Privacy policy

1. Information Collected and Processed

When you access or use our Services, we collect and process information from and about you to provide the Services in a more personalized and relevant way. Some information we collect passively, for example, with our servers or with cookies or other similar tracking technologies. Some information we collect from different sources, including from you, affiliated entities, business partners, and other independent third-party sources. When you use our Services by “clicking-through” from a third-party website or when you visit third-party websites via our Services, those third-party websites may share information with us about your use of their service. Any information that we receive from third-party websites may be combined with the information provided by you.

Information processed may include the following:

Contact information, including name, phone number, and postal and email addresses (both hashed and unhashed)
Billing and other payment information (such as your bank account information, credit card number, cardholder name, expiration date, authentication code and billing address)
Documentation to support travel and planning
Username and password
Details relating to your membership with Tripadvisor
Photos, reviews, forum and social posts, and videos you may have provided to us
Geolocation information
Device information, such as when you accessed our Services and information about the Device used (for example, IP address, software or internet browser used, preferred languages, unique Device identifiers, and advertising identifiers)
Online activity, including pages you have visited, content reviewed, and apps reviewed
Other information about yourself that you have voluntarily disclosed
Purchasing and booking history
Information about your travel, experience and dining plans and preferences
Communications when you contact our customer service team, including inbound and outbound calls
Information that you have provided to other third party companies for the purposes of logging in to social media. This includes publicly available information, such as name, age-range as well as email addresses.

We may also collect – in instances where you have provided it – information about other travellers or guests, including their email address and other travel, dining or experience-related information. If you are sharing information with us about other individuals, you must obtain their consent and ensure that they have understood and accepted how we will use their personal information (as described in this Statement).

In addition to the categories noted above, we may also collect certain location information if you have instructed your Device to send such information via the privacy settings on that Device, or, for example, if you have uploaded photos tagged with location information.

2. Information Uses and Purposes

To the extent possible, we want to provide you with relevant content and a tailored experience when you use our Services, and we use information about you to do that, including in the following ways:

Registration, membership, and other contracts

Register and manage your account, including to allow you access to and use of our Services
Facilitate your bookings
Process payments or credits
Offer you promotional programs that may include competitions, gift cards, rewards, cash back, and discounts

Improve our Services

Use your information for analytical purposes and to enable us to improve our Services
Provide you with a tailored/optimized experience by grouping users based on, for example, usage, interests and demographics
Send you survey, market research invitations, or panel interviews for analytics purposes

Personalization and customization

Notify you about special offers and products or services available from us, our affiliates, or our partners that may be of interest to you
Tailor your experience, including by making inferences about your interests and preferences based on your activity and customize the ads shown to you both on and off our website

Communication

Communicate with you or facilitate communication between you and our partners and/or affiliates
Conduct, monitor and record your calls or interactions with us; for example, your communications with our customer service or sales teams, or through our use of pixels and similar technologies to monitor how you interact with our emails to you, such as whether you open or click on content in our emails
Host your reviews, forum posts, photos, videos, and other content
Respond to your questions and comments

Legal Compliance

Resolve disputes or troubleshoot problems
Prevent fraud and other potentially prohibited or unlawful activities
Comply with relevant laws, respond to legal requests, prevent harm, and protect our rights
Provide payment services, including to detect and prevent money laundering, fraud and security incidents, to comply with legal obligations, and to enforce any applicable terms of service

Please note, if we use automated decision-making to process your personal information, we will implement appropriate measures required to safeguard your rights and freedoms including your right to obtain human intervention.

In order to provide some of our Services and processing activities, we use service providers and may need to make available each category of information that we collect to these service providers, and certain other third parties, including our group of companies, in the following circumstances:

Our Group of Companies. We may share information with certain companies in our corporate family so we can provide you with information about products and services, both travel-related and others, which might interest you and to provide payment services. This sharing also allows us to better understand how you interact with the websites, apps and services of our group companies. These companies will comply with this Statement and all applicable laws governing the transmission of promotional communications.
Suppliers. We may share information with certain suppliers used to facilitate our Services, including where relevant to help with transactions.
Business Partners. We may share information about you, your Devices and your use of our Services with our trusted business partners. For example, we may share information so that we can facilitate payment for products or services you may purchase on the websites of our partners. This sharing is generally pursuant to written agreements which include confidentiality, privacy, and security obligations; please note, however, that we do not control the privacy practices of these third-party business partners.
Social Media Websites. When you use our Services and elect to share information with third-party social media websites, the information you share will be governed by the privacy policies of those social media websites and the privacy settings you have set with those social media websites.
Advertising Networks. We sometimes collect and share information about your interests with advertising networks and data aggregators. Some of these companies are members of the Network Advertising Initiative or the Digital Advertising Alliance, which offer a single location to opt out of ad targeting from member companies. To learn more about the Digital Advertising Alliance, please click here.
Fraud Detection Companies. Third parties may assist us by providing us with their fraud detection technologies.
Trusted third parties. Third parties may also assist us in collecting information by, for example, operating features of our website or facilitating the delivery of online advertising tailored to your interests. We may share audience segments and other information, such as hashed email addresses, with third parties that use that information for tailored advertising to you. Other third parties may also provide us with their content and contract generation, management, and hosting tools. Third parties may only collect or access information as needed to perform their permitted functions. If and to the extent these third parties only assist us to perform our processing operations, we have bound them contractually to only act on our behalf as so-called data processors.

Certain Device operating system versions permit you to opt out of certain types of information sharing, including to certain advertising networks. You can change the privacy settings of your Device at any time in order to turn off the functionality that collects and shares location information. Please check your Device settings if you want to limit such tracking. However, turning off location-sharing may affect certain features that we offer. If you have any questions about the privacy settings of your Device, we suggest you contact the manufacturer of your Device or your mobile service provider for help.

We also may share your information if we believe, in our sole discretion, that such disclosure is necessary:

To comply with legitimate and enforceable subpoenas, court orders, or other legal process; to establish or exercise our legal rights; to defend against legal claims; or as otherwise required by law. In such cases, we reserve the right to raise or waive any legal objection or right available to us.
To investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal or suspected illegal activities; to protect and defend the rights, property, or safety of Tripadvisor, our customers, or others; and in connection with our Terms of Use and other agreements.
In connection with a corporate transaction, such as a divestiture, merger, consolidation, or asset sale, or in the unlikely event of bankruptcy.

Certain disclosures may be considered “sales” or “shares” under applicable U.S. state privacy laws. Details on how to exercise your legal rights with respect to such “sales” or “shares” can be found below in Section 12.

4. Information Choices

You have options with respect to the processing and use of your information by us. You can access, update, and even close your account by visiting the “Member Profile” section on our website or app. In addition, you can do the following:

Choose the way we communicate with you.
Choose not to provide us with certain information, although it may be needed to take advantage of certain features offered on our websites.
Prevent the collection of certain geolocation information (e.g. by switching off location services for our app in the settings of your phone), but note that turning off location sharing may affect certain features of our Services.
Close your account directly from within your Member Profile. Note that if you close your account, we will deactivate your account and remove your profile information from active view. We may retain some information associated with your account (including past transactions) for internal purposes including backups, fraud prevention, dispute resolution, investigations, our own legitimate business interests, and legal compliance for the period necessary to fulfil the purposes outlined in this Statement.
As a registered member, you can modify your marketing subscriptions, including email subscription choices, at any time, within your member settings.
Unsubscribe from promotional messages, including emails with travel-related opportunities, in any such email we send.

5. Information on Children

Our Services are not intended for children, which we consider to be: (i) individuals that are 13 years of age or under, or the age of privacy consent in your jurisdiction; or (ii) when processing data on the basis of a contract, the age of legal capacity to enter into the agreement.

We will only collect or process information belonging to children under very limited circumstances. We might need to collect personal information belonging to children as part of our Service if, for example, the personal information is required as part of a travel-related reservation. We will only collect personal information belonging to children if it is provided by and with consent of a parent or guardian. If we become aware that we have processed the personal information of a child without the valid consent of a parent or guardian, we will delete the personal information.

6. Information Transfers

We offer our Services to users located in many different jurisdictions. If we transfer your information to other countries, we will use and protect that information as described in this Statement and in accordance with applicable law.

7. Information Security

We have implemented appropriate administrative, technical, and physical security procedures to help protect your information. We only authorize specific personnel to access personal information and they may do so only for permitted business functions. We use encryption when transmitting your information between your system and ours, and between our system and those of the parties with whom we share information. We also employ firewalls and intrusion detection systems to help prevent unauthorized access to your information. However, we cannot guarantee the security of information from unauthorized entry or use, hardware or software failure, or other circumstances outside of our control.

8. Information Deletion and Retention

We will retain copies of your information for as long as you maintain your account or as necessary in connection with the purposes set out in this Statement, unless applicable law requires a longer retention period. In addition, we may retain your information for the duration of any period necessary to establish, exercise, or defend any legal rights.

9. Information from Cookies

We want your access to our Services to be as easy, efficient, and useful as possible. To help us do this, we use cookies and similar technologies to improve your experience, to enhance website security, and to show you relevant advertising.

Cookies are small text files that are automatically placed on your Device when you visit almost any website. They are stored by your internet browser and contain basic information about your internet use. Your browser sends the information from these cookies back to a website every time you revisit it, so it can recognize your Device and improve your experience by, among other things, providing you with personalized content. We also use other tracking technologies, such as pixel, SDKs, or server logs, that have a similar functionality. We also use cookies and tracking technologies to remember your login details, so you don’t have to re-enter them repeatedly when you use our Services or to help us understand your preferences.

To give you control, we provide you with a Cookie Consent Tool which allows you to adjust and customize your cookie settings. You can access the Cookie Consent Tool by clicking the “Cookie consent” link at the bottom of every page and modify your preferences in our cookie banner. In addition, you can manage cookies through the settings of your internet browser. You have the right to withdraw your consent to cookies at any time by clicking on the “Cookie consent” link and modifying and saving your preferences. In the settings of your Internet browser, you can choose which cookies to accept and reject.

We allow third parties to collect and use information obtained during your browsing activities in order to deliver tailored advertisements to you (from us and from third parties across the Internet), to analyze activity and engagement on our website or app, and to provide you with enhanced Services. These parties are listed in our Cookie Consent tool, where we provide you with their details and links to their privacy notices. When we disclose your information to these third parties, this may be considered a “sale” or “share” under the applicable U.S. state privacy laws. Details on how to exercise your legal rights with respect to such “sales” or “shares” can be found below in Section 12.

10. Information on Statement Changes

We may update this Statement in the future. If we believe any changes are material, we will let you know by doing one or more of the following: sending you a communication about the changes, placing a notice on the website and/or posting an updated Statement on the website. We will note at the top of this Statement when it was most recently updated. We encourage you to check back from time to time to review the most current version and to periodically review this Statement for the latest information on our privacy practices.

11. Europe and the UK

This GDPR Statement applies to persons in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), including those based in the United Kingdom. This GDPR Statement supplements our Statement; however, where the Statement conflicts with the GDPR Statement, the GDPR Statement will prevail as to persons located in the EEA.

11.2 Controller of Personal Information and Local Representative

Tripadvisor LLC is the controller of personal information we collect; however, in accordance with applicable data privacy law, we have appointed representatives within the European Union and United Kingdom.

The contact details of our European Union representative are:

Tripadvisor Ireland Limited

C/O Matheson

70 Sir John Rogerson’s Quay

Dublin 2

D02 R296

Ireland

The contact details of our United Kingdom representative are:

Tripadvisor Limited

10 Norton Folgate

London

E1 6DB

United Kingdom

Attn: Privacy Officer

Tripadvisor Ireland Limited and Tripadvisor Limited’s roles in this respect are limited solely to being a contact point for questions on data protection from European (including UK) residents and data protection supervisory authorities. For the avoidance of doubt, neither Tripadvisor Ireland Limited nor Tripadvisor Limited can field other communications or legal process on behalf of Tripadvisor LLC.

You have certain rights regarding your personal information.

Your rights with respect to your own personal information include the following:

The right to request access to your personal information. This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
The right to request correction of your personal information if it is inaccurate. You may also supplement any incomplete personal information we have, taking into account the purposes of the processing.
The right to request deletion of your personal information if:

your personal information is no longer necessary for the purposes for which we collected or processed them; or
you withdraw your consent if the processing of your personal information is based on consent and no other legal ground exists; or
you object to the processing of your personal information and we do not have an overriding legitimate ground for processing; or
your personal information is unlawfully processed; or
your personal information must be deleted for compliance with a legal obligation.

The right to object to the processing of your personal information. We will comply with your request, unless we have a compelling overriding legitimate interest for processing or we need to continue processing your personal information to establish, exercise, or defend a legal claim.
The right to restrict the processing of personal information, if:

the accuracy of your personal information is contested by you, for the period in which we have to verify the accuracy of the personal information; or
the processing is unlawful, and you oppose the deletion of your personal information and request restriction; or
we no longer need your personal information for the purposes of processing, but your personal information is required by you for legal claims; or
you have objected to the processing for the period in which we have to verify overriding legitimate grounds.

The right to data portability. You may request that we send this personal information to a third party, where feasible. You only have this right if it relates to personal information you have provided to us where the processing is based on consent or necessity for the performance of a contract between you and us, and the processing is conducted by automated means.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint before your national data protection authority.

You will not usually have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights described in this Statement). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive, or excessive.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal information (or to exercise any of your other rights). To the extent you use a third party to submit a data request on your behalf, we may need to take reasonable steps to verify the authenticity of the request. These are security measures to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. In an effort to speed up our response, we may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request. You can exercise several of your rights through the personal information section of your account. To exercise your other rights you can file a request by clicking here.

11.4 Information Uses and Legal Basis

We will only use your personal information under the circumstances permitted by the law or you.

Pursuant to GDPR, we will use your personal information in one or more of the following circumstances:

Information Uses	Information Processing Legal Basis
Registration, membership and other contracts	Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
Improve our Services, personalization and customization	Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) to provide or improve Services, including our interest to provide you improved and personalized Services, and where your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
Communication	Where you are a registered member, the information uses might be required to perform the contract with you.Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) to communicate with you and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.Where we need your consent for the information use, we will seek your prior consent.
Legal Compliance	Where it is necessary to meet our legal obligations.

11.5 International Transfers

Your personal information may be stored or transferred to countries outside the EEA and the UK for the purposes described in this Statement. When we store or transfer your personal information outside the EEA and the UK, we take the following precautions to ensure that your personal information is properly protected.

Whenever we store or transfer your personal information outside the EEA and the UK, we will do so in accordance with applicable law, and we will ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by implementing appropriate safeguards. Transfers of personal information are made:

to a country recognised by the European Commission as providing an adequate level of protection; or
to a country which does not offer adequate protection but whose transfer has been governed by the standard contractual clauses of the European Commission or by implementing other appropriate cross-border transfer solutions to provide adequate protection.

By using our Services, you understand that your personal information may be transferred to our facilities and those third parties with whom we share it, as described in this Statement.

12. United States

12.1 Your U.S. State Privacy Rights

Depending on your U.S. state of residence, you may have certain rights in relation to your personal information that we collect, use, or disclose in accordance with this Statement, including:

Right to know. You may have the right to request that we disclose to you the categories and specific pieces of personal information that we have collected about you, the categories of sources from which we collected your personal information, our business or commercial purpose for collecting, selling, or sharing your personal information, the categories of personal information that we have disclosed for a business purpose, any categories of personal information about you that we have sold, and the categories of third parties with whom we have disclosed your personal information, if applicable. You may have the right to request your personal information in a portable format.

Deletion. You may request that we delete your personal information that we maintain about you, subject to certain exceptions. As described in more detail in our Statement, there are some reasons for which we will not be able to fully address your deletion request, such as if we need to complete a transaction for you, to detect and protect against fraudulent and illegal activity, to exercise our rights, or to comply with a legal obligation. You can also access, update, and remove your information by visiting the Member Profile page on our website.

Correction. You can request that we correct inaccurate personal information that we maintain about you.

Opt Out of Sales, Sharing, and Targeted Advertising. Depending on the local laws in the state you reside in, you may request to opt out of our sale or sharing of your personal information to third parties, or the use and disclosure of your personal information for targeted advertising. To effect the opt out, please click on the “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” link on our homepage/app. You may also use a universal tool that automatically communicates your opt-out preferences, such as the Global Privacy Control (“GPC”). We will process the GPC signal as a request to opt out.

To take advantage of any of these rights, please contact us via our dedicated privacy portal by clicking here or contact us toll-free at tel:+18339305755. You may designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf. When submitting the request, please ensure the authorized agent is identified as an authorized agent. We may need to verify your identity or elements of the request to enable us to process your request. We will take reasonable steps to verify your identity when you submit a right to know, delete, or correct request; these verification steps will vary depending on the sensitivity of the personal information and whether you have an account with us. We may deny certain requests, or fulfil a request only in part, based on our legal rights and obligations. For example, we may retain personal information as permitted by law, such as for tax or other record keeping purposes, to maintain an active account, and to process transactions and facilitate customer requests. We value your privacy and will not discriminate against you in response to your exercise of privacy rights.

Depending on your U.S. state or residence, you may have the right to appeal a decision we have made in connection with your privacy rights request. To appeal a decision, please submit your request here.

12.2 Notice of Financial Incentives

We may collect your personal information in connection with certain special offers, discounts, sweepstakes, contests, or other promotions (collectively, “promotions”) that we may make available to you. For example, we may collect your biographical information/identifiers (e.g. name, contact details, etc), commercial information, internet or other electronic network activity information, characteristics of protected classifications under California or U.S Federal law, visual and audio information, or inferences drawn from the above. Because these promotions may involve the collection of personal information, they may be interpreted as a “financial incentive” under California law or a “bona fide loyalty program” under Colorado law. We use the personal information that we collect as described in the Notice and in Section 2 of the Statement, and we may sell, share, or disclose the personal information that we collect as described in the Notice and in Section 3 of the Statement.

When you sign up for a promotion, we will provide you with relevant terms that apply to your participation in the promotion. To stop receiving promotions by email, you may unsubscribe by clicking the “unsubscribe” button at the bottom of any email. If you decline to provide your personal information or ask us to delete your personal information, we may not be able to provide you with access to these promotions.

The value of any financial incentive or bona fide loyalty program we offer is reasonably related to the value of any personal information that you provide to us. We estimate the value of your personal information by considering, without limitation, the expenses we incur from collecting your personal information and/or providing the promotions to you, and/or the revenue generated through the promotions.