Legal · Privacy policy

We sell reef gear, not your data.

The whole policy fits on one page because the practice is simple: we collect what it takes to ship gear and answer questions, we share it only with the services that make that possible, and we don't sell any of it. Ever.

EFFECTIVE 2026-06-11 VERSION 1.0 DATA SOLD OR RENTED: NONE

01What we collect

PLAIN ENGLISHWhat you'd expect a store to need: who you are, where to ship, what you bought, what you asked us.
  • Order data — name, shipping and billing address, email, phone if you give one, and what you ordered.
  • Sizing & support requests — whatever you put in the system sizing or contact forms, such as your tank volume, what you plan to keep, and your equipment questions.
  • Support messages — the conversation, plus order history we look up to answer it.
  • Site data — basic logs and analytics: pages viewed, device type, approximate region. Standard for any storefront.

02What we never see

PLAIN ENGLISHYour card number goes to the payment processor, not to us. We couldn't leak it because we never have it.

Payment details are entered directly with our PCI-compliant payment processor. Full card numbers never touch our systems — we see the last four digits and the card brand, enough to find an order when you ask about a refund, and nothing more.

We also don't collect anything from the gear itself. Some equipment — controllers, app-connected dosing pumps, and the like — connects to its manufacturer's cloud under that manufacturer's policy, not ours. Worth reading the maker's privacy policy if that matters to you, and we're happy to point out gear that runs fully offline.

03How we use it

PLAIN ENGLISHTo ship your order, answer your questions, size your system, and stop card fraud. That's the list.
  • Fulfillment — processing, shipping, tracking emails, returns, and warranty claims.
  • The services you asked for — turning your tank details into a gear list, or answering a sizing question.
  • Support — answering messages and looking up the order they're about.
  • Fraud prevention — screening transactions, which is required by our payment processor and protects you as much as us.
  • The newsletter — the ~2-emails-a-month newsletter, only if you subscribed. See section 07.

We don't build advertising profiles, and we don't use your data to train anything.

04Who we share with

PLAIN ENGLISHThe companies that physically make a store work — carrier, payment processor, platform. Nobody buys access to you.
  • Shipping carriers — name and address, so the box arrives.
  • Payment processor — transaction details, so the charge clears.
  • E-commerce & email platforms — the services that host the store, the order system, and the inbox.
  • Tax compliance — order totals and jurisdictions, because sales tax is the law.
  • Law enforcement — only with a valid legal demand, and we'll tell you unless legally barred from doing so.

We do not sell or rent personal data, and we don't share it with advertisers or data brokers. Each provider above is contractually limited to using data only to provide its service to us.

05Cookies & analytics

PLAIN ENGLISHCookies keep your cart working and tell us which pages get read. No ad-tracking pixels.

We use cookies for the things a store can't function without — your cart, your session, fraud screening — and first-party analytics to see which products and guides people actually read. We don't run third-party advertising pixels or cross-site trackers.

Block cookies in your browser and the site still works; the cart just won't survive the visit. We honor the Global Privacy Control signal where state law gives it effect.

06Tank & sizing details

PLAIN ENGLISHWhat you tell us about your tank is used to size your system, seen only by the person on the request, and deleted on ask.

The tank details you share — volume, dimensions, livestock plans, photos you send — are used for exactly one thing: producing your gear recommendation or answering your question. Access is limited to the person working the request. We don't publish them, don't use them as marketing examples, and don't aggregate them into anything.

These records are deleted automatically after 12 months of inactivity, or immediately when you ask — one email does it.

07Email & newsletter

PLAIN ENGLISHOrder emails are part of the order. The newsletter is opt-in, rare, and one click to leave.

Transactional email — confirmations, tracking, RMA instructions, support replies — is part of the service and can't be unsubscribed separately from having an order.

The newsletter is opt-in only: roughly two emails a month, sent when there's something worth your time — a piece of gear worth knowing about, a buying guide, a restock on the hard-to-find stuff. Every issue has an unsubscribe link, it works on the first click, and buying something never auto-subscribes you.

08How long we keep it

PLAIN ENGLISHOrder records: 7 years, because tax law and your warranty both need them. Most everything else: a year or less.
  • Order records — 7 years, for tax compliance and so warranty claims work without paperwork from you.
  • Tank & sizing details — 12 months after last activity, or on request.
  • Support threads — 24 months, so “the thing we fixed last year” has context.
  • Analytics — aggregated after 14 months; raw logs don't outlive that.

09Your rights

PLAIN ENGLISHAsk and we'll show you your data, fix it, or delete what the law lets us delete. No forms, no fee, no friction.

Email hello@marenmarine.com to access, correct, export, or delete your personal data. We verify the request against the email on file, answer within 30 days, and don't charge for it. Deletion has one carve-out: order records we're legally required to retain for tax purposes — those are kept, locked, and used for nothing else.

Residents of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, and other states with privacy statutes have these rights by law, including the right not to be discriminated against for using them — but the offer above isn't gated by state line. Everyone gets the same answer.

10Security

PLAIN ENGLISHEncrypted in transit and at rest, least-privilege access, and we run this stuff for a living.

Data is encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest. Access inside the company is least-privilege — the person packing boxes doesn't see support threads, and vice versa. Keeping your information secure is something we take seriously.

If a breach ever affects your data, you'll hear it from us promptly and plainly: what happened, what was exposed, and what we've done — the same honest standard we hold ourselves to everywhere else.

11Children

PLAIN ENGLISHThis store is for adults buying aquarium equipment.

The site isn't directed at children under 13 and we don't knowingly collect their data. If you believe a child has submitted personal information, email us and it's deleted.

12Changes & contact

PLAIN ENGLISHIf the policy changes, the date at the top changes, and material changes get announced — not slipped in.

Updates to this policy move the effective date above; material changes are announced in our email updates and on this page before they take effect. We won't quietly weaken any commitment on this page.

Privacy questions or requests: hello@marenmarine.com · Maren Marine · [Mailing address — add before launch].