Stilling Waves Press, a division of Everspring Ventures (Pty) Ltd (registration number 2025/666621/07), of 20 Fairway Avenue, Linksfield North, Johannesburg, South Africa ("we", "us", and the responsible party under POPIA), respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal information in accordance with the South African Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA). This policy explains what we collect, why, and your rights.
1. Information we collect
- Order & contact details — your name, email address, and, for print orders, your billing and delivery addresses, any phone number you choose to give, and any notes you add to the order. When you order a printed book, our shop also records your IP address with the order, to help prevent fraud. It also saves a short summary of how you reached our site (see section 4).
- Payment information — handled securely by our payment providers (Polar for digital, PayFast for print). We do not see or store your full card details.
- Site usage — the pages you visit, the page you came from, any tracking codes in the link you followed, when you press a buy button, and whether you start, finish or share the Spiritual Gifts Test (never which gifts or answers). Simple analytics that we host ourselves record this, with no Google Analytics and no cookies. Our analytics do not store your IP address. Instead, they keep a scrambled code made from your IP address and browser type, locked with a secret key. The code changes every day, and a second code changes every month so that we can count returning visitors. Without that key, the codes cannot be turned back into your IP address, and we never use them to identify you. Our short links and QR codes also record which link you used, the page you came from, and what your browser tells us about itself: its name and version, your operating system, and sometimes your phone model. We do not sell your data or use third-party tracking.
2. How we use your information
- To process and deliver your orders and provide customer support (so we can do what we agreed with you).
- To send you updates you have asked to receive (with your consent; you can unsubscribe at any time).
- To save your top gifts with your email address, only if you tick the optional box on the Spiritual Gifts Test (with your explicit consent, which you can withdraw at any time).
- To count visits, see which pages are read, keep the site secure and working, and prevent fraud on orders (because running the site well is a legitimate need of ours).
- To meet our legal, tax, and accounting obligations (because the law requires it).
3. Who we share it with
We only share what is necessary to fulfill your order: our payment providers (Polar, PayFast), our print and fulfillment partner for print orders, our email provider for any messages you have opted into, and our website host, which stores the site and its records. We do not sell your personal information. Some of these providers, such as Zoho and possibly our website host, keep information on servers outside South Africa; we use providers that protect it under their data-protection terms.
4. Cookies
Our own visitor analytics use no cookies. Our shop software (WooCommerce) sets small cookies of its own, with names starting with “sbjs_”, as soon as you move the mouse, scroll, tap or press a key on a page. They note how you reached us: for example a search engine or another website, the tracking codes in a link, the first page you landed on, your browser type, and how many visits you have made. If you place an order, that summary is saved with your order. These cookies last until you close your browser (one lasts 30 minutes).
When you add a printed book to your cart, WooCommerce also sets cookies that remember your cart for up to two days. Our payment providers may set their own cookies when you pay. Some features keep information in your own browser instead, such as your answers to the Spiritual Gifts Test while you take it, or that you have closed our sign-up bar, or your notes and highlights in our Bible. We do not use advertising cookies, and no other company can read these cookies.
5. Data retention & security
We keep your information only as long as needed to fulfill orders, to send email you have asked for, and to meet legal obligations, and we take reasonable measures to keep it secure. Order, tax and accounting records are kept for as long as the law requires.
We do not set a fixed period for our other records. We keep each one only for as long as we need it for the reason we collected it, and then delete it by hand; nothing is deleted automatically. Our visit logs, which contain no names, email addresses or IP addresses, are kept for as long as we need them to see which pages are read and to keep the site working. The copies of email sign-ups in our server logs are kept for as long as we need them to see where sign-ups come from. If you ask us to, we will delete your sign-up details from those server logs. Our web host also keeps its own standard server logs, which include IP addresses, for security and to run the service.
6. Your rights
You may request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal information, and you may object to its processing. To exercise these rights, email hello@stillingwaves.com. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator (South Africa). If you live in the United Kingdom or the European Union, you also have the right to ask us to limit how we use your information and to receive a copy of it in a format you can take elsewhere. Where we rely on your consent, you may withdraw it at any time.
7. Email sign-ups and the Spiritual Gifts Test
If you sign up for one of our email series, such as Seven Days of Stillness, we collect your email address and the page you signed up on. We use them to send the series and, afterwards, about one email a week about our journals, each with a Bible verse. We email you until you unsubscribe.
Your details are stored with Zoho Campaigns (Zoho Corporation), our email provider, whose servers are outside South Africa; Zoho processes them under contractual data-protection terms. A copy of your email address, the date, and the page you signed up on (and, if you tick the optional box described below, your top three gifts) is also kept in our server logs, which only we can read. Section 5 explains how long we keep these copies.
When you unsubscribe, our email provider keeps your address marked as unsubscribed, so that we do not email you again. If you ask us to delete your details, we remove them, keeping only what we need to make sure we do not email you again.
If you tick the optional box on our Spiritual Gifts Test, we also save your top three gifts with your email address, which can show your religious beliefs. We do this only with your consent. You can withdraw it at any time by emailing hello@stillingwaves.com, and we will then delete your gifts from our email provider and our server logs. Unsubscribing stops our emails but does not by itself delete your gifts, so please email us if you would like them deleted.
Your answers and your result on the Spiritual Gifts Test are saved only in your own browser, so that you can carry on later or see your result again; we do not receive them. Taking the test again clears them. We do count, without your gifts or answers, when someone starts, finishes or shares the test, and which share button was used (see section 1).
Sharing your result is separate from signing up for our emails, and it is always your choice. Your gifts can say something about your faith, so share them only where you are comfortable. The "Share my result" button opens your phone's share menu with a message and picture naming your top gifts. On a computer, or in some apps, it may copy the message for you to paste instead. The WhatsApp, X and email buttons open that app with a message naming your top gifts, ready for you to send. WhatsApp and X get that message the moment you press their button, so they can show it to you, but it reaches another person only when you send it. You can also save the picture, and it stays on your device until you post it yourself, for example on Instagram. The Facebook, "Copy link" and "Copy group message" buttons share only the link to the test, not your gifts.
The picture and the message are made in your own browser, and sharing does not send your gifts to us. The link contains only the address of the test and short codes showing which button was used. When someone opens it, our website's visit log records that visit and those codes, but no gift names. Beyond that visit record, what you share goes only to the app or person you choose, and those apps have their own privacy policies.
You can ask us to see, correct or delete this information, object to its use, or withdraw your consent by emailing hello@stillingwaves.com. You may also complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa) or, if you live in the United Kingdom or the European Union, to your local data-protection authority.
8. If you live in the United States
We do not sell your personal information, share it for targeted advertising, or use it to profile you. We save your top spiritual gifts only if you tick the optional box described in section 7, and we use them only to send you the emails you asked for. You can withdraw that consent at any time. Wherever you live, you can ask us what information we hold about you, ask for a copy, or ask us to correct or delete it. To do this, email hello@stillingwaves.com. We will reply within 45 days. If we turn down your request, you can ask us to look at it again by replying to our answer. If you are still not satisfied, you can contact the attorney general of your state.
9. Children
Our email series and our shop are meant for adults aged 18 and over, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. Our journals for younger readers are bought by parents and other adults. If you believe a child has signed up for our emails, please email hello@stillingwaves.com and we will delete their details.
10. The Stilling Waves Bible
Our Bible at stillingwaves.com/bible/ has no accounts and sets no cookies. Your highlights, bookmarks, notes, the line you write at the end of a Be still pause, your reading settings and the chapters you read most recently are saved only in your own browser on your device. We never receive them, and we cannot see, recover or restore them. If you clear your browser's data, they are deleted. Safari on iPhone and iPad may also delete them if you have not opened the Bible for about a week, unless you have added it to your Home Screen. To keep a copy, use "Download a full backup" on the My notes page. You can restore that file later on any device.
Word search also happens on your device. The first time you search, your browser downloads the Bible text from our website, and the words you search for are not sent to us. Chapters you have read are kept on your device so that they open without a connection.
Like the rest of our website, the Bible records each page you open in our own visit log, as described in section 1. That record holds the page's address (for example which chapter or which "How are you feeling?" page you opened), the website you came from (its address only, without any search words or other details), any tracking codes or short share code in the link you followed, whether you pressed a buy button, and which share button you pressed, but never the verse you shared or anything you wrote. It has no IP address and no cookies, only the scrambled daily and monthly codes. Because the address of a page can hint at your faith or at how you are feeling, we use these records only to count visits and to see which pages help readers, never to identify you.
If you sign up for our emails on a Bible page, everything in section 7 about email sign-ups applies, and our records note that you signed up on the Bible.
When you share a verse, the picture is made on your device. "Share this verse" opens your device's own share menu, and the picture and message go only to the app or person you choose. The WhatsApp, Facebook and X buttons open that service with the verse, its reference and a link to the page. "Copy verse" copies only the words and reference, with no link. These services have their own privacy policies. The links we create contain only the page address and a short code showing which button was used.
Last updated: 6 November 2026. If you have any questions, contact us at hello@stillingwaves.com.