Privacy Policy

Effective Date: October 11, 2026

The Ink Conservatory (“we,” “us,” or “our”) respects your privacy and is committed to handling your personal information responsibly. This Privacy Policy explains what information we may collect when you visit our website, purchase products, contact us, or interact with our business, how we use and share that information, and the choices available to you.

The Ink Conservatory is an independent bookstore and online retailer offering books, literary gifts, and bookish merchandise. Our website is hosted on the Wix platform.

1. Information We Collect

Depending on how you interact with our website and business, we may collect the following types of information.

Contact Information: Your name, email address, telephone number, and other contact information you voluntarily provide when contacting us or placing an order.

Order Information: Your name, billing and shipping addresses, email address, telephone number, purchased products, order history, and information related to transactions, returns, refunds, and shipping.

Payment Information: We use Square to process payments directly. Square may collect and process payment card information and transaction details necessary to complete purchases, process refunds, maintain transaction records, and help prevent fraud. We do not intentionally store complete payment card numbers or security codes in our own business records.

Communications: Information you provide when contacting us with questions, feedback, complaints, or other inquiries.

Newsletter Information: We plan to introduce a newsletter or promotional email program in the future. If we introduce this service, we may collect your email address and any subscription preferences you provide. We do not currently operate a newsletter subscription program.

Technical and Usage Information: When you visit our website, certain information may be collected automatically, including your IP address, browser type, device information, pages visited, referral source, and interactions with website features. The information collected depends on Wix's website functionality, analytics, cookies, and other technologies in use.

Please do not submit sensitive personal information through our website unless it is specifically requested and necessary for a legitimate purpose.

2. How We Collect Information

We may collect information when you:

Place an order through our online shop.
Provide contact and shipping details necessary to process and deliver your order.
Submit information through a website form or contact us by email.
Communicate with us about a purchase, return, refund, or other customer service matter.
Participate in an available website feature, such as submitting a review or feedback.
Visit or interact with our website, where technical information may be collected automatically.
Interact with us at an in-person event or through another business channel and voluntarily provide information.

We may also receive information from service providers involved in website hosting, payment processing, shipping, and website analytics.

3. How We Use Your Information

We may use personal information for the following purposes:

To process, fulfill, and deliver orders.
To process payments, refunds, returns, and other transactions.
To communicate with you about purchases, shipping, customer service, and order-related matters.
To respond to questions, requests, and feedback.
To operate, maintain, secure, and improve our website and online shop.
To understand website traffic and visitor interactions through Wix analytics.
To detect and prevent fraud, unauthorized transactions, and misuse of our website.
To maintain business, accounting, and tax records.
To comply with applicable laws and legal obligations.
To send promotional communications if we introduce a newsletter or other marketing program and you choose to receive those communications, where required by law.

We use personal information for purposes consistent with this Policy and applicable legal requirements.

4. How We Share Your Information

We do not sell personal information in exchange for money. We may share personal information with third parties when reasonably necessary to operate our business, process transactions, ship orders, or meet legal obligations.

Wix: Our website is hosted on Wix, which provides website hosting and online-store functionality. Information submitted through our website may be processed or stored by Wix to support these services.

Square: We use Square to process customer payments directly and support our shipping workflow. Square may process payment information, transaction details, contact information, and shipping information as necessary to provide its services, complete transactions, maintain transaction records, process refunds, prevent fraud, and support shipping-related functions. Square's handling of information is also governed by its applicable privacy policies and terms.

United States Postal Service (USPS): We use USPS to ship customer orders. We may provide the recipient's name, shipping address, and other information necessary to prepare and deliver shipments.

Website Analytics and Technology Providers: We use Wix's built-in analytics capabilities to understand website traffic and visitor interactions. Other service providers may process information if necessary to provide website functionality, security, or related business services.

Professional Advisers: We may disclose information to accountants, legal advisers, insurers, or other professional advisers when reasonably necessary for legitimate business purposes.

Legal and Regulatory Disclosures: We may disclose personal information when required by law, legal process, or to protect our rights, customers, or business.

We do not currently use advertising tracking tools such as Meta Pixel. If our practices change, we will update this Policy as appropriate and implement any consent mechanisms required by applicable law.

5. Website Hosting, Payment Processing, and Data Security

Our website is hosted by Wix. We use Square to process payments directly and support our shipping workflow, and we use USPS to deliver customer orders. We prepare and pack orders ourselves.

Personal information may be processed or stored by these providers as necessary to provide their respective services. We do not intentionally store complete payment card numbers or security codes in our own business records.

We take reasonable steps to protect personal information against unauthorized access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. However, no website, electronic transmission, or storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

For additional information about these providers' privacy practices, please consult their respective policies:

Wix Privacy Policy: https://www.wix.com/about/privacy
Square Privacy Policy: https://squareup.com/us/en/legal/general/privacy
USPS Privacy Policy: https://www.usps.com/privacypolicy/

6. Cookies and Website Analytics

Our website may use cookies and similar technologies to support essential website functions, maintain shopping-cart and checkout functionality, remember preferences, improve security, and understand how visitors use our website.

We currently use Wix's built-in analytics capabilities to understand website traffic and visitor interactions. We do not currently use advertising tracking tools such as Meta Pixel.

The specific cookies and technologies used may depend on Wix's functionality, our website settings, and the features enabled on our site.

Where available, you can manage optional cookies through our website's cookie-consent settings. You can also manage or block cookies through your browser settings. Blocking certain cookies may affect website functionality, including some shopping features.

For additional information about cookies used on Wix websites, please consult Wix's documentation:

https://support.wix.com/en/article/cookies-and-your-wix-site

7. Email Communications

We may use email to communicate with customers about purchases, order confirmations, shipping, customer service, and other transaction-related matters.

We plan to introduce a newsletter or promotional email program in the future. If we do, we will collect subscription information as appropriate and provide a way to unsubscribe from marketing communications.

You may opt out of promotional emails at any time using the unsubscribe instructions included in the message or by contacting us directly. Opting out of promotional communications will not prevent us from sending necessary transactional or service-related messages.

8. Data Retention

We retain personal information for as long as reasonably necessary to process and fulfill orders, maintain transaction and tax records, manage returns and refunds, resolve disputes, prevent fraud, and comply with applicable legal obligations.

Because we prepare and ship orders ourselves, we may retain relevant order and shipping information for fulfillment, customer service, and required business recordkeeping. Retention periods depend on the type of information, why it was collected, and any applicable legal requirements.

When personal information is no longer reasonably needed, we will take appropriate steps to delete it or otherwise handle it in accordance with applicable law, subject to legitimate recordkeeping and legal obligations.

9. Your Privacy Choices and Rights

Depending on applicable law, you may have the right to request access to, correction of, or deletion of certain personal information we maintain about you. You may also have the right to withdraw consent where processing is based on consent, object to certain processing, or exercise other privacy rights provided by law.

To submit a privacy-related request, contact us using the email address in the “Contact Us” section below.

We may need to verify your identity before completing certain requests. Some information may need to be retained to fulfill orders, comply with legal obligations, maintain required business records, or establish or defend legal claims.

You may also manage cookies through available website consent settings or your browser.

10. Children's Privacy

Our website is intended for a general audience and is not knowingly designed to collect personal information directly from children under 13 without the consent required by applicable law.

If you believe a child has provided personal information in circumstances where it should not have been collected, please contact us so we can review the matter and take appropriate action.

11. Third-Party Websites and Services

Our website may contain links to third-party websites, services, or social media platforms. Those third parties operate independently and maintain their own privacy policies and practices.

We are not responsible for the privacy practices, content, or security of websites and services that we do not operate. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of third-party services you visit or use.

12. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our business practices, website features, service providers, or legal requirements.

When we make changes, we will update the Effective Date at the top of this page. Where required by law, we will provide additional notice or obtain consent for material changes.

We encourage you to review this Policy periodically.

13. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or would like to submit a privacy-related request, please contact:

The Ink Conservatory

Email: inkconservatorybooks@gmail.com

Please direct privacy questions and requests to the email address above.