Privacy policy
Please read this privacy and cookie policy carefully. It explains who we are, how and why we collect, use and share your personal information, your rights, and how to contact us if you have a concern.
Last updated: 14 October 2026. Version 2.0.
Our cookie policy is at the bottom of this page. Click Here
Who we are:
This website, microbz.co.uk, is operated by Microbz Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 07154876). Our registered office is Unit 5 Broad Lane Farm, Broad Lane, Melksham, Wiltshire, England, SN12 6RJ.
Microbz Ltd is the controller of your personal information and is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) under registration number Z3482620.
We are a small team and have not appointed a statutory Data Protection Officer. For anything about your data, contact us at info@microbz.co.uk, by phone on 01249 760486, or by post to Privacy, Microbz Ltd, Unit 5 Broad Lane Farm, Broad Lane, Melksham, Wiltshire, SN12 6RJ.
What this policy covers:
This policy explains how we collect, use and protect your personal information when you visit our website, buy from us, subscribe, sign up to our emails or get in touch. It covers our human, pet and garden ranges.
It does not cover third-party websites we link to, which have their own policies. Products bought through Amazon are covered by Amazon's privacy notice for the purchase itself.
The information we collect:
We collect information you give us, information created when you use our website, and a small amount from our partners. This includes:
• Identity and contact details: your name, email address, phone number, and delivery and billing addresses, when you check out, create an account or sign up to our newsletter
• Order and subscription details: products bought, order value, dates, subscription frequency and returns
• Account details: login details, order history, saved addresses and preferences
• Payment details: payment confirmation and the last four digits of your card only, from our payment providers. We never see or store your full card details
• Communications: emails, chat messages, questions to our nutritionist, reviews and survey answers
• Health information: symptoms, conditions or medication, only if you choose to tell us (see Health information below)
• Pet information: your pet's species, age or condition, if you share it
• Marketing preferences: whether you have opted in or out, and how you engage with our emails and texts
• Technical and usage information: IP address, device and browser type, pages viewed, clicks, session recordings and how you arrived at our site, collected through cookies and similar technologies (see our cookie policy below)
• Referral and affiliate information: a friend's name and email if you use refer-a-friend, and the affiliate or partner site that sent you to us
• Advertising information: ad clicks and conversions linked to your visit, from advertising
platforms such as Meta and Google
You don't have to give us your information, but we need your name, address and email to process and deliver an order.
How we use your information and our legal basis:
The law says we need a legal basis for each way we use your information. Here is what we do and the basis we rely on.
We rely on contract to:
• process, take payment for and deliver your orders, including tracking and returns
• run your subscription, including renewals, reminders and changes
• manage your account
• send service emails such as order confirmations, delivery updates and subscription notices
• answer your questions and provide customer service (or legitimate interests, where you're not a customer)
We rely on your consent to:
• answer health questions sent to our nutritionist (your explicit consent)
• send you marketing emails and texts when you sign up for them
• remind you about items left in your basket or checkout, unless you're an existing customer and the soft opt-in applies
• show you our ads on other websites and measure how our ads perform, through our cookie banner
• use analytics and session recording cookies, through our cookie banner
We rely on legitimate interests to:
• measure and improve our website, products and services
• group customers by things like products bought and order frequency, so our emails and offers are relevant
• pay affiliates and referrers the correct commission
• prevent fraud and keep our website secure
• handle complaints and legal claims
We rely on legal obligation to keep financial and tax records, and to deal with complaints and legal claims where the law requires it.
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have weighed our interests against your rights, and you can object at any time (see Your rights below). We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have a legal or similarly significant effect on you.
Marketing emails and texts:
We only send marketing when the law allows it:
• If you sign up to our newsletter (for example, for 10% off your first order), we'll send you emails with offers, news and educational content about microbes and gut health, based on your consent.
• If you buy from us, we may email you about similar products under the soft opt-in rule. You can opt out at checkout and in every email we send.
• Texts (SMS) are only sent if you have specifically opted in to receive them.
You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in any email, by replying STOP to a text, or by emailing info@microbz.co.uk. Unsubscribing from marketing won't stop service messages about your orders or subscription.
We use our email platform to see whether emails are opened and links clicked, so we can send fewer, more relevant messages. We never sell your information or pass it to other companies for their own marketing.
Health information and ‘ask our nutritionist’:
Information about your health, such as symptoms, digestive issues, conditions or medication, is special category information and gets extra protection.
• We only collect it if you choose to share it, for example, when you ask our nutritionist a
question.
• We use it only to answer your question and give you relevant product guidance, and we ask for your explicit consent before you send it.
• Only our nutritionist and the customer service staff who need it can see it.
• We never use your health information for advertising, and we never share it with advertising platforms.
• We keep it for 12 months after our last conversation, then delete it.
You can withdraw your consent at any time by emailing info@microbz.co.uk. Our nutritionist's advice is general guidance about our products, not a medical diagnosis. Please speak to your GP about any medical concerns.
Who we share your information with:
We never sell your information. We only share it with companies that help us run our business, under contracts that require them to keep it secure and use it only on our instructions. These are:
• Shopify, our e-commerce platform, which hosts our website, store and customer records
• Shopify Payments, PayPal and Stripe, which take and process payments securely
• Loop, which manages subscriptions and renewals
• Royal Mail, which delivers your order and sends tracking updates
• Klaviyo, which sends our service and marketing emails and texts
• Loox, which manages product reviews
• Google and Microsoft Clarity, which help us understand how our website is used
• Meta and Google, our advertising platforms, only with your consent. Email addresses may be shared in encrypted (hashed) form to measure ad results
• UpPromote, which tracks referrals and affiliate sales so we can pay commission
• Our marketing agencies, who manage our Google Ads, Meta, Amazon and SEO work on our behalf
• Our professional advisers, including accountants, solicitors and insurers
• Authorities such as HMRC, the police or regulators, where the law requires it
If microbz is ever sold or merged, customer information may pass to the new owner, who must use it in line with this policy.
Transfers outside the UK:
Some of our providers, including Shopify, Klaviyo, Google, Meta and Microsoft, store or access information outside the UK, mainly in the EU and the USA.
When information leaves the UK, we make sure it is protected by one of these safeguards:
• the country has UK adequacy regulations (for example, EU countries)
• the US company is certified under the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework
• the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses
You can ask us for more detail about the safeguard used for any provider.
How long we keep your information:
We only keep your information for as long as we need it, then delete it or make it anonymous:
• Order, payment and invoice records: 6 years from the end of the financial year, as required by tax law
• Customer accounts: until you close your account, or 3 years after your last order or login
• Subscription records: for the life of the subscription, then as order records
• Marketing list: until you unsubscribe. We remove people who haven't engaged for 12 months, and keep a suppression record so we don't email you again
• Customer service messages: 2 years after the enquiry closes
• Health information you share with our nutritionist: 12 months after our last conversation
• Cookie and analytics information: up to 12 months
• Complaints and legal claims: 6 years after the matter closes
Your rights:
Under UK data protection law, you have the right to:
• access a copy of the personal information we hold about you
• correct information that is wrong or incomplete
• delete your information, where we no longer have a reason to keep it
• restrict how we use your information in certain cases
• object to us using your information based on legitimate interests, and to direct marketing at any time
• move information you gave us to another provider (data portability)
• withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on consent. This doesn't affect anything we did before you withdrew it
To use any of these rights, email info@microbz.co.uk. It's free. We may need to confirm your identity first. We'll reply within one month, or tell you within that month if we need up to two more months because your request is complex.
Some information can't be deleted straight away; for example, order records we must keep for tax. If so, we'll tell you what we're keeping and why. You can update most account details yourself by logging into your account.
Children:
Our website and services are for adults. You must be 18 or over to buy from us or create an account. Some of our products are made for children, but they must be bought by a parent or carer. We don't knowingly collect information from children. If you tell us about your child, for example, their age when asking about a kids'; product, we use it only to answer your question.
Keeping your information secure:
We use secure, encrypted connections (SSL) across our website. Our store runs on Shopify, which meets PCI DSS standards for payment security. Access to customer information is limited to staff and providers who need it, and accounts are protected with strong passwords and two-factor authentication. If a data breach puts your rights at risk, we'll tell you and the ICO as the law requires.
Changes to this policy:
We review this policy at least once a year and whenever our services change. The date at the top shows when it was last updated. If we make a significant change, we'll tell customers by email or with a notice on our website.
How to complain:
If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, please tell us first at info@microbz.co.uk. We'll confirm we've received your complaint within 30 days, look into it without undue delay, and tell you the outcome.
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK regulator for data protection:
• Website: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
• Helpline: 0303 123 1113
• Post: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
How to contact us:
If you have any questions about this policy or the information we hold about you, please contact us:
• Email: info@microbz.co.uk
• Phone: 01249 760486
• Post: Privacy, Microbz Ltd, Unit 5 Broad Lane Farm, Broad Lane, Melksham, Wiltshire, SN12 6RJ
Cookies are small text files stored on your device when you visit a website. We use them, along with pixels and similar technologies, in four groups. When you first visit, our cookie banner lets you accept or reject each optional group. We don't use optional cookies until you have made your choice.
Strictly necessary cookies:
These run the basket, checkout, login and website security. They are provided by Shopify and are always on because the website can't work without them.
Statistics cookies:
These count visits and show which pages are used, so we can improve the website. We use Google Analytics. They are only used with your consent.
Behaviour analytics cookies:
These create heatmaps and session recordings showing how people use our pages. We use Microsoft Clarity, which records clicks, scrolls and mouse movements. It masks text you type into forms, so we don't see what you enter. They are only used with your consent.
Advertising and affiliate cookies:
These measure how our ads perform, show you our ads on other websites, and credit affiliates who referred you to us. We use the Meta Pixel, Google Ads and UpPromote. They are only used with your consent.
Changing your cookie choices:
You can change or withdraw your consent at any time via your browser settings. You can also delete or block cookies in your browser settings, but some parts of our website may not work properly if you do.
To learn more, or to opt out at platform level, see Google's ad settings, the Google Analytics opt-out, Meta ad preferences and the Microsoft Privacy Statement.
