Privacy policy

1. Who we are

We are Tourism Ireland Limited ("we", “our”, “Tourism Ireland”) whose principal place of business is at 5th Floor Bishop's Square, Redmond's Hill, Dublin, D02 TD99, Ireland and which terms shall also include our Affiliates. “Affiliates” means any entity that directly or indirectly controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with us. “Control” for purposes of this definition, means direct or indirect ownership or control of more than 50% of the voting interests of the subject entity). This privacy policy (the "Policy") refers to the website, www.ireland.com (the "Website").

Your privacy is of paramount importance to us. This Policy applies to the Website, applications and services related thereto (the “Service”). This Policy is designed to protect you, our users, by informing you what personal data is collected, how we will use the information about you, with whom we share it, how long we keep it and how to contact us if you have any queries or concerns about our use of your personal information. Your use of the Website and any micro-sites is subject to your agreement with this Policy.

In this Policy, the term “Personal Data” means data relating to a living individual who is or can be identified either from the data or from the data in conjunction with other information that is in, or is likely to come into, our possession, and includes personal data as described in Data Protection Legislation (as defined below).

Please read the following carefully. Entering into this Website and providing your consent to our use of your personal data in accordance with the terms of this Policy indicates that the user has reviewed this Policy and has agreed to be bound by it. If you do not agree to these terms you must leave the Website immediately. We will keep a record of your consent in this regard. If you no longer consent to our processing of your personal data, you may request that we cease such processing by contacting us via the ‘How to contact us’ facility referred to below.

We will handle your Personal Data in accordance with Data Protection Legislation. “Data Protection Legislation” means the Data Protection Acts 1988 to 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (“GDPR”), and any other applicable law or regulation relating to the processing of Personal Data and to privacy, including the E-Privacy Directive 2002/58/EC and the European Communities (Electronic Communications Networks and Services) (Privacy and Electronic Communications) Regulations 2011 (“E-Privacy Regulations”), as such legislation shall be supplemented, amended, revised or replaced from time to time.

We are a controller (as defined in Data Protection Legislation) in relation to any Personal Data which we collect from you through your or any other user’s use of the Service and the set-up of Your Account. This Policy sets out the basis on which any such Personal Data will be processed by us.

You may be a data subject (as defined in Data Protection Legislation) or you may be a controller. When you are a controller in respect of the Personal Data of other data subjects, then you must comply with all of your controller obligations under Data Protection Legislation. When you are a controller, we and you act as independent controllers, unless agreed otherwise.

2. Information we gather from you

We fully respect your right to privacy in relation to your interactions with the Service and endeavour to be transparent in our dealings with you as to what information we will collect and how we will use your information. Also, we only collect and use individual’s information where we are legally entitled to do so. Information in relation to Personal Data collected by Irish entities is available on www.dataprotection.ie, the website of the Irish Data Protection Commission (“DPC”).

Simply put, our function is to facilitate your efforts to find an Irish tourism product or service that suits you so the collection of personal information is limited and always voluntary. As a user of our Website, you may opt-in to receive information from us, in which case we will require certain personal data from you. This will include your name and email address, and we may also ask for your postal address if you request a brochure to be mailed to you. In all cases, you can be assured that we will only seek the most basic details needed to get the information you requested to you in a timely fashion. Website usage information is collected using cookies (see Section 5 below/Cookies and our Cookies Policy).

We collect and collate generic information on all our Website traffic that is only ever represented in aggregate format. Tourism Ireland may ask users for feedback (free text entry, quality ratings or similar) from time to time to help analyse the quality and performance of the Website. Information collected for this purpose is done so anonymously and is used to aid our understanding of customer needs and opinions only. On occasion specific quotes may be highlighted from individuals, however this is done so without personally identifying the users.

You may appear in images taken by Tourism Ireland or taken by a photographer on behalf of Tourism Ireland if you are attending an event, workshop, fair, familiarisation visit to the island of Ireland etc.

Such images may be used by Tourism Ireland to publicise the various activities through all Tourism Ireland’s media channels. In such instances, attendees are photographed under the lawful basis of legitimate interests. Tourism Ireland will, where possible, minimise any potential risk by making clear that photography will be taking place, either verbally of visually, thereby allowing attendees the opportunity of making it known that they do not wish to be photographed.

Any Personal Data that we collect from you for the purposes described in this Policy is hereinafter referred to together as “Your Data”. Your Data is separate from and should be distinguished from User Uploaded Data (defined below).

We endeavour to keep Your Data accurate and up-to-date. As such, you must tell us about any changes to such information that you are aware of as soon as possible. You can change your stated interests in respect of whether or not you wish to receive direct marketing from us by clicking ‘unsubscribe’ on any direct marketing electronic communication which you receive from us.

Applications developed in connection with the Website for mobile devices will operate and capture information as set out above and are also subject to this Policy. Applications developed by us but deployed on other platforms such as social media channels may provide feedback to us on activity and usage specific to a user.

If you are aged under 18, please get your parent/guardian’s permission before you provide Your Data to us/use the Service.

3. Why we collect/have access to your information

We may collect information from you as necessary in the course of providing our Service. We may collect your personal information while monitoring our technology tools and services, including our website and email communications sent to and from us. We gather information about you when you provide it to us, or interact with us directly.

We collect information about you to manage your Website account, process your brochure order, and, if you agree, to email you about other Irish tourism products and services we think may be of interest to you. We may use your information collected from the Website to personalise your repeat visits to our Website.

We collect IP addresses from visitors to our Website (an IP address is a number that can uniquely identify a specific computer or other network device on the internet). This allows us to identify the location of users, to block disruptive use and to establish the number of visits from different countries. We analyse this data for trend and statistics reasons, such as which parts of our Website users are visiting and how long they spend there. We do not link your IP addresses to anything personally identifiable to you.

We may use your Personal Data on any one or more of the following legal bases: (i) to perform a contract with you; (ii) for our legitimate business purposes in providing the Service to you (in which case, our legitimate interests will not override your fundamental privacy rights); and/or (iii) in limited circumstances, where you have given us your express consent.

We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are, where appropriate.

Note that we may process your Personal Data for more than one legal basis depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal basis we are relying on to process your Personal Data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below.

Where we wish to use Your Data in any other way, we will ensure that we notify you and get your consent first. You will be given the opportunity to withhold or withdraw your consent for the use of Your Data for purposes other than those listed in this Policy.

4. User uploaded data

Your Data is separate from and should be distinguished from User Uploaded Data. “User Uploaded Data” is data uploaded by you or others through your Account/your use of the Service when you use the comment function and the blog function on our website. We strongly recommend that you avoid uploading any Personal Data in any User Uploaded Data. We reserve the sole right to review, edit or delete User Uploaded Data. We also moderate all User Uploaded Data in order to ensure that it does not contain Personal Data. Notwithstanding this, we are a Processor and you are the Controller in respect of User Uploaded Data (to the extent that it includes Personal Data).

If you are a Controller in respect of any Personal Data of other data subjects contained in User Uploaded Data, then you must comply with all of your Controller obligations under Data Protection Legislation in that regard.

5. Cookies

Our Website uses certain cookies. Please see our Cookies Policy for more information. You can revisit your cookie settings at any time by clicking here:

Cookie settings 

6. Are there cases where we may use your information to contact you?

We may contact you:

• for administration reasons related to the Service (e.g. to provide you with password reminders or to notify you that a particular service, activity or online content has been suspended for maintenance, or in response to a question that you ask us;
• to provide you with information about our Service, activities or online content, including sending e-newsletters or similar correspondence and updates or responding to any contact you have made with us, e.g. on our website, by email or via the ‘How To Contact Us’ facility referred to below;
• to invite you to participate in surveys about our services (participation is always voluntary).
• for direct marketing purposes.

7. Your data rights

As a data subject, you have the following rights under the Data Protection Legislation and we, as controller in respect of Your Data, will comply with such rights in respect of Your Data:

• the right of access to Personal Data relating to you;
• the right to correct any mistakes in your Personal Data;
• the right to ask us to stop contacting you with direct marketing;
• rights in relation to automated decision taking;
• the right to restrict or prevent your Personal Data being processed;
• the right to have your Personal Data ported to another data controller;
• the right to erasure; and
• the right to complain to the DPC if you believe we have not handled your Personal Data in accordance with the Data Protection Legislation.

These rights are explained in more detail below, but if you have any comments, concerns or complaints about our use of your Personal Data, please contact us (see ‘How To Contact Us’ below). We will respond to any rights that you exercise within a month of receiving your request, unless the request is particularly complex or cumbersome, in which case we will respond within three months (we will inform you within the first month if it will take longer than one month for us to respond). Where a response is required from us within a particular time period pursuant to Data Protection Legislation, we will respond within that time period.

8. Right to complain to the DPC

If you do not think that we have processed your Personal Data in accordance with Privacy Policy, please contact us in the first instance. If you are not satisfied, you can complain to the DPC or exercise any of your other rights pursuant to Data Protection Legislation. Information about how to do this is available on the DPC website at https://www.dataprotection.ie

9. Withdrawal of consent

If you no longer consent to our processing of Your Data (in respect of any matter referred to in this Policy as requiring your consent), you may request that we cease such processing by contacting us via the ‘How To Contact Us’ facility referred to below. Please note that if you withdraw your consent to such processing, it may not be possible for us to provide all/part of the Service to you.

10. Who we share your information with

We will not share Your Data without your consent or unless required by law (except as set out in this Policy). If we become involved in a merger, acquisition, or any form of sale of some of all of its assets, Your Data will not be transferred to any third party unless there are adequate safeguards in place with the recipient in respect of the security of Your Data.

We restrict access to Your Data to employees, contractors, and agents who need such access in order to operate, develop, or improve our Service. These individuals are bound by confidentiality obligations and may be subject to discipline, including termination, civil litigation and/or criminal prosecution, if they fail to meet these obligations.

We may also share Your Data with our third party suppliers who assist us in the provision of the Service.

We also share Your Data with various third parties (subject to having appropriate contracts in place with such third parties) e.g. our travel partners but only if you have explicitly consented to this sharing.

Your Data may be transferred to, stored at, or accessed from a destination outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”) for the purposes of us providing the Service. It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us, another corporate entity within our group, or any of our suppliers. By submitting Your Data, you explicitly consent to this transfer, storing or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that Your Data is treated securely and in accordance with this Policy. The safeguards in place with regard to the transfer of Your Data outside of the EEA to third parties shall include (but shall not be limited to) the entry by us into appropriate contracts with all transferees of such data.

All information you provide to us is stored on our (or contracted third party) secure servers. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access any part of our Service, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with any person not authorised to use the Service.

11. Third party websites

This Policy applies to websites and services that are owned and operated by us. We do not exercise control over the sites/applications that may be linked from the Service. These other sites/applications may place their own cookies or other files on your computer, collect data or solicit personal information from you. You acknowledge that the Service that we provide may enable or assist you to access the website content of, correspond with, and purchase goods and services from, third parties via third-party websites and that you do so solely at your own risk. We make no representation or commitment and shall have no liability or obligation whatsoever in relation to the content or use of, or correspondence with, any such third-party website, or any transactions completed, and any contract entered into by you, with any such third party and the use by any such third-party of your Personal Data. We do not endorse or approve any third-party website nor the content of any of the third-party website made available via the Service. We encourage you to carefully familiarize yourself with the terms of use and privacy policies applicable to any websites and/or services operated by third parties. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of any third parties.

12. Offensive content

If Your Data contains any material which may reasonably be deemed to be offensive, inappropriate or objectionable or otherwise engage in any disruptive behaviour in relation to the Service, we may remove such content and/or suspend the use of Your Account. We may also remove any such material from any of our social media pages.

Where we reasonably believe that you are or may be in breach of any applicable laws, for example on hate speech, we may disclose your personal information to relevant third parties, including to law enforcement agencies or your internet provider. We would only do so in circumstances where such disclosure is permitted under applicable laws, including Data Protection Legislation.

13. How do we protect your personal information

We do our utmost to protect user privacy through the appropriate use of security technology. We restrict access to Your Data to employees, contractors and agents who need to know Your Data in order to operate, develop or improve the services that we provide. We ensure that we have appropriate physical and technological security measures to protect your information; and we ensure that when we outsource any processes that the service provider has appropriate security measures in place. However, our Service may contain hyperlinks to websites owned and operated by third parties. These third party websites have their own privacy policies, including cookies. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the privacy practices of such third party websites and your use of such websites is at your own risk.

We will implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure a level of security appropriate to the risks that are presented by the processing of Your Data. In particular, we will consider the risks presented by accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to Your Data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect Your Data, we cannot guarantee the security of any data transmitted to us and any such transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access. To the extent permitted by law, we are not responsible for any delays, delivery failures, or any other loss or damage resulting from (i) the transfer of data over communications networks and facilities, including the internet, or (ii) any delay or delivery failure on the part of any other service provider not contracted by us, and you acknowledge that our Service may be subject to limitations, delays and other problems inherent in the use of such communications facilities. You will appreciate that we cannot guarantee the absolute prevention of cyber-attacks such as hacking, spyware and viruses. Accordingly, you will not hold us liable for any unauthorized disclosure, loss or destruction of Your Data arising from such risks.

14. Breach reporting

We will notify serious data breaches in respect of Your Data to the DPC without undue delay, and where feasible, not later than 72 hours after having become aware of same. If notification is not made after 72 hours, we will record a reasoned justification for the delay; however, it is not necessary to notify the DPC where the Personal Data breach is unlikely to result in a risk to the rights and freedoms of natural persons. A Personal Data breach in this context means a breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, Personal Data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed.

We will keep a record of any data breaches, including their effects and the remedial action taken, and will notify you of any data breach affecting your Personal Data (which poses a high risk to you) when we are required to do so under Data Protection Legislation. We will not be required to notify you of a data breach where:

• we have implemented appropriate technical and organisational measures that render the Personal Data unintelligible to anyone not authorised to access it, such as encryption; or
• we have taken subsequent measures which ensure that the high risk to data subjects is not likely to materialise; or
• it would involve disproportionate effort, in which case we may make a public communication instead.

15. Retention of Personal Data

Your Data will be kept and stored for such period of time as we deem necessary taking into account the purpose for which it was collected in the first instance. This may include retaining Your Data as necessary to administer Your Account, comply with our legal obligations, to resolve disputes, to enforce our agreements, to support business operations, and to continue to develop and improve our Service.

Where we retain information for Service improvement and development, we take steps to eliminate information that directly identifies you, and we only use the information to uncover collective insights about the use of our Service, not to specifically analyse personal characteristics about you.]

16. Amendments to Privacy Policy

We may change our Privacy Policy from time to time and at our sole discretion. The date of the most recent revisions will appear on the top of this Policy. If you do not agree to these changes, please do not continue to use the Service to submit Your Data. If material changes are made to the Privacy Policy, we will notify you by placing a prominent notice on our Service or by sending you a notification in relation to this. We will not process Your Data in a manner not contemplated by this Policy without your consent.

17. How to contact us

If you need to contact us with regard to any of your rights as set out in this Policy, all such requests should be made in writing by email to dpo@tourismireland.com