Privacy Policy

Srilankan Guide ("we", "us", "our") is an AI-powered travel planning service based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. This policy explains what personal information we collect when you use our website and trip planner, why we collect it, and the choices you have. If you have any questions, email us at hi.srilankanguide@gmail.com.

Account information

When you create an account we collect your name and email address. If you register with an email and password, we store your password only as a secure one-way hash. We never store it in plain text. If you sign in with Google or Facebook, we receive your name, email address and profile picture from that provider. We do not receive your Google or Facebook password.

Trip planning details

To build your itinerary, the planner asks about your trip. This can include:

• Destinations you've chosen, trip length, travel dates and arrival month
• Budget, travel style, pace, preferred transport and activity level
• Interests, places or things to avoid, and accommodation style
• Who you're travelling with (for example, family or a partner)
• Dietary preferences, if you choose to share them
• Any fixed bookings or plans you enter, and your current location if you're already in Sri Lanka
• Anything you write in the free-text "dream holiday" description

All of these questions are optional except the basics we need to plan a trip. Please don't include passport numbers, health details or other sensitive information in free-text fields.

Payment information

Full itineraries are paid for through PayPal. Your card or bank details go directly to PayPal and are never seen or stored by us. We keep a record of the PayPal order and transaction IDs, the amount, the currency and the payment status so we can unlock your itinerary and handle any support requests.

Usage information

We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors use the site. It collects information such as the pages you visit, how long you stay, your browser and device type, your approximate location (country or city) and the referring website. We also record a few actions, such as when someone taps our WhatsApp support link, so we can tell which parts of the site are helpful.

When you contact us

If you email us or message us on WhatsApp, we receive your contact details and whatever you choose to send us. We use this only to reply to you and help with your trip.

• To create and manage your account and keep you signed in
• To generate personalised itineraries and save them to My Trips
• To process payments and unlock the itineraries you've paid for
• To answer your questions and provide support
• To understand how the site is used so we can fix problems and improve it
• To keep the service secure and prevent fraud or abuse
• To meet our legal, tax and accounting obligations

Your itineraries are written by Google's Gemini AI. When you generate a trip, we send your trip planning details to Google's Gemini API to produce the itinerary. We do not send your name, email address or payment details to it. Google processes this data under its Gemini API terms. AI-generated itineraries can contain mistakes, so please check opening times, prices and bookings before you travel.

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only with the service providers that help us run Srilankan Guide, and only as much as they need:

• Google: sign-in with Google, Google Analytics, Google AdSense advertising, and the Gemini AI that writes your itineraries
• Meta (Facebook): sign-in with Facebook
• PayPal: payment processing
• Hosting and database providers: to run the website and store your account and saved trips

We may also disclose information if the law requires it, or to protect the rights, safety or property of our users, the public or Srilankan Guide.

We use a small number of cookies and browser storage items:

• Sign-in cookies keep you logged in and protect your session. The site can't keep you signed in without them.
• Google Analytics cookies tell us how many people visit and which pages they use.
• Advertising cookies are set by Google and its partners to show and measure ads. See Advertising below.
• Your cookie choice is stored on your device so we don't ask again on every visit.
• Local storage on your device remembers the destinations you've added to your trip list and saves a draft of your planner answers so you don't lose them. This data stays in your browser and is not sent to us until you generate a trip.

You can clear cookies and site data in your browser settings at any time. Blocking the sign-in cookies will stop you from logging in.

Srilankan Guide is free to browse, and we pay for it partly with advertising. We use Google AdSense to display ads on the site. Here is what that means for you:

• Google, as a third-party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on Srilankan Guide.
• Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to this site and other sites on the internet.
• Third-party vendors and ad networks may also use cookies or web beacons to measure ad performance. We do not control those cookies, and we never pass your name, email address or trip answers to advertisers.

Your choices

You can control personalised advertising in several ways:

• Use the cookie banner on this site. Choosing Reject tells Google not to use advertising or analytics storage for you. You can change your mind at any time by clearing this site's data in your browser, which brings the banner back.
• Turn off personalised ads across Google at My Ad Center.
• Opt out of third-party vendor cookies at aboutads.info/choices or youronlinechoices.eu.

If you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, advertising and analytics cookies stay off until you accept them. Google's own explanation of how it uses data from sites that use its services is at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

• Account information is kept while your account is active.
• Saved itineraries are kept until you delete them or close your account.
• Payment records are kept for as long as tax and accounting laws require.
• Analytics data is kept according to our Google Analytics retention settings.

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct or delete your personal information, object to or limit how we use it, or receive a copy of it. This includes rights under Sri Lanka's Personal Data Protection Act and, for visitors from the EU or UK, the GDPR. In practice, you can:

• Delete any saved itinerary yourself from My Trips
• Ask us to delete your account and all associated data by emailing hi.srilankanguide@gmail.com
• Ask for a copy of your data, or for us to correct it, by email
• Opt out of Google Analytics with the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on

We'll respond to requests within 30 days. We may need to confirm your identity first.

We use encrypted HTTPS connections, store passwords only as secure hashes, limit access to personal data to people who need it, and scope every saved trip to its owner so only you can see or delete it. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information and will tell you if a breach affects you when the law requires us to.

Our service providers, including Google and PayPal, may process your information in countries outside Sri Lanka, such as the United States. When this happens, we rely on those providers' own safeguards for international data transfers.

Srilankan Guide is not intended for children under 16, and we don't knowingly collect their personal information. If you believe a child has given us their information, contact us and we'll delete it.

Our site links to other services such as WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Wikimedia Commons. Those services have their own privacy policies, and we aren't responsible for how they handle your information.

We may update this policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page shows when it last changed. If we make significant changes, we'll let registered users know by email or with a notice on the site.

For any privacy question or request, email us at hi.srilankanguide@gmail.com or message us on WhatsApp (+94 72 428 6838). Srilankan Guide, Colombo, Sri Lanka.