Privacy Policy
Effective September 9, 2026 · Firsthand is operated by Pixel and Shelf LLC ("we")
The short version: Firsthand processes the minimum order data needed to link a survey answer to a purchase and compare it with your store's own analytics. It never collects a shopper's name, email address, phone number, or street address. Survey and order data is not sold, sent to advertising platforms, aggregated across stores, or used to train AI models. Uninstalling the app triggers deletion of the store's app data. Separately, we measure visits on our website with Google Analytics and visits and installations on our Shopify App Store listing with Google Analytics and Meta, as explained below.
Who this covers
This policy covers merchants who install the Firsthand app for Shopify, their customers ("shoppers") who answer a survey, visitors to firsthandsurveys.com, and visitors to our Shopify App Store listing. For shopper data, the merchant is the data controller and Firsthand is a processor acting on the merchant's instructions.
What we process, and why
When a merchant installs Firsthand, we store the shop domain, the merchant's contact email, and the access token Shopify issues the app. When a shopper answers a survey, we store, per response:
- The answer itself, including any write-in text the shopper chooses to type.
- Order details: order ID and number, order total and currency, discount codes used, and purchased products (product ID and title only).
- The order's marketing journey as recorded by Shopify (referrer and UTM touchpoints), used to compare what shoppers say with what analytics credited.
- The customer's Shopify ID (an opaque identifier) plus two lifetime aggregates: order count and total amount spent. These distinguish first-time from returning buyers and power lifetime-value reporting. This is the only customer identifier we hold — we do not collect or store shopper names, email addresses, phone numbers, or street addresses, and the app has no ability to contact shoppers.
We use this data for exactly two purposes, as declared to Shopify: app functionality (serving the right question to the right shopper, linking answers to orders, writing answers back to orders as tags and metafields, and minting optional single-use thank-you discount codes) and analytics (the reports the merchant sees: attribution comparison, segment comparison, seasonality, and the weekly digest email sent to the merchant).
Shoppers
The survey appears on the order confirmation page after checkout. Answering is voluntary and skippable, and the survey widget sets no cookies, runs no trackers, and makes no third-party network calls. If a shopper answers, the merchant may see that answer alongside the order in their own admin and reports.
Where data lives and how it is protected
Data is stored in a PostgreSQL database hosted by Render (United States), encrypted at rest, with daily backups. All data in transit uses TLS. Each merchant's data is scoped to their shop and is never visible to any other store.
Sharing
We do not sell survey or order data, send it to advertising platforms, or use it to train AI models. Shopify provides the app platform and Render hosts the app and its database. Website measurement with Google Analytics and App Store marketing measurement with Google Analytics and Meta are described separately below. One optional feature sends data elsewhere at the merchant's own instruction: a merchant can connect their own AI assistant (for example Claude or ChatGPT) to their survey data over MCP, in which case their queries and the responsive data flow to the AI provider the merchant chose, under that provider's terms.
Retention and deletion
- Data is retained while the app is installed, so long-range reports keep working.
- When a merchant uninstalls, Shopify sends its
shop/redactwebhook and we erase that store's data completely. - When a shopper asks their merchant for erasure, Shopify's
customers/redactwebhook anonymizes that shopper's rows while leaving the merchant's aggregate counts intact. - Shopify's
customers/data_requestwebhook is honored with an export of what is held. - Merchants can export their data as CSV at any time, on every plan, including after canceling a subscription.
This website
We use Google Analytics 4 on firsthandsurveys.com to understand how visitors find and use the website, measure marketing campaigns, and improve our content. Google Analytics uses cookies and similar technologies to collect information such as pages visited, interactions, referral sources and campaign parameters, session activity, approximate location, and browser and device details. Cookies help distinguish visits and returning browsers. Your browser sends information to Google when the Google tag loads.
This website measurement is separate from data processed inside the Firsthand app. We do not send survey answers or merchant order records to Google Analytics. Website analytics data is retained according to our Google Analytics settings. Google may process information in countries other than your own.
You can manage, block, or delete cookies in your browser settings, or install the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on in a supported browser. Blocking cookies alone may not stop all analytics requests. See how Google uses information from sites that use its services and Google’s Privacy Policy.
Following an Add to Shopify link takes you to the separate Shopify App Store, where the measurement described below applies.
Shopify App Store marketing measurement
We use Shopify's Google Analytics integration on our listing to understand listing visits and traffic sources. It can also send a completed-install event when installation tracking is enabled. This uses a separate data stream from the Firsthand website. Measurement can include listing URLs, referral and campaign parameters, browser and device information, and cookies. Completed-install events can include the app identifier and the shop's ID, name, and URL. A completed installation does not mean a paid subscription.
Google's privacy information and browser opt-out link above also apply to this measurement. We do not send survey answers or merchant order records to Google Analytics.
We use Shopify's Meta Pixel and Conversions API integration on our App Store listing to measure how people discover and install Firsthand, attribute installations to advertising, and improve our advertising. Shopify sends Meta events for listing views, clicks on Install, and completed app installations. A completed installation is not confirmation of a paid subscription.
Event information can include the app's identifier and name, the merchant's shop name and URL, and event value and currency. Listing URLs and discovery parameters can also identify the language, referring App Store surface, or search query. Pixel measurement can involve cookies and browser or device information under Shopify's and Meta's privacy practices.
This measurement concerns the marketing and installation journey. We do not send survey answers, shopper or order records, or activity inside the Firsthand app to Meta. We do not add an advertising pixel to merchants' storefronts or survey widgets.
The Shopify App Store provides its own privacy and cookie choices. Meta provides controls for its advertising and use of information. See Shopify's Privacy Policy and Meta's Privacy Policy for those practices and controls. Google’s, Shopify’s, and Meta’s retention rules apply to information they receive; uninstalling Firsthand does not itself delete their marketing records. For requests about information we hold, contact care@pixelandshelf.com.
Changes and contact
If this policy changes materially, the effective date above changes with it and the current version always lives at this address. Questions or requests: care@pixelandshelf.com.