Privacy Policy

Last updated: 08/05/2026

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Who We Are

Backpacking Diplomacy (“Backpacking Diplomacy,” “we,” “us,” “our”) is a travel publication operating at www.backpackingdiplomacy.com. Backpacking Diplomacy is a brand owned and operated by International Product Growth, LLC, a Texas limited liability company, which is the legal entity behind this site and the data controller for personal information collected through it.

Throughout this Policy, references to “we,” “us,” and “our” mean Backpacking Diplomacy and, where a legal entity is required, International Product Growth, LLC. Together, the site, its content, newsletters, and related services are referred to as the “Service.”

We are reader-supported and earn revenue through advertising and affiliate partnerships. This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, who we share it with, and what rights you have over it.

Scope

This Policy covers the Service only. Our site contains links to third-party websites, including affiliate partners such as booking platforms and tour operators. Once you follow a link off our site, that company’s own privacy policy governs your data — not this one. We encourage you to read the policies of any site you book or purchase through.

Relationship to Our Terms

Any dispute regarding the privacy of your information is subject to this Privacy Policy and our Terms and Conditions, including provisions on limitation of liability, dispute resolution, and the application of Texas law.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Policy from time to time. Changes take effect when posted on this page, and we will update the revision date at the top. Material changes will be flagged with a visible notice on the site. Continuing to use the Service after changes take effect means you accept the revised Policy.

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Information You Give Us Directly

You can read almost everything on this site without giving us any personal information. We collect what you choose to provide when you:

• Leave a comment. We collect the name, email address, and any website URL you enter, plus your IP address and browser user agent string for spam detection. Comments and associated metadata may be retained indefinitely so that follow-up replies display correctly.
• Subscribe to our newsletter. We collect your email address and, optionally, your first name and country.
• Contact us. We collect your name, email address, and whatever you include in your message.
• Reach out about partnerships, press, or media. We collect your name, business email, company name, and the content of your correspondence.

Information Collected Automatically

When you visit the Service, we and our third-party providers automatically collect certain technical information:

• Log data. IP address, browser type and version, operating system, device identifiers, referring URL, pages viewed, time spent, and date and time stamps.
• Cookies. Small text files placed on your device that identify your browser and record how you interact with the site.
• Pixels and web beacons. Small transparent images embedded in pages or emails that register whether content was loaded or opened.
• Approximate location. Derived from your IP address at the country or region level. We do not collect precise GPS location.

Cookies and Third-Party Technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes. Some of these are set by third parties and do involve tracking across websites — we want to be direct about that rather than imply otherwise.

• Strictly necessary. Required for the site to function — security, load balancing, remembering your cookie preferences, and retaining comment details if you ask us to.
• Analytics. We use [Google Analytics 4 / other] to understand which content people read, how they arrive, and where they leave. This tells us about traffic patterns in aggregate.
• Affiliate tracking. When you click an affiliate link, the partner network sets a cookie recording that you arrived from Backpacking Diplomacy, so that any resulting booking or purchase is attributed to us. These are cross-site tracking cookies set by the partner, not by us. Networks we work with include [AWIN, CJ, Impact, Travelpayouts, ShareASale, Amazon Associates]. We receive commission and aggregate conversion reports from these partners; we do not receive your payment details.
• Advertising. We display ads through Google AdSense in selected placements. Google and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this and other websites, and to measure ad performance. Google’s use of advertising cookies is governed by Google’s Privacy & Terms.
• Embedded content. Articles may embed content from third parties such as YouTube, Google Maps, or social platforms. These behave as if you had visited that site directly and may set their own cookies and track your interaction.
• Spam prevention. Comment submissions are screened by [Akismet], which processes the comment content, your name, email, IP address, and user agent.

Managing Cookies

Most browsers let you view existing cookies, delete them individually or entirely, block third-party cookies, or set a prompt before any cookie is stored. You can also use browser privacy modes or extensions. Blocking cookies will not prevent you from reading the site, but some features may not work as intended, and blocking affiliate cookies means any booking you make will not be attributed to us.

You can also opt out of specific third-party technologies directly. Google offers a browser add-on that disables Google Analytics measurement across all sites, and you can manage personalized advertising through Google My Ad Center. Industry opt-out tools at optout.aboutads.info and youronlinechoices.eu allow you to opt out of participating advertising networks. These tools are operated by third parties, not by us.

Advertising

We display advertising through Google AdSense in selected placements on the site. Ad revenue, alongside affiliate commissions, is what keeps our content free to read.

• Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website or other websites.
• Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to our site and other sites on the internet.
• You may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings, or opt out of third-party vendor use of cookies for personalized advertising at aboutads.info.
• We do not control which specific ads are shown, and the appearance of an advertisement on our site is not an endorsement.

Consent for Visitors in the EEA, UK, and Switzerland

If you are visiting from the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, we present a consent message before personalized advertising and non-essential cookies are loaded. You can accept, reject, or set granular preferences, and you can change your choice at any time through the privacy settings link in our footer. Your choice is recorded and passed to our advertising partners.

Affiliate Links

This site contains affiliate links. If you click one and complete a booking or purchase, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. Clicking an affiliate link transfers you to the partner’s site, where their privacy practices apply. We do not see or store your booking details, travel dates, passenger information, or payment information. Full details are in our Affiliate Disclosure.

How We Use Your Information

We use the information described above to:

• Publish, operate, and maintain the site and display your comments.
• Send our newsletter and respond to messages you send us.
• Understand which content is useful, so we can decide what to write next.
• Measure affiliate performance and reconcile commissions.
• Serve and measure advertising, including personalized advertising where you have consented or where consent is not required.
• Detect and prevent spam, abuse, fraud, and unauthorized access.
• Diagnose technical problems and improve site performance.
• Comply with legal obligations and enforce our Terms.

Legal Bases for Processing (EEA, UK, and Switzerland)

If you are located in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, we process your personal information on the following legal bases:

• Consent — for the newsletter, and for non-essential cookies including analytics, advertising, and affiliate tracking. You may withdraw consent at any time.
• Legitimate interests — for site security, spam prevention, responding to your inquiries, and understanding aggregate readership, where those interests are not overridden by your rights.
• Legal obligation — where we must retain or disclose information to comply with applicable law.

Sharing and Disclosure

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only in the following circumstances:

• Service providers. Hosting, content delivery, email marketing, analytics, and spam filtering vendors who process data on our behalf under contract.
• Affiliate and advertising partners. Google AdSense and our affiliate networks receive data through cookies and tracking parameters as described above, subject to your consent where required.
• Legal compliance. Where required by applicable law, regulation, legal process, or governmental request.
• Protection of rights. Where necessary to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims, or to protect the safety of any person.
• Business transfers. In connection with a merger, financing, acquisition, or sale of all or part of our assets. We will notify you of any such change in ownership of your information.
• Professional advisers. Lawyers, accountants, and insurers, where we have a legal obligation or legitimate interest in doing so.

International Transfers

We are based in the United States, and our servers and primary service providers are located in the United States. If you access the Service from outside the U.S., your information will be transferred to, stored in, and processed in the United States, where data protection laws may differ from those in your country.

Some of our third-party partners — including certain affiliate networks, booking platforms, and content delivery providers — operate internationally and may process data outside the United States. Where we transfer personal information from the EEA, UK, or Switzerland, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses.

Security

We use appropriate technical, organizational, and administrative measures designed to protect your personal information, including encrypted connections (HTTPS), access controls, and vetted service providers. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Data Retention

We keep personal information only as long as needed for the purposes described in this Policy, or as required by law. In practice:

• Comments and their metadata are retained indefinitely unless you request deletion, so that follow-up replies display in context.
• Newsletter subscriptions are retained until you unsubscribe, plus a short suppression record so we don’t email you again by mistake.
• Contact and partnership correspondence is retained for up to 24 months after our last exchange.
• Analytics data is retained according to our provider’s configured retention period, currently 14 months.

When we no longer need information, we delete or anonymize it. Where deletion is not immediately possible — for example, because data sits in backup archives — we isolate it from further processing until deletion can occur.

Your Privacy Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have some or all of the following rights: to access the personal information we hold about you; to correct inaccurate information; to request deletion; to receive a portable copy; to object to or restrict certain processing; and to withdraw consent you previously gave.

To exercise any of these rights, reach us through our contact page or write to privacy [at] backpackingdiplomacy.com. Include your name, the type of request, and a valid email address where we can respond.

Marketing Opt-Out

You can unsubscribe from our newsletter at any time using the link at the bottom of any email. Unsubscribing stops marketing messages but does not stop essential communications, such as a reply to a message you sent us.

Automated Decision-Making

We do not make decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects about you based solely on automated processing, including profiling.

EEA, UK, and Swiss Residents

In addition to the rights above, you have the right to lodge a complaint with your national data protection supervisory authority. In the UK, that is the Information Commissioner’s Office. We would appreciate the chance to address your concerns directly first.

California Residents

Under the CCPA and CPRA, California residents have the right to know what personal information we collect and how it is used, to request deletion or correction, to receive a portable copy, to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information, and not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights.

We do not sell personal information for money. The use of third-party advertising, analytics, and affiliate cookies may constitute “sharing” for cross-context behavioral advertising under California law. You can limit this through Google Ads Settings, your browser settings, and the third-party opt-out tools described in the Managing Cookies section above.

Based on our size and how we operate, we do not currently meet the thresholds that would make us a covered business under the CCPA or CPRA. We extend the rights described above to California residents regardless, and we will update this Policy if our obligations change.

Verifying Your Request

We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request, which may require you to provide additional information we already hold about you. If we cannot verify your identity, we may not be able to fulfill the request.

Response Times

We confirm receipt of requests within ten (10) business days. We aim to respond substantively within forty-five (45) days under the CCPA and CPRA, and within thirty (30) days under the GDPR. If we need more time, we will tell you in writing along with the reason. We do not charge a fee unless a request is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded.

Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control

There is no consistent industry standard for responding to browser “Do Not Track” signals, and we do not currently respond to them. We also do not currently process Global Privacy Control (GPC) signals. If we become subject to laws requiring us to honor universal opt-out signals, we will implement that capability and update this Policy.

You can limit tracking at any time using your browser’s cookie controls and the third-party opt-out tools listed in the Managing Cookies section.

Children

The Service is not directed to children under 18, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information, contact us through our contact page or at privacy [at] backpackingdiplomacy.com, and we will delete it.

Language

This Policy may be made available in languages other than English. The English version is the original and authoritative text. In the event of any discrepancy, inconsistency, or difference in interpretation between the English version and any translated version, the English version prevails. Translations are provided to make our content accessible to more readers. Nothing in this section limits any right you may have under the laws of your country to rely on a version in your own language.

How to Contact Us

If you have questions about this Policy, how we handle personal information, or you wish to exercise your privacy rights, write to privacy [at] backpackingdiplomacy.com or reach us through our contact page.

Backpacking Diplomacy
c/o International Product Growth, LLC
CONTACT
Texas, United States