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Privacy & data requests
Settings → Privacy & data requests is where your store meets India’s data protection law, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 (DPDP Act). It has three parts: the cookie banner, data requests from customers, and your grievance officer.
This guide explains what the store does for you. It is not legal advice. If you are unsure about your own situation, ask a lawyer.
Your DPDP checklist
Work down this list once. Most of it takes a few minutes.
Publish a privacy policy
In Settings → Policies, create the Privacy policy from its template, read it, and publish it. It says what you collect, why, who you share it with, how long you keep it and how customers use their rights.
Name a grievance officer
Also in Settings → Policies. This is the person customers contact about their data. It can be you. Their name and contact details show in your privacy policy and store footer.
Leave the cookie banner on
It is always on. Shoppers choose Accept all, Necessary only or pick for themselves. Until they say yes, your store analytics, Google Analytics, Tag Manager and the Meta pixel do not load. If you add a new tag or change what the banner says, press Ask everyone again.
Only message people who said yes
Campaigns and automations reach a customer only on the channels they agreed to: email, WhatsApp or SMS. Customers say yes at signup, in their account, or tell you directly (then you switch it on in their customer page). Anyone who unsubscribes gets nothing more. You do not need to do anything to enforce this: the store checks every message before it goes.
The email signup box on your store asks people to confirm first. They get one short email with a Yes, subscribe me button; only after they press it do they join your list and get the welcome message. Someone who types another person’s address cannot sign them up.
Answer data requests on time
Customers can ask for a copy of their data or to delete it. You get each one in Customer privacy → Data requests with a due date. Answer before it.
Choose how customers sign in
In Settings → Customer accounts, pick email, SMS or WhatsApp codes and whether guests can check out. Customers can delete their own account from their account page.
The cookie banner
Your store needs a few cookies to work, like the cart and sign in. These are always on. Everything else is optional and off until the shopper says yes:
| Category | What it covers | Loads after |
|---|---|---|
| Necessary | Cart, checkout, sign in, security | Always on |
| Analytics | Your store’s visit counts and traffic sources, Google Analytics, Tag Manager | “Analytics” or “Accept all” |
| Marketing | Meta pixel and other ad measurement | “Marketing” or “Accept all” |
- Banner message: leave empty for the standard wording, or write your own.
- Ask everyone again: every shopper sees the banner again on their next visit, and optional tags wait for a new answer. Use it after adding a tag or changing the wording.
- The page shows how shoppers answered in the last 30 days.
- Shoppers change their mind with Cookie settings at the bottom of every page.
The store keeps a record of every answer, with the time and the banner version, as proof of consent.
Your store’s own visit counts (Analytics → Live view, sales by source) only count shoppers who allowed analytics. Numbers can look lower than before the banner. That is expected.
Data requests
A customer can ask for:
- A copy of their data: their profile, addresses, orders and consent history.
- Deletion: their personal data erased.
Requests come from the Your data page in their account, or you log them when a customer writes or calls: Data requests → Log a request.
Each request gets a due date from Days to answer a request (30 days by default, between 7 and 90). The queue shows the soonest first, and marks requests that are due soon or late.
Answer a request for a copy
- Open the request and press Mark in progress.
- Press Download JSON or Download spreadsheet (CSV).
- Check the file and send it to the customer from your own email.
- Press Mark done.
Answer a deletion request
- Open the request. If the customer is not matched, find them first or decline.
- Press Erase customer data and confirm.
This cannot be undone. The store erases their name, email, phone, saved addresses, notes and marketing preferences, and signs them out everywhere. Orders and GST invoices keep the buyer name, address, GSTIN and amounts, because tax law requires those records for years. Orders older than eight years lose those too.
You can also Decline a request, with a reason you could send the customer.
Everything is recorded
Every step (who logged a request, who downloaded a copy, who erased data, and when) is kept in the request’s History and cannot be changed afterwards.
Marketing consent on a customer
Each customer page has a Marketing consent card with a switch for email, WhatsApp and SMS. Only switch one on when the customer told you yes. Every change is recorded with who made it and when. The same card lets you download the customer’s data or log a request for them.