Sources of Information

We collect this information directly from you when you provide this information to us through the form on the Website, or otherwise provide to us in order to transact business with us, contact customer care, or communicate with us, and when you visit the Website.

Sharing of Information

Information may be shared with third party service providers for a business purpose, such as web hosting, cloud hosting, content distribution services,  information requests, internet connectivity, to carry out contractual obligations between you and us, to comply with legal processes and claims, for a sale or merger, and to  receive analysis of the Website audience and web traffic measurements, social media and online marketing platforms to display interest based ads.

The Great Courses Journeys Privacy Policy

Effective Date: August 15, 2024

Welcome to The Great Courses Journeys and www.thegreatcoursesjourneys.com.  Website (“Website”).   The Teaching Company Sales, LLC d/b/a The Great Courses (“The Great Courses” or the “Company”) and Academic Travels Abroad (“ATA”), and their subsidiaries and affiliates, or other members of our family of companies value your participation and loyalty. We are committed to protecting customer and community privacy. The Great Courses and ATA (collectively “We”, “Us”, “Our”) have created this Privacy Policy in order to demonstrate Our commitment to the privacy and protection of your personal information. To better protect your privacy, We provide this notice explaining our information practices.

We may amend this Privacy Notice at any time.  If we make a material change to the way in which we collect, use, and/or disclose your Personal Information, we will post a notice on the Website and/or send an email to users who have provided an email address.

Information about Us

This Website is operated by The Teaching Company Sales, LLC, 4840 Westfields Blvd., Suite 400, Chantilly, VA 20151-2299 (under the name of “The Great Courses”). You may contact Us at ContactUs@thegreatcourses.com or by calling 1-800-832-2412.

1.     What Information Is Collected
The following are the types of information we may collect:

Personal Information

The Great Courses may collect personal information, which includes first and last name, email address, and mobile number if you provide this information to The Great Courses Journeys.  If you desire to book a tour with ATA, you will be directed to a different website, which is separate from www.thegreatcoursesjourneys.com, and which is managed by ATA.  That website may have additional information on its information collection practices.  Please consult that website for its information practices and its privacy policy.

Non-Personal Information 

At other times, The Great Courses may collect information that cannot be used to directly identify you, such as browser type, Dynamic Internet Protocol (IP) address, “click stream” data, and similar non-personally identifiable information.  For example, We may aggregate non-personal information about you and other visitors to our Website. Aggregated information will not contain any information that can be linked directly back to you. 

While we take all reasonable steps to protect the privacy of Our Website visitors, We cannot promise that the current limitations of Our online applications programming will address every browser setting or honor every personal browser preference. In particular, We have not implemented the necessary program changes to honor “Do Not Track” or “DNT” browser signals. As Our online applications programming is refined, We will take all reasonable steps to honor such requests in the future. Please return to this Privacy Policy for further updates on this topic. 

Further, Our online service providers or business partners may implement technologies that allow for the collection of personally identifiable information over time and across websites. We recommend that you review each privacy policy posted on the websites that you visit to better understand privacy practices on those websites, and how it may affect your privacy and information when you visit Our Website. 

Electronic Communications 

When you open emails from Us, we may log and store such information. We may also keep records of various communications regarding the types of products and services that you indicate are of interest to you via your response to email. You will always have the option to opt-out of such communications by clicking an “unsubscribe” link.

2. How Do We Collect Information

We may collect information from you in several different areas on the Website, including, without limitation, those described below: 

Registration 

When you visit the Website and request information about The Great Courses Journeys and upcoming tours from ATA, You will be asked to complete a registration form and provide personally identifiable information to include your first name, last name, your email address, and may include your mobile number.  If you decline to provide this information, you may not receive any information about The Great Courses Journeys and upcoming tours from ATA.  

Cookies and Tracking Technology 

We may use any number of tools to collect information about you, your computer access points, and the web browser that you use to connect to our Website. For example, “cookies” are tiny text files that We may place on your computer’s hard drive when you visit Our Website. We may use cookies to personalize your Website experience. You may delete cookies if they have been placed on your hard drive, and if you do delete them some areas of our Website that you access may take more time to work, or may not function properly. For more information about cookies, visit: http://www.allaboutcookies.org. 

The Great Courses may also collect additional information from your web browser each time you visit Our Website. We may collect information on the pages that you visit, the promotions or advertisements that you click on, and other actions that you take while using our Website. This information may include your IP address, the type of browser, the time that your browser was used to access Our Website, and the referring Website address. 

Our Internet Service Providers (defined below) and supporting service platform providers may also use other standard web-based technologies to analyze your movements while accessing Our Website. The technologies may include analytic solutions, web “beacons,” “pixel tags,” and “clear gifs.” These technologies help Us ascertain the effectiveness of Our product and service campaigns and marketing programs, allow Us to customize the services offered on or through Our Website, and help determine the best use for Website content, and product and service offerings. Some of this information, including the IP address, may be stored on our Internet service provider’s server logs, and may be available for extended periods of time. 

Transaction Information 

If you conduct a financial or other transaction with Us or on the Website, we will ask you to complete a form that may request certain information from you, including contact information, demographic information, credit card and/or other financial information. Even though the collection form may have the look and feel of the Website, please be aware you will be giving your information to Our and your authorized payment processors as applicable, (such as credit card service processors or Amazon Payments) and to third party Internet Service Providers, and that in some instances the privacy policies of those third party Internet Service Providers will govern the collection of your personal information. Please reference the privacy policies available from these pages for any privacy related concerns. 

We and/or our Internet Service Providers will use this information to complete the financial or other transaction that you have requested, i.e., to deliver the information, products or other services that you request or purchase, to invoice you in a manner consistent with this Privacy Policy. For your protection, financial information is collected and stored through encrypted means.

3. How Is your Information Used
The Great Courses and its partners may use your personal information and/or non-personally identifiable information for the following purposes:

    •    Provide you with The Great Courses Journeys information, tours, products and services

    •    Send you information about features on Our Website and applications or changes to Our policies

    •    Send you offers and promotions for The Great Courses Journeys tours products and services or third-party products and services 

    •    Personalize content and experiences on Our Websites and applications

    •    Provide you with advertising based on your activity on Our Websites and applications and on third-party sites and applications.

    •    Optimize or improve our products, services and operations

    •    Detect, investigate and prevent activities that may violate our policies or be illegal

We use the services of independent companies to provide certain services to you, including, without limitation, Website hosting services, Internet connectivity services (“Internet Service Providers”), and certain electronic communications, in connection with The Great Courses Journeys.  We may share your non-personal and personal information with these third parties as necessary to provide these services and information to you. 

We may also use your personal information to notify you of special offers. You may receive emails notifying you when additional tours are added to The Great Courses Journeys. 

We may also use your IP address to help protect Us and our Internet Service Providers from fraud. Additional uses of your non-personal and personal information will allow Us to tailor products and services specific to your needs, to help organize and manage your customer relationship and Our businesses, to conduct business, to provide you with customer support, to perform functions that are described to you at the time of collection. 

We may also use non-personal aggregate information to improve our Website. For example, Our Internet Service Providers may report to Us that there were a particular number of visitors to a certain area of Our Website, or that a certain number of men or a certain number of women completed information or registration requests.  Such information may also be used to analyze the effectiveness of our business and advertising models. 

4. Shared Information

We may share your personal information with the Internet Service Providers and other service providers, as appropriate.  We may also disclose your personal information as is necessary to: (a) comply with a subpoena or court order; (b) cooperate with law enforcement or other government agency; (c) establish or exercise our legal rights; (d) protect the property or safety of Our company and employees, contractors, vendors, and suppliers; (e) defend against legal claims; (f) help with internal and external investigations; or (g) as otherwise required by law or permitted by law. We may disclose your information in connection with the sale or merger of The Great Courses or any transaction that involves the sale or assignment of some or all of our assets. 

We use third-party analytics, and audience and traffic measurement services to support the Website, to measure and analyze the traffic on the Website.  Audience and traffic measurement services allow Us to collect anonymous traffic and behavior information from the Website by monitoring anonymous visitor activity.  Although other companies do not have access to the Website cookies, the Website's audience and traffic measurement services may themselves set and access their own cookies on your computer if you choose to have your cookies enabled in your browser. Cookies allow third-party advertisers to show you advertisements or content you might be interested in. Note that any images (or any other parts of a web page) served by third parties in association with third-party cookies may serve as web beacons, which enable third parties to carry out the previously described activities. Other companies' uses of their cookies are subject to their own privacy policies, not this one. Please visit http://www.networkadvertising.org/optout_nonppii.asp in order to learn more about the information collection practices and 'opt-out' procedures of third-party ad servers we may use.

5. Links To Third-party Websites

Links from this Website may allow you to directly access Websites operated by third parties, including, without limitation, Academic Travel Abroad, other service providers or marketing partners, as applicable. And, you may be able to access this Website through third parties with whom we have marketing relationships.  Some of these third-party marketing channels may be “co-branded” with our logo; however, note that these third-party channels are not operated, controlled or maintained by The Great Courses Journeys. These channels or links are provided for your convenience only and should be used with your discretion and prudent judgment. Links from our Website to third-party Websites do not constitute sponsorship, endorsement, or approval of the content, policies or practices of such third-party Websites. The collection and use of your information by such co-branding third parties is the responsibility of the co-branding partner, and they may use your personal information for their direct marketing purposes.  We are not responsible for any information these Websites or digital channels may obtain andwe do not oversee their policies or practices. This Privacy Policy does not apply to information provided to or gathered by the third parties that operate them. The privacy policies of these third-party Websites may differ from ours. These Websites may ask you for Personal Information. Please review the privacy policy on third-party channels before submitting information, because we do not have control over the use of information collected on these Websites. Please review the privacy policies and practices of these digital channels before providing any Personal Information. 

6. Information Security

We make reasonable efforts to ensure that our Internet Service Providers have implemented physical, electronic, and procedural security measures to assist with safeguarding your personal information, and to help protect against unauthorized access and disclosure. Only our authorized personnel and our Internet Service Providers who perform legitimate business functions for Us are authorized to access your personal information. 

Notwithstanding our efforts, the Internet and online services have inherent security risks. The Great Courses cannot promise, and you should not expect, that your personal information, personal searches, and other communications will always remain secure. You should take care with regard to how you handle and disclose your personal information or any username or password that you are required to use to access services on this Website or online service. 

7. Data Retention Periods

We will retain your personally identifiable information for as long as your travel account is active or as needed to provide you services. If you wish to cancel your account or request that we no longer use your information to provide you services contact us at ContactUs@thegreatcourses.com, or Info@thegreatcourses.com . We will retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. 

8. General Audience Website Not Directed Toward Children

This Website is a general audience Website. Our content is neither directed toward minors nor children who are under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13. If The Great Courses Journeys or our Internet Service Providers become aware that a minor or a child under the age of 13 has provided us with personal information without the parental consent, that information will be deleted from our databases. Parents who have questions about personal information that may have been submitted by a child under the age of 13 should email us at: ContactUs@thegreatcourses.com, or Info@thegreatcourses.com.

9. Consent to Privacy Policy

By using this Website or the The Great Courses Service, you signify your agreement to the terms of this Privacy Policy. We may amend this Privacy Policy at any time. If we make a material change to the way in which we collect, use, and/or share your personal information, we will post a notice on the Website and/or send an email to users who have provided an email address. Please note that you should always update your personal information to provide us with a current email address. 

10. Access to Personal Information and Consent to Transfer

The first time that you provide us with registration information through Our Website, you may be offered the opportunity to receive additional information about our products and services. After your first use, you can make changes to your personal information and your initial choices by contacting customer service e-mail at ContactUs@thegreatcourses.com, or Info@thegreatcourses.com. 

The United States may not have data privacy laws that are deemed to afford an equal level of protection for your Personal Information as those laws legislated at the direction of the European Union or similar geopolitical, national or regional legislative bodies. However, please be assured that We will continue to adhere to the principles stated in this Privacy Policy and will make reasonable efforts to comply with applicable international, national, regional, territorial, and provincial laws in connection with any information collected through the Website. We will endeavor to preserve the integrity, confidentiality, and security of personal information and afford such personal information reasonable level of protection. 

For those Website users located outside the United States, we advise you that your information may at times be accessible by individuals who are located worldwide including in countries that the European Commission or other geopolitical regions have not been determined to provide the same level of data protection as in your country, province, territory or geopolitical region. By providing us with your Personal Information, you consent to our use of it in accordance with this Privacy Policy, including the transfer of your information across international boundaries to jurisdictions anywhere in the world as permitted by local law. 

11. Questions About This Privacy Policy

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or the privacy practices of this Website, please contact us by email at ContactUs@thegreatcourses.com, or Info@thegreatcourses.com.

PRIVACY POLICY ADDENDUM FOR CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), California residents are afforded certain rights regarding the personal information The Great Courses (“we”, “our”, “us”) collect about them.  California residents may request any of the following: 

• The categories of information that we collected.
• The categories of sources from which the information is collected.
• The purpose for collecting information.
• The categories of third parties to whom we disclosed information, the categories of such information that was disclosed (if applicable), and the purpose for disclosing information.
• The specific pieces of information we collected.

You may also request the deletion of information we have collected, as well as the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information. 

Consistent with the California Consumer Protection Act, we will consider and timely process data access and deletion requests. We will not unlawfully discriminate against you for making any such requests.  To initiate access or deletion requests, you can contact us at Calprivacy@thegreatcourses.com.

USES OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We allow companies to use cookies and other tracking technologies on Our Website that allow those companies to collect information about your website activity and use that information to target advertisements to you online.

HOW WE COLLECT AND SHARE CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS’ INFORMATION

Over the last 12 months, personal information we have collected and shared includes the following:

Great Music Masters: Verdi and Italian Opera

with Robert Greenberg

ITALY

ENGLAND & FRANCE

D-Day: Courage, Conflict, and History in England and France  with Ed Lengel

Great Music Masters of Vienna: The Romantics

with Robert Greenberg

Enchanted England

with Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman

Hallowed Ground: Revisiting WWI France

with David Stone

The Spirit of Cuba: From Colonial Trinidad to Havana's Future

with Joyce Salisbury

Great British Mysteries

ENGLAND

ENGLAND

FRANCE

CUBA

AUSTRIA

Travel with Insight, Explore with Passion

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