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Privacy Policy
How we collect, use, share and protect your personal information when you visit our website, send an enquiry or book a safari, and the rights you have over it.
Last updated: 11 November 2026
This Privacy Policy explains how Insight Safari Holidays Limited collects, uses, shares and protects personal information when you visit our website, send us an enquiry, or book a safari or tour with us. It covers the whole website, including the Australian section of the site at /au/.
In this policy, "we", "us" and "our" mean Insight Safari Holidays Limited, and "you" means anyone who visits our website, contacts us or travels with us. Please read it alongside our Terms and Conditions, which apply to bookings, and our Disclaimer, which covers the information on this website.
1. Summary
- We collect the details you give us when you enquire or book, such as your name, contact details, travel dates and trip preferences. To arrange a trip we also need further details, such as passport information for gorilla and chimpanzee permits.
- When you send an enquiry, the email we receive also includes some technical details: the page you were reading, the website that referred you to us, your IP address, the country linked to that IP address, and your browser type.
- We use your information to answer your enquiry, plan and operate your trip, meet our legal obligations and, where allowed, improve our website and advertising.
- We share booking details only with the people who need them to deliver your trip, such as lodges, park and wildlife authorities, airlines and ground handlers, and with the service providers who run our website and email.
- We do not sell your personal information.
- You have rights over your information, including the right to see it, correct it and ask us to delete it. Section 12 explains how to use them.
2. Who we are and how to contact us
Insight Safari Holidays Limited is a safari and tour operator incorporated and based in Uganda. We organise safaris and tours in Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and in southern Africa, including Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
We are responsible for the personal information described in this policy. Under the data protection laws that apply to us, this makes us the "data controller".
- Company: Insight Safari Holidays Limited
- Office: Plot 19 Bukoto Street, Kampala, Uganda
- Email: info@insightsafariholidays.com
- Phone and WhatsApp: +256 774 382 674
- Online: our Contact Us page
Please put "Privacy" in the subject line of any email about this policy or your personal information, so that it reaches the right person quickly.
3. The laws this policy follows
We are based in Uganda, so our handling of personal information is governed mainly by Uganda's Data Protection and Privacy Act, 2019 and the Data Protection and Privacy Regulations, 2021. These laws are overseen by the Personal Data Protection Office (PDPO), which operates under the National Information Technology Authority – Uganda (NITA-U).
Many of our travellers live elsewhere, so we have also written this policy with these laws in mind:
- the UK GDPR and the UK Data Protection Act 2018, for visitors and travellers in the United Kingdom;
- the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), for visitors and travellers in the European Union and European Economic Area; and
- Australia's Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), for visitors and travellers in Australia, including those who use the Australian section of our site.
Whether a particular foreign law applies to us depends on the circumstances. Where it does, we will respect the rights it gives you. Our Disclaimer and Terms and Conditions are governed by Ugandan law. This does not take away any protection you have under mandatory privacy or consumer laws in the country where you live.
4. Information we collect
4.1 Information you give us when you enquire
Our enquiry forms ask for the following details. Fields marked as required on the form must be filled in. Everything else is optional.
- Contact Us form: your name and email address (required), and optionally a subject, telephone or mobile number, nationality, travel dates or period, number of days on safari, number of adults, your interests (for example gorillas, wildlife safaris, chimpanzees, birding, sightseeing, nature walks, fishing, rafting, volunteer tours or village walks), and your message.
- Safari package enquiry form (for example on our Gorilla Tours page): your first name, last name, email address and the package you are interested in (required), and optionally your phone or WhatsApp number, group size, travel dates and a message. The message box invites you to tell us about your group, interests and dietary needs, so you may choose to share that information here.
- General contact form: your name, email address and subject (required), and optionally a message.
You may also contact us directly by email, phone or WhatsApp, or through our social media pages. In that case we receive whatever you choose to send us, together with your email address, phone number or account name.
Please do not send passport scans, medical details or payment card information through the website forms. If we need them, we will ask for them during the booking process.
4.2 Information sent automatically with an enquiry
When you submit an enquiry form, the email that reaches our team also contains some technical details, so that we can understand how you found us and answer you better:
- The page you were reading before you enquired. Our safari and tour pages send you to the Contact Us page to make an enquiry. While you browse, a small script remembers the last page of our website you viewed (its address and title). It saves this in your browser's session storage, which applies only to that browser tab and is cleared when you close the tab. When you send a form, this page address is added to a hidden field and shown at the top of the email to our team as "Enquiry sent from". If the form is on the page you are reading, that page is used. The hidden field only accepts pages of our own website, and the script does not send anything until you submit a form.
- Visit details. The website that referred you to us (for example a search engine), the first page you landed on during your visit, your IP address, the country associated with that IP address, and your browser and device type (the "user agent"). To record the referring website and landing page, our site sets a session cookie (
PHPSESSID) that is deleted when you close your browser. To work out the country, your IP address is checked against an IP location service (HostIP.info) when you submit the form.
Our website does not keep a separate database copy of form submissions. Enquiries are delivered by email to our team, and we keep them in our email system (see section 7).
4.3 Information we need to arrange and run your trip
If you decide to book, we will need more information from you and from everyone in your group. Depending on your itinerary, this may include:
- Identity and travel documents: full name as shown in your passport, nationality, date of birth, passport number, issue and expiry dates, and sometimes a copy of your passport photo page. National park and wildlife authorities, such as the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) and the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), require these details to issue gorilla, chimpanzee and other permits in your name. They may also be needed for visas, border crossings, domestic and regional flights, and lodge registration.
- Contact and emergency details: your address, phone numbers, email address, and the name and contact details of an emergency contact.
- Travel arrangements: international flight details, arrival and departure times, room sharing and bed preferences, and special occasions such as a honeymoon or birthday.
- Health and access needs: dietary requirements, food allergies, medical conditions, mobility or fitness limitations, and any other needs that may affect your safety or comfort. Our Terms and Conditions ask you to tell us in writing about any medical condition that may be affected by vigorous activity, altitude, heat, cold or particular foods. Some activities, such as visits to Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary, have their own health requirements, and we may put you in direct contact with the provider for these. Where a document such as a yellow fever certificate or proof of vaccination is required for entry or an activity, we may need to see it.
- Insurance: your travel insurance provider, policy number and emergency assistance number, so that we can help you if something goes wrong.
- Payment information: records of the deposit and balance payments you make, the payer's name, and transfer or payment references. We do not take card payments through this website. We will tell you how to pay when we confirm your booking.
- Trip feedback: comments, reviews and complaints you send us during or after your trip.
If you book for other people, such as family members or friends, please make sure they are happy for you to give us their details and that they have seen this policy.
4.4 Photographs taken on tour
As our Terms and Conditions explain, we may take photographs of travellers on tour to use in promoting our safaris. If you prefer that your image is not used, please tell your guide at the start of the trip or email us at any time. We will not publish your name with a photo, or publish a testimonial in your name, unless you have agreed to this.
4.5 Information collected when you use the website
Like most websites, ours collects some information automatically when you visit:
- Server logs. Our web hosting provider's servers record technical details of each request, such as your IP address, the date and time, the page requested, the referring page and your browser type. These logs are used to run, secure and troubleshoot the website.
- Cookies and similar technologies. These are described in section 10.
- Advertising and analytics information. Google tags on our site record how visitors arrive from our adverts and what actions they take, such as clicking our "Enquire" or WhatsApp buttons. See section 6.
4.6 Newsletter and comments
Our website footer contains a box for signing up to email news. If you subscribe, your email address is sent to our email marketing provider, Mailchimp, which will hold it so that we can send you updates. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in any of our emails, or by writing to us.
Where comments are open on a blog post and you leave one, WordPress records the name, email address and website you enter, together with your IP address and browser type, to help detect spam. Your name and comment are published. Profile pictures next to comments and author names may be loaded from Gravatar, a service run by Automattic, which receives a scrambled (hashed) version of the email address involved.
4.7 Information from other sources
We may receive information about you from travel agents or partners who book on your behalf, from the person who booked your trip if you are travelling in their group, and from lodges, airlines and authorities during your trip (for example a permit confirmation or a flight change). If you contact us or leave a review through a third-party platform such as Facebook, Instagram, TripAdvisor, Trustpilot or WhatsApp, we will see the information that platform shares with us.
5. How we use your information and our legal reasons
Data protection laws require us to have a valid reason, or "lawful basis", for each use of your personal information. The table below sets out what we do and why.
| What we use it for | Our reason |
|---|---|
| Answering your enquiry, preparing quotations and itineraries, and following up | To take steps you have asked for before entering a contract; your consent when you choose to contact us; our legitimate interest in responding to people who contact us |
| Booking and running your trip: permits, accommodation, transport, flights, guides, activities and support while you travel | To perform our contract with you |
| Handling health, dietary and access information so we can keep you safe and meet your needs | Your explicit consent when you give us the information, and, in an emergency, protecting your vital interests |
| Taking and recording payments, keeping accounts and meeting tax, licensing and regulatory requirements | To perform our contract; to comply with our legal obligations |
| Dealing with complaints, insurance claims, legal claims and disputes | Our legitimate interests in defending our business and resolving issues; our legal obligations |
| Understanding which pages and adverts lead to enquiries, measuring our advertising, and improving the website | Our legitimate interests in running and improving our business, and your consent where the law requires it for cookies |
| Sending newsletters and travel offers | Your consent, or, where the law allows, our legitimate interest in telling past customers about similar trips. You can opt out at any time |
| Using photos and testimonials in our marketing | Your consent, or our legitimate interest in promoting our safaris, subject to your right to object |
| Keeping the website and our systems secure and preventing spam and fraud | Our legitimate interests; our legal obligations |
If you do not give us information we need for a booking, such as passport details for a permit, we may not be able to arrange that part of your trip.
We do not make decisions about you based only on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects on you.
6. Who we share your information with
We share personal information only where it is needed for the purposes in section 5. We do not sell it or rent it to anyone.
6.1 To arrange and deliver your trip
- National park and wildlife authorities, such as the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) and the park authorities in the other countries we cover, to buy permits and park entry in your name.
- Lodges, camps and hotels, which need your name, room arrangements, arrival details and any dietary, medical or access needs. Many lodges must also register guests' passport details by law.
- Airlines and air charter companies, for domestic and regional flights, which need names as in your passport and sometimes your weight for light aircraft.
- Ground handlers, local partner operators, guides and drivers in each country, who deliver parts of your trip on our behalf.
- Activity providers, such as boat trip, rafting, balloon, sanctuary and community tourism operators.
- Medical evacuation and assistance providers and insurers, where your package includes evacuation cover or if you need help during your trip.
- Immigration and government authorities, where we help with visas or entry formalities, or where we are legally required to provide information.
- Banks and payment providers, to process the payments you make to us and any refunds.
Lodges, airlines and park authorities make their own decisions about how they use your information, under their own privacy policies and the laws of their country.
6.2 Service providers who support our website and business
We use the following providers to run our website and communications. They handle personal information on our behalf, under our instructions or their standard terms of service.
| Provider | What it does | Personal information involved |
|---|---|---|
| Our web hosting provider (servers in the United States) | Hosts the website, sends website emails through its mail server, keeps server logs and stores website backups | Enquiry form contents while being sent, IP addresses and request logs, website database backups |
| Google Workspace (Google) | Our business email, including the inbox that receives website enquiries | Your emails and enquiry details |
| Google Ads (Google) | Measures how many people enquire after clicking our adverts, and helps us show relevant adverts | Cookie identifiers, IP address, pages visited, button clicks |
| Google Analytics and Google Site Kit (Google) | Website statistics, Search Console and page speed reports | Where Google Analytics measurement is switched on: cookie identifiers, IP address, pages visited and device information. Search Console and page speed reports are aggregated |
| Google Fonts and Google Maps (Google) | Supplies some of the fonts used on our pages, and the maps on our Contact Us page and tour pages | Your IP address and browser details when your browser loads them |
| YouTube (Google) | Videos embedded in some pages and our YouTube channel | Your IP address and YouTube cookies when you load or play a video |
| WhatsApp (Meta) | Our "WhatsApp us" buttons open a chat with us in WhatsApp | Your phone number, profile and messages, once you start a chat |
| HostIP.info | Looks up the country linked to an IP address when you send an enquiry | Your IP address |
| Mailchimp (Intuit) | Newsletter sign-up and emails | Your email address and how you interact with our emails |
| Gravatar (Automattic) | Profile pictures for authors and commenters | A hashed email address and your IP address when an image loads |
Our "WhatsApp us" and "Enquire" buttons send a click event to our Google tags so that we can count how many people use them. This event includes the link clicked and the page it was on, but not the content of any WhatsApp message.
Our website also links to our pages on Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), YouTube, TripAdvisor and Trustpilot. These are plain links: the platform receives information about you only if you click through to it, and its own privacy policy then applies. We do not use the Facebook (Meta) Pixel on our website.
6.3 Other sharing
- Professional advisers, such as accountants, auditors, lawyers and insurers, where they need the information to advise us.
- Authorities and courts, where the law requires us to share information, or where it is needed to protect someone's safety or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
- A buyer or successor business, if all or part of our business is sold or reorganised. Your information would continue to be protected in line with this policy.
7. International transfers
Because we arrange travel across several countries and use international service providers, your personal information will be transferred and stored outside the country where you live. In particular:
- it is handled by our team in Uganda;
- it is shared with lodges, authorities and partners in the countries on your itinerary, such as Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and southern African countries;
- our website is hosted on servers in the United States; and
- Google, Mailchimp and other providers may process information in the United States and other countries where they operate.
Some of these countries do not have data protection laws that are considered equivalent to those in the UK, the EU or Australia. Uganda's Data Protection and Privacy Act allows personal information to be processed or stored outside Uganda where the other country gives adequate protection or where you have consented. Where UK or EU law applies, we rely on the safeguards that our service providers offer, such as standard contractual clauses or recognised certification schemes, and on the exception that a transfer is necessary to carry out the travel arrangements you have asked for. Information sent to lodges, airlines and authorities in your destination countries is shared because it is needed to deliver your trip.
For Australian travellers, please note that the overseas recipients described above are not bound by the Australian Privacy Principles, and you may not be able to seek redress under the Australian Privacy Act against them. By giving us your information to plan a trip, you acknowledge that it will be disclosed overseas for that purpose.
8. How long we keep your information
We keep personal information only for as long as we need it for the purposes in this policy, or as long as the law requires. Our general retention periods are:
| Information | How long we keep it |
|---|---|
| Enquiries that do not lead to a booking, including the technical details sent with them | Up to 2 years after our last contact with you, so that we can help if you return to your plans |
| Booking, payment and accounting records | Up to 7 years after the end of your trip, to meet tax and accounting requirements and to deal with any claims |
| Passport copies, health information and emergency contact details | Until your trip and any follow-up, such as an insurance claim or complaint, is complete, and then deleted within 12 months, unless we need them for a legal claim |
| Newsletter subscriptions | Until you unsubscribe. After that we keep only a record that you have opted out, so that we do not email you again |
| Photos and testimonials used with your consent | Until you ask us to stop using them. Printed materials already produced may stay in circulation |
| The enquiry-source page in your browser | Until you close the browser tab |
| Website server logs and backups | For the periods set by our hosting provider and backup settings. Our website keeps a limited number of recent backups, and older ones are replaced automatically |
When information is no longer needed, we delete it or make it anonymous. Where deletion is not immediately possible, for example in backups, we keep it secure until it is removed in the normal cycle.
9. How we protect your information
We take reasonable technical and organisational steps to protect personal information against loss, misuse and unauthorised access, change or disclosure. These include:
- encrypting the connection between your browser and our website (HTTPS), and sending website emails over an encrypted connection to our mail server;
- limiting access to booking and passport information to staff and partners who need it to arrange your trip;
- using password-protected business accounts for our email and website administration; and
- sharing only the details each supplier needs, for example giving a lodge your dietary needs but not your full passport details unless they are required.
No website, email system or data transfer can be completely secure, so we cannot guarantee the security of information you send us. Please avoid sending sensitive documents by unencrypted email where possible, and ask us if you would like a safer way to share them.
If a security breach affects your personal information, we will act quickly to contain it. We will notify the Personal Data Protection Office in Uganda, as the Data Protection and Privacy Act requires, and we will tell you, and any other regulator, where the law requires us to do so.
10. Cookies and similar technologies
Cookies are small text files that a website stores in your browser. Similar technologies include browser storage (local storage and session storage) and tags that load from other websites. We use them to make our website work, to remember small things during your visit, and to measure our advertising.
10.1 What we use
| Name or type | Set by | Purpose | How long it lasts |
|---|---|---|---|
PHPSESSID (cookie) | Our website | Remembers the website that referred you and the first page you landed on, so that these can be included with an enquiry you send | Until you close your browser |
isp_last_page (session storage) | Our website | Remembers the last page you viewed, so that your enquiry shows which trip or page you were reading | Until you close the browser tab |
ht_ctc_storage (local storage) | Our website (WhatsApp chat button) | Remembers settings for the WhatsApp chat button, such as whether its greeting has been shown | Until you clear your browser storage |
| WordPress technical storage | Our website | Small technical checks, for example whether your browser supports emoji. These hold no personal information | Until you close the browser tab |
Google Ads cookies, such as _gcl_au, and Google advertising cookies on Google domains | Measure whether people who clicked our adverts go on to enquire, and help Google show our adverts to relevant people | Usually up to 90 days for _gcl_au; other Google cookies vary, up to about 13 months | |
Google Analytics cookies, such as _ga and _ga_* | Where Google Analytics measurement is switched on: count visits and show how visitors use the site | Up to 2 years | |
| YouTube and Google Maps cookies | Set when you load or play an embedded video or interact with a map | Set by Google; see Google's privacy policy | |
WordPress comment cookies, such as comment_author_* | Our website | Only if you leave a comment and choose to have your details remembered | Up to 1 year |
Our website also loads fonts from Google Fonts and maps from Google Maps. These services receive your IP address and browser details when the page loads, even if they do not set cookies.
10.2 Your choices
- You can block or delete cookies and browser storage through your browser settings. Closing the tab or browser clears our session cookie and session storage. If you block all cookies, some parts of the website may not work as intended, but you can still contact us by email, phone or WhatsApp.
- You can control personalised advertising from Google through Google My Ad Center.
- You can stop Google Analytics from collecting data about your visits with the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.
- To find out how Google uses information from websites that use its services, see How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services.
11. Children's information
Our website is meant for adults planning travel. We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children through the website. If you are under 18, please ask a parent or guardian to contact us for you.
Families often travel with children, so we may need children's details, such as names, ages, dates of birth and passport details, to arrange permits, flights and accommodation. Some activities have minimum ages; for example, gorilla trekking permits are generally issued only to people aged 15 or over. We collect children's information only from a parent, guardian or the adult responsible for the booking, and we use it only to arrange and deliver the trip. Uganda's Data Protection and Privacy Act allows a child's personal information to be processed with the prior consent of a parent or guardian.
If you believe a child has sent us personal information without a parent's or guardian's knowledge, please contact us and we will delete it.
12. Your rights
Depending on where you live and the law that applies, you have some or all of the following rights:
- Access: to ask whether we hold personal information about you and to receive a copy of it.
- Correction: to ask us to correct information that is inaccurate, out of date or incomplete.
- Deletion: to ask us to delete your information where we no longer need it or have no lawful reason to keep it.
- Objection and restriction: to object to our use of your information, including when it is based on our legitimate interests, and to ask us to limit how we use it while a concern is checked. Under Uganda's law, you can also ask us in writing to stop processing that causes, or is likely to cause, you unwarranted substantial damage or distress.
- Direct marketing: to tell us to stop using your information for marketing at any time. Every marketing email we send includes an unsubscribe link.
- Withdrawing consent: where we rely on your consent, to withdraw it at any time. This does not affect anything we did before you withdrew it, but it may mean we cannot continue with part of a booking, for example if we need health information to keep you safe.
- Portability: under UK and EU law, to receive information you gave us in a commonly used electronic format, or to ask us to send it to another organisation.
- Anonymity: under the Australian Privacy Principles, to deal with us without identifying yourself, or by using a pseudonym, where this is practical. You can browse our website and ask general questions this way, but we need your real details to make a booking.
- Compensation: Uganda's Data Protection and Privacy Act, and UK and EU law, give you the right to claim compensation for damage caused by a breach of data protection law.
- Complaint: to complain to a data protection regulator (see section 13).
How to use your rights
Email us at info@insightsafariholidays.com with "Privacy request" in the subject line, or write to us at Plot 19 Bukoto Street, Kampala, Uganda. Please tell us what you would like us to do and give us enough detail to find your information, such as the name and email address you used and your travel dates.
We may need to confirm your identity before we act on a request, to protect your information from anyone else. We will respond within 30 days. If a request is complicated, we may need more time where the law allows, and we will tell you if this happens. We do not usually charge for a request, but we may charge a reasonable fee, or refuse, where a request is clearly unfounded or excessive and the law allows this.
Some rights have exceptions. For example, we may need to keep booking and payment records to meet tax laws even if you ask us to delete them. If we cannot do what you ask, we will explain why.
13. Complaints
If you are worried about how we have handled your personal information, please contact us first at info@insightsafariholidays.com. We will look into your concern and reply in writing, normally within 30 days.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to a data protection regulator:
- Uganda: the Personal Data Protection Office (PDPO), at pdpo.go.ug. The PDPO is our lead regulator.
- Australia: the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), at oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992. The OAIC usually expects you to give the organisation 30 days to respond before it looks at a complaint.
- United Kingdom: the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
- European Union and EEA: the data protection authority in the country where you live or work, or where you believe the problem happened. A list is available from the European Data Protection Board.
Complaints about other parts of your trip are handled under the complaints procedure in our Terms and Conditions.
14. Third-party websites
Our website links to other websites, including lodges, park authorities, partner associations, review sites and social media. We do not control those websites and are not responsible for their privacy practices. Please read the privacy policy of any website you visit. Our Disclaimer explains more about third-party content and links.
15. Changes to this policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time, for example when we change the tools we use on the website, change how we run our business, or when the law changes. The updated version will be posted on this page with a new "Last updated" date. If we make a significant change that affects how we use information you have already given us, we will tell you directly where we can, for example by email.
16. Contact us
If you have a question about this Privacy Policy or your personal information, please get in touch:
- Company: Insight Safari Holidays Limited
- Office: Plot 19 Bukoto Street, Kampala, Uganda
- Email: info@insightsafariholidays.com
- Phone: +256 774 382 674
- Online: our Contact Us page
You can also read our Terms and Conditions and our Disclaimer.