Privacy Policy

Black Thread Union (“we”, “us”) operates the website blackthreadunion.com, including the merch store. This policy explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, and how you can exercise your rights.

1. Data we collect

Contact & newsletter

• Contact form — your name, email address, and message content, submitted when you reach out to us.
• Newsletter — your email address, provided when you sign up for updates.

Merch orders

When you place an order in the merch store, your name, shipping address, and email are collected and processed by Printful for order fulfilment and by Stripe for payment. We retain a record of your order (items, totals, shipping address) to manage your purchase and comply with accounting obligations. We do not store your payment card details.

Analytics (optional, consent-gated)

With your permission we use Google Analytics 4 to understand which pages and releases people visit. This involves cookies and the collection of anonymised usage data (pages viewed, device type, approximate geographic region). IP anonymisation is enabled. Analytics data is only collected after you opt in via the cookie consent banner.

Technical & security data

Our hosting platform (Railway) records standard server logs including IP addresses and request paths. These are used for security monitoring and error diagnosis and are not used for marketing or profiling.

2. How we use your data

• Contact submissions — to respond to your message. Retained for up to 12 months then deleted.
• Newsletter — to send occasional updates about music releases and events. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in any email we send.
• Orders — to fulfil your purchase and handle any issues. Retained in line with applicable accounting and legal requirements (typically 7 years).
• Analytics — to understand how the site is used and improve the experience for visitors.

3. Third-party services

• Printful — receives your name, shipping address, and order details to produce and ship your merch. Printful acts as a data processor on our behalf. Printful Privacy Policy.
• Stripe — handles payment processing for merch orders. Stripe is an independent data controller for your payment data. We never see or store card details. Stripe Privacy Policy.
• Google Analytics 4 — anonymous site analytics, used only with your consent. Data is processed by Google in accordance with their privacy policy.
• Cloudflare Turnstile — used on the contact form to distinguish humans from bots. It does not set cross-site tracking cookies.

4. Data sharing and sale

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal data to third parties. Data is only shared with the service providers listed above to the extent necessary to operate the site and fulfil orders.

5. Your rights

Depending on where you are located, you may have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you.
• Request correction of inaccurate data.
• Request deletion of your data (“right to be forgotten”).
• Object to or restrict certain processing.
• Withdraw consent for analytics at any time via Cookie Preferences in the site footer.
• Unsubscribe from the newsletter using the link in any email.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us via the contact form. We will respond within 30 days.

6. Cookies

For full details of the cookies and storage mechanisms we use, see our Cookie Policy.

7. Security

We take reasonable technical measures to protect personal data, including HTTPS encryption, signed session cookies, and access controls on admin functions. No internet transmission is completely secure; we cannot guarantee absolute security.

8. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The effective date at the top of this page reflects the date of the most recent revision. Continued use of the site after an update constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

9. Contact

Questions or requests regarding this policy can be sent via the contact form.