Privacy Policy

THE GENTLE ART COMPANY PRIVACY POLICY

Last updated: September 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how The Gentle Art Company collects, uses, stores and protects your personal information when you visit our website, purchase something from us, sign up to our mailing list, book a workshop, or otherwise interact with us.

We respect your privacy and take care with the information you share with us.

PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

When you visit our website, we may automatically collect certain information about your device and how you use our website. This may include your IP address, browser type, device type, approximate location, pages you visit, the links you click, and information about how you interact with our website.

Our website is hosted and operated through Wix, which may collect information through cookies and similar technologies. We also use Wix Analytics to help us understand how visitors use our website and to improve our website and services.

We may collect information using technologies such as:

Cookies — small data files stored on your device that help our website function and allow us to understand how visitors use it.
Analytics tools — including Wix Analytics, which helps us understand website traffic and visitor behaviour.
Pixels and similar technologies — where these are used by Wix or other website functionality.

You can adjust your browser settings to refuse or delete cookies. Please note that doing so may affect how some parts of our website function.

INFORMATION YOU PROVIDE TO US

When you make a purchase, sign up for our mailing list, contact us, book a workshop, or otherwise provide information to us, we may collect information such as:

your name
email address
phone number
billing and/or delivery address
information relating to your order or booking
communications you have with us
any other information you choose to provide.

When you make a purchase, payment information and transaction processing will be handled through our specialised payment provider, Swipe. For managing payment execution and order fulfilment, Swipe acts as our service provider (processor), while operating as an independent data controller for assessing transaction risks, running automated fraud detection, and fulfilling regulatory obligations such as Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements where applicable.

When interacting with our financial checkout options, we and our processors may also collect tokenised payment details, digital asset specifics, and technical device markers (such as IP addresses and device interaction metrics) used to calculate security and fraud risk scores. We do not store your full payment card details or raw financial data on our servers; sensitive credentials are securely processed and tokenised via encrypted protocols directly through our provider's infrastructure.

We refer to all of this information as Personal Information.

HOW DO WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

We use your Personal Information for purposes connected with our business and only where permitted by law, including to:

process and fulfil orders and execute transactions
arrange delivery of purchases
process workshop bookings
communicate with you about your orders, bookings or enquiries
send invoices, receipts and confirmations
respond to messages and requests
provide information or communications you have asked to receive
send occasional newsletters or updates where you have chosen to receive them
improve our website, products, workshops and services
understand how people use our website and improve your experience
protect our website and business against payment fraud, automated bot attacks, misuse or other security risks
meet our legal, tax, accounting, and regulatory compliance obligations.

If you have subscribed to receive communications from us, you can unsubscribe at any time by contacting us directly.

We will not sell your Personal Information.

SHARING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We may share your Personal Information with trusted third parties where this is necessary to operate our business and provide our products and services.

These may include:

Wix, which hosts and provides functionality for our website and online store
Swipe, our payment and financial partner, for transaction processing, fraud screening, and regulatory compliance
delivery and courier services, where required to fulfil your order
website analytics services provided through Wix
professional advisers, where necessary
government agencies or other organisations where we are legally required to provide information.

We do not use a third-party newsletter or email marketing platform. When you choose to receive emails from us, your contact details are used by The Gentle Art Company to communicate with you directly.

These providers may only use your information for the purposes for which it has been provided or as otherwise permitted by law.

Some of our service providers may be based outside New Zealand or may store or process information overseas. Where Personal Information is disclosed to an overseas organisation, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that the information is protected in accordance with the requirements of the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020, including its rules relating to overseas disclosure.

We may also disclose Personal Information where we are required to do so by law, or where reasonably necessary to protect our rights, property, safety or the security of our website and customers.

MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS

We love keeping in touch with curious people, but we don't want to fill your inbox with things you didn't ask for.

If you choose to subscribe to our newsletter or other marketing communications, we may use your name and email address to send you information about The Gentle Art Company, including new creations, workshops, Ministry of Curiosity & Small Wonders Edits, creative happenings, news and occasional notes from our kitchen table.

If you’d rather not receive these notes from my kitchen table anymore, simply reply to the newsletter email with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line and I’ll take you off the list. No hard feelings. We will not use your Personal Information for marketing purposes where you have asked us not to.

DATA RETENTION

We keep Personal Information only for as long as we reasonably need it for the purpose for which it was collected, or where we are required to keep it for legal, accounting or other legitimate business purposes. Financial and transactional records are retained for as long as required by applicable financial laws and tax regulations.

When Personal Information is no longer required, we will take reasonable steps to securely delete or destroy it. General personal account data may be deleted upon request, though information we are legally required to retain may not be immediately erased.

KEEPING YOUR INFORMATION SAFE

We take reasonable steps to protect the Personal Information we hold from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration or destruction. Sensitive payment credentials are encrypted in transit and at rest using secure protocols.

However, no method of transmitting or storing information online is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS

Under the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020, you have rights relating to the Personal Information we hold about you.

You may ask us:

what Personal Information we hold about you
for access to that information
to correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete
to stop receiving marketing communications from us
questions about how we collect, use or store your information.

If you would like to access or correct your Personal Information, please contact us using the details below.

We may need to verify your identity before providing access to Personal Information or making certain changes.

If you believe we have not handled your Personal Information appropriately, please contact us so that we have the opportunity to address your concerns. You may also contact the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner.

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to our business, website, technology, legal requirements or the way we handle Personal Information. Any updated version will be published on this page.

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, would like to access or correct your Personal Information, or would like to make a privacy-related complaint, please contact us:

The Gentle Art Company
Caro Aldridge
Email: hello@thegentleartcompany.nz

We will do our best to respond to your request promptly and fairly.

Thank you, we’re so glad you’re here.