What is the purpose of this document? The TAJ International Hotels Ltd along with all its associates, affiliates, joint ventures and group companies (hereinafter referred to as the “IHCL Group”) is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information.
This privacy statement describes how we collect and use your personal information and data, in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
It applies to all guests and visitors, known through this document as “data subjects”.
The IHCL Group is a "data controller". This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you.
We are required under data protection legislation to notify you of the information contained in this privacy statement. This statement applies to data subjects. This statement does not form part of any contract to provide services. We may update this statement at any time. It is important that you read this statement, together with any other privacy statement we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using such information. Data protection principles We will comply with data protection law. This says that the personal information we hold about you must be: 1. Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way.
2. Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes. 3. Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes. 4. Accurate and kept up to date. 5. Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about. 6. Kept securely. The kind of information we hold about you Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data). There are "special categories" of more sensitive personal data which require a higher level of protection. We may collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you: Personal contact details such as name, title, addresses, telephone numbers, and personal email addresses. Date of birth. Gender. Marital status. Next of kin and emergency contact information. National Insurance or TAX ID number/PAN card. Bank account details, payroll records and tax status information. Driving licence. Grievance information. CCTV footage and other information obtained through electronic means such as door access records. Information about your use of our information and communications systems. Photographs. We may also collect, store and use the following "special categories" of more sensitive personal information: Information about your race or ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation. Information about your health, including but not limited to any medical conditions, food allergies. How is your personal information collected? We collect personal information about data subjects through various methods; check-ins, bookings, and reservations. Either directly from data subjects or sometimes from a third party acting on our behalf (for example through a booking agency, travel agent or corporate account). How we will use information about you We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal information in the following circumstances: 1. Where we need to perform the contract we have entered into with you. 2. Where we need to comply with a legal obligation. 3. Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. 4. Where you have given us explicit consent to do so. We may also use your personal information in the following situations, which are likely to be rare: 1. Where we need to protect your interests (or someone else's interests). 2. Where it is needed in the public interest or for official purposes or requested for by the CBI, police or governmental authorities. Situations in which we will use your personal information We need all the categories of information in the list above primarily to allow us to perform our contract with you and to enable us to comply with legal obligations. In some cases, we may use your personal information to pursue legitimate interests of our own or those of third parties Administering the contract, we have entered into with you. Business management and planning, including accounting and auditing. Making decisions about grievances. Making arrangements for the termination of a contract. Dealing with legal disputes and insurance claims. Complying with health and safety obligations. To prevent fraud. To monitor your use of our information and communication systems to ensure compliance with our Global IT policy and laws of the land. To ensure network and information security, including preventing unauthorised access to our computer and electronic communications systems and preventing malicious software distribution. To conduct data analytics studies to review and better understand customer satisfaction and needs. Some of the above grounds for processing will overlap and there may be several grounds which justify our use of your personal information. If you fail to provide personal information If you fail to provide certain information when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have entered into with you (such as providing a benefit), or we may be prevented from complying with our legal obligations (such as to ensure the health and safety or proof of nationality for example passport) Change of purpose We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so. Please note that we may process your personal information without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law. How we use particularly sensitive personal information "Special categories" of particularly sensitive personal information require higher levels of protection. We need to have further justification for collecting, storing and using this type of personal information. We may process special categories of personal information in the following circumstances: 1. In limited circumstances, with your explicit written consent. 2. Where we need to carry out our legal obligations 3. Where it is needed in the public interest, such as for requested for by CBI, police or governmental authorities Less commonly, we may process this type of information where it is needed in relation to legal claims or where it is needed to protect your interests (or someone else's interests) and you are not capable of giving your consent, or where you have already made the information public. Principles of GDPR We will use your personal data only in-line with the following principles: 1. Lawfulness, fairness and transparency 2. Purpose limitation 3. Data minimisation 4. Accuracy 5. Storage limitation 6. Integrity and confidentiality This is the only principle that deals explicitly with security. The GDPR states that personal data must be “processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the personal data, including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organisational measures”. The GDPR is deliberately vague about what measures organisations should take, because technological and organisational best practices are constantly changing. Currently, organisations should encrypt and/or pseudonymise personal data wherever possible, but they should also consider whatever other options are suitable. Do we need your consent? We do not need your consent if we use special categories of your personal information in accordance with our written policy to carry out our legal obligations or exercise specific rights. In limited circumstances, we may approach you for your written consent to allow us to process certain particularly sensitive data. If we do so, we will provide you with full details of the information that we would like and the reason we need it, so that you can carefully consider whether you wish to consent. You should be aware that it is not a condition of your contract with us that you agree to any request for consent from us. Automated decision-making Automated decision-making takes place when an electronic system uses personal information to make a decision without human intervention. We do not envisage that any decisions will be taken about you using automated means, however we will notify you in writing if this position changes. Data sharing We may have to share your data with third parties, including third-party service providers and other entities in the IHCL Group. We require appointed third parties to respect the security of your data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We may transfer your personal information outside of the EU. We have a nominated a GDPR representative within the European Union, they can be contacted directly on be dpm.london@tajhotels.com. If we do, you can expect the same degree of protection in respect of your personal information. Data will only be transferred within the IHCL Group.
Why might you share my personal information with third parties? We will share your personal information with third parties where required by law, or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so, or when we have your explicit consent. Which third-party service providers process my personal information? "Third parties" includes third-party service providers (including contractors and designated agents) and other entities within our group How secure is my information with third-party service providers and other entities in our group? All our third-party service providers and other entities in the group are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes. We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions. When might you share my personal information with other entities in the group? We may share your personal information with other entities in the IHCL Group as part of our regular reporting activities on company performance, in the context of system maintenance, support and hosting of data. What about other third parties? We may share your personal information with other third parties, for example in the context of the possible sale or restructuring of the business. We may also need to share your personal information with a regulator or to otherwise comply with the law. Transferring information outside the EU We will transfer the personal information we collect about you to our global headquarters in India in order to perform our contract with you, or with your explicit consent. There is no an adequacy decision by the European Commission in respect of that country. This means that the country to which we transfer your data is not deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for your personal information. To ensure that your personal information does receive an adequate level of protection we have put in place the strong inter country security measures to ensure that your personal information is treated by those third parties in a way that is consistent with and which respects the EU and UK laws on data protection: Pursuant to GDPR article 3(2) and article 27 Data security We have put in place measures to protect the security of your information. Third parties will only process your personal information on our instructions and where they have agreed to treat the information confidentially, legally and securely. We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal information on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so. Data retention How long will you use my information for? We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements. In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further statment to you. Rights of access, correction, erasure, and restriction Your duty to inform us of changes It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes during your relationship with us. Your rights in connection with personal information Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to: Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it. Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected. Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below). Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes. Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it. If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact dpo@tajhotels.com in writing. No fee is usually required You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances. What we may need from you We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. Right to withdraw consent In the limited circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal information for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. To withdraw your consent, please contact dpo@tajhotels.com. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law. Data protection officer We have appointed a data protection manager and a GDPR representative in the EU to oversee compliance with this privacy notice. If you have any questions about this privacy notice or how we handle your personal information, please contact us on dpo@tajhotels.com You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues. Changes to this privacy statement We reserve the right to update this privacy statement at any time, and we will provide you with a new privacy statement when we make any substantial updates. We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal information.