Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

Wine Twins collects the following types of information to provide and improve our wine recommendation service:

• Quiz responses: Your wine preferences including wine type, occasion, flavour preferences, and experience level.
• Email address:If you choose to subscribe to our newsletter, we collect the address you provide so we can send you the content you signed up for. At the sign-up form we tell you what you'll receive and roughly how often, with a link to this policy (APP 5).
• Age confirmation: When you subscribe to our newsletter, you confirm that you are 18 years or older. We record this age confirmation, together with the time it was given, alongside your email subscription.
• Click tracking: When you click through to a retailer from a recommendation, we record that the click happened so we can understand which recommendations resonate.
• Usage data: How you interact with our site, including pages visited, features used, and recommendations viewed.
• Device information: Browser type, device type, and general location (country level) for analytics purposes.
• Feedback: Any messages or ratings you voluntarily submit.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Generate personalized wine recommendations based on your quiz responses.
• Improve our recommendations.
• Understand how users interact with our service through analytics.
• Send newsletter and other email communications, but only to people who have explicitly opted in.
• Measure which recommendations lead to retailer clicks, so we can refine the matching algorithm.
• Respond to your feedback and support requests.

3. Third-Party Sharing

We share data with the following named service providers, each of whom is bound by their own privacy obligations:

• Vercel: hosts the site and provides web analytics. Page-view data is processed by Vercel.
• Supabase: hosts our database. Quiz sessions and (when you subscribe) your contact details are stored there. Data is encrypted in transit.
• Commission Factory: handles affiliate redirection and commission tracking when you click a buy link. Click data is sent to Commission Factory so they can attribute purchases back to us.
• Sentry: receives error reports when something goes wrong on the site. Reports include the URL where the error happened, your browser and device information, and your IP address. Used solely to diagnose and fix bugs.
• Resend: sends our transactional and newsletter emails. We share your email, your subscription tokens, and the email contents with Resend so they can deliver the message. Resend processes data on infrastructure located in Tokyo, Japan.

We do not sell your personal information to third parties.

Overseas recipients (APP 1.4): Resend processes personal information in Japan. We have taken reasonable steps to ensure they handle your personal information consistently with the Australian Privacy Principles.

4. Cookies and Tracking

Wine Twins uses cookies and similar technologies for:

• Essential cookies: Required for the site to function properly, including session management.
• Analytics cookies: Help us understand how visitors use our site so we can improve it.
• Affiliate cookies: Commission Factory sets cookies when you click a buy link, so a retailer can attribute a subsequent purchase back to us.

You can control cookie preferences through your browser settings.

5. Data Retention

We retain your information as follows:

• Quiz session data: Stored to allow you to return to your results. Sessions may be retained indefinitely to improve our recommendations.
• Email subscriptions: Retained until you unsubscribe. Once you unsubscribe, we will stop sending marketing emails to you within 5 working days, as required by the Spam Act 2003 (Cth).
• Analytics data: Aggregated and anonymized data is kept for trend analysis.
• Feedback: Kept indefinitely unless you request deletion.

6. Your Rights

Under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Privacy Principles (APPs), you have the following rights in relation to your personal information held by us:

• Access: request a copy of the personal information we hold about you (APP 12).
• Correction: ask us to fix information that is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant, or misleading (APP 13).
• Deletion: request that we delete personal information we hold about you, where we are not required to retain it under law.
• Complaint: raise a privacy complaint with us first, and escalate to the Office of the Information Commissioner (OAIC) if it remains unresolved.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us using the details below.

7. Email Communications & Spam Act 2003

When we send commercial electronic messages such as newsletters, we comply with the Spam Act 2003 (Cth). In practice that means:

• Explicit opt-in only: we never use pre-checked boxes or bundled consent. You only receive marketing emails if you actively sign up.
• Purpose statement at sign-up:when you subscribe, we tell you what kind of content you'll receive and roughly how often.
• Sender identification: every email identifies the sender, including the trading name, the operating entity, the ABN, and a contact method as required by the Spam Act.
• Working unsubscribe: every email contains a working unsubscribe link. Unsubscribe requests are honoured within 5 working days, as required by the Spam Act.

8. Data Security

We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. Our website uses HTTPS encryption for all data transmission.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated revision date.

10. Contact Us

Wine Twins is operated by GAGAR PTY LTD (ABN 33 653 541 961), Victoria, Australia.

For privacy questions or to exercise the rights above, email contact@winetwins.co.