Privacy Statement

The Singapore Tourism Board, of 1 Orchard Spring Lane, Singapore 247729, as controller, (“STB”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) is committed to protecting information under our control that identifies you (“personal data”), including your name and identifying contact details. This personal data protection policy (“Policy”) serves to inform you of your rights in respect of your personal data, why we collect your personal data, how we use, share and process your personal data, and for how long we store your personal data.

We collect personal data in furtherance of:

(a) the statutory functions of STB under the Singapore Tourism Board Act (Chapter 305B of Singapore), which are to: (i) develop and promote Singapore as a travel and tourist destination; (ii) advise the Government of Singapore on matters relating to travel and tourism; (iii) enhance the travel and tourism sector’s contribution to the Singapore economy; and (iv) exercise licensing and regulatory functions in respect of such tourism enterprises as we may determine; and

(b) the statutory purposes of the following legislation: (i) Travel Agents Act (Chapter 334 of Singapore); (ii) Singapore Tourism (Cess Collection) Act (Chapter 305C of Singapore); (iii) Casino Control (Evaluation Panel) Regulations 2014; and (iv) Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act (Chapter 52A of Singapore).

Carrying out these functions and purposes involves us providing services through and hosting our websites, applications, data analytics platforms, interactive kiosks or other STB platforms, the conduct of surveys or elicitation of feedback, the organisation and running of events and programmes, and the administration of grants.

We will process all personal data lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner. We will collect personal data that is adequate, relevant, and limited to what is necessary for the purposes for which they are processed. We will take reasonable steps to ensure that personal data is accurate and updated where necessary, and to erase or rectify inaccurate personal data upon request without delay.

We will not store personal data longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data is processed. We will inform you of the period for which we will store your personal data but, if this is not possible, we will instead inform you of the criteria used to determine that period. We will ensure appropriate security of all personal data, including ensuring that all personal data is protected against unauthorised or unlawful processing and accidental loss, destruction, or damage, by implementing and using appropriate technical and organisational measures. We will not subject you to any decision based solely on automated processing (including profiling) which would prejudice you.

Our digital services may contain links to non-Government digital services whose data protection and privacy practices may differ from ours. We are not responsible for the content and privacy practices of these other digital services and we encourage you to consult the privacy notices of those digital services.

We will not collect personal data that reveals any of the following about you: racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic data, biometric data, or data concerning health or sex life, or sexual orientation, unless we have a legitimate interest, or have obtained your explicit consent to do so.

The provision of your personal data will generally be voluntary where there is no statutory obligation to provide your personal data. Generally, we do not contractually require the provision of your personal data. However, please note that in any event, the provision of your personal data may be necessary and not providing such personal data might mean that you are not able to receive or use our services (or part thereof) or that you are disqualified from receiving certain benefits. We elaborate on the specific consequences in paragraph 9 of this Policy.

Unless expressly stated otherwise in this Policy, we will only share personal data with others where you have consented to us doing so or where it is otherwise lawful for other reasons to do so, even without your consent. For example, we may share personal data with another Singapore public sector body pursuant to a data sharing direction under the Public Sector (Governance) Act 2018 (No. 5 of 2018) of Singapore. Where we share personal data with other persons or entities, we will ensure that all appropriate contractual arrangements and security mechanisms are in place to meet the standards under this Policy.

Your personal data may be collected, used, shared or otherwise processed by our regional offices both within and outside the European Economic Area, provided always that such collection, use, sharing and/or processing shall only be for the purposes for which you have provided your consent and/or in accordance with the manner of collection, use, sharing and/or processing as described in this Policy. Our regional offices are all bound to keep any information (including personal data) which they collect, use, process and share with us or that we collect, use and share with them confidential, and to protect such information with security measures that are equivalent to our own.

Our regional offices will only transfer your personal data to third parties outside of its own jurisdiction where it has obtained an adequacy decision by an applicable judicial or legislative body for the recipient jurisdiction, or in accordance with other appropriate or suitable safeguards implemented which are sufficient under applicable data protection legislation. In the event of such transfer which relies on appropriate or suitable safeguards, a detailed description of the implemented safeguards can be obtained by contacting our Data Protection Officer at stb_feedback@stb.gov.sg.

You have rights over your personal data, and we are committed to fulfilling these rights. You may be entitled to exercise some or all of the following rights:

(a) the right to access: (i) information regarding whether your personal data is retained; and/or (ii) a copy of all personal data relating to you which we retain, including information on the purposes of the processing, the categories of personal data concerned, the data recipients as well as potential retention periods;

(b) the right to request rectification, removal or restriction of your personal data, e.g. because: (i) it is incomplete or inaccurate; (ii) it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected; or (iii) the consent on which the processing was based has since been withdrawn;

(c) the right to refuse to provide your personal data and, without impact to data processing activities that have taken place before such withdrawal, the right to withdraw your consent to the processing of your personal data at any time;

(d) the right to object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, that your personal data be subject to processing. In the event that you wish to exercise this right, please provide us with information about your particular situation. After the assessment of the information about your situation as presented by you, we will either stop processing your personal data or present you with our compelling legitimate grounds for the ongoing processing;

(e) the right to take legal action in relation to any potential breach of your rights regarding the processing of your personal data, as well as to lodge complaints before the competent data protection authority; and/or

(f) the right to require that we: (i) send to you personal data concerning you, which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format; and/or (ii) transmit such data to another controller without hindrance. Where it is technically feasible, you shall have the right to require such data to be transmitted directly from us to another controller.

To exercise these rights or to raise any complaint of our non-compliance with this Policy, please contact our Data Protection Officer¹ at stb_feedback@stb.gov.sg. Please note that should you wish to exercise some or all the rights above, you must be prepared to authenticate your identity. Other grounds under which we may refuse a request is if the request is manifestly unfounded or excessive.

We will obtain your consent for the processing² of any personal data concerning you where we are required to do so under any applicable laws. Where we seek your consent, we will inform you of the specific, explicit, and legitimate purposes for which your consent is being sought and thereafter only process the personal data for those specific, explicit, and legitimate purposes for which your consent has been obtained. Where consent is required from a child who is under the age of 16 years, we will obtain such consent from the parent or guardian instead or otherwise restrict access if consent from the parent or guardian cannot be obtained.

We will obtain such consent from you in a manner which is clearly distinguishable from other matters, and in an intelligible and easily accessible form using clear and plain language. As mentioned above, you have the right to refuse to provide or to later withdraw your consent, however, note that doing so may mean that you are not able to receive or use our services (or part thereof) or that you are disqualified from receiving certain benefits. Where applicable, we elaborate on the specific consequences in paragraph 9 of this Policy.

The following are the circumstances under which your personal data may be collected, used, shared or otherwise processed by us:

(a) If you are browsing our websites (e.g. www.visitsingapore.com):

i) General

When you visit any of our websites (e.g. www.visitsingapore.com) for informational purposes only (i.e. without registering for any of our provided services or otherwise providing us with personal data in any other form), we will automatically collect your IP address and store information on your browser (mostly in the form of cookies), in order to operate and facilitate your access to our websites as well as to ensure system stability and efficiency and to implement proper safeguards as to the security of our websites and services. The personal data collected as a result is necessary to operate and facilitate your access to our websites, or to fulfil our legitimate interest with regards to our use of technical information to enhancing our systems, making your usage of the websites more convenient or ensuring the security of our websites. This is based on our legitimate interest as the data used for these purposes are stored for a limited period only and we are generally not able to personally identify the user without larger efforts. We will not store cookies longer than is necessary for the abovementioned purposes unless the user clears their cookies.

ii) Cookies and other similar tracking technologies

Our websites use cookies in several cases. Cookies are small text files that are stored on your device. This data does not contain information that we could allocate to a natural person. Cookies do not harm your device and do not contain any viruses.

We use cookies or other tracking technologies to enhance your customer experience by making our offers more user-friendly, more effective, and safer. Our legitimate interests pursued are that of the provision and/or promotion of further products and/or services to you.

You can prevent the use of cookies or tracking technologies by adjusting your browser settings. Please note that in this case you may not be able to fully utilise all functions of this website.

iii) Web Analytics

Some of our websites use the following web analytics:

a. Google analytics: a web analytics service provided by Google LLC, (Mountain View, CA, USA) (“Google”).

i. What it does: Google Analytics uses cookies to help the website analyse how users use the site. The information generated by the cookies about your use of the website will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the USA.

ii. How it works: IP-anonymisation is a functionality that is activated on our website, and as such your IP address will be truncated within the area of Member States of the European Union or other parties to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. However, in exceptional cases the whole IP address will be first transferred to a Google server in the USA and truncated there. Google will use this information on behalf of the operator of the website for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing them other services relating to website activity and internet usage. The IP address that your browser conveys within the scope of Google Analytics, will not be associated with any other data held by Google.

iii. Validity of cookies: Google Analytics cookies are valid for up to 24 months by default, unless the user clears their cookies earlier.

iv. Opt-out: You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however, please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of the website. You can also opt-out from being tracked by Google Analytics with effect for the future by downloading and installing "Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on for your current web browser: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en 

Please refer to further information on usage rights or data protection of Google at the following websites:
https://policies.google.com/privacy
https://policies.google.com/terms

b. Adobe Analytics: a web analytics service provided by Adobe Systems Software Ireland Limited (“Adobe”).

i. What it does: Adobe Analytics uses cookies in order to help analyse overall traffic patterns through our website.

ii. How it works: By transmitting the information generated by the cookie about the use of the website to Adobe, cookie settings ensure that IP address is anonymised before geo-localisation and will be replaced by a generic IP address before storage. On behalf of us, Adobe will use this information for the evaluation of your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators, and in order to provide other services relating to website activity and use of the Internet to us. Adobe will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Adobe.

iii. Validity of cookies: Adobe Analytics cookies are valid for up to 24 months by default unless the user clears their cookies.

iv. Opt-out: You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. However, please note that if you do, you may not be able to use the full functionality of the website. Furthermore, you can prevent Adobe’s collection and use of data (cookies and IP address) by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available under http://www.adobe.com/privacy/opt-out.html.

Please refer to further information on usage rights or data protection of Adobe at the following websites:

https://www.adobe.com/privacy/policy.html

https://www.adobe.com/legal/terms.html

c. Whole of Government Application Analytics (WOGAA) – a centralised internet-facing government platform for government agencies to understand the landscape of our digital services and make data-informed decisions to improve our digital services. WOGAA currently uses both Adobe Analytics and Snowplow.

WOGAA
i. What it does: WOGAA uses cookies in order to help analyse overall traffic patterns through our Website.

ii. How it works: By transmitting the information generated by the cookie about the use of the website to WOGAA, cookie settings ensure that IP address is anonymised before geo-localisation and will be replaced by a generic IP address before storage. On behalf of us, WOGAA will use this information for the evaluation of your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators, and to provide other services relating to website activity and use of the Internet to us. WOGAA will not associate your IP address with any other data held by WOGAA.

iii. Validity of cookies: WOGAA cookies are valid for up to 24 months by default unless the user clears their cookies.

iv. Opt-out: You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. However, please note that if you do, you may not be able to use the full functionality of the website.

Please refer to further information on WOGAA Privacy Statement at the following website:
https://wogaa.sg/home/index.html#/privacy-statement

(b) If you are using our transactional digital services (e.g. applications, portals, platforms):

i) Our online interfaces (e.g. applications, portals, platforms)

Where you access and/or use any of our online interfaces, portals (e.g. Singapore Tourism Photos and Videos) or social media platforms, we will automatically collect your IP address for the purposes of conducting data analytics regarding unique user behaviour on our websites, applications, portals and/or platforms.

This is based on our legitimate interest to enhance user experience and market our products. You may read more on the web analytics we use and how you may opt-out in the section above under “Web Analytics”.

ii) Our application programming interface (“API”) services:

If you submit a registration to access our API services, we will collect, use, and process your name, e-mail address and country of residence as well any other data which may be provided by you, for the purposes of providing you with our API token and related services. The processing of your personal data is based on the fulfilment of the respective agreement on the use of the API as well as on our legitimate interest to provide you with the API and to improve traffic to and the visibility of our services. If the processing of your personal data is based on consent, you may withdraw consent granted at any time. We will delete your personal data without undue delay after you withdraw your consent, but we may not be able to continue providing the services thereafter.

iii) Our portals (e.g. Singapore Tourism Photos and Videos, Singapore Tourism Analytics Network):

If you register for any of our portals (e.g. Singapore Tourism Photos and VideosSingapore Tourism Analytics Network), we will collect, use and process your name, e-mail address, telephone number as well as any other data which may be provided by you, for the purposes of creating an account to facilitate your access to and/or use of our provided services. The processing of your personal data is based on the fulfilment of our terms of use agreement as well as our legitimate interest in the offering of the service itself to provide you with information to our services. If the processing of your personal data is based on consent, you may withdraw consent granted at any time. We will delete your personal data without undue delay after you withdraw your consent, but we may not be able to continue providing the services thereafter.

(c) If you are participating in our events, contests, surveys, or other similar programmes organised by us:

i) Events, programmes or other similar interactions organised by us:

For individual’s resident in the European Economic Area, if you are participating in an event, programme or other similar interaction organised by us, we will collect, use and process your name and business contact information as well as other related business information, for the purposes of processing your specific request or application for a particular event or program. Your personal data will solely be processed for the fulfilment of the respective contract related to such specific event or program you are applying to.

If, in the course of such events or programs, you provide us with your business card, we will also collect, use and process your contact details on the business card, for the purposes you provided the business card, which may include adding and storing your contact details in our systems. The processing of your personal data is based on our legitimate interest in delivering our services to you.

ii) Contests organised by us:

If you take part in one of our contests, we will collect, use and process your name, telephone number, address, e-mail and/or other data which we may request and which you provide voluntarily, for the purposes of executing such contest and providing you with your prize in the event that you are determined to be the winner of the relevant contest. The processing of your personal data is based on the fulfilment of the terms of participation in the relevant contest or, in case these do not exist, our legitimate interest in offering the services and promoting our services and tourism in Singapore. If the processing of your personal data is based on consent, you may withdraw consent granted at any time. We will delete your personal data without undue delay after you withdraw your consent, but we will not be able to assess and process your eligibility for the contest thereafter.

iii) Surveys organised by us or on our behalf:

If you participate in our surveys, we and/or our vendors (who are acting on our behalf) will collect, use and process your name, e-mail address, telephone number and any other data which we may request and which you provide voluntarily, for the purposes of fieldwork validation and data quality checks. All personal data is provided on a completely voluntary basis. Where surveys are conducted by our vendors on our behalf, we will only receive anonymised data. The processing of your personal data is based on our legitimate interest in order to enhance and improve our services. If the processing of your personal data is based on consent, you may withdraw consent granted at any time. We will delete your personal data without undue delay after you withdraw your consent.

(d) If you are submitting an application, nomination or tender to us:

i) Application for an internship or job opening:

If you apply for an internship or job opening, we will collect, use and process the personal data you provide in your resume and application form (e.g. name, e-mail address, country and city of residence, nationality, gender, date of birth, written and spoken languages, employment status, marital status, whether you have children, education background, work background and details of your employer) only as far as necessary for the processing of your application. The legal basis for such processing is in connection with respective national laws, or in absence of such, in connection with the initiation of contract.

ii) Application for a study award, scholarship or initiative relevant to the tourism sector:

If you are applying for a study award, scholarship or initiative relevant to the tourism sector, we will collect, use and process your name, national identification number or passport number, date of birth, citizenship, address, email address, gender, age, contact number, education background, work background, details of your employer, details of your surety and other information requested in the specific acknowledgement or consent form or otherwise requested by us. We will collect, use and process such personal data for the purposes of administering the award, scholarship or initiative, and/or assessing your application for such award, scholarship or initiative. The processing of your personal data is based on the fulfilment of the respective agreement and the initiation of such subsequent agreement which follows your application or, if applicable, your express consent. If the processing of your personal data is based on consent, you may withdraw consent granted at any time. We will delete your personal data without undue delay after you withdraw your consent, but we will not be able to process your application thereafter.

iii) Application for a grant:

If you are applying for a grant, we will collect, use and process your name, company name, designation and other relevant data requested in the specific grant application. We will collect, use and process such personal data only for the assessment and audit against the requirements in order determine your suitability to receive such grant. The processing of your personal data is based on the fulfilment of the respective agreement. If the processing of your personal data is based on consent, we will delete your personal data without undue delay after you withdraw your consent, but we will not be able to process your grant thereafter. After assessing and processing your grant, we will delete any personal data after Singapore Government Instruction Manual obligations related to the storing of the information have expired (up to 5 years from the final date of use for the purposes above).

iv) Nomination of an individual/enterprise for an award:

If you want to nominate an individual or enterprise for one of our awards or if you are an award nominee, we will collect, use and process your name and e-mail address as well as the name of the person or entity you nominated, for the purposes of assessing and processing your nomination, and for us to follow up on your nomination. The processing of your personal data is necessary for us to fulfil our obligations under the relevant participation terms. If the processing of your personal data is based on consent, you may withdraw consent granted at any time. We will delete your personal data without undue delay after you withdraw your consent, but this will have detrimental effect towards assessing and processing the award.

v) Submission of a tender to us or participation in other similar procurement activities:

If you are participating in our tenders or other similar procurement activities, we will collect, use and process your name, national identification number or passport number, telephone number, email address, company name, designation and/or other information requested by us in the tender submission forms, in order for us to contact you with regards to the submissions made by you in the tender documents. The processing of your personal data is based on the fulfilment of the respective agreement and the subsequent initiation of such agreement which follows the tender.

(e) If you are entering into a non-disclosure agreement or undertaking with us:

If you enter into a non-disclosure agreement or undertaking with us, we will collect, use and process your name, national identification number or passport number, telephone number, email address and company name, designation, and/or any other data which may be provided by you, for the purposes of enforcing the relevant agreement or undertaking. The processing of your personal data is based on the fulfilment of the contractual agreements as specified in the relevant non-disclosure agreement or understanding.

(f) If you are an individual interacting with us:

i) Contacting us or using our feedback forms:

If you want to make an enquiry, give a compliment, or submit a complaint, we offer you the opportunity to contact us using the forms provided on our websites or to contact our contact centre through methods such as call and e-mail. Your name, e-mail address, and place of residence and in some cases additional contact details are required to process and follow up on your request. The processing of your personal data is necessary for us to contact you to fulfil our obligations under a contract or based on our legitimate interest to enhance your travel experience and improve our services. This may involve the transfer to third parties as far as this is necessary (e.g. when it concerns the business of other entities or legal bodies). If the processing of your personal data is based on consent, you may withdraw consent granted at any time. We will delete your personal data without undue delay after you withdraw your consent, but we will not be able to continue providing the services thereafter. If you initiate a conversation with STB within our social media platforms, we will only receive your handle/username, but personal data will not be collected.

ii) Subscribing to our services or products

If you have contacted us for the purpose of signing up to have access to our services or products (e.g. MICE Event Legacy Toolkit) for business development purposes, your name, contact details, job designation and company information as provided  are required to assess your eligibility for redirection to third parties assessed to be relevant to your business,  to register you for our newsletter,  to contact you about our services or products and/or  to transfer your contact information to third parties regarding third party services or products assessed to be relevant to your business.

iii) Subscribing to our newsletter:

Where you have granted consent, we will collect, use and process your name, e-mail address, country and other data you provide voluntarily, for the purposes of sending you our newsletters which contain information on our services and products and for the purposes of performing retargeting and possible assessment for business development.  Such newsletters might include advertisements for third parties and their products or services. You may withdraw consent granted at any time. We will delete your personal data for marketing purposes without undue delay after you withdraw your consent, but we will not be able to continue providing you the newsletter thereafter.

iv) Our Social Media Platforms:

Singapore Tourism Board owns and manages several social media pages on various platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, LinkedIn, TikTok, Weibo, Naver, Wechat, RedNote (Xiaohongshu) and Line. We may also receive your information through content you have submitted to these social networking sites. Content submitted could be a photo or video you shared with us on any of the above social media platforms through participating in our promotional activities such as tagging us in your post, or hash tagging #VisitSingapore, #PassionMadePossible and/or #MadeInSingapore.

If you initiate a conversation with us through our social media platforms, we will receive your name automatically but seek your consent before viewing your public profile or collect any personal data. We comply with the social media platforms’  Terms of Service and Data Policy when collecting your personal information.

(g) If you are a journalist who has worked with us or otherwise interacted with us:

Where you have provided us with your information (e.g. via e-mail or in the form of a business card) and granted us consent, we will collect, use and process your name, e-mail address, company name, designation and other data you provide voluntarily (e.g. contact number), for the purposes of sending you media releases, advisories, invites and/or project factsheets. If the processing of your personal data is based on consent, you may withdraw consent granted at any time. We will delete your personal data without undue delay after you withdraw your consent, but we will not be able to continue providing you such media releases and other information or invitations thereafter.

(h) If you are a stakeholder / business partner:

i) If you are one of our stakeholders participating in a site visit or site inspection to a secure site:

If you are one of our stakeholders participating in a site visit or site inspection to a secure site (e.g. Marina Bay Cruise Centre Singapore, which is a gazetted security checkpoint), we will collect, use and process your name, national identification number or passport number, telephone number, email address, company name and designation, for the purposes of obtaining security registrations and clearances for your visit to the relevant site. The processing of your personal data is based on our legitimate interest to maintain necessary site security.

ii) If you are one of our overseas business partners or stakeholders and are participating in a familiarisation tour in Singapore:

If you are one of our overseas business partners or stakeholders and are participating in a familiarisation tour in Singapore, we will collect, use and process your name, telephone number, email address, passport details and other data requested directly from you by us or on our behalf, for the purposes of helping you make the necessary travel arrangements to Singapore for your participation in the familiarisation tour. The processing of your personal data is based on the fulfilment of the respective agreement between us as well as on our legitimate interest to provide you with the requested tour in order to enhance our business.

(i) Processing personal data for regulatory or legal defence purposes:

Notwithstanding anything within this policy, we reserve the right to freely process your personal data for regulatory purposes under the statutory functions of STB (e.g. travel agent licensing, tourist guide licensing or the collection of cess for tourism events) or to defend ourselves against any legal claim. The processing is based on our legitimate interest in fulfilling our public obligations and statutory functions.

We reserve the right to update this Policy for reasons including but not limited to complying with relevant Singapore legislation, Singapore Government guidelines, regulatory directions, and other requirements of similar nature. Examples of these include future amendments to the Personal Data Protection Act 2012 (No. 26 of 2012) of Singapore or amendments to the Singapore Government Instruction Manual. Translations of this Policy is provided only for reference and convenience to non-English readers. In case of discrepancies between the translated versions and this English version, the English version shall prevail.

Policy updated as at 1 July 2025