Privacy

Effective September 4, 2026

Aobaki sells tea. We collect the information it takes to ship it to you and answer your questions, and nothing we don't need. This page says what that is, plainly.

Who we are

Aobaki, LLC, 431 7th Street, Lanai City, Hawaiʻi 96763, United States. Mail reaches us at PO Box 631255, Lanai City, HI 96763. Questions about this policy go to kert@aobaki.com or 808-563-5007. This policy covers aobaki.com and any order you place with us by email, phone, or through our online shop when it opens.

What we collect

• When you order or ask about wholesale: your name, business name if any, email address, phone number, shipping and billing address, what you ordered, and the messages you send us.
• When we reach out to your café or shop: the business name, the public contact details on your website or listing (email, phone, address), and notes on our conversations.
• When you pay: for online orders, you enter your card details directly with our payment processor and we never see your full card number. The processor also collects your IP address and device information to screen for fraud, under its own privacy policy. If you pay by phone, we type your card into the processor's secure form while you are on the line and do not write it down or keep it; please do not send card numbers by email. We receive a confirmation, the card type and last four digits, the billing name and address, and the processor's fraud assessment.
• When you visit aobaki.com: our web server keeps standard logs, which include your IP address, browser type, the pages you viewed, and the time. We use them to keep the site running and secure. The site's typefaces load from Google Fonts, so your browser sends Google your IP address, browser type, and the page address with each font request; Google says it sets no cookies with these requests and does not use them to track or profile you. Our own pages set no cookies. When our online shop opens it will run on a shop platform, which sets the cookies needed for your cart and checkout plus its own analytics cookies; we will update this section that day.
• When you join our email list: your email address and the date you signed up.

We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 13, and the site is not directed to children. If you believe a child has given us information, email kert@aobaki.com and we will delete it.

How we use it

• To pack and ship your order, send you the receipt and tracking, and handle returns and refunds.
• To answer your questions and set up wholesale accounts.
• To send you news about new lots and harvests if you signed up for it. We also email cafés, tea rooms, and shops we think would like the tea, using the contact details they publish, even if they have not written to us first. Every marketing email says it is from Aobaki, carries our postal address, and has an unsubscribe link; we honor unsubscribes within ten business days, usually the same day.
• To keep records the law requires, such as sales and tax records.
• To protect the site and our customers from fraud and abuse.

Who we share it with

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. We share it only with the companies that help us serve you, and only what they need:

• Shipping carriers such as the United States Postal Service, to deliver your order.
• Our payment processor, to charge your card, screen for fraud, and process refunds.
• Our web host, DigitalOcean, whose servers serve aobaki.com and hold the server logs.
• Google, which hosts our email through Google Workspace, so every message you send us and the order records we keep in email sit on Google's servers under Google's data-processing terms, and which serves the site's typefaces.
• Our online shop platform, once it opens, which will run the shop pages and keep a copy of your order. We will name it here when it is live.
• Wholesale marketplaces such as Faire, when you order through them. Their own privacy policies apply to what you do on their sites.
• Authorities, if the law requires it or to protect someone's safety.

If Aobaki is ever sold or merged, customer records would transfer with the business, under this same policy.

Your choices and rights

• See, correct, or delete your information: email kert@aobaki.com from the address on your account and tell us what you need. We answer within 30 days. We may keep what the law requires us to keep, such as tax records of a sale.
• Stop marketing email: click unsubscribe in any message, or email us.
• Do Not Track: we do not track you across other websites, and our own pages set no cookies, so there is nothing for a browser "Do Not Track" signal to change on them. Apart from the font service named above, and the shop platform once it opens, we do not let third parties collect information about your activity on aobaki.com over time and across other sites.
• California residents: the rights above (see, correct, delete) are available to everyone. We do not sell or share personal information for advertising, and never have.

How we keep it safe

The site runs over HTTPS. Order records live in our email, marketplace, and payment systems, and in our shop platform once it opens, each password-protected with two-step sign-in. We keep order records as long as tax law requires. When you unsubscribe we stop sending marketing email and keep only a record that you opted out, so you are not added back by a later order or list import.

Changes

If we change this policy, we will post the new version here with a new effective date at the top. If a change affects how we use information you already gave us, we will email the address on your order or list entry before it takes effect; if we have no email for you, the posted notice is our notice.