Privacy Policy

This policy explains how Alpha Gear Lab (ABN 33 202 833 871) collects, uses, stores, and discloses personal information, consistent with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), and the Spam Act 2003 (Cth). Alpha Gear Lab is a watch retailer based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. You can contact us at info@alphagearlab.com.au.

What we collect and why. We collect the information we need to sell you a watch and keep your account running: your name, email, phone number, shipping and billing address, login credentials (passwords are stored as one-way hashes), order and returns history, support messages including any photos you send us for return claims, and a payment token from Stripe or PayPal that represents your card — we never see or store your full card number or CVV. We also collect device and usage data as you browse the site — IP address, browser and device type, pages viewed, and referring page — through server logs, cookies, and similar technologies. If you've opted in, we hold your newsletter subscription status and whether you've opened or clicked our emails. We use this information to take payment, ship your watch, manage returns, send transactional emails (order confirmation, dispatch, refund, password reset), respond to questions and support requests, send marketing emails to people who have opted in, measure site traffic and advertising performance, prevent fraud, and meet our legal obligations. We may collect information directly from you when you order, sign up, or contact us; automatically as you browse; or from our payment processors and shipping carrier.

Who we share it with. We share personal information only with the service providers we need to run the business. We don't sell your personal information. Current categories and representative providers are: payment processing (Stripe, PayPal); shipping (Sendle); email delivery and marketing (Resend); website hosting and database (Vercel, Neon); and analytics and advertising (Google Analytics 4, Meta, TikTok). We also disclose information where required by law, for example in response to a court order or a request from an Australian regulator. Some of these providers store or process personal information outside Australia — primarily in the United States, and also in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Singapore — and by providing personal information to us, you consent to those overseas transfers.

Security, and how long we keep your information. We take reasonable steps to protect personal information (APP 11), including HTTPS across the site, hashed passwords, tokenised card data, and role-restricted admin access. No system is perfectly secure. We keep personal information only as long as we need it for the purposes described above, or as required by Australian tax and record-keeping law.

Marketing.We only send marketing emails to people who have opted in. Every marketing email includes a clear unsubscribe link. Transactional emails (confirmation, dispatch, refund, password reset) aren't promotional and will continue while you have an active order.

Access, correction, and complaints. You can ask us at any time to access or correct the personal information we hold about you (APPs 12 and 13), or to delete your account, subject to our record-keeping obligations. Email info@alphagearlab.com.au. We'll respond within 30 days. If you're unhappy with how we've handled your personal information, tell us first. If you're not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.

We may update this policy from time to time. The “last updated” date at the top of the page shows the current version.