1. OVERVIEW
Your privacy is very important to Discover Qatar and we understand how important it is to you. We want you to feel safe when visiting our websites or using our services and are committed to maintaining your privacy when you do. We require our employees, suppliers and partners to maintain confidentiality in accordance with applicable data protection laws.
This privacy notice (together with our Terms and Conditions, our Cookie Policy and any other documents referred to herein) sets out the basis on which we process any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us (“Privacy Notice”). Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data.
This Privacy Notice can be changed over time to comply with law or to meet our changing business requirements. The most up-to-date Privacy Notice can be found on our website. We will inform you appropriately of any relevant changes to this Privacy Notice.
For the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation, the controller is Discover Qatar, W.L.L. with its registered office at Qatar Airways Tower, PO Box 22550, Doha, State of Qatar (from now on referred to as "Discover Qatar", "we", or "us").
Discover Qatar has adopted an ‘opt-in' policy where you can decide whether you would like to receive our newsletters and offers. You may submit a request to withdraw your consent at any time by contacting Discover Qatar (see Section 10).
2. DEFINITIONS
By "Personal Data" we mean any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person.
3. WHEN DOES THIS PRIVACY NOTICE APPLY?
This Privacy Notice applies to the processing by Discover Qatar of all Personal Data we gather or use in connection with your relationship with us as a customer or potential customer of our destination management company when you use our website, www.discoverqatar.qa (from now on referred to as our "Website"), services provided by us or others acting on our behalf and when you interact with us. We will only use your Personal Data in accordance with this Privacy Notice.
4. WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR PERSONAL DATA?
4.1 Discover Qatar is responsible for the processing of all Personal Data described in this Privacy Notice. In this Privacy Notice we explain what Personal Data we process and for what purposes, and to which persons or entities the Personal Data will be provided.
4.2 Our Website may contain links to enable you to visit third-party websites, mobile sites and mobile applications. Please note that we do not have any control over these and are not responsible or liable for the protection and privacy of any information that you provide whilst visiting those sites. Third-party websites, mobile sites and mobile applications are governed by their own privacy policies and not this Privacy Notice.
5. HOW WE COLLECT AND RECEIVE PERSONAL DATA
5.1 We may collect and receive Personal Data directly from you or from your authorised representative(s) or from third parties (e.g. your travel agent or our service providers). We may also collect Personal Data of your relatives or principal where you disclose Personal Data on their behalf, including when you:
(a) use any of our services, including when you travel or book a tour, transfer or stop-over with us;
(b) use or access our Website, particularly when completing the "customer details" section during the course of a booking, even if you do not complete the booking;
(c) communicate with us such as by email, telephone, in writing or through our customer services pages or social media platforms.
5.2 We may also collect your Personal Data through our Website and other channels including Discover Qatar’s airport desk and third party providers or subcontractors where you have consented to providing your Personal Data to them or where we subcontract them to assist us in providing services to you (e.g., transfers or special requests).
5.3 Where you disclose Personal Data on behalf of another person, you undertake and will ensure that the individual whose Personal Data is supplied to Discover Qatar has authorized the disclosure, is informed of and consents to the terms and conditions of this Privacy Notice. Where the disclosure is in respect of a child’s Personal Data, you should do as only as the parent or legal guardian of that child and enter into relevant contracts on behalf of that child.
6. WHY DO WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA?
6.1 When you interact with Discover Qatar (online or offline)
(a) For answering your questions or responding to your complaints or requests
(i) What does this mean?
If you get in touch with us in person, through email, by telephone, in writing or through our customer care services pages or social media, your Personal Data is collected only to the extent necessary to reply to and answer your question or to respond to your complaints or requests (e.g. to assist you in processing a transaction or to provide technical assistance).
(ii) What are our legal grounds for doing this?
We will process your Personal Data based on the performance of our service provision contract with you or in our legitimate business interests in providing customer care to you based on your request.
(iii) Which Personal Data do we use for this purpose?
We may use your Personal Data including special categories of Personal Data; for example full name, contact details, email address, country of primary residence, gender, date of travel, origin, special requests such as wheelchair assistance, your health information (if needed), your correspondence with Discover Qatar about your question and all other Personal Data necessary to answer your question.
6.2 For the performance of a contract
(i) What does this mean?
When you book products and services (including tours, transfers or stop-overs) with us offered through our Website, we process your Personal Data for administrative purposes such as:
(a) administrating your bookings;
(b) delivery of our products and services, including stop-overs, hotels, transfers, tours and transit tours.
We also use your Personal Data in order to deliver products or services that we have agreed to provide to you, such as stop-overs, hotels, transfers, tours and transit tours. As part of our service to you we provide you with informational emails regarding the relevant service.
By using our services, our Website and by providing any Personal Data to us, you agree to your Personal Data being sent to and processed in countries outside of your country of residence, and for individuals resident in the European Economic Area ("EEA"), this includes transfers outside of the EEA. Some of these countries may not have data protection laws that provide an equivalent level of data protection as the laws in your country of residence. Please refer to Clause 8 of this Privacy Notice for more details.
When you make a booking, you will be provided with a booking reference. Disclosing your booking reference to other persons may allow them to access your booking details through our system.
(ii) What are our legal grounds for doing this?
We will process your Personal Data based on our contract with you and any other contracts that you have with our third party service providers. We will also process your personal data on the basis of our legitimate interests in offering a wide variety of services to you to enhance your travel experience. If you provide Personal Data on behalf of someone else (e.g., making a booking on behalf of an adult or a child), you enter into a contract on behalf of that child or adult.
(ii) Which Personal Data do we use for this purpose?
We process your personal details such as name and date of birth, gender, nationality, contact details such as address and email address, payment and credit information and other data you have provided us during the booking process.
6.3 For the development and improvement of our products and/or services
(i) What does this mean?
It’s important for us to uphold the Discover Qatar brand. In order to achieve this, we use your Personal Data so that we can assess, analyse and improve our services to you.
For this purpose, we keep track of how often you read our newsletters, visit our Website, which pages you click on and what services you purchase through our Website.
We also regularly use surveys to find out whether you are satisfied with our service. These surveys are conducted through our Website. We use your responses to surveys for quality assessments and to improve your customer experience.
(ii) What are our legal grounds for doing this?
We will process your Personal Data based on the performance of our contract with you or in our legitimate business interests in enhancing our services to you.
(iii) Which Personal Data do we use for this purpose?
For this purpose, we use your contact details such as your nationality, email address, name, age and any correspondence with us. In addition, we may use the Personal Data you entered into the Website or based on the functionalities of the Website and the technical data from your device such as its IP-address, the pages you visited on our Websites, your click-through and surf behaviour and the length of your session.
If you choose to participate in our surveys, we can ask you to provide us with Personal Data, such as age group, gender and preferences in terms of choice of services and experiences. We can also use the Personal Data that you have provided in the survey for this purpose.
6.4 For compliance with law and to monitor and investigate compliance
(i) What does this mean?
Discover Qatar needs to comply with certain legal obligations and monitors its Website and IT systems to check compliance with Discover Qatar’s internal policies and regulations. During monitoring activities, your Personal Data can be accessed and viewed by Discover Qatar or Qatar Airways group IT systems personnel or by third party regulators or government authorities.
(ii) What are our legal grounds for doing this?
We will process your Personal Data based on:
(a) our legitimate business interests in maintaining adherence to our company policies and the standards which we uphold for our employees, suppliers and partners; and
(b) our legal obligation to comply with the applicable laws and regulations.
(iii) Which Personal Data do we use for this purpose?
For this purpose, any Personal Data that is stored on our IT systems can be accessed and viewed by Discover Qatar or Qatar Airways group IT systems personnel or by third party regulators or government authorities for compliance purposes. The Personal Data that is accessed and viewed will not be stored for compliance purposes, unless we need them to further investigate
6.5 Your choices
(a) If you participate in Contests, to manage your participation
(i) What does this mean?
If you give us your consent to do so, we can send you emails with invitations to participate in prize contests, events, competitions and/or games of chance (collectively “Contests”). If you choose to participate in any Contest, we need your Personal Data to allow you to participate, to administer the Contest, where you are a winner to inform you of this, to process the delivery of and distribution of the prizes and to measure the response to Contests.
(ii) What are our legal grounds for doing this?
We will process your Personal Data based on the terms and conditions of the Contest. If you decline to provide this information, we will not be able to register or enter you into the relevant Contest or award you a prize if you have been successful.
(iii) Which Personal Data do we use for this purpose?
Where we are the organiser or sponsor of the Contest, we process your name, address, email address, passport copy, your country of residence, proof of residence, age verification documentation, personal identification documentation, signature and your entries in the Contest. Please refer to the terms and conditions of the relevant Contest
for specific details of the Personal Data processed. In accordance with the terms and conditions of the relevant Contest we may also share your Personal Data with third party sponsors of prizes in order to administer the prizes to you.
(b) If you subscribe to our mailing list, electronic communications or to push notifications via our Website
(i) What does this mean?
We will occasionally inform you about our special offers, news and new products and may invite you to participate in Contests via the email address you provide us. You will only receive our newsletters if you subscribe to this mailing list.
If you give us your consent to do so, we will inform you about our special offers, news and marketing communications via the channel that you have selected.
(ii) What are our legal grounds for doing this?
We will ask for your consent to send you personalised newsletters. We process your Personal Data based on your consent or, in some cases, our legitimate interest in providing you with regular updates relating to our services and deals.
(iii) Which Personal Data do we use for this purpose?
We process your name and email address, your preferences and interests, (including those that you have actively shared with us, but also those inferred through your registered interactions with our Website), (please see our Cookie Policy for more information), shopping history (both online if you link your purchases to your profile, and offline when making an offline purchase), and the links you click on in our emails.
7. COOKIES
Cookies are small files of information which save and retrieve information about your visit to our Website – for example, how you entered our site, how you navigated through the site and what information was of interest to you. Read more about how we use cookies in our Cookie Policy which is available on our Website.
8. WHO HAS ACCESS TO YOUR PERSONAL DATA?
8.1 Access to your Personal Data within Qatar Airways Group
As a global organisation, data we collect may be transferred internationally throughout Qatar Airways' group. We may disclose your Personal Data to our shareholders and any member of our group for business and administrative purposes.
Within the Qatar Airways group, we may share your Personal Data in order to offer you a complete package of services and products such as hotel bookings or meet and greet services. We may send the Personal Data stored in this Website to countries whose data protection laws may not be as extensive as those in the EEA. Discover Qatar or Qatar Airways employees are authorised to access Personal Data only if necessary to serve the applicable purpose and to perform their jobs.
8.2 Access to Your Personal Data by Third Parties
When you make a booking or other purchase, we use support and other functions which may require the transfer of your Personal Data to and from countries outside of your country of residence from time to time, including outside of the EEA.
To provide you with our services, we may be required to disclose certain of your Personal Data in the following cases:
(a) to you or those acting on your behalf. Where local regulations require, we may obtain your consent in writing for the purpose of allowing anyone else to act on your behalf;
(b) to third parties including, partners connected with Discover Qatar, other service providers including those who are acting as our agent or sub-contractor, including, without limitation, hoteliers, insurance companies, medical assistance providers, credit card and credit reference agencies, data processing service providers and our legal and other professional advisors;
(c) to third parties in connection with a proposed or actual financing, securitization, insuring, merger, restructure, sale, acquisition, assignment or other disposal of all or part of our business or assets or the assets of any affiliate or to anyone whom we may transfer our rights and/or obligations for the purposes of evaluating and performing the proposed transaction;
(d) to third parties, including law enforcement officials, law courts and government and regulatory authorities: (a) if we believe disclosure is required by any applicable law, regulation or legal process (such as to respond to subpoenas or judicial orders); or (b) to protect and defend our rights, or the rights or safety of third parties, including to defend against legal claims; and/or
(e) where you have made a booking, to customers under the same booking as you.
In addition, your Personal Data may be processed and stored by these third party service providers in order to perform the air transport or other contract.
Organisations that are based outside of the EEA may not be subject to the same level of controls in regard to data protection as exist within the EEA. When third parties are given access to your Personal Data, we will take the required contractual, technical and organisational measures to ensure that your Personal Data is only processed if necessary for the relevant purpose. We use reasonable efforts to ensure that third parties will only process your Personal Data in accordance with applicable law.
Please note that third parties have their own privacy policies. We suggest that you review those policies if your travel plans include third party services.
8.3 The use of your Personal Data by our data processors
When a third party processes your Personal Data based on Discover Qatar’s instructions, it acts as a data processor. We enter into an agreement with the relevant data processor for the processing of your Personal Data. In this agreement, we include obligations to ensure that your Personal Data is processed by the data processor solely to provide services to us and to ensure that the data
9. HOW DO WE KEEP YOUR DATA SAFE?
Safeguards
Discover Qatar has taken adequate safeguards to ensure the confidentiality and security of your personal data. We are committed to ensuring that your Personal Data is secure. In an effort to prevent unauthorised access to, or disclosure of, your Personal Data, we have put in place physical, technical, and administrative safeguards to protect your Personal Data against accidental or unlawful destruction or accidental loss, damage, alteration, unauthorised disclosure or access, as well as all other forms of unlawful processing (including, but not limited to, unnecessary collection) or further processing. In order to protect the security of your information, where necessary, we use encryption technology when processing Personal Data.
Children
Except for required passenger details, we do not intentionally gather Personal Data about children. We are not able to identify the age of persons who access and use our Website or subscribe to our newsletters. If you believe we have inadvertently collected Personal Data about your child or if the child has provided us with Personal Data without parental or guardian consent,
the parent or guardian should contact us, and we will erase the Personal Data and where relevant unsubscribe the child.
Retention
We will retain Personal Data for as long as it is necessary to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected, the legal or business purposes of Discover Qatar as described in this Privacy Notice and in line with our data retention policies, or as required by relevant laws.
When erasing Personal Data, we will take commercially reasonable and technically possible measures to make the Personal Data irrecoverable or irreproducible in accordance with the applicable laws.
10. CONTACT US – UNSUBSCRIBING FOR NEWSLETTERS
If you no longer want to receive our newsletters, you can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the ‘unsubscribe’ link in any email containing our newsletter, which will be effective immediately. In addition, you can raise an unsubscribe request by sending us a request by post to the following address:
Qatar Airways Group
Qatar Airways Tower 1
PO Box 22550
Doha, Qatar
Attention: Customer Care
To send an email to our Customer Care Team click here.
When raising a request to unsubscribe by e-mail, call or post, it may take up to 30 working days to process your request and to update our systems to remove your email address from our mailing list.
After processing your request, Discover Qatar will not send you any further newsletters, our special offers or news via email and you will be marked as unsubscribed in our mailing list.
11. FOR DATA PRIVACY MATTERS CONTACT OUR DATA PROTECTION OFFICER
Please complete the Subject Access Request form available here if you wish to make a formal request on data privacy matters.
You can request access, rectification, review of processing, restriction or erasure of your Personal Data that Discover Qatar processes at any time. In certain circumstances you will also have the right to data portability, meaning that you have the right to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format to transmit the data to another controller. We will not charge a fee to respond to your request unless the request may be deemed as manifestly unfounded or excessive. Any request must include the following information: your name and address and any other information which may identify you. Where your request relates to a booking, please provide your booking reference, the dates on which the service took place and any other relevant information that will assist us in identifying your booking.
If you added information to your Discover Qatar account about yourself, then you can also access your relevant Discover Qatar account profile to access, correct or remove it yourself.
We will make reasonable efforts to revise any Personal Data that is incorrect, and to update or change your information or preferences, as permitted by law. It may take several weeks to implement the changes.
If you feel that we do not comply with applicable privacy rules you have the right to lodge a complaint with a competent data protection authority. Should you have any questions about the processing of your Personal Data or this Privacy Notice, please contact:
Qatar Airways Group
Qatar Airways Tower 1
PO Box 22550
Doha, Qatar
Attention: Data Protection Officer
To send an email to our Data Protection Officer regarding the processing of your Personal Data or this Privacy Notice click here.
