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If you’re thinking of becoming an independent home based travel agent, you need to be fully aware of your responsibilities in terms of data security.

These days, most people use the internet to book travel, and if you’re going to work from home and offer holidays online, there are a few areas you need to consider.

* EU cookie laws

If you’re going to have a website for your travel agency, you need to be aware of the new EU cookie laws. Cookies are small text files that are stored on a computer to help remember browsing information and sites you’ve previously visited.

The new laws will require every website owner to ask users’ permission for cookies to be used in their session on a website. At the moment, a workable solution is still being looked into by the various parties involved such as Google and Microsoft.

* Email addresses

If people are booking with your travel agency online, you will no doubt ask them for an email address to send them confirmation and/or tickets.

You can’t assume that they have given you permission to email them with any future deals you may be running. You should have an opt-in box that people have to tick to give you permission to send them any promotional emails.

* Personal information

Whether you take details over the phone or online, you need to make sure you deal with it properly. Things like writing down a customer’s name and address on a piece of paper may seem harmless, but you have a responsibility to dispose of this securely i.e. shredding it.

Nobody would like to think a piece of paper was in your bin with their name, address, and holiday dates written on it.

* Credit/debit card details

If you work from home as a travel agent and have a facility to take payments online, you’ll need reassurance on your website so people feel it’s secure.

This could be through the payment partner you’ve chosen and/or security certificates such as Thawte and Verisign.

Choosing the cheapest online payment partner could backfire on you if their security isn’t up to scratch.

If you have a card processing machine at home, again, you’d be well advised to shred anything you have with people’s card numbers on it.

The Freedom Travel Group provides people with the opportunity to work from home as independent travel agents.