Privacy policy

1. General

Vernisage.am (“we”) is an online platform where sellers and artisans present Armenian art, antiques, vintage and collectible items. Buyers contact sellers directly — through messengers, by phone or by email.

This policy explains what data we receive when you use the site, why we need it and what choices you have. It applies to all visitors of the site and to sellers who have an account on Vernisage.am.

Arrangements, payment and delivery are discussed directly between buyer and seller, outside the site. Vernisage.am does not accept payments and does not store payment details.

2. What data we receive

Visitors. You don’t need to register to browse the catalog or contact sellers — we don’t ask for your name, phone number or email.
Comments. If you leave a comment on an item, we store the name you enter and your text — both are published on the item page.
Messages to us. When you write to us by email or messenger — for example, to become a seller — we receive what you choose to share: your name, contact details and your message.
Sellers. For a seller account: the login email and password (we never store or see the password itself — only a protected hash of it), the shop name and description, contact details for buyers, and photos, videos and descriptions of items. Shop details and contacts are published on the site — that is why sellers provide them.
Technical data. As with any website, when you open pages the server receives your IP address, browser and device information, the page address and the time. This is needed to run and protect the site.
Visit statistics. Which pages and items are viewed, what is searched for in the catalog and which contacts are clicked — in detail only with your consent (section 4); without consent, only anonymous views and clicks.

3. How we use data

to run the site: show the catalog, item and shop pages, and remember your language;
so buyers can contact sellers, and sellers can manage their shops;
to answer messages and welcome new sellers;
to show item descriptions in every language of the site, using automatic translation;
for security: protecting account logins and preventing abuse;
to improve the platform, based on aggregated visit statistics.

We do not sell data or use it for advertising.

4. Cookies

Cookies are small files a website stores in your browser.

Necessary cookies are always on: without them you couldn’t log in to a seller account, and the site wouldn’t remember your language or your answer about cookies. Your favorites list and chosen currency are stored only in your browser.
Optional cookies are used for visit statistics. They are switched on only if you answered “Yes”, and help us understand which items and sections buyers are interested in. We see the overall picture, not you personally.
If you answered “No”, optional cookies are not used, and the site only counts the total number of views and clicks — without linking them to your browser.
If your browser asks websites not to track it, we respect that setting.
There are no advertising cookies or third-party tracking systems on the site.

Allow optional cookies?

You can change your answer here at any time. It is kept for 6 months, after which the site will ask again.

We do not sell your data or share it for advertising. Data is received only by those the site cannot work without:

buyers — they see the shop details and contacts published by the seller, as well as the names and texts of comments;
our hosting provider Hetzner — the site and its database run on its server;
Google’s automatic translation service — it receives the names and descriptions of items and shops to translate them into the site’s other languages. No visitor data is sent to it;
public authorities — only in the cases and in the manner provided for by the laws of the Republic of Armenia.

6. Third-party services

Your browser loads some files directly from other companies’ servers. When it does, they can see your IP address and browser information — this is how loading any file on the internet works. We do not pass them cookies or any other data about you.

Google Fonts — the site’s fonts;
jsDelivr and ExchangeRate-API — exchange rates for converting prices.

The WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber, Messenger, Instagram, Facebook, phone and email buttons, as well as the map link, are plain links. The chosen service opens only when you click, and its own privacy rules apply from then on.

7. How long we keep data

We keep data no longer than needed for the purposes described above.

Seller accounts — for as long as the account exists. When an account is deleted, the shop, its items and their photos and videos are deleted too.
Comments — until the item is deleted from the site or the comment itself is removed.
Statistics — detailed records are linked to a browser for no more than 25 months; after that only anonymous totals remain.
Your answer about cookies — 6 months in your browser; the server keeps a record of the answer without IP address or browser data for 13 months.
Technical logs and backups — for the limited time needed to run and protect the site, after which they are deleted.
Messages to us — for as long as needed to reply and resolve your request.

8. Data protection and your rights

We take reasonable measures to protect data: connections to the site are encrypted, passwords are not stored in readable form, sellers can turn on two-factor login protection, and only the site’s administration can access site management. Still, no method of sending or storing data on the internet is completely secure.

You can:

find out what data we hold about you;
ask us to correct inaccurate data;
ask us to delete your data or restrict its use, where the law provides for it;
withdraw your consent to optional cookies — in the “Cookies” section above; this does not affect anything that happened before;
contact the Personal Data Protection Agency of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia.

Sellers can change their shop details in their account. To use your other rights, write to us.

If other data protection laws apply to you as well — for example, European Union rules (GDPR) — you can use the rights they give you.

We may update this policy. The current version is always on this page, and the date of the last update is shown at the top.

9. Contact

Questions about data and privacy: vernisage.am@gmail.com