Privacy policy

We collect an email address if you ask us for a guide, and a name, email and message if you send us a question. We use them to reply and to tell you about our trips. We do not sell anything to anyone, and you can get your details deleted by asking.

We advertise on Facebook and Instagram, so Meta learns when someone visits our pages, asks for a guide or registers. That is explained under "Who else sees it".

When you ask for one of our guides, we collect your email address and which guide you asked for.

When you send a question through the contact form, we collect your name, your email address, whether you told us you are a parent or a traveller, which trip you asked about, and your message.

Our hosting provider keeps standard server logs, which include IP addresses, for a short period for security and troubleshooting.

Our pages count visits, and note which link or advert brought someone to them. This counting does not record what you type into our forms, and it does not record your screen.

When you register for a trip, we collect the traveller's name, email address and phone number.

After you register, we ask for an emergency contact and for the traveller's passport details: the passport number, date of birth, expiry date and issuing country, which the visa application needs.

The passport number is encrypted before it is stored. Our staff screens show only its last four digits, and every time a member of staff reads the full number, for a visa application, it is recorded.

If you upload a photo or PDF of a passport, it is stored securely and deleted three months after the trip returns. It is only ever opened by Arkanum staff, or by your own signed-in account when you ask it to fill in your details from the copy we have, and every time it is opened is recorded.

To save you typing, our pages read the code along the bottom of a passport photo or PDF on your own phone or computer and fill in the details for you to check. It is not sent anywhere to be read.

We never see or store your card or bank details. Payments are taken by Stripe on their own pages, and we keep only the type of card or account and its last four digits so we can tell you which one is on file.

We do not collect medical information.

To send you the guide you asked for.

To answer your question.

To tell you about our trips: dates opening, places remaining, new destinations, and news about the programme. If you gave us your email, expect to hear from us about these things.

To understand which trips people are asking about, so we know what to run next.

To see which of our adverts bring people to the site, and which of those go on to ask for a guide or register.

Every marketing email we send has an unsubscribe link, and it works immediately. You can also reply to any email from us, or write to the address at the bottom of this page, and we will take you off the list.

Unsubscribing from marketing does not stop us replying to a question you asked us, and it does not affect anything to do with a trip you have booked.

We use a small number of services to run this site and our email. They only get what they need to do their job, and none of them may use your details for their own purposes.

• Resend, which delivers our email and stores our mailing list
• Our website host, which serves these pages and keeps server logs
• PostHog, which counts visits to our pages for us, and which link or advert they came from
• Stripe, who take payments for us. Card and bank details go to Stripe directly and never reach us. What you give Stripe is covered by their privacy policy, not this one.
• WeTravel, for trips still booked through them. What you give WeTravel is covered by their own privacy policy, not this one.

Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, is different, because it also uses what it receives for its own purposes. Our pages carry Meta's code, which uses cookies to tell Meta when someone visits, asks for a trip guide or registers, so that we can see which of our adverts worked. Meta can connect this to a Facebook or Instagram account, and uses it under its own privacy policy, not this one, including to choose which adverts people are shown. Your account pages do not carry it.

You can stop Meta choosing your adverts from your visits to other websites in the ad preferences of Facebook or Instagram, and you can opt out of this kind of advertising more widely at optout.aboutads.info.

We do not sell, rent or trade your details, and we do not share them with other travel companies.

Mailing list details are kept until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete them.

Questions sent through the contact form are kept in our email for as long as we might reasonably need them to help you, and then deleted.

Our trips are open from age twelve, so some people reading this site are children.

The forms on this website are intended for parents and guardians. If you are under 13, please ask a parent to sign up rather than doing it yourself.

If you believe a child under 13 has given us their details, write to us and we will delete them.

You can ask us what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. Write to the address below and we will do it. We will not charge you and we will not ask why.

Depending on where you live, you may have further rights under local law. Ask and we will honour them.

If we change this policy we will update the date at the top. If the change is significant and you are on our mailing list, we will tell you by email.