Privacy policy
PRIVACY POLICY
Last updated: July 30, 2026
1. ABOUT THIS PRIVACY POLICY
This Privacy Policy explains how personal information is collected, used, disclosed, stored, and protected when you visit, use, or make a purchase through the Side By Tail online store, website, and related services collectively referred to as the “Services.”
The Services are operated by Christine Charles, an individual operating under the trade name Side By Tail.
For the purposes of applicable data protection laws, Christine Charles is the controller responsible for the personal information described in this Privacy Policy, except where Shopify or another service provider acts as an independent controller for its own processing activities.
Side By Tail is hosted by Shopify, which provides the ecommerce platform that enables us to offer the Services.
In this Privacy Policy, “Side By Tail,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to Christine Charles operating under the trade name Side By Tail.
By accessing or using the Services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.
2. PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT
The personal information we collect depends on how you interact with the Services. We may collect the following categories of information:
• Contact information, including your name, email address, telephone number, billing address, and shipping address.
• Order and transaction information, including products viewed, products added to your cart, products ordered, order history, returns, cancellations, refunds, delivery information, and transaction details.
• Payment and billing information, including your billing address, payment method, payment confirmation, transaction status, and limited payment information made available to us by our payment service providers.
Full payment card details are generally processed directly by Shopify Payments or another payment service provider and are not made available to Side By Tail in full.
• Customer account information, if you create or use an account, including your account identifiers, preferences, settings, and authentication-related information.
• Communications, including information you provide when you contact customer support, submit a request, report a problem, or otherwise communicate with us.
• Device and technical information, including your IP address, browser type, device type, operating system, network connection, cookie identifiers, and other technical identifiers.
• Usage information, including information about how you access, browse, and interact with the Services, the pages and products you view, the date and time of your visits, referral information, and actions taken on the Store.
• Marketing and communication preferences, including whether you have subscribed to or unsubscribed from promotional communications.
• Information used for personalization, analytics, security, fraud prevention, and advertising, including information or inferences based on your interactions with the Services, Shopify, other Shopify merchants, advertising platforms, or other service providers, where permitted by applicable law.
We do not intentionally request personal information that is not reasonably necessary to operate the Services, process orders, communicate with customers, prevent fraud, or comply with applicable law.
3. SOURCES OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
We may collect personal information from the following sources:
• Directly from you, including when you browse the Store, place an order, create an account, subscribe to communications, contact us, or provide information through the Services.
• Automatically from your device through cookies, pixels, tags, log files, local storage, and similar technologies when you access or use the Services.
• From Shopify and our other service providers, including payment processors, fraud prevention providers, technology providers, analytics providers, and customer support providers.
• From suppliers, fulfillment partners, shipping carriers, and delivery providers in connection with the processing and delivery of your order.
• From marketing, advertising, analytics, or business partners, where permitted by law and subject to any consent or opt-out rights that apply.
4. HOW WE USE PERSONAL INFORMATION
We may use personal information for the following purposes:
Providing and fulfilling the Services
We may use personal information to:
• process and manage orders;
• process payments and refunds;
• arrange fulfillment, shipping, and delivery;
• provide order confirmations, tracking information, and delivery updates;
• manage returns, cancellations, disputes, and customer support requests;
• maintain and administer customer accounts;
• remember customer preferences;
• provide the products and services requested by customers; and
• perform our contractual obligations.
Operating and improving the Store
We may use personal information to:
• operate, maintain, troubleshoot, and improve the Services;
• understand how customers use the Store;
• improve navigation, products, content, and customer experience;
• personalize product recommendations and Store content;
• assess Store performance; and
• develop or improve features and services.
Marketing and advertising
Where permitted by applicable law, we may use personal information to:
• send promotional emails where you have subscribed or where otherwise permitted;
• measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns;
• display or support personalized advertising;
• understand customer interests; and
• promote products that may be relevant to you.
You may unsubscribe from promotional emails at any time by using the unsubscribe link included in the relevant email.
Security and fraud prevention
We may use personal information to:
• verify transactions and customer accounts;
• detect, investigate, and prevent fraud, abuse, security incidents, and unlawful activity;
• protect the Store, customers, service providers, and other persons;
• enforce our terms and policies; and
• maintain the security and integrity of the Services.
Legal and administrative purposes
We may use personal information to:
• comply with accounting, tax, consumer protection, data protection, and other legal obligations;
• respond to lawful requests from courts, regulators, law enforcement authorities, or other public authorities;
• establish, exercise, or defend legal claims;
• resolve disputes;
• maintain business and transaction records; and
• protect our legal rights and legitimate business interests.
5. LEGAL BASES FOR PROCESSING
Where applicable law requires us to identify a legal basis, we process personal information on one or more of the following grounds:
• Performance of a contract, including processing and delivering your order, handling payments, providing customer support, and managing returns or refunds.
• Compliance with legal obligations, including accounting, taxation, record-keeping, fraud prevention, and responding to lawful requests from authorities.
• Our legitimate interests, including operating and improving the Store, securing the Services, preventing fraud, communicating with customers, and managing our business, provided that those interests are not overridden by your rights and interests.
• Your consent, including for promotional communications, non-essential cookies, personalized advertising, or other processing activities where consent is required.
Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before consent was withdrawn.
6. COOKIES AND SIMILAR TECHNOLOGIES
We and our service providers, including Shopify, may use cookies, pixels, tags, local storage, and similar technologies to operate, secure, analyze, and improve the Services.
These technologies may be used for the following purposes:
• Essential functions, such as maintaining your shopping cart, processing checkout, providing account functions, and securing the Store.
• Functional purposes, such as remembering your preferences.
• Analytics, such as understanding Store traffic, visitor interactions, and Store performance.
• Personalization, such as recommending relevant products or content.
• Advertising, such as measuring advertising effectiveness or showing advertisements based on your activity, where permitted by law.
Where consent is required, non-essential technologies used for analytics, personalization, or advertising will be used only after you have provided the required consent.
You may manage or withdraw your choices through the cookie banner or privacy preferences tool displayed on the Store, where available.
You may also adjust your browser settings to reject or delete cookies. Blocking certain cookies may affect the operation or functionality of the Services.
7. HOW WE DISCLOSE PERSONAL INFORMATION
We may disclose personal information to the following categories of recipients when reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy:
Shopify
The Store is hosted by Shopify. Shopify processes personal information to provide the ecommerce platform, checkout, hosting, security, analytics, and other services used to operate the Store.
Payment providers
Payment processors and financial service providers process information required to authorize, complete, refund, or investigate transactions.
Suppliers and fulfillment partners
Because Side By Tail works with third-party suppliers and fulfillment partners, information necessary to fulfill an order may be disclosed to the relevant supplier or fulfillment partner.
This may include your name, delivery address, telephone number, email address, ordered products, and other information reasonably necessary to prepare, process, and deliver the order.
Shipping and delivery providers
Personal information may be disclosed to shipping carriers, postal operators, customs intermediaries, and delivery providers where necessary to deliver an order, provide tracking information, complete any required customs formalities, or resolve delivery issues.
Technology and service providers
We may disclose information to providers that support website hosting, data storage, customer service, communications, analytics, fraud detection, cybersecurity, and other business operations.
Marketing and advertising partners
Where permitted by law and subject to your consent and privacy choices, personal information may be disclosed or made available to marketing, analytics, or advertising partners for campaign measurement, audience creation, personalized advertising, or similar purposes.
Professional advisers and authorities
We may disclose information to accountants, legal advisers, insurers, courts, regulators, law enforcement agencies, or other authorities where reasonably necessary to comply with law, protect our rights, or establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.
Business transactions
Personal information may be disclosed in connection with a potential or completed sale, transfer, restructuring, financing, merger, or other transaction involving all or part of the Side By Tail business, subject to applicable legal requirements.
We require service providers acting on our behalf to process personal information only for the purposes necessary to provide their services, except where they act as independent controllers under applicable law.
8. RELATIONSHIP WITH SHOPIFY
The Services are hosted by Shopify.
Shopify collects and processes personal information relating to your access to and use of the Store in order to provide, secure, maintain, and improve Shopify’s services.
Information submitted through the Store may be transmitted to Shopify and other service providers located in countries other than the country in which you reside.
Side By Tail currently uses Shopify Network Intelligence.
Shopify Network Intelligence enables Shopify to use information from your interactions with Side By Tail, Shopify, and other Shopify merchants to provide enhanced services. These services may include fraud prevention, analytics, personalization, performance improvements, insights, and advertising-related features.
Other Shopify merchants are not provided with direct access to Side By Tail customer data through Shopify Network Intelligence.
For certain enhanced services and processing activities, Shopify may act as an independent controller and is responsible for responding to requests relating to its own processing of personal information.
You can learn more about how Shopify processes consumer personal information by reviewing the Shopify Consumer Privacy Policy:
https://www.shopify.com/legal/privacy/consumers
You may also use the Shopify Privacy Portal to access, delete, or manage certain information processed directly by Shopify:
https://privacy.shopify.com/en
9. SALE, SHARING, AND TARGETED ADVERTISING
Side By Tail does not sell personal information in exchange for money.
However, certain disclosures or uses of information for personalized advertising, cross-context behavioral advertising, analytics, audience creation, or Shopify enhanced services may be considered a “sale,” “sharing,” or processing for “targeted advertising” under certain United States state privacy laws, even when no money is exchanged.
Where applicable, you may opt out of these activities by using the “Your Privacy Choices,” “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information,” or equivalent privacy link available in the footer of the Store.
Where required by applicable law, we also recognize qualifying browser-based opt-out preference signals, including the Global Privacy Control, commonly referred to as “GPC,” for the browser or device from which the signal is sent.
More information about GPC is available at:
https://globalprivacycontrol.org/
An opt-out may apply only to the relevant browser or device unless the request can be associated with your customer account or other identifying information.
You may also use the Shopify Privacy Portal to manage certain advertising-related processing carried out directly by Shopify.
10. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS
Side By Tail is operated from Switzerland and primarily serves customers in the United States.
Personal information may be transferred to, stored in, or processed in Switzerland, the United States, Canada, Ireland, member states of the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and other countries in which Shopify, payment providers, technology providers, suppliers, fulfillment partners, shipping carriers, or other service providers operate.
The countries involved may vary depending on the product ordered, supplier, fulfillment location, payment method, shipping provider, technology provider, and services used.
Some destination countries may not provide the same level of data protection as the country in which you reside.
Where personal information is transferred from Switzerland to a country that is not recognized as providing an adequate level of data protection, we rely, where required, on legally recognized safeguards.
These safeguards may include applicable standard contractual clauses, contractual data protection commitments, recognized certifications, an adequacy decision, or another transfer mechanism permitted under applicable law.
You may contact us at support@sidebytail.com to request further information about relevant destination countries and the safeguards applicable to a particular transfer.
11. DATA RETENTION
We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.
The retention period depends on factors including:
• the nature and purpose of the information;
• whether a customer account remains active;
• the time needed to process orders, returns, refunds, disputes, or customer support requests;
• fraud prevention and security requirements;
• contractual obligations;
• applicable limitation periods; and
• accounting, tax, and other legal record-keeping obligations.
Order, invoice, transaction, and accounting records subject to Swiss accounting requirements are generally retained for ten years from the end of the relevant financial year.
Customer account information may be retained while the account remains active and for an additional period where reasonably necessary to complete transactions, resolve disputes, prevent fraud, or comply with legal obligations.
Marketing information is retained until you unsubscribe or withdraw consent, subject to retaining limited information necessary to record and respect your opt-out request.
When personal information is no longer required, it is deleted, anonymized, or otherwise handled in accordance with applicable law.
12. SECURITY
We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational measures designed to protect personal information against unauthorized access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure.
However, no method of transmission over the internet and no storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.
You should avoid sending sensitive or confidential information through unsecured communication channels.
If you create a customer account, you are responsible for protecting access to your account, password, and devices.
13. CHILDREN’S PRIVACY
The Services are intended for a general adult audience and are not directed to children under 13 years of age.
We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children under 13.
If you are a parent or legal guardian and believe that a child under 13 has provided personal information to us, please contact us at support@sidebytail.com so that we can review and, where appropriate, delete the information.
We do not knowingly sell or share, as those terms are defined under applicable United States privacy laws, the personal information of individuals under 16 years of age.
14. YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS
Depending on your location and the applicable law, you may have some or all of the following rights:
• The right to request confirmation as to whether we process personal information about you.
• The right to access or obtain a copy of personal information we hold about you.
• The right to request correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal information.
• The right to request deletion of personal information, subject to applicable exceptions.
• The right to request restriction of, or object to, certain processing activities where applicable.
• The right to receive certain personal information in a portable format where required by law.
• The right to withdraw consent where processing is based on consent.
• The right to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information or processing for targeted advertising where applicable.
• The right not to be unlawfully discriminated against for exercising a privacy right.
• The right to appeal a refusal to act on a request where applicable law provides such a right.
These rights are not absolute.
We may retain or continue to process information where permitted or required by law, including to complete transactions, maintain accounting records, prevent fraud, protect legal rights, or comply with legal obligations.
To exercise a privacy right, contact us at:
support@sidebytail.com
Please use the subject line:
Privacy Request
Please describe your request and provide sufficient information to allow us to identify the relevant records.
We may request information reasonably necessary to verify your identity and protect personal information from unauthorized disclosure. Information provided for verification will be used only for that purpose.
Where permitted by applicable law, you may designate an authorized agent to submit a request on your behalf. We may require evidence of the agent’s authority and may ask you to verify your identity directly.
We will respond within the period required by applicable law.
15. COMMUNICATION PREFERENCES
You may unsubscribe from promotional emails at any time by using the unsubscribe link included in the relevant email or by contacting support@sidebytail.com.
Even after you unsubscribe from promotional communications, we may continue to send non-promotional messages relating to orders, payments, deliveries, returns, customer accounts, security, legal notices, or customer support.
16. THIRD-PARTY WEBSITES AND SERVICES
The Services may contain links to websites, applications, social media platforms, or services operated by independent third parties.
Side By Tail does not control the privacy, security, content, or practices of independent third parties.
Information you provide directly to a third party is governed by that third party’s own privacy policy and terms.
You should review the privacy information of any third-party service before providing personal information.
17. COMPLAINTS
If you have a concern or complaint regarding the processing of your personal information, please contact us first at support@sidebytail.com so that we can review the matter.
Depending on where you reside, you may also have the right to submit a complaint to the competent data protection authority.
Because the controller is based in Switzerland, you may contact the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner, also known as the FDPIC:
https://www.edoeb.admin.ch/
Submitting a complaint does not affect any other rights or remedies available to you.
18. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to the Services, our business practices, service providers, legal requirements, or other operational reasons.
The updated version will be posted on the Store and the “Last updated” date will be revised.
Where required by applicable law, we will provide additional notice of material changes.
19. CONTACT AND IDENTITY OF THE CONTROLLER
The controller responsible for the processing described in this Privacy Policy is:
Christine Charles
Operating under the trade name Side By Tail
Ch. de Prael
1030 Bussigny
Switzerland
Email: support@sidebytail.com
For all privacy requests, please use the subject line:
Privacy Request