Privacy policy

1. Who we are and our role

Cartnio (“Cartnio”, “we”) provides review, Q&A and loyalty software to online stores.

• For merchants (people who create a Cartnio account), we are the controller of your account and billing information.
• For shoppers of a store that uses Cartnio, the store is the controller and we process your information on its behalf, as its processor, under our data processing agreement. If you have questions about how a store uses your data, contact that store first; we will help it respond.

2. Information about merchants

• Account: your email address, password (stored only as a secure hash by our sign-in provider) and sign-in times.
• Store details: store name, website, brand settings, email templates and the settings you choose.
• Billing: your plan and subscription status. Card details are collected and held by Stripe; we never see or store full card numbers.
• Support: anything you send us when you get in touch.

We use this to provide and secure the service, bill you, send service messages (such as new-review notifications you can turn off) and improve Cartnio. Our legal bases are performance of our contract with you and our legitimate interest in running and securing the service.

3. Information about shoppers

When a store uses Cartnio, we process the following on its behalf:

• Orders: order number, name, email address, products bought, order total and status, sent by the store (for example through the Cartnio WooCommerce plugin) so it can invite you to review and award loyalty points.
• Reviews and questions: your name as you enter it, rating, review text, any photos or videos you upload, questions you ask, and the date. Reviews from synced orders are marked as verified purchases.
• Loyalty: your points balance and history, VIP tier, rewards redeemed, referral code and, if you choose to give it, your birthday.
• Emails: which review request, reminder and loyalty emails were sent to you, and any unsubscribe.

Your published review shows your name as you entered it, your rating, text and approved photos on the store’s site. Your email address is never shown publicly.

Every Cartnio email has a one-click unsubscribe link. Unsubscribing from review emails for a store stops all review requests and reminders from that store; loyalty emails have their own unsubscribe.

4. Our website and cookies

cartnio.com uses only the cookies needed to keep you signed in to your dashboard. We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies, and our review and loyalty widgets do not set cookies on shoppers.

The Cartnio WooCommerce plugin, when a store turns on referrals, sets one first-party cookie on the store’s own site to remember a referral code for 30 days. That cookie is controlled by the store.

Like any website, our hosting provider records technical information such as IP address and browser type in short-lived server logs, used for security and troubleshooting.

5. Who we share information with

We do not sell personal information or share it with advertisers. We use these service providers (sub-processors), each bound by a written contract to protect the data and use it only to provide their service to us:

A store may also connect its own tools, such as Klaviyo or a webhook endpoint. When it does, Cartnio sends review and loyalty events to that destination on the store’s instruction, and the store is responsible for that use.

We may disclose information if required by law, or to protect the rights, safety and security of our users or the service.

6. Where information is stored

Our main database and file storage are hosted in Sydney, Australia. Some providers above process data in the United States. Where personal data from the UK or European Economic Area is transferred to a country without an adequacy decision, we rely on the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses and the UK International Data Transfer Addendum, together with our providers’ security measures.

7. How long we keep it

• Merchant account and store data: for as long as the account is open. When an account is closed, we delete its stores, reviews, orders, loyalty data and media within 30 days, unless the merchant exports or asks us to keep them.
• Shopper data: as long as the store keeps it in Cartnio, or until the store or the shopper asks us to delete it.
• Unsubscribe records: kept so we never email you again after you opt out.
• Billing records: as long as the law requires (normally six years).
• Backups roll off automatically within 30 days.

8. Security

Data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Each store’s data is isolated by database access rules so one merchant can never read another’s. API keys are stored only as hashes, review photos are private until approved and served through expiring links, and access to production systems is limited to the people who need it.

9. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you can ask to access, correct, delete or export your personal information, object to or restrict how it is used, and withdraw consent where we rely on it.

Merchants: email hello@cartnio.com from your account email address.

Shoppers: contact the store you bought from. You can also email hello@cartnio.com; we will pass your request to the store and help it respond.

You also have the right to complain to a data protection authority. In the UK this is the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk).

10. Children

Cartnio is a business service and is not directed at children. Merchants must not use it to collect information from children under 13 (or the age of digital consent where they are).

11. Changes and contact

If we change this policy in a way that matters, we will update the date above and, for material changes, tell merchants by email before they take effect. Questions or requests: hello@cartnio.com.