AOW Merchant Privacy Policy

1. Who this policy applies to

AOW (All Our Worlds) is operated from Melbourne, Australia. In this policy, "AOW", "we" and "us" mean the operator of AOW.

This policy applies to merchants who join as individuals; where a merchant joins as a company or organisation, to the people connected with it, such as the applicant, legal representative or director, store owner and contact people; to the people involved in breeding and selling whose details a South Australian breeder enters; and to anyone using a merchant staff account. Company information itself (such as a company name or registration number) is not personal information, but we look after it just as carefully.

AOW's merchant services are for businesses and are not directed at minors.

If the information you give us includes other people's personal information (for example, the ID and contact details of your legal representative, contact person or staff, or the names, phone numbers and numbers of the people involved in breeding and selling in South Australia), please tell them what this policy says and get their consent first.

2. What we collect

We only collect what we need to review applications, provide merchant services, take payments and pay you, and comply with the law. By situation:

Creating and signing in to a merchant account

• Your email, password (stored encrypted by our sign-in service; we never see it in plain text) and email verification codes. If you sign in with Google, the email and name Google provides.
• Your mobile number: you must link it with an SMS code before you submit an application. If you cannot receive the code and ask AOW to link it for you, we first call you to confirm it is really you, and record who linked it for you and when.
• Your sign-in session, and the emails that have signed in on this computer (so you can switch accounts; emails only, never passwords), are stored in your own browser.

Online store applications

• Your region and type of business; the company's full name, registration number (unified social credit code, ABN, EIN or BN), registered address and business licence.
• The name and ID document photos of the legal representative or person in charge (the photos show the ID number).
• The contact person's name, mobile number and email; the store name, logo and description; brand names, trademark registration certificates and brand authorisation letters; the shipping address, return address (including recipient and phone number) and after-sales phone number.
• If you sell staple food, nutrition or health products for dogs and cats: paid-in capital and a screenshot from the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System (China region), a feed production licence or imported feed registration certificate, and the brand owner's qualifications and authorisation; and for each such product, label photos and a third-party quality test report or local compliance declaration.

Physical store applications

• Shown to customers: the country the store is in, business categories, store name, description, address and map location, store phone number and website (optional), opening hours, store photos, whether bookings are needed and the booking phone number, and how pet friendly the store is.
• Seen only by AOW reviewers: the applicant's name and role (owner, director or legal representative, or authorised employee) and authorisation letter; the name on the licence or registration; the applicant's ID document photos (front and back of a passport, ID card or driver licence); the licences and permits required for the region and business categories (numbers, files and expiry dates); a 30-second video taken at the store for verification, or the result of AOW's verification call to the store; and the applicant's verified mobile number and email.
• We do not collect Australian TFNs, US Social Security Numbers or Canadian Social Insurance Numbers. Please do not provide them.

Pet breeding and pet adoption

• Breeders: your local breeder number or licence (for example, a source number in Victoria, a BIN in New South Wales, a supply number in Queensland or a DACO number in South Australia) with its certificate file and expiry date, proof of breeding qualifications, the animals and breeds you breed, and registration proof for cats.
• Breeders in South Australia: the name, phone number and DACO number of every person involved in breeding and selling (South Australian law requires these to be shown on listings).
• Breeder review report: we give the breeding information you provide, together with information about you that is publicly available online (such as your website, past sales and prices, and public registration records), to AI to put together a review report for AOW staff to use in their manual review.
• The listing details for each animal, and what you enter and upload at handover (redemption): the microchip number, vaccination dates and vaccination certificate, breeding certificate, and any other documents local law requires you to give the buyer.
• Adoption organisations: charity registration (the ACNC in Australia, the CRA in Canada, or registration as a social organisation with the civil affairs authorities in China), any local number (for example, a source number starting with RE in Victoria, a RON in New South Wales or a MAPAQ permit in Quebec), and their certificate files and expiry dates.

Payouts, deposits and invoices

• Payout account: your bank account and ID details are entered on Stripe's pages and go only to Stripe (which handles them under its own privacy policy). AOW records only the Stripe account number, its status, the bank name and last four digits, and the currency and country. When we create your Stripe payout account, we give Stripe your email, region, type of business and company name.
• Stores in mainland China are paid by bank transfer: we record the company bank account details you email us and use them only to pay you.
• Payments for deposits, promotion and staff accounts: card payments are made on Stripe's payment page and card numbers never pass through AOW; for bank transfers, we record the amount and the transfer reference.
• Invoice details: invoice name, tax number, whether you are registered for GST (Australia), address, phone number and the email for invoices.
• Payout records: the amount, currency, payout number and transfer reference of each payout.

Staff accounts

• The email, name and job title entered by the owner or manager who invites a staff member; their role and permissions; the ID document photos the staff member uploads, the ID type and the name on it; their linked mobile number and email; and when they were invited, joined and last used the merchant centre.

Information created as you trade

• The products, deals, shop front and store details you publish; orders, shipping and tracking (the carrier and tracking numbers you enter), after-sales, redemptions, bookings and payouts; your conversations with customers in "Buyer questions"; the explanations you write under "Complaints"; and the promotion you buy and its results.
• Activity records: actions such as redeeming vouchers and confirming bookings record which account did them; cancellations, refunds, changes of delivery address and changes of tracking number leave a note in the order record (with the reason). Actions AOW staff take on your store, such as reviews, suspensions, deposit entries, payouts and custom commission, are recorded in AOW's internal activity log.

Contacting AOW

• What you write and the screenshots you upload under "Contact AOW" in the merchant centre, and the result of any call we make to verify your store or phone number.

Records of your agreement

• When you tick the box to accept the merchant terms, we record which account and store it was, which version of which document you accepted, where you accepted it (the merchant centre), when, and the IP address and browser details at the time. This record proves which version you accepted; entries are only ever added, never changed.

3. How we use it

• Reviewing applications: checking your identity, qualifications and licences, checking numbers against official public registers (such as China's National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System and Australia's ABN Lookup), and deciding whether you can open a store or sell a particular kind of product.
• Providing merchant services: running your store, listings, orders, redemptions, bookings, parcel tracking, buyer questions, analytics, promotion and staff accounts.
• Taking payments and paying you: collecting deposits and payments for promotion and staff accounts, working out commission and fees, paying you, and issuing invoices.
• Reviewing products and deals: AI takes a first look (see "AI and automated decisions"), and AOW staff review by hand where needed.
• Support and disputes: handling after-sales requests and complaints between you and customers, and answering your questions under "Contact AOW".
• Keeping you informed: telling you about reviews, orders, payouts, your deposit, promotion and complaints through the merchant centre, AOW notices and email.
• Security and fraud prevention: preventing impersonation, fake transactions, fake orders and other abuse.
• Complying with the law: tax and record-keeping, responding to lawful requests from regulators and law enforcement, and keeping the records the law requires.
• Improving AOW: looking only at overall numbers (such as how many merchants join each month and how long reviews take on average) to decide what to improve first.

We do not sell your personal information or use it for advertising. If we want to use your information for a new purpose not described here, we will tell you first, and where the law requires consent, we will ask for it first.

4. AI and automated decisions

• Products: the product name, tagline, category, the animals it is for, price and description, up to 4 product photos and 2 description images, and your store name and region are given to Google Gemini for a first look.
• Deals: the deal title, what is included, terms of use, description, price and regular store price, validity period, whether a booking is needed and the days it cannot be used, up to 4 images, and the store's name, category, address and description are given to Google Gemini for a first look.
• Breeders: when you apply, AI writes a review report from your breeding information and information publicly available online (see above).

The AI's conclusion directly affects whether a product or deal goes on sale: if the AI finds no problem, it goes on sale straight away; if it clearly breaks the AOW Platform Rules and the AI can give a reason, it is sent back straight away, with the reason and a note that it was the AI's first review; if the AI is unsure, could not complete the check, or says it breaks the rules without giving a reason, it goes to AOW staff. Staple food, nutrition and health products for dogs and cats are always checked again by AOW staff, whatever the AI says. Whether a breeder can join is always decided by AOW staff by hand; the AI only writes the report.

If the AI sends something back, you can fix it and resubmit, or ask for a human review under "Contact AOW" in the merchant centre. We do not give your ID photos or payout details to AI.

5. Who can see your information

• Customers and the public: your public store details (store name, logo, description, products and deals, store address and map location, store phone number, website, opening hours, photos and how pet friendly it is), reviews of your products and store, and the "AOW verified" badge once a physical store is approved. Online stores do not show your phone number to customers; customers contact you through "Buyer questions". Numbers that local law requires breeders to show on a listing (such as a breeder number or microchip number) can be seen by everyone; in South Australia, listings also show the name, phone number and DACO number of every person involved in breeding and selling, and listings in other regions do not show phone numbers.
• Breeders' and adoption organisations' qualifications: the breeding qualifications or adoption organisation qualifications you provide under local rules (name, number, expiry date, official lookup link and certificate file) are shown publicly on your store's home page, where anyone can see and open them. ID documents, business licence photos and payout details are not made public. If a certificate shows something you do not want made public, such as your home address, you can cover it before uploading, as long as the number can still be read clearly.
• Customers you trade with: once you approve a customer's return, they can see your return address, recipient and phone number; if a customer complains about your store, they can see the explanation you write and AOW's decision; and a customer who buys an animal from you can see the details and documents you enter and upload at handover.
• People in your store: the store owner can see the store's business information, and staff see what their permissions allow. The owner and anyone with the "Staff" permission can see a staff member's name, job title, email, mobile number, ID type and the name on the ID, but not their ID document photos.
• AOW staff: only the information related to their work, according to their role's permissions. A physical store's ID documents, licences and verification video can only be seen by staff with the "store review" permission (except the qualifications that breeders and adoption organisations show publicly on their store's home page); every view is logged, and they are shown with an "AOW review only" watermark. Online store application documents can only be seen by staff with the relevant merchant review permissions. Staff with support permissions can see the conversations in "Buyer questions" (they can only read them, not reply for you), to handle complaints and disputes.
• Companies that help us provide the service: see the next section.
• When the law requires it: we provide the necessary information when the law, a court or a government authority lawfully requires it; and where a customer's legal rights have been harmed and the law requires the platform to provide the merchant's real name, address and contact details, we will provide them as required.
• If the operator changes: if the entity that operates AOW changes (for example, if a company takes over running AOW), your information will pass to the new operator and continue to be protected under this policy. We will tell you in advance.

6. Companies that help us run AOW

AOW uses the service providers below to handle merchant information. They may only use it as we instruct and for the purposes listed. They may process data outside Australia.

When Stripe handles the information you enter on its pages, Stripe's own privacy policy applies.

7. Where your information is stored and sent

• AOW's database and file storage are in Sydney, Australia (Supabase). The providers in the previous section may process information outside Australia; we only give them what they need to provide their service.
• If your store is in mainland China, your information (including sensitive personal information such as the ID photos in your application and your company bank account details) is transferred outside mainland China and stored in Australia, and may also be processed in other countries by the providers in the previous section. The overseas recipient is AOW (operated from Melbourne, Australia; contact hello@all-our-world.com). The purposes, methods and kinds of information are set out in "What we collect" and "How we use it" above, and you can exercise your rights with us as described in "Your rights" below.

8. How long we keep it

• We keep this information while your merchant account and store exist.
• After you close your store or your merchant account, we keep your application identity and qualification records, and your transaction, payout and invoice records, until the period required by law ends (for example, China requires platforms to keep merchants' identity information for at least 3 years after they leave and transaction information for at least 3 years after the transaction is completed, and Australian tax records generally have to be kept for 5 years). Everything else we delete or de-identify.
• Where there is an unresolved dispute, complaint or legal process, we keep the related information until it is resolved.

9. How we protect it

• Encryption in transit: connections between you and AOW, and between AOW and its providers, are encrypted with HTTPS (TLS).
• Encryption at rest: the database and files are stored encrypted by our providers; ID documents, licences and verification videos are kept in private storage, and there are no long-lived links to them on any web page.
• Access control: the database limits who can see what, so you and your staff only see your own store's data; AOW staff get permissions according to their roles, and sensitive actions are logged.
• For stores in Australia, the United States and Canada, bank account details go only to Stripe and AOW does not keep them.
• No system is perfectly secure. If a data breach is likely to affect your personal information, we will notify you and the regulator as the law requires.

10. Your rights

• See and correct: you can see and change most details directly in the merchant centre. Once an online store is approved, its company, brand and ID details are locked; contact AOW to change them. Changing a physical store's name, categories, address, ID or licences sends it back to review.
• Get a copy: you can ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Delete and close: you can ask to close your store, close your merchant account and delete your personal information; anything the law requires us to keep is kept until that period ends (see "How long we keep it").
• Withdraw consent: you can withdraw consent you have given, but we may then be unable to keep providing merchant services to you (for example, a store cannot operate without its application details). Withdrawing does not affect what was done before you withdrew.
• Challenge an AI decision or ask for an explanation: see "AI and automated decisions".
• Complain: please contact us first; we will look into it and tell you what we have done. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the privacy regulator where you are (for example, the OAIC in Australia, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, or the CAI in Quebec).

Please make these requests under "Contact AOW" in the merchant centre or by writing to hello@all-our-world.com. We will act on them once we have confirmed it is you, and we generally do not charge for this.

11. Your staff and other people's information you provide

• Before you invite staff or enter details for your legal representative or contact people (and, for breeders in South Australia, the people involved in breeding and selling), please tell them what information AOW collects and why (you can send them this policy), and get their consent. Please also tell the people in South Australia that their names, phone numbers and numbers will be shown publicly on your listings.
• Staff can contact AOW directly to see or correct their own information or to exercise the other rights above. When a staff member leaves, please switch off their account promptly.

12. Customer information you receive from AOW

• To fulfil orders and services, you will see some customer information: delivery details, the full name and mobile number entered when buying a deal, the contact details left with a booking, and messages and photos in "Buyer questions". You are responsible for protecting this information under the law of your region.
• You may only use this information to fulfil that order (shipping, redemption, the booking or after-sales) and to contact the customer about it: never for marketing, never sold, passed on or made public, and never used to build your own customer list. Delete or destroy it as the law requires once it is no longer needed, and tell AOW straight away if it is leaked. The full requirements are in "Customers' personal information" in the AOW Merchant Services Agreement.
• If a customer asks you to see, correct or delete their information, deal with it as the law requires; if you need AOW's help, contact us under "Contact AOW" in the merchant centre.

13. Additional information by region

Australia

We handle your personal information under the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). If a data breach is likely to result in serious harm, we will notify you and the OAIC under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.

China

We handle your personal information under the Personal Information Protection Law. ID document photos and bank account details are sensitive personal information. We collect them to verify the identity of merchants, to register and verify merchants on the platform as the law requires, and to pay you; without them, you cannot open a store on AOW or receive payouts. As set out in "Your rights", you can ask to access, copy, correct or delete your information, withdraw consent, and ask us to explain our processing rules.

United States

We do not sell your personal information or share it for cross-context behavioural advertising. The merchant centre does not track your activity across other websites, so browser "Do Not Track" signals do not change how we operate.

Canada

We handle your personal information under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA); if you are in Quebec, Quebec's privacy law also applies. The person responsible for privacy at AOW can be reached at hello@all-our-world.com.

14. Changes to this policy

We will update this policy from time to time. Important changes will be published on the website before they take effect, and you will be told in the merchant centre or by AOW notice; where the law requires your consent again, we will ask for it.

15. Contact us

For any question about this policy or your information, write to hello@all-our-world.com (with "Merchant privacy" in the subject line), or contact us under "Contact AOW" in the merchant centre. AOW is operated from Melbourne, Australia.