Privacy policy

1. What this policy covers

This policy explains how Sweet Sting collects, uses, stores and shares personal information, and what you can do about it. We handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020 and its information privacy principles.

It applies to sweetsting.co.nz, to orders and subscriptions placed through the site, and to emails you send us.

2. What we collect

We collect only what we need to get a bottle of hot honey to you and to answer you when you write to us:

• →Your name, email address, delivery address and (if you give it) a phone number for the courier
• →Your order and subscription history, including what you bought and when
• →Anything you type into our contact form or send us by email
• →Newsletter sign-up and your marketing preferences
• →Basic technical information about your visit — pages viewed, approximate location, device and browser type

3. Payment information

We do not collect, see or store your card details. Payments are processed by Stripe on Stripe's own secure checkout. Stripe passes back only what we need to run the order — a payment reference, the amount, the result, and the last four digits and card brand for reconciliation.

Stripe is an overseas payment processor and handles your payment information under its own privacy policy.

4. How we use it

• →Processing, packing and delivering your order, and dealing with anything that goes wrong
• →Running subscriptions and taking the payments you have authorised
• →Replying to your questions
• →Sending you our newsletter, if you asked for it
• →Understanding how the site is used so we can make it less annoying
• →Meeting our legal obligations, including tax and food safety record keeping

5. Cookies and analytics

We use cookies that are necessary for the site to work — remembering your cart and keeping your checkout session alive — and basic analytics to count visits and see which pages are used.

You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. If you block the necessary ones, the cart and checkout will not work properly.

6. Who we share it with

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for anyone else's marketing. We do share it with the service providers we need to run the business:

• →Stripe, to process payments and subscriptions
• →Our courier, to deliver your parcel — name, address and phone number only
• →Our email and newsletter provider, if you have subscribed
• →Our website hosting and analytics providers
• →Our accountant and, where we are legally required to, government agencies

7. Information sent overseas

Some of those providers store information outside New Zealand. Before disclosing personal information overseas we take reasonable steps to satisfy ourselves that the recipient is subject to comparable safeguards to those in the Privacy Act 2020, as required by information privacy principle 12.

8. Keeping it safe

The site runs over HTTPS. Access to order data is limited to the two of us and protected by strong, unique passwords and two-factor authentication where the provider supports it.

No system is perfect. If we ever have a privacy breach that is likely to cause you serious harm, we will notify you and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner as the Privacy Act requires.

9. How long we keep it

We keep order records for seven years, because tax law says we have to. Newsletter subscriptions are kept until you unsubscribe. Contact form messages are kept for two years so we have the history if you write again.

10. Your rights

Under principles 6 and 7 of the Privacy Act 2020 you can ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, and ask us to correct anything that is wrong. Email us and we will respond within 20 working days.

You can also ask us to delete information we no longer need to keep, and we will unless we are legally required to retain it.

11. Marketing emails

We only send marketing email to people who asked for it. Every message has a working unsubscribe link and we act on it promptly, as required by the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007. Unsubscribing does not stop transactional emails about an order you have placed.

12. Children

This site is not aimed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16. If you think we have, tell us and we will delete it.

13. Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal information, email hello@sweetsting.co.nz first — we would rather hear it and fix it. If you are still not satisfied, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at privacy.org.nz.

14. Changes and contact

We may update this policy. The current version always lives at this address, with the date it was last changed at the top. Questions go to hello@sweetsting.co.nz.