy is not blanket consent to unrelated uses or marketing. We do not sell personal data. 4. What other people can see Profiles may be private, members-only or public. Public profiles, shared travel and published journal content may be seen outside the club and indexed by search engines. Rankings follow the eligibility and visibility rules shown in the service; public city scores use shared visits. Your email and password are not public profile fields. Messages go to their participants; authorised administration may access information where necessary to handle a report, provide support or secure the service. Messages are not represented as end-to-end encrypted. Other people may keep copies of material you share, and search engines may retain cached pages after a visibility change. 5. Service providers and international processing The public website’s hosting provider is HitMe.pl (hitme.pl); its hosting location is Poland. Necessary hosting, backup and email providers process data to deliver the service. Authorised support providers or professional advisers may receive relevant information where needed; authorities may receive it where legally required. If you choose Google sign-in when available, Google provides an identifier, verified email and basic profile information under its own privacy terms. External links are governed by their operators. Where processing involves a restricted international transfer, the applicable adequacy rules or other required safeguards must be in place. Contact us for information about relevant recipients and safeguards. 6. Cookies and local preferences Necessary cookies support sessions, sign-in, security and recording your cookie choice. The present interface offers a separate choice for remembering language preferences; the cookie-choice record lasts up to 180 days. Session and sign-in cookies follow the selected session or remember-me settings. Theme and interface preferences may also be stored locally in your browser. The current implementation does not enable advertising or analytics tracking. Any later use requiring consent must be offered separately. Change your choice through Cookie settings; blocking necessary storage may prevent sign-in or other requested functions. 7. How long data stays Account and travel data remain while your account is maintained, unless you remove them sooner. Account deletion removes linked data from the active application database and associated profile/journal photos. Limited records may be retained where necessary for legal duties, genuine disputes or security; their duration follows that purpose and the applicable legal period. Logs are needed only for operation, diagnosis and security. Historical backup copies do not disappear immediately when active data is deleted; access is restricted and retention is limited to what is needed for recovery and lawful purposes. Backups are not used as public profiles. Copies independently kept by recipients or search engines are outside our direct storage. 8. Your choices and rights You can edit your profile, choose visibility, manage cookies, export your account data and request deletion. Depending on the circumstances, you may also request access, correction, erasure, restriction or portability, object to processing based on legitimate interests, or withdraw consent. Some rights have legal exceptions. Contact us using the details above; we may need proportionate information to verify identity. Requests are handled within the applicable statutory periods. You can complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office at https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/ or to another supervisory authority available under applicable law. 9. Scores and automated processing Travel totals and achievements are calculated automatically from saved records. They are community features, not automated decisions with legal or similarly significant effects. We do not use them to determine credit, employment or insurance eligibility. 10. Changes The version and publication date appear above. If our data practices materially change, we will update this policy and provide any notice or fresh consent required by law. Stripe payment processing WTC uses Stripe Checkout to process optional Premium and VIP purchases. We send Stripe your account email, order/member reference, selected package, amount, currency and the technical metadata needed to link a payment to your order. Stripe collects payment-card and payment-related device/security information directly in its hosted checkout. WTC does not receive or store complete card numbers or card security codes. WTC stores order and Stripe payment/session/refund/dispute references, prices, currencies, payment outcomes, membership periods and adjustments, relevant legal-text versions and acceptance timestamps. These records support performance of the contract, payment security and dispute handling, compliance with legal record-keeping duties where applicable, and legitimate interests in preventing duplicate or fraudulent transactions. We do not use a purchase checkbox as consent for optional marketing. Stripe may act as WTC's data processor or as an independent controller, depending on the activity. For UK Stripe accounts, the Stripe Services Agreement identifies Stripe Payments Europe, Limited (Ireland) and, where the relevant service terms apply, Stripe Payments UK Ltd (United Kingdom) as contracting entities. Stripe's Privacy Policy (https://stripe.com/privacy), Privacy Center (https://stripe.com/gb/legal/privacy-center) and Data Processing Agreement (https://stripe.com/gb/legal/dpa) explain the relevant roles, recipients, international transfers and safeguards. For WTC's UK sole-trader business, records required for Self Assessment are kept for at least five years after the 31 January filing deadline for the relevant tax year. A longer period applies where another applicable record-keeping duty requires it, including VAT obligations where relevant, or where particular records remain necessary for an unresolved dispute or legal claim. Access is restricted and the retained information is limited to what those purposes require. Deleting an account does not automatically erase records that must still be retained; this does not justify retaining unrelated profile or travel data. Retention needs are reviewed, and information no longer needed is deleted or anonymised. Contact details and individual rights remain as described in the WTC Privacy Policy.