Vortex crafts

Who we are

Vortex Crafts is a privately owned and operated website, which features its own online shop. It is a platform intended for publication of material relating to hobby crafts, which also include the sale of various crafted items, supplies and other items.
Our website address is: https://vortexcrafts.co.za
It is important to note when sharing any of our pages to social media, or placing any orders with us.

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

There are various data types we collect for various reasons which is explained below. All the data we collect and use is only to ensure the best possible experience on our site for our users. We do NOT sell information to third parties.

Comments/Reviews

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.

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. If you have a Gravatar avatar, this image may/may not be used in some areas of our site. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment. Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

Media

When you upload images to this website (or any other), you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the websites can download and extract any location data from images. Make sure your images do not contain any personal meta-data, unless you don’t mind such information to be available to anybody in the public arena.

Contact forms

Information in contact forms are required to maintain an open communication channel between us. The information in the message body will be retained indefinitely to enable us to identify any recurring problems our visitors may encounter, and get a permanent fix for them. The information you supply is only available to the administrators of the site.

Cookies

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 have an account and you log in to this site, 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.

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. These measures are employed to give users of each platform a more personalized experience.

Analytics

We do analyze the traffic on our site to see what peaks the interest of our visitors. We intend to deliver content that is both informative and popular at the same time. This also extends to our merchandise. It enables us to let you know of something you may be interested in, provided you opted in for such notifications via email.

Who we share your data with

As explained in other sections, we only share some data with service providers to enhance your online experience. You may/may not already have an account with said service providers. Only data which is relevant to the particular service is shared. In most cases it is limited to a hashed email address to check for an account with the service. We do not send email addresses in plain text in order to avoid interception and subsequent spam. We hate spam as much as anybody else. Your shipping address will obviously need to be shared with the courier who will be tasked with delivering your orders.

How long we retain your 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 (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their own personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

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 we send your data

We only send data to services of our own site, but it may happen that you are using a service which is not part of our website. If we can supply data to the service you are using in order to enhance your web experience, we will try to supply such data. However, it may not always be possible to supply data to services not used on our site. Most of the social media websites are integrated. When you use a Facebook link, watch a YouTube video or contact us on Whatsapp, data will be shared with those services in order for them to work. No data is shared with any service provider or company which does not form part of this website or the services you employ.

Your contact information

Contact information is retained indefinitely in order to ensure future communication as my be required. If you ever decide to terminate your membership to this website, you may request for this data to be deleted. Contact information is only used by our administrators for communication and shipping of products. Please ensure that any shipping details you provide is valid at the time of placing an order.

Additional information

How we protect your data

As you can see from the green lock icon in the address bar of your browser, we run on an encrypted connection certified by Letsencrypt. Our staff is a small group of highly trusted individuals with admirable integrity. We keep your data as safe as can reasonably be expected. As the internet evolves, we constantly look for new ways to protect against hackers and spy-bots. With constantly changing technologies, weak points are bound to occur. However, we will do our best to patch those up before it creates a problem for you.

Legal requirement

If we are compelled by a court order to disclose any personal information, we have no option but to comply. You will be notified of any such orders unless the order itself prohibits us from doing so. We have legal responsibility towards our visitors as well as our service providers. This is a two-way street.