US state privacy law compliance and Shopify Audiences

Shopify Audiences is currently available to Shopify Plus merchants in the US and Canada, and was built to enable merchants to comply with applicable privacy laws of the region, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and forthcoming omnibus consumer privacy laws in Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, and Utah. Learn more about US state privacy laws.

The following information is made available to help you understand and fulfill your obligations under applicable US state privacy laws. These laws give residents of their states more control over their personal information. If your website is available to residents of those states or you are involved in the collection, processing, sale, or sharing of their personal information, then these laws might be applicable to you. This is informational only and Shopify can’t give you legal advice, so if you have any further questions, then consult a local lawyer or privacy professional.

Privacy Policy

Your privacy policy must include how you use, share, sell, or disclose personal information, as defined by US state privacy laws before you start using Audiences.

Shopify has a privacy policy generator that builds a template privacy policy with sample language that you can edit and adapt to your business, including information you might want to include when using Shopify Audiences. You can also generate policies directly in your Shopify admin.

You can use the template privacy policy to add to your existing policy, or create one yourself.

Shopify Audiences customer opt-out

Customers must be able to opt out of the "sale" or "sharing" of their personal information on your store. With Shopify Audiences, you can manage customer opt-outs manually or automatically.

Automatically exclude sharing customer information with Shopify Audiences

If you use the Customer Privacy app and a customer opts out of the provision of their personal information to third parties, then the opt-out is synced to the Shopify Audiences app for that merchant.

Manually exclude sharing a customer with Shopify Audiences

If you use a third-party privacy app or a customer contacts you to opt out of the sale or sharing of their personal information, then you need to manually exclude the customer within the Shopify Audiences app. A customer that you manually exclude isn't removed from previously created audiences. However, their data is no longer shared by your store for future audiences.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, click Settings > Apps and sales channels.
2. From the Apps and sales channels page, click Shopify Audiences.
3. Click Open app.
4. Click Customer opt-out.
5. In Customer email, enter the email of the customer that you want to opt out.
6. Click Submit.