01Who is responsible
The controller for data processing on this website is African Explorers, Windhoek, Namibia, represented by Marcel Meier. Email: tuye@african-explorers.com, phone and WhatsApp: +264 81 292 4206. Registered with the Namibia Tourism Board under number TFA01322.
We are not required to appoint a data protection officer; for any privacy question, contact us directly at the address above.
02Who and what this policy covers
It covers the website african-explorers.com, enquiries through our form, by email, phone or WhatsApp, and the data we process when you book. We are based in Namibia; for guests from the EU, the EEA and Switzerland we additionally follow the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and describe the legal bases it requires below.
03What data we process
When you visit the website. The website is hosted by Cloudflare, Inc., 101 Townsend St., San Francisco, CA 94107, USA. When a page is requested, Cloudflare processes technically necessary connection data such as your IP address, date and time, the address requested and details of your browser, to deliver the page and protect it against attacks. We keep no server logs ourselves and only see aggregated figures such as page views per day. We do not analyse your behaviour, see Cookies.
When you enquire. The enquiry form opens your email program with a prepared message: name, email address, destination, number of travellers, any journeys you selected, your preferred dates and your message. We receive the details only when you send it; we keep them in our mailbox and our trip planning. Only name and email are mandatory. The same applies when you write to us directly by email, phone or WhatsApp.
When you book. For park permits, campsites, border crossings and safety on the road we additionally need passport details (name as in passport, number, nationality, date of birth), an emergency contact, your travel insurance details, and dietary wishes and health notes that matter on the journey (such as allergies or medication). We process health information only with your explicit consent and only for the journey.
Payments. We tell you the payment options with the booking confirmation. We never store credit card details.
04Purposes and legal bases
- Answering your enquiry, preparing an offer and planning the journey — to enter into and perform the contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).
- Running the journey: permits, campsites, local partners, safety — performance of the contract (b) and, for health information, your consent (Art. 9(2)(a) GDPR).
- Meeting legal obligations such as accounting and information requests from authorities (c).
- Running the website securely and preventing abuse — our legitimate interest (f).
- Writing to you after the journey, if you wish — only with your consent (a), which you can withdraw at any time. We currently send no newsletter.
05Who we share data with
As little as possible. We never sell data and never use it for third-party advertising. We pass on only what the journey requires:
- Local partners — campsites, lodges, park authorities, border officials and providers of booked activities receive names, passport details and the number of travellers as far as they need them for a permit or booking.
- Service providers working for us — Cloudflare as the website’s hosting provider (see above) and our email provider ALL-INKL.COM – Neue Medien Münnich, Hauptstraße 68, 02742 Friedersdorf, Germany. They process data only on our instructions.
- Insurers and rescue services — in an emergency, so that you get help fast.
- Authorities — where the law obliges us.
06Transfers to Namibia and other third countries
We are based in Namibia. If you enquire from the EU, your data is therefore processed in a country outside the EU for which the European Commission has issued no adequacy decision. The transfer is necessary to perform the contract with you or to take pre-contractual steps at your request (Art. 49(1)(b) GDPR).
Cloudflare is based in the USA and certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, for which an adequacy decision of the European Commission exists (Art. 45 GDPR). For other service providers with servers outside the EU we put appropriate safeguards in place where needed, such as standard contractual clauses.
07How long we keep data
- Enquiries without a booking: until the enquiry is settled and no further questions are expected, then we delete them.
- Bookings: for the duration of the contract and afterwards as long as tax and commercial retention rules require.
- Health information and emergency contacts: until after the end of the journey, as long as they are needed for the journey or an insurance claim.
- Server logs: we keep none; for processing by Cloudflare see above.
08Cookies and local storage
This website sets no cookies and embeds no analytics or advertising services. It only notes in your browser’s session storage whether the opening animation has already been shown; the note disappears when you close the tab. Everything else is in our cookie policy.
09External services and links
Fonts, images and map data come from our own website; loading a page sends no data to Google or other third parties. Links to Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp lead to those providers’ sites, where their privacy policies apply. If you message us on WhatsApp, Meta processes your message metadata under its own rules; if you would rather avoid that, send us an email.
10Your rights
You can ask us at any time for:
- access to the data we hold about you,
- correction of inaccurate data and completion of incomplete data,
- erasure, unless a retention obligation prevents it,
- restriction of processing,
- a copy of your data in a common format (data portability),
- objection to processing based on our legitimate interest,
- withdrawal of any consent you have given — with effect for the future.
Simply write to tuye@african-explorers.com. To be sure it is you, we may ask for confirmation. If you live in the EU, you can also complain to the data protection authority where you live.
11Security
The website is delivered encrypted (TLS). Only people who need your data for your journey have access to it. Even so, we cannot guarantee absolute security for transmission over the internet.
12Children and young people
Our offers are aimed at adults. We process data of minors travelling with you only when their guardians give it to us for the journey.
13Changes
When our website or the law changes, we update this policy. The version published here always applies; the date is at the top of the page.