Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Elements collects, uses and protects your personal information when you visit our website, make a purchase or interact with us in other ways.

We are committed to being transparent about our data practices and to handling your information responsibly and in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

Elements is a UK clothing brand and is the controller of the personal information described in this policy. You can reach us about anything in it through our Contact page.

We collect information you choose to give us, such as when you create an account, place an order or contact us. This may include your name, email address, contact details and information related to your purchase or enquiry.

We also collect certain information automatically when you use our website, such as device information, browsing activity and site usage.

Customer, admin and Partner Network sign-in is handled by Supabase Authentication. We store the email address and encrypted credentials Supabase Auth needs to sign you in, and a session cookie keeps you signed in between visits.

When you sign up to the newsletter, we store your email address, where you signed up, and your subscription status. If you buy from us, we also add you to the newsletter unless you tick “Don’t send me news and offers” at checkout, and we store your first name so emails can greet you. Every newsletter has an unsubscribe link, and once you unsubscribe we never add you back unless you sign up again yourself. Messages sent through the Contact page (your name, email, subject and message) are stored so our team can read and reply to them.

When you place an order, we collect your name, email address, delivery address, and phone number if you choose to give one. We use this to process, fulfil and support your order, and to contact you about it if we need to.

We use your information to provide and improve our services, process orders, communicate with you, and deliver a better, more personal experience.

We may also use your information to share updates about our products, stories and outdoor community, where you have chosen to hear from us.

Payment is processed by Stripe. We never receive or store your card details -- Stripe handles payment directly and only tells us whether your payment was successful. Stripe’s own privacy notice applies to how Stripe itself handles your information. We store order and item details (what was ordered, delivery address, order total) needed to fulfil and support your order.

We send transactional emails about your order — an order confirmation and delivery updates — through our email provider.

Once your order is placed, we give you a private order tracking link so you can check its status. Anyone with that link can see the order status, so please don’t share it with anyone you don’t want to have that information.

If you join the Partner Network, we hold your partner profile (status, display name, contact email), referral codes, and evidence needed to attribute and pay rewards: the page and referring host of a referral visit, an anonymous per-browser marker (never a device fingerprint), and, for orders, a one-way hash of the buyer’s email used only to check for self-referral or duplicate use — never the buyer’s email address itself on the partner-facing side. See docs/partner-network-design.md for the full data model.

We only use your personal information where we have a valid legal basis to do so under applicable data protection laws. The legal basis will depend on the purpose for which we are using your information.

We process your data to perform our contract with you (fulfilling an order), with your consent (the newsletter when you sign up, optional cookies), and where we have a legitimate interest (keeping the site secure and working, replying to your messages, and emailing customers about similar products unless they opt out, as UK PECR allows).

We do not sell your personal information. We may share your information with trusted service providers who help us operate our website, process orders, communicate with you or analyse how our services are used.

We only share information where necessary and ensure appropriate safeguards are in place.

In practice, we share data only with the processors needed to run the site: Supabase (database, authentication and storage), Stripe (payments), our email provider (transactional order emails) and Vercel (hosting).

We keep your personal information only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this policy, including to meet any legal, accounting or reporting requirements.

When information is no longer needed, we take appropriate steps to delete or securely anonymise it.

Order information (what was ordered, delivery address, order total and related records) is kept for as long as needed for orders, returns and legal accounting obligations.

Order and payment records are kept for six years after the end of the financial year they relate to, as UK tax law requires. Newsletter details are kept until you unsubscribe, and messages sent through our contact form are kept for as long as needed to answer them.

You have certain rights in relation to your personal information. These include the right to:

Get in touch via the Contact page and we’ll respond as soon as we can.

We use cookies and similar technologies to help our website work, understand how it’s used and improve your experience. You can manage your cookie preferences at any time.

For more detail, please see our Cookies Policy.

In practice: essential cookies and local storage keep the site running (staying signed in, remembering your bag, remembering your cookie choice); optional preference, analytics and marketing cookies only run once you choose to accept them.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your data, please get in touch. We’re here to help.

You can find our contact details on our Contact page.