Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

The House of Spinel is an online retailer of natural, untreated spinel gemstones and spinel jewellery, based in Melbourne, Australia, shipping worldwide. We are the entity responsible for the personal information collected through this website. You can reach us any time through our contact page.

2. Information we collect

Information you give us

• Order details — your name, email address, phone number and shipping address when you place an order.
• Enquiries & messages — your name, email and the content of your message when you use our contact form, make a price-on-application or product enquiry, or ask to be notified when an item is back in stock.
• Marketing preferences — whether you have chosen to receive marketing communications from us.

Payment information

Payments are handled by our third-party payment provider. Your card details are entered directly with that provider and processed securely — we do not collect or store your full card number.

Information collected automatically

When you browse the site we may collect limited technical information such as your IP address, browser and device type, and pages viewed, together with information stored through cookies and similar technologies (see “Cookies” below).

3. How we use your information

• To process, fulfil, ship and provide receipts for your orders;
• To respond to your enquiries and provide customer support;
• To send you transactional messages about your order (such as confirmation and dispatch);
• To send marketing communications, only where you have asked us to;
• To protect the security of our site and prevent fraud;
• To improve our products, service and website; and
• To meet our legal, tax and record-keeping obligations.

4. Cookies and similar technologies

We use essential cookies to keep the site secure and working (for example, to maintain an administrator’s signed-in session), and your browser’s local storage to remember the items in your shopping bag. We do not currently use third-party advertising cookies. You can block or delete cookies through your browser settings, though some parts of the site may not work as intended if you do.

5. When we disclose your information

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only as needed to run our business, including with:

• Shipping and logistics providers, to deliver your order and handle insurance and tracking;
• Our payment provider, to process your payment;
• IT, hosting and database providers who store and process data securely on our behalf so we can operate the website and manage orders; and
• Government agencies, law enforcement or other parties where we are required or permitted to do so by law.

6. Overseas storage and disclosure

Some of our service providers (including our hosting and database provider) may store or process your personal information on servers located outside Australia. Where we disclose personal information to overseas recipients, we take reasonable steps to ensure they handle it in a way consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles.

7. How we keep your information secure

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information from misuse, loss and unauthorised access, including encryption of data in transit and restricted access controls. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

8. How long we keep it

We keep your personal information only for as long as we need it for the purposes described in this policy and to meet our legal, tax and accounting obligations. When it is no longer required, we securely delete or de-identify it.

9. Marketing

We only send marketing communications where you have opted in. You can opt out at any time using the unsubscribe link in our emails or by contacting us — we’ll action your request promptly. You will still receive essential transactional messages relating to any order you place.

10. Your rights and choices

You may ask us to access or correct the personal information we hold about you, or to withdraw your consent to marketing. Contact us through our contact page and we will respond within a reasonable time.

International visitors. If you are located in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, you may have additional rights under the GDPR / UK GDPR, including rights to access, erasure, portability and to object to processing. If you are a California resident, you may have rights under the CCPA. Please contact us to exercise any of these rights.

11. Children

Our website and products are intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.

12. Third-party links

Our site may contain links to third-party websites (for example, social media). We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites, and we encourage you to read their privacy policies.

13. Complaints

If you have a concern about how we have handled your personal information, please contact us first so we can try to resolve it. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au.

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The “last updated” date above shows when it was last revised. Any changes take effect once posted on this page.

15. Contact us

For any privacy question or request, please reach us through our contact page and a member of our team will respond.