How We Handle Your Data
Last updated: September 2026
Privacy & Trust
Congo Local Guides Sarl (“Congo Local Guides”, “CLG”, “we”, “us” or “our”) takes the protection of personal data seriously.
This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, disclose, transfer and delete personal data when individuals visit our website, submit an enquiry, book a trip or expedition, engage us for a professional project, use the Congo Local Guides Client Portal, request visa or entry assistance, or otherwise use our services.
We apply the principles of data minimisation, purpose limitation, confidentiality and limited retention. Where the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) applies to our processing activities, we process personal data in accordance with its requirements.
1. Data Controller
The controller responsible for the processing of personal data is:
Congo Local Guides Sarl (CLG Sarl)
Limited Liability Company
03 Av. Okitundu
Lingwala
Kinshasa
Democratic Republic of Congo
Website: https://congolocalguides.com
Privacy contact: info@congolocalguides.com
Questions, requests or concerns relating to personal data may be sent to this email address.
The above email address is currently CLG’s designated privacy contact. It should not be interpreted as identifying a formally appointed Data Protection Officer unless such an appointment is made separately.
2. Application of European Data Protection Law
Congo Local Guides is established in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Where CLG offers services to individuals located in the European Union or European Economic Area and the relevant processing falls within the territorial scope of the GDPR, the applicable provisions of the GDPR are respected.
Where required under Article 27 GDPR, Congo Local Guides will appoint a representative in the European Union and make the representative’s contact details available to affected individuals.
3. Our Systems and Data Separation
Congo Local Guides operates separate systems for its public website and its private customer operations.
The public WordPress website is primarily used for public content, marketing information, enquiries and pre-booking lead management.
Following the conversion of an enquiry into an active trip, booking or professional project, operational customer data is managed primarily through the dedicated Congo Local Guides Client Portal.
Sensitive customer documents such as passport copies, visa documents and similar confidential documents are not intended to be stored in the public WordPress Media Library.
They are handled through the private Client Portal and its protected document-storage infrastructure.
4. Personal Data We May Collect
Depending on the service requested, we may process personal data including your name, email address, telephone number, country of residence, nationality, organisation and other contact information.
For travel bookings, expeditions or professional assignments, we may additionally process information relating to the requested trip or project, destinations, schedules, participants, accommodation or transportation requirements, correspondence, project requirements and operational arrangements.
Where required for visas, permits or entry formalities, we may process passport information, passport copies, photographs, nationality, date and place of birth, travel dates, visa information and other information requested by the competent authorities.
Through the Client Portal we may process customer account information, trip or project information, documents, messages, operational tasks, payment-related information, status information and other information necessary to provide the agreed service.
We may additionally process technical information necessary for security and operation of our systems, including IP addresses, timestamps, authentication information, security events and system logs.
We only request information that is reasonably necessary for the relevant purpose.
5. Why We Process Personal Data
We process personal data in order to respond to enquiries, prepare proposals and quotations, arrange travel and expeditions, perform professional assignments, administer customer accounts, provide the Client Portal, organise logistics, communicate with customers, arrange visa and entry requirements, administer payments and perform our contractual obligations.
Where the GDPR applies, processing necessary to enter into or perform a contract is generally based on Article 6(1)(b) GDPR.
Where processing is required by law, including applicable tax, accounting or regulatory requirements, it may be based on Article 6(1)(c) GDPR.
Where appropriate, limited processing may be based on legitimate interests under Article 6(1)(f) GDPR, including information security, fraud prevention, maintaining reliable business operations and establishing, exercising or defending legal claims.
Where consent is required, processing is based on Article 6(1)(a) GDPR and, where applicable, Article 9(2)(a) GDPR.
Consent may be withdrawn at any time with effect for the future.
6. Storage of Private Customer Documents
Private customer documents handled through the Congo Local Guides Client Portal are stored on protected infrastructure in Germany.
This includes documents such as passport copies, visa documentation and comparable confidential customer files.
The production architecture is deliberately designed so that such documents are kept separate from the public WordPress website.
Private documents are protected using authenticated access controls, encrypted HTTPS connections, server-side storage encryption and malware scanning.
Access is restricted to authorised CLG personnel who require the information for the relevant trip, project or administrative task.
Private customer documents are not made publicly accessible.
CLG’s policy is that the permanent and authoritative storage of private customer documents remains within European infrastructure, with current production storage located in Germany.
Backup arrangements for private customer documents are likewise required to comply with CLG’s European data-storage and confidentiality requirements.
7. Visa Processing in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Travel to the Democratic Republic of Congo may require a visa, entry permit, accreditation or other governmental authorisation.
Where a customer asks Congo Local Guides to assist with these procedures, certain personal information and documents must be processed in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Visa applications are handled directly by authorised employees of Congo Local Guides in the DRC.
Only information reasonably necessary for the relevant visa, permit or entry procedure is made available for this purpose.
This may include passport information, passport copies, photographs, travel details and information required by the relevant immigration or governmental authorities.
8. Temporary Access to Documents in the DRC
The permanent document repository remains hosted in Germany.
However, where required for the customer’s visa or entry procedure, an authorised CLG employee in the Democratic Republic of Congo may temporarily access or receive the documents required to perform that procedure.
Any temporary working copy created for this purpose is limited to the visa or entry process concerned.
Such temporary copies must not be retained as an independent permanent customer archive in the DRC and are deleted when they are no longer required for the relevant procedure, subject to any applicable legal obligation.
This temporary operational processing does not change the location of CLG’s authoritative customer-document repository, which remains in Germany.
9. Information Submitted to Congolese Authorities
To complete a visa or entry procedure, information may need to be submitted to immigration authorities, visa authorities, government departments or other competent public bodies in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Once information has been formally submitted to a competent public authority, that authority may process and retain the information in accordance with its own legal obligations and administrative procedures.
Congo Local Guides cannot require a sovereign governmental authority to erase information where the authority is legally entitled or required to retain it.
We therefore distinguish between temporary copies held by CLG for operational purposes and information formally submitted to governmental authorities.
10. International Data Transfers
The Democratic Republic of Congo is located outside the European Economic Area and is not currently covered by an adequacy decision of the European Commission.
Where the GDPR applies and personal data must be transferred to or processed in the DRC, CLG limits such processing to what is necessary for the relevant service.
Where appropriate safeguards under Article 46 GDPR are available and suitable, they may be used.
Where a transfer is objectively necessary in order to perform a contract with the customer or implement pre-contractual measures requested by the customer, an applicable derogation under Article 49 GDPR may be relied upon where legally permitted.
This may apply, for example, where information must necessarily be processed in the Democratic Republic of Congo in order to obtain the visa or entry authorisation specifically requested by the customer.
Where legally appropriate, explicit informed consent may instead be requested for a particular international transfer.
CLG does not use the necessity of travel to the DRC as a justification for unrelated transfers of customer data.
11. Public Website Hosting
The public Congo Local Guides WordPress website is hosted through BitReveal.
Website hosting infrastructure may therefore process technical website information and information submitted through website forms.
The hosting location and applicable international transfer framework are maintained as part of CLG’s processor and hosting documentation.
Private passport, visa and customer documents are not intended to be stored in the public WordPress hosting environment.
The private Client Portal and its confidential document storage are technically separated from the public website infrastructure.
12. Client Portal
Customers may receive access to the dedicated Congo Local Guides Client Portal.
Customer portal accounts are created through a controlled invitation and activation process rather than unrestricted public registration.
Account information is used to authenticate the customer and associate the user with the appropriate trip, booking or professional project.
Customers can only access information for which they are authorised.
Administrative and staff accounts are subject to additional security measures.
Authentication and security records may be retained for a limited period where necessary for security, fraud prevention and incident investigation.
13. Recipients of Personal Data
Within Congo Local Guides, personal information is available only to personnel who require access for the relevant service.
Depending on the requested service, personal information may also need to be disclosed to organisations involved in delivering the trip or project, such as accommodation providers, transport providers, guides, logistics providers or other operational service providers.
For visa and entry procedures, relevant information may be supplied to competent governmental or immigration authorities.
Technical service providers may process personal data where necessary to operate the website, Client Portal, hosting, storage, backup and communication infrastructure.
Such access is limited to what is necessary for the relevant service.
Congo Local Guides does not sell personal data.
14. Enquiries That Do Not Become Customers
Where an individual submits an enquiry but the enquiry does not result in a booking, trip or professional project, the associated enquiry data is normally retained for a maximum of six months after the enquiry becomes inactive.
After this period, the enquiry data is deleted or anonymised unless there is a specific legal reason requiring longer retention.
This retention period allows CLG to respond to follow-up questions and maintain reasonable continuity during the decision-making and quotation process without keeping unsuccessful enquiries indefinitely.
15. Active Customers, Trips and Projects
Personal data required to perform a trip, expedition or professional assignment is retained while the relevant customer relationship, trip or project remains active.
Following completion of the relevant project or trip, operational information that is no longer required is deleted or anonymised as part of CLG’s retention and project-closing procedures.
CLG does not intend to maintain indefinite customer or project archives merely because a person was previously a customer.
Particular attention is given to passport copies, visa documents and similar sensitive documentation. Such documents are deleted once they are no longer required for the relevant travel, visa, operational or legal purpose.
16. Legal Retention Requirements
Deletion following completion of a project does not necessarily mean that every item of information can legally be erased immediately.
Certain records may need to be retained where required for tax, accounting, commercial, regulatory or other legal purposes or where reasonably necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.
Where data must be retained for one of these reasons, processing is restricted to the relevant retention purpose.
The information is deleted or anonymised once the applicable requirement expires.
This principle is particularly relevant to invoices, accounting records, payment records and evidence relating to contractual transactions.
17. Backups
Congo Local Guides maintains backups to protect against accidental loss, technical failure and security incidents.
Backups are protected and are not used as a parallel operational customer database.
Deletion from the active system may not immediately remove every copy from an existing protected backup.
Residual information may therefore remain in a backup until that backup reaches the end of its defined retention cycle and is overwritten or securely deleted.
Backup infrastructure containing confidential customer documents is required to remain compatible with CLG’s European storage and security policy.
18. Data Security
Congo Local Guides applies technical and organisational measures intended to protect personal data against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure or access.
These measures include separation between public and private systems, authentication and authorisation controls, encrypted HTTPS connections, private document storage, server-side encryption, malware scanning, restricted database access, restricted administrative access, system monitoring and controlled access to production secrets.
Public self-registration to the Client Portal is disabled.
Administrative access is subject to stronger authentication requirements.
CLG regularly reviews its technical infrastructure and security controls as its services develop.
19. Payments
Congo Local Guides may introduce electronic payment processing through a specialist payment service provider in the future.
Where such a service is introduced, payment information necessary for the transaction may be processed directly by the relevant payment provider.
CLG will update this Privacy Policy before or when such payment functionality becomes active and will identify the relevant provider and applicable data-processing arrangements.
Congo Local Guides does not currently state that any specific payment provider is active where that provider has not yet been integrated.
20. Newsletter and Marketing Communications
Operational communication concerning an enquiry, trip, booking, visa procedure or professional project is separate from marketing communication.
Customers are not automatically subscribed to a newsletter because they have made an enquiry or booked a service.
Newsletter and promotional communications are only sent where the customer has expressly requested or consented to receiving them.
Newsletter consent is voluntary and has no effect on a customer’s ability to use CLG’s travel or professional services.
Customers may unsubscribe at any time.
Where available, customers can manage their newsletter preference directly through their Client Portal account.
A minimal suppression record may be retained where necessary to ensure that an unsubscribe request continues to be respected.
21. Cookies and Future Analytics or Media Services
The website may use cookies or similar technologies that are technically necessary for security and operation.
At present, this Privacy Policy does not describe services such as Matomo, YouTube or Vimeo as active data-processing services where they have not yet been implemented.
Before optional analytics, embedded-video, advertising or comparable third-party services are activated, CLG will review the applicable consent and privacy requirements and update its privacy and cookie information accordingly.
Where prior consent is required, such technologies will not be activated before valid consent has been obtained.
22. Data Minimisation
Congo Local Guides follows the principle of collecting only information that is reasonably necessary for the relevant service.
Passport copies, visa information and comparable confidential documentation are requested only where required for the customer’s travel, visa or project requirements.
Information obtained for one purpose is not automatically reused for an unrelated purpose.
Access to confidential documents is limited according to operational need.
23. Customer Rights
Where the GDPR applies, individuals may have the right to obtain information about the personal data processed about them and to receive a copy of that information.
They may also have the right to request correction of inaccurate information, deletion of personal data, restriction of processing and, where applicable, data portability.
Where processing is based on legitimate interests, individuals may have the right to object to that processing.
Where processing is based on consent, consent may be withdrawn at any time with effect for the future.
Withdrawal of consent does not affect processing lawfully carried out before withdrawal.
Individuals may also have the right to lodge a complaint with a competent data-protection supervisory authority.
Privacy requests may be submitted to:
info@congolocalguides.com
We may request reasonable information to verify the identity of the person making a request before disclosing or deleting personal information.
24. Required Information
Certain information is necessary for Congo Local Guides to provide particular services.
For example, CLG cannot normally arrange travel without appropriate identity and contact information and may be unable to obtain a visa without the passport information required by the relevant authorities.
Where requested information is mandatory for a particular service, we will endeavour to make this clear when the information is collected.
If the necessary information is not provided, CLG may be unable to provide the relevant service.
25. Automated Decision-Making
Congo Local Guides does not use personal data for solely automated decisions that produce legal effects concerning customers or similarly significantly affect them within the meaning of Article 22 GDPR.
Technical automation may be used for workflow processing, security checks, notifications and administrative purposes.
Material operational and customer decisions remain subject to human involvement.
26. Data Breaches and Security Incidents
Congo Local Guides maintains procedures for identifying, investigating and responding to security incidents involving personal data.
Where an incident constitutes a personal-data breach and applicable law requires notification to a supervisory authority or affected individuals, CLG will make the required notifications within the applicable legal requirements.
27. Changes to this Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy may be updated where our services, technical systems, hosting arrangements, payment providers, analytics tools, service providers or legal obligations change.
The current version will be made available on the Congo Local Guides website and, where appropriate, through the Client Portal.
Material changes affecting existing customers will be communicated where required by applicable law.
28. Contact
For questions about this Privacy Policy, requests concerning personal data or other privacy-related matters, please contact:
Congo Local Guides Sarl (CLG Sarl)
03 Av. Okitundu
Lingwala
Kinshasa
Democratic Republic of Congo
Email: info@congolocalguides.com
Website: https://congolocalguides.com