Privacy Policy

Your Privacy Is Very Important to Us

STA Travel, Inc. ("STA Travel") protects the privacy of all of our customers whether you visit one of our locations or our Internet Web site, statravel.com ("the Web site").

We have developed a privacy policy to keep you informed of what personally identifiable information ("PII") we may collect from you, what this information will be used for, with whom such information will be shared, and the security procedures we have implemented to protect your privacy.  (PII includes information that can be linked to a specific individual, such as name, address, phone number, or email address.)

STA Travel Does Not Sell or Rent Your Personal Information to Anyone

When you become a member of the Web site or make travel arrangements with STA Travel and you provide information about yourself, we use this information to complete your order, fulfill any customer service requests and provide promotional information via email. We do not share this information with outside parties except to the extent necessary to complete your order and fulfill your travel arrangements.

Such other parties may include, but shall not be limited to, appropriate airlines, credit card merchant services, and the SABRE reservation system.

These service providers will disclose information about your traveler profile to hotel, airline, cruise, rental car, and other travel suppliers whose products you have purchased. Although STA Travel attempts to select travel suppliers that are reputable companies, we have not placed limitations on these suppliers from using or disclosing your information without your permission.  Therefore, we encourage you to review the information privacy practices of any travel suppliers whose products you purchase on statravel.com.  In addition, these travel suppliers may also contact you as necessary to obtain additional information about your confirmed reservation.

We use your email address or telephone number to respond when you submit a question or suggestion.  Although no PII is collected, we monitor users’ navigation of our Web site in order to better understand and serve our customers.

STA Travel may disclose the information that we collect about you when we have reason to believe that it is necessary to identify, contact, or bring legal action against persons or entities who may be causing injury to you, to us, or to others. We may also disclose your information when we believe the law requires it.

Action Tags

STA Travel does use third-party advertising across the Internet. This advertising uses cookie and Web Beacon technology to measure and improve the effectiveness of these efforts. To make this happen, the advertising may use anonymous information about your visits to statravel.com and other Web sites including: date and time of a banner shown, the cookie and the first three octets of the IP address. No PII is collected and any information that IS gathered is used for online marketing purposes.

The advertising companies may use information about your visits to statravel.com and other Web sites to provide ads about goods and services you might find interesting. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by a third party, simply to go: www.networkadvertising.org/optout_nonppii.asp.

Control over and Access to Your Information

STA Travel believes that members and Web site visitors should have control over the collection and use of their PII. You can access and update your information in the following areas of statravel.com:

After logging in, the My Profile page allows members to view and change their personal profile information settings.  On this page you can change your personal and contact information, password, credit card and billing information, and view your order history.

Security

The importance of security for all PII associated with our customers is of utmost concern to us.  However, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.  As a result, while we will use reasonable efforts to protect your personal information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us.  In order to protect the information stored in our systems, we have implemented security measures, including data encryption technology and firewalls.

Third-Party Links

The Web site may contain links to Web sites operated and maintained by third parties over whom we have no control.  The information practices of those Web sites are not covered by this privacy policy.  Any information you provide to third-party Web sites or that we provide in relation to travel reservations you made will be governed under the terms of each such Web site's privacy policy.  We have no responsibility or liability whatsoever for the content, actions, or policies of third-party Web sites.  We encourage you to read the privacy policies of all third-party Web sites that link to the Web site, because such privacy policies may be materially different from this privacy policy.  An example of such a third-party Web site is the Destination information provided by Lonely Planet.

Privacy and Your Personal Information

STA Travel collects PII about you that you voluntarily provide.  Although you are required to register as a member of statravel.com in order to use certain travel planning tools, and some PII is needed in order to process and fulfill travel requests, many areas of statravel.com can be accessed without providing any PII.

To Make Travel Arrangements

To make travel arrangements; we will collect personal information from you, including your name, your mailing address, your phone number and email, information regarding your student eligibility and age, and payment information, including your credit card number, card type, cardholder name, expiration date, and billing address. Personal information may also be requested when you become a member, for sweepstakes entry, to receive newsletter or special information, or to receive a copy of a brochure.  STA Travel collects PII such as your full name, email address, and/or contact information whenever you contact STA Travel or provide feedback through statravel.com.

STA Travel uses commonly employed Internet technologies to collect additional information. For example, STA Travel uses "cookies" to determine how users reach the Web site and to track general usage patterns once a user is on the Web site. This information is collected and analyzed in the aggregate in order to improve the function, content, overall appearance, and capability of the Web site. "Cookies" are small pieces of information that are transferred by a Web site and stored by your web browser on your computer's hard drive. Most Web browsers automatically accept cookies; however, you can always choose not to accept a cookie by changing your computer preferences to refuse cookies or to prompt you to accept each cookie. Although STA Travel requires that your web browser accept cookies to access the Web site, STA Travel does not store any PII in them.

STA Travel collects certain technical information from your computer each time you request a page during a visit to statravel.com. This information is collected from your computer's Web browser to enhance your experience on our Web site and may include your IP address, operating system, web browser software (e.g., Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer), screen resolution, and referrer Web site. In addition, authorized STA Travel personnel may update your profile to accurately reflect any new profile information included in communications received from you.

When you are on the Web site and are asked for PII, you are sharing that information with STA Travel only, except as set forth elsewhere in this privacy policy.

Promotions that run on our Web site may be sponsored by companies other than STA Travel, or may be co-sponsored.  Some or all data collected during a promotion may be shared with the co-sponsor(s). If data will be shared, you will be notified prior to the time of data collection or transfer. You can decide not to participate in the promotion if you do not want your data to be shared. Currently, promotions are limited to United States or North American residents.

You may receive emails from us about special promotions, surveys, contests, sweepstakes, flight specials, trip information, or other travel opportunities with STA Travel. To assess the effectiveness of these emails, we may attach a Web beacon that provides confirmation when you open an email from statravel.com. This only occurs if your computer supports such technology.

Questions, Comments, or Concerns

If you have questions or comments about this privacy policy, or if you are concerned that we have not followed the principles set forth in this privacy policy, please send an email to us at feedback@statravel.com or write us at: STA Travel, Inc, Attention: Online Coordinator, 750 State Highway 121, Suite 250, Lewisville, Texas  75067.  We are receptive to your comments or questions.

Other Information You Should Know

This Privacy Policy was revised and posted on statravel.com on October 4, 2005. STA Travel may, in its sole discretion, revise this privacy policy at any time and all such revisions shall be effective when posted. No prior notice of changes will be posted or emailed to users. Use of the Web site after such changes are posted shall constitute acceptance of such changes.