Samal Hub

Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy for Samalhub

At Samalhub, one of our main priorities is the privacy of our visitors. This Privacy Policy document contains types of information that are collected and recorded by Samal Hub and how we use it.

If you have additional questions or require more information about our Privacy Policy, do not hesitate to contact us at admin@samalhub.com.

This Privacy Policy applies only to our online activities and is valid for visitors to our website with regards to the information that they shared and/or collect in Samal Hub. This policy is not applicable to any information collected offline or via channels other than this website.

1. Compliance with the Philippine Data Privacy Act of 2012 (R.A. 10173)

As a website operating out of and focused on the Philippines, Samal Hub is fully committed to protecting your personal data in strict compliance with the Republic Act No. 10173, otherwise known as the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (DPA). We implement reasonable and appropriate organizational, physical, and technical security measures to protect your personal information against unauthorized access, use, disclosure, or alteration.

2. Information We Collect

If you use our website, we may collect both personal and non-personal information.

A. Personal Information You Provide Voluntarily

  • Contact Forms & Newsletters: When you contact us directly or subscribe to our newsletter, we may receive information about you such as your name, email address, phone number, and the contents of the message and/or attachments you may send us.

  • Business Directory Registrations: If you are a local business owner registering your business on our platform (e.g., motor rentals, restaurants, or resorts in Babak, Peñaplata, or Kaputian), we collect business names, contact numbers, email addresses, physical addresses, and social media handles.

  • Comments & Community Forums: If you leave comments on our travel blogs, news updates, or governance articles, we collect the data shown in the comments form, as well as the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

B. Information We Collect Automatically (Log Files)

Samal Hub follows a standard procedure of using log files. These files log visitors when they visit websites. The information collected by log files includes:

  • Internet Protocol (IP) addresses

  • Browser type and version

  • Internet Service Provider (ISP)

  • Date and time stamp

  • Referring/exit pages

  • Number of clicks

These are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable. The purpose of the information is for analyzing trends, administering the site, tracking users’ movement on the website, and gathering demographic information.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect in various ways, including to:

  • Provide and Maintain our Website: Ensure the seamless delivery of Samal Island tourism guides, local business listings, and governance reports.

  • Improve and Personalize User Experience: Understand how our visitors use our site so we can optimize loading speeds (Core Web Vitals) and structural features.

  • Develop New Services: Expand directory functionalities, regional interactive maps, and localized event calendars.

  • Communicate with You: Respond to your inquiries, provide support, send newsletter updates, and issue critical municipal alerts (such as disaster risk or public safety announcements).

  • Support Local Businesses: Display submitted business information publicly on our local business directory as authorized by the respective owners.

  • Prevent Fraud and Ensure Security: Monitor site traffic to protect Samal Hub against malicious bots, spam, and cyber-attacks.

4. Cookies and Web Technologies

Like any other website, Samal Hub uses “cookies”. These cookies are used to store information including visitors’ preferences, and the pages on the website that the visitor accessed or visited. The information is used to optimize the users’ experience by customizing our web page content based on visitors’ browser type and/or other information.

5. Third-Party Privacy Policies & External Links

Samal Hub’s Privacy Policy does not apply to other advertisers or websites. Our site contains links to other platforms, including official government portals (such as samalcity.gov.ph) and private booking agencies.

We strongly advise you to consult the respective Privacy Policies of these third-party web servers for more detailed information. It may include their practices and instructions about how to opt-out of certain options. We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites or services.

6. Your Data Privacy Rights

Under the Philippine Data Privacy Act of 2012, as well as global standards (including GDPR for European visitors and CCPA for California residents), you possess specific rights regarding your personal data:

  • Right to be Informed: You have the right to know whether your personal data is being processed, for what purpose, and to what extent.

  • Right to Access: You have the right to request copies of the personal data we hold about you.

  • Right to Rectification: You have the right to request that we correct any information you believe is inaccurate or incomplete.

  • Right to Erasure (Right to be Forgotten): You have the right to request that we erase your personal data under certain conditions.

  • Right to Object: You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data, particularly for direct marketing or profiling.

  • Right to Data Portability: You have the right to request that we transfer the data we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us at admin@samalhub.com. We will respond to your request within thirty (30) days in compliance with statutory regulations.

7. Data Retention

We will retain your personal information only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. We will retain and use your information to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our policies.

Business directory listings remain active on our site indefinitely unless a business owner requests their removal or update. Contact form submissions and analytics data are regularly purged or anonymized to minimize data storage risks.

8. Children's Information

Another part of our priority is adding protection for children while using the internet. We encourage parents and guardians to observe, participate in, and/or monitor and guide their online activity.

Samal Hub does not knowingly collect any Personal Identifiable Information from children under the age of 13. If you think that your child provided this kind of information on our website, we strongly encourage you to contact us immediately and we will do our best efforts to promptly remove such information from our records.

9. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. Thus, we advise you to review this page periodically for any changes. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page. These changes are effective immediately after they are posted on this page.

9. Changes to This Privacy Policy

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or your personal data, please contact our Data Privacy Officer: