Privacy & your designs

Last updated 22 October 2026

Who we are

Gem Mint Engraving is a small laser engraving business in the UK. We decide how the details you send us are used, so we're responsible for them under UK data protection law (UK GDPR). Questions? Email hello@GemMintEngraving.co.uk.

What we collect

• Enquiries and designs: your name, email, what you'd like made, your message, and any photos, artwork, 3D files or designs you send through the website. To stop spam, we also keep a scrambled code made from your internet connection with each enquiry (never your actual IP address).
• Your account (if you make one): your email address, the name you give us, and the designs you save, including the pictures you add to them. See Your account below.
• Orders: the details needed to make and deliver your order, and records we must keep for our accounts.
• Delivery details: when we need to post your order, we ask for your name, address, phone number (optional, for the courier) and any delivery notes. See Delivery details below.

We don't use tracking or advertising cookies, and we don't sell or share your details for marketing. If you sign in, your browser keeps a small sign-in key so you stay signed in. It's needed for the account to work and isn't used for tracking.

Why we use it

• To reply to you, prepare your design consultation and make your order (this is needed to give you what you asked for).
• To keep business and tax records (a legal requirement).
• If you make an account: to keep your saved designs for you and link the designs you send to your account (this is the service you asked for).

We only show your photos or finished pieces on our website or social media if you've said yes.

Who else handles it

We use a few trusted services to run the site. They only store or process data for us:

• Supabase – stores enquiries, orders, designs, photos, accounts and loyalty stamps (servers in the EU).
• Cloudflare – hosts the website, and runs the "not a robot" check (Turnstile) on sign-in, which looks at basic browser and device signals to stop automated sign-ups.
• GitHub – keeps a private nightly backup, so nothing is lost (each copy is kept for up to 12 months).
• Google (Gmail), Cloudflare, Resend and Amazon Web Services (Amazon SES, London) – receive and store our email, and send our emails (replies, order updates, loyalty emails and your sign-in codes).
• postcodes.io – checks your postcode exists when you add delivery details. Only the postcode is sent, nothing else.
• Anthropic (Claude AI) – helps us tidy photos before they go on our website (for example, finding names or faces to blur) and read our own supplier receipts. Only photos we're about to publish are sent, Anthropic doesn't use them to train its AI, and we always check the result ourselves.
• Cloudflare Workers AI – draws the pictures in our AI design ideas page (account holders only). Only the words you type to describe the picture are sent (not your name or email; the name box isn't sent either, we add that ourselves in a real font). The pictures you save are kept in your account until you remove them or delete your account; we keep a simple log of what was asked for (to apply the daily limit) until your account is deleted.
• Google Fonts – supplies the fonts, so your browser connects to Google when the page loads.
• jsDelivr and Hugging Face – supply the tools our designers use for background removal and 3D depth. These tools run inside your own browser: your browser downloads them, and your photo stays on your device until you send or save your design.

Some of these companies are based outside the UK. Where data leaves the UK, it's protected by the safeguards UK law requires.

How long we keep it

• Enquiries that don't become an order: up to 12 months.
• Orders: 12 months after the last activity on the order, so we can help with repeats or problems. Then your name, email, messages, address, photos and files are removed automatically. We keep only the accounting record (order number, what it was, the price, payments and refunds, and dates) for 6 years, as the law requires.
• Delivery details: until the order is archived (12 months, as above).
• Your account and saved designs: until you delete your account. Deleting it removes them straight away.
• Backups: our private nightly backup keeps each copy for up to 12 months, then it's deleted.
• Loyalty stamps and rewards: while the loyalty scheme runs, so your card keeps adding up, even after an old order is archived. Ask us and we'll remove them.

Want something deleted sooner? Just ask and we'll remove it, including from our backups.

Your rights

You can ask for a copy of your data, ask us to correct or delete it, or object to how we use it. Email hello@GemMintEngraving.co.uk and we'll reply within a month. If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).

Your account

You don't need an account to send us an enquiry or a design. If you make one:

• You sign in with a code we email you, or with a password if you choose to set one. Passwords are stored scrambled (hashed) by our login provider: nobody, including us, can read them.
• We keep your email address, the name you add, and the designs you save (with their pictures) in a private area only you can see. We can see them too, so we can help if something goes wrong.
• Designs and enquiries you send us are linked to your account, so you can follow your order. When you first sign in, earlier enquiries sent from the same email address are linked too.
• Your order page shows its progress, our messages, design consultations and photos of your finished piece. We email you a short note when it changes stage; you can switch those emails off under My details (messages we write to you still come by email).
• About a week after your order is done, we may email you once to ask for a photo of it at home.
• Our "extra" emails (loyalty emails, photo requests, "your piece is on our website") each have an Unsubscribe link at the bottom: one click stops all of them, with or without an account. We keep a note of your email address and that choice so we don't email you again. Emails about your orders still come.
• You can delete your account at any time from the account page (Delete my account). This deletes your login, your details and all your saved designs straight away. Designs and enquiries you've already sent us are kept as described above so we can finish your order, but they're no longer linked to an account. Ask us if you'd like those removed too.

Loyalty stamps

When we finish an order, we may add a loyalty stamp to the email address you ordered with. We keep a record of your stamps (date and which order), any rewards they unlock (with a single-use code), and whether you've used them. This lets us give you the rewards you've earned (our legitimate interest, and part of what you asked for). You see your card when you sign in with that email. We may email you when you unlock a reward and before it runs out; you can turn these emails off in your account, or with the Unsubscribe link at the bottom of any of them. Your stamps stay with your email address even if you delete your account (sign in again with the same email and they're still there); ask us and we'll remove them. To stop the scheme being misused, we may compare an order's email and delivery address with other recent orders (our legitimate interest). See the loyalty rules.

Payments

If we send you a payment link, you pay on our payment provider's own secure page (usually Stripe; sometimes Monzo, SumUp or PayPal). We never see or store your card details. We only keep a note of the link we sent, the amounts paid or refunded, when, and Stripe's reference for each payment, so we can match payments and refunds to your order. Stripe tells us when a payment or refund goes through, and emails you its own receipt.

Delivery details

We never ask you to email your address. Instead we send you a private link (it works for up to 30 days and can only be used for your order), or you can fill them in on your order page if you have an account. Only we can see them, and we only use them to deliver your order and contact you about the delivery. We pass your name and address to the courier or Royal Mail when we post it. Our timeline only says that details were sent, never the details themselves.

If you have an account, you can save your delivery address there (My delivery address) so it's filled in for you next time. It stays until you remove it or delete your account. Only you and we can see it.

Photos you send us of your piece

If you add a photo of your piece at home, only we can see it until we've looked at it. We only show it on our website ("Customer pieces") or social media if you ticked that we can. We may crop it and blur things like names first, and may shorten your caption. It's shown with the name you picked: your first name and initial, "A Gem Mint Engraving customer", or a nickname from your account (we check nicknames before they can be used). You can take it down from your account any time and it disappears from the website straight away. Deleting your account deletes the photos you sent, including the copy on our website.

Your designs, artwork and other people's IP

When you send us artwork, photos, logos, characters, names or other designs, you confirm you own them or have permission to use them. We may decline any design we think could infringe someone else's rights.

Gem Mint Engraving isn't affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by the owners of any brands, games, characters, teams or artwork that may appear in designs our customers send us. All trademarks and artwork belong to their owners.