Privacy Policy

1. Sensitive content — please read first

Ebenezer is a prayer journal. The prayers and testimonies you record may reveal “special personal information” under POPIA — such as your religious or philosophical beliefs, and sometimes health, family, or other sensitive matters.

We only process this content to provide the app’s features to you, and only with your explicit consent, which we ask for when you create your account. You can withdraw consent by deleting the relevant content or your account (this may stop us from providing some or all of the Service).

2. Information we collect

Account information: your email address, a password (stored in hashed form by our authentication provider — we never see it), your chosen display name, avatar, and language preference.

Your Content: your prayers, testimonies, reflections, themes, and the words of encouragement you leave on others’ prayers. Voice recordings are sent for transcription and are not retained after a transcript is produced; the transcript is saved as part of Your Content.

Circle information: the people you invite, your membership of circles you join, and “waterings” (records that you prayed for a shared prayer) with any note.

Billing information: your subscription tier, usage of recording minutes, and payment status. Card payments are handled by PayFast — we do not store your full card number.

Technical information: limited device/browser details (for example when you send us a support request), and security signals used to protect against abuse.

3. How we use your information

We use your information to: create and run your account; transcribe recordings and suggest relevant scripture; save and sync Your Content across your devices; enable circle sharing and prayer; process subscriptions and meter usage; protect the Service against fraud and abuse; send you account and service emails (such as verification and password reset); and provide support.

Only if you accept our Cookie Policy, we use the Meta (Facebook) pixel to measure the effectiveness of our advertising — for example, to know that someone who saw an advert went on to create an account. This never includes the content of your prayers, and you can decline it. We never sell your personal information.

4. Legal basis for processing (POPIA)

We process your personal information on the basis of: your consent (especially for the sensitive content in your prayers); the performance of our contract with you (to provide the Service you signed up for); our legitimate interests (such as securing the Service); and compliance with the law.

5. Who we share it with (operators)

We use trusted service providers (“operators”) who process personal information on our behalf, under contract and only on our instructions:

Google Firebase — authentication, database, and app-integrity (reCAPTCHA) services that store your account and Your Content and keep it in sync.

OpenAI — transcription of your voice recordings into text (Whisper).

Anthropic — generating scripture reflections from the text of your prayers (Claude).

Resend — sending account emails such as verification and password reset.

Vercel — hosting the application and its secure server functions.

PayFast — processing subscription and top-up payments.

Meta Platforms — if you consent to the Cookie Policy, we use Meta’s advertising pixel to measure conversions from our adverts (such as sign-ups). Only anonymous activity and standard technical signals are shared for this purpose — never the content of your prayers.

We share Your Content with these operators only to the extent needed to provide the feature you are using. We do not otherwise share your personal information except where required by law or to protect rights and safety.

6. Cross-border transfers

Some of our operators are located outside South Africa (for example in the United States or the European Union). Where your personal information is transferred across borders, we take reasonable steps to ensure it receives a comparable level of protection, through the operator’s contractual commitments and security measures, as POPIA requires. By consenting at sign-up, you agree to these transfers for the purposes described above.

7. How long we keep it

We keep your personal information for as long as your account is active and as needed to provide the Service. If you delete a prayer, it is removed from your account. If you delete your account (or ask us to), we delete or anonymise your personal information within a reasonable period, except where we must keep certain records (for example, billing records) to comply with the law.

8. Your rights

Under POPIA you have the right to: access the personal information we hold about you; ask us to correct or delete it; object to certain processing; and withdraw consent. You also have the right to complain to the Information Regulator.

To exercise any of these rights, email ebenezer@thegoldentales.com. We may need to verify your identity first.

9. Security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information — including authenticated access, encryption in transit, server-side handling of keys and payments, and app-integrity checks.

No system is perfectly secure. In the event of a security compromise, we will notify you and the Information Regulator as soon as reasonably possible after the discovery of the compromise, in accordance with the requirements of POPIA.

10. Children

The Service is intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children without the consent of a competent person. If you believe a child has provided us information without such consent, contact ebenezer@thegoldentales.com.

11. Changes and contact

We may update this Policy from time to time and will note the effective date above and notify you of material changes. For any privacy question or request, contact our Information Officer, Barry Joubert, at ebenezer@thegoldentales.com.

The Information Regulator (South Africa) can be contacted at inforegulator.org.za.