Privacy policy

Last updated: 21 September 2026

Chococo operates this store and website, including all related information, content, features, tools, products and services, in order to provide you, the customer, with a curated shopping experience (the "Services"). Our store is powered by Shopify, which enables us to provide the Services to you. This Privacy and Cookie Policy describes how we collect, use, and disclose your personal information when you visit, use, or make a purchase or other transaction using the Services or otherwise communicate with us. If there is a conflict between our Terms of Service and this policy, this policy controls with respect to the collection, processing, and disclosure of your personal information.

Please read this policy carefully. By using and accessing any of the Services, you acknowledge that you have read it and understand the collection, use, and disclosure of your information as described here.

Who we are

Chococo, the Purbeck Chocolate Co, was founded in 2002 by Andy and Claire Burnet. For the purposes of UK data protection law we are the data controller of your personal information.

Our chocolate kitchen and head office is at Unit E, Blackhill Road, Holton Heath, Dorset BH16 6LS. Our registered company address is Chococo Wholesale Ltd, Meadway House, 38a Station Road West, Oxted, England, RH8 9EU.

Personal information we collect or process

When we use the term "personal information", we are referring to information that identifies or can reasonably be linked to you or another person. Personal information does not include information that is collected anonymously or that has been de-identified, so that it cannot identify or be reasonably linked to you. We may collect or process the following categories of personal information, including inferences drawn from it, depending on how you interact with the Services:

  • Contact details including your name, address, billing address, shipping address, phone number, and email address.
  • Recipient details where you send a gift, including the name and address of the person receiving it, and any gift message you ask us to include.
  • Financial information including payment card information, transaction details, form of payment and payment confirmation. We never see or store your full card number.
  • Account information including your username, password, preferences and settings.
  • Transaction information including the items you view, put in your basket, add to your wishlist, or purchase, return, exchange or cancel, and your past transactions.
  • Communications with us including the information you include when you contact us, for example when sending a customer support enquiry, or when you leave us a review.
  • Device information including information about your device, browser, or network connection, your IP address, and other unique identifiers.
  • Usage information including how and when you interact with or navigate the Services.

Cookies

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users and to keep track of your visit. They help us to give you the best experience when you browse, to let your browser remember you and help with logging in, to keep your basket working, and to make improvements to the site. Cookies do not allow us to identify individuals from the information we collect.

We use cookies in four broad groups:

  • Strictly necessary. These make the site work. They remember what is in your basket, keep you logged in, and keep checkout secure. The site cannot function without them, so they are always on.
  • Functional. These remember choices you have made, such as your preferred Chocolate House for collection.
  • Analytics. These tell us which pages are visited, how people arrive at the site and where they run into trouble, so we can improve it.
  • Marketing. These let us and our advertising partners show you relevant ads and measure whether they worked.

When you first visit the site you are asked which of these you are happy to accept. You can change your mind at any time through the cookie settings link on the site. You can also configure your browser to refuse cookies, although if you disable or refuse them, please note that some parts of our website may become inaccessible or not function properly.

Where your information comes from

  • Directly from you, when you create an account, place an order, visit or use the Services, communicate with us, or otherwise provide us with your personal information.
  • Automatically through the Services, from your device when you use our products or services or visit our website, and through the use of cookies and similar technologies.
  • From our service providers, when we engage them to enable certain technology and when they collect or process your personal information on our behalf.
  • From our partners or other third parties.

How we use your personal information

  • Provide, tailor and improve the Services. To perform our contract with you, process your payments, fulfil your orders, remember your preferences, send notifications about your account, process purchases, returns, exchanges and other transactions, arrange delivery or collection, enable you to leave reviews, and create a shopping experience that suits you.
  • Marketing and advertising. To send you marketing and promotional communications by email or post where you have asked us to, and to show you online advertisements for our products.
  • Security and fraud prevention. To authenticate your account, provide a secure payment and shopping experience, and detect, investigate or act on possible fraudulent, illegal, unsafe or malicious activity. If you register an account, you are responsible for keeping your credentials safe. We strongly recommend that you do not share your username, password or other access details with anyone else.
  • Communicating with you. To provide customer support, to be responsive to you and to maintain our relationship with you.
  • Legal reasons. To comply with applicable law or respond to valid legal process, and to enforce or investigate potential breaches of our terms or policies.

How we disclose personal information

In certain circumstances, we may disclose your personal information to third parties for legitimate purposes subject to this policy. Such circumstances may include:

  • With Shopify, and with vendors and other third parties who perform services on our behalf, such as payment processing, delivery, address lookup, customer reviews, email sending, data analytics, customer support and cloud storage.
  • With our delivery partners, so that they can get your order to you. This includes Royal Mail.
  • With analytics and advertising partners, where you have consented to analytics or marketing cookies, so that we can measure how the site is performing and advertise to you. These partners use your information in accordance with their own privacy notices. You may ask us at any time not to share information about you for targeted advertising.
  • When you direct, request or otherwise consent to our disclosure of certain information to third parties.
  • In connection with a business transaction such as a merger, to comply with any applicable legal obligations, to enforce any applicable terms or policies, and to protect or defend the Services, our rights, and the rights of our users or others.

Our relationship with Shopify

The Services are hosted by Shopify, which collects and processes personal information about your access to and use of the Services in order to provide and improve them. Information you submit will be transmitted to and shared with Shopify as well as third parties that may be located in countries other than where you reside. In addition, we use certain Shopify enhanced features that incorporate data obtained from your interactions with our store, along with other merchants and with Shopify. To provide these features, Shopify may make use of personal information collected about your interactions with our store, along with other merchants, and with Shopify. In these circumstances, Shopify is responsible for the processing of your personal information, including for responding to your requests to exercise your rights over that use. To learn more, see the Shopify Consumer Privacy Policy. You may also exercise certain rights through the Shopify Privacy Portal.

Third party websites and links

The Services may provide links to websites or other online platforms operated by third parties. If you follow links to sites not affiliated or controlled by us, you should review their privacy and security policies and other terms and conditions. We do not guarantee and are not responsible for the privacy or security of such sites, including the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of information found on them. Information you provide on public or semi-public venues, including information you share on third party social networking platforms, may also be viewable by other users without limitation as to its use by us or by a third party. Our inclusion of such links does not, by itself, imply any endorsement of the content on those platforms or of their owners or operators.

Children's data

The Services are not intended to be used by children, and we do not knowingly collect any personal information about children under the age of majority in your jurisdiction. If you are the parent or guardian of a child who has provided us with their personal information, you may contact us using the details below to request that it be deleted.

Security and how long we keep your information

We are committed to taking appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss. Our website is secured by encryption, so your data is not accessible while you are transmitting it. That said, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable, and we cannot guarantee perfect security. We recommend that you do not use unsecure channels to send us sensitive or confidential information.

How long we retain your personal information depends on different factors, such as whether we need it to maintain your account, to provide you with the Services, to comply with legal obligations, to resolve disputes or to enforce other applicable contracts and policies. We are required to keep transactional records for accounting and tax purposes, so where you ask us to erase your data we will anonymise your records rather than delete the transaction itself.

Your rights and choices

You have the following rights in relation to your personal information. These rights are not absolute, may apply only in certain circumstances and, in certain cases, we may decline a request as permitted by law.

  • Right to access. You may request a copy of the personal information that we hold about you. We will respond within 30 days. We may refuse a request that is excessive or manifestly unfounded.
  • Right to delete. You may request that we delete personal information we hold about you, subject to the retention point above.
  • Right to correct. You may request that we correct inaccurate personal information we hold about you.
  • Right of portability. You may request a copy of your personal information and ask us to transfer it to a third party, in certain circumstances and with certain exceptions.
  • Objection to processing and restriction of processing. You may ask us to stop or restrict our processing of your personal information for certain purposes.
  • Withdrawal of consent. Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time. That does not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdrew it.
  • Managing communication preferences. We may send you promotional emails, and you may opt out at any time using the unsubscribe link in any of them, by changing your preferences in your account, or by contacting us. If you opt out, we may still send you non-promotional emails about your account or orders you have placed.

You may exercise any of these rights by contacting us using the details below. We will not discriminate against you for exercising them. We may need to verify your identity before we can process your request. You may designate an authorised agent to make requests on your behalf, in which case we will require proof that you have authorised them to act for you.

Complaints

If you have a complaint about how we process your personal information, please contact us using the details below. If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK supervisory authority for data protection, at ico.org.uk.

International transfers

We may transfer, store and process your personal information outside the United Kingdom. Where we do, we rely on recognised transfer mechanisms such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, unless the transfer is to a country that has been determined to provide an adequate level of protection.

Changes to this policy

We review this policy regularly to make sure we continue to serve the privacy interests of our customers. We may update it from time to time to reflect changes to our practices or for other operational, legal or regulatory reasons. We will post the revised policy on this website and update the date at the top.

Contact

If you have any questions about our privacy practices or this policy, or if you would like to exercise any of your rights, please contact us:

Email info@chococo.co.uk
Telephone +44 (0)1929 421777
Post: Chococo, Unit E, Blackhill Road, Holton Heath, Dorset BH16 6LS