Privacy policy

Stone and Scents respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store and share your information when you visit our website, place an order, contact us or otherwise interact with our online store.

This policy applies to customers and website visitors located in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and other countries where we offer our products.

1. Who We Are

Stone and Scents is an online retailer specialising in miniature perfumes and fragrance products.

For the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (“UK GDPR”), Stone and Scents is responsible for deciding how and why your personal data is processed.

Store name: Stone and Scents
Contact email: info@stoneandscents.com
Business model: Online-only retail store

2. Personal Data We Collect

Depending on how you interact with our store, we may collect the following categories of personal data:

Identity and Contact Information

This may include:

  • Full name;
  • Billing address;
  • Delivery address;
  • Email address;
  • Telephone number;
  • Country or region;
  • Information provided when contacting customer support.

Order and Transaction Information

This may include:

  • Products purchased;
  • Order number and order history;
  • Amounts paid;
  • Discounts or promotional codes used;
  • Delivery and tracking information;
  • Refunds, returns, disputes or chargeback information.

We do not normally store complete payment card details. Payments are processed securely by third-party payment providers, which process your payment information according to their own privacy policies and security standards.

Technical and Usage Information

When you visit our website, certain information may be collected automatically, including:

  • Internet Protocol address;
  • Browser type and version;
  • Device type;
  • Operating system;
  • Time zone and approximate location;
  • Pages viewed;
  • Products viewed;
  • Time spent on the website;
  • Referring website or advertisement;
  • Website interactions and shopping activity.

Marketing and Communication Information

This may include:

  • Your marketing preferences;
  • Whether you opened or interacted with our emails;
  • Responses to surveys, promotions or campaigns;
  • Communications exchanged with our support team;
  • Advertising interactions.

3. How We Collect Your Personal Data

We may collect personal data:

  • Directly from you when you place an order;
  • When you create an account or subscribe to our newsletter;
  • When you contact us by email, contact form or social media;
  • Automatically through cookies and similar technologies;
  • From payment processors, delivery companies and service providers;
  • From advertising and analytics platforms;
  • From fraud prevention and payment verification providers.

4. How We Use Your Personal Data

We may use your personal data to:

  • Process, confirm and deliver your orders;
  • Collect and verify payments;
  • Provide order updates and tracking information;
  • Respond to questions, complaints, refund requests and support enquiries;
  • Prevent fraud, misuse, unauthorised transactions and security incidents;
  • Manage returns, refunds, chargebacks and disputes;
  • Maintain and improve our website, products and services;
  • Analyse website traffic and customer behaviour;
  • Personalise your shopping experience;
  • Send marketing communications where permitted;
  • Display relevant advertisements;
  • Comply with accounting, tax, consumer protection and legal obligations;
  • Establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

5. Legal Bases for Processing

Where the GDPR or UK GDPR applies, we rely on one or more of the following legal bases:

Performance of a Contract

We process your personal data when necessary to accept payment, fulfil your order, arrange delivery, provide customer support or manage returns and refunds.

Legal Obligation

We may process and retain information where necessary to comply with tax, accounting, consumer protection, fraud prevention or other legal requirements.

Legitimate Interests

We may process personal data for legitimate business purposes, including:

  • Protecting our store and customers from fraud;
  • Improving our website and services;
  • Understanding business performance;
  • Managing customer relationships;
  • Protecting and enforcing our legal rights;
  • Sending limited marketing communications to existing customers where legally permitted.

We will only rely on legitimate interests where those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms.

Consent

We may rely on your consent for:

  • Non-essential cookies;
  • Certain analytics and advertising technologies;
  • Email or SMS marketing where consent is required.

You may withdraw your consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before the withdrawal.

6. Payment Processing

Payments are processed through independent payment providers made available at checkout.

These providers may collect and process information such as your name, billing address, payment method, card information, bank details, transaction identifiers and fraud-prevention data.

Stone and Scents does not normally receive or retain your complete payment card number or security code.

Your payment provider acts according to its own privacy policy and may process your information as an independent data controller.

7. Order Fulfilment and Delivery

To fulfil your order, we may share necessary information with:

  • Warehousing and fulfilment partners;
  • Product suppliers;
  • Postal services;
  • Courier and delivery companies;
  • Customs authorities;
  • Tracking and logistics providers.

The information shared may include your name, delivery address, telephone number, email address, ordered products and tracking details.

Only the information reasonably necessary to prepare, dispatch, track and deliver your order will be shared.

8. Service Providers and Other Recipients

We may share personal data with trusted service providers that support the operation of our store, including:

  • Website hosting and e-commerce providers;
  • Payment processors;
  • Fraud prevention providers;
  • Customer support platforms;
  • Email and SMS communication providers;
  • Analytics providers;
  • Advertising platforms;
  • Cloud storage and information technology providers;
  • Accountants, insurers, legal advisers and professional consultants;
  • Logistics, fulfilment and delivery partners.

These providers may process personal data only for authorised purposes and subject to appropriate contractual, confidentiality and security obligations.

We may also disclose personal data:

  • Where required by law or a valid legal request;
  • To protect customers, our business or third parties;
  • In connection with a merger, sale, restructuring or transfer of the business;
  • To investigate fraud, security incidents or violations of our terms.

We do not sell your personal data in exchange for money.

9. Cookies and Similar Technologies

Our website may use cookies, pixels, tags, local storage and similar technologies.

These technologies may be used to:

  • Keep the website functioning correctly;
  • Remember your cart and preferences;
  • Enable secure checkout;
  • Analyse website traffic and performance;
  • Understand how visitors use the website;
  • Measure advertising results;
  • Personalise advertisements and marketing content;
  • Prevent fraud and protect the website.

Some cookies are strictly necessary and cannot be disabled without affecting essential website functions.

Where required by law, analytics, advertising and other non-essential cookies will only be activated after you provide consent through our cookie banner or preference centre.

You may withdraw or change your cookie consent at any time through the cookie settings available on our website. You may also control cookies through your browser settings, although disabling certain cookies may affect website functionality.

10. Marketing Communications

We may send promotional communications about Stone and Scents products, offers and updates where:

  • You have given your consent;
  • You are an existing customer and the communication is legally permitted;
  • Another valid legal basis applies.

You can unsubscribe at any time by:

  • Clicking the unsubscribe link in a marketing email;
  • Adjusting your communication preferences where available;
  • Contacting us at info@stoneandscents.com.

Unsubscribing from marketing does not prevent us from sending service-related communications, such as order confirmations, payment information, delivery updates, security notices or responses to customer support requests.

11. Personalised Advertising

With your consent where required, we may use advertising platforms to show advertisements based on your interactions with our website.

These platforms may process information such as:

  • Device and browser information;
  • Cookie identifiers;
  • Products viewed;
  • Items added to your cart;
  • Purchases or website interactions;
  • Approximate location;
  • Advertisement interactions.

You can manage these technologies through our cookie preference centre and the privacy or advertising settings offered by the relevant platform.

12. International Data Transfers

Some of our service providers, technology platforms, suppliers or logistics partners may operate outside the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom.

Where personal data is transferred internationally, we take reasonable steps to ensure that appropriate safeguards are used, such as:

  • Transfers to countries recognised as providing an adequate level of data protection;
  • European Commission Standard Contractual Clauses;
  • The United Kingdom International Data Transfer Agreement or UK Addendum;
  • Other legally recognised transfer mechanisms.

Although privacy laws may differ between countries, we require relevant service providers to protect personal data according to applicable legal and contractual standards.

13. Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.

Retention periods may depend on:

  • The duration of our customer relationship;
  • Order fulfilment and customer support requirements;
  • Refund, warranty or dispute periods;
  • Fraud prevention requirements;
  • Tax, accounting and legal obligations;
  • The establishment or defence of legal claims;
  • Whether you have consented to marketing communications.

Order and transaction records may be retained for the period required by applicable tax, accounting and commercial laws.

When personal data is no longer required, we will delete, anonymise or securely dispose of it, unless continued retention is required or permitted by law.

14. Data Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal data against:

  • Unauthorised access;
  • Accidental loss;
  • Misuse;
  • Alteration;
  • Disclosure;
  • Destruction.

These measures may include secure connections, access restrictions, password controls, trusted payment providers and security monitoring.

However, no online transmission or storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. Customers are responsible for keeping their account credentials and passwords confidential.

15. Your Data Protection Rights

Depending on your location and applicable law, you may have the right to:

  • Be informed about how your personal data is used;
  • Request access to the personal data we hold about you;
  • Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information;
  • Request deletion of your personal data;
  • Request restriction of processing;
  • Object to processing based on legitimate interests;
  • Object to direct marketing at any time;
  • Request the transfer of certain data to you or another provider;
  • Withdraw consent at any time;
  • Request information about safeguards used for international transfers;
  • Lodge a complaint with a competent data protection authority;
  • Exercise rights relating to automated decision-making, where applicable.

These rights are subject to legal conditions and exceptions. For example, we may need to retain certain order or transaction information to comply with tax, accounting, fraud prevention or legal requirements.

16. Exercising Your Rights

To exercise your privacy rights, contact us at:

info@stoneandscents.com

Please include enough information for us to identify your request. We may ask for reasonable proof of identity before disclosing, correcting or deleting personal data.

We aim to respond within the timeframe required by applicable law. In certain circumstances, the response period may be extended where a request is complex or multiple requests have been submitted.

There is normally no fee for exercising your rights. However, where permitted by law, we may charge a reasonable fee or refuse a request that is clearly unfounded, excessive or repetitive.

17. Complaints

Please contact us first if you have concerns about how we process your personal data. We will attempt to investigate and resolve your concern.

You also have the right to submit a complaint to the data protection authority in the country where you live, work or believe a data protection violation occurred.

Customers in the United Kingdom may submit a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Exercising this right does not prevent you from seeking other administrative or judicial remedies.

18. Children’s Privacy

Our store is not intended for children who are not legally able to enter into online purchase agreements.

We do not knowingly collect personal data directly from children without the involvement or authorisation of a parent or legal guardian where such authorisation is required by law.

If you believe that a child has provided personal data to us improperly, please contact info@stoneandscents.com so that we can investigate and take appropriate action.

19. Third-Party Websites

Our website may contain links to third-party websites, applications or social media platforms.

Stone and Scents does not control and is not responsible for the privacy practices, content or security of third-party services. We recommend reviewing the privacy policy of each third-party website before providing personal information.

20. Automated Decision-Making

We do not normally make decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects based solely on automated processing.

However, payment, fraud prevention and security providers may use automated systems to assess transaction risks. This may result in a payment being delayed, declined or referred for additional verification.

Where applicable, such processing is carried out to prevent fraud, protect transactions and comply with legal or contractual requirements.

21. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect:

  • Changes to our services or business operations;
  • Changes to service providers;
  • New legal or regulatory requirements;
  • Improvements to our privacy and security practices.

The latest version will be published on our website with an updated revision date. Material changes may also be communicated by email or through a prominent website notice where appropriate.

22. Contact Us

For questions, requests or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy or the processing of your personal data, contact:

Stone and Scents
Email: info@stoneandscents.com
Online store: Stone and Scents