This Privacy Policy explains how Stellar Bud Corp. handles personal information in the course of running its seed house and its computer systems design practice. The policy was written and is maintained under the direction of Stellar Bud, the developer and operator responsible for this website and for the records it creates. It applies to every visitor, client, supplier and workshop participant who deals with us, whether in person at the bench, by telephone, by email or through this website.
We wrote this document in plain language on purpose. A privacy policy should be read by the person whose information it protects, not only by a lawyer, and it should answer the questions a normal visitor would ask. If any part of this policy is unclear, please contact us using the details in the final section and we will explain it in ordinary words.
Stellar Bud Corp. is a Canadian company with its principal place of business at 21 Old Mill Road Rr 3, PRINCETON - N0J 1V0, Canada (CA). We operate within the professional, scientific and technical services sector, with a focus on computer systems design and related nursery and garden planning work. This combination of activities shapes the information we hold. Some of it relates to business operations and some of it relates to people who visit, ask questions or attend a workshop.
Legal entity: Stellar Bud Corp.
Address: 21 Old Mill Road Rr 3, PRINCETON - N0J 1V0, Canada (CA)
Email: bud@stellarbud.lol
Telephone: +12724372060
By using this website or contacting us, you acknowledge that you have read this policy and understand how your information will be handled. If you do not agree with the practices described here, you should not submit information to us and you should not use the website. Reading the public pages of the website does not require you to provide any personal information.
Stellar Bud Corp. is the controller of the personal information described in this policy. That means we decide what information is collected, why it is collected and how long it is kept. We are accountable for the information under our control and we have appointed a privacy contact who is responsible for answering questions and handling requests.
Our work has two faces. On one side we operate a seed house, where we grow seedlings in trays, harden stock under glass and plant out nursery rows of potted material. On the other side we provide computer systems design and related professional services to clients who run seasonal operations. The same office in Princeton handles both sides, and the same privacy discipline applies to both.
When we act as a service provider for a client, the client remains responsible for the personal information it asks us to process during a project. In those cases we handle information only on the instructions of the client and we refer privacy requests to the client where appropriate. Where the client is a business and the information relates to the staff of that business, the rights described in this policy are exercised through the client.
This policy covers personal information collected through this website, through email and telephone conversations, through workshop registrations, through visits to the seed house and through the delivery of our services. It also covers information collected during a client project where we are the controller of that information.
This policy does not cover the practices of third parties, including websites that we link to, email providers that you choose to use, or platforms operated by our clients. It also does not cover information that we receive in a purely business capacity about a company, such as a registered company address or a general office telephone number, although we treat such information with the same care we apply to personal details.
Some parts of our work involve information that is not personal at all. Planting calendars, stock registers and route plans typically describe plants, rows and timings rather than people. Where a record of this kind contains a customer name, a contact line or a delivery address, the personal elements are handled under this policy even though the rest of the record is operational.
We collect only what we need to answer a question, provide a service or keep a proper business record. The categories of information we may collect are set out below. Not every category applies to every person, and a visitor who only reads the website will normally provide nothing at all.
When you send a message through the contact form, write to us by email or call us, we receive your name, your email address, your telephone number if you provide one, and the content of your message. If the message concerns a delivery, we may also receive a site address and any access notes you choose to share.
During a project we may hold copies of the documents a client shares with us, such as tray labels, delivery sheets, stock registers, planting plans and written instructions. Where these documents contain personal information, we treat them as confidential records of the client and we apply the safeguards described in this policy.
For a potting bench workshop or a seed house tour we record the names of attendees, a contact address for each booking and any dietary or access note a participant asks us to remember. We keep attendance lists so we can confirm numbers and follow up after the session.
Invoices and receipts usually carry a company name, an address and a billing contact. We do not store full payment card numbers on our own systems. Payments are handled by a financial institution or a payment processor, and we receive only the confirmation necessary to reconcile the transaction.
Our web server may record standard technical information such as the time of a request, the page requested, the referring page and a general region derived from the network address. This information is used to keep the site working and to understand which pages are useful. It is not used to build a profile of an individual visitor.
Most of the personal information we hold comes directly from the person concerned. You type it into a form, send it in an email, speak it on the telephone or write it on a workshop sign-in sheet. We prefer this route because it keeps the record accurate and gives you control over what you share.
We may also receive information from a client who is arranging a project with us, or from a colleague who introduces a new contact. In these cases we confirm with you at the first opportunity how we came to hold the information and what we intend to do with it.
A small amount of technical information is generated automatically when your browser requests a page from our server. This is a normal part of how the internet works and it does not identify you by name. We do not buy marketing lists and we do not obtain personal information from data brokers.
Every purpose below is tied to a real task at the bench or in the office. We do not collect information for vague future use, and we do not retain it once the purpose has ended unless another lawful reason requires us to keep it.
We do not use personal information for automated decision making that produces legal effects. We do not sell personal information, and we do not trade it with advertisers. Where a project requires the analysis of growing data, we prefer aggregated figures that cannot be linked back to an individual person.
We process personal information only where we have a lawful reason to do so. In most cases the reason is one of the following: performance of a contract, compliance with a legal obligation, our legitimate interest in running the business, or your consent.
Where you have asked us to provide a service, the processing is necessary to prepare and perform the agreement between us. Where we must keep accounting records, the processing is necessary to comply with the law. Where we answer a general enquiry, we rely on our legitimate interest in responding to people who contact us, balanced against your rights. Where we send a newsletter, we rely on the consent you gave when you subscribed, and you may withdraw that consent at any time.
If you decline to provide information that is necessary to answer your question or to deliver a service, we may be unable to proceed. In that case we will explain what is missing and what can still be done without it.
We rely on a small number of service providers to keep the website and the office running. These include a hosting provider for the website, an email provider for the bud@stellarbud.lol mailbox, a payment processor for invoices and an accounting service for bookkeeping. Each provider receives only the information necessary for its function.
We review our providers from time to time and we prefer providers that offer clear privacy terms, reasonable security controls and a predictable location for data storage. Where a provider stores information outside Canada, we apply the safeguards described in the section on international transfers.
A provider may use sub-processors of its own. We ask that our providers remain responsible for the acts of their sub-processors and that they notify us of any material change that affects the security of our information.
We keep personal information only for as long as it serves the purpose for which it was collected, or for as long as a legal obligation requires. Retention periods are set by record type rather than by a single blanket rule, because a seed house holds very different records from an accounting desk.
When a retention period ends, we delete the record or remove the personal elements from it so that the remaining operational data can no longer be linked to a person. Where deletion is technically difficult, we apply additional access restrictions instead.
We protect personal information with a combination of technical measures and plain office discipline. Access to records is limited to the people who need it for a specific task. Accounts are protected by strong passwords, and sensitive documents are kept in restricted folders rather than shared drives that everyone can open.
Paper records are still part of a seed house. Tray labels, delivery sheets and workshop sign-in lists are held at the bench or in the office cabinet, and they are cleared at the end of the season in line with the retention periods above. Paper that is no longer needed is shredded rather than placed in ordinary waste.
No system is perfectly secure. If a breach of security occurs and it creates a risk of significant harm, we will notify the affected people and the appropriate authority without undue delay, and we will describe what happened, what was affected and what we have done to correct it. We also keep an internal record of security incidents so that the same weakness is not repeated.
Subject to applicable law, you have the right to know what personal information we hold about you, to ask for a copy, to ask for corrections, and in some circumstances to ask for deletion or restriction. You also have the right to object to certain processing and to withdraw a consent that you previously gave.
To make a request, write to bud@stellarbud.lol with enough detail for us to identify the record. We may ask for reasonable proof of identity before releasing information, because we do not want to disclose a record to the wrong person. We aim to respond within thirty days. If a request is complex, we will explain why more time is needed and give a new date.
If you believe that we have handled your information improperly, please raise it with us first. We take complaints seriously and we will investigate. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or the privacy authority that applies in your jurisdiction. We will cooperate with any such authority.
This website and our services are aimed at adults who run households, gardens, nurseries and technical teams. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of sixteen. If a workshop is arranged for a school or a youth group, the organizing adult provides the attendance list and remains responsible for obtaining any consent that is required.
If you believe that a child has sent us personal information without appropriate consent, please contact us and we will remove the information promptly. We do not target advertising at children and we do not build profiles of children for any purpose.
We send a short seasonal note to clients and contacts who have asked to receive one. The note describes the order book, the workshop calendar and any new service at the seed house. Every message includes a clear way to unsubscribe, and an unsubscribe request is actioned promptly.
We do not add people to a marketing list because they sent a single enquiry. A client relationship may include service updates that are necessary for the project, and those messages are not marketing. Where the law requires express consent, we ask for it before the first message is sent.
Our office and our primary records are in Canada. Some service providers may store information in another country. Where that happens, we take reasonable steps to ensure that the information receives a comparable level of protection, through contractual terms, provider safeguards or a recognized transfer mechanism.
If a client project requires a specific location for data storage, tell us at the start of the project. We can often accommodate the request, and if we cannot, we will say so before any information is transferred.
This website may link to external resources, such as a map service or a supplier page. We do not control those sites and we are not responsible for their privacy practices. When you follow a link, the privacy policy of the destination site applies, and we encourage you to read it before providing personal information.
The same principle applies to email applications that open when you use the contact form. The form prepares a message and hands it to the mail application that you have chosen. Your own email provider will process the message under its own terms.
We review this policy at least once a year and whenever our practices change. When a change is material, we will update the effective date at the top of the page and, where appropriate, place a short notice on the homepage. We encourage you to review the policy from time to time.
If a change would materially affect how we use information that you have already provided, we will contact you before the change takes effect where the law requires it. Continuing to use the website after a change has been published means that you accept the updated policy.
Questions, requests and complaints about privacy should be sent to the privacy contact at Stellar Bud Corp. You can write to the address below, send an email to bud@stellarbud.lol or telephone +12724372060 during business hours.
Stellar Bud Corp.
21 Old Mill Road Rr 3
PRINCETON - N0J 1V0
Canada (CA)
We aim to answer every privacy enquiry within thirty days. If your matter is urgent, please say so in the subject line so that it reaches the right person quickly.