Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

GEMIO ("GEMIO," "we," "our," or "us") is a local business discovery and marketplace platform. Our website is located at gemio.ca. You can contact us at mahsa.farjamy@gmail.com.

2. Information we collect

From shoppers (visitors):

• Search queries and location data you enter voluntarily
• Pages visited, clicks, and vote interactions (anonymised fingerprint only)
• IP address (hashed — never stored in plain text)

From sellers (business owners):

• Name, email address, and business information you provide
• Social media profile URLs and public post content you authorise us to import
• Payment information processed by Stripe (we never see your full card number)
• Profile images and product photos

3. How we use your information

• To display your business profile to shoppers near you
• To import and format your social media content into your GEMIO shop (only with your explicit authorisation)
• To process payments and calculate GEMIO commission
• To send engagement reports after a featured spotlight period
• To improve our AI matching and search relevance
• To communicate service updates and important account notices

4. Social media content

When you connect an Instagram, TikTok, Shopify, or Etsy account to GEMIO, you are giving us permission to read your public posts and listings for the purpose of building and maintaining your GEMIO shop. We will only import content from accounts you explicitly authorise. You can revoke this permission at any time from your seller dashboard.

We use Apify and/or official platform APIs to retrieve public content. We do not store raw social media credentials.

5. Third-party services

• Supabase — our database and authentication provider (supabase.com)
• Stripe — payment processing (stripe.com) — subject to Stripe's Privacy Policy
• Apify — social media content retrieval
• Anthropic / Claude API — AI processing of content to build shop listings
• OpenStreetMap — map data and business location display

6. Cookies and local storage

We use browser localStorage (not cookies) to remember your vote preferences on featured pages. No personal data is stored in localStorage. We do not use advertising or tracking cookies.

7. Data retention

Business listings remain active until you delete your account. Seller accounts and data are retained for 90 days after deletion to resolve disputes. Payment records are retained as required by law (7 years in Canada).

8. Your rights (PIPEDA / GDPR)

• Access the data we hold about you
• Correct inaccurate data
• Delete your account and associated data
• Export your data in a portable format
• Withdraw consent for social media content import

To exercise any right, email mahsa.farjamy@gmail.com.

9. Children

GEMIO is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13.

10. Changes to this policy

We will post updates to this page and email registered sellers 30 days before material changes take effect.

11. Contact

GEMIO Privacy
Email: mahsa.farjamy@gmail.com