Data Policy

Official government advisories first. Every country page leads with the current US State Department travel advisory level and a plain-language summary of UK FCDO advice. These are pulled directly from the government feeds listed below, never paraphrased without source attribution. Australian DFAT values shown on country pages come from the frozen v1.0 dataset captured 2026-05-26 and are labelled as such: Smartraveller has blocked our automated requests since 2026-05-17.

Inline citations. Every government-data fact carries an inline link to its primary source. If we say “Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution,” we link to the State Department's page for that country. If we summarize FCDO advice, we link to gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice.

Live vs reference. The methodology page draws a clear line between sources we currently ingest live and sources consulted at the v1.0 dataset freeze. We do not claim a source is live on a country page unless it actually drives a live-updated field.

No anonymous claims. Quotes and first-person travel anecdotes are attributed to a named contributor. We don't publish “a reader told us” or “we've heard” — every claim has a real attached identity.

No Data Verification Lead has been named yet. Country guides, ranking pages, gear comparisons, and insurance comparisons are published under the SafeTravelGal Data Team byline, not under a named person. Their structured data names the Data Team as author and carries no Article.reviewedBy field, because that field must name a real person.

When a Data Verification Lead is appointed, they will be a real, named person with verifiable research and data-analysis credentials, and /about will say so. Until then, no page on this site claims to have been reviewed by a named individual.

We keep a register of published facts that can go out of date (entry rules, fees, third-party prices), each with its source and, once it has been read against that source, the date. A check we run by hand before a release fails when a dated entry passes its shelf life; entries not yet confirmed are listed as unconfirmed. Nobody on the team needs to have visited a destination for its guide to be published: country guides are built from official sources. First-person travel anecdotes only appear where a named contributor has actually been, and are clearly attributed.

Affiliate revenue funds the free tools and research work on this site. It does not influence which products we recommend or how countries are scored. If we don't think a product fits the use case — even when commission is on offer — we say so or omit it.

Every page that contains an affiliate link shows the disclosure both above the first link and in the footer. The full partner list is at /affiliate-disclosure.

If you spot a factual error — an out-of-date advisory level, a wrong emergency number, a misattributed source, a product claim that doesn't check out — email info@safetravelgal.com. We respond.

When a correction lands on a page, the article's last-reviewed date updates. Material corrections (those that change a safety score, advisory level, or substantive recommendation) are noted at the bottom of the relevant page with the date.

Formal correction-handling procedures are being finalized. In the meantime, email corrections to the address above and we will respond within 48 hours.