Privacy Policy

Last Updated: July 8th, 2022

Who we are

Soapy Friends is a resource site for soap makers – a friendly community of artists, hobbyists, and business owners (and who Kandra calls friends!) Soapy Friends is a DBA of Phases Design Studio, Inc. (which is owned by Kandra Churchwell) who retains rights to all content presented through Soapy Friends.

Below, you will find our privacy policy which describes how we collect, use, process and distribute your information. We do not use or share your information with anyone except as described in this policy. The use of information collected through our website shall be limited to the purposes of this policy.

We may change this privacy policy at any time and will highlight any changes for your information on the website if and when they are made.

By using our website, you consent to this policy.

Here’s the quick run down (but be sure to read the full dets below).

We may use the information we collect from you when you register, make a purchase, sign up for our newsletter, respond to a survey or marketing communication, browse the website, or use certain other site features:

•  To personalize your experience to provide better content for you.
•  To improve our website to better serve you.
•  To respond to your customer service requests.
•  To administer a contest, promotion, survey, or other site feature.
•  To quickly process your transactions.
•  To send emails regarding your order or other products and services, including reviews.

What personal information do we collect from you?

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection (because no one likes spam!).

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Media

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

Contact forms

If you submit contact forms on our website, we collect the data shown in the contact form as well as your IP address and browser user agent string to help with spam detection.

The submitted information is kept securely in our database and in our email service for up to three years.

Shopping

When browsing our products we store the following information:

• Products viewed. (So we can make suggestions about related products and help you find that “thing” you were looking at earlier).
• Your location, IP address and browser type maybe used to optimize your experience for estimating taxes and shipping.
• Your address. Once entered, your address will be saved for use in billing and shipping.
• Your shopping cart contents will be stored for 60 days so you can come back to it later.

At time of purchase, we’ll ask you to provide information including your name, billing address, shipping address, email address, phone number, credit card/payment details and account information like username and password. We use this information to:

• Send you information about your account and order.
• Respond to your question about your order.
• Process payments and prevent fraud.
• Set up your account for our store .
• Comply with any legal obligations we have.
• Improve our store.
• Send you marketing messages if you choose to receive them.

When you create an account, we will store your name, address, email, and phone number, which will be used to populate the checkout for future orders. You can edit or change this information anytime you want in your account dashboard.

How long we store/retain data:

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website or purchase our products, we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information. Shopping cart and order information is also stored in your account and can be deleted for you upon request.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

You can see YouTube’s Privacy Policy and Vimeo’s Privacy Policy for more details.

Communication

If you opt-in to receive our emails, we may use your personal information to provide you with relevant information about the products you purchase or marketing communications that we believe will be of value and interest to you. If this ever starts to bug you, you can easily unsubscribe from the link in any of the emails. We also keep track of what emails we have sent you through our system (so we don’t send you the same thing twice!). These logs are retained until you request removal of your data.

Analytics

We also collect non-identifying information, such as the browser type, language preference, referring site, and the date and time of each visitor request. We collect this information to better understand how you use our website, which helps us improve it for you. We collect behavior statistics that help with this goal too (such as which pages are popular and which ones are just hogging bandwidth).

How long do we store data?

If you leave a comment, the comment and its data are retained indefinitely unless requested to be removed.

If you have an account and do not log in to this site, we remove your account and all relevant information after 24 months of inactivity.

If you begin to place an order and choose to abandon the checkout process, cancel the order, or fail to complete the order, your initiated order will be deleted after thirty days.

If you place an order and fully complete it, your order details will remain for as long as your account it active. This allows you to access your digital goods and online courses for as long as you are interested in them.

If you sign up for marketing emails and do not want to receive them any longer, you may opt-out by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails. We do not delete the information collected from email subscribers unless requested.

What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Where your data is stored or sent

For the most part, we keep your data right where you entered it. There are a few exceptions including:

• automated spam detection service called Akismet for comments.
• Your user information, such as account data and order information, is stored in our web host’s secure database.
• If you are an email subscriber, your information is stored in our email service’s secure database.

Please see the Third Party Disclosure for more information.

How do we protect your data?

Our website is scanned on a regular basis for security holes and known vulnerabilities in order to make your visit to our site as safe as possible.

Your personal information is contained behind secured networks and is only accessible by a limited number of people who have special access rights to such systems, and are required to keep the information confidential

When you register for an account on our website, you are responsible for maintaining your account’s security by using a strong password.

We implement a variety of security measures when a user places an order enters, submits, or accesses their information to maintain the safety of your personal information. All transactions are protected by SSL encryption technology, processed through a gateway provider, and are not stored or processed on our servers.

If you are not in the United States, you should know that your personal information will be processed in the United States.

In the unfortunate event of a data breach, we will contact you and the relevant authorities within 72 hours of discovery.

Do we use cookies?

Yes, we do.

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

Third-Party Disclosure

If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email. That’s it. We don’t share your data without your permission. But, by using this site, you are giving us permission to share what’s necessary with third-party services:

• We use Google Analytics for analytical information. Some of your anonymized non-identifying data will be passed to Google Analytics to help us improve the website. Please see the Google Privacy Policy for more details.
• We accept payments through PayPal and Stripe. When processing payments, some of your data will be passed to PayPal or Stripe, including information required to process or support the payment, such as the purchase total and billing information. Please see the PayPal Privacy Policy and Stripe Privacy Policy for more details.
• We use MailChimp for email marketing. Your data may be transferred to MailChimp for processing in accordance with their Privacy Policy. You can opt-out at any time by clicking the link in an email from us.

Third-party links

Occasionally, we may include or offer third party information, products, or services on our website. These third-party sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites.

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Please see Amazon’s Privacy Policy for more details.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at hello@SoapyFriends.com

Children Online Privacy Protection Act

We do not market to or serve children under the age of 18 years old. Our content and information is directed to adults because soapmaking can be dangerous. Also, I have a potty mouth.

Comment Policy

By leaving a comment, you understand that:

1. You may comment without registering. You do not have to have an account to leave a comment, however, it may be flagged as spam and not pass our moderation systems.
2. We use spam prevention filters on comments. Our website automatically filters spam. We’re super sorry if your comment got tagged as spam, and please don’t take it personally.
3. You may post follow-up questions. This helps others learn along with you, so please post replies to replies!
4. You may disagree with us. That’s OK, friends can disagree. But keep it friendly. We will delete inappropriate comments.
5. We reserve the right to delete your comments. We will delete any comment that is rude, off-topic, spam, defamatory, abusive, threatening, pornographic, misleading or otherwise causing an issue amongst the Soapy Friends community. Any user that creates a negative environment may be banned from further using this website.
6. You retain ownership of your comments. We disclaim any and all liability that may result from your comments. By commenting here, you agree that you retain all ownership rights in what you post here and that you relieve us from any and all liability that may result from those comments.
7. You grant us a license to post your comments. This license is worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, and royalty-free. You grant Soapy Friends the right to store, use, transmit, display, publish, reproduce, and distribute your comments in any format, including but not limited to a blog post, in a book, a video, or presentation.

Sales Tax Policy

We collect sales tax in states where we have a physical presence (or nexus) – Arizona –  and when we are required to. 

Depending on your state, you may still owe sales tax on your purchase. Your state most likely requires purchasers to report and pay tax on all purchases that are not taxed at the time of sale. The tax may be reported and paid on your individual income tax return or by filing a consumer use tax return. For more information, please visit your state’s department of revenue website.

Refund Policy

None of our products are returnable or refundable as they are either digital (where the purchaser may receive and consume the product upon payment completion), our personal time/advice given (where we may not recover that time or advice), or classes (where advanced registration is necessary to ensure adequate resources for all students are purchased/prepared).

However, we do encourage customers  let us know if they are unhappy with a product or service so that we may work to improve it in the future!

Legal & Copyright Disclaimer

Soapy Friends and its content (images, text, videos, etc.) are protected under the US Copyright Act of 1976 and all other applicable international, federal, state and local laws, and all rights are reserved, including resale rights. You are not allowed to reuse, distribute, modify, give or sell any material from Soapy Friends to anyone else, including but not limited to photographs, articles, ebooks, videos, downloads, etc.

Please note that all of the information presented on Soapy Friends is based on personal experience and anecdotal evidence. Although we have made every attempt to achieve complete accuracy, we assume no responsibility for errors or omissions.

You should use this information as you see fit, and at your own risk. Your particular formula or method may not be exactly suited to the information included within, and you should adjust your use of the information and recommendations accordingly.

Any trademarks, service marks, product names or named features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners and are used only for reference.

Soapy Friends is friendly, but is not intended to replace common sense, legal, medical or other professional advice, and is meant to inform the reader of our experiences so that they may garner whatever information is pertinent to them.

Soapy Friends is not responsible for injury or liability to any reader or commenter resulting from the content posted on the site, or from comments posted by readers, that may be viewed as offensive, misleading, inaccurate, illegal, or otherwise unsuitable.