Privacy policy.
This policy explains what Cōlab Yard does with information about you. The short version: we ask for as little as we can, we use it to serve you and nothing else, we have never sold any of it, and there is no advertising tracking anywhere on this site.
Last updated September 2026
1. Who we are and what this covers
Cōlab Yard is a café and farm store in Hawassa, Ethiopia, trading as Cōlab Press (the café and juice bar) and Cōlab Table (the farm store). This policy covers this website and the information we collect through it, and the information we collect from you in person at either counter. Where this policy says "we", "us" or "our", it means Cōlab Yard.
By using this site you accept the practices described here. If you do not agree with them, please do not use the site; you are still welcome to walk in, order at the counter and tell us nothing at all.
2. The information we collect
Only what the thing you are doing requires, and most of it is optional. Depending on what you do, that may include:
- Contact details, such as your name, a phone number, and an email address if you give one.
- Order and booking details, such as what you ordered, where you were sitting, the date and size of a booking, and a delivery address if you ask for delivery.
- Dietary information you choose to tell us, so that we can cook safely for you.
- Messages you send us, and anything you choose to include in an application for a job.
- Basic technical information that any website receives when a page is requested, which is used to keep the site running and secure.
We do not collect card or bank details through this site, because nothing on it takes payment. We do not ask for government identity numbers or a TIN. We do not collect location from your device.
3. Where the information comes from
From you, and only from you: what you type into this site, or what you tell a member of staff at the counter. We do not buy personal information, we do not receive it from data brokers, advertising networks or social media platforms, and we do not combine what you tell us with information from anywhere else.
4. Why we use it
For the purpose it was given for, and for the ordinary running of the business:
- to make and hand over what you ordered, and to answer you when you write to us;
- to hold and confirm a booking, and to remind you before the date;
- to cook safely for you when you have told us about an allergy;
- to run the drink rewards card, if you use it;
- to send you our mailing list, if and only if you joined it;
- to keep our accounts and meet our tax, record-keeping and other legal obligations;
- to keep the site secure and to investigate misuse of it.
We do not use your information to advertise to you, to build a profile of you, or to make automated decisions about you.
5. Cookies and similar technologies
This site uses only the cookies it needs to work. One is set when you scan one of our printed codes, lasts a couple of hours and is what allows the site to take an order from you; it does not carry your name. Another signs a member of staff in to the counter and kitchen screens. Guests never receive that one.
Your shopping basket and the codes of orders you have placed today are kept by your own browser, on your own device, and are not sent to us on their own. Clearing your browsing data clears them.
There are no advertising, analytics or social media tracking technologies on this site, and nothing here loads from a third party in a way that would let one watch you. Because we set no non-essential cookies, you will not find a cookie banner: there is nothing for you to refuse.
6. Your choices
You can refuse or delete cookies in your browser settings. Refusing the one set by our printed codes means the site will not take an online order from you; everything else, including the whole menu, still works, and you can order at the counter as usual.
You can leave the mailing list at any time by telling us at the counter or writing to contact@colabyard.com. We do not send marketing by SMS.
Giving us a name or a phone number with an order is optional. An order placed without either is a perfectly ordinary order.
7. Who sees it
The people working that shift, and whoever is running the business that day. Nobody else.
We do not sell, rent, trade or otherwise disclose personal information for anybody else’s marketing. We have no advertising partners and no data-sharing arrangements.
A small number of service providers process information on our behalf so that the site and our email can work at all. They act only on our instructions and for no purpose of their own. We may also disclose information where the law requires it, to a court or an authority entitled to demand it, where it is necessary to establish or defend a legal claim, or to protect the safety of a person.
8. Other sites we link to
This site links to our own social media accounts, and may link to a mapping service for directions. Those are other companies’ services with their own privacy policies, and what they do once you arrive there is outside our control and is not covered by this policy. Nothing from those platforms is embedded in our pages, so simply loading a page here sends nothing to any of them.
9. How long we keep it
No longer than we need it. Records connected to an order, a booking or a message are kept for about a year, which is what our accounts and our ability to answer a later question require. A rewards record is kept until you ask us to remove it, or until the card has gone unused for a long period. You stay on the mailing list until you leave it, and we keep a note that you left so that a later import cannot quietly put you back on.
Anything past those periods is deleted, except where we are required to keep it longer for tax or legal reasons.
10. Where it is kept
Our site and our email are run using established service providers, which means some information is stored and processed on servers outside Ethiopia. We keep what travels to the minimum described in section 2. Everything else stays here in Hawassa, on paper and with the people who work here.
11. How we protect it
The site is served over an encrypted connection, staff screens are behind a sign-in, and access to our records is limited to the people who need it to do their job. We keep appropriate technical and organisational measures in place and review them as the business grows.
No method of transmitting or storing information is completely secure, and we cannot promise absolute security. If a breach ever affects your information we will tell you, and the authorities, as the law requires.
12. Children
This site is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has given us their details, tell us and we will remove them.
13. Your rights
Ethiopia’s Personal Data Protection Proclamation No. 1321/2024 gives you rights over the information we hold about you. You may ask us what we hold, ask for a copy of it, ask us to correct it if it is wrong, ask us to delete it, and object to a particular use of it. You may also withdraw your consent to the mailing list at any time.
You do not need to cite the law at us to exercise any of this. Ask at the counter, or write to contact@colabyard.com, and tell us the phone number or email address you used. We will answer as quickly as we can, and in any case within a month. If you are not satisfied with our answer you may complain to the supervisory authority responsible for personal data protection in Ethiopia.
14. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy. The date at the top is the day it was last reviewed, and the version published here is the one that applies. If we ever begin doing something materially different with your information, we will change this page before we start, not after.
15. How to reach us
Write to contact@colabyard.com, use the contact form, or speak to whoever is at the counter. A real person reads all three.