What we hold, and how we look after it.

Reviewed by Forbidden Farm before opening for orders.

1. 1What we collect

   Your name, email address, and any postal address, telephone number or social handles you choose to add to your profile.

   Your orders: what you bought, what it cost, and the reference numbers that tie the order to the payment.

   What you enter when you register a sample: the bird's band or animal ID, its name if you give one, species, breed, sample type, collection date, and any answers a test asks for.

   Your samples and their results, including the status history of each sample as it moves through the laboratory.

   The records that keep the account secure, such as when you signed in and from what kind of device.

2. 2How your results are kept private

   A result is visible to you and to authorized laboratory staff, and to nobody else. We do not publish results, sell them, or share them with breed clubs, registries or other customers.

   A result stays private while it is being prepared. It reaches your account only when a staff member deliberately publishes it.

   Staff access to customer results and files is recorded.

3. 3Payments

   Payments are taken by Stripe. Your card details are entered on Stripe's own checkout page and are never sent to or stored by Forbidden Farm. We keep only the amount, the currency, and Stripe's reference numbers, so an order can be matched to its payment.

4. 4Email

   We email you about your own account and orders: confirming a payment, telling you a sample arrived, and telling you a result is ready. We record that each message was sent so we can tell whether it reached you.

   Result files are never attached to email. A message about a result carries a link you must sign in to open.

   We do not send marketing email and do not sell or rent your address.

5. 5Cookies and tracking

   One cookie, which keeps you signed in. There are no advertising cookies, no analytics services, and no third-party trackers on this site. Your cart is held in your own browser until you check out.

6. 6Who else handles your information

   Stripe processes payments. Mailgun delivers our email. Railway hosts the website and its database. Each of them handles only what that job needs, and none of them may use it for anything else.

7. 7How long we keep records

   Orders, samples and results are permanent laboratory records. We keep them so a result can be looked up, checked or reissued years later, and so our own testing history stays intact.

   Profile details such as your address or telephone number can be corrected or removed at any time from your account, or by asking us.

8. 8Your choices, and how to reach us

   Write to us and we will tell you what we hold about you, correct anything wrong, and explain what we can and cannot remove. Please do not send passwords or card numbers in an email or a contact form.