The companies involved:

Our server in Rockville, Maryland
Ecommerce Shopping Cart Software by Miva Merchant
PayPal, our Credit Card processor
Your Banking Institution
Our Bank in Chicago

1) You look at products on our website.
2) Interested, you add items to your basket. When you click our "Login/Create Account" or Checkout buttons, you are taken to a page where our Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificate enables encryption of sensitive information during the online transaction. You can see this when it switches from http: to https:, the "s" represents secure. The SSL Certificate is a unique credential identifying Aquatech Skin Care via our Certificate Authority, GeoTrust. Your browser checks whether it trusts the SSL Certificate, and the server sends a digitally signed acknowledgement to start an SSL encrypted session.
3) Now you have the option of connecting directly to PayPal, where you would Login to your PayPal account to perform the transaction.
4) Or you can input your customer billing and shipping information into an industry standard form and continue. In the background, product weights and sizes are transferred to FedEx, where the Shipping costs are calculated.
5) If everything is acceptable and you are ready to pay, continue to select the Credit Card you would like to pay with. Your encrypted information is transferred to our credit card processor, PayPal. It verifies your name, address, e-mail and shipping address. At the same time, it fires off your credit card data to your bank, then secures the amount for the total of your bill. Your Credit Card information is not retained by Aquatech Skin Care in any way. The authorization is returned and displayed on your computer screen, then sends both parties an e-mail confirmation of the order. This all done in the blink of an eye.
6) When the order is shipped, a tracking number is e-mailed by FedEx.