Privacy policy

Privacy policy

Last updated: 04 October, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how Melanin Roots ("we", "us" or "our") collects, uses and shares your personal information when you visit our website (the "Site"), buy from us, or get in touch with us about the Site (together, the "Services"). In this policy, "you" and "your" mean anyone whose information we collect through the Services, whether you are a customer, a website visitor or someone else.

Please read this policy carefully.

Updates to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time, for example when our practices change or when we need to for operational, legal or regulatory reasons. When we do, we will publish the new version on the Site, change the "Last updated" date at the top, and take any other steps the law requires.

How we collect and use your information

We collect personal information about you from a number of sources, which are described below. What we collect, and how we use it, depends on how you interact with us.

As well as the specific uses described in this policy, we may use your information to communicate with you, to provide and improve the Services, to meet our legal obligations, to enforce our terms of service, and to protect and defend the Services, our rights, and the rights of our users and others.

What we collect

When we say "personal information", we mean information that identifies you, relates to you, describes you or can be linked to you. The types of personal information we collect depend on how you use our Site and Services. The sections below explain the categories and the specific types.

Information you give us

You may give us information directly through the Services, including:

  • Contact details, including your name, address, phone number and email address.
  • Order details, including your name, billing and shipping addresses, payment confirmation, email address and phone number.
  • Account details, including your username, password, security questions and any other information we use to keep your account secure.
  • Shopping activity, including the items you view, add to your cart or buy, and anything saved to your account, such as loyalty points, reviews, referrals or gift cards.
  • Customer support messages, including anything you choose to include when you contact us, for example in a message sent through the Services.

Some features of the Services need you to give us certain information. You can choose not to, but that may stop you from using those features.

Information we collect automatically

We also collect some information automatically when you use the Services ("Usage Data"). To do this, we may use cookies, pixels and similar technologies (together, "Cookies"). Usage Data can include details about your device, browser and network connection, your IP address, and how you use our Site and your account.

Information we get from third parties

We may also receive information about you from third parties, including vendors and service providers who collect it on our behalf, such as:

  • Companies that support our Site and Services, such as Shopify.
  • Our payment processors, who collect payment information (for example bank account or card details and your billing address) so they can process your payment, fulfill your order and provide the products or services you asked for. This is how we perform our contract with you.
  • Online tracking technologies, such as pixels, web beacons, software development kits, third-party libraries and cookies, which we or our partners may use to collect information automatically when you visit our Site, open or click our emails, or interact with our Services or ads.

We treat any information we receive from third parties in line with this policy. See also "Links to other websites" below.

How we use your information

Providing our products and services. We use your information to deliver the Services and perform our contract with you. That includes processing payments, fulfilling orders, sending you notifications about your account, purchases, returns, exchanges and other transactions, creating and managing your account, arranging shipping, handling returns and exchanges, and providing other account-related features. We may also let Shopify match your account with other Shopify services you choose to use. If we do, Shopify handles your information as set out in its Privacy Policy and Consumer Privacy Policy.

Marketing and advertising. We may use your information for marketing and promotion, such as sending you marketing, advertising and promotional messages by email, text message or post, and showing you ads for products or services. We may also use it to tailor the Services and our advertising on our Site and on other websites. If you live in the EEA, our legal basis for this is our legitimate interest in selling our products (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).

Security and fraud prevention. We use your information to detect, investigate and act on suspected fraudulent, illegal or malicious activity. If you create an account, you are responsible for keeping your login details safe, and we strongly recommend that you never share your username, password or other access details with anyone. If you think your account has been compromised, please contact us immediately. If you live in the EEA, our legal basis for this is our legitimate interest in keeping our website secure for you and our other customers (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).

Communicating with you and improving our service. We use your information to provide customer support and to improve the Services. This is in our legitimate interests, because it lets us respond to you, give you an effective service and maintain our relationship with you (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).

Cookies

Like most websites, we use Cookies on our Site. For details of the Cookies used to power our Shopify store, see https://www.shopify.com/legal/cookies. We use Cookies to run and improve our Site and Services, including remembering your actions and preferences, and to run analytics so we can understand how people use the Services (our legitimate interest in managing, improving and optimizing the Services). We may also allow third parties and service providers to place Cookies on our Site so they can tailor services, products and advertising on our Site and on other websites.

Most browsers accept Cookies by default, but you can set your browser to remove or reject them using its controls. Keep in mind that removing or blocking Cookies can make the Site harder to use, and some features or functionality may stop working properly or become unavailable. Blocking Cookies also may not fully stop us from sharing information with third parties such as our advertising partners.

Who we share your information with

We may share your personal information with third parties to fulfill our contract with you, for legitimate business purposes and for the other reasons set out in this policy. For example:

  • Vendors and other third parties who perform services for us, such as IT management, payment processing, data analytics, customer support, cloud storage, fulfillment and shipping.
  • Business and marketing partners, so we can provide services and advertise to you. They will use your information in line with their own privacy notices.
  • Other third parties when you direct or request us to, or otherwise consent, for example to ship you products or when you use social media widgets or login integrations.
  • Our affiliates and others in our corporate group, which is in our legitimate interests in running a successful business.
  • In connection with a business transaction such as a merger or bankruptcy, to comply with legal obligations (including responding to subpoenas, search warrants and similar requests), to enforce our terms of service, and to protect and defend the Services, our rights and the rights of our users and others.

We disclose the following categories of personal information, including sensitive personal information, for the purposes described in "How we collect and use your information" and "Who we share your information with" above.

Categories of information

  • Identifiers, such as basic contact details and certain order and account information
  • Commercial information, such as order information, shopping activity and customer support information
  • Internet or similar network activity, such as Usage Data
  • Geolocation data, such as locations worked out from an IP address or other technical measures

Categories of recipients

  • Vendors and third parties who perform services for us (such as internet service providers, payment processors, fulfillment partners, customer support partners and data analytics providers)
  • Business and marketing partners
  • Affiliates

We do not use or disclose sensitive personal information without your consent, or to infer characteristics about you.

With your consent, we also share personal information for advertising and marketing activities.

Our Site may link to websites or platforms run by third parties. If you follow a link to a site we do not own or control, please check its privacy and security policies and terms. We do not guarantee, and are not responsible for, the privacy or security of those sites, or for the accuracy, completeness or reliability of what they publish. Anything you share in public or semi-public places, including on third-party social networking platforms, may also be visible to other users of the Services or of those platforms, without limitation on how we or a third party may use it. Including a link does not mean we endorse the content or its owners or operators, except where we say so on the Services.

Children

The Services are not intended for children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information about them. If you are a parent or guardian and your child has given us their personal information, you can contact us using the contact details below to ask for it to be deleted.

As of the date this policy takes effect, we have no actual knowledge that we "share" or "sell" (as those terms are defined in applicable law) the personal information of anyone under 16.

Security and how long we keep your information

No security measures are perfect or impenetrable, and we cannot guarantee "perfect security". Information you send us may also be insecure while it is in transit, so please do not use insecure channels to send us sensitive or confidential information.

How long we keep your personal information depends on several factors, such as whether we still need it to maintain your account or provide the Services, to comply with legal obligations, to resolve disputes, or to enforce our contracts and policies.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have some or all of the rights below in relation to your personal information. These rights are not absolute. They may apply only in certain circumstances, and in some cases we may decline a request where the law allows.

  • Access (right to know): You may be able to ask for access to the personal information we hold about you, including details of how we use and share it.
  • Deletion: You may be able to ask us to delete personal information we hold about you.
  • Correction: You may be able to ask us to correct inaccurate personal information we hold about you.
  • Portability: In certain circumstances and with some exceptions, you may be able to ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to have it transferred to a third party.
  • Opting out of sale, sharing or targeted advertising: You may be able to direct us not to "sell" or "share" your personal information, or to opt out of processing it for what applicable privacy laws call "targeted advertising". If you visit our Site with the Global Privacy Control opt-out preference signal turned on, then, depending on where you are, we will treat that as a request to opt out of the "sale" or "sharing" of information for the device and browser you are using.
  • Restriction of processing: You may be able to ask us to stop or restrict how we process your personal information.
  • Withdrawing consent: Where we rely on your consent to process your personal information, you may be able to withdraw it.
  • Appeal: If we decline your request, you may be able to appeal by replying directly to our denial.
  • Communication preferences: You can opt out of promotional emails at any time using the unsubscribe link in them. If you do, we may still send you non-promotional emails, such as messages about your account or your orders.

To exercise any of these rights, use the options provided on our Site or contact us using the contact details below.

We will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights. Before we respond in substance, we may need to collect information from you to verify your identity, such as your email address or account details. Where applicable law allows, you can appoint an authorized agent to make a request for you. We will ask the agent for proof that you have authorized them, and we may also need to verify your identity with you directly. We will respond to your request in good time, as applicable law requires.

Complaints

If you have a complaint about how we handle your personal information, please contact us using the contact details below. If you are not satisfied with our response, then depending on where you live you may be able to appeal our decision by contacting us again, or to complain to your local data protection authority. If you are in the EEA, the European Data Protection Board lists the responsible supervisory authorities on its website.

International transfers

We may transfer, store and process your personal information outside the country where you live. It may also be processed in those countries by our staff and by third party service providers and partners.

If we transfer your personal information out of Europe, we will rely on recognized transfer mechanisms such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, or the equivalent contracts issued by the relevant UK authority where applicable, unless the transfer is to a country that has been found to provide an adequate level of protection.