Privacy policy

We collect the information needed to provide a trip: names, contact details, pickup and drop-off addresses, flight or vessel details, passenger and luggage details, and payment information processed by our booking provider. We use it only to deliver and invoice the service, to contact you about your booking, and to meet legal and tax obligations. Where a trip is driven by an affiliate operator, we share only what that operator needs to perform the trip. We do not sell personal information. Records are kept for as long as accounting and tax law requires and then deleted. To see, correct or delete your information, email support@blaaklane.com.

The privacy policy in plain language

The policy above is short on purpose. This section walks through it sentence by sentence, with examples of what each part means for an ordinary booking. It explains the existing policy; it does not add to it. If anything here ever seems to differ from the policy text, the policy text is what applies.

In one paragraph: BlaakLane.com collects the information needed to run your trip, uses it only to deliver and invoice the trip, to contact you about the booking and to meet legal and tax obligations, shares with an affiliate operator only what that operator needs to drive the trip, does not sell personal information, keeps records for as long as accounting and tax law requires and then deletes them, and lets you ask to see, correct or delete your information by email.

What we collect, and why each item is needed

The policy lists the categories collected. Each one exists because a chauffeur trip cannot be run without it.

Notice what is not on the list. The policy describes information needed to provide a trip, which is why the booking form asks about passengers, luggage and flights rather than, for example, the purpose of the journey.

Payment information and the booking provider

The policy says payment information is "processed by our booking provider". In practice, when you pay by card on the reservation engine, the card payment is handled through the booking provider's payment processing as part of the checkout. Corporate accounts that are billed by monthly invoice pay against the invoice instead. Either way, the payment information is used for the same purposes as everything else: to take payment for, and invoice, the service.

How the information is used: three purposes, and only three

The policy uses the word "only", and it matters. Personal information is used:

1. To deliver and invoice the service. Pricing the trip, assigning a chauffeur, tracking the flight, sending the car to the right place at the right time, and issuing the receipt or the monthly invoice.
2. To contact you about your booking. The confirmation, the chauffeur's details before pickup, a call if the chauffeur cannot find you, a message about a flight change, or a question about a charge.
3. To meet legal and tax obligations. Keeping the records that accounting and tax rules require for a service that has been sold and invoiced.

Those three purposes are the whole list in the policy. Here is how that plays out in three everyday cases:

• You add a flight number. It is used to track that flight and time your pickup. It is part of your booking record, and it is not used for anything outside the purposes above.
• You give a hotel address for a 06:00 departure. The address is used to route the car and appears on your booking and receipt, because it is part of the service delivered.
• You call the desk to change a time. Your contact details are used to confirm the change, which is contact about your booking.

Sharing with affiliate operators

Outside the home dispatch area, trips are driven by vetted affiliate operators, and the confirmation names the operator. The policy sets a clear limit: "we share only what that operator needs to perform the trip".

Take an international arrival in another city as an example. To perform that trip, the operator and its chauffeur need the passenger's name, a working mobile number, the flight number and arrival time, the pickup point, the drop-off address, the number of passengers and bags, the vehicle class and any child seat or name-board add-on. That is what "what that operator needs" means in practice. Information that plays no part in driving the trip is outside that limit.

The same test applies to multi-leg itineraries. If your trip includes a transfer in one city and another transfer in a different city, each operator needs the details of its own leg of the journey.

"We do not sell personal information"

This sentence is exactly what it says. Your name, contact details and trip history are not sold. The sharing described above, with the operator who drives your trip, is part of delivering the service you booked.

Corporate accounts, bookers and travellers

On a corporate account, a booker, assistant or travel manager often books trips for other people. The same policy applies to the travellers they book for: the information collected is what the trip needs, and it is used for the same three purposes. The account features the company has chosen, such as traveller profiles, cost centres, monthly invoicing and duty-of-care trip data, are part of delivering and invoicing the service to that company. If you book for colleagues or guests, give only the details the trip needs, and make sure the traveller knows a car has been booked in their name.

How long records are kept

The policy says records "are kept for as long as accounting and tax law requires and then deleted". It does not give a single number of years, because the period depends on the law that applies to the records, and that can differ by country. The principle is simple: a booking record is kept while the law requires it to be kept, and not indefinitely after that.

Seeing, correcting or deleting your information

To see, correct or delete your information, email support@blaaklane.com, as the policy says. A clear request helps the desk find the right records quickly. Include:

• Your full name and the email address or phone number used for bookings.
• Any confirmation numbers you have, or the approximate dates and cities of your trips.
• What you are asking for: a copy of your information, a correction (for example a misspelt name on a traveller profile or an old mobile number), or deletion.

Corrections are often the most useful request. A wrong mobile number on a saved profile means a chauffeur cannot call you at the curb, so it is worth fixing as soon as you notice. Where a record falls under the accounting and tax retention described above, that part of the policy explains why it is kept for the period the law requires.

Practical ways to share less

You control much of what goes into a booking. A few habits keep it to the minimum:

• Put only the trip details in the notes field: an entrance, a gate code, a luggage note. Leave out anything the chauffeur does not need.
• Use one mobile number that you will actually carry on the trip, rather than several.
• If you add meet and greet, tell the desk how the name should appear on the board.
• Booking for a child? The age and weight for the child seat are enough.

Questions people ask about privacy

Does the chauffeur keep my number? The chauffeur receives your number to perform the trip; that is the purpose it is shared for. Can I book without giving a flight number? You can, but the flight number is what lets dispatch time the chauffeur to the actual landing, so leaving it out makes the pickup harder to time. Do sister sites follow this policy? This policy covers BlaakLane.com bookings. When you follow a link to another site, such as the travel desk partner, read that site's own policy. Who do I ask about a specific trip? The desk; see contact for what to include, and the terms for the booking conditions. Readers who want general background on privacy rights can consult their national data-protection authority; in the United Kingdom, for example, that is the ICO.

A note for affiliate operators and chauffeurs

Affiliates receive passenger information because they need it to drive the trip. The same limits apply on their side of the booking: use the details to perform the trip you accepted, and treat them as confidential, as the affiliate standards require. Partners who register also send their own documents, licences and bank details; those are used to review and administer the partnership, as described on the documents checklist.

Where this fits with the rest of the site

The privacy policy covers personal information. The conditions of the booking itself, such as fares, waiting, cancellations and add-ons, are in the terms, and how affiliates are vetted is on memberships and network.