This page describes our privacy policy in relation to all forms of communication and correspondence between you, our customers and website users, and Big Ocean Dive.

As part of our efforts to help you understand how we handle the personal information you share with us, and in compliance with the new European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we’ve updated our privacy policy and cookies policy. We have also modified many of our internal practices and policies, because we are committed to compliance with the GDPR.

We understand the importance of keeping information about you confidential and secure. When you browse our site, except as provided for below, we do not collect any personal information about you. Other than as detailed below, we will only ever gather your personal information if you give it to us in the course of making your dive vacation booking.

Cookies

Our Cookies

The Big Ocean Dive website uses cookies to enable the website to work properly. In order to comply with all relevant regulations, we set out the circumstances of cookie usage below.

Analytics and customisation cookies:
If you visit us from one of our affiliate partners or from our newsletter, we use cookies to link any of your future inquiries to that source. This is not essential for your user experience but helps us with analytics and user acquisition. We also use cookies to customise your visitor experience.

Our cookies include:

• dtw_referral_id – Tracks if you have come from an affiliate partner.

• PHPSESSID – Maintains your session across multiple pages. Expires when you leave the site.

• currency_translation, target_currency – Remembers your selected currency.

• _landed – Identifies you as a returning visitor and adjusts the layout accordingly.

Third-Party Cookies

We do use third-party affiliate partners for some services (e.g. Google). These companies may store cookies on your computer. We do not have responsibility for the policies and practices of these sites, but we do not use any third-party partners that do not have a clearly stated privacy policy.

These cookies include:

• optimizelyEndUserId, optimizelySegments, optimizelyBuckets, optimizelyPendingLogEvents – Used by Optimizely for A/B testing.

• _ga – Google Analytics; tracks usage anonymously. Retained for 2 years. Data sent to USA (GDPR ‘Adequate’).

• _gat, _gat_newTracker – Google Analytics traffic data. Retained for 2 years. Data sent to the UK (GDPR ‘Adequate’).

• _gid – Google Analytics user behavior. Expires on site exit. Data sent to USA (GDPR ‘Adequate’).

• _atssc, _atuvc – Twitter integration.

Additional Google Analytics cookies:

• collect / google-analytics.com / Pixel / Session
  Purpose: Sends data to Google Analytics about the user’s device and behavior. Tracks visitors across devices and marketing channels.
  Data sent to: USA
  Source: https://www.google-analytics.com/collect

• ads/ga-audiences / google.com / Pixel / Session
  Purpose: Used by Google AdWords to re-engage visitors likely to convert based on online behavior.
  Source: https://www.google.co.uk/ads/ga-audiences

Email

We maintain a mailing list of people who may be interested in receiving promotional diving tour materials and other emails from Big Ocean Dive. We do not add your email address to this mailing list unless you specifically sign up for the service. You can opt out of this mailing list at any time.

Your email details will not be passed to any other third parties except where necessary to process your booking or inquiry.

Withdrawing Consent:
You may withdraw consent for us to contact you or use your information for marketing purposes at any time. To stop receiving marketing materials:

• Click “unsubscribe” at the bottom of any newsletter.

• Or, contact us directly via email requesting removal.

Security of Credit Card Details

At Big Ocean Dive we take the security of your financial information very seriously. We have implemented an internal security system to maximise data protection at every level.

Under normal circumstances, we will never collect your bank or credit card details. All transactions are processed via secure PCI-compliant payment processors.

In the rare case where we manually process a card, we:

• Collect only necessary card data

• Store it securely

• Ensure the transaction is done via a PCI-compliant server

• Never store data online or on unsecured servers

Use of Personal Details

We retain personal information provided in connection with your booking. We share only necessary details with your service provider to complete the reservation.

Details may include:

• Name

• Contact information

• Travel preferences

• Passport number

• Special needs, disabilities, or dietary requirements

• Preferred payment/currency info

• Details of other people in your booking

When you provide this information, we assume consent to share it with the relevant vacation service provider unless you specify otherwise.

You are responsible for informing other parties in your group about this policy and confirming their consent.

We may use feedback you provide in our post-trip surveys or student diaries as anonymous testimonials on our website.

Deletion of Personal Details

Your personal data is stored in our booking system and CRM, both before and after your trip.
To request deletion of your data once your booking is complete, please contact us directly.