Privacy
Policy

We collect personal information in two ways — information you give us directly, and information collected automatically when you use our website.

Information You Provide

Information Collected Automatically

• IP address — collected automatically by our hosting and analytics platforms
• Browser type and device — used to ensure the site displays correctly for you
• Pages visited and time spent — used in aggregate to understand how the site is used and improve it
• Referral source — how you arrived at our site (e.g. search engine, social media link)

We use your personal information only for legitimate business purposes directly related to running Springtails Culture and serving your order. Specifically:

• Processing and fulfilling your order — packing, labelling, and shipping your cultures to your address
• Sending order confirmations and shipping notifications — keeping you informed throughout the order process
• Responding to enquiries and claims — communicating with you about your order, live arrival claims, or any questions you contact us about
• Sending our newsletter — only if you have explicitly subscribed; you can unsubscribe at any time using the link in any newsletter email
• Improving the website — using aggregate, anonymised analytics data to understand how visitors use the site and make it better
• Fraud prevention and legal compliance — to protect our business and comply with applicable laws

We share your personal information only with the third-party service providers who are essential to running our business and fulfilling your order. We do not sell or rent your data to anyone.

Service Providers We Use

All third-party providers are selected for their reliability and privacy practices. Where required, we have data processing agreements in place with these providers.

Legal Disclosure

We may disclose your personal information if required to do so by law — for example, in response to a valid court order, subpoena, or government request. We will notify you of any such disclosure where legally permitted to do so.

Our website uses cookies — small text files stored on your device — to make the site function correctly and to understand how it is being used.

Types of Cookies We Use

• Essential cookies — required for the site to function; these include your shopping cart contents, login session (if you create an account), and security tokens. These cannot be disabled without breaking the site.
• Analytics cookies — used to collect anonymised information about how visitors use the site, such as pages visited and time spent. This helps us improve the site over time. These can be disabled without affecting site functionality.
• Preference cookies — remember choices you make on the site such as currency or language preferences.

Managing Cookies

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Most browsers allow you to block or delete cookies — note that blocking essential cookies will affect the functionality of our store (you won’t be able to add items to your cart or complete checkout). For analytics cookies, you can also opt out via your browser’s Do Not Track setting or by using the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.

We take the security of your personal information seriously and implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect it against unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction.

• SSL encryption — all data transmitted between your browser and our website is encrypted via HTTPS/SSL
• Payment security — we do not store payment card details on our servers; all payment processing is handled by PCI-compliant third-party processors
• Access controls — access to order and customer data is limited to the minimum necessary to operate the business
• Regular updates — our platform and plugins are kept up to date to address known security vulnerabilities

No method of data transmission or storage is 100% secure. While we take every reasonable precaution, we cannot guarantee the absolute security of your information. If you have concerns about a specific security issue, please contact us immediately.

Data Retention

We retain your order information for as long as is necessary for business and legal purposes — typically 7 years for financial records as required by US tax law. Newsletter subscriber information is retained until you unsubscribe. You can request deletion of your personal data at any time — see Your Rights below.

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights regarding your personal information. We honour these rights for all customers regardless of jurisdiction — not just where legally required.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us with your request. We will respond within 30 days. We may need to verify your identity before processing a request — we’ll let you know if that’s the case.

Springtails Culture is not directed at children under the age of 13 and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are a parent or guardian and believe that your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will delete that information promptly.

If you are between 13 and 18 years old, please ensure you have your parent or guardian’s permission before placing an order or providing any personal information on this site.

We may update this privacy policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, or legal requirements. When we make changes, we will update the Last Updated date at the top of this page.

For significant changes that materially affect how we handle your personal information, we will notify existing customers by email where we have your contact details. We encourage you to review this page periodically to stay informed about how we protect your information.

Continued use of our website and services after a policy update constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.

Contact & Jurisdiction

Springtails Culture is operated by a sole proprietor based at 501 Joyce Lane, New Baden, Illinois 62265, United States. This privacy policy is governed by the laws of the State of Illinois and applicable US federal law.

For any privacy-related questions, concerns, or requests, please contact us via our contact page. We take every privacy enquiry seriously and will respond within 30 days.