Privacy policy

Last updated: October 4, 2026

This policy explains what personal information Heat, doing business as Heat Hot Sauce Shop ("we", "us"), collects when you visit heathotsauce.com, buy from us, join the Hot Sauce of the Month Club, or contact us, and what we do with it. We're a two-person business in San Leandro, California, and we've tried to keep this readable.

What we collect

Information you give us

Order details: your name, email, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, what you bought, and any gift message.
Account and club details: your email login, saved addresses, wishlist, subscription settings, and club preferences such as box size, heat level, and any dietary needs or allergies you tell us about.
Messages: what you send us by email, chat or text, and a phone number if you ask us to call you back.
Reviews: your name, rating, review text and any photos you choose to post.
Sign-ups: your email if you join our newsletter or ask to be told when a product is back in stock.

We don't see or store your full card number. Payments are handled by the payment providers at checkout.

Information collected automatically

When you use our site, we and our partners collect information about your device and visit: IP address, browser and device type, approximate location based on IP address, pages viewed, searches, items added to your cart, the site that sent you here, and similar activity. This is collected with cookies, pixels and similar tools (see "Cookies and tracking" below).

Information from others

Payment providers confirm whether a payment went through and may flag suspected fraud. Advertising and affiliate partners may tell us that you came to our site from one of their ads or links.

How we use it

To process, ship and track your orders, and to run your club subscription.
To pick sauces for your club box. Dietary and allergy notes are used only for this, never for advertising.
To answer your questions and handle problems with orders.
To send order, shipping and account emails.
To send marketing emails if you've signed up or bought from us (you can unsubscribe any time).
To show reviews and tell you when a product is back in stock.
To understand how the site is used and improve it.
To measure and show ads, including ads on other websites and apps.
To prevent fraud, keep the site secure, and meet legal, tax and accounting requirements.

Cookies and tracking

We use cookies and similar tools for three things:

Making the site work: your cart, checkout, login and preferences. The site doesn't work properly without these.
Analytics: Shopify's analytics and Google Analytics tell us how people find and use the site.
Advertising: pixels from Google (Google Ads and Google Shopping), Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Microsoft Advertising (Bing), and Reddit record visits and purchases so we can measure our ads and show ads to people who have visited us. Meta and Reddit may also receive purchase events directly from our store's servers. We work with affiliate partners through the Awin network, which uses tracking to credit sales that come from their links.

We may also upload a scrambled (hashed) list of customer email addresses to Google so our ads can reach existing customers or similar people. We don't upload this list for customers whose address is in the European Economic Area, the UK or Switzerland.

You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, though parts of the site may stop working. Where the law requires it, the site shows a cookie banner where you can choose which cookies to allow. To opt out of advertising sharing, see "Your choices" below.

Who we share it with

We share information only as needed to run the business, with service providers who handle it for us, including:

Store platform and checkout: Shopify, which hosts our store and checkout.
Payments: Shopify Payments, Shop Pay, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Amazon Pay.
Subscriptions: Appstle, which manages club subscriptions.
Shipping: USPS, UPS and other carriers, our shipping label service, and the fulfillment partner that packs and ships club boxes.
Email and messaging: MailerLite (marketing email), Google (our business email), LiveChat (site chat), and Twilio (text messages).
Site features: Junip (product reviews and review requests), STOQ (back-in-stock alerts), Rapid Search (site search), and Sticky Cart by qikify (add-to-cart bar).
Hosting for our own tools: Cloudflare and Vercel, which run the services behind our customer account pages, wishlist and chat.
Automated chat replies: some chat replies come from an automated assistant. To write them, the chat message is processed by an AI provider (Anthropic).
Analytics and advertising: Google, Meta, Microsoft, Reddit and Awin, as described above.

We may also share information if the law requires it, to protect our rights or prevent fraud, or as part of a sale or merger of the business. We don't sell your information for money. Under California law, though, letting advertising partners collect data through pixels can count as "selling" or "sharing" personal information, and you can opt out of it (see below).

Your choices

Marketing email: click "unsubscribe" in any marketing email. You'll still get emails about your orders and subscription.
Text messages: we text you only when you text us first at (510) 849-1048 or ask for a reply by text. Reply STOP to stop texts at any time. We don't currently send marketing texts. If we ever do, we'll ask for your permission first.
Targeted advertising: visit Your Privacy Choices to opt out of the sale or sharing of your information for targeted ads. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, we treat it as an opt-out for that browser.
Your account: you can view and update your details and subscription at account.heathotsauce.com.

Your California privacy rights

If you live in California, you have the right to:

Know what personal information we've collected about you, where it came from, why we use it, and who we share it with, and get a copy of it.
Delete personal information we've collected from you, subject to some exceptions (for example, records we must keep for taxes).
Correct inaccurate personal information.
Opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information for targeted advertising, at Your Privacy Choices.
Not be treated differently for using any of these rights. We won't charge you more or give you worse service.

In the past 12 months we've collected the kinds of information described in "What we collect": identifiers (name, email, address, phone, IP address), purchase history, browsing activity on our site, approximate location, and the club preferences you give us. We use and share them as described above. We don't use dietary or allergy notes for anything except preparing your club box.

To make a request, email info@heathotsauce.com with "Privacy request" in the subject. We'll confirm your identity by matching the email address and order details you give us with our records. You can have an authorized agent make a request for you, but we may ask for proof that you gave them permission. We'll respond within 45 days.

People in other states may have similar rights under their own laws. Email us and we'll help, wherever you live.

How long we keep it

We keep order records as long as we need them for orders, customer service, and tax and accounting rules, which usually means several years. We keep your marketing email address until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete it. Analytics and advertising data is kept according to each provider's settings.

Security

We use the security built into Shopify and our other providers, limit who can access customer information, and keep our own tools locked down. No system is perfectly secure, so if you think something is wrong with your account, contact us right away.

Children

Our site is meant for adults. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has given us information, contact us and we'll delete it.

Visitors outside the US

We're based in the US, and the information we collect is stored and processed in the US and other countries where our providers operate. If you live outside the US, you can ask us to access, correct or delete your information by emailing us.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we'll change the "Last updated" date at the top. If a change is significant, we'll let customers know by email or with a notice on the site.

Contact us

Heat DBA Heat Hot Sauce Shop
1937 Republic Ave, San Leandro, CA 94577 (warehouse, not open to the public)
Email: info@heathotsauce.com
Text: (510) 849-1048
Chat: use the chat button on any page of our site