Privacy policy

What we collect, who else sees it, and what happens to it.

This is what Customized Balls collects and what happens to it. Card details never reach us.

What we collect

Nothing you type, unless you send it to us: a question you leave for a person is described below. Searching runs entirely in your own browser against a file it has already downloaded, so what you search for stays on your device whenever we have something matching it. When a search finds NOTHING, we keep the words you typed, so we can see what people come here for and we do not sell. That is described under visitor measurement.

When you order, we collect the name, delivery address and email address needed to make and send your ball, the name you chose to have printed, and nothing beyond them. Your card details go straight to the payment processor and never reach us.

What your browser stores

Two things, both kept on your own device and neither readable by us:

• Your basket. Which balls you have added, so the basket survives a page reload.
• Your light or dark preference, so the site opens the way you left it.

Clearing your browser data removes both. Neither is a cookie sent to a server, and neither identifies you.

Visitor measurement

No outside company measures this site: there is no Google Analytics and no advertising pixel. We count page views ourselves with Umami, which runs on a server we rent and manage ourselves. It records the page you opened, the site that sent you here, your browser, device and screen size, your language, and roughly where you are, down to the city. It sets no cookie and stores nothing in your browser. Your IP address is used to work out that location and to tell one visit from another, and it is not saved. Page addresses are recorded without anything after a question mark, so the words in a search are not kept this way.

We keep our own count of what goes into baskets, on our own server rather than anyone else's: which name, which ball, lettering and colors, what it costs and how many. It sets no cookie and carries nothing that says who you are. We keep it for three months and then it is gone.

When a search finds nothing, we also keep the words you typed, on our own server, so we can see what people come looking for and we do not sell. Searches that DO find something are not kept this way. It is the words on their own, with nothing attached that says who typed them, and it is gone after three months.

The email list

There is a signup box at the bottom of every page. It is the only way onto our list: giving us an address at checkout does not put you on it, and neither does buying something. Nothing else on this site collects an address for marketing.

Signing up does not subscribe you either. It records your address as waiting and sends you one email with a link in it. You are on the list only once you click that link, and if you never do, nothing further is ever sent.

We keep the date you confirmed, because that record is what proves you asked. Every email carries a one-click unsubscribe, and unsubscribing keeps the row rather than deleting it, so we have a record that you asked to stop. Ask us and we will erase that too.

The signup box runs a check that you are not a machine, handled by Cloudflare, who host this site. Almost every time it decides on its own and you see nothing at all. When it cannot tell, it shows you one box to tick. It sets no cookie, it does not follow you anywhere else, and nothing it collects goes to an advertiser. It is there because typing an address into that box makes us send an email, and without it somebody could point that at a stranger.

Who else handles your order

Balls are made and posted by a partner, who needs your name, your delivery address and the words or image to be printed to do it, and receives nothing else. A payment processor handles the card details, which never reach us.

Asking a question

The round button in the bottom corner of every page opens a box for questions about this shop. What you type there, and the earlier questions and answers in that same conversation, go to our server and to an AI model run by Cloudflare, who host this site, so it can write an answer from this shop's own pages. The answer comes from that model rather than a person, and it can be wrong.

We keep no copy of the conversation, and nothing about it is saved in your browser: it is gone when you leave the page. What we keep is a count of questions asked and of the ones it could not answer, with nothing attached that says who asked, for three months.

When it cannot answer, you can leave your question with your email address so a person can reply. We keep that question and address for 90 days and then delete them. The address is used to answer you and nothing else: it is not the email list and it is never added to it. The box runs the same check that you are not a machine as the signup box, handled by Cloudflare.

What we do not do

We do not sell or rent personal information, and we share it only as this page describes. We do not build a profile of you, and we do not send marketing email unless you have asked for it and confirmed it by clicking a link we sent you.

How long we keep it

Order records are kept for as long as tax law requires, which is several years, and then deleted. Emails are kept while they are useful to answer.

Your rights

You can ask what we hold about you, ask for it to be corrected, or ask for it to be deleted, and we will do it.

Contact

Email hello@customizedball.com with anything on this page.