Privacy Policy

1. Who we are and what this covers

Connects (we, us, or our) operates connectsshop.com, a website builder for independent businesses. This policy covers our website, accounts, merchant tools, enabled checkout features, and transactional emails. Contact us about privacy at hello@connectsshop.com.

You can prepare a store privately and, after completing setup, enable a public storefront and checkout. Sample shops in Discover are demonstration content. Clearly marked test stores use simulated payments.

2. Information we handle

• Account information: your name, email address, account identifier, email-verification status, sign-in method, and account creation and update records. Our authentication provider handles password verification, sign-in sessions, and recovery credentials.
• Google sign-in: if you choose it, Google provides your account identifier, name, email address, verification status, and basic profile information such as a profile picture when available. Our authentication service handles the tokens needed for this connection. We do not receive your Google password.
• Merchant workspace: store details, images, product and membership drafts, inventory, and inbox drafts are saved to your account in our Neon database and processed by our Vercel backend. They are available when you sign in on another device. Existing account-specific browser drafts are uploaded when you open an onboarded store without a saved server version. Your bag, sample favorites, appearance preferences, and a local draft copy remain in browser storage. Store promotion preferences also stay on this browser: promotion identifiers, repeat dates and whether you clicked a promotion button. These preferences prevent repeated prompts; they contain no email address or marketing consent and are not sent to merchants. Clearing site data resets them.
• Store email signups: when you choose a store’s optional email signup, Connects stores your email, the consent wording and version, source page/form/publication, request and confirmation times, and unsubscribe or delivery-suppression history in Neon through Vercel. Resend sends the requested confirmation email and, after confirmation, merchant-reviewed campaigns and optional subscriber welcome offers. Connects stores campaign content, recipient consent snapshots, delivery attempts and delivery outcomes to prevent duplicates and honor your choices. That merchant can review the records, add organizational tags and download their subscriber records. No signup occurs automatically from a purchase, account, membership or contact form. Confirm by email to activate the signup; use the unsubscribe link without signing in to withdraw it. Unsubscribing leaves essential order, account and conversation emails unchanged. Marketing emails identify the store and provide unsubscribe controls without requiring an account. Delivery failures and complaints can prevent future emails. Consent and suppression records are retained to honor your choices and resolve requests; contact hello@connectsshop.com for access or deletion requests.
• Saved products: when you are signed in with a verified account, selected public products, options, intended quantities, and save times are stored in our Neon database through Vercel so your list works across devices. Guest saves stay in browser storage. Signing in offers a choice to merge device saves into your account; merging is not automatic. Merchants cannot access your saved list.
• Requested stock and price emails: saving a product does not subscribe you. If you request a one-time stock or price-drop email, we store the selected option, consent version and time, a hash of your verified email, status and expiry, and, for price emails, the reviewed and observed prices. Vercel checks the public catalog and Resend sends the requested email to your verified address. We retain the attempted message and delivery history in Neon. Requests stop after one email or 30 days; expiry stops checking but does not erase history. Cancel in Saved products, or remove the saved option to cancel its pending request. An email already being sent may still arrive. These requests are separate from marketing, included in your account export, and handled by account/store deletion. Merchants cannot browse individual requests.
• Followed stores: when you explicitly follow a published store, we store your account identifier, store reference and follow time in Neon through Vercel so your private list works across devices. Merchants cannot browse your list. Following and unfollowing do not subscribe or unsubscribe you from emails or notifications. Unfollow in Followed stores to remove the relationship. Account exports include your follows. The recovery window preserves them; permanent account deletion removes your list, and permanent store deletion removes relationships to that store.
• Address book: recipient names, shipping addresses, optional labels, and your default choice are stored in our Neon database through Vercel for your verified account across devices. Merchants cannot browse your address book. When you choose a saved address and continue to a store’s checkout, we send that selected address to Stripe under that merchant’s account and retain a checkout copy. The final address confirmed in checkout is used for the order. Editing or deleting an address here does not alter existing checkout, order, merchant, or Stripe records; contact us for privacy requests involving retained records.
• Purchases and memberships: buyer account and email, ordered items, prices, currency, payment and refund status, payment-provider reference identifiers, shipping details, tracking details, membership status, and download permissions. Stripe collects payment-card and financial verification information directly; Connects does not receive full payment-card numbers. Digital files are stored privately in Neon object storage and delivered through short-lived download links after access checks.
• Guest checkout: a random browser cookie links this device to basic checkout summaries for up to seven days. We store its hash and a hashed network address for abuse prevention. Stripe collects the checkout email; confirmed guest purchases are associated with an account only after its current email is verified and the customer explicitly claims the order. We retain a claim audit record. Guest checkout does not create an account or subscribe you to marketing.
• Guest forms and messages: when a store allows guest submissions, we use your name and email to send a verification code through Resend. A separate HttpOnly cookie keeps this browser verified for up to seven days. We store the session hash, hashed network address, verification attempts and your service-email preference. Verifying the same email again opens that email’s guest conversations on another browser; this does not create a Connects account or give access to purchases or account messages. The receiving merchant can see your submitted name and email. You can end browser access from Guest messages without erasing the conversation.
• Conversation photos: permitted JPG, PNG and WebP attachments are decoded, resized, converted to WebP and stripped of metadata before being stored privately in Neon, including a recovery copy. The photo filename and attachment records accompany the conversation. Access is limited to the participating guest or account customer and merchant through short-lived download links. Photos and links are not included in email alerts. Unsent uploads expire for attachment to a message after 24 hours, but this is not automatic deletion; contact us about removal. Do not send sensitive documents or photos containing payment, identity or other highly sensitive information.
• Store conversations: customer identity, product/variant or owned-order references, general store inquiries, form field labels and submitted answers, membership plan details displayed when a question was sent, message text, timestamps, conversation status and read positions are stored in Neon through Vercel and shared with the participating customer and merchant. Both participants can download the original submitted form. Merchant notes remain private to that merchant. Messages arrive in Connects and do not subscribe anyone to marketing. Optional unread-message email alerts use your verified account or guest email address and can be turned off separately in your customer and merchant inboxes or muted for an individual conversation. Resend receives a generic alert and access-protected conversation link, not conversation text or merchant notes. We store alert preferences, delivery records and hashed addresses suppressed after permanent delivery failures or spam complaints. Existing preview drafts are not automatically sent.
• Messages and email delivery: information you send when contacting us, and account-email recipients, message contents, delivery identifiers, timestamps, and delivery or failure status.
• Technical information: our hosting and authentication services may process IP addresses, browser and device information, request times, and diagnostic or security logs to deliver and protect the service. We do not currently use advertising pixels or product analytics tools.

3. How we use information

We use information to create and secure accounts, save and synchronize merchant workspaces and customer saved products, verify email addresses, restore sign-in sessions, prevent abuse, deliver verification and password-reset messages, send welcome, order, shipping, and membership billing emails, process authorized checkouts, manage inventory and memberships, provide purchased downloads, respond to requests, and troubleshoot service failures. Browser storage keeps a local draft copy and your preferences available on the same device.

Google sign-in is optional. We request only basic identity permissions (openid, email, and profile), used to authenticate you and associate your Google identity with your Connects account. We do not request access to your Gmail messages, contacts, Drive files, or calendar. We do not use Google user data for advertising, sell it, or use it to train AI models. The preview assistant uses local guided responses; it does not send your prompts to an AI model.

Account emails are part of operating your account. Creating an account does not subscribe you to a marketing mailing list.

4. Providers and disclosures

We use Vercel for website and backend hosting, Neon for authentication, account and merchant storage, and private file storage, Stripe for payments, merchant onboarding, subscriptions, and billing management, Resend for transactional email, and Google Workspace for business correspondence. These providers process information needed to perform their services. Google also processes requests when you choose Google sign-in. The site loads Google Fonts, which sends a normal web request containing technical information such as your IP address to Google.

When you purchase from an independent store, that merchant receives the order, buyer contact information, and shipping information needed to fulfill and support your purchase. Merchants are responsible for their own handling of customer information. Stripe processes information under its Privacy Policy, including fraud prevention and payment security.

We do not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We limit disclosure of Google sign-in information to operating and securing your account and fulfilling your requests. We may also disclose information when required by law, to investigate abuse or protect rights and safety, or in a business transfer subject to applicable privacy protections. Independent third-party sites have their own policies.

5. Cookies and browser storage

Authentication uses cookies or similar session mechanisms to keep you signed in. Guest checkout and guest messages use separate HttpOnly cookies; you can end browser access from Guest orders or Guest messages. Clearing these cookies does not cancel or erase orders or conversations. You can still claim paid purchases using the verified checkout email, or reverify your email to return to guest messages. Local browser storage saves drafts, bags, guest saves, sample favorites, and preferences. These functions support the service rather than advertising. You can manage cookies and site data in your browser, but blocking them may prevent sign-in and clearing them can delete drafts. Export your drafts from Settings first if you want to keep a copy.

We do not track your activity across unrelated websites for advertising. The site does not currently change its behavior in response to a Do Not Track signal. We do not sell or share data for targeted advertising, including when a Global Privacy Control signal is present.

6. Retention, security, and processing locations

Self-service account and store deletion includes a 30-day recovery window. Scheduling closes an owned store to new visitors and sales; account deletion also closes normal customer access while retaining access to Account data for export and recovery. After the recovery deadline, eligible saved profile, draft, catalog, non-order conversation, subscriber and private-file records are removed. Account deletion also removes the sign-in identity and its credentials and sessions. Recovery before the deadline leaves stores private and marketing paused. A minimal request audit and reserved store identity remain.

Connects has not yet approved a fixed retention schedule for order, tax, payment, refund, dispute and related agreement records. These records, related catalog/files and order conversations remain on a disclosed retention hold for policy review. Deletion does not cancel active subscriptions, issue refunds, delete independent Stripe or email-provider records, or immediately erase provider backups, logs or device copies. A separate private erasure receipt supports review before a database restore so deleted records are not inadvertently reactivated. Contact us about retained information and any applicable request deadlines.

We retain account information and merchant workspaces while needed to operate the account and respond to requests. Orders, subscription records, purchased-file access, delivery, store conversations, private merchant notes, support, and security records are retained as needed for delivery reliability, abuse prevention, resolving issues, and legal obligations. Removed catalog items may remain archived for data integrity. Deletion may be subject to limited retention for those purposes and to provider backup cycles. Browser drafts remain on your device until you remove them or clear site data.

We use HTTPS, access restrictions, and authentication controls to protect information. No system can guarantee complete security. Please use a unique password and enter payment details only in Stripe’s checkout or account-verification screens. Do not put payment-card data or highly sensitive personal information into product descriptions, store drafts, or support messages.

Our providers may process information in the United States and other countries where they operate. Privacy protections may differ from those where you live. Where applicable law requires safeguards for an international transfer, those requirements apply.

7. Your choices and requests

Open Account data to download saved account or store records, schedule deletion, view your request, or cancel within the 30-day recovery window. A fresh email code, a separate review and an explicit confirmation protect each sensitive action. Export downloads expire after 20 minutes; individual private-file links expire after two minutes. Passwords, login tokens and other people’s private merchant notes are excluded. Open commerce obligations must be resolved before self-service deletion. For larger exports, guest or retained records, correction, or assisted requests, email hello@connectsshop.com from your account address. We may ask for reasonable verification before acting, and we respond within the time required by applicable law. You can remove saved products from your list, export browser drafts in Settings, and remove local copies using your browser’s site-data controls. Deleting an account does not automatically erase drafts saved on your device.

You can revoke the Google connection in your Google Account settings. Revoking Google access does not itself delete your Connects account. Email/password sign-in is also available. Depending on where you live and the laws that apply, you may have additional rights to restrict or object to processing, withdraw consent, obtain portable data, appeal a decision, or complain to a privacy authority. Contact us to exercise applicable rights; we will not discriminate against you for doing so.

8. Children

Connects accounts are intended for adults who can enter into a business agreement. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided personal information, contact us so we can investigate and take appropriate action.

9. Changes and contact

We will update the date on this page when this policy changes. For material changes to how we use personal information, we will provide a notice through the service or the account email and obtain consent when required. We will describe new uses of information before activating them.

Privacy questions: hello@connectsshop.com. Please also read our Terms of Service.