Privacy policy

PRIVACY POLICY & PRIVACY STATEMENT

Last Updated: June 15, 2026


SECTION 1 - WHAT DO WE DO WITH YOUR INFORMATION?

When you purchase something from our store, as part of the buying and selling process, we collect the personal information you give us such as your name, billing address, shipping address, email address, and phone number.

When you browse our store, we also automatically receive your computer’s internet protocol (IP) address, device metrics, and cookie data. This provides us with information that helps us learn about your browser, operating system, and on-site behaviour.

Email Marketing: With your explicit permission, we may send you emails about our store, new product drops, and other updates.


SECTION 2 - LAWFUL BASES FOR PROCESSING (GDPR COMPLIANCE)

If you are a resident of the European Union (EU), we process your personal data under the following lawful bases established by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):

  • Performance of a Contract: To process, fulfill, and ship your orders of vintage jewelry and accessories.
  • Consent: For marketing emails and non-essential cookies, provided you have actively opted in.
  • Legitimate Interests: To protect our website against fraud, optimize site performance, and monitor store analytics.
  • Legal Obligation: To comply with tax, accounting, and consumer protection laws.


SECTION 3 - CONSENT & HOW TO WITHDRAW IT

How do you get my consent?

  • For Transactions: When you provide us with personal information to complete a transaction, verify your credit card, place an order, or arrange for a delivery or return, we process this data out of contractual necessity.
  • For Marketing: If we ask for your personal information for a secondary reason, like email marketing, we will ask you directly for your explicit, opt-in consent. Pre-ticked boxes are not used.

How do I withdraw my consent?

If you change your mind after opting in, you may withdraw your consent for us to contact you, or for the continued collection, use, or disclosure of your information at any time.

SECTION 4 - YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS (FOR EU RESIDENTS)

Under the GDPR, European Union (EU) residents possess comprehensive data protection rights. You have the right to:

  • Access the personal information we hold about you.
  • Correct or update any inaccurate data.
  • Erase your data from our active marketing and store platforms (the "Right to be Forgotten").
  • Restrict or Object to the processing of your data.
  • Data Portability, allowing you to request a digital copy of your information.
  • Lodge a Complaint with your local European Data Protection Authority if you believe your data rights have been breached.

To exercise any of these rights, please use the email form on  https://www.samanthahowardvintage.ca/pages/contact/. We will fulfill your request free of charge within one month.

SECTION 5 - DATA RETENTION

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for.

  • Order History: Retained for financial, tax, and accounting records as mandated by Canadian law (typically 7 years).
  • Marketing Profiles: Retained until you withdraw your consent or unsubscribe.


SECTION 6 - SHOPIFY & INTERNATIONAL DATA TRANSFERS

Our store is hosted on Shopify Inc. They provide us with the online e-commerce platform that allows us to sell our products and services to you. Your data is stored through Shopify’s secure data storage, databases, and the general Shopify application behind a firewall.

Payment Processing

If you choose a direct payment gateway to complete your purchase, Shopify stores your credit card data. It is encrypted through the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). Your purchase transaction data is stored only as long as is necessary to complete your purchase transaction, after which it is safely deleted. All direct payment gateways adhere to the standards set by PCI-DSS, managed by the PCI Security Standards Council (a joint effort of brands like Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover).

Cross-Border Data Transfers

Samantha Howard Vintage is located in Canada. By interacting with our store, your data will be transferred outside of the European Union (EU), primarily to Canada and the United States.

  • Canada has been recognized by the European Commission as providing an adequate level of data protection (an "Adequacy Decision").
  • Transfers to Shopify in the United States are protected by Shopify's strict data processing agreements and Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) to guarantee your data receives equivalent protection.

For more insight, you may read Shopify’s Terms of Service (https://www.shopify.com/legal/terms) or Privacy Statement (https://www.shopify.com/legal/privacy).

 

SECTION 7 - THIRD-PARTY SERVICES & LINKS

In general, the third-party providers used by us will only collect, use, and disclose your information to the extent necessary to allow them to perform the services they provide to us.

However, certain third-party service providers, such as payment gateways and other payment transaction processors, have their own privacy policies regarding the transaction information we must provide to them. We highly recommend reading their privacy policies to understand how your data is handled.

Links & External Trackers

  • External Links: When you click on links on our store, they may direct you away from our site. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of other sites.
  • Google Analytics: Our store uses Google Analytics to help us learn about who visits our site and what pages are being viewed. Google Analytics cookies are only deployed if you consent to tracking on our cookie banner.


SECTION 8 - SECURITY

To protect your personal information, we take rigorous precautions and follow industry best practices to ensure it is not inappropriately lost, misused, accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed.

If you provide us with your credit card information, the information is encrypted using Secure Sockets Layer technology (SSL) and stored with AES-256 encryption. We follow all PCI-DSS requirements and implement additional generally accepted industry standards.

 

SECTION 9 - COOKIES & TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES

Our store utilizes cookies to deliver core functions, monitor performance, and improve your shopping experience. You have the right to accept or decline non-essential cookies via our website's cookie consent banner.

  • _session_id (Unique token, sessional): Allows Shopify to store information about your session (referrer, landing page, etc.).
  • _shopify_visit (No data held, persistent for 30 minutes from last visit): Used by our website provider’s internal stats tracker to record the number of visits.
  • _shopify_uniq (No data held, expires midnight of the next day): Counts the number of visits to a store by a single customer.
  • cart (Unique token, persistent for 2 weeks): Stores information about the contents of your cart.
  • _secure_session_id (Unique token, sessional)
  • storefront_digest (Unique token, indefinite): Used to determine access if the shop uses a storefront password.
  • PREF / _ga (Persistent, short period): Set by Google Analytics to track site traffic patterns and visitor sources (Only active if tracking consent is granted).

 

SECTION 10 - AGE OF CONSENT

In compliance with the GDPR, we do not knowingly market to or collect data from children under the age of 16.


SECTION 11 - CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We reserve the right to modify this privacy policy at any time, so please review it frequently. Changes and clarifications will take effect immediately upon their posting on the website. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here that it has been updated, so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we use and/or disclose it.

 

QUESTIONS AND CONTACT INFORMATION

If you would like to access, correct, amend, or delete any personal information we have about you, register a complaint, or simply want more information, contact our Data Privacy officer at:

Email: https://www.samanthahowardvintage.ca/pages/contact/