Privacy Policy

Who we are

Shannon Drift provides self-drive electric boat hire from the quay at Shannonbridge, County Offaly, Ireland. For data protection law we are the data controller for the personal data described in this policy.

Online booking payments are taken by Jhest Ltd trading as Shannon Drift. Guest booking emails are sent by our booking systems on our behalf.

Contact for privacy requests: hello@shannondrift.ie, or +353 90 967 4000. We do not appoint a Data Protection Officer; for a small leisure-hire business that is not required. You can also complain to the Data Protection Commission (dataprotection.ie).

What we collect

When you book online we collect your first name, last name, email address and phone number, plus the booking itself — which boat, date, start time and duration. We do not ask for passenger names or ages at booking.

If you email or call us, we hold whatever you send so we can reply.

We do not collect or store your full card number. Online payment is handled by a specialist payment provider; card details go to them, not to us. We may see limited payment metadata (for example last four digits, payment status and amount) needed to confirm or refund a booking.

On arrival we may take a separate security deposit pre-authorisation on a card machine. That is processed as a card-machine authorisation for the hire day; it is not stored in our website systems.

We also collect technical and usage data about how the site is used — pages viewed, booking-flow steps, approximate device and browser information, and (depending on analytics mode) a rough location derived from network data. See Cookies and analytics below.

Why we hold it

To take, confirm and run your booking; to reach you if the river, weather or operations force a change; to take payment and handle refunds or credits; to send the booking confirmation and related transactional messages; and to keep records for accounting, tax and insurance.

Lawful bases under the GDPR: performance of a contract with you (booking and payment); legitimate interests in running a safe hire operation, preventing fraud and understanding how the site works; and legal obligation where tax or accounting rules require us to keep records. Where ePrivacy requires consent for non-essential storage on your device, we do not write analytics identifiers until you accept — see Cookies and analytics.

We do not sell your personal data. We do not use it for third-party advertising, and we do not build an advertising profile of you on this site.

Who else processes it

We use specialist companies to run the service. They only process personal data on our instructions and only as needed for the purposes below.

A booking platform holds your reservation — boat, date, time and contact details — and sends transactional email such as confirmation and reminders. It does not take the card payment on this website.

A payment provider processes the online card (or wallet) payment. Your full card number is handled by that provider, not stored by us.

An email provider may send messages to our own team only — for example if a paid booking cannot be finished and a refund needs a person. That is not how your booking confirmation is sent.

A hosting provider runs this website and may provide aggregate traffic measurement.

Analytics providers help us understand how the site and booking flow are used. Where those tools hold data in the European Union, we use that option. Where a provider is based outside the EU (for example in the United States), any transfer is made under an approved mechanism such as the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, and non-essential device storage stays off until you accept analytics cookies.

We share data with these processors only as needed for the purposes above, or if the law requires it. We do not rent or sell your details. If you need the current list of providers for a formal access request, email hello@shannondrift.ie and we will provide it.

Cookies and analytics

We set no advertising cookies and we do not track you across other websites for ads.

On your first visit a banner asks you to accept or decline analytics. Nothing non-essential is written to your device before you answer, and if you never answer it stays that way.

Until you accept, analytics runs in a cookieless mode. We may still measure which pages are visited and where people leave the booking flow, but visits are not stitched into a lasting profile on your device, your IP address is not stored, and we do not start session recording.

Accepting analytics allows a first-party analytics cookie or local storage key, a returning-visitor identifier, and session recording with every form field masked. Declining keeps the cookieless mode described above. You can change your answer whenever you like using Cookie settings at the bottom of any page.

To remember your answer we store one small item on your device. It holds only the choice itself, it is not an identifier, and it is not shared with anyone.

Our payment provider also sets its own fraud-prevention cookies. Spotting stolen-card fraud needs more signal than the payment page alone, so its script runs across the site and may set those cookies while you browse. They are strictly necessary for taking card payments safely, they are not used for advertising, and we never read them for analytics. Separately, a session cookie is set on internal staff pages (brand and preview access), which ordinary guest browsing never touches.

Your browser can block or delete cookies; essential booking still works without analytics storage.

How long we keep it

Booking and payment records are kept for as long as we need them for accounting, tax and insurance — typically up to six years after the hire year, then deleted or anonymised where the law allows.

Emails and calls that do not become a booking are kept only as long as needed to handle the enquiry, then deleted in the ordinary course of clearing inboxes.

Analytics data is retained according to each provider’s configuration and our need to understand site performance; it is not used to re-identify you for marketing.

If you ask us to delete data and we no longer need it for a booking, legal claim or tax record, we will delete or anonymise it. Some records must be kept for a fixed period even if you ask us to erase them.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you can ask us for a copy of the personal data we hold about you, ask us to correct it, ask us to delete it, restrict or object to certain processing, and in some cases receive data in a portable form. Email hello@shannondrift.ie; we will respond within one month.

You can complain to the Irish Data Protection Commission at dataprotection.ie if you are not satisfied with how we have handled your request.

Security

We use HTTPS on the site, keep booking and payment on specialist providers rather than handling card data ourselves, and limit staff access to booking tools to people who need it. No online system is completely secure; if we become aware of a breach that affects your rights, we will follow our legal duties, including notifying the Data Protection Commission and you where required.

Children

The website and online booking are aimed at adults booking a hire. We do not knowingly create accounts for children. Children are welcome as passengers when an adult books and takes responsibility for the hire; we do not collect children’s personal data at booking.

Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy when the site, our tools or the law change. The updated version will be posted on this page with a revised effective date. Material changes to how we use personal data will be explained here; for booked guests we will use the contact details on the booking where we need to tell you directly.

Effective date: 24 August 2026.

Getting in touch

Questions about either document, or a request about your data — email hello@shannondrift.ie or call +353 90 967 4000.