Privacy Policy

Hobby Investors (“we”, “us”), based in New Brunswick, Canada, runs hobbyinvestors.ca. This policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use it, and your choices. We handle personal information in line with Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

What we collect

• Account details: your name and email address, and your password stored in scrambled (hashed) form that we cannot read.
• Orders: your name, email, phone number, shipping address, the items you bought and payment status. Card details go directly to our payment processor, Stripe; we never see or store your full card number.
• Offers, bids and messages: the offers and auction bids you make, and messages you send us.
• How you use the store: the pages you visit, the site that referred you, and items you add to or remove from your cart or take to checkout. If you are signed in, this activity is linked to your account.
• Approximate location: your city, region and country, worked out from your IP address using a location database stored on our own server. We do not store your IP address itself.
• A visitor identifier: a code created from your connection and browser that changes every day, so we can count visitors without tracking you over time.

Cookies and browser storage

We use a cookie to keep you signed in, and your browser's local storage to remember your cart. We do not use advertising cookies or third-party tracking or analytics services.

How we use it

• To run your account, process payments, and ship and support your orders, offers and auctions.
• To send account and order emails, such as verification codes and order confirmations.
• To answer your messages.
• To understand how the store is used and improve it, and to prevent fraud and abuse.

We do not sell your personal information or use it for third-party advertising.

Who we share it with

We share personal information only with service providers that help us run the store:

• Stripe, to process payments.
• Resend, to deliver our emails.
• Amazon Web Services, which hosts the store on servers in Canada.

Stripe and Resend may process information outside Canada, including in the United States, where it may be accessible to authorities under local law. We may also disclose information when required by law.

How long we keep it

• Store usage and location data: 90 days, then deleted.
• Verification and password-reset codes: expire after 15 minutes.
• Order records: as long as required for tax and accounting purposes (generally 6 years).
• Your account, offers and messages: until you ask us to delete your account.

Your choices and rights

You can ask to see the personal information we hold about you, correct it, or delete your account (we may need to keep order records for the period above). You can also withdraw consent to optional uses. To make a request, message us from your account or use our contact page. We will respond within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Security

We protect your information with encrypted connections, hashed passwords, access controls with two-factor authentication for our admin panel, and regular backups. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to keep your information safe.

Children

The store is not intended for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their information.

Changes

We may update this policy. We will post the new version here with a new date. See also our Terms of Sale.