Privacy Policy
This privacy policy applies to all websites owned and operated by The Merch Girl, including but not limited to themerchgirl.link and any subdomains thereof.
Contact Information:
The Merch Girl collects information from you during the normal course of business, as provided by you through website forms and direct contact methods (such as email). This Information includes:
- Contact information (names, email addresses, phone numbers)
- Physical or mailing addresses
This information is collected only as necessary, in order to contact you, produce, and ship to you any orders that you place.
Your information is stored indefinitely in The Merch Girl contacts list, and on order documentation for any orders you place. Shipping addresses are stored with production partners within The Merch Girl’s account order history.
If you register for an account on our website, the personal information you provide is stored in your user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information. If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.
Any information provided by you is shared only as required to contact you, to complete your order, or as required by law. Your information will never be sold or redistributed to third parties.
When purchasing items through online marketplaces (such as Etsy), these will each have their own privacy policy explaining what information they collect and how it is used.
Comments:
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website may be able to download and extract any location data from images on the website.
When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
Your Rights:
If you have an account or have left comments on any The Merch Girl website, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
Payment Information:
The Merch Girl does not directly handle your payment information. Third party payment processors process all payments; please see their privacy policies for how they handle your data (the payment processor is shown on receipts and during checkout). Payment processors used by The Merch Girl include but are not limited to PayPal, Square, Stripe, and WooPayments.
When purchasing items through online marketplaces (such as Etsy), these will each have their own privacy policy explaining what information they collect and how it is used.
Any checks received by The Merch Girl will be held for 60 days from the date of processing, then destroyed. Virtual copies of checks will be stored for 7 years as required by US tax law.
Cookies and Analytics:
The Merch Girl websites use WordPress software, which uses cookies and may collect some data from you while you use the site. Please see the WordPress.com Privacy Policy for more information.
Some information may also be collected through The Merch Girl websites to gain insights about customers, including but not limited to their preferences, needs, and site usage. This behavioral information helps improve The Merch Girl website, products, and marketing strategies.
Google Analytics is used to collect this information. Please see the Google Privacy Policy for more information on how this data is collected, stored, used, and shared (as well as how to block them from collecting your information if you would like to).
Google Analytics may place cookies onto your computer in order to show you advertising tailored to your behavior, including advertisements for The Merch Girl products and services.
Information collected by Google Analytics is never associated with specific user identities (the data is anonymous).
If you leave a comment on any The Merch Girl website you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
If you visit the login page, it will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
When you log in, The Merch Girl website will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.
Policy Changes and Notification:
These policies may change from time to time. When the policy is updated, you will be notified via email if you are subscribed to The Merch Girl email list. The last updated date will also be posted at the bottom of the Privacy Policy page.
Last updated February 26th, 2023.