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Privacy policy
Who this policy covers
Buddybuy adds a live group shopping room to online stores. It runs on Shopify and Wix through their app stores, on WooCommerce, WordPress, PrestaShop and OpenCart through a plugin, and on any other store through a single script tag. Two different groups of people are covered by this policy, and the relationship is not the same for both.
- Merchants who connect a store to Buddybuy, on any of those platforms. For merchant account data, Buddybuy is the data controller.
- Shoppers who open a group shopping room on a merchant's storefront. Here the merchant is the controller and Buddybuy acts as a processor on their behalf — the merchant decides what happens to their customers' data, and their own store privacy policy applies alongside this one.
What we collect from merchants
How your account is created depends on how you connect, but what we hold is the same short list: who you are, which stores are yours, and the keys needed to talk to them.
- Shopify and Wix. The platform provides what is needed to run the app on your store when you install it — your store domain or site identity, the store name, contact email, country and currency, and the token that lets the app call that platform's API on your behalf.
- Plugin and script stores. You create an account here with your name, email and password, and add each store yourself. We store the store name, its address if you give one, and the keys that identify it. For plugin stores that includes a secret used to sign order reports, so we can tell a genuine report from a forged one.
Buddybuy requests only the permissions it needs to function. Where the platform allows it, products are read so discount rules can be scoped to them; discounts are read and written so group discounts can be applied at checkout; orders are read so merchants can see which orders came from a room. On script-only stores we hold no credentials for your store at all — the discount codes you paste in are ones you created yourself.
What we collect from shoppers
A group shopping room is a live shared session, so a small amount of data is needed to keep members in sync. In the shopper's browser, Buddybuy stores:
- A member ID. A random identifier generated in the browser so the room can tell members apart. It is not linked to a customer account in the store and is not shared between stores.
- A display name. Whatever the shopper types in so other members can see who is in the room.
- An email address, only if entered. Used to notify that shopper about the room. It is optional, and rooms work without it.
- Display preferences. The chosen room theme and language, so the room looks the same next time. These are preferences, not identifiers.
The room itself holds what members do together: chat messages, variant votes, and the items in the shared cart. This is visible to the other members of that room — that is the point of the feature — so shoppers should treat a room like any other shared chat and avoid posting sensitive personal information in it.
Payments: Buddybuy never sees card numbers or payment credentials. Checkout always runs on your store's own platform. Group discounts are either applied there at checkout, or handed to a shopper as a single-use code that only works in your store — no payment data reaches Buddybuy either way.
This website
This marketing site uses Google Analytics 4 and Google Tag Manager to understand which pages people find useful, and Microsoft Clarity for aggregate heatmaps and session replay of the marketing pages. These tools set cookies and record technical information such as browser type, approximate location derived from IP address, and the pages visited.
These analytics apply to this website only. They are not part of the app that runs on a merchant's storefront, and they do not track shoppers into the stores that use Buddybuy. You can block them with any standard browser or extension-level cookie control without affecting the site.
Why we process this data
- To provide the service. Rooms cannot sync members, votes, or a shared cart without holding the data that describes them.
- To apply discounts correctly. Discount rules are evaluated against room membership and cart contents at checkout.
- To support merchants. When a merchant reports a problem, their store's data may be examined to reproduce and fix it.
- To keep the service secure and reliable. Logs are used to detect abuse, debug failures, and prevent fraudulent use of discounts.
Who we share data with
Buddybuy does not sell personal data, and does not share it with advertising networks or data brokers. Data is shared only with the infrastructure providers needed to run the service — your own ecommerce platform, application hosting, and the analytics tools named above — and only to the extent required for them to perform that role. Data may also be disclosed where the law requires it.
How long we keep it
Merchant account data is kept while the store is connected. Room data — messages, votes, and shared carts — is kept while the room is active and for a limited retention window afterwards so merchants can review recent activity. Aggregate, non-identifying analytics may be kept longer.
On Shopify and Wix, uninstalling the app sends an uninstall webhook and that store's data is scheduled for deletion. On plugin and script stores, removing the store from your Buddybuy dashboard does the same thing — and deleting your account removes every store on it. Buddybuy also honours Shopify's mandatory customers/data_request, customers/redact and shop/redact webhooks, which is how Shopify routes a customer's data request or deletion request to the app.
Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access the personal data held about you, correct it, delete it, object to certain processing, or receive a copy in a portable format. To exercise any of these, contact us through the support channel on our Shopify App Store listing.
If you are a shopper rather than a merchant, contact the store you shopped with first. That merchant is the controller of your data and can delete it from their Buddybuy dashboard directly. We will still help if you come to us directly, but the merchant's route is usually faster.
Security
Data is transmitted over encrypted connections and access to production systems is limited to the people who need it to operate the service. No system is perfectly secure, but access tokens and store credentials are treated as sensitive and are never exposed to a storefront visitor's browser.
International transfers
Buddybuy's infrastructure and its providers may process data in countries other than the one you live in. Where data is transferred out of the UK or European Economic Area, it is transferred under the safeguards required by applicable data protection law.
Children
Buddybuy is a tool for merchants and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has provided data through a room, contact us and it will be removed.
Changes to this policy
This policy may be updated as the app changes. Material changes affecting merchants will be communicated through the app or by email.
Contact
For privacy questions and data requests, merchants can reach us through the support channel on our Shopify App Store listing. Shoppers should contact the store they bought from, since that merchant is the controller of their data.
Common questions
Does Buddybuy sell personal data?
No. Buddybuy does not sell personal data and does not share it with advertising networks or data brokers. Data is used to run the group shopping rooms and to support the merchants who install the app.
What does Buddybuy store about a shopper who joins a room?
A randomly generated member ID that identifies the browser inside the room, and the display name the shopper types in. An email address is only stored if the shopper enters one. None of this is used to build a profile across stores.
Does Buddybuy read my customers' payment details?
No. Checkout and payment are handled entirely by your own store's platform. Buddybuy never receives card numbers or payment credentials.
How long is room data kept?
Rooms and their messages are kept while they are active and for a limited retention window afterwards, so merchants can see recent activity. Merchants can request deletion of their store's data at any time.
What happens to the data if a merchant uninstalls Buddybuy?
On Shopify and Wix an uninstall webhook schedules that store's data for deletion. On plugin and script stores, removing the store from your dashboard does the same, and deleting your account removes every store on it. Shopify's mandatory data-request, customer-redact and shop-redact webhooks are honoured as required by the app store rules.
Who do I contact about a privacy request?
Merchants can reach us from their Buddybuy dashboard, or through the support channel on the Buddybuy listing in the Shopify App Store. Shoppers should contact the store they bought from first, since that merchant is the data controller for their order.
For how the app itself works, see the setup guide or how group buying works.