What we collect, why, and what we do with it.

The data controller is TopaTanzania (registered company name to be confirmed), a safari operator based in Arusha, Tanzania. You can reach us about anything in this notice at [email protected] or by post at the address on our legal notice. We have not appointed a data protection officer; the size of the business does not require one.

This notice covers this website and the enquiries and bookings that come through it, by email, by phone or on WhatsApp. It was written to meet the EU General Data Protection Regulation and the UK GDPR, because most of our guests come from Europe, and Tanzania's Personal Data Protection Act 2022, which applies to us at home.

When you enquire

Through the enquiry form, by email, by phone or on WhatsApp, we receive what you choose to tell us: typically your name, email address, phone number if you give one, an approximate travel date, the number of travellers, the safari you are interested in and your message. We use it to reply, to draft an itinerary and to prepare a quotation. The legal basis is that you have asked us to take these steps before entering a contract (GDPR Article 6(1)(b)).

If you mention a dietary requirement, a mobility need, an allergy or another health matter so that we can plan around it, that is special-category data. We process only what you have chosen to share, only to plan and run your trip, and on the basis of your explicit consent (Article 9(2)(a)). You can leave it out of the enquiry and tell your planner later, or not at all.

When you book

To confirm a booking we need the details that camps, airlines and the park authorities require: the full names, nationalities, dates of birth and passport numbers of the travellers, an emergency contact, your travel insurance policy number, and any flight details. The legal basis is performance of the contract (Article 6(1)(b)) and, for the records we must keep, our legal obligations under Tanzanian tax and company law (Article 6(1)(c)).

When you visit the website

The site is a set of static pages hosted by Render (Render Services, Inc., San Francisco, USA). Like any web server, the host records each request in a log: the IP address, the page requested, the time, and the browser's self-description. We use these logs, if at all, to keep the site available and secure, on the basis of our legitimate interest in doing so (Article 6(1)(f)). The site itself has no database and stores nothing about you.

Two features that contact another service, only if you ask

On each safari page a button offers to show the US-dollar price in euros and pounds. Nothing happens until you press it. When you do, your browser fetches the day's exchange rates from open.er-api.com, and that service sees your IP address and the address of the page you were on. We receive nothing. The rates are kept in your browser's local storage for twelve hours so that pressing the button again does not repeat the request; you can clear them in your browser settings.

On the contact page a map of Arusha is offered behind a "Show map" button. Nothing is loaded from the map provider until you press it. When you do, the OpenStreetMap Foundation serves the map tiles and sees your IP address and browser details, under its own privacy policy. The office address is given in text on the same page, so you never have to load the map.

WhatsApp

If you message us on WhatsApp, the message is carried by WhatsApp (Meta Platforms) under its own terms and privacy policy. What you send us there we use exactly as we would an email.

We set no cookies. There is no analytics script, no advertising pixel, no embedded video, no chat widget, and no fonts or scripts loaded from a third party. Everything the pages need is served from our own domain.

The one thing the site can store in your browser is the exchange-rate cache described above, a single local-storage entry named topa.fx.v1. It is written only after you press the conversion button, it contains no personal data, and it exists solely to provide the feature you asked for, which is why no consent banner is shown. If we ever add analytics or other tracking, this notice and the site will change first.

For an enquiry: nobody outside the company. Your planner and, once assigned, your guide see it. We do not add enquirers to a mailing list and we do not pass details to anyone else.

For a booking: the camps and lodges that will host you, any airline flying you within Tanzania, the park and conservation authorities that issue permits, and the provider of the emergency evacuation cover included in every safari. Each receives only what it needs for its part of the trip.

Providers we use to run the business also process data on our behalf: the hosting company named above, our email provider, and WhatsApp. We do not sell personal data and we do not share it for anyone else's marketing.

We are in Tanzania, which is not covered by an EU or UK adequacy decision. When you send us an enquiry, your data is transferred to us because you have asked us to plan a trip: the transfer is necessary for steps taken at your request before a contract, and then for the contract itself (GDPR Article 49(1)(b)). The onward sharing with camps, airlines and park authorities in Tanzania is necessary to perform that contract for the same reason.

Within Tanzania, the Personal Data Protection Act 2022 and the Personal Data Protection Commission govern how we handle personal data.

Server logs are held by our hosting provider in the United States. The safeguard relied on for that transfer is a matter for the host's own data processing terms; see the note at the top of this page.

Enquiries that do not become a booking are deleted a fixed period after our last exchange with you; the period will be stated here once confirmed, and we suggest 24 months. Booking records are kept for as long as Tanzanian tax and company law requires, and then deleted. Server logs are kept by the host for its default period, which is short.

Under the GDPR you can ask us for a copy of the personal data we hold about you, ask us to correct it, ask us to delete it, ask us to restrict how we use it, object to processing based on our legitimate interests, ask for a copy in a portable form, and withdraw any consent you have given, without affecting what was done before you withdrew it.

To exercise any of these, email [email protected]. We will reply within one month. We may need to confirm who you are first, so that we do not hand your data to someone else.

If you think we have handled your data unlawfully, you have the right to complain to a supervisory authority: in the EU, the data protection authority of the country where you live; in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office; in Tanzania, the Personal Data Protection Commission. We would rather hear from you first, and fix it.

The site is served over HTTPS only, with security headers that stop it being embedded in other sites or loading scripts from anywhere but our own domain. The website itself holds no personal data: there is no login, no account and no database. Enquiries go to a monitored mailbox and are handled by the two people in the Arusha office and the guide assigned to your trip.

We do not knowingly collect personal data directly from anyone under sixteen. Children's details for a family booking are provided by, and handled with, the adult who books.

If we change what the site does, or how we handle data, this page changes first. The date it was last updated is shown below.