Chimera Scents ("we," "us," or "our") is committed to protecting your personal information. This Privacy Policy explains what data we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and what rights you have over it. It applies to all visitors and customers of chimerascents.ca (the "Website").
We comply with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and applicable provincial privacy legislation, including Quebec's Act Respecting the Protection of Personal Information in the Private Sector (as amended by Law 25). This Policy is intended to reflect the fair information principles under PIPEDA (Schedule 1), including accountability, identifying purposes, consent, limiting collection, limiting use/disclosure/retention, accuracy, safeguards, openness, individual access, and challenging compliance.
We have designated a person in charge of the protection of personal information (the "Privacy Officer"), who is responsible for our compliance with applicable privacy laws and for responding to privacy questions, access/correction requests, and complaints. You may contact our Privacy Officer at support@chimerascents.ca (please include "Privacy Officer" in the subject line).
"Personal information" generally means information about an identifiable individual. "Confidentiality incident" (Quebec) and "breach of security safeguards" (PIPEDA) generally refer to the loss of, or unauthorized access to or disclosure of, personal information resulting from a breach of our security safeguards.
When you place an order or create an account, we collect:
Payments are processed securely by Square. Chimera Scents does not collect, process, or store your full payment card number, CVV, or expiry date. We retain only the last four (4) digits of your payment card as provided in Square's transaction records, solely for internal reference purposes.
When you visit the Website, we (and our hosting or security service providers) may automatically collect limited information about your device and how you use the Website, such as your IP address, device type, browser type, pages viewed, the date and time of your visit, and general location information derived from your IP address. We use this information to operate the Website, maintain its security, prevent fraud, and troubleshoot technical issues. We do not use this information for behavioural advertising.
Our Website uses cookies strictly for essential functions, including maintaining your login session and keeping items in your cart. We do not use cookies or any other tracking technology for advertising, analytics, or behavioural profiling purposes. No third-party tracking scripts are loaded on our Website for marketing purposes.
You may disable cookies in your browser settings; however, doing so may affect your ability to log in or use certain features of the Website.
Our Website is not intended for children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe that a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will take steps to delete it as appropriate. Where Quebec law requires consent to be given by a parent or tutor, we will seek such consent before collecting or using the minor's personal information.
By providing personal information to us (for example, by placing an order, creating an account, or contacting customer service), you consent to our collection, use, and disclosure of that information as described in this Policy, subject to any legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice. We obtain consent before collecting, using, or disclosing personal information unless an exception applies under applicable law.
Where required, we will seek your express consent for optional purposes such as promotional emails, and you will be able to opt out at any time.
To withdraw consent, contact us at support@chimerascents.ca. Withdrawing consent may affect our ability to provide you with certain products or services (for example, we cannot ship an order without a shipping address).
If you opt in, we may send you marketing communications by email and/or SMS/text message about product releases, restocks, promotions, and other updates. We will obtain your express consent where required, and we will not send marketing emails or SMS messages if you have not opted in (or where your consent has been withdrawn). Your consent to receive marketing communications is not a condition of purchase; however, we may still send you non-marketing messages that are necessary to provide our services (for example, order confirmations, shipping updates, receipts, or responses to customer service requests).
You can unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time by using the unsubscribe link included in the email, by adjusting your preferences in your account (if available), or by contacting us at support@chimerascents.ca. You can opt out of SMS/text messages at any time by replying STOP (or by following any other opt-out instructions provided in the message). Message frequency may vary. Standard message and data rates may apply depending on your mobile carrier. Please allow us up to 10 business days to give effect to your unsubscribe/opt-out request. We may keep a record of your marketing preferences and consent to help demonstrate compliance and to respect your choices.
Your personal information is used solely for the following purposes:
Your shipping address is shared with courier and shipping service providers solely for the purpose of quoting and fulfilling your delivery.
When you pay by card, your billing address, shipping address, and email address are shared with Square, our payment processor, to process your payment and help prevent fraud.
Your payment transaction data is processed and stored by Square in accordance with their own Privacy Policy and PCI-DSS security standards. We recommend reviewing Square's Privacy Policy at www.squareup.com for details on how they handle your payment information.
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to any third party under any circumstances. We will not share your personal information for advertising or marketing purposes without first notifying you and obtaining your consent.
We may disclose personal information in connection with a prospective or completed business transaction (for example, a financing, reorganization, merger, sale of assets, or acquisition), in accordance with applicable law. In such cases, we will require appropriate confidentiality and security safeguards, and we will disclose personal information only as permitted by law.
If you opt in to marketing communications, we may use service providers to help deliver emails and SMS/text messages on our behalf. These providers act as our service providers and are not permitted to use your personal information for their own marketing purposes. You can withdraw consent at any time as described in Section 3.1.
We may use trusted service providers (for example, hosting, IT support, payment processing, and shipping platforms) to help us operate our business. When we transfer personal information to a service provider, we require the service provider to protect the information with appropriate safeguards and to use it only to provide services to us, in a manner that provides a comparable level of protection.
Some of our service providers (such as Square) may store or process personal information outside Quebec or outside Canada. In those cases, the information may be subject to the laws of the jurisdiction where it is processed. When required by Quebec law, we will assess privacy-related risks before communicating personal information outside Quebec and will implement contractual and other measures to protect the information.
We may disclose your personal information if required to do so by law, court order, or governmental authority, or if we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of Chimera Scents, our customers, or others.
The Website may contain links to third-party websites or services (for example, payment processors or social media platforms). This Privacy Policy does not apply to those third parties. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party websites or services you access.
We retain your personal information as follows:
We retain personal information only as long as necessary for the purposes described in this Policy and to meet our legal and business requirements. When personal information is no longer required, we will securely destroy it or anonymize it, subject to applicable legal retention requirements. If you request deletion of your personal information, we will remove it from our active records, subject to legal or contractual restrictions; some information may remain in backups for a limited period until those backups are cycled.
You have the right to:
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at support@chimerascents.ca with your name and the email address associated with your account or order. We will respond within the timeframes required by applicable law.
If you have a complaint about our handling of personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer first so we can investigate and respond.
We take reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, loss, misuse, or disclosure. In the event of a confidentiality incident / breach of security safeguards involving personal information, we will take steps to reduce the risk of harm and to prevent similar incidents. Where required by law, we will notify affected individuals and the applicable regulatory authority. We also maintain a register of confidentiality incidents as required under Quebec law.
If you are a resident of Quebec, this Privacy Policy is intended to comply with Quebec's Act Respecting the Protection of Personal Information in the Private Sector (as amended by Law 25). In addition to the rights described above, Quebec law requires us to provide certain information before or at the time we collect personal information, including the purposes of collection, the means of collection, your rights of access and rectification, your right to withdraw consent, and (where applicable) the fact that personal information may be communicated outside Quebec. We do not use your personal information to make decisions based exclusively on automated processing and we do not engage in profiling for advertising purposes. If this changes, we will inform you of the use of such processes and of the rights available to you under Quebec law.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with a revised effective date. We encourage you to review this Policy periodically. Your continued use of the Website after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated Policy.
If you have any questions, concerns, complaints, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or your personal information — including requests to access, correct, port (where applicable), or delete your data — please contact our Privacy Officer by email at support@chimerascents.ca (please include "Privacy Officer" in the subject line). We will respond within the timeframes required by applicable law.