Privacy

Who we are

Satsang Adventures is a travel company founded and owned by Kristin Bird. When this page says "we", it means Kristin and the few people who help her run the business.

Questions about your information go to Kristin at kristin@satsangadventures.com. A real person reads every message.

What we ask for, and why

When you write to us through the contact form or join a waitlist: your name, email, phone number if you give it, and your message. We use it to answer you.

When you join the newsletter: your email address. We use it to send the newsletter, and nothing else.

When you book: your name and email (and your travel partner's, if you book for two), the journey, your room choice, and what you have paid and still owe. We use it to hold your place, send your invoices and reminders, and keep our accounts.

After you book, on your traveller page: your full name as on your passport, phone number, diet, anything about your health you choose to tell us, an emergency contact, your flights and your travel insurance details. We use it only to plan and run your journey and to look after you while you are with us.

All of your information is stored on a password protected computer through a password protected database only accessible by Kristin Bird.

Your card details

Payments are handled through Stripe. Your card number goes straight to Stripe and never reaches us. We see only what Stripe tells us: that a payment was made, how much, and when. For more information on Stripe's privacy policy, visit https://stripe.com/privacy.

Signing in

Your traveller page opens with a passkey (your phone's Face ID, fingerprint or passcode) or a password you choose. With a passkey, the secret part never leaves your device; we keep only the public half, which cannot be used to sign in anywhere else. Passwords are stored scrambled, never as you typed them.

We use a small cookie to keep you signed in, and remember whether you chose light or dark mode on your own device. We do not use advertising cookies.

Counting visits

To know which pages people read, the site counts visits: the page, the site that sent you (for example a search engine), and the time. It uses a random number that changes every day, so it cannot follow you from one day to the next or across other websites. It does not record your name, email or address.

Who else sees it

We never sell your information or share it for advertising.

A few services help us run the business, and they handle your information only to do that job: Stripe (payments), Vercel (hosts this website), Resend (sends our emails), and 1361, the studio that builds and runs our website and booking system on its own server in the United States.

For your journey itself, we share what they need with the people who look after you on the ground: for example your name, diet and relevant health notes with the venue and local hosts, and your flights with whoever meets you. We share with emergency services or the law only when we must.

How long we keep it

Booking and payment records are kept as long as the law requires for our accounts and taxes. Traveller details (passport name, health, emergency contact, flights, insurance) are kept until your journey is over and settled, and then removed on request. Messages and newsletter sign-ups are kept until you ask us to delete them or unsubscribe.

Your choices

Every email we send has a link to choose which emails you get. You can stop the newsletter or trip reminders at any time.

You can see and change most of what you have told us on your traveller page. To get a copy of everything we hold about you, correct it, or have it deleted, write to kristin@satsangadventures.com. We will do it within 30 days, except for records the law says we must keep.

Keeping it safe

Your information is sent over encrypted connections, kept on servers we control or on the services named above, and backed up every night in encrypted form. Only Kristin and the people who help her run the business can see it.

Children

Our journeys are for adults. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18.

Changes

If we change this page in a way that matters, we will say so here and change the date at the top. If it affects how we use information you have already given us, we will email you first.